Isolation: Day 194

Musick:

 

Well, I fell down a Mastodon hole yesterday and am having difficulty climbing out. When I first spun Medium Rarities, I thought it was cool, but being that Mastodon is such a great 'album' band, I didn't see getting all that attached to an odds and sods compilation. Also, listening at work on my blu tooth speaker, I was in and out of the office and missed quite a few parts. I know this because I had not even realized that Mastodon faithfully covers The Flaming Lips' A Spoonful Weighs a Ton. I'm not sure how the hell I missed both hearing the track and noticing the name on the tracklisting - one check in the 'con' column of digital music, I'd say, is that you don't have the liner notes in your hands for careful consideration before even playing the damn album! Anyway, it was the ever-vigilant Mr. Brown who mentioned it to me, and since hearing their rendition, I've pretty much fallen in love with Medium Rarities.

For comparison's sake, here is the original:

 

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NCBD:

Of particular interest this week is the fact that Gideon Falls #25 comes out. Now, every week we get a new issue of Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino's Weird Fiction/SciFi/Horror mash-up is a great week, but this week's issue comes hot on the heels of the recent revelation that the series comes to its grand finale in December with an 80-page issue #27! Holy cow, I'm starting that re-read SOON just to be prepared.

Next, here's a new book from Vault I'm looking forward to, a book about Autumn that takes place in Chicago:

Issue Three of a series I've very much been digging so far:

And finally, I'd recently found myself wondering whatever happened to that Sam Keith Batman/Maxx crossover that began last year. I missed issue three, but four and five never came out. Now, they're on the horizon, and I'll be picking up this bargain-priced Compendium of the first two issues to prepare for it:

I wasn't crazy about the first two issues - you can't go home again - but The Maxx is one of those things I'm a completionist about, so they get my $$$!

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Playlist:

The Veils - Total Depravity 

Mastodon - Medium Rarities 

Marilyn Manson - We Are Chaos 

The Dean Ween Group - The Deaner Album

Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower 

Mastodon - Once More 'Round the Sun

Dance with the Dead - Loved to Death
John Carpenter and Alan Howarth - Prince of Darkness OST       

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Card:

 Stability and control, because I've finished the first draft of the first act (of three) of Shadow Play, Book Two! Onward to part two!

The Flaming Lips - 2nd Cassette Demo, 1983

Again, via Exclaim!. This is blowing my mind - Kinda Gallon Drunk, kinda Butthole Surfers. And if you notice, I believe that is not Wayne on vocals but their original singer, Wayne's brother if I remember correctly. Details, including a list of stores stocking this 7 inch are here and there's another link on that Exclaim! link above.

Watch The Flaming Lips' Christmas on Mars

Via consequence of sound, who tell us we only have twelve hours while this is streaming free. I own this, it was a gift from Mr. Brown a couple years ago. The audio is amazing. The visuals are amazing. But unfortunately it has the worst dialogue ever. I mean really. I'm not talking shit. I do not like to spout negative shit online (I used to, then I grew up). I'm just saying. I'm telling you if you've ever had an inkling to see this you should, just be prepared. And try not to hold the dialogue against the Lips.

The Flaming Lips and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes - Do You Realize???

I've been on a HUGE Lips kick after reading Mark Richardson's wonderful 33 1/3 entry on Zaireeka. Great version of a song that I believe may be one of the greatest songs ever written - but that also always makes me cry so - as happiness does - so I'm careful with the exposure.

I know I'm tangenting here, but I've never done Zaireeka. I was at the BoomBox Experiment live in 1998, but have never done the home listening experience.

That's about to change.

I've got a xmas bonus coming soon and one of the few things I intend to purchase for myself with a part of that is Zaireeka on cd so I can finally get around to throwing some Zaireeka parties.

Geez, how many times in one post can I say 'Zaireeka'?

image courtesy of blog.kexp.org

Flaming Lips Cover Tame Impala's Elephant

This is awesome. Listen to those drums!!!

Man, when the Lips cover a song, they really COVER the fuck out of it. I've gotta dig around and see if I ever posted that live version of Seven Nation Army where Wayne uses the lyrics to The Butthole Surfer's Moving to Florida.

You Lust - The Flaming Lips Live @ GoogaMooga

Courtesy of Brooklyn Vegan, who have an AWESOME spread on this, with several more videos and a wealth of fantastic photos here!!!

The Flaming Lips - Lettermen 4/03/13

WTF???

I'm reminded of the night I saw Radiohead on SNL back around the release of Kid A. This is easily my favorite Lips song in quite some time.

The Flaming Lips - Ashes in the Air

Today the new Besnard Lakes album comes out, as well as the latest from Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine, which is Mr. Biafra's first concept album - I think - since The Dead Kennedy's Frankenchrist. I say this to help stomach the fact that the new Flaming Lips record - The Terror - isn't out for another two weeks. The video above was just released - I found it on the always diligent Brooklyn Vegan - but was from the  The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends.

Passion Pit

Initially I hated this song. Now I love it. Based on this picture that's been floating around the internet I think Passion Pit is probably pretty awesome aesthetically and that the radio-play is a fluke. Good for them. There's an obvious Flaming Lips correlation as far as live environment is concerned. Just looking at this makes me feel wonderful!!!

image courtesy of the always wonderful Brooklyn Vegan

Anyway, I listened to a bit more of their most recent album, Gossamer, and it sounds like a cross between Junior Senior and M83. Interesting...

Flaming Lips Live @ SXSW - Are You a Hypnotist?

This is awesome, but what's even freakin' cooler is Brooklyn Vegan's pictures of the Lips last night as they performed Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots live in it's entirety for apparently the first time ever.

I'm VERY hot and cold with the Lips. I got into them later than my friends (mainly Mr. Brown) - I always liked what I heard but not enough to actually become a fan. Brown saw them live way back when Tool was opening for THEM (crazy, right?) in like '93 or '94. He'd describe their awesome live show and it sounded great but somehow it never spurred me to accompany him (in my defense it wasn't always that I could get off work for shows back then - like now - so I had to pick and choose). Anyway, the first time I did see them was the Flaming Lips Boombox experiment at the Metro in Chicago, not sure what year but late 90's probably. It was awesome, but it wasn't them performing per se. They brought 50 folks out of the crowd, had 25 sit on one side of the stage and 25 on the other, then passed out 50 boomboxes and 50 bags of color-coded tapes. Wayne then 'conducted' the participants to insert and play various tapes at various times. It was pretty rad. I was closer to being a fan, but didn't take the first plunge until The Soft Bulletin blew my fucking head off - how was this the same band? That predates Radiohead's likewise similar change between OK Computer and Kid A (Kid A is my favorite Radiohead record and I wasn't really a fan until it's release) and was really the first time I'd seen a modern band pull such an massive evolutionary step. The only problem with the Soft Bulletin was it made me so sad I really had to be careful around it.

Flash forward to 2002 and on one of our first dates my then-girlfriend, now-wife brought me to see the Lips on their Yoshimi tour at Chicago's Riviera Theatre and it was the whole fabled spectacle - bubbles, stuffed animal suits, confetti, etc. When describing that show I've always said it was a celebration of being alive. It made me cry. Only other show to do that was Bjork at Chicago's Civic Opera house.

But I digress - What's my point? I dig this video, and the concept for this upcoming concept record The Terror. But I liked a lot of what I heard about Embryonic before it's release, even really liked the first single, but the record ended up falling flat for me. In fact, I haven't liked a lot of what the Lips have done since Yoshimi. Was this due to after waiting years for Christmas on Mars and then having Mr. Brown send it to me only to find that I loved it both visually and sonically but absolutely HATED the dialogue in it (I talk more in depth about my disappointment with that here)? I don't know. Then the band did Dark Side of the Moon and it sounded cool but fell flat for me when I heard it (though it may not have if I'd heard it live). Now the band is doing commercials and I'm weary of that. But this upcoming album again, like all Lips album's since I drank about half the glass of kool aid, has me really curious. Maybe it will be the album that finally does for their later career what Hit to Death in the Future Head and Telepathic Surgery did to their older stuff for me.

Maybe.

Flaming Lips - Seven Nation Army ( Live )

The Flaming Lips doing Seven Nation Army by the White Stripes but with the verse lyrics of The Butthole Surfers' Moving to Florida.

"My name... is Florida."