Flaming Lips -Embryonic

[pishtico pishtico]

After giving this a full half a dozen listens I am underwhelmed by Embryonic.

Very Tubular Bells in places and I will be interested to see how they are going to fit a set list round the album.

By the time I see them (November 17) it'll be their final date on the UK tour.

[Fatter Hipper]

Flaming Lips -Embryonic

Yes, I'm not overly keen I have to say. I really wanted to like it but where the last effort tried too hard this seems a little sloppy. I've nothing against freeform rock wigouts, but there are a million bands better at them than FL and very few better at writing beautiful, meaningful pop songs. It's so bloody frustrating!

Great cover though!

[Lord Emsworth]

Flaming Lips -Embryonic

I'm on my tenth listen now and whilst it's a sprawling monster of an album that ditches the pop sensibilities of the last few albums I love it. There's so much going on and it's keeping me fascinated. It ain't easy background listening but - whisper it - it might be a masterpiece.

What about the rest of you?

[Spearmint Rhino]

Flaming Lips -Embryonic

I like songs.

[Carcass]

Flaming Lips -Embryonic

I think it's the best thing they've done since Soft Bulletin.

[Spearmint Rhino]

Flaming Lips -Embryonic

I'm off to see them at the peculiarly-named 'Troxy' tomorrow. Anyone else?

[Carcass]

Flaming Lips -Embryonic

Ack. I'm there on Weds. Have a good show.

[Lord Emsworth]

Flaming Lips -Embryonic

Spearmint Rhino wrote:

I like songs.

I like noise.

(Actually I like songs AND noise)

[hobbes]

Flaming Lips -Embryonic

If anyone has any spares for London, I'm all erm... whatever you'd need to be all of to take tickets off someone.

[Fatter Hipper]

Flaming Lips -Embryonic

A very bemused promoter (and music journalist) once expressed his exasperation to me after booking The Telescopes for a gig. He didn't realise they'd stopped being a band on the poppier end of the shoegaze spectrum and started producing the kind of freeform noise that gets you split 12"s with Vibracathedral Orchestra, so he was frustrated when their show consisted entirely of the latter.

"What do you prefer Dave? Noise or tune?"

"erm..."

"Noise. Or tune? Noise or tune?"

"well, I like them both. Together and separately"

And I stand by that today. The problem with Embryonic is that for half the album it does neither particularly well. If you want a wholly American dose of cracked pop music that sounds like Sonic Youth and The Butthole Surfers overdosing on bubblegum I'd politely point you in the direction of Mercury Rev's first two albums. Or, indeed, The Flaming Lips mid-period (Hit To Death in the Future Head is one of their two or three best albums).

[Carcass]

Flaming Lips -Embryonic

This is a total false binary Dave. Not only is the album not tune free - I'm humming the opening track to myself as I type this (I keep on morphing it into Vitamin C - but I genuinely don't think it's supposed to be any of the things you say it is.

It's a progressive psych rock record that uses very current recording techniques to push forward its sound. It works as a whole not as an iPod album like Mystics or Yoshimi. There are several tracks here where compression is the main instrument. There are songs here that are bordering on uncomfortable to listen to; it's like having shards of silver pushed into your ears.

But this isn't the cynical act of a band trying to make themselves sound loud on the radio (hello The Cure, hello U2, hello Metallica) as they know full well none of this will get touched by any sane radio station.

That lysergic guitar sound is a clearer link to The Stooges' Fun House than it is to any clearly signposted 'psychedelic' music by The Buttholes or Mercury Rev or whatever and the influence of electric Miles is all over it, as are bands like Popol Vuh, Can and Neu!

In fact there's only really Wayne Coyne's bass playing that stops it from being a lot more like a Can record. Drozd, especially is easily a good enough musician to carry this kind of improv jamming approach to song writing.

Even then though - Coyne's bass playing is ace. Really dubby, carves out great big chunks of space. Really liquid. He really may not know what he's doing but it sounds great do it doesn't matter.

They've not really sounded like the Buttholes or Mercury Rev or wanted to in my opinion for over 15 years. It's not really a useful comparison anymore. Instead there's still traces of their love for Miles, ELO, Black Sabbath, The Stooges and Krautrock.

[Carcass]

Flaming Lips -Embryonic

I don't mean false binary at all.

[Guest]

Flaming Lips -Embryonic

Great post Carcass. I agree about wearing their Can influences on their sleeves. I still really like this album though. Not sure why but sometimes this stuff is best not analysed. It's just a good album.

I'm looking forward to reports of the latest live shows.

[Spearmint Rhino]

Flaming Lips -Embryonic

This Troxy place looks a right faff to get to. I'm probably going to get murdered by Jack The Ripper or The Kray Twins, maybe all three.

[Carcass]

Flaming Lips -Embryonic

Thank you mr Bingo.

Yeah, as well as a gig report I wouldn't mind some kind of info on how to get there . . .

[imp]

Flaming Lips -Embryonic

Nothing more off-putting than reviews describing it as a "challenging" or "difficult" listen. I'll pick it up out of the baragain bins in a year or two. I still haven't got round to listening to the four-disc 'play-them-all-simultaneously' set that I bought last year, but that's mainly down to the effort of gathering four CD players in one room, and having the house empty at the same time.

[Lucia Lanigan]

Flaming Lips -Embryonic

That part of town seems really crap to me. Not dangerous or anything, just crap. I went up there looking for the Wilton Music Hall to show a friend of mine not long ago, and ended up getting lost and touring the most boring part of London this side of, well, West London. There are no landmarks east of the Whitechapel Gallery, which isn't even in what I thought was Whitechapel.

Mind you, The Troxy's much closer to the Tube than places like Dalston or Stoke Newington. I've not been, but I can dig the Art Deco - it looks an amazing venue (even if you have to take earplugs and a sudoku mag to get through the evening):




Check out their organ:

[Spearmint Rhino]

Flaming Lips -Embryonic

It's a beautiful venue, but they do the cunt's trick of having attendants in the toilets trying to charge you a quid for washing your hands, they don't sell cider, in fact they don't attempt to sell draught anything (just bottles cos the mark-up's higher), drinks are crazy-priced (£4 for a JD & Coke), and the staff have a really snippy attitude.

[Carcass]

Flaming Lips -Embryonic

What was the 'show' element to it like? Was it loads of glitter and balloons etc? Or have they changed it?

[Spearmint Rhino]

Flaming Lips -Embryonic

Are you sure you want to know?

***GIG SPOILERS*** ***GIG SPOILERS*** ***GIG SPOILERS***
***GIG SPOILERS*** ***GIG SPOILERS*** ***GIG SPOILERS***
***GIG SPOILERS*** ***GIG SPOILERS*** ***GIG SPOILERS***

Well, the first five minutes - as usual, with a Flaming Lips show - have you thinking this is the best gig you could possibly see in your entire life.

Wayne Coyne steps out from what can only be described as a pulsating electronic vagina and rolls out over the crowd in his giant inflatable hamster ball, then all the following things happen in an instant: an insane number of balloons are released, confetti cannons start firing, a dozen people dressed as sheep (or maybe polar bears) start dancing, and the Flips launch into "Race For The Prize". Absolute heaven.

From then on, there's not a lot of variety. No nun-puppetry or fake blood, just more of the same. The set sags in the middle when they get into the Embryonic material, which - regardless of whether you like it as an album (I gave it 4/5 because I'd rather hear the Lips arsing about with experimentation than anyone else doing it, but I still prefer it when they write songs) - I'm sure you'll agree doesn't really lend itself to a celebratory rock concert.

For me this was especially disappointing because it meant there was no room for some of my favourite Lips songs: "She Don't Use Jelly" or "Talking 'Bout The Smiling Deathporn Immortality Blues" or "A Spoonful Weighs A Ton". And also none of the fun cover versions ("War Pigs", "Seven Nation Army" etc).

Wayne seemed to sense that he was losing the crowd a little, and kept doing that thing with his arms of trying to whip up applause. (Although I can't remember if that's something he does at gigs anyway.)

There was quite a lot of banter, about the bingo grannies who used to frequent the venue but stopped coming when the smoking ban was enforced (Wayne admired them for this defiant attitude, as he saw it), about how "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song" was written in protest at the Bush administration and is kind of redundant now (but we'll sing it anyway in celebration), and about how it was London's Lips-lovers back in '99 who made the world finally take notice (and he'll always be grateful for that), etc.

The good bits were still really good, but it was an 8/10 as opposed to the immaculate 10/10 of the Royal Albert Hall show a few years ago.

[Carcass]

Flaming Lips -Embryonic

That was great that gig.

I was stood next to Paul M0rley who looked really grumpy and was clapping along listlessly and out of time.

There was a girl sat on her dad's shoulders a few rows in front. If her eyes had widened any more, they would have fallen out of their sockets.

[Spearmint Rhino]

Flaming Lips -Embryonic



Paul Morley, yesterday.

[Carcass]

Flaming Lips -Embryonic

Ha ha ha! I was nudging this really young writer. Going 'Look at Morley! Doesn't he look like he wants to go home and watch Dad's Army!' And this kid went 'Who is Paul Morley?' I became immediately indignant despite the blatant hypocrisy on my part. (Not to mention depressed at how old I felt.)

[Mitch]

Flaming Lips -Embryonic

Paul Morley clapping out of time?

He's a classical composer now, don't you know. He was probably syncopating in 11/3 time just for fun.

[Lucia Lanigan]

Flaming Lips -Embryonic

Clapping in time serves imperialism.