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Stick It In Your Ear : Page 1, 2, 3, 4
Wayne Coyne is not accidentally making all this genius music. He's a pretty purposeful fellow. Here's what Wayne has to say about The Soft Bulletin's creation:
"And now, upon its completion, I feel although The Soft Bulletin is not an experimental record, its identity and its reach are a direct product of experimentation. In a strange reversal of musical universes, the more indulgent and sonically perverse we got, the more commercial we sounded. We have accidentally made a record that is not a response to music that we love or a reaction against music that we hate. Finally, there are no more enemies, and there are no more heroes... just sound."
GENIUS BATTLES ON (headphones, hand puppets)
As the Boom Box Tour followed Zaireeka, so the Headphone Tour is currently following The Soft Bulletin. The Lips felt that on stage their drummer needed to play other instruments besides the drums, but they didn't want anyone else playing the drums besides their drummer. So they pre-taped their drummer playing the drums, and during the show they play back the drums through the PA, while their drummer himself wanders around stage playing other instruments. Other highlights include a big screen showing all sorts of unusual images. At one point, Wayne stands in front of a 10-foot close up of his own head and sings a live song in synch with his big-screen head. Wayne also uses hand puppets to sing songs, and he hits a big gong a lot. You pay your money and are handed a walkman with headphones. The walkman is tuned to a specific FM frequency that the band has secured for the purposes of the show. So you can listen to a perfect live stereo mix of the concert straight from the mixing board as you watch the show. Or take off your headphones and listen to the house mix. Or put one headphone on and one headphone off and walk to your left 20 paces until...
A lyric from The Soft Bulletin explains, "Feeling drunk on their plan, they lifted up the sun." What else will the Flaming Lips accomplish in their relentless naïveté? Curiosity coupled with technological/financial resources coupled with true genius is no laughing matter. I'm not as cool as I was in college, but I'm still listening.
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It's late and Curt Cloninger is going to bed. Curt just co-wrote a book with his mom called E-Mail from God, available from Amazon.com.
Visit Curt at his dream library, Lab404.