Just, really really really.
They do a wonderful live show.
Yeah I’ve heard. Never managed to catch em.
I just think they’re about the best combination of musical grandness and sense of humor I can think of. They out Pink Floyd Pink Floyd, but they’re not pompous and bloated, like a lot of those “big” musicians are/were.
I’ve never caught them live, either, but their last two albums have been fantastic (especially Yoshimi).
They do vocals for a track by Faultline on the new Paste magazine sampler CD, which I have sitting here but haven’t listened to yet.
Ooh yes. Great band. Haven’t heard them live, but they live on my iPod no matter what else I have on there. They can always make me smile during a lousy work day, if nothing else.
I particularly love Spiderbite for some perverse reason.
Anyone know Mercury Rev? Should be pretty universally well liked by Lips fans.
I dunno… Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots just sounded so… Radiohead.
Dude, Radiohead didn’t spring from a vacuum either. THe Flaming Lips have totally earned their sound. It’s not without influences. And they share some influences with Radiohead. But they did NOT come after Radiohead, in the creative sense.
(Listen to Radiohead before and after Jeff Buckley before you hold them up as artistically primary.)
I adore the Flaming Lips.
Do look into the Arcade Fire - they share a similar sort of ambitious energy with the Lips, although the music itself is quite different.
If the worst thing you can say about a band is that they sound kinda like Radiohead, is that such a bad thing?
Oh, I have. I wasn’t holding them up as the supreme deity from the hands of which inchoate alt-rock takes form, I just noted a distinct similarity between * Yoshimi* and O.K. Computer. Full disclosure: Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots is the only Flaming Lips album I’ve heard. But when you are as weird and creative as The Flaming Lips apparently are (been reading up just now), it makes me wonder why you would go to all of the trouble of making an album that sounds so similar to another group. I’ll try to get ahold of some other albums.
You’d have a better idea of the band’s musical history if you had a better idea of the band’s musical history.
That’s sort of funny. I’m not really a big Radiohead fan, but I really, really like OK Computer. I’m also not super huge on The Flaming Lips, but I absolutely love Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. And I don’t really see that many similarities between the two albums, beyond what you’d expect from two albums produced in more-or-less the same genre.
Then again, I am pretty much musically illiterate, so what do I know?
Radiohead and The Flaming Lips are often mentioned in the same breath, although I really don’t completely understand the comparison (and I am fairly informed musically.) Personally, to me the Lips seem much more fun, carefree, and less full of themselves than Radiohead (and I do like Radiohead—they’re just a bunch of overly serious prats sometimes). And this comes across in their music.
But if you ever do get a chance to see a live Lips show, do go. It’s like being at the world’s largest birthday party.
Exactamundo. I can’t listen to Radiohead without thinking of the suicidal priest in Father Ted, who’s just been cured of depression by the theme tune from Shaft.
Bus Driver: “Would you mind if I put on the radio, father?”
Radio DJ: “This is the new song from Radiohead”
Smile on priest’s face is replaced by a gloomy thousand yard stare.
And I too love Yoshimi and Soft Bulletin. What FL album should I buy next?
Clouds Taste Metallic. You’ll splooge yourself from the overwhelming sense of euphoria.
My recommendation for all FL fans is Steve Burns’ album Songs for Dustmites. Yes, the same Steve Burns from Blue’s Clues. He put out an album with the help of a couple guys from FL. It has the same ethereal quality. Very very good, in my opinion.