It’s the Lips‘ version of The Beatles’ 1967 masterwork Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. If you are familiar (I am for a long time) with these Oklahoma space cowboys you know that anything they do – music, artwork, concerts – sounds, looks and strikes in an eccentric way suggesting they truly come from another planet. From a Phantasia-doped asteriod.
It’s not the first time that Oklahoma mavericks THE FLAMING LIPS stunt. Their live shows always have been a colorful, carnaval-esque, and terrifically eye-catching spectacle with wizard/frontman Wayne Coyne frequently squeezing himself in a plastic bubble and rolling over the crowd while performing a song, which I experienced myself a few times.
(photo by Turn Up The Volume! Amsterdam, 2018)
No wonder they have the expertise to organize a real bubble concert with the audience in a diaphanous cocoon. They already did a try-out recently, playing Assassins Of Youth and Brother Eye, two of the highlights from their recent American Head album.
Clips that will have an impact on your eyes and your ears…
28 October 2020
(photo by Turn Up The Volume!)
Weird coincidence? In recent years, as part of the fairytale-like concerts of THE FLAMING LIPS their wizard-frontman WAYNE COYNE squeezed himself in a sort of plastic bubble and rolled over the crowd while performing a song. Spectacular indeed, as I witnessed myself a few times. Little did the band know they would perform this stunt in 2020, live
for the making of a video, with 100 spectators each in their own bubble.
The short show was filmed at The Criterion in their hometown of Oklahoma City. One of
the songs they played was ASSASSINS OF YOUTH, a magical ballad from their recent, excellent album American Head.
Watch the bubble pioneers and their bubble audience right here…
NME review: “Frontman Wayne Coyne and his band of merry pranksters take a trip down memory lane, exploring tales of adolescence through their psych-smeared prism. Coming in
hot off the back of the colossal mind-bending fever dream that was 2019’s ‘King’s Mouth’, The Flaming Lips have crash-landed back to frontman Wayne Coyne’s childhood town of Oklahoma city. Their 16th album, a quasi-concept record, loosely documents his teenage years. ‘American Head’ takes listeners on a walk down memory lane, Coyne’s own personal Americana viewed through a dreamy, nostalgic haze of friends, family and biker gangs (Wayne Coyne’s childhood was not like yours and mine)… Rather than using their fantastical bubble of sound to transport listeners into distant galaxies, as they have done so many times before, the band here float softly above Oklahoma city, where Coyne sits up front, quietly contemplating beauty and childhood.
‘American Head’ is a soft, reflective moment of taking in and appreciating the vista once the trip has worn off – when king’s heads and evil pink robots have melted away – and the dust has settled.” Full review here. Score: 4/5.
Quote: “I want people to be ecstatic but to cry at the same time.” Wayne Coyne
Key line: ‘Contender for album of the year.” Turn Up The Volume!
Singles: Mother Please Dont Be Sad / Flowers Of Neptune 5 / My Religion Is You / Dinosaurs On The Mountain / You ‘N’ Me Sellin’ Weed / Will You Return – When You Come Down
The surreal fairy tale daydreamers THE FLAMING LIPS launch their new album American Head on 9/11. With the five tracks (watch/listen below) we already heard it sounds like The Lips will spoil us with one of their most affecting works ever. A sort of moody masterpiece.
And this sixth new song, titled MOTHER PLEASE DON’T BE SAD follows in the sonic footsteps of the other five tracks. A melodramatic and melancholic symphony.
“Mother please don’t be sad/ I didn’t mean to die tonight / But those robbers were so fast/
Their guns and their anger comes and I lost the fight.”
High-flying space pop rockers THE FLAMING LIPS will share their 16th longplayer AMERICAN HEAD with the world on 9/11. So far, the band let us hear three cuts: ‘Flowers Of Neptune 6’, ‘My Religion Is You’ and ‘Dinosaurs On The Mountain’.
And here’s another new one called YOU N’ ME SELLIN’ WEED. Magical dope it is.
An affecting slow/fast/slow pearl floating eight miles high. Orchestral melancholia.
Surreal fairy tale rockers THE FLAMING LIPS have their 16th longplayer AMERICAN HEAD waiting in the pipeline to be released on 9/11. Last month we got the first single, sensitive diamond FlowersOf Neptune 6 .
Here’s a second piece, entitled MY RELIGION IS YOU. A familiar sounding, emotive ballad. Tender, intimate and romantic.
