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.

New Death Grips On the Horizon?

I find Death grips endlessly fascinating. And props to Pitchfork for always having great interviews with them. My favorite is here

American Mary

This is the theatrical trailer. The Red Band is a bit more... intense but I also think it gives more away. I have a good feeling about this one. I'm thinking something bitterly disturbing but worth it in the ballpark of Martyrs.

And in case you don't recognize her, if you're a Ginger Snaps fan like I am (part 2 RULES) that's Ginger -  Katharine Isabelle - herself, all grown up.

A Veronica Mars Movie?

This video reminded me just how damn awesome the show was and how attached I am to the characters. I didn't watch it when it was on, nor the first time through when my wife bought the DVD sets. However, about a year and a half ago something piqued my curiosity and we sat down over the course of however many weeks and watched the whole three season run, and it was fantastic, though it ends rather abruptly in season three and, like so many great shows do, leaves you hanging for something that's probably never gone come...

But now it might! Creator Rob Thomas has announced a Kickstarter campaign and shot a GREAT little video to introduce us to it - and to reacquaint us with the main characters and remind us what it was we loved about the show. Seriously - this video is fantastic.

And oh what a show...

The first season of VM especially is something I would put up with the best tv has ever had to offer. For me there's Breaking Bad, then there's Twin Peaks (it's only within the last two years that that order has emerged - I've been in love with Twin Peaks since the night the pilot aired and I just happened to watch it, waaaay back in what I believe was 1990) and then number three is probably season 1 of Veronica Mars. It's just that damn good; such a strong tone that runs through the entire thing, top to bottom, front to back. And so many great and complex characters, not to mention dozen of endearing little moments that stuck in my head only to re-surface on an almost daily basis (Vinnie Van Lowe singing Hall and Oats' Private Eyes to Veronica as a makeshift threat springs to mind immediately).

David Bowie - The Next Day

image courtesy of http://blog.kexp.org/

What does it say that two of the now most old school guys still making GREAT music released two of their finest records ever this year? First there was last month's marvelous Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' record Push the Light Away and now there's David Bowie's The Next Day. I'm planning on doing a joint review of both records on Joup in the next couple days but in the meantime suffice it to say that tonight I purchased The Next Day on iTunes specifically to receive their particular Deluxe Edition which includes three extra songs that apparently are not on the hard copy. This even though I look at that cover above and absolutely LUST after the Vinyl. Maybe at some point in the future I'll splurge, but for now I'm on my first pass through the album and it is fantastic.

Nothing -Downward Years to Come

This band is seriously awesome. $5 on their bandcamp for the album.

I allotted myself two albums to buy this week; it was originally intended to be the David Bowie The Next Day, which came out today, and last week's How to Destroy Angels. Well, I bought the Bowie but I decided to buy Downward Years to Come instead of the HTDA, which I'll buy soon anyway. I just really wanted to give Nothing my money.

New Song from The Ocean (Collective) means New Album!!!

One of my favorite bands from the last ten years is Germany's The Ocean (Collective). All the band's records are fantastic, and with the addition of singer Loic Rossettiand the release of their 2010 albums Heliocentric and Anthropocentric they became something even better. Now in April (geez, really? Again with the April? I will be freakin' broke in April with all the records being released that month!) The Ocean, AKA The Ocean Collective will release Epipelagic. Here's what the group's website had to say about the upcoming record, tell me this isn't amazing:


pe·la·gi·al [puh-ley-jee-uh l] – 1. Of, relating to, or living in open oceans or seas rather than waters adjacent to land or inland waters; such as, pelagic birds. 2. Living or growing at or near the surface of the ocean, far from land, as certain organisms. 3. Of or pertaining to the sea; marine

After 2 years of relentless touring in North America, Europe, Russia, China, Hong Kong, Southeast Asia and Australia, The Ocean have resurfaced with what could be their deepest and most trailblazing piece of work to date, Pelagial: a progressive musical journey, written, recorded, mixed and to-be-performed-live as one single 53-minutes piece of music. Mixed and mastered by Jens Bogren (Opeth, Katatonia, Witchcraft) at Fascination Street Studios in Örebrö, Sweden, Pelagial is set to be released on April 26th / 29th (Europe) and April 30th (North America / world) through Metal Blade Records.


The concept of the album is made evident in its title, Pelagial. Listeners will be further submersed as they journey with the band, beginning at the surface of the ocean and plunging through all five pelagic depth zones: epipelagic, mesopelagic, bathyalpelagic, abyssopelagic, and hadopelagic. In synch with diminishing light and increasing pressure as one dives or sinks deeper into the ocean, the album begins rather light and progressively gets heavier and slows as the band reaches the unfathomable depths of the hadopelagic zone, characterized by complete darkness and a thousandfold increased pressure as compared to surface level. What is remarkable about Pelagial is that this is not some detached conceptual idea; this can actually be heard and felt while listening to the album.



What has me perhaps even more excited about the band's new record is the idea that I might get a chance to see them again on tour. In 2011 while they were touring I was able to catch them at Pomona, CA's The Glass House. They were every bit amazing as I thought they'd be. I did a write up on the that show here. The only draw back to that particular show was that of the four bands that played, The Ocean came all the way from Germany just to open the night with a criminally short set (not their fault). Hopefully this time they'll play a lot longer, as they have so much wonderful material to cover.