Just to show I do like newer music. In fact, I like a lot of really cool bands from, oh, 20 or so years ago.
Honestly, it was a great time for alt/indy stuff: Guided by Voices, The New Pornographers, Built to Spill, Modest Mouse, Death Cab for Cutie, The Shins … Hey, some of these bands might even be still around today.
The Flaming Lips were – as you can probably tell from this album cover – um … interesting. First, they were from Oklahoma. Second, well just check out some of their titles:
- "In a Priest Driven Ambulance (with Silver Sunshine Stares)"
- "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots"
- "Hit to Death in the Future Head"
- "The Flaming Lips and Stardeath and White Dwarfs with Henry Rollins and Peaches Doing The Dark Side of the Moon"
- "Oh My Pregnant Head (Labia in the Sunlight)"
- "March of the Rotten Vegetables"
- "My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion (The Inner Life as Blazing Shield of Defiance and Optimism as Celestial Spear of Action)"
It’s kind of like Frank Zappa meets the Grateful Dead. It’s also some of the coolest stuff around. Some other great Flaming Lips facts:
- Their song “Do You Realize?” is the official rock song of Oklahoma
- They did a cover of the Dark Side of the Moon (track for track)
- At midnight October 31, 2011, a 24-hour song was released titled "7 Skies H3." The song plays live on a never-ending audio stream on a special website set up by the band and was made available for purchase as a hard drive encased in an actual human skull, limited to 13 copies. (Wikipedia)
I rest my case.
Oh, the album? It was their second. Paste calls it “eclectic,” which I’m sure it is (I’ve never actually listened to it).
As for the cover, I’m afraid I couldn’t find who designed it. And that’s kind of the trouble with bands this new and albums this obscure.
I do know that front man Wayne Coyne is something of an artist (and pretty psychedelic), so maybe this is his. I also know there’s a hanger-on named George Salisbury, who gets credit for some of the covers. Just can’t say for sure
I did, though, find several others covers I liked, whether George’s, Wayne’s, or someone else’s:
And here’s some pix of the band:
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