Red Mosquito

Anyone else listened to "King's Mouth" yet? Picked it up today and really enjoyed it on first listen. Deliberately absurd, and nothing especially new for them musically, but a fun, brief, tuneful record with some trippy sounds in it. Worth a listen.

Somehow totally forgot about "Oczy Mlody" -- what's everyone's take on that 2.5 years later?

Team “everything after Embryonic sucks”, don’t even care about a new album from them anymore.

I lost interest just before Embryonic. I too used to absolutely adore this band, but I just don’t connect with their esthetic anymore. And I agree Wayne has gotten creepy.

The Castle was a good song

I go in cycles with these guys. For the year after "Yoshimi" came out they were probably my favorite band on the planet, pretty much exclusively on the strength of that record, "Soft Bulletin," and "Clouds Taste Metallic." I tried to get into their earlier stuff but never really could, and didn't really care for "At War With the Mystics" when it came out. I lost track of them for a solid 8-9 years after that.

But my interest was randomly piqued by "The Terror," which I checked out and ended up really liking. I then went back and got "Embryonic" and gave "Mystics" another shot, and found a lot to like in both of those records as well. I didn't obsess over any of these albums the way I obsessed over "Soft Bulletin" and "Yoshimi," but I don't really obsess over any records in that way anymore. After that, though, that they kind of fell off my radar again, except when Coyne was in the music press for doing something stupid/offensive.

Then a couple days ago I randomly came across "The Sparrow" (one of the songs from the new album) and it totally hit the spot -- it has the melodic sweetness of something from "Yoshimi" or "Mystics," but also some of the psychedelic weirdness of "Embryonic," kind of a sonic theme of the album in general. The fact that it's basically a concept album about a giant baby, narrated by Mick Jones from the Clash, would have probably put me off if it had come out when I was most fanatical about them, but I feel like I now possess the correct level of emotional divestment from this band to go along with stupid shit like this without really caring about whether it signifies an artistic peak or valley. In general, I think the songs are pretty good, and even though Coyne has become kind of a creep, I still really like the emotional qualities in his voice, and think he has an impeccable knack for melody. And ultimately I don't really feel like their sound has changed that much over the last however many (18-20?) years: Those big drums, orchestral synths, elegiac melodies, with a bunch of weirdo sound effects sprinkled throughout -- all of that feels like a constant to me.

I'm not really sure how much of their output I've missed over the years but I'm glad I checked this out.

I really liked The Terror and Embryonic, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't just pretending to like Oczly Whatever. This band used to be about transcendence through music. Now it really, really just feels like drugs.

verb_to_trust wrote:The Castle was a good song

This is true, but then I listened to the album and that was by far the best song there.

As for The Terror, You Lust and Look the Sun is Rising are good but the rest is boring as fuck.

So maybe there’s one good song on the new one, from what I hear it’s the last song on the album.

Also I guess as I got older and did less to now no drugs, that appeal is lost on me.

Flaming labia

Not half bad.

The Flaming Lips with the Oregon Symphony

On sale now!

The Flaming Lips will perform their iconic 1999 masterpiece The Soft Bulletin in its entirety, joined by the Oregon Symphony. The ever-evolving psychedelic pop-rock group led by legendary front man Wayne Coyne will create an unmissable, moving, and magical experience. The band’s career breakthrough album featured hit singles "Race for the Prize" and "Waitin’ for a Superman." Upon its release, Pitchfork called it "one of those albums people are going to obsess over for many years to come" – which they absolutely did.

I'm like 90% there.

Kevin Davis wrote:The fact that it's basically a concept album about a giant baby,

Hahahaha SOLD