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Charles
Member
Username: Charles

Post Number: 8
Registered: 04-2006
Posted on Tuesday, April 11, 2006 - 12:27 pm:   

There has been some good support for the Flaming Lips on this site. I have been enjoying Yoshimi alot since getting it about a year ago. I wondered if anyone could recommend another Flaming Lips release that is as good, better or nearly as good. They have a sound, that if it wasn't applied to such strong songs, I imagine could become anoying.

While I think of it, whats your favourite track from Yoshimi?
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kevin
Member
Username: Kevin

Post Number: 322
Registered: 05-2005
Posted on Tuesday, April 11, 2006 - 12:29 pm:   

the soft bulletin is the best album imo Charles. The new album is also very good. Favourite track from Yoshimi is Do You Realize
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XY765
Member
Username: Judge

Post Number: 55
Registered: 01-2006
Posted on Tuesday, April 11, 2006 - 12:50 pm:   

I love Yoshimi and think it's better than the Soft Bulletin, though there are some great tracks on the Soft Bulletin. Not sure about favourite track, it just works as a solid piece right throught thw whole record, unlike Soft Bulletin. I would recommend either Hit To Death In The Future Head or Clouds Taste Metallic Charles.
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spence
Member
Username: Spence

Post Number: 342
Registered: 05-2005
Posted on Tuesday, April 11, 2006 - 12:59 pm:   

I don't know why, but they never float my boat, I just can't get on with the flaming lips, maybe because I haven't heard that much, I must take a peek in itunes shop and listen again...
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Pádraig Collins
Member
Username: Pádraig_collins

Post Number: 295
Registered: 05-2005
Posted on Tuesday, April 11, 2006 - 01:13 pm:   

I'm with you Spence. I just can't get into either of the two albums of theirs I have - Bulletin and Yoshimi. However I do like a couple of EPs of theirs I have. Maybe they better when they cut loose a little on the EPs? They are to me anyway. I saw them live in Dublin in about 1998 and thought they were awful, over theatrical try hards. This smearing yourself with fake blood business just does not cut it for me (and he still does it!). A Japanese band called Cornelius supported them that night in Dublin and blew Flaming Lips away.
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XY765
Member
Username: Judge

Post Number: 56
Registered: 01-2006
Posted on Tuesday, April 11, 2006 - 01:49 pm:   

A friend of mine is a big big Flaming Lips fan and he doesn't like either Soft Bulletin or Yoshimi, maybe for the reasons posted above, he prefers their older stuff, before this latest trinity..
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spence
Member
Username: Spence

Post Number: 344
Registered: 05-2005
Posted on Tuesday, April 11, 2006 - 03:01 pm:   

no, I still can't get on with em, just had a listen at various samples. Its the style of vocal, that Sesame Street meets the Wilson brothers on helium whilst reciting poetry about trees and the sunshine... I'm going to have to reach for my Buzzcocks compilation to cheer myself up!
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XY765
Member
Username: Judge

Post Number: 57
Registered: 01-2006
Posted on Tuesday, April 11, 2006 - 03:19 pm:   

Spence, that's gotta rule out Mercury Rev too then!!
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spence
Member
Username: Spence

Post Number: 346
Registered: 05-2005
Posted on Tuesday, April 11, 2006 - 04:00 pm:   

XY, quite!, I was ging to mention them! I had the opportunity of joining them on guitar in '93 or so, just as Dave Baker had left and I turned it down, they were probably much better then me, but yes, I feel exactly the same about these. I can actually stomach Mercury Rev though.
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XY765
Member
Username: Judge

Post Number: 58
Registered: 01-2006
Posted on Tuesday, April 11, 2006 - 04:08 pm:   

Spence, was that around the time Dean Wareham did Car Wash Hair with them or was that a few years earlier?? I only have Deserter's Songs (which I like, though maybe sounds a bit dated now possibly) and the Secret Migration which I really dislike. I think they're kind of drivative of the Flaming Lips. Maybe that's because of Fridman and Grasshopper working with the both of them.
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Hardin Smith
Member
Username: Manosludge

Post Number: 290
Registered: 03-2006
Posted on Tuesday, April 11, 2006 - 04:21 pm:   

Respeck to those that like 'em ,but I'm with the camp that just doesn't get Flaming Lips. Lord knows I've tried. They're not horrible, there's just nothing, to me, particularly compelling about them.

I do like what they stand for and really enjoy reading about them, however. And, they sound like they'd be a kick in the boote' to see live.
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Geoff Holmes
Member
Username: Geoff

Post Number: 110
Registered: 05-2005
Posted on Wednesday, April 12, 2006 - 07:48 am:   

I too got into The Flaming lips last year via Yoshimi, Charles. I love its big warm enveloping sound. That,the stage suits and the celebratory vibe of the songs always remind me of the Magical Mystery tour album from some bums from Liverpool. I can't get into the Soft Bulletin - I've tried! It's too orchestrated and overblown - reminds me of that last Mercury Rev album, for obvious reasons. I've got the new one but have only played it once. To me it seems like a bit of a regression back to their pre-S.B/Yoshimi stuff. I heard the W.A.N.D. via the internet and loved it but I am waiting for the right mood to strike before I play the whole album again just in case I don't "get it". Tracks with Prince falsettos though always get my goat as did songs on Midnight Vultures by Beck.
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Geoff Holmes
Member
Username: Geoff

Post Number: 111
Registered: 05-2005
Posted on Wednesday, April 12, 2006 - 07:52 am:   

...oh and my fave track(s) off Yoshimi are the title track 1 AND 2. I love the lyrics of 1, which inexplicably rock writers don't seem to get, and the screaming over the circus music of 2 never fails to bring a smile to my face!
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spence
Member
Username: Spence

Post Number: 348
Registered: 05-2005
Posted on Wednesday, April 12, 2006 - 12:06 pm:   

XY yes it was. `I think. Memory not good.

Now, Beck, i like!! I've been told I resemble him for better or for worse!!
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XY765
Member
Username: Judge

Post Number: 59
Registered: 01-2006
Posted on Wednesday, April 12, 2006 - 12:10 pm:   

Beck is really great though I think he's become a Scientologist now, yoiks....
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Charles
Member
Username: Charles

Post Number: 9
Registered: 04-2006
Posted on Wednesday, April 12, 2006 - 12:18 pm:   

Might investigate the W.A.N.D then I reckon Geoff. It's not always a CD impresses on the first or second listen. Yoshimi sure did, it's hard to imagine it could have a sibling as unique and perfectly formed.

Around the time i first heard it, I'd been led to believe the new direction in songwriting was being forged by Ryan Adams. Admittedly, having heard only about one of his songs I was pretty pesimistic. Of all the artforms, the song is one of the more limited structures with in which to work. The Go Betweens can effortlessly extract new magic from it, but alot of that contempory alternative country stuff was just starting to sound laboured and derivitive.

I've never had any time for "zany" theatrical bands, I wish Split Enz and Talking heads had opted for a more earnest, mundane (Ryan Adams) aproach to their music. So I can understand your reservations with the Flaming Lips, Spence.

There is a bit of a cheesy self-conscious element to the FL's, but if you can get past that, on (Yoshimi at least) there are some inteligent, sincere, original and perfectly formed songs.

When you guys listen to a new release for the first time, do you play it from begining to end, or have a squizz at the lyric sheet, check the song titles and sellect the tracks that look the most intriguing, to play first?

I recall I opted for the latter with Yoshimi. After having already heard "Do You Realise", the first song I played was "All We Have Is Now" . It reminded me of Neil Young at his most beautifully fragile best. It's funny both the aforemntioned songs and "Its Summertime" indulge some pretty plaintive, fatalistic subject matter, but in the end they're really optimistic and uplifting songs. Perhaps its all a bit simple (the Kermit factor) but it's an album I reckon I'll still be enjoying in ten years time.
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spence
Member
Username: Spence

Post Number: 349
Registered: 05-2005
Posted on Wednesday, April 12, 2006 - 12:36 pm:   

The Kermit factor!! Love it! Don't forget his cousin!! Forgot his name!
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Jerry Clark
Member
Username: Jerry

Post Number: 260
Registered: 08-2004
Posted on Wednesday, April 12, 2006 - 02:41 pm:   

I like Yoshimi.
I wonder if The Flaming Lips have a snobby old fan thing going. Where they resent new fans getting into them through them being "big".
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Guy Ewald
Member
Username: Guy_ewald

Post Number: 142
Registered: 02-2005
Posted on Wednesday, April 12, 2006 - 08:05 pm:   

I bought Soft Bulletin when it came out and thought it was OK… the songs worked well on mixed discs with other baroque whine rockers of that particular moment… Mercury Rev’s Deserters Songs, Sparklehorse, Grandaddy…

Yoshimi did nothing for me and I won’t be buying the new one. I bought the last two Mercury Rev albums and honestly, I don’t know what I was thinking… that last one is a pile of unlistenable keyboard drek, sub-Gary Wright. Grandaddy have broken up so I don’t have to worry about them anymore and if Sparklehorse ever make another album I’ll make sure I hear it before I buy it.

Color me codger.
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kevin
Member
Username: Kevin

Post Number: 332
Registered: 05-2005
Posted on Wednesday, April 12, 2006 - 08:10 pm:   

Marl Linkous is a genius - and you can take that to the bank!!!
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kevin
Member
Username: Kevin

Post Number: 333
Registered: 05-2005
Posted on Wednesday, April 12, 2006 - 08:11 pm:   

that will be Mark obviously.
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Guy Ewald
Member
Username: Guy_ewald

Post Number: 143
Registered: 02-2005
Posted on Thursday, April 13, 2006 - 07:32 pm:   

I don't know if he's a "genius" but I would certainly buy another Sparklehorse album. I wouldn't hold my breath for one though... it's been five years now.

I used to play a couple of Dancing Hoods songs back when I DJ'd... they were a hard luck band and I was happy for Linkous when he found some success years after they'd broken up.
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XY765
Member
Username: Judge

Post Number: 62
Registered: 01-2006
Posted on Wednesday, April 19, 2006 - 11:14 am:   

I read that Mark Linkous couldn't attend the Daniel Johnston tribute gig in the Barbican last Friday because he's mixing a new Sparklehorse album. I think all his 3 albums have not been as good as their predecessors, Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot being my favourite.

Anybody here heard his collaboration album with Daniel Johnston in 2004 called 'Fear Yourself'? I think it's an incredible album.

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