KAHN: The new Flaming Lips album is a single CD. At times they could be outright avant-garde, like releasing an album on four CD's which were all supposed to be played at the same time. KAHN: Over the years, the Flaming Lips developed a cartoonish approach to songs and song titles. The FLAMING LIPS: (Singing "Free Radicals") Fanatical! COYNE: Yeah, all this sort of junk, but still a lot of enthusiasm. COYNE: Couldn't play very well but we really wanted to do it all. COYNE: 1984-two words: amateur and enthusiastic. KAHN: Coyne is the guiding force behind the Flaming Lips, which he founded in 1984. The FLAMING LIPS: (Singing "Free Radicals") You think you're so radical. KAHN: In their 22-year history, they've evolved from a punk band to what they are today: a creative sound laboratory. DROZD: Actually plays drums with us now live. DROZD: And then, live, we have a guy named Kliph Scurlock who's probably our biggest Flaming Lips fan I've ever met probably. COYNE: Michael is, sort of, more involved in the, sort of, technical parts of it and. KAHN: Wayne Coyne and Steven Drozd are two-thirds of the Flaming Lips, a music group from Oklahoma City that also includes bassist Michael Ivins. We're all obsessed with any sound we can get our hands on, and so, you just pile a bunch of stuff on and see what sounds cool and what doesn't. STEVEN DROZD (Band Member, Flaming Lips): I'm Steven from the Flaming Lips and I play assorted instruments. I sing and blow up balloons for the Flaming Lips and this is. WAYNE COYNE (Lead Singer, Flaming Lips): Hello, everybody. The FLAMING LIPS: (Singing) You used your money. The FLAMING LIPS: (Singing) You don't know what to do. The FLAMING LIPS: (Singing "Haven't Got a Clue") You haven't got a clue. Listening to a Flaming Lips song is a bit like getting stuck between stations on the FM dial. MONTAGNE: Recently, the front man for Flaming Lips, Wayne Coyne, and band member Steven Drozd, played some of their songs and spoke with music journalist Ashley Kahn. Now, after major changes in personnel and in their sound, the Flaming Lips have a new album. MONTAGNE: That appearance helped raise the band above cult status, but its popularity never climbed much higher. The FLAMING LIPS (Rock Group): (Singing "She Don't Use Jelly") She don't use jelly or any of these. In 1994, the alternative rock group, the Flaming Lips, entered the pop mainstream after appearing on the T.V. Please help me welcome the cool, the crazy, the fabulous-Flaming Lips! Ultimately, the music is fine, and the Flaming Lips can create both lyrical and sonic genius in their sleep, but when an album's first two songs are such a big deal, finishing out with "fine" isn't.Unidentified Speaker: They're backstage and ready to go. Ambulance Driver," but by the time the album both regains and loses its stride with funk-party-turned-dour-funeral "It Overtakes Me/The Stars Are So Big.", it's easy to give up. Bursts of brilliance pop up in the remaining songs, like the fuzzed-out guitar riff buried halfway in the otherwise droll "My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion" or the touching memorial lyrics in "Mr. But once track three begins, this album proves to be at war with itself, sinking into quieter Soft Bulletin retreads with inner-looking lyrics that don't evoke much new (unless random quibbles about "Britney and Gwen" can be called refreshing). The Lips kick off their latest "of course it's gonna be weird" album, At War With the Mystics, with a bang: "Yeah Yeah Yeah Song" has its freak-folk-meets-psychedelic-guitars lunacy capped off by a subtly political sing-along, and "Free Radicals" has enough falsetto and funk to earn a lazy Prince comparison, but its secret strength is its Zeppelin anthem tone. Kudos to the Flaming Lips for releasing the best A-side/B-side of the year so far.
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