at a glance...

Hometown: Oklahoma City, OK
Year Formed: 1984

Members:
Wayne Coyne -vocals, guitars, all sorts of other stuff
Steven Drozd -drums, vocals, all sorts of other stuff
Michael Ivins -bass, vocals, all sorts of other stuff
"Stinky" -guitar, vocals

Bands In The Family:
Mercury Rev
Those Bastard Souls

Notes:
Wayne Coyne started The Flaming Lips with his older brother Mark in 1984, with Mark soon departing. They released a serious of demented, off-kilter psychedelic pop albums with excessively long titles. In 1991 they signed with Warner Brothers and released several demented, off-kilter psychedelic pop albums with slightly shorter titles. In 1994 "She Don't Use Jelly" somehow landed them in the Top 40, all over MTV and on "Beverly Hills 90210." The insanity of Clouds Taste Metallic saw the Lips recede back into obscurity, a position consolidated by the release of Zaireeka, an album recorded in four-part sound which required four stereos and allowed for on-the-fly mixing by the listener. Two years later, the band returned with the ambitious, orchestral The Soft Bulletin, this time all on one CD.

Are you finished taking acid? Have you simply run out of the free time needed to be able to lose yourself for a little while? Well, the doctor prescribes In A Priest Driven Ambulance. Have a psychedelic vacation and transform a gloomy Tuesday into a Saturday afternoon without worrying about strychnine poisoning or whether you can make it to work the next day or not. Listen to this twice tonight and you will feel bright and chipper in the morning, if not a little closer to Wayne Coyne's take on Jesus. Oh yeah, there are four songs on the album that address different psychotic manifestations of Jesus, so I hope you are not a devout Catholic.

Listen to "God Walks Among Us Now - Jesus Song No. 6" with headphones and tell me that by the end of the song you don't feel as if your head has been twirled around in a gyroscope. Then ask yourself what you would think of these guys if this had been their last album. In 1990, the Flaming Lips were afraid they were on their last legs because Restless was in the toilet. Fortunately though, Dave Fridman came aboard to produce the record and Dingus came on to play guitar opposite Wayne Coyne, resulting is a set of cuts that are deliciously subversive.

This is the album that will scare the shit out of your Yuppie neighbors at 3 A.M. When they hear this tight, whacked-out ooze of music pulsating through the walls of the adjoining apartment, they'll beg you to stop playing it at the cost of their parking space. Priest... has some of the most tasty and deliciously tight psychedelia ever put on record. The band cops riffs from "Put A Little Love in Your Heart," and "Do They Know It's Christmas" while singing about hitching a ride from Jesus. The opening bars to "Rainin' Babies" are reminiscent of Sid and Marty Kroft production while Coyne compares raindrops to babies replenishing the earth.

Trust me, if you need a smile, drop this record on the turntable and fire up a joint. It's silly, brilliantly textured and tightly produced. Plus, the sound quality is so good, you can actually hear Coyne winking at you. Go on, quit taking things so seriously.

If you like this album, check out:
The Flaming Lips Zaireeka
The Flaming Lips Clouds Taste Metallic
The Flaming Lips Transmissions From The Satellite Heart
The Flaming Lips The Soft Bulletin
The Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Mercury Rev Yerself Is Steam
Spiritualized Pure Phase
Frank Zappa We're Only In It For The Money
Jimi Hendrix Are You Experienced?
Syd Barrett The Madcap Laughs

-- Sean Neumann