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

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.

The Soft Bulletin, two years in the making with a reported recording tab in excess of half a million dollars, is perhaps the album of the '90s - a lovely schizoid moment captured on digital tape, here to lead us into the year 2000 and beyond.

While these 14 tracks (including two re-mixes) offer immediate melodic gratification, The Soft Bulletin's dense multi-layered brilliance requires further investigation. A perfect example of this idiosyncrasy is the bizarre and eccentric "The Spark That Bled (The Softest Bullet Ever Shot)." Moving from Neil Young ballad into psychedelic Pink Floyd riffing, the song proceeds to an anthemic refrain ("I stood up and I said - YEAH!") and Lennonish Leslie echo vocal, punctuated by a calpyso rhythm and bluegrass guitar. Whew! All in the space of six electrifying minutes!

Elsewhere, The Soft Bulletin touches heady heights on the charismatic "A Spoonful Weighs A Ton"; the real-life experiences of Steven Drozd and Michael Ivins are chronicled on "The Spiderbite Song"; and the infectious "Buggin'" hops and bops on the sugar high of profound lines like "The buzz of love is buzy buggin' you'."

There is just so much at work and play here that it is virtually impossible to describe adequately. Suffice to say that this is perhaps the most important album of the decade (yeah, I said that already) as it succeeds in tying up the loose threads of the last 40 years of pop music. Where we go from here is anyone's guess.

If you like The Soft Bulletin, check out:
The Flaming Lips Hit To Death In The Future Head
The Flaming Lips Zaireeka
The Flaming Lips In A Priest Driven Ambulance
The Flaming Lips Transmissions From The Satellite Heart
The Flaming Lips Clouds Taste Metallic
Café Tacuba Reves/Yosoy
The High Llamas Snowbug
Mercury Rev Deserter Songs
Pink Floyd Piper at the Gates of Dawn
Spiritualized Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space
Todd Rundgren A Wizard A True Star

-- km