Flaming lips

[nikkic]

Is it "normal" to think The Lips look much more impressive live than they sound on record? I've been watching some of their sets on Youtube and it looks amazing.  Granted I've only given The Soft Bulletin, Yoshimi and Embryonic a listen so far, but none of them grab me. There's bits that I love on all 3 records, but their albums don't keep me interested from start to finish.  

[balti-pie]

They are life-changingly good live. I've seen em six times and each has been absolutely magnificent. I almost listen to the albums to remind me of the gigs, in a way. It's brilliant taking people that havn't seen em before and watching their faces - it's just an honestly beautiful experience to have. There isn't a single band I'd see above the flaming lips at Glastonbury. The best possible combination of band and venue. 

[russycarps]

2 minutes ago, balti-pie said:

They are life-changingly good live. I've seen em six times and each has been absolutely magnificent. I almost listen to the albums to remind me of the gigs, in a way. It's brilliant taking people that havn't seen em before and watching their faces - it's just an honestly beautiful experience to have. There isn't a single band I'd see above the flaming lips at Glastonbury. The best possible combination of band and venue. 

This is the most spot on thing ever written on this, or any other forum. 

[nikkic]

Thanks that's a nice way of putting it. If they play I'm 99.9% there. JP on Sunday would be my choice! 

[Purple aki squat]

JP tent would be stunning. Probably the best live band I've ever seen. Can't wait for Manchester gig.

 

Not taking the piss but could they open other?? They would be great. They played yeah yeah song at green man before main stage opened a few years ago. It was fucking brilliant.

[dentalplan]

Here we go then...

 

[Mash011]

Well if we're on Mystics I might well drop in this underrated gem...

I must admit I adore the Flaming Lips, but I've never been drawn in by their older albums, especially pre-Transmissions stuff. Is it worth the effort? I do consider TSB/Yoshimi/Mystics their peak by a long way.

[russycarps]

7 hours ago, Mash011 said:

Well if we're on Mystics I might well drop in this underrated gem...

I must admit I adore the Flaming Lips, but I've never been drawn in by their older albums, especially pre-Transmissions stuff. Is it worth the effort? I do consider TSB/Yoshimi/Mystics their peak by a long way.

I think it's worth it, but it's a completely different band really.

Maybe you'll like the less heavy early stuff:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Digi]

I have tickets for Manchester in January.  I was  really tempted to get tickets for Zurich the week after and class it as our Christmas present but I remembered how bloody expensive Zurich is so that little idea quickly got squashed

Would be great if they played Glastonbury.  I may just finally get over the fact I listened to my EX husband and watching Gorillaz instead!

[Calvin Klein]

Mystics is ok. Not really memorable. 

It does have Pompeii Am... though, which is incredible. Their best track since The Soft Bulletin.

[Stokesy10]

Literally just listening to these for the first time. I'm sure I'm gonna come across tunes I recognise. Just randomly selecting ones off Spotify at the mo. Really, really like what I've heard so far! Fight Test and Yoshimi Battles, nice!

[bamber]

Bring on Miley!

This is kind of perfect...

 

[Mash011]

Best song they've put out since 'Watching the Planets'? Quite possibly! Really loving this.

[russycarps]

flaming lips announced for a festival in spain the weekend after glastonbury I see. Looks promising!

 

[nikkic]

1 hour ago, russycarps said:

flaming lips announced for a festival in spain the weekend after glastonbury I see. Looks promising!

 

After not knowing much about The Lips I'm now more excited by this possibility than anything else I think. All thanks to you and the good members of this board! 

[jparx]

Very excited at the prospect of this! Should probably start and make offerings to the clash gods though.

Edited November 17, 2016 by jparx

[russycarps]

1 minute ago, nikkic said:

After not knowing much about The Lips I'm now more excited by this possibility than anything else I think. All thanks to you and the good members of this board! 

the dream now is JP headliner on the sunday. Nothing and no-one could keep me away from that! Even if the new album is a bit of a turkey (though I like both the new songs quite a bit) I'm confident it will still be great live. They know how to beef things up.  

 

[russycarps]

2 minutes ago, jparx said:

Very excited at the prospect of this! Should probably and make offerings to the clash gods though.

Yeah it'll be a major downer if they clash with radiohead

 

[jparx]

1 minute ago, russycarps said:

Yeah it'll be a major downer if they clash with radiohead

 

The world is in a pretty horrific state right now, but I can't imagine it's that bad that we'd end up with a Radiohead/Flaming Lips clash.

[CaledonianGonzo]

Well - they're probably a nailed on JPT headliner, so you've got a 1 in 3 chance.

[dentalplan]

8 minutes ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

Well - they're probably a nailed on JPT headliner, so you've got a 1 in 3 chance.

Less than that, I should think. The Wayner is an enormous fan and I couldn't see him agreeing to play against them.

[nikkic]

26 minutes ago, russycarps said:

the dream now is JP headliner on the sunday. Nothing and no-one could keep me away from that! Even if the new album is a bit of a turkey (though I like both the new songs quite a bit) I'm confident it will still be great live. They know how to beef things up.  

 

Yep it'll be the perfect way to finish before the break. 

 

I'd love to be able to see them at their Brixton date but just can't afford it at the moment, plus I think the farm should be the first place I see them. 

[CaledonianGonzo]

4 minutes ago, dentalplan said:

Less than that, I should think. The Wayner is an enormous fan and I couldn't see him agreeing to play against them.

Depending on their tourdates - and those of the other artists likely on in there - he's probably not gonna get that much of a say.

[russycarps]

3 minutes ago, dentalplan said:

Less than that, I should think. The Wayner is an enormous fan and I couldn't see him agreeing to play against them.

You ever read this from wayne coyne? Complimentary and a bit rude all at the same time. Not the words of an enormous fan....

 

I think I’m like a lot of people, there’s so much of their stuff that’s cool, that’s cool. It doesn’t speak to me all the way. I think most of the stuff they’ve done is pretty stellar. I think the song I got stuck with the most is that song “There There.” I didn’t have anything that pushed me to that song. Of the 50 Radiohead songs that you would listen to, that one would go by and I’d say, “Fuck, that’s cool.” I was just drawn to it. I would talk to other people and they’d say, “Yeah, me too.” It just has an urgency. Something. Radiohead is so good at that thing, that switching up of the rhythms. That song, I would still say, is uncanny when I listen to it. It would be hard to recreate that. I’ve seen them play it now a couple of times. It wasn’t that powerful. It was like, “OK, I like that song,” and it moves on. But I could see there’s something there in that song. I don’t know what the fuck he’s talking about in it. That record, I think, you know, coming out of what seemed to be their “Let’s get rid of the guitars” phase — and I like all that too — but there’s something when they came back to the punk guitar stuff. They found another level of that. I didn’t like them back when they first got big. I saw them just before OK Computer. They struck me the way a lot of British bands will when they do a tour of America. They’re very professional, they do their thing, the lights are all on cue, but it seems very much like “We’re playing 100 shows and that was number 80.” Not that it wasn’t good, there’s no…we’ve played with a lot of British bands that have that thing about them. I think it’s part of the British musician. Put your head down, do this. I thought it was boring. I stood on my feet at the end of it and said, “You’ve gotta play ‘Creep!’ You can’t just not play ‘Creep’ just because everyone likes the song.” That’s just me being smarmy. Then I didn’t see them for a couple of years, and then we were lucky enough to play the Glastonbury festival just before they did, probably on their greatest night. That was the Hail To The Thief record. They were completely different. They were funny and they had some fuck-ups and they were just not so furious and it wasn’t just play it by the numbers. It was literally one of the greatest shows we’ve seen. They’re still weird. They’re not the approachable guys, not like freaks hanging out. But, hey, that’s what you’d expect from them.

[FloorFiller]

Considering they were personally booked by Radiohead to sub them in 2003 and I imagine have quite a large crossover fan base I doubt the festival would be stupid enough to put them up against each other, especially when they'd make total sense as an alternative to our other two supposed headliners