Home - XIV (2000)

I've decided that regular updates are lame because I can honestly say I don't discover stuff worth posting that regularly. Instead I'm just going to post when I find an album I want to share. So just check up on this blog every few weeks or so and you'll find some new albums no doubt. Also, I'm getting really fed up of starting all of my posts with these sorts of things.

So recently I have been slowly working my way through every album Dave Fridmann has produced. So far it's been mostly underwhelming with only the Mercury Rev, Flaming Lips and Delgados releases (most of which I was already familiar with) sticking out as awesome. Okay, I lied, they aren't the only releases...

I had never heard of Home before a few weeks ago but after grabbing this album and loving it I've started to make my way through their other sixteen albums (including one which came out this year which you should totally look out for). But what is it about them that's so great? Well, let me just say this...

Mercury Rev + Guided By Voices = Home

FUCK YES, YOU HEARD ME. Even though this was their first album to actually be, y'know, produced and all (by Dave Fridmann no less, how they did that I'd like to know) they still retain some of the lo-fi sound that they had on their earlier albums. That combined with their often simple, 60s inspired pop songs gives them a definite Guided By Voices twang. But then there's some big bodacious Mercury Rev (a la Deserter's Songs) orchestration going on in there as well as those trippy lyrics and hooks that Mercury Rev love so much.

So, let me get this straight. Big sounding, yet lo-fi, psychedelic 60's pop that was recorded by some 90's american alternative rock band?

SIGN ME UP. RIGHT NOW.
(also the track "Aguirre (Exterior)" totally sounds like it belongs on Clouds Taste Metallic by The Flaming Lips, fuck yeah)


Give it a listen

The only albums I buy are Dave Fridmann aproved albums

Note: Fixed the link. So now you can actually listen to this album. lololol

Favorite Tracks: The Flaming Lips - The Captain

The Flaming Lips - The Captain
From "The Soft Bulletin 5.1/Outtakes"
Year: 1999?



If you don't mind, I'm just going to write a paragraph about me and this blog rather than this song.

This is what my blog was originally going to be; me talking about my favorite songs. Somewhere along the way (I think it was after one post) I figured that was a terrible idea and that I should just do what all great blogs do and provide people with links to awesome music. The thing is I alway had the same goal, to talk about music that I dig and (hopefully) get more people listening to some of the artists that don't get enough love. And you know what? That means that I can still do the occassional post about a favorite track. So there.

So what can I tell you about this track? I mean, apart from the fact that it's the best thing The Flaming Lips have recorded ever. I guess I could explain were the hell it came from. So pull up a pew, stick the kettle on and get comfy.


I don't know where this track came from.


I wish I did, but I have no idea when this was written and recorded so it's hard to explain how this amazing track came about. It was probably written during the Zaireeka sessions, when The Flips were experimenting like crazy, trying to change their sound to something completely different. And so we have this.

It starts with some very dramatic (and most likey synth'd) orchestration. Horns blur, strings flood in and chimes, uh, chime. But then it all ends. That great big wall of sound that just built up just fades away into nothingness and we're left with Wayne Coyne singing over some acoustic guitar strumming (and the beautiful piano playing of Mr. Steven Drozd). He's singing something about how things are "really bad" and that "this one here won't make it to the land". None of it makes sense, not that Flaming Lips songs usually do but still. A few more lines are sung before it speeds up a little bit. The lyrics are creating tension as Wayne Coyne begs "The Captain" to make an exception. It's all building up, and then the drums kick in. Something big is coming up, and you know it.

"Instead of being bold about it..."

And then the organ wails like a banshee.

"The Captain's being cooooooooold!!"

That wall of sound that opened the track is back, and louder, noisier and more beautiful than ever. You've got this incredibly awesome, almost shoegazey, vibe going on. The strings sound like they've been taken straight from My Bloody Valentines Touched, and Wayne keeps on singing those same lines.

"Instead of being bold about it..."

Needless to say, by the end of this track I am usually stood up out of my seat, arms raised in the air as I sing along at the top of my voice.

I really wasn't joking when I said it was the best thing The Flaming Lips have ever recorded.

The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin Outtakes

This is just a small post I'm making because I care.

The Flaming Lips are one of my favorite bands and I recently bought (hey, some of us have to do it) The Soft Bulletin 2009 reissue and was happy to discover it came with a little bonus CD that contains 3 songs that were cut from The Soft Bulletin. Now I'm sure a lot of you guys already have these since they also came with The Soft Bulletin 5.1 but that wasn't released everywhere so a lot of people missed out on these songs.

They're great tracks, real top notch stuff. The Captain, has to be one of the coolest Flaming Lips songs I've heard, with a sort of shoegaze (a la My Bloody Valentine) sound to it. There's also the undeniably sweet Satellite of You, which is just one big ol' metaphor for love. Awww, bless.

So, grab it if you don't already got it.

Give it a listen

Double 180 gram LP reissue of one of the greatest albums of all time, complete with bonus cd of outtakes that are as good as the stuff that made the cut? Huh...I might buy that