Friday, July 30, 1999 | 12:02 p.m.
On Friday music fans who head to the Joint to see Oklahoma City's Flaming Lips are going to experience perhaps the most unique rock show of the summer.
Wayne Coyne describes the band's on stage approach to performing their new album as "loud Karaoke." With thick textures, beautiful arrangements, complex instrumentation and subtle melodies, The Soft Bulletin is the sort of record that sends critics racing to the thesaurus for superlatives and similes. According to Melody Maker, the album is "brilliant. . . already compared to the Beach Boys great lost album Smile for the sheer reach and innovation of the music it contains. The Flaming Lips are making music that no one else is anywhere near touching."
Of course, this is an essential album to own, but can this sort of studio wizardry be replicated on stage?
"Basically we're playing a tape," Coyne confesses. "I don't think people care if we play instruments or not as long as it's good. There's more musicianship going on when we play with a backing tape than there is in 90% of the bands that play live." Once just the band's singer and guitarist, Coyne acknowledges that members now have more fluid roles like they do in the studio, where every member contributes multiple sounds on each track. Drummer Steven Drozd, for example, plays a wide variety of instruments on stage, but, of course, not the drums.
Coyne has also worked out a film to accompany each song. "It's images that I steal from everywhere," he says. "Some of them are going to be from movies that you'll know and some of them will just be images that look good with the music and give it more impact."
Fans have come to expect great things from a Flaming Lips show: on earlier tours the band wrapped clubs in thousands of Christmas lights (the Lips as Christo) or invited audience members on stage to play synchronized boom boxes (the Lips as John Cage), and back when guitar hero Ronald Jones was in the band the Flaming Lips played among the most aggressive rock shows in the country. But according to Coyne, working off the backing tapes "liberates us to do more over-the-top bombastic numbers without compromising the sound.
"It's still spirited, but now it retains the sounds that the song is supposed to have. The sound of this record is connected to why you should like the song."
Coyne still does his vocals live as well as some guitar parts and this still leaves time for "playing gong, smiling, hand puppets and I may have some fake blood."
Not satisfied with the loss of sonic range that comes when a band's music is forced through the PA, the Flaming Lips have also arranged for headphones to be available for audience members. "If you put on the headphones you can clearly hear what the mix is intended to sound like and that means subtle reverbs. You never hear that at a concert. I think people just accept the blur, the cloud of sound that is present at shows."
If headphones, taped tracks, and video don't sound like a rock concert to you Coyne offers, "If you give me your ear, I'll try to move you."
Make sure you get to the show early enough for the opening acts Robyn Hitchcock and Sebadoh. Even before his string of minor hits ("Balloon Man" and "Madonna of the Wasps") in the 80s music snobs would joke, "How many members of REM does it take to screw in a lightbulb. Two. One to do it, and the other to play the Robyn Hitchcock album." In addition to being influential, Hitchcock is now making music that is his most creative work since his early years fronting the Soft Boys. Jewels for Sophia, Hitchcock's latest album, presents ample evidence of the lyrical genius that caused filmmaker Jonathan Demme to spend a year filming the British singer and songwriter for a documentary. The album is great, but in concert Hitchcock's a storyteller who uses his rapier wit for between-song patter that is not to be missed.
Sebadoh may seem the odd band on this tour. Fronted by former Dinosaur Jr. bassist Lou Barlow, they are neither as sonically expansive as the the Flaming Lips nor as lyrically adroit as Hitchcock. However, Barlow's straightforward songwriting provides a model for irony free and emotionally honest music in the post grunge era. On albums like Harmacy, Bakesale, and Bubble and Scrape, Sebadoh presents good song after good song with no effort at singles or videos. If you haven't heard of them you may still have heard Lou Barlow. While Sebadoh collects the accolades and refuses industry marketing, Barlow cashes the checks from side-project Folk Implosion, whose hit "Natural One" was used in the film Kids. Ten years ago Barlow sang a tribute to Minneapolis hardcore legends Husker Du, noting that they inspired, "a new generation." Here are the results. If you don't know these bands, this is THE concert worth a risk. Coyne hand picked the bands for this tour and has given it the fitting name, "The First Annual International Music Against Brain Degeneration Review." Be there.
Flaming Lips will perform on Friday, July 30, at 8 p.m. at The Joint inside Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. Opening for the Lips will be Robyn Hitchcock and Sebadoh.
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