Wood Goblin wrote: Tue Aug 02, 2022 10:01 am What’s a good point of entry?

Personally, I think that if one can't connect with In a Priest Driven Ambulance (With Silver Sunshine Stares), then it's a merry chase to go hunting down everything else. That said, there are a a handful of anomalies which rarely get mentioned. The Southern Oklahoma Cosmic Trigger Contest is a soundtrack to a documentary titled Okie Noodling. It's fairly short and unlike anything in their library. Not the easiest to find, but if you enjoy rustic, country-ish songs supposedly about noodling, but instead get ribald tunes about randy adolescents, then you can't go wrong. Astounding guitaring and pianoing via Steven & Ronald.



The Soft Bulletin Companion collects alternate mixes from TSB, and mixed-down versions of tracks from Zaireeka. In my estimation it has one of the Lips saddest songs, "35,000 ft of Despair," and one of their most gloriously symphonic and bombastic ones "Satellite of You."



The Yeah, I Know It's a Drag...But Wastin' Pigs is Still Radicalep is dope. Though it should be retitled to Yeah, I Know It's a Drag...But Hanging out With Lana Del Rey and Her Cop Boyfriend Isn't Radical . There's an Echo & The Bunnymen cover, and this cool unreleased song



Sludgy artifact from the Sub Pop Singles Club finds them reworking "Drug Machine in Heaven" and the b-side covering "Strychnine" and "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding."



And covering The Moles just because



But if you don't like In a Priest Driven Ambulance there's a good chance you won't like any of it, so I'd start there.

Thanks! I know what the soundtrack to my afternoon will be.

enframed wrote: Tue Aug 02, 2022 10:46 am Annoying third option: Mercury Rev.

Debut album is one of my favorite things on earth.

See, another band that never topped theit first release.

Vibracobra wrote: Tue Aug 02, 2022 2:14 pm

enframed wrote: Tue Aug 02, 2022 10:46 am Annoying third option: Mercury Rev.

Debut album is one of my favorite things on earth.

See, another band that never topped theit first release.

Respectfully disagree. Boces is peak, fucked-up, noisy, and drugged-out Mercury Rev. Sounds better as well. That is one crazy-ass loud record. I like Yerself is Steam a lot, but I reach for Boces, See You On the Other Side, Deserter's Songs, or even All is Dream before the debut.

Jonathan Donahue played a big role in their sound, just like Ronald Jones did after Jonathan, and Steven after Ronald. Wayne knows how to pick them, and he's also probably acutely aware that without any of the previous guitarists they wouldn't be where they are now.

Where in the world is Ronald Jones?

I see Wayne became a father again this year at 61. His wife is 33. Gross.

I was heavily into Flaming Lips at one point, around 2005-2010. Not so much anymore, but still not crap.

rsmurphy wrote: Tue Aug 02, 2022 2:36 pm
Respectfully disagree. Boces is peak, fucked-up, noisy, and drugged-out Mercury Rev. Sounds better as well. That is one crazy-ass loud record.

I also think Boces is great, you're basically right in what you say. I tend to rate it slighly lower than the debut because that first album contains "chasing a bee", "cancer cell" and specially the uncomparable "frittering".

After those two with David Baker I kinda lost interest in the band, tough See you and Deserter have some cool tracks. But I hate the way the drums sound on the former.

Insufferable whimsy.

Crap.

M.H wrote: Wed Aug 03, 2022 5:34 am Insufferable whimsy.

Of course, there's that, too.

One of the reasons I'd pick Mercury Rev over The Flaming Lips. Jonathan Donahue strikes me as pretty earnest. David Baker less so. I prefer Mercury Rev after Baker, though those first two albums have their charms. See You on the Other Side, IMHO, is when they really started getting consistently good.

Vibracobra wrote: Wed Aug 03, 2022 3:52 am

rsmurphy wrote: Tue Aug 02, 2022 2:36 pm
Respectfully disagree. Boces is peak, fucked-up, noisy, and drugged-out Mercury Rev. Sounds better as well. That is one crazy-ass loud record.

I also think Boces is great, you're basically right in what you say. I tend to rate it slighly lower than the debut because that first album contains "chasing a bee", "cancer cell" and specially the uncomparable "frittering".

I've always considered Rev's "Frittering" and the Lips's "Five Stop Mother Superior Rain" to be kindred spirits. I'd bet a pinkie that Jonathan Donahue was the primary writer behind both.

enframed wrote:I prefer Mercury Rev after Baker, though those first two albums have their charms. See You on the Other Side, IMHO, is when they really started getting consistently good.

Co-signed. Not sure how to move forward without sounding like a dick, but I don't find David Baker to be musical at all. Like, bereft of all musicality. I went to see his latest project, Variety Lights, a very long time ago it seems, and was not impressed. MR hit their stride without him.