OrthodoxEaster wrote: Fri Dec 19, 2025 11:23 am David Baker-era Mercury Rev wipes the floor w/all of it, though. Class act, those first two Rev albums. Way more power, wilder, and psychedelic w/o all the cutesiness. Wish they'd stayed the course, but alas...

Agreed but I can leave the songs where Baker sounds like he's stepping all over the bag. World from Baker's Shady had some decent bits, but as much as I dig those two powerfully weird and noisy records Mercury Rev got better post his departure. I've delved into modern Rev more than recent Lips which for myself speaks volumes.

eephus wrote:it's a clear vision driven by an inwardly directed aesthetic, which I respect and have more time for than stuff that just seems like fucking around.

Man, I hate to argue against personal tastes but I'd argue that Jonathon Donahue and Ronald Jones both had singular internal takes than just messing about on the guitar.

tallchris wrote:Ronald, Steven, and Michael just need to form their own band at this point!

With Tom Cullinan! I would stan.

Lyrically underrated in the first 1/3 of their existence! They're almost as good at writing songs about death as the Dead. There are A LOT of bands that do the thing where you write a perfect pop song and drench it in noise, but none of them have IT. I don't know what IT is.

Also, FUCK YOU WAYNE.

jeff fox wrote: Sun Dec 21, 2025 5:43 pm Lyrically underrated in the first 1/3 of their existence! They're almost as good at writing songs about death as the Dead. There are A LOT of bands that do the thing where you write a perfect pop song and drench it in noise, but none of them have IT. I don't know what IT is.

I agree. Everything through The Soft Bulletin is pretty great to me. Never in history has my interest in a band dropped off faster than The Lips. Just a brick wall of I don't care after Soft Bulletin. Wayne's biggest problem is he has always though HE was the Flaming Lips despite always being surrounded buy people much more talented than he is, including Dave Friedman. He has just been the clown up front for a long time.

Kniferide wrote: Mon Dec 22, 2025 5:11 pm

jeff fox wrote: Sun Dec 21, 2025 5:43 pm Lyrically underrated in the first 1/3 of their existence! They're almost as good at writing songs about death as the Dead. There are A LOT of bands that do the thing where you write a perfect pop song and drench it in noise, but none of them have IT. I don't know what IT is.

I agree. Everything through The Soft Bulletin is pretty great to me. Never in history has my interest in a band dropped off faster than The Lips. Just a brick wall of I don't care after Soft Bulletin. Wayne's biggest problem is he has always though HE was the Flaming Lips despite always being surrounded buy people much more talented than he is, including Dave Friedman. He has just been the clown up front for a long time.

I think this is pretty much true but I think more of the role "clown up front" the older I get. Don't get me wrong, composition, arrangement, sonics- that stuff is most of the meat in the sandwich. I enjoy knowing how to do that shit, and I've enjoyed serving the visions of others who have admirable skills in the same area.

I do not have the clown skills. Most musically intelligent people I know don't either. A good clown pretty much makes the band identifiable and determines what all that clever shit actually means. They make the whole thing tell a story. Take away the clown and you've never heard of the Fall, the Dead Kennedys, the Rolling Stones etc ad infinitum. Don't get me wrong, I have friends in a more popular band literally fronted by a comedian. My buddy and I have watched him physically and vocally schtick the crowd into submission, and we've stood at the back and grumbled our skepticism. But it's all sour grapes because we don't have that mixture of charisma and confidence that makes a crowd feel like they have to watch and listen to that guy. I can become very involved with staring at my shoe laces on stage when the mood strikes me.

So yeah I hope Wayne knows thay he could't build a song without these geniuses but if you put Friedman or Drozd in front of the Lips it's not going to grab people. Being raised in the era of "negative charisma" many of us enjoyed the Cobain, J Mascis, Kevin Shields type of frontman who silently seem to scream "look at me- WAIT stop looking at me" to the point of forgetting the asshole with a mic has been key to so many bands.

losthighway wrote: So yeah I hope Wayne knows thay he could't build a song without these geniuses but if you put Friedman or Drozd in front of the Lips it's not going to grab people. Being raised in the era of "negative charisma" many of us enjoyed the Cobain, J Mascis, Kevin Shields type of frontman who silently seem to scream "look at me- WAIT stop looking at me" to the point of forgetting the asshole with a mic has been key to so many bands.

True.They wouldn't be as popular as they currently are, but I would still be going to their shows. I don't, currently. I saw them at an impressionable age when I barely knew who they were (1994). What stuck out in my memory was not Wayne, it was Ronald. And it fucking kicked ass. So yeah, music people would like them more, while basic people wouldn't give a fuck.

I still regret not going to see the Ronald lineup opening up for fuckin' Candlebox in '95/'96.

tallchris wrote: Wed Dec 24, 2025 12:56 pm I still regret not going to see the Ronald lineup opening up for fuckin' Candlebox in '95/'96.

never regret not giving money to Candlebox

tallchris wrote: Wed Dec 24, 2025 12:56 pm I still regret not going to see the Ronald lineup opening up for fuckin' Candlebox in '95/'96.

A girl I was seeing at the time asked me if I wanted to go see Candlebox. “Fuck no, but who is opening?”

I went. It was pretty mind blowing. And I can proudly say that I have never seen Candlebox.

I was also one of the first 100 people in San Diego for The Soft Bulletin tour that got a Walkman. Again, mind blown.

I don’t really like them anymore, but those were two very special shows.

Wayne Coyne stinks.