THE FLAMING LIPS Oczy Mlody
( Warner Bros)
For some Flaming Lips fans, this will forever be the album most associated with the band’ s collaboration with pop star Miley Cyrus, the album they released after serving as her backup band for her tour the previous year.“ We A Family,” the last track on their latest effort( the 14th album since 1986), features Cyrus on backing vocals on one of the most upbeat and optimistic tracks of the 12. Singer Wayne Coyne, vocals heavily distorted, sings amid chirpy synth effects and overfuzzed beats, eventually letting Cyrus take over singing duties, ending with the repetitive and saccharine chorus“ we a family... we a family.” The majority of the other tracks are slower tempo drugthemed explorations, arranged mostly with layers of electronic instrumentation( long gone are the days of the Lips’ analogue art punk sound). Some song titles are more interesting than the songs themselves –“ Listening to the Frogs with Demon Eyes,” for example – with“ How??” and“ The Castle” representing the band’ s best songwriting efforts.“ One Night While Hunting for Faeries and Witches and Wizards to Kill” is interesting for its layered percussion( from taps to distorted kettle drums) backed by cricket and frog night noises. It’ s an enchanting backdrop for Coyne’ s languid vocal delivery as he weaves his psychedelic tale. But that’ s balanced by the more pretentious“ There Should Be Unicorns,” featuring guest vocalist Reggie Watts lecturing listeners in a pseudo-intellectual hippie persona“... And we will be high and the love generator will be turned up to its maximum. And we’ ll get higher, when at last, the sun comes up in the morning and we will collapse under the weight of the ancient earth... And it will be the end of
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the world and the beginning of a new love.” It’ s a little much, but the Lips were never about moderation.
--Jason Scales Appearing 4 / 17 at The Riviera Theatre,
Chicago
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FRANK ZAPPA & THE MOTHERS OF INVENTION We’ re Only In It for the Money, Lumpy Gravy Ruben and the Jets( Vinyl Reissues)( Zappa Records / Ume)
Songs from The Mothers of Invention’ s We’ re Only In It for the Money, including“ Who Needs the Peace Corps” find Frank Zappa taking merciless aim at 1968 San Francisco and hippie culture. In“ Flower Punk,” Zappa sings,“ Hey, punk, where you going with that button on your shirt?” His slacker target replies,“ I’ m going to a love-in to sit and play my bongos in the dirt.” The album cover mimics The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’ s Lonely Hearts Club Band from the prior summer. The musical content does the same, with trippy sonics that still sound far-out today. A voice whispers secret asides into the studio control room microphone about erasing the album masters, knowing that Frank can probably hear him. Along with jazz, rock and satire about hippie kids dropping out and police violence, you’ ll hear backward passages, sped-up vocals, psychedelic echoes and sound collage. Like other current Zappa Records / UMe reissues, the album is pressed on heavyweight vinyl and arrives in a reproduction gatefold sleeve. Inside, Zappa asks,“ Is this phase one of Lumpy Gravy?”
The artwork for 1968’ s Lumpy Gravy depicts Zappa asking,“ Is this phase two of We’ re Only In It for the Money?” Credited to Zappa solo, the album was originally released in 1967, but was reedited and reissued in 1968 following a record label dispute. Zappa composes and conducts a large group including orchestral players and Wrecking Crew guitarist Tommy Tedesco, but does not perform himself. The two sidelong pieces mix flowing melody, unhinged passages of musique concrète, surf, sped-up and cinematic orchestral music, Dixieland, psychedelia and spoken word. Avant garde composer John Cage is a major influence, and some passages draw comparison to Alfred Hitchcock soundtrack composer
Bernard Herrmann.
Like the two preceding albums, The Mothers of Invention’ s 1968 album Cruising with Ruben and the Jets was part of Zappa’ s No Commercial Potential project that concluded with Uncle Meat( reviewed in IE’ s Jan. 2017 issue). Of the set, Ruben’ s concept album about a fictional doo-wop band is the most easily digestible musically, but is no less twisted in its own way.“ This is an album of greasy love songs and cretin simplicity,” state the liner notes. After listening to the challenging and progressive material of the prior two records, it’ s hard to take the straightforward pop of“ Love of My Life” or the combination of Ray Collins’ crooning falsetto and Ian Underwood’ s pedestrian piano on“ Anything” at face value. Nonetheless, the liner notes continue reassuringly,“ We made it because we really like this kind of music.” The lyrics to single“ Deseri” and b- side“ Jelly Roll Gum Drop” include some truly sophomoric rhymes, suiting Zappa’ s attempt to produce the most banal love song lyrics imaginable.“ I’ m Not Satisfied” is one of four songs from the Mothers’ debut Freak Out! to be rearranged for the doo-wop concept. Package inserts include helpful instructions for dance steps and setting the jellyroll hairstyle.
We ' re Only In it For The Money 9 Lumpy Gravy 9 Ruben & The Jets 6
- Jeff Elbel
RUSH Time Stand Still( DVD Reissue)( UME)
The 2010 documentary Beyond the Lighted Stage revealed the Rush that diehard fans knew. Music fans at large were familiar with the Canadian prog-rock titans’ well-earned reputation as meticulous musicians, heard on technical-yetcatchy showpieces like“ Tom Sawyer.” Behind the technique, however, was a band of brothers sharing devotion, laughs and offering the support of true family during dark days. If a band of peers like the Police could barely survive nine years in the limelight together, how had these guys managed 35?
That perspective makes the new Time Stand Still all the more poignant. Five years later, the hard-touring trio haven’ t called it quits, but have decided to park the buses for good. With scant radio presence for much of its career, Rush built its formidable reputation one show at a time. Time Stand Still captures the band throughout 2015’ s R40 tour, a retrospective powerhouse that traveled backward through time. The set list begins with“ The Anarchist” from
2012’ s exceptional Clockwork Angels and ends with 1974’ s“ Working Man.”
The film depicts the nervous work of preparation as the tour begins and builds inexorably toward the final show at the Los Angeles Forum. Interview clips illustrate the range of perspectives within the band. Bassist Geddy Lee is driven by his music and stage work, and would clearly continue indefinitely. Good-spirited guitarist Alex Lifeson is enthusiastic, eager to make one more triumphant trip even as he stares down arthritis’ threat to his craft. Drummer Neil Peart is proud of the band’ s accomplishments and wants to cap its touring legacy while he remains in fighting shape. He’ s also eager to retire from the road for more time with his second shot at family, after losing his first one to tragedy in the‘ 90s.
The musicians crack each other up with stories about the early days, including backstage hijinks with guitarist Ace Frehley while opening for Kiss. They also profess admiration for crew members, many of whom have supported the band for decades. Another angle is the perspective of the trio’ s intensely devoted fans. Many in the film count off Rush shows in the hundreds. Some are shown passing the torch to children and grandchildren, alongside inspiring stories of Rush music as an inspirational force in the face of trials.
The final moments of the Forum show are touching, as Peart breaks personal tradition to embrace his bandmates joyfully before the crowd at the end of the show. The drummer has a longstanding reputation for shyness and desire to protect his personal space. Recent concert films like Time Machine 2011 and Clockwork Angels Tour conclude with Peart’ s hearty wave behind the kit followed by a headlong sprint off stage and out of the venue.“ What a surprise,” says a visibly emotional Lee, as the three smile and wave to their adoring fans one last time.
I Love You, Man actor and longtime Rush fan Paul Rudd narrates. Bonus content includes more than an hour of footage supporting 1989’ s Presto, with songs like“ Superconductor” and“ Scars” that were rarely played afterward.
- Jeff Elbel
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THE XX I See You
( Young Turks)
Kudos to the PR team behind The xx, when the spotlight was dim, and no other important artists dared to release their albums in the dead of winter, I See You emerged as a shining light in the darkness of Brexit and the Orange Menace.
Like flawed skin under the magnification of hi-def though, the flawless xx have blemishes. Perhaps it ' s a skin breakout due
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