Remember that freaky orgy of a Flaming Lips video we told you about a few months ago? Well, the Oklahoma psych-punks wrapped production on it and shipped it off to the Internets for viewing. We can assure you that the the video, which features a bunch of naked Portlanders on mountain bikes, Wayne in his home, the bubble and a gigantic hair ball of a vagina birthing enough nude hippies to warrant its own Rainbow Gathering, is a pretty entertaining affair. We’re also going to go ahead and deem this Not Safe for Work. That is, of course, unless you work in a hospital on Mars, a vagina hair ball farm or Vincent Gallo’s production company. Not really sure what else we can say about this, as it really says it all itself, save that we haven’t seen this much pubic hair since we first got our hands on the Joy of Sex. Something tells me Alejandro Jodorowsky would dig this one.

Sure, Wayne Coyne and his band of Okie freak punks have done just about everything. Playing inside magic bubbles, shooting confetti in your face while dancing with yetis and even making a movie about what Christmas would be like on Mars, just to name a few. But you know what they haven’t done? You guessed it: they have yet to go for a nudie bike ride with hundreds of fans around the base of an Oregonian Mountain. Fortunately for the Lips, their desires will come true this Wednesday, September 23rd, at Mount Tabor in Portland when they shoot the video for Embryonic single “Watching the Planets.” The concept for said video is exactly what you’d expect from a band whom emerges from an projected vagina from bubble, and a lot of that plays into the concept. Notes Coyne, who will cover his beloved bubble in wookie hair, “it’s going to look like some giant fur egg, and the people on bicycles are gonna sort of be born and erupt out of this fur, vaginalistic thing.” The Flaming Lips will release Embryonic tomorrow, and if your spine hasn’t slithered out from your body after the first disc, and you find yourself in the Portland area, you might as well join the cult. Additional info below.

Flaming Lips naked bike video shoot
Wednesday, September 23, 10am – 10pm (drop-in)
The top of Mount Tabor, by the basketball courts
No RSVP needed. Just show up wearing clothes, please.
For more information, contact: bikeforthelips@gmail.com

The newest trailer for Spike Jonze’s Where The Wild Things Are features a sweet, lullaby-ish number by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ leading lady, a tune similar to one we heard in the recent Wild Things featurette. Check out the trailer above, and catch the film in its entirety in theaters October 16 with plenty of fully listenable Karen O music on the score. (Via The Playlist).

The Flaming Lips are releasing their 12th studio monstrosity later this year and according to a SPIN report, Embryonic features some extra-special guests: MGMT and Karen O of Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Frontnut Coyne sent some sounds and ideas via e-mail and telephone and in what we’re sure was a flash of glittered genius, something gnarly was born. That something will be sandwiched somewhere amid the many layers of psychedelia Embryonic—a double album which Coyne claims is similar to the Lips’ masterstroke the Soft Bulletin—promises.

—Meryl Natow

The first time we were tipped off to the Danger Mouse and Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse collaboration, it came via a poster. This time it’s coming from across the pond.

As we told you, Danger Mouse and Linkous have written a 13-song album called Dark Night Of The Soul that features, among others, David Lynch, The Strokes’ Julian Casablancas, Iggy Pop, Frank Black and The Flaming Lips‘ Wayne Coyne.

Now, as revealed to NME, the album has a full track listing, release date (or approximate at least) and some special packaging.

Dark Night Of The Soul will be released sometime in June and will come packaged with a book of David Lynch photographs to accompany the music. It will retail at £38.99 (so, like twice as much in the U.S.) and be limited to 5,000 copies. And get this — there are no plans to release the album as a legal download or on any other formats. We assume that means the physical release will be on wax (or better be).

An exhibition will run in the Los Angeles Michael Kohn Gallery from May 30, showcasing the photographs alongside the music. Danger Mouse is also producing Beck’s follow-up to his 2006 album The Information.

Dark Night Of The Soul track listing
01. Revenge (featuring The Flaming Lips)
02. Just War (featuring Gruff Rhys)
03. Jaykub (featuring Jason Lytle)
04. Little Girl (featuring Julian Casablancas)
05. Angel’s Harp (featuring Frank Black)
06. Pain (featuring Iggy Pop)
07. Star Eyes (I Can’t Catch It) (featuring David Lynch)
08. Everytime I’m With You (featuring Jason Lytle)
09. Insane Lullaby (featuring James Mercer of The Shins)
10. Daddy’s Gone (featuring Nina Persson)
11. The Man Who Played God (featuring Suzanne Vega)
12. Grim Augury (featuring Vic Chestnutt)
13. Dark Night Of The Soul (featuring David Lynch)

As rock bands go, Arizona’s Meat Puppets have never been what one would classify as normal. At their calmest you could say that their approach to music is unorthodox and at their wildest well, they are flat out, full-speed-ahead weird.

Since forming in Paradise Valley, Arizona in early 1980, the band has released seminal albums, including the SST classic Meat Puppets 2, created their own style of punk rock by combining psychedelic rock (and tons of actual hallucinogens), country music and the off beat vocal delivery of twin brothers Cris and Curt Kirkwood, to make a sound solidly that of the brothers Meat.

The sound the Kirkwoods fostered was not embraced by the mainstream, the one exception being 1994’s Too High To Die, but it was borrowed from and built upon by some of the most influential bands of my generation including Nirvana, Soundgarden, The Flaming Lips, Dinosaur Jr., Nada Surf, the Replacements to name just a few. The band’s latest album, Sewn Together [Megaforce] is exactly that, a sewn together tapestry of all the influences and substances that morphed into the creature that is The Meat Puppets.

The album’s title track is a singsong campfire distortion touched country rock gem that would make Gram Parsons and his Flying Burrito Brothers proud. That is just one of the pop infused gems to be found on the album ironically released by metal gods Metallica’s first label residence.

“Blanket of Weeds” is a harmonized tune with a distortion jam filling out it’s midsection; “Sapphire” shows that the at times stellar band Concrete Blonde may have been Puppets followers as well. “Go to Your Head” has a feeling that yes, in fact, Michael Stipe stole his voice from Cris Kirkwood and Peter, Bill and Mike pilfered their best ideas from the bluegrass lovin’ Arizona punks.

But longtime fans don’t be fooled by the rock conformity. Oh no, there are some moments that we’ve come to know, love and attribute to an acid consumption on par with Hendrix. The most likely suspect of this and the perhaps the best song on Sewn Together is the whistle lead, “The Monkey and The Snake”. Strange lyrics abound here: “This is the story of the monkey and the snake/the monkey hit that sucker with a rake/snake bit the monkey and the hand/now the monkey’s singin’ in a band.” And believe it or not it gets weirder from there. Drum solos, flange guitar, mandolin and funky bass are in full force here.

To put it simply, Sewn Together is a beautifully strange album that proves the Meat Puppets are still relevant and have much to offer the world of “indie” rock.

The point of the many comparisons to other bands in this review is not do to a lack of imagination on my part; or is it to imply that The Meat Puppets have reached the end of their creative rope after twenty-nine years. That couldn’t be further from the truth; it is merely to show the influence that band has had on Alternative music. Without the Meat Puppets, alternative as we know it would have an entirely different sound or may not exist at all.

Thank you Jesus for the Kirkwood brothers. Sewn Together is one of the top five best albums I’ve heard so far this year and more importantly, it is yet another step in The Meat Puppets’ journey of greatness.

You might want to refer to him as Professor Coyne from now on, because the Flaming Lips frontman is getting back to the classroom basics this August. The now veteran musician will be teaching music to students at the University of Central Oklahoma, as part of a new music program set up for the college. At least he has the hair to fit the part of the nutty professor.

The Oklahoma university has set up a new Academy of Contemporary Music, which is focused on giving students an in-depth look at the music industry from seasoned professionals. The school is enlisting the help of industry giants like Greg Kurstin (Lily Allen’s producer) and Warner Bros. Records General Manager Tom Biery among a few others, who will be teaching classes in guitar, bass, drum, and vocal performance, as well as music production.

Scott Booker, who is head of the Flaming Lips’ artist management company, is the head behind the new academy. Working alongside the university and state officials, Booker was able to bring the new academy to Oklahoma, with the help and partnership of the U.K’s Academy of Contemporary Music, which was founded in 1995, according to PopMatters.

The new program will provide some of the best music industry education available at a collegiate level, and classes will take place off of, you guessed it, Flaming Lips Alley in Oklahoma City’s Bricktown district. The idea of Coyne in a classroom is not that ridiculous of an idea, but we’re pretty sure Win Butler probably won’t be signing up on Coyne’s class anytime soon.

We’re willing to bet you’ve never heard Madonna quite like this. The Flaming Lips have managed to make a “Borderline” into a dreamy, otherworldly little opus, and Wayne Coyne sounds so earnest and desperate. Why do you keep on pushin’ his love over the borderline? Why?

Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne has waved the white flag in the battle of indie-egos. As we told you back in March, Coyne had dissed the Arcade Fire pretty badly in an interview with Rolling Stone, fueling Arcade Fire’s Win Butler to verbally strike back. Now, Coyne has apologized for his words in Rolling Stone, and said the statement he made was misunderstood.

According to an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Coyne said he never meant his rude remarks to be aimed at the members of the Arcade Fire themselves, but at the people running their stages at a couple of festivals. Coyne said he wishes the incident never happened, and that he feels really bad about it.

“I like enough of their music,” Coyne said in the interview. “The idea that I’m somehow against them… I’m not!”

We are waiting for Win to give the yay or nay on Coyne’s most recent remarks, but it should put most of this silly argument to rest. If not, the next logical step after Rolling Stone and Entertainment Weekly would be for Coyne to speak with TMZ, and we all know what would happen then.

There is always a faint feeling of apprehension at the thought of Radiohead covers — lets face it, not many people can deliver a performance quite like Thom Yorke. But Macy Gray’s cover of “Creep” at the Los Angeles premiere of the music documentary The Heart is a Drum Machine, wasn’t all that bad.

The r&b songstress was backed by Matt Sorum, former member of Guns N’ Roses, on drums, and Billy Morrison of The Cult on guitar at the event, which took place at the Nike Ricardo Montalban Theater in Hollywood. Along with Gray’s performance, Perry Farrell of Jane’s Addiction also played, covering The Rolling Stones‘ “Sympathy for the Devil”, and Juliette Lewis also performed. The event was part of the LA Weekend series of culture events.

The performances were done in celebration of The Heart is a Drum Machine’s release, which looks at the reality of music as a unique human expression. The film has a hoard of musical guests who discuss the idea behind the distinct musical/human relationship, including Wayne Coyne of Flaming Lips, Andrew VanWyngarden of MGMT and John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Well, there were no white horses this time, no Kevin Barnes full-frontal nudity, and only a handful of wardrobe changes. But of Montreal definitely brought the party to Music Hall of Williamsburg for three nights of their wild freak show/celebration.

Looking at photos from last fall’s Roseland gig, it’s clear that they chose to play a more intimate venue and a (relatively) stripped-down show. Going to an of Montreal show these days comes with built-in expectations of Flaming Lips-level antics and grandiosity. Music Hall holds about 550, though, while Roseland holds 3500, and the stage is a fraction of the size. What I’m wondering, however, is why the setlists were shorter than their past gigs. If playing to your most devout fans, why not treat them to more? When I saw Broken Social Scene at Bowery several years ago they played for three hours with not an attention span lost. Still, the show packed at least 20 or so hand picks into almost 2 hours.

of Montreal is at their best when they’re most unabashedly up-front about that brand of dark, sugary pop they’ve crafted, and when the opening bass line of “Gronlandic Edit” dropped guitarist Bryan Poole asked “are you ready to party?” while the crowd was already a dancing frenzy. The awesome “Id Engager” and “Sentence of Sorts” drew similar responses, and the crowd, including the sea of cute girls in the front, were more than happy to dance and get excited. The band opened with “The Past Is A Grotesque Animal” which was a curious choice and probably an offering to the die-hards and the fans who bemoaned its absence from the Roseland show.

Barnes and his band are now seasoned professionals. Their troupe hoists them onto their shoulders, fondles and paints the members at will and they still manage to hit every note. Their versatility shows through in their wide repertoire of covers, nailed so consistently that the band may rank as one of the best cover bands of all time. They closed with a cover of Bowie’s “Moonage Daydream” with Janelle Monae, and an insane guitar solo [anyone know who that was?]. They are one of the most accomplished bands in indie pop and this show, like all of their shows, was an all-out resplendent party.

Their new album Eating Us is out May 26, and it’s been eating at us that we haven’t heard anything from the new Black Moth Super Rainbow record. That is until now. “Twin of Myself”, a laid-back, dreamy three-and-a-half minute pop vacation, will have to satisfy us until we get to hear the rest of the record.

Eating Us is the follow-up to 2007’s Dandelion Gun and features the production skills of Flaming Lips’ producer Dave Fridmann and the hypnotic vocals of the artist behind one of our favorite releases of 2008, Tobacco.

Black Moth Super Rainbow – “Twin of Myself”

Expectations were trumped by surprises and disappointment. As the first act, the Sunbears warmed up the jubilant crowed with Flaming Lips-esque lo-fi neon graphics and a giant balloon bouncing around the audience. The lesser-known two-piece band from Jacksonville, FL left the audiences dancing and begging for an encore that never came.


[Sunbears]

Roars of “Mates of State are the real headliners” erupted from the audience as the husband-wife duo Kori Gardner and Jason Hammel took the stage. Two virtuosos playing the glockenspiel, guitar, cello, violin, trombone and occasionally the keys accompanied the duo. By the end of the first song, the foursome had already played 11 different instruments who’s sound blended together seamlessly. The indie-pop band’s recorded albums barely give their live performance justice as their fans sung and danced in bliss. The collective effervescence shared by the crowd was most felt in songs like “The Re-arranger”, where the call and response of the lyrics and instrumentation matched that of the fun loving stares between the married frontman/woman.

[Mates Of State]

The Black Kids, the band I was most excited to see was not able to command the same stage presence of the previous acts. Two bad jokes in and half a set left to play, the sold out show had an exodus of people leaving the room at half capacity. Diehards danced harder than ever as the show continued. The first encore song, “I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance with Me” infused with 30 seconds of New Order’s “Bizarre Love Triangle” was the highlight of the show.

This years Pitchfork Music Festival’s headliners have been confirmed for a few weeks, and now The Flaming Lips have been added onto the stellar roster of performers, and are set to close out the three-day Chicago festival in July. 

As we told you, Pitchfork is changing the festival up a bit this year. Fans will be able to participate in the “Write the Night: Set Lists by Request” contest, where people can cast their votes online after they have purchased a ticket for the event. Fans will be able to dictate which songs they will be hearing from their favorite Friday night performers, and even though The Flaming Lips are playing on Sunday, they too will be partaking in the fun.  

Think Win Butler will send in his request?

The funny thing about Hopewell is that they have been sorely overlooked by those who like the psychedelic, dreamy pop being made by bands like Animal Collective, Dungen or to a lesser degree, Dirty Projectors, mainly because they brewed their cred in upstate New York versus Manhattan or Brooklyn. But that might change with the release of Good Good Desperation in May.

Hopewell was founded by Jason Russo, of Hopewell Junction who, at 19, joined Mercury Rev for a world tour before setting out on his own with a band named after his hometown. As their press release states, they do claim to be “purveyors of the new psych-rock scene,” boasting a resume that has seen them open for My Bloody Valentine on their recent reunion tour, work in the past with producer Dave Fridmann (Flaming Lips, MGMT), record a Peel Session live at Abbey Road Studio, and playing Reading and Leeds Festivals.

With Good Good Desperation — out May 5 on Tee Pee Records — Hopewell’s journey continues down their own noisy path. In between tours and throughout 2008 they set out to make a record that more captured their live sound. It was during this time that Jonathan Donahue invited the band to play a 30-minute segment of music on his WDST Woodstock radio program in upstate New York. For this show the group composed a structured improvisational piece, a composition loosely dubbed “The Opus”, which would become the progenitor for many of the songs on the album to come. Immersed in heavy doses of bands like This Heat, Pink Floyd, Roxy Music and early tribal Jane’s Addiction, Hopewell booked time in Brooklyn studios Seizures Palace and Seaside Lounge (Akron/Family, Psychic Ills). The result of which is Good Good Desperation.

Hopewell will also be releasing the 7-inch single version of the single “Good Good Good Desperation” (yes, there is an extra “good”) today on Tee Pee Records, and will be celebrating with a record release show this Friday at Glasslands in Brooklyn and further down in TX at SxSW.

Good Good Desperation track list
Side A
01. Preamble (pt II)
02. Island
03. Good Good Good Desperation
04. Worried Mind
05. Realms of Gold
Side B
01. 10,000 Black Masses (pt I)
02. Stranger
03. Seen the Light
04. Over the Mountain
05. Bury Me Standing

Hopewell tour dates
03.13.09 – Brooklyn, NY (Glasslands)
03.18.09 – SXSW Tee Pee Records Day Party (Skoot Inn)
03.20.09 – SXSW Day Party (Spiderhouse)
03.20.09 – SXSW Day Party (Guero’s)
03.21.09 – SXSW Live Music Capitol Day Party
03.21.09 – SXSW Showcase (Beauty Bar)

In light of the recent bickering between Flaming Lips front man Wayne Coyne and the Arcade Fire’s Win Butler, we figured to take you back to 1993. A time when the Flaming Lips personified the carefree attitude of their hit single “She Don’t Use Jelly”.

“She Don’t Use Jelly” from Transmissions from the Satellite Heart is the Lips biggest radio hit to date. The song became popular after being featured on Beavis and Butt-Head nearly a year after the album’s release. It is still their highest charting single to date (and the only to chart on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100), even entering the top 10 of the Modern Rock Tracks chart. “She Don’t Use Jelly” is one of the few pre-The Soft Bulletin songs still played at the band’s shows, usually preceded by a video of Jon Stewart introducing the song on The Jon Stewart Show.

Wiki: The success of the song garnered the band a guest spot on the TV show Beverly Hills, 90210, in which they played live at the show’s hangout, The Peach Pit, where supporting character Steve Sanders (portrayed by actor Ian Ziering) remarked, “You know, I’ve never been a big fan of alternative music, but these guys rocked the house!”

Flaming Lips – “She Dont Use Jelly”

Sigh. This is what it’s come to? It’s one thing for Rolling Stone to drop a quote in an interview with Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips dissing Win Butler and The Arcade Fire for being pompous (doesn’t seem that hard to believe, does it?). But for them to run a headline in their “Smoking Section” that blasts, “Exclusive: Wayne Coyne Tears Apart Arcade Fire!” is quite another. Now the music-world is abuzz with the two iconic front men exchanging verbal blows through the media.

We have our own opinions of both (see the headline), but that’s a whole other story, because yesterday Rolling Stone posted a quote from Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips accusing the Arcade Fire of being dicks in real life. In fact, the entire quote looks like this:

I’m a fan of them on one level, but on another level I get really tired of their pompousness. We’ve played some shows with them and they really treat people like shit. Whenever I’ve been around them, I’ve found that they not only treated their crew like shit, they treated the audience like shit. They treated everybody in their vicinity like shit. I thought, ‘Who do they think they are?’ I don’t know why people put up with it. I wouldn’t put up with it. I don’t care if it’s Arcade Fire or Brian Eno. If either of them walked into a room and treated people like shit I’d be like, ‘Fuck you, get outta here.’

People treat Arcade Fire like they’re the greatest thing ever and they get away with it. Those sort of opinions change my view of their music. They have good tunes, but they’re pricks, so fuck ‘em. Who does Arcade Fire think they are? I’ve been around groups. I’ve been around the Edge from U2 and he’s the fucking sweetest guy ever. I was around Justin Timberlake when he was young and he was just a normal, nice, kind person. Anyone can be polite and kind and people who have the privilege and money and attention should understand that. If they don’t, then fuck ‘em.

Again, we can only speculate, but considering we’ve rarely seen the Arcade Fire smile, it doesn’t seem impossible to believe that they are not the most friendly of people. Still, it is rather unbecoming of Coyne to openly bash another band in one of the larger music publications of the world.

But don’t fret effeminate Arcade Fire fans, your leading man is not taking Mr. Coyne’s statements laying down. Today, Win Butler struck back by blogging (gasp!) about the incident on the Arcade Fire website (click on “Win”). If words could hurt, just imagine the pain Wayne would be feeling after getting verbally smacked up like this:

Wow, I can’t believe I am actually writing to defend my bands “real” personality. I wish I could not respond to something like this, but the reality is is that people will be asking me questions about it for the next 5 years. I also fear that people will base their opinion of our band on the media quotes of a guy who doesn’t even know us.

Win

So there you have it. Two grown men who each made about one great record apiece fighting through the media. If Oasis, Blur and hip-hop have taught us anything, this will keep both in the spotlight despite the ratio of good music coming out of either. So we figured, why take the high road? Might as well stoop to each of their levels and just make fun of them both. Congrats Mr. Coyne and Mr. Butler, we’ll be looking forward to the inevitable big festival you guys play together and waiting with bated breath to see if you guys slap it out like real “indie” rockers. Now THAT would be news!