The Flaming Lips know how to cause a scene. Whether its confetti cannons, Yetis, bubble boys, fake blood, or Wayne Coyne coming to life out of a giant psychotropic vagina, Oklahoma’s best acid-punks know a thing or two about theatrics. And so, to mark the release of Embryonic, their twelfth album, the band will play a secret MySpace show at a pop up store in Los Angeles tonight. Oddly enough, the pop up store just happens to be the Nike/Ricardo Montalban Theater in Hollywood. Shhh, don’t tell. While tickets are super limited and only available on a first come, first serve basis, the Lips, crowd pleasers as they are, will stream the show live on the web. The fun started about 30 minutes ago and will go all day long. Bored? TWEET your review of their new record Embryonic, streaming at our new Tweet Release feature here. Or take a virtual trip to the Flaming Lips pop-up show over here.

The skinny:

It’s possible that over the past several weeks you’ve noticed the reviews slow to a trickle around these parts. We had our reasons! Cookies weren’t involved! Okay, maybe they were! All of us at Tripwire HQ are pleased to introduce to you today a new chapter in our “take” on music criticism—by handing over the keys. Starting this week and every Tuesday hereafter, we’ll be posting a full album stream through our friends over at LaLa. What we’d like you to do is lend us your brainwaves and tweet whatever crosses your mind while listening. Maybe there’s a riff you can’t get out of your head. A lyric? A moment? An image? If you’re feeling ambitious, spend your 124 characters reviewing the record as a whole. Just toss those tweets over to us at @thetripwire and by the end of the week, we’ll cobble together and share the beautiful mess of a madlib it creates. Or, if you’re a complete Luddite/TwitterHater, you can just leave a review in the comments section. We’re flexible. You’re the boss now.

This week’s album up for review is The Flaming Lips’ Embryonic, a psychedelic comeback if we’ve ever heard one.

“And for like ten minutes she would just do these fucking amazing animal yelps and screams and growling and all this shit.”

Now it makes sense. Wayne was referring to Karen’s O’s magical mystery vocals in this new Lips song, “I Can Be A Frog” off their upcoming album, Embryonic.

Freshly sharpened pencils, lumpy apple slices and All Tomorrow’s Parties: it must be back-to-school time! Located in upstate New York at a country club with a capacity of only 2,800, this music festival sounds exactly like the liberal arts colleges I would have sacrificed myself at age 17 to attend. But instead of semesters of boredom and years of loans, this is just one big orgiastic weekend, September 11-13, partially curated by free love-enthusiasts The Flaming Lips.

The Sunday lineup, hand-selected and headlined by the Lips, includes Super Furry Animals, Boredoms, Crystal Castles, Deerhoof with Martha Colburn, and best of all, No Age performing Hüsker Dü with Bob Mould. I’m seeing colors right now. Check out the full line-up here.

In related Flaming Lips news, a new digital EP, titled “Songs from The Future Album Embryonic” is available to ATP ticket purchasers for free, and at basement bargain price for the rest of us. The three-song sampler should get you salivating for their first studio full-length in three years, coming out this fall… It’s about damn time.

Chris Martin and co. seem to have mastered the art of the generic pop-rock song when they wrote the title track for their last album Viva La Vida. Why else would the British alt-rockers keep finding themselves under scrutiny from other musicians accusing Coldplay of ripping them off? First it was Joe Satriani, claiming the foursome stole the melody for “Viva la Vida” from his song “If I Could Fly”, but now Cat Stevens has joined in on the drama, claiming the band actually ripped off the melody from his song, “Foreigner Suite”.

Unlike Satriani, Stevens has not said he will take legal action against the group, but the musician told The Sun that he is the real inspiration behind Coldplay’s music. Though this claim might seem a bit more plausible than the Satriani case, (can’t you envision Chris Martin rocking out to Cat Stevens over Joe Satriani any day?) we have to say, it is probably one more instance in pop song writing, where a generic melody takes the shape and sound of some other melody that was already written. It is the risk you run when in pursuit of writing a three-chord hit, too bad Coldplay just found a bit more success than their accusers while doing so.

This is not the first time Stevens has been a victim of song writing copy cats. In 2003, Stevens and The Flaming Lips agreed to split the royalties from the Lips’ song, “Fight Test” after it was said to be too similar to Stevens’ 1970 song, “Father and Son”. Even though Stevens doesn’t seem interested in pushing legal action against Coldplay, let this be a note to Chris Martin while in the studio: Just let Jon Hopkins and Brian Eno write all of your songs.

In a vote by the Oklahoma House of Representatives, The Flaming Lips’ song “Do You Realize??” was turned down as the state’s official rock song, despite winning the online public vote. But in swift action, Oklahoma’s Governor Brad Henry has overruled the House’s verdict, giving the Oklahoma natives the credit they deserve.

According to The Oklahoman, the Oklahoma House voted 48-39 against Senate Joint Resolutions 24, which would have made “Do You Realize??” the state’s official rock song. The band barely missed out, as 51 votes are required to win in the House.

Reports said that some representatives were not fond of the band’s outfit selections and their ‘foul mouthed’ language. According to The Oklahoman, Rep. Corey Holland said he didn’t like when “one of the band members wore a red t-shirt with a yellow sickle and hammer on it when the Flaming Lips came last month to the Capitol,” and he was really offended by it. Another Oklahoma House representative, Mike Reynolds also said that the band’s use of obscene language was offensive when they were in Oklahoma City for a street-naming ceremony, a few years back.
Despite specific House representatives’ reservations, Governor Henry has decided to make an executive order to instate “Do You Realize??” as the state’s official rock song, because the citizens of Oklahoma voted on it, and it should be their choice.

The Governor praised The Flaming Lips for their success over the past couple decades, and said they are a truly iconic rock ‘n’ roll band that are proud ambassadors of their home state. “They were clearly the people’s choice, and I intend to honor that vote,” Governor Henry said in his press release.

There for a blessed moment we had bands that didn’t seem to care about image:  Black Flag, Husker Du, The Descendents, Beat Happening, Nirvana.  Yes, they all had an image but it didn’t seem as contrived as say, Vampire Weekend, The Shins or any number of “indie” bands playing the festival circuit this summer.
 
That is why it was so refreshing when I received a CD from the Wichita, Kansas-based band Black Gasoline.  No, they weren’t extremely original but the influences that ring through on their album, She Gave Us Magic, all mix well to create a 1970s heavy music lover’s equivalent of a giant hash brownie. This is indeed stoner rock. And what is wrong with that?
 
The band’s love of classic rock is entirely in your face.  They create a sound that is as thick as sludge and meddles into a sound that is reminiscent of Van Halen, The Who, and recent champions of the sound, Queens of The Stone Age.  Taking their name from a 1940s barely refined type of homemade fuel, the band (Bryan Seely on vocals, Paul DeCeglie on guitar, Larry Donaldson on keyboards, Kendall Newby on drums and Scott Mackey on bass) seem ready to make their namesake proud; using driving guitars, pounding drums and bowel loosing bass lines as accelerants, they’ll set the Midwest on fire.

I “spoke” with the band via MySpace.
 
When did Black gasoline come together?
 It’s been about four years now.
 
What music has had the biggest impact on you as a group? She Gave Us Magic sounds very rooted in 1970s rock to me…
I think we have stylistically gravitated to the feel of 70s hard rock, but I don’t think you could call that a genre or even say that that would make us any easier to explain if you did. I do think it would be correct in that during the 70s you saw bands like Deep Purple or Black Sabbath make increasingly diverse, ambitious and dynamic albums, so I hope that’s what you mean. But as we’ve continued developing and finding our artistic voice, we’ve moved towards a genre that really didn’t exist, in that most of your 70s era bands only made one or two heavy psych albums, a piece which was usually peppered with a lot of R&B and blues, whereas we’ve been attempting to make a career out of that era’s accidents instead of the easy “heavy metal” outs.

As far as what’s been getting our goat lately, and I hate to answer this for everyone else, but the last few years worth of Swedish hard rock like The Hellacopters, Graveyard, Baby Woodrose, Dungen, and Witchcraft are absolutely awesome. Black Mountain, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, High on Fire, The Flaming Lips, Midlake, and Dead Meadow are some American bands we’ve been into. Not surprisingly, a lot of oldies are in rotation: The Pretty Things, Grand Funk Railroad, Hawkwind, Blue Oyster Cult, Cheap Trick, E.L.O, Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, The Who, Queen, The Byrds, The Beatles. In the Ipod era, it’s almost more difficult to convey the logic of musical influence because after a point, and this is more likely for a musician, it gets almost more scholastic than it should be on the surface, because it is, after all, just pop music.
 
Is She Gave Us Magic your first full-length record?
 Yes it is, but we are more than half-way into a new record that will either make us or break us. I’m always appreciative of any interest in us, but it’s hard not to have more interest in the future than the past. So keep an eye on us; we’re hoping for summer or fall.
 
Is the process of songwriting a group effort or does one member take the reins more often?
I think one of our greatest strengths is our creative process. By the time a riff or a melody is filtered through the band as a whole, the original idea is, in many cases, unrecognizable. Without the collective input of all five of us, it just wouldn’t be the same.
 
Is there much of a rock scene around Wichita?
It ebbs and flows. I don’t want to be unfair to a core group of people that really do work hard to ensure that there’s always some sort of scene, but sometimes it’s music, sometimes it’s more like really loud fashioned. Like most American cities there’s a faction that is birthed from corporate radio and guitar stores which will always be shit, but there’s an underground that has no set sound but has been very interesting, for instance Wichita spawned Manilla Road, Split Lip Rayfield, so wrap your head around that!
 

What do you think of the current trend of bands becoming famous and getting signed to deals strictly from internet buzz?
It’s great if you don’t mind being famous and working a day job.
 
Do you think that it takes away from a band if they don’t have to tour the country and build their own fan base?
They certainly won’t be that cohesive. Making an ambitious record is not that hard in this day and age. Having taste is another matter, but neither will matter if you can’t pull it off live. You might have to play after us, and we won’t make it easy for you.
 
I saw your band play a club in Lawrence, Kansas, a few years ago and your energy was explosive. How do you stoke that fire every night?
Blood, sweat, practice, need for attention, energy drinks… Mostly practice, and all that energy that a good crowd reflects back to you.
 
With “indie rock” being the big thing as of this moment, do you think heavier bands like Black Gasoline suffer?
Do you mean any worse than it already has? Personally I think it’s great for a band like us; it makes us even more different. If we’re back to back with a really trendy indie band, we look like Viking plunderers when the reality is that, compared to modern metal bands, we’re not really that heavy, just louder. With music the way it is now we’re a mystery, and, personally, I think it works in our favor. Styles change, a few years ago it was that rap rock thing. How smart does that Limp Bizkit guy look now?
 
How is the tour in support of Magic going?
We’re still promoting it and selling it, but at this point, we’re really revving up to the next record.
 
What’s been the biggest crowd you’ve play for to date?
Probably The Riverfest in Wichita with fellow local luminaries Split Lip Rayfield. I think that was two or three thousand people.
 
What is your inspiration for songs like say, “Lady Iron Wing” and “The Boy That Destroyed The World”?
 
“Lady Iron Wing” starts off sounding like it’s another “dangerous chick” song, like Motley Crue’s “Looks that Kill or Deep Purple’s “Lady Double Dealer”,etc. but as the song moves along the listener hopefully” discovers that “The Lady” is actually a world war II bomber and as for “boy” your guess is as good as mine.
 
Do you think a band having an “image” is important at all?
That’s an interesting question in that we’re aware that our image is an absolute lack of image, which has its own hipster appeal. It’s interesting in that we are aware BG has this burnout image, but it’s not something that we think about because we would rather shop at thrift stores and have bad ass equipment then waste too much time really dwelling on it. If there’s any method to our image, it’s that so long as nothing dates you, your on the right track.

Danger Mouse and Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse announced almost three years ago that they would be working together on a new collaborative project, but as of yesterday, when a poster for the project was delivered to our offices, it looks like the duo of “Dangerhorse” are engaging a wide spectrum of talent to help out on the new record.

Dark Night of the Soul is set to come out this summer, and though no further information on the album has been offered, the list of special guests — released only via the poster — makes the new project look like it could be one of the most eclectic collaborations we’ve seen in a long while.

Featuring Black Francis, Julian Casablancas, The Flaming Lips, Iggy Pop, David Lynch, and James Mercer, among a bunch of others, Dark Night of the Soul is bound to offer us an immense amount of ear-candy come the summer. And lets face it, who needs supergroups like Chickenfoot when you’ve got the likes of Dangerhorse giving you all of this and more on one awesome album?

Full list of guests on Dark Night of the Soul
Black Francis (Frank Black)

Julian Casablancas (The Strokes)

Vic Chestnutt

The Flaming Lips

David Lynch

Jason Lytle (Grandaddy)
James Mercer (The Shins)

Nina Persson (The Cardigans/A Camp)

Iggy Pop
Gruff Rhys (Super Furry Animals/Neon Neon)
Suzanne Vega

Many musicians try different sounds, vibes and configurations before hitting on one that seems to ring true. Josh Thomas had been through a couple of different bands prior to landing on the post-shoe gaze freak-out that is Kansas City’s High Diving Ponies.

There was Bodisartha, the Nirvana/Mudhoney alterna-grunge band that released two albums. Then came The Spidermums, a band the released a few EPs and got a mention in Pitchfork for their cover of The Amps’ “Bragging Party” that appeared on a compilation with Deerhunter. “Pitchfork is always looking for a reason to write about Deerhunter so I guess that’s how I wound up on there.”

But with High Diving Ponies, Josh says he wants to go in a entirely different direction. That’s one of the reasons his previous band is no more. “Bodisartha was too heavily associated with the Nirvana and the music I was making wasn’t fitting into that mold anymore. I just wanted to do something different.” Hence, High Diving Ponies.

The band pieced together with members of KC bluescore band The Factory Workers (Justin Brooks on drums and Al Amador on bass) along with friends Steve Williams on cello and Kyle Pugh on guitar. Although Thomas said he had the songs written before putting together the band, High Diving Ponies is not a one-man band. “We’ve come up with a lot just fucking around at practice. These guys bring out things I would have never thought of. The next record will be a totally collaborative effort.”

Thomas sights My Bloody Valentine, The Flaming Lips, Vivian Girls, Boo and Boo Too and The Beatles as music favorites that lead to the creation of HDP and a sound he affectionately calls “danger pop.” It is a swirling dream of effects, acoustic/electric guitars and vocals that sound like they were recorded in a room a thousand years wide. Traditional song craft, melody and structure stand hand in hand with anarchy and chaos. The three songs on the band’s MySpace page (“Muppets”, “Meatheads” and “I Smell Like Smoke”) are a step in the right, unsettling direction.

An album is in the works but Josh is taking his time with the release. “Hopefully it will be out this summer,” he said. “We’re almost done recording it but I want to sit on it a month and then go back and listen to it and make sure we still think it sounds right. There’s no rush to release it.” When it is released it will be on Circle View/Chomp Womp. And he will go the old school route: it will be DIY cds with spray painted covers — and if they can get the plates done cheap enough, Josh says he’d like to do vinyl, a limited run of about 300.

Though he considers him part of the “Chomp Womp Family”, a collective made up of Kansas City/ Lawrence, Kansas bands Baby Birds Don’t Drink Milk (previously featured in Notes From Middle America), Rooftop Vigilantes and many others, he stops short at calling himself part of the KC music community. “It’s not really a good scene,” he said. “There are no good radio stations, no good zines but there are some good venues. Maybe it is a good scene. I don’t know, I’m not part of it. I’m doing my own thing.”

If doing his own thing consists of surrounding himself with great musicians making strange, dreamy, at times violent and always thought-provoking music, it’s ok if he’s not part of a conventional scene. He knows what he wants to do, he’s good at it and that’s scene enough.

High Diving Ponies – “Muppets”

Much like Chinese Democracy this film has been the talk of the music world for far too long. With the production starting in 2001 one would suspect that the end product would either be at a caliber of greatness or trash that just too damn long to finish. If both those outcomes were cities with an intestate between them, this production took the first exit off and never got back on.

The quick break down of this film is Eraserhead meets 2001: A Space Odyssey. I would also throw in a bit of home movie; not the cartoon, the stuff your parents shot at your little league games. The production quality is that of the first Clerks movie. The cinema photography is black and white with random scenes of color to entice your senses. If you were hoping for some great songs, then you will be disappointed. The soundtrack is very space-future, but not special. There are some parts where the blasting of noise effects makes you wince at the screen. It plays well with the very depressed mood that is being set through the whole story.

The premise of the story is that it’s Christmas on the Mars colony. The colonists are depressed and slowly going crazy with hallucinations. It goes as heavy handed as to have a large monologue telling how humans weren’t meant for space. The sole oxygen generator on the station breaks and the captain has accepted the fate that everyone will die. However a kind Martian ventures into the base and through his learning of humans ends up fixing the generator.

It wasn’t easy to come to the conclusion that I didn’t like a movie with so many vaginas in it. There are a ton of vaginas. There are incredible amounts of references to birth, mothers, and their vaginas. Vagina. I don’t value myself as a high scholar, but the connection between the re-birth aspect and the whole film was forced. There are only so many times you can have someone put what they want you to understand into a sock and slap you across the face with it before you light their couch on fire.

Now story and action aside, it really is an art-house movie. However its esoteric content doesn’t beat you over the head. The acting is pretty awful, the dialogue is pretty awful, and the story is pretty bland and vague. If any one of these things was good, it wouldn’t be worth watching. But in the way you love a good bad movie, this fits the bill. I watched it once and then had to watch it again at noon the next day to make sure I wasn’t on drugs. This flick will no doubt be in heavy rotation on the TVs at your local bar. It’s also fair to guess that it will be in many DVD collections. What you may not see is people watching it more than twice except to show a friend. It just isn’t that enjoyable to watch. . I can’t say this will be the same for you, but that’s the way it was for me. Vagina.

The Flaming Lips
Warner Brothers Records

After announcing the initial line-up and dates for next year’s All Tommorow’s Parties New York fest just a few weeks ago, the ATP organizers must be overcome with the spirit of giving — they announced today that The Flaming Lips will curate the final day of ATP NY 2009.

As curators, the band will perform and select around 15 bands and artists to play on their hand-crafted day, Sunday, Sept. 13. ATP is sticking to the 2008 format, with Don’t Look Back sets on Friday as well as comedy, an ATP-curated day of bands on Saturday and of course, The Lips’ bands of choice on Sunday. The ATP curators also announced today that Autolux and Black Dice have been added to Saturday’s line-up.

Tickets and rooms at Kutshers (and another nearby hotel) are now on sale. Weekend passes will run you $235 each in addition to a booking fee. Rooms cost $150 per person.

The full details currently available for the weekend are as follows:
Friday (09.11.09) Don’t Look Back and Comedy:
Dirty Three performing Ocean Songs
Suicide performing their first LP
Comedy curated by David Cross