The Flaming Lips: Zaireeka

[LiceKrispy]

Hey hey hey, before you tell me it's not a new recoring, let me say that it's still less than a year new to me, and probably not even born to many people here... but it's timeless anyway, so let's all poop on chickens.

It's hard to write a review of this album without disservicing it, but there are 4 main points that I can think of to make. 1.) The music itself is debatably their best, even if classics like Yoshimi are very emotional and deep and enthralling. "Thirty-Five Thousand Feet of Despair" and "How Will We Know? (Futuristic Crashendos)" are two of the most dramatically emotional songs I've heard, and it seems like they've created the IDEAL bass and drum grooves on the first 2 tracks. There are also moments that just GRIP your interest (if you're me that is) into an almost obsessive need to hear them again. 2.) At first glance, it would seem that there are 15 different ways to listen to the album without hearing it the same way, but because of the facts that no two CD players play at the same exact speed due to discrepencies in quality between the players, temperature in the room, and the fact that you cannot ever guarantee that you will start the CD's at the same exact millisecond-intervals that you did last time making them drift apart at different intervals.....think about it...you will never hear this album the same exact way twice. 3.) There are frequencies on one of the songs that are not normally put on commercial recording, and have caused some people to become disoriented; supposedly they made one listener start crying and laughing hysterically for a half an hour. I am also suspicious that they put something in the last track that subconsiously makes you feel happy or want to laugh, because if you think about it, the story is funny, but you're (or at least me and others I know) are always laughing more than would make sence. 4.) The whole package is so complex that if you listen to all 4 together, go back and disect the individual CD's, then listen to all 4 again or start playing with different combinations, it reveals itself to be one of the most complex works of art ever created. Not that it couldn't be outdone, but I think where we're at now, it would take this very band to accomplish that. With Zaireeka, The Flaming Lips have done what was previously assumed impossible and made a recording as unpredictable as a live performance, and in the process a major milestone in the evolution of music.

[Emperor Wog]

I loved this album, when I was in college we set up all four of our stereos in the living room and blasted the entire album. I must say that it was quite the enjoyable listening "experience."

Although, we're convinced that the high frequencies had something to do with us all getting aggitated. One of us threw an empty beer bottle at another one of us.

I think it has something to do with the government.

[joaRkim]

also check out the thread in randomville - flaming lips drinks - something like that link below


http://msg.woxy.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5860

[failurefirst]

wog,
good times, let them roll. it was the infamous sixth track. s. got all weird and mean. i tried to get m. and t. in clifton to do it again because we had enough cd players between the three of us, but things were crazy enough that summer. i also had to return the four cds to my brother-in-law, whom i borrowed it from for a few years. he tried it while he was in oxford, too, and his roommate got delirious -- maybe from all the players changing times.

man, i miss hanging out with you guys. crosley and/or clabberg needs to come to the big city. gigs aplenty, and i've got a few square feet to spare. b. can sleep in a chair again. t. told me that story about b. sleeping in beard's chair when his parents showed up in miami. i wish i was there to have seen that.

ok, for those interested in the whole zaireeka thing:
the idea started when the f.l. dood got tons of his great plains friends who played in the local symphony. turns out he wrote an entire score, and had each instrument and musician recorded separately -- one musician/instrument to a cassette tape. then he rounded up a whole gang of cars to fill a parking garage. as the legend goes, with bull-horn in hand, mr. coyne directed each car to insert their pre-arranged cassette tape. the result was a mass of symphonic co-incidents half-way arranged into a musical parking garage with car stereoes acting as the actual instrument.

ok, onto the album. well, they tried it in true flaming lips form. there are four cds that are to be played in a directed manner. you are (and possibly three friends and some nice cold amberbock) the flaming lips director, using multiple cd-players as instruments and vocals.

the result is mixed. truly. every cd player (unknown to me at the time) operates faster or slower than other brands -- just by a hair. that creates a bumbling flaming lips remix that sometimes synchs up, but sometimes doesn't. they know this going into it, and it's in the directions. yup, there's directions for this whole thing. you also need 4 separate cd players. you also need to remove small children and elderly persons away from the music. you can also ruin your cd speakers. you shouln't listen to certain tracks while operating a vehicle. there are warnings in the package that you will be exposed to certain low and high frequencies that can cause unknown things.

that being said, it's well worth it.

t.

[ksensa]

Originally posted by failurefirst
i also had to return the four cds to my brother-in-law, whom i borrowed it from for a few years. he tried it while he was in oxford, too, and his roommate got delirious -- maybe from all the players changing times.


wow i was there! i think we played balderdash that night too!

[failurefirst]

that's so cool, ksena. it is a small world, afterall. hope things are going well for ya. i don't know if you know, but b. and k. have a l'il new addition to their family. and they certainly still love some board games. for some reason, my fam has always been a board game family. hope you found elliott smith tickets for LA.

anyone up for some balderdash?

t.

[Emperor Wog]

failurefirst,

Because of Zaireeka, everytime somebody says the words "ecobordian groster" I freak out and punch my mom in the face.

[joaRkim]

failurefirst,

Because of Zaireeka, everytime somebody says the words "ecobordian groster" I freak out and punch my mom in the face.

Man this album listen experience really gets to people. I just fell asleep. anyway does anyone know if there is a copy of Zaireeka that is mixed onto one cd for easy listening.

Not that I wouldn't love to do the whole riggamarole to hear it on 4 cd players and all but well it isn't really very accessible

J

[LiceKrispy]

You can find mp3's of mixdowns on some of those p2p sites, but it's not the same 'cause there's a bunch of noise cancellation and that much information was really not made for one CD. In other words, they didn't just make a normal recording and split up the parts, they literally filled up each disc with a standard amount of tracks (not saying it's too much information for one CD per se, but just that I guess one stereo cannot produce all that sound ?) But whatever the reason is, those mixdowns sound ok for a while until it gets more layered and then it sounds like crap. If you're worried about accessability, it actually still sounds pretty cool to just have 2 CD's going.

[joaRkim]

i guess i just gotta get off my lazy arse and get together the 3 or maybe 4 cd players in the house and do it.

[jeffvankirk]

I had to dig pretty deep to resurrect this thread.

I just heard Zaireeka for the first time in it's full octophonic glory. I must say, what a ride.

I was familiar with The 'Lips from their last two studio efforts, so the sonic content did not shock me, but I must say the delivery was mesmerizing.

I don't know song names, but I must say "track 8" pretty much pushed me to the limits to what I thought a song could do.

[coreyhemp]

Originally posted by failurefirst

ok, for those interested in the whole zaireeka thing:
the idea started when the f.l. dood got tons of his great plains friends who played in the local symphony. turns out he wrote an entire score, and had each instrument and musician recorded separately -- one musician/instrument to a cassette tape. then he rounded up a whole gang of cars to fill a parking garage. as the legend goes, with bull-horn in hand, mr. coyne directed each car to insert their pre-arranged cassette tape. the result was a mass of symphonic co-incidents half-way arranged into a musical parking garage with car stereoes acting as the actual instrument.




That's pretty damn cool!

[monk]

I've had a copy for a few years, but haven't ever had 4 players in one place. I've got three (if the computer's one), but refuse to use the cd clock radio as four. So I've only heard parts, and while in chicago earlier this month listened to a mixdown.

I need to work on this. I've put it off for too long. Any interest in a listening party?

[beki]

i'm up for it. in west chester for another month. i'm sure i could get a lot of interested people, too.

[monk]

Well. It looks like this is on. If you're interested, pm me. I'll have to figure out a time, and then I'll let you know when/where. Like I said, I'll need one (or ideally 2) more stereos.

[monk]

*bump*

seriously - if anyone's interested, it looks like beki and I are setting this up. So if you're interested, let us know. It's your chance to be zaireeka'd

[beki]

well i don't know about giant public invitations seeing how nothing's been confirmed and none of us owns a house and i'm really afraid of strangers and my friends and i don't own any property so inviting strangers to property that isn't ours isn't so hot. also um yeah i'm balking at all this. maybe you should leave it to monk to pick a place? i'm freaking out here. a lot. the end.