{"id":1478,"date":"2017-01-13T14:14:12","date_gmt":"2017-01-13T19:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/?p=1478"},"modified":"2017-01-13T14:15:12","modified_gmt":"2017-01-13T19:15:12","slug":"1478","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/2017\/01\/13\/1478\/","title":{"rendered":"New Release Round-up: The Flaming Lips, The Molochs, and The Wood Brothers and comedy from Kelly MacFarland and Lachlan Patterson"},"content":{"rendered":"

MUSIC <\/strong><\/p>\n

1. The Flaming Lips<\/a> \u2013 Oczy Mlody<\/em><\/strong>
\nThe way Wayne Coyne described the idea behind \u201cOczy Mlody,\u201d it sounds like the concept for the Kids In the Hall<\/a> classic Brain Candy<\/em><\/a>. It\u2019s a drug, he says, at least in a metaphorical sense. \u201cThe drug uses you own sub-conscious memories and transports you to your perfect childhood happy mind,\u201d he writes in the press notes for the album. It\u2019s part of the Flaming Lips ongoing day-glo circus, part Syd Barrett<\/a> of Pink Floyd<\/a> and part psychedelic rapper A$AP Rocky<\/a> \u2013 two sounds he says could only come together in the Flaming Lips framework. You could see this in the video for \u201cHow??\u201d they released in November<\/a>, which was an explosion of color and oddity. The song has a trancing groove with a deep bass and drum track that sounds like it\u2019s reverberating from the bottom of a concrete pool. The pulse is slow but there are synths throbbing and high-hats clicking, trying to push the beat forward. And that fits with the lyrics. There\u2019s a sense of desperation, of pushing for something that\u2019s clear in the mind and indescribable, a vision of everyone reaching their most beautiful potential at once and leaving behind pre-conceived notions. And not everyone will make it. \u201cI tried to tell you, but I don\u2019t know how,\u201d sings Coyne. <\/p>\n

And that\u2019s just the establishing shot. That\u2019s the place Coyne wants to take us. He\u2019s more than happy to show us around. It\u2019s a place where, as the title of the song suggests, \u201cThere Should Be Unicorns,\u201d where there are Amazonian strippers partying with police and where you can eat the butterflies with ketchup. Then Reggie Watts shows up sounding like James Earl Jones describing an acid-drenched utopia, and it makes perfect sense. There is both beauty and menace in this world the Lips created. Not all of it is abstract, either. Coyne based the lyric \u201chave you ever seen someone die in the summertime\u201d from \u201cListening to the Frogs with Demon Eyes\u201d on a real-life experience driving past a house with police cars and ambulances out front. But he doesn\u2019t chronicle that experience, he rolls it up with other strange bits \u2013 like a photo of his dog in which the flash turned its eyes red \u2013 into a stream-of-consciousness, seven-and-a-half-minute lava lamp of a song. That what\u2019s this album, and to a larger extent, Coyne and the Lips, are all about \u2013 the sparks from tossing disparate ideas, aural or lyrical, together and letting them create something larger and more mysterious than the individual pieces. It\u2019s the twangy guitar paired with a sweeping string section on \u201cThe Galaxy I Sink.\u201d It\u2019s a song called \u201cOne Night While Hunting for Fairies and Witches and Wizards to Kill\u201d that starts out with a guy grabbing his gun and looking to shoot out the brains of a mythical being, then reveals a message of healing and forgiveness before becoming a (potential) love song in the last line. And it should probably go without saying, but this is a fantastic headphones album. Break out yer cans and take the iPod someplace peaceful for an hour. <\/p>\n

\u201cHow??\u201d
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