Topic: Polyphonic Spree beat the Flaming Lips at their own game. (Live Show thread #3) (Read 16989 times)

Jackie Blue · « **on:** 31 May 2007, 09:56 »

Yeah, I said it. I'm an huge fan of pre-Soft Bulletin Flaming Lips, but seeing the Spree live a few weeks ago was a religious experience. They played for almost 2 hours. Every single song made you want to just grin like an idiot and throw your hands in the air and sing along. It was like group therapy that actually worked. It made everyone just feel good. Before the show, Tim walked around the whole place shaking hands with everyone and saying "Hello". Instrumentally they've grown to a whole new level - tighter, more focused, more joyous.

And I swear it was not just the mushrooms that made me feel that way.

McTaggart · « **Reply #1 on:** 31 May 2007, 10:02 »

You mean post-Soft Bulletin right? (Post-Zaireeka actually, but whatever).

Kai · « **Reply #2 on:** 31 May 2007, 10:40 »

Dude I liked you better when you disappeared for a long time and I thought you were banned

McTaggart · « **Reply #3 on:** 31 May 2007, 10:43 »

Me or him?

Incidently, it'd be awesome to see the Polyphonic Spree playing the pre-Zaireeka style.

Lukeypoo · « **Reply #4 on:** 31 May 2007, 10:47 »

I saw them at Sasquatch and they had to cut their set short due to intense winds blowing all the lights overhead in a dangerous fashion. I only got 4 songs and need more, I'll check them out when they come to Vancouver soon.

Johnny C · « **Reply #5 on:** 31 May 2007, 11:29 »

I listened to Zaireeka the other night.

What an insane album.

Kai · « **Reply #6 on:** 31 May 2007, 11:41 »

McTaggart, I was referring to the OP. Sorry for confusion!

Zaireeka is so good

Jackie Blue · « **Reply #7 on:** 31 May 2007, 11:47 »

Quote from: McTaggart on 31 May 2007, 10:02

You mean post-Soft Bulletin right? (Post-Zaireeka actually, but whatever).

No, I mean what I said. Every album they did up to and including Zaireeka is pure genius to me; when I bought Soft Bulletin, I was massively disappointed. Yoshimi was slightly better, and Mystics has its moments, but I just don't like the direction they've gone in. For one thing, I think Mercury Rev did the Soft Bulletin sound better (and first).

Nothing post-Zaireeka rocks my world like "Psychiatric Explorations of the Fetus With Needles" or "Talkin' 'Bout the Smiling Deathporn Immortality Blues".

Oh, and Kai, I don't remember pissing in your Cheerios, but whatever.

Johnny C · « **Reply #8 on:** 31 May 2007, 13:26 »

Quote from: Kai on 31 May 2007, 11:41

Zaireeka is so good

Not if one stereo's off by ten seconds and another one's off by an additional two.

Jackie Blue · « **Reply #9 on:** 31 May 2007, 14:03 »

Luckily I have a fan-made mixed-down one-CD version of Zaireeka that allows you to listen to its greatness without syncing up four stereos.

If asked nicely I might upload it.

Joseph · « **Reply #10 on:** 31 May 2007, 15:43 »

Quote from: Lukeypoo on 31 May 2007, 10:47

I saw them at Sasquatch and they had to cut their set short due to intense winds blowing all the lights overhead in a dangerous fashion. I only got 4 songs and need more, I'll check them out when they come to Vancouver soon.

I want to see them when they're here in Vancouver so badly, but I have to be out of town for it. Definitely one of the bands I'd most like to see. Hopefully I'll manage it another time. Anyhow, you have fun at that show!

greenMonkey · « **Reply #11 on:** 31 May 2007, 16:29 »

Quote from: zerodrone on 31 May 2007, 14:03

Luckily I have a fan-made mixed-down one-CD version of Zaireeka that allows you to listen to its greatness without syncing up four stereos.

If asked nicely I might upload it.

Doesn't this completely defeat the point of the album though?

Kai · « **Reply #12 on:** 31 May 2007, 17:20 »

Quote from: Johnny C on 31 May 2007, 13:26

Not if one stereo's off by ten seconds and another one's off by an additional two.

dude that's the point

it's experimental

JEEZ

IronOxide · « **Reply #13 on:** 01 Jun 2007, 03:27 »

To be fair, Zaireeka works just as well out of sync as it does in sync.

That is, it doesn't.

McTaggart · « **Reply #14 on:** 01 Jun 2007, 03:32 »

"Polyphonic Spree beat the Flaming Lips at their own game" kinda implies a similar style of music. Post-Zaireeka is a lot more similar to the Polyphonic Spree than the stuff pre-.

Kai: <3

Jackie Blue · « **Reply #15 on:** 01 Jun 2007, 12:01 »

Quote from: McTaggart on 01 Jun 2007, 03:32

"Polyphonic Spree beat the Flaming Lips at their own game" kinda implies a similar style of music. Post-Zaireeka is a lot more similar to the Polyphonic Spree than the stuff pre-.

Well, right. That's my point. The Polyphonic Spree's current live show is similar to the post-Zaireeka Flaming Lips live show, only better.

I only disclaimed because I wanted to make it clear I'm generally a Flaming Lips fan.

And I don't think the "whole point" of Zaireeka is to play it on 4 stereos. It is also a collection of songs, and aside from "A Machine in India" they are great songs that don't lose anything by hearing them on 1 stereo instead of 4.

Johnny C · « **Reply #16 on:** 01 Jun 2007, 15:02 »

Quote from: Kai on 31 May 2007, 17:20

dude that's the point

It made the last track really great, I tell you.

ScrambledGregs · « **Reply #17 on:** 01 Jun 2007, 17:23 »

I thought that the entire world agreed to stop giving a shit about the Polyphonic Spree 2 years ago so as to head off any kind of cult mass suicide like Jonesboro. C'mon, look at all those people in white robes. We all know where it's gunna end, drinking poison laced Kool-Aid knock off in some shitty South American jungle. Oh and lots of really irritating, mostly vocal music that is so relentlessly uplifting it just has to have Christian under/overtones.

Storm Rider · « **Reply #18 on:** 01 Jun 2007, 18:36 »

Jonestown, not Jonesboro.

I just wrote a paper about that! Small world.

McTaggart · « **Reply #19 on:** 02 Jun 2007, 21:39 »

Quote from: ScrambledGregs on 01 Jun 2007, 17:23

...music that is so relentlessly uplifting it just has to have Christian under/overtones.

Because you can only be happy if you're a christian?

Jackie Blue · « **Reply #20 on:** 02 Jun 2007, 21:53 »

Judging from the crowd I saw them with, their fanbase is high on Ecstasy, not God.

Possibly the band as well.

Johnny C · « **Reply #21 on:** 03 Jun 2007, 00:35 »

Quote from: ScrambledGregs on 01 Jun 2007, 17:23

C'mon, look at all those people in white robes.

Johnny C · « **Reply #22 on:** 03 Jun 2007, 01:26 »

Except much darker uniforms which are more militaristic in nature than medical. Plus Delaughter doesn't wear a nine-foot-tall false tree which represents the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

Kai · « **Reply #23 on:** 03 Jun 2007, 06:03 »

Quote from: Danielson Famile's Wiki page

Daniel Smith has cited his musical influences as including "T-Rex, Rapeman, B.A.L.L., Syd Barrett, Bob Dylan, Bongwater,

does not compute

Misereatur · « **Reply #24 on:** 03 Jun 2007, 06:05 »

Those uniforms remind me of something.

sparl · « **Reply #25 on:** 03 Jun 2007, 06:20 »

Quote

Quote from: Kai on 03 Jun 2007, 06:03

Quote from: Danielson Famile's Wiki page
Daniel Smith has cited his musical influences as including "T-Rex, Rapeman, B.A.L.L., Syd Barrett, Bob Dylan, Bongwater,

does not compute

Steve Albini produced this band and is a fan. He is even in their movie Danielson: a Family Movie.
Danielson is way cooler than the polyphonic spree

McTaggart · « **Reply #26 on:** 03 Jun 2007, 06:29 »

Steve Albini's not god you know?

Misereatur · « **Reply #27 on:** 03 Jun 2007, 06:43 »

Dude, Tommy can hear you.

What? Sure, of course Shellac are the best band ever!

Kai · « **Reply #28 on:** 03 Jun 2007, 07:24 »

Quote from: McTaggart on 03 Jun 2007, 06:29

Steve Albini's not god you know?

YOU'VE BEEN READING MY BLOG

Johnny C · « **Reply #29 on:** 03 Jun 2007, 11:13 »

oh come on guys why are we turning this into a contest

sparl · « **Reply #30 on:** 03 Jun 2007, 12:04 »

I am afraid I can only have one creepy religious cult indie pop band in my life.

Jackie Blue · « **Reply #31 on:** 04 Jun 2007, 11:36 »

The Power of Pussy is a great album, but the existance of The Big Sell-Out pretty much negates any chance that I would ever claim Bongwater as one of my favorite bands.

Although the existance of this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7mleSvxWqc

pretty much proves just how weird things can get, in a totally awesome way.

ScrambledGregs · « **Reply #32 on:** 04 Jun 2007, 15:31 »

The Solyphonic Ppree were a flavor of the year and we should all just stop discussing them. Much like Bimp Lizkit, saying their name gives them power, so don't say it!! If you have to say their names, change them like I did.

IronOxide · « **Reply #33 on:** 04 Jun 2007, 16:23 »

How does a band fall into "Flavor of the Year" territory if after their one mainstream hit they have only made better music while evolving and putting on great shows?

McTaggart · « **Reply #34 on:** 05 Jun 2007, 08:44 »

Hold up, he sings from a tree?

Shit damn that's awesome.

Johnny C · « **Reply #35 on:** 05 Jun 2007, 09:39 »

Quote

Fuck the "it's okay to be an asshole if you're being an asshole as a comment on assholism and asshole-permissive cultures" assholes.

Wasn't that Big Black's whole deal?

ScrambledGregs · « **Reply #36 on:** 05 Jun 2007, 10:06 »

Quote from: tommydski on 05 Jun 2007, 04:01

We asked Glorious Leader his thoughts on Danielson vs. The Polyphonic Spree -

Quote from: Steve Albini
When confronted with a complicated artist, it is easier to dismiss the artist as the sum of his eccentricities than to try to grasp the whole of him:

Pollock, Drunken paint-dripping guy.
Van Gogh, dude cut his ear off for a prostitute.
Hemmingway, He-man suicidal braggart.
Tiny Tim, Ukulele sissy-boy.
Daniel Smith, Falsetto Christian sing-in-a-tree hospital-scrub guy.
Frogs, Blackface sailor-suit death-obsessed pretend fairies.

This is especially easy if one doesn't like the primary art. It is super-extra-double especially easy for those of us who lived through the 1980s and were exposed to a tortuous string of sham artists whose eccentricities were truly all they had to offer:

Mark Kostabi, fake-art by committee guy
Julian Schnabel, broken crockery guy
Keith Haring, radiating graffiti outline guy
Jeff Koons, gay pretend-not-gay marrying Cicciolina kitsch irony guy
Thor, hot-water-bottle-inflator-to-bursting metal dude
Culture Club, dont make me describe them it hurts
Madonna, Retarded cheesecake-as-business with dance music

Must I go on?

Under these conditions, it is possible to erroneously dismiss a great artist as a fraud (I used to consider Jean Michel Basquiat a fraud, until I saw a number of his paintings removed by time from the hype and bullshit around them) when it is the eccentricities and the brouhaha that one truly hates. I don't think a similar unveiling is likely in the case of Thor or the other '80s offenders mentioned above, but I have been wrong before.

So, I find myself often coming to the defense of the Danielson Famile, and Daniel himself. Yes, he sings from a tree. Yes, it is occasionally childish. Yes, those are all his family. Yes, he's a Christian. Yes, that's a glockenspiel. Still-- I believe he is genuinely expressing a complex train of thoughts which he is brave enough not to question, and he is doing it in the only way that seems true to the thoughts themselves.

I think he is genuine, and nobody can ask for more from an artist.

In contrast, the Polyphonic Spree use many of the same ingredients and leave me utterly cold. They seem like they are faking it one-hundred percent. They are like that Coke commercial where they wanted to give the world a Coke and keep it company. And even as a child, I knew that coke commercial was phony, and they didn't really want to give me a coke. They wanted me to buy my own coke, while thinking about them all holding hands.

Fuck the coke-singers. Fuck the phonies of all stripes. Fuck the pirate-suited '80s revivalists. Fuck the fucking rock/funk party schtick. Fuck the "it's okay to be an asshole if you're being an asshole as a comment on assholism and asshole-permissive cultures" assholes.

Okay, I went off on a tangent there. But you get the idea. Danielson: Not phony, just weird, and weird because it's a complex and unique world view trying to express itself through art.

Oh man, did the 1980s suck hog cock. It was a nightmare.

Steve Albini for President. Of Earth.

Jackie Blue · « **Reply #37 on:** 05 Jun 2007, 16:12 »

In print, Steve Albini is a complete douchelord. This is the man who called Surfer Rosa "a pinched-off loaf from a mediocre college band" and had his production credits removed from later pressings of the album.

In person, he's a douchelord to the power of ten.

He often rants against the very thing that he is.

Camper Van Beethoven once coyly referred to Big Black in general and him in particular in some fake liner notes that went "This song was originally called "Why don't you write songs exclusively about sex and death, as if you're making some kind of unique commentary on the two, probably because your parents didn't let you watch enough TV growing up, and then go on to write about your own band under an assumed name.""

I will grudgingly admit that Rapeman was not a bad band. He's still a fucking assmaster.

And so is every other retardedly post-ironic cynical idiot who goes on about the Polyphonic Spree being "fake". I've met them twice now, I've seen them live, they are 100% genuine and they love what they do, and their fans love it too. What's the fucking point of hating a band like them?

As Henry Rollins said, "If you hate someone, you're giving them too much of yourself. If you hate something, just ignore it. Just walk away. It's like if someone tries to hand you a pile of horse shit. You don't have to take it."

Johnny C · « **Reply #38 on:** 05 Jun 2007, 17:28 »

Joseph · « **Reply #39 on:** 05 Jun 2007, 19:22 »

I love Danielson, far more than the Polyphonic Spree. This does not prevent me from liking the Polyphonic Spree though. Their arrangements, their music, it has a powerful ability to uplift, and there are times when I need exactly that. It may not always seem to be deep, it may not always seem to be heartfelt, but you know what? They still have some damn good tunes, and the consistency amongst their albums is excellent. The whole massive choir idea is decently original, and I like what they've done with it. Who cares if they have this cult-ish shtick? Better than being Marilyn Manson and cutting yourself up in front of thousands of fans.

Johnny C · « **Reply #40 on:** 05 Jun 2007, 19:33 »

Quote from: Dark Flame on 05 Jun 2007, 19:22

Better than being Marilyn Manson and cutting yourself up in front of thousands of fans.

Joseph · « **Reply #41 on:** 05 Jun 2007, 19:43 »

Yeah, but Iggy Pop made up for it by making Raw Power. I could forgive anything because of that album. Fuck, I'll even forgive The Wierdness.

Johnny C · « **Reply #42 on:** 05 Jun 2007, 22:49 »

Let's not get too crazy.

Jackie Blue · « **Reply #43 on:** 06 Jun 2007, 12:16 »

Well, when I met Steve Albini he was not even remotely humble or nice. He was a conversation-dominating asshole.

I will, however, admit that he may have acted like that solely because Conor Oberst was in the room.

ScrambledGregs · « **Reply #44 on:** 06 Jun 2007, 14:41 »

Steve Albini needs to write a book, and you all bettah recognize.

KharBevNor · « **Reply #45 on:** 07 Jun 2007, 09:30 »

Steve Albini? MOER LIEK STEVE ALWEENIE, AMIRITE?

Misereatur · « **Reply #46 on:** 07 Jun 2007, 10:25 »

Your'e just pissed that I beat you to posting Laibach pictures aren't you?

KharBevNor · « **Reply #47 on:** 07 Jun 2007, 11:11 »

Laibach? MOER LIEK PIEBACH, AMIRITE?

...wait

Scytale · « **Reply #48 on:** 07 Jun 2007, 11:30 »

Odd a google image search of Piebach brings up a photo of Madeline Albright...

ScrambledGregs · « **Reply #49 on:** 07 Jun 2007, 18:17 »

Did somebody say pie?!

THESE FORUMS NOW CLOSED (read only)

Author Topic: Polyphonic Spree beat the Flaming Lips at their own game. (Live Show thread #3) (Read 16989 times)

Lukeypoo

ScrambledGregs

ScrambledGregs

ScrambledGregs

ScrambledGregs

Scytale

ScrambledGregs