Sunday Telegram
August 15, 1999
Tassels On The Rock Fringe Fly In The Face Of Fashion
by Scott McClennan
"It's like a Motown revue without the Motown," mused Robyn Hitchcock on the high-minded music package crafted by The Flaming Lips and currently passing through clubs and theaters around the country.
Called "The First International Music Against Brain Degeneration Revue", the tour brings together The Flaming Lips, Hitchcock, Sebadoh, Cornelius and Iqu. It's like indie-Rock's last stand, even if most of these bands aren't on independent record labels any more.
But there's no denying that these acts are fringe-dwellers, envelope-pushers and downright peddlers of fractured thoughts; all of them flying in the face of Grunge's hangover and the Testosterone Rock that's the toast of the town these days.
Yet this revue is working well at both the artistic and commercial levels.
Too Weird...
"The shows have been kicking," said Flaming Lip Steve Drozd who is playing keyboards and some guitar rather than drums on this tour. "If we had done the same revue five years ago I think it would have been perceived as too weird or too wimpy."
But these bands have found pride in softening some of the spots that make up the modern Rock landscape. And a chunk of the Rock audience seems to be glad to hit some strings and crooning after the blitzkrieg of Korn, Limp Bizkit, et al..
The Flaming Lips new album is The Soft Bulletin, a sweeping, cinematic CD that aims more to be provocative than to outright Rock your world.
And why not? The Flaming Lips have already proven that they can kick out the jams live, having done plenty of incendiary guitar-driven concerts. And the band has showed it could crank out Alt-Rock fodder with the hit "She Don't Use Jelly". And as for getting out there, the band's last release was a series of four CDs meant to be played simultaneously to create the full work.
"We don't want to get stale," Drozd said. "We're not The Flaming Lips of the late-'80s. We're always looking for progress and try to keep doing different things."
The Soft Bulletin is a daunting album to pull off live, so The Flaming Lips decided to offer it up in a show that presents lots of short bursts of other tough-to-peg artists.
To further add to the experience, Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne devised a bunch of video ""commercials" to air between sets and the whole concert is being broadcast over a low-frequency FM radio signal concertgoers can pick up on a set of headphones available at the show on a loaner basis.
Japanese Sensation
Iqu opens the night with a half-hour's worth of sonic boom noise structures. Cornelius, a Japanese Pop sensation whose real name is Keigo Oyamada, follows Iqu.
Hitchcock will turn in a short solo set before Sebadoh does its indie-Rock defining thing. Sebadoh, led by former Bay State music hero Lou Barlowe, is on the road supporting The Sebadoh.
The Flaming Lips, though top-billed, do not want to be seen as the stars of this event, Drozd said.
The band is using pre-recorded tracks to capture all the elements of The Soft Bulletin. Drozd spends half his time behind a keyboard and Mellotron rig, the other half with an electric guitar strapped on. Michael Ivins is playing bass and Coyne, whose singing is better than ever, intersperses puppet play and gong bashing with vocalizing.
"We're trying to present the songs in an appropriate manner," Drozd said. "This record is more dramatic, has more quiet moments, some sad moments and some intentional hokum. There's a lot of range of emotion here."
Hitchcock is on this tour serving up an appetizer to his headlining fall tour of The United States. That is good news considering that his new album, Jewels For Sophia, is another brilliant batch of songs which, combined with the rest of his repertoire, provides way more material than a short set could possibly accommodate.
"I'm like the sorbet on this tour, scouring the musical palate," Hitchcock said.
But be forewarned this is tart sorbet, as Hitchcock on Jewels For Sophia sings about angry Mexican gods, an overabundance of cheese, the dark side of Seattle and for those that stick around to find the disc's hidden track, a Folk spiel on Gene Hackman.
The new CD was recorded in three stages. In London, Hitchcock worked with his former Soft Boys bandmate guitarist Kim Rew for the first time in 17 years. In Seattle, Hitchcock teamed with the Young Fresh Fellows and R.E.M.'s Peter Buck. And in Los Angeles, the British singer-songwriter joined forces with Grant-Lee Phillips and Jon Brion.
Brion has earned renown from musicians for his Sunday night jam sessions at the Cafe Largo, which is where Hitchcock unfurled his piece on Hackman for Jewels For Sophia.
The success of Cafe Largo is igniting talks to actually have the show taped for use on VH-1, which gives Hitchcock mixed feelings.
"There's always a problem re-creating things like that," Hitchcock said, admitting to his own case of nerves on the performances captured on the film Storefront Hitchcock.
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