The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends (2012)

Just a few days before 2012's RSD (21/4/2012), it looks as though The Flaming Lips' next magnum opus might not even make the shops in time.

Online chat hit fever pitch as most RSD releases are limited - Eager fans and ebay scalpers were all scurrying to secure a copy or more.



Not to be outdone by Jack White's blue liquid-filled single, Wayne has actually drawn blood from his collaborators and the band to make just 10 super rare blood-filled copies of the album.  Proceeds from sales (A measely $2,500 each) go to local charities The Oklahoma Humane Society and The Academy of Contemporary Music at the University of Central Oklahoma.

The cover art is parody on John Lennon and Yoko Ono's Unfinished Music, Vol. 1: Two Virgins (1968) album.

Complete tracklist:

1. "2012 (You Must Be Upgraded)" (featuring Ke$ha, Biz Markie and Hour of the Time Majesty 12) – 4:09
2. "Ashes in the Air" (featuring Bon Iver) – 6:13
3. "Helping the Retarded to Find God" (featuring Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros) – 7:03
5. "Supermoon Made Me Want to Pee" (featuring Prefuse 73) – 3:17
6. "Children of the Moon" (featuring Tame Impala) – 5:32
7. "That Ain't My Trip" (featuring Jim James) – 3:47
8. "You, Man? Human???" (featuring Nick Cave) – 3:34
10. "I'm Working at NASA on Acid" (featuring Lightning Bolt) – 7:59
11. "Do It!" (featuring Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band) – 3:28
12. "Is David Bowie Dying?" (featuring Neon Indian) – 6:36
14. "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" (featuring Erykah Badu) (written by Ewan MacColl) – 10:04
15. "Girl, You're So Weird" (featuring New Fumes) – 3:21
16. "I Don't Want You to Die" (featuring Chris Martin) – 4:13*

*"Tasered and Maced" (featuring Aaron Behrens of Ghostland Observatory) – 2:43 replaces the vinyl track 16 for the CD/digital release owing to Chris Martins' contractural obligations to EMI.

Ashes in the Air Lyrics

The Videos

(NSFW x 3 - Nudity Alert)

The below NSFW video Featuring Erykah Badu caused an internet frenzy and had fans divided between the 2 camps:

...and had the band redo the video with an altogether willing Amanda Palmer:

2011 Best Of (Roundup)

It's been a busy, busy year with it's fair share of ups and downs; but we're not here to talk about that... 
May this year saw the birth of this blog and by Sep/Oct, I'd encountered a writer's blog of sorts - What to include/exclude; self-doubt in the form of not being a fully-fledged journo; and taking it all way way too seriously!

(Deep Breath... here we go!)

MUSIC

1.  Destroyer - Kaputt
2.  Elbow - Build a Rocket Boys!
3.  Bon Iver - Bon Iver, Bon Iver
4.  My Morning Jacket - Circuital
5.  White Denim - D
6.  Tom Waits - Bad as Me
7.  Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
8.  Radiohead - The King of Limbs
9.  Portugal. The Man - In the Mountain in the Cloud
10.  Ryan Adams - Ashes & Fire
11.  PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
12.  Wilco - The Whole Love
13.  Iron & Wine - Kiss Each Other Clean
14.  Bright Eyes - The People's Key
15.  Beirut - The Rip Tide
16.  Middle Brother - Middle Brother
17.  Atlas Sound - Parallax
18.  Feist - Metals
19.  Nicolas Jaar - Space Is Only Noise
20.  The Antlers - Burst Apart
21.  Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost
22.  Active Child - You Are All I See
23.  Bill Callahan - Apocalypse
24.  tUnE-yArDs - WHOKILL
25.  Black Lips - Arabia Mountain
26.  I'm from Barcelona - Forever Today
27.  Grace Jones - Hurricane / Dub
28.  The Horrors - Skying
29.  St. Vincent - Strange Mercy
30.  The Field - Looping State of Mind
31.  TV on the Radio - Nine Types of Light
32.  Gotye - Making Mirrors
33.  Stephin Merritt - Obscurities
34.  Yuck - Yuck
35.  Cass McCombs - Humor Risk
35.  Explosions in the Sky - Take Care, Take Care, Take Care
36.  Mogwai - Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will
37.  Panda Bear - Tom Boy
38.  Gang Gang Dance - Eye Contact
39.  Lykke Li - Wounded Rhymes
40.  Gruff Rhys - Hotel Shampoo
41.  The Dears - Degeneration Street
42.  Okkervil River - I Am Very Far
43.  The Black Keys - El Camino
44.  R.E.M. - Collapse into Now
45.  Battles - Gloss Drop
46.  Kate Bush - 50 Words for Snow
47.  Modeselektor - Monkeytown
48.  Bonnie Prince Billy - Wolfroy Goes to Town
49.  The Wooden Birds - Two Matchsticks
50.  Woods - Sun and Shade

Special Mention:
Although The Flaming Lips hasn't offiicially released any LP this year, they have released many pricey and elaborately packaged EPs and a 6hr song followed by another that's 24 hours.  Details here (Updated).

Concerts Attended (Unreviewed) and Missed Concerts:
Attended both Okkervil River (A generally good night with later songs excelling) and Bright Eyes (A real dynamo onstage; with quieter performances commanding the audience' attention especially on Lua) and missed out on Explosions in the Sky's concert in Dec.

Ommissions:
So, no Drake (Rap's not my thang), James Blake (Just not gettig the hype), Adele (She's everywhere!), Lady Gaga (Not me), The Kills (The slow numbers are dreadful) or Susan Boyle.


MOVIE

Drive - Can't say enough about this movie!
Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, it's a film noir drama bound to be a cult classic.
Genre defying, it has heart pounding action (Although not the bulk of the film as most would be led to believe); romance (Not your chick flick sort); humour (Not the LOL sort); bizzaro Lynchian moments; heavy character study; gritty violence and gore!!

More here.


TV

Just got onto "Sons of Anarchy" (Seasons 1 & 2 was only released in Australia this year), hence the frantic catching-up.  I find the series highly addictive as it has just the right blend of action/
tension/drama/comedy.  Great story line, well-scripted and acted, and the pace kept just right.
The lead character perfectly played by Charlie Hunnam, is part of a bikie gang.  He is conflicted between his deceased father's original vision for the club and it's law-breaking present.  To further complicate matters, he has just become a father himself and finds himself torn between duties.
All the characters are thankfully three dimensional, which is a nice departure from your usual 2D
TV personas.

Breaking Bad continues to confound, intrigue & entertain!

Looking forward to another year of top notch entertainment!

Wishing all my readers a great and safe holiday season,
Alex

Album Review: Bon Iver, Bon Iver

Justin Vernon has been a busy, busy man.

Ever since For Emma, Forever Ago caught the public's affection and adulation in 2008 and achieved perfect scores 5/5 in both Uncut and Mojo mags, the frontman of Bon Iver (French pronunciation: [bɔn‿ivɛːʁ] meaning "good winter") has been involved in a myriad of cameos and production duties, working with the likes of Kanye West, Jay-Z, Aaron Dessner of The National, Volcano Choir, Gayngs, St. Vincent, Anaïs Mitchell and progressively confounding everyone along the way.

For Emma... was the birthchild of a self-imposed exile to his father's remote cabin in Northwestern Wisconsin while being bedridden with illness.
The album evolved from isolation and is essentially a solo effort of wafer-thin fragile love songs.

Everyone then pigeonholed him to be an indie folk singer.

Cover art by artist Gregory Euclide

Released on June 20, 2011, peaking at #2 and #4 in the US and UK respectively, it's comforting the band has achieved their due recognition instead of remaining indie also-rans.

Their second self-titled album, Bon Iver, has instead burst out and engaged the world with a rich pallette of hues and tones, and in Justin's own words "It's more colourful and inviting".

Sung mostly in an impossible helium register, Justin's vocals has a strangely melancholic and affecting quality-
At once earthy and otherworldly.
The songs (all named after places) rarely break a sweat, but possess a beauty overflowing from every intricate note.  A melange of instruments were deployed, with bass saxophonist Colin Stetson and pedal-steel guitarist Greg Leisz brought in to flesh out the sound.  The synth drum ambience on Beth / Rest recalls In the Air Tonight by Phil Collins.  There's richly detailed atmospherics befitting a Brian Eno production; some kept so low in the mix, it literally seeps into your subconscious.

This is definitely an album best experienced on a good set of cans (headphones) or on a really good hifi system.

Try following the lyrics and "wtf??" comes to mind, not just because of the difficult scribble on the the accompanying CD booklet, or the much improved version here; but because the obtuse words are chosen rather more for their phoenetic than their literal significance.


A thing of beauty.  9.2/10


Lead single, the haunting Calgary (Clip directed by Andre Durand and Dan Huiting):

Follow-up single, Holocene:

Bonus Track, a medley of Bonnie Raitt's I Can’t Make You Love Me / Nick of Time (Written by Mike Reid and Allen Shamblin / Bonnie Raitt):