Scrobble Scribble #7: Race for the Prize by The Flaming Lips

Pushing through the proverbial mush that is my capped internet, I march on in this blogosphere to bring you the 7th entry in Scrobble Scribbler - Race for the Prize by The Flaming Lips.

The Flaming Lips are a fun little band apparently. Whenever I hear about/see their gigs their is always some confetti, balloons, costumes and a giant bubble involved. I'm so shocked that I haven't had a chance to go yet, but the next time they come I will definitely not skip on that chance. Neither should you, because it would be quite the experience.

I have around 5? Or a bit more than 5 I'm not sure [Actually 10 upon further inspection, including DVDs and EPs]. The earliest album I have of theirs is "Hit to Death in the Future Head" which I haven't actually listened to that much so I can't tell you what I think about it. I'd really like to listen to Zarieeka one day.

How can I describe The Flaming Lips? Well, it's sort of like psychedelic/indie/space rock. Out of all rock bands, I'd have to say that The Flaming Lips is my favorite and actually pushed me to get into rock post my Hip Hop stage. As for similiar artists - I'd say MGMT though they're more dancey they have that psychedelia about them.

So Race for the Prize is off their stylistic breakthrough of an album, "The Soft Bulletin" which, if you asked, would probably be named their best album evar by critics. I wouldn't call it my favourite album of theirs because I would only listen to a few songs of off this. If I had to pick a favourite I'd probably choose their album after this one, "Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots" because it just seems to make more sense to me. Go figure.

The lyrics of Race are sort of positively cynical. Sure you have two scientists racing for "the cure", "for the good of all mankind" but they are "sacrifice their lives" because "they're just humans, with wives and children". What is the greater good? That we have two humans that spend all their time researching, and if one wins that scientist get all the recognition yet they have not developed time with their family? Or should we not find a cure so that they can just be the same with humans. Do we need a cure? Yes probably and to get it, we have to sacrifice a life to save lives. Do we view them as heroes or egoists?

The vocals coupled with the instrumentation don't really give you a true indication and I think the true message is that you have to accept both sides of what the song gives you. Because if you listen to the instruments, I can only really identify the drum I don't know what that other synthesizer/piano/keyboard is and I think there's some guitar probably, they're very loud and celebratory but Wayne's singing is sort of mellow. I get this sense of anxiousness in his singing, troubled by the fact that these two scientists are racing and trying to reflect on the situation.

Anyway, great song. One of my favourites - it's 5th most played on my Last.FM charts - The Flaming Lips are a magical band that created something special in this song.

The Flaming Lips - Race for the Prize

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BONUS:

As my internet is slow, I am not sure which video on YouTube would be the best to see a bit of their amazing live performance because I looked it up ages ago. Instead, here is a clip of The Flaming Lips with The White Stripes performing Seven Nation Army that I watched semi-recently. It is really fucking cool.

Scrobble Scribble #2: So He Won't Break by The Black Keys

The second song and artist to be featured is So He Won't Break by The Black Keys. I'm not too sure how I discovered The Black Keys, but I think I was listening to The Black Lips who, apart from sharing an almost similar name, also have a garage-rockish sound which I dug. And I think a few months ago Triple J started playing Strange Times which I didn't mind. Oh and also, the song with which this album belongs - Attack & Release - was produced by Danger Mouse who you may know as the other half of Gnarls Barkley with Cee-Lo, The Grey Album mashup, the latest Beck album and Gorillaz's bit old but still good album Demon Days. As for similar artists I think a lot of people would agree that The White Stripes would be the band to come swiftly to mind. Both have that garage-rock revival sound going, both are duos. I think the most distinct difference between these two groups would be the way in which the lead singers deliver their vocals - with Jack White being a bit more fast and aggressive whereas Dan Auerbach likes to just sing like a blues or soul musician.

Looking at my charts, The Black Keys have just recently been inducted in to my top 50 artists (I've been listening to them quite a bit lately) sitting somewhere around the 30 mark. Haven't played their songs on rotation enough yet to get a track into my favourite songs, so I'll see if I can change that with So He Won't Break.

Of course, I think the whole album is great but So He Won't Break just happened to be the song on at the time. Other tracks I'm diggin on the album are Psychotic Girl and Oceans and Streams, that consist the great sound of this duo. I don't know how you would describe So He Won't Break in musical terms but it's a pretty repetitive drum sort of pattern through the verses that concludes with a bit of guitar stroking at the end. There's a bit of guitar throughout - especially near the end where there's a little solo, I thought I heard a bit of keyboard or organs. The vocals are a bit distorted to make for that garage sound and aren't delivered in a loud, aggressive way by Auerbach (lead singer) instead he sort of croons or sings over it. As a song, it works well as a sort of old bluesy ballad except, you enjoy it.

The Black Keys - So He Won't Break


Scrobble Scribbler uses Last.FM and Last.FM's "Audioscrobbler" software. However, Scrobble Scribbler is not employed by Last.FM and thus views expressed by its author are not those of Last.FM. Join Last.fm here