6. The Flaming Lips: Turn It On
Flaming Lips, from Oklahoma City, has a long and storied career full of musical experimentation and risk taking. They only had one chart entry in their career, the extremely quirky "She Don't Use Jelly" from 1994; their best selling album came out in 2002, 17 years after their debut. "Turn It On", leadoff track from Transmissions from the Satellite Heart, which also features "She Don't Use Jelly", opens as an acoustic number before giving way to increasingly layered electric guitar noise, and a middle section full of clanging, crunching, swirling guitars and a coda that sounds like a spaceship collision in orbit. It's also a remarkably catchy tune, with a hooky chorus.
7. Ride: Kaleidoscope
Ride were like a psychedelic version of My Bloody Valentine; more melodic, with an obvious debt to the 60's, they briefly seemed on the verge of striking huge in England. "Kaleidoscope" actually sounds like a super-fuzzy Byrds to a degree, with chiming guitars ringing under the static and distortion. Nowhere, their debut, reached #14 on the charts and is often compared to Loveless as one of the best noise pop/shoegaze albums ever. The band would clean up their sound and emphasize the 60's sound to the point of cliche on later releases, but Nowhere is still a great listen. Ride disbanded in 1996.
8. Mercury Rev: Chasing A Bee
Along with virtually every other name on this list, Mercury Rev, from Buffalo, has had a long, strange, peculiar career. Originally an aggregate who worked under the tutelage of minimalist composer Tony Conrad, the band shared similarities with The Flaming Lips, whom they toured with in the early days. "Chasing a Bee", from their 1991 debut, is an ambitious and cinematic 7-minute art-pop epic. It runs through a smorgasboard of textures and sonics, with arcane sound effects adding to the intermittant washes of noise and the space between them. Mercury Rev's history has always been rancorous and disorganized, with key personnel shifts and assorted other problems, but have managed to continue making challenging and progressive art-noise pop to this day.
Article comments
1 - Bryan McKay
The fact that the Mercury Rev share some similarities with the Flaming Lips is no accident, really. Johnathan Donahue, the groups singer and acoustic guitarist, once was the sound technician for the Flaming Lips and played guitar with them for a period of time. And Dave Fridmann, bassist and multi-instrumentalist in the Mercury Rev (and their producer), is the Flaming Lips' longtime collaborator/producer.
2 - SFC SKI
Well, all the bands do have the similar theme of being mostly unlistenable.
3 - sydney
Some great bands there. I know SFC Ski doesnt like them, but that only makes me like 'em more.
Jesus and mary chain in particular, and the lips.
I'll add Nick Drake, for sunday mornings.
oh and a real intersting one called Ariel Pink's haunted graffiti.
4 - Marty Thau
SUICIDE should be on that list, don't you think? After all they are one of the major influences of Jesus & Mary Chain, Flaming Lips and Mercury Rev.