Staring At Sound (An Official Read Along With Me Thread)

[BlondeSoonerGirl]

http://www.staringatsound.com/images/StaringatSoundCOVER.gif

I'm reading this book. And for those of you who don't want to read it or are just too hillbilly-lazy I'll tell you about what I'm reading in this thread and we can have fun discussing it as we go. If you don't care or aren't interested then don't come in here or you'll just say something mean and I'll have to sass you.

It's the true story of The Flaming Lips. I know we talk about them a lot so if you want to learn about them come in here and that's just what we'll do. It should be a fun and interesting read. And we might just learn something along the way.

Here's the official site for the book: http://www.staringatsound.com/

It was written by Jim DeRogatis, a pop music critic for the Chicago Sun Times. Together with Greg Kot, rock critic at the Chicago Tribune, DeRogatis is the host of Sound Opinions, 'the worlds's only rock and roll talkshow', which is now broadcast on Public Radio. He's written some other stuff, too so check him out if you want to.

Here we go...

[SoonerStormchaser]

Once upon a time...

[BlondeSoonerGirl]

Chapter 1 - I Want My Own Planet
(The Wayne Part)

This chapter covers the childhood/young lives of Wayne Coyne and Mike Ivins. You talk about two very different lives. Wow.

Wayne was the youngest of 5 kids when the family moved to Oklahoma from Pennsylvania. His younger brother, Mark, was the only one actually born here. His parents married young and decided to move here for a better life as all that was really happening up north in the 50s and 60s was steel mill work or coal mines. Yikes. His father was a cabinet maker and was offered a management job at an office supply company in OKC. After moving his entire family here he was notified that the job had been eliminated and he took a position loading trucks. He worked his way back up through the ranks over time, though. Wayne later asked his mom why they just didn't go back and his mom said 'it sucked there, too'. They were gonna struggle no matter what so as long as they were already here and he had a job I guess they just figured they'd stay here. So they did.

They were Roman Catholics so they were a minority here. Everyone knows we's mostly southern Baptists around here - especially back then. So they just kept to themselves, worked hard and made a life here. They didn't have extended family here so there were no cousins and big family gatherings. So they made their own. His mom was really big on birthday parties and holidays and it attracted a lots of this kids' friends so the gathering got really big over time. They had lots of fun, didn't let the outside world tell them how to live and had a HUGE spirit about them. Lots of love and fighting and debating (Wayne's got the nickname 'The Buzzard' because he picks at people to see what's in there) over the dinner tables and stuff. Very creative, arty, fun people - they always had something going on.

When the boys got older (there was only one daughter - Linda) they'd have these sandlot football games and they'd always fight and get really rough. This is where 'The Fearless Freaks' came from. They smoke a bone and then go out without shirts in a hard sun-baked lot and just get after it. Some of them did get mixed up in drugs and stuff but Wayne never really liked them. He said he liked to watch other people on drugs but he didn't like that 'out-of-control' feeling. He smoked some dope and messed around with acid and stuff a little but that's about it. He sold pot in his younger years because he saw this as the quickest way to make money and be an adult. He didn't want to wait until he was 30 before he could have stuff on his own. So one time he almost got caught with some pot in the car and it scared him really bad so he quit doing it. Smart boy.

He never really did well socially in school. He was very smart and felt like he was surrounded by a bunch of kids (he laughs about that now) so he never really dedicated himself to it. He was a very likeable guy but he just wasn't down with it. And it wasn't the typical 'I hate school' attitude - he just wanted to do other productive things. Usually kids don't wanna go to school because they're lazy or would rather sit around, play video games, eat cereal and watch cartoons. He played on the football team in high school but it didn't suit him. He loved to draw and he's pretty good at it. He still does a lot of the band's artwork, too. He and his brothers were always all up in teh music (I'll bet they would have loved the WAYLT thread, haters) and he called it their 'religion' as he'd pretty much proclaimed himself an atheist in his young adult life. They loved to rock and although he never really had formal training he figured out what he thought sounded good and played it.

He worked at Long John Silver's for a long time and he loved it. He figured he could do this mindless job, make money and think about what he wanted to do with his life. There's quite a bit more in the book about this part and it's really funny. He was robbed -all kinds of stuff. They tried to promote him to management several times over the 10+ years he worked there but he wanted to remain a 'third mate'.

:les: PIRATE HAT!!! Heh.

He's an observer. He likes to learn about things like religion, philosophy, science, odd natural phenomenon...he soaks stuff up like a sponge. He's smart and he's intuitive. He's relentlessly inquisitive and sometimes confrontational. He provokes others into uncomfortable thought. He's just a really neat, odd dude.

[Soonerchaz]

It's a great read. I was at OU during the Here It Is/Oh My Gawd days of The Lips....so it fun hearing some of those old names tossed around (Michele V...Jon Mooneyham...etc).

If you're a fan...you should get it.

[leavingthezoo]

i always wanted to work at long john silver's so i could think about hat, too.

:D

just provin' i read.

[IB4OU2]

Did he work at the Long John Silvers in Norman?

[BigRedJed]

http://www.8secondchallenge.com/soonerfans/wayne_soldpot.jpg

[BigRedJed]

Did he work at the Long John Silvers in Norman?
He filled in at just about every store in the metro at one point or another. Apparently, he was some sort of fish 'n' chips superstar. He has an amazing work ethic. But the LJ's where he spent the greatest amount of his time was the one around NW 30th and Classen. There's a Vietnamese noodle shop there now. It gets extensive coverage in the movie Fearless Freaks.

In the movie, Wayne talks about one time when the store was robbed, and has some Vietnamese kids help re-enact the robbery. It's all at once charming, cute, and really, really frightening. It becomes obvious that was a really formative moment for him, and helped crystalize his often-stated belief that life is fleeting and that we have to make the most of it on this go-'round.

If you want a real laugh, turn on the commentary of that movie after you've already seen it once or twice. During that scene, Wayne talks about another robbery that happened there, this time staged by one of the assistant managers. The guy shot himself in the leg to make it more believable. The pain was so bad that he **** himself. Literally. Oh, and THEN he carried the cash out the back door and put it in his trunk. The cops had no trouble solving the crime by following the trail of blood and **** to the trunk of his car and back into the store. I spoiled the story a bit, but it is a riot to hear him tell it.

[BigRedJed]

And yay, Staring At Sound thread!

[jacru]

http://classroom.jc-schools.net/read/camp-read-book.gif

[BigRedJed]

http://i.realone.com/assets/rn/img/9/5/1/4/10734159-10734162-slarge.jpg

[BigRedJed]

http://i.realone.com/assets/rn/img/6/3/1/2/10732136-10732139-slarge.jpg

[BigRedJed]

Why do you people hate happy?

[BigRedJed]

IT'S NOT EVEN MY THREAD!

:mad:

[BlondeSoonerGirl]

Just wait til I post the Mike part...whoo-boy...that'll get 'em.

[BlondeSoonerGirl]

Chapter 1 - I Want My Own Planet
(The Mike Part and The Wayne and Mike Meet Part)

Mike's childhood was waaaay different than Wayne's. He was born in Nebraska (on St. Patrick's Day) but when he was a month old his family moved to Saigon. In 1963. Nam, baby. He says his mom would take him to the market in a stroller and she'd hear explosions close by. Yikes.

His dad was adopted and went into the service like his adoptive father. Apparently he was a badass of sorts and got to be a captain in the Air Force Intelligence Agency, specializing in Communist Relations. He was stationed in Florida and while going to school at The U (I can't believe I just typed that) he met Mike's mom. Now his mom was hippie chick that wanted to be an actress so she was studying drama and stuff but her mom just wanted her to find her a man and settle down. She really didn't think she had what it took as far as sacrificing and stuff, anyway so that's what she did. She married Mike's dad and shortly after they went from Hawaii to Vietnam. I am failing to see here how Nebraska fit in but I'll take the book's word for it.

So Vietnam started getting a bit crazy so they relocated to Thailand for a few months and then on to Japan. Mike's younger brother, Charles was born in Japan in a military hospital in 1965.

:les: HAI!!!

When Mike was 2 (and still in Japan) he was stricken with spinal meningitis. Things didn't look good at first but he pulled through. Shortly after (1966), his dad became very disillusioned with how the war was going and resigned his commission. He said it wasn't the war itself but just how it was being run. Since he was an experienced parachutist he taught skydiving and did some aerial stuff in TV commercials for Seiko watches and Kirin beer. They all finally settled in Honolulu in 1967. Nice.

So later on when Mike was 10 his parent divorced. His mom (a feminist) remarried in 1973 and she got a job with the YWCA. She started UH's first women's free clinic and was one of the first to have a 'marriage contract' drawn up when she did remarry. TV stations carried the story and everything.

:les: LESBIAN!!!

Mike went to private schools and stuff in Honolulu and he was a very good student. He read a lot and at one time wanted to be a writer. During Jr High he grew himself a pimp anglo-afro and the Samoan kids thought he was cool where they'd normally be hating on a white boy. So he got along okay.

While all this is going on, his dad's now living in Ohio and working at Wright-Patterson AFB developing programs to manage weapons systems (although the book say Mike thought he might be doing something with the CIA). Mike went to stay the summer with him in 1976 and that was the last time he spent any good amount of time with his dad. He and his dad were very different and they never really connected. At age 70 his dad was still skydiving and had, like 8,000 jumps to his credit. His new stepdad was kindof a crazy guy, too but Mike took after his mom and was a bit more quiet and introspective.

During one of his weekend trips to his dad's he discovered his reel-to-reel and that was when he discovered that he really liked music and started listening to the radio constantly. The book says he tried to actually build a guitar but he didn't know how the electrical parts worked. Heh. When he saw The Beatles on TV he thought 'wouldn't it be neat to do that?'.

:norm:

When he was 16 (in 1976) his mom got an offer to be the Executive Director of the YWCA in OKC so they moved here. He went to high school and discovered that our educational system was way behind Hawaii's. He couldn't believe how much more he knew than the other kids. Wayne left Classen High the year before Mike got there so they never went to school together but Mike's family was all up in teh Long John Silver's where Wayne worked and he remembered Wayne. The book says he noticed him 'I'm sure in the same way he noticed me'. Freakin' hippies...

So by this time Wayne's jamming out with his brothers. He'd worked at Long John Silver's long enough and sold enough chronic for 8 months so he now had enough money to buy himself a Les Paul and a small amp. He was really into making neat sounds instead of actually learning technique and stuff. He then discovered punk. While this is going on, Mike's still in Hawaii and he's getting all into punk. So he gets himself a bass (because it only has 4 strings and would be easier to learn) at a pawn shop on Penn when he was a junior at Classen. He did the same thing Wayne did - just learned how to make neat sounds on his own. He graduated high school (valedictorian, bitches) and then enrolled at...

:les: OU!!!

...where he 'kinda' wanted to study linguistics. He knew a few languages and thought it would be interesting. But he didn't jive well and fit in the whole dorm scene. He was still working the punk stuff and dressed all crazy with the whole Flock of Seagulls hairdo. He said 'looking back, it seemed like this weird, personal, individual journey that really didn't have anything to do with the outside world-the dressing up, the music-because I never knew anyone that actually liked that kind of music until I met Wayne. It was like I was living out this weird fantasy, hoping to be a part of something'.

So in 1982, Mike's parent went on a Christmas vacation and his crazy-a** younger brother threw a party. And Wayne's brother basically crashed it. Mark saw him there with his crazy hair and clothes and stuff and said 'do you play an instrument' (they were looking for a bass player for their garage band) and Mike said 'no, but I own a bass'. A few days later Wayne knocked on his door and said 'I heard you play bass. Do you have a bass?' and Mike said 'yes' and Wayne said 'do you have an amp' and Mike said 'no'. Wayne said 'well, I have am amp, do you want to come play with us?' and Mike said 'sure, whatever'.

By this time, Wayne's dad had started his own business selling office supplies and furniture called 'Tomco' (his name was Tom). Tom thought his boys would work in his 'family farm' but he was hard to keep up with so they didn't. In the building he was working out of (which used to be a grocery store) there was an old freezer - huge meat locker and this is where the new band would practice. It was basically soundproof (which I'm sure everyone around them appreciated) and tornado safe so BONUS!

After their first practice they all decided that none of them could play but it didn't matter. They decided to 'keep at it'.

Years later Wayne said 'so many people have good ideas, but they don't do them. A mediocre guy who works all the time gets more done than the super genius who hides in his glass castle. You gotta do stuff; you can't just sit around and think about it'.

[JohnnyMack]

This would be better if it were a pop-up book. Or something. Maybe you could add in some dragons. Or hookers.

[C&CDean]

or interesting characters...

Yeah, I know the rules, but it had to be done.

[BigRedJed]

or interesting characters...

Yeah, I know the rules, but it had to be done.
http://www.wbr.com/flaminglips/img/mi80shair.jpg

[1stTimeCaller]

This thread is great. The only thing I know about the Lips is that BSG and BRJ love them. This thread also illustrates BSG's ability to dominate every other poster with her usage of smilies.

[BigRedJed]

You know, I really enjoyed this book when I read it last year. But so far, this thread is kicking the book's ***. I am giddy with anticipation.

[BlondeSoonerGirl]

Maybe you could add in some dragons. Or hookers.

Patience, yo. We're only on chapter one...those come later.

[JohnnyMack]

Patience, yo. We're only on chapter one...those come later.

Sweet!

<sits down>

:pop:

[IB4OU2]

Years later Wayne said 'so many people have good ideas, but they don't do them. A mediocre guy who works all the time gets more done than the super genius who hides in his glass castle. You gotta do stuff; you can't just sit around and think about it'."

Words of wisdom...

[BigRedJed]

http://www.flaminglips.com/media/band/history/part1/5_InclRichMark8485_4pce.jpg

[BigRedJed]

http://www.flaminglips.com/media/band/history/part1/6_InclRichMark8485_4pce.jpg

[IB4OU2]

Is it more story time yet?

[BlondeSoonerGirl]

I'm preparing chapter two now...

Yay, interested person! :D

[IB4OU2]

I'm preparing chapter two now...

Yay, interested person! :D

Yay you for all the effort! :D

[OUstudent4life]

Butters, go find this thread, read it on your computer, and join the online sensation before we all murder you.

Now I must buy this book, as well as the DVD. :D

[Fugue]

This is a serious question and not meant to flame cause I do dig some of their stuff. They're a weird freakin' band. Is it the music that is the draw or the whole experience? I'm trying to decide if I'd like them by only being able to hear them.

:pop:

[BlondeSoonerGirl]

This is a serious question and not meant to flame cause I do dig some of their stuff. They're a weird freakin' band. Is it the music that is the draw or the whole experience? I'm trying to decide if I'd like them by only being able to hear them.

:pop:

It's the whole thing. You have to listen with your eyes and your head as well as your ears. If you form your opinion only with your musically-trained ears you'll not like them at all. I guess this is why I'm doing this - to show people what they're about and to explain them as best I can while we read the book.

And I'm glad you came in here. I think you'll end up liking them, too.

[Fugue]

It's the whole thing. You have to listen with your eyes and your head as well as your ears. If you form your opinion only with your musically-trained ears you'll not like them at all. I guess this is why I'm doing this - to show people what they're about and to explain them as best I can while we read the book.

And I'm glad you came in here. I think you'll end up liking them, too.

That's what I thought. It's weird cause I was youtube'n and wasn't 100% in love with his voice but at the same time, it really didn't seem to bother me either with all the other stuff goin' on.

Carry on Juicy.

[BlondeSoonerGirl]

Chapter 2 - Finally The Punk Rockers Are Taking Acid
[The Flaming Lips EP (1984) and Here It Is (1986) parts]

So now Wayne's playing guitar, his brother Mark is on lead vocals, their friend Dave Kostka's on drums and Mike's playing bass. And they're still not every good. At all. Dave's the only one that even halfway knows what he's doing.

It's 1983...in OKC...and these guys are playing their first gig at the Blue Note Lounge. Wayne's acting a fool, Mike's standing as still as a statue, Dave's keeping a steady rhythm and Mark's screaming and whispering in his overalls and mullet. The amp on Mike's bass dies but they just right on going. The Blue Note was next door to Tomco and was a 'rough and tumble dive' that usually booked blues bands but their dad knew the owner so they felt comfortable there. They asked the owner to come over to the meat locker so they could audition for him. They'd been practicing for about 8 weeks - chaotic covers and noisy originals...the owner either liked them or felt a 'neighborly obligation' because he let them play at his place.

The night before their first gig they had to think of a name. Wayne wanted the Tijuana Toads but everyone else in the band liked his second choice - the Flaming Lips. Now over the years there's been several stories about what this name meant. Stuff like the title of a porn flick, burning your lips while smoking a roach, a vision of some sort that Wayne had from the Virgin Mary. But none of these were true. It 'simply appealed to Wayne as a bit of psychedelic surrealism, and a distinct alternative to names such as Reagan Youth and the Dicks, or the many hardcore bands known by their initials, such as AOD (Adrenaline Overdose), MDC (Millions of Dead Cops), or JFA (Jodie Foster's Army)'.

They meant to change the name after that first night because no one liked them but they said it was just easier to keep it than it was to come up with another one.

:eddie:

Wayne did some crazy fliers and put them all over town. Their friends and families would come and watch them and it seemed like they got more love from people that were just amazed that they were willing to get up there and perform since they were so...bad. Wayne wrote everything and told Mark how to sing the songs. Wayne and Mike were all into it but Mark just wanted to party and Dave seemed like he was just waiting from something better to come along. Mark never really seemed comfortable in his role as the frontman and everyone kinda wondered why Wayne wasn't up front since he was the one behind everything. He was the one always wanting to practice and he never made any apologies for it...even on his girlfriend Hali's birthday. Mike liked the structure and since Dave and Mark didn't have anything better to do they didn't complain, either.

Now since OKC wasn't quite a musical hotbed in the early 80s so they had trouble finding places to play. Most of the live music venues were booking blues or rockabilly bands (the Bowery, for one). Faux R.E.M. heartland rock was kinda popular and some new wavey-stuff got some play but they really didn't fit into any of those categories so they played where ever they could. Parties, basements, BBQs...just where ever they could. While playing in a friend's basement a hardcore punk dude asked Mike - who had shaved his hair into a mohawk - how he liked being exploited. "The punks hated the hippies, and the hippies took acid, so the punks hated acid and rejected the whole acid-rock approach" Wayne wrote in the liner notes to the Flaming Lips 2002 compilation, Finally the Punk Rockers Are Taking Acid. It seemed like so many lines were drawn and Wayne never wanted to be limited. He wanted to explore and experiment and not have to worry about it.

They formed kindof an alliance with a band called the Hostages which was made up of two gay guys and a girl. So they got a gig playing a gay bar. Dave wasn't down with teh gay and he quit soon after that. They replaced him with a guy name Richard English. Richard went to Classen with Wayne so he knew him pretty good. He was into music and stuff in school and he met Wayne at a Led Zeppelin show when he saw him there with his brother, Mark. A few days later, after seeing them play in a friend's backyard, he went to Long John Silver's and while manning the fry vats Wayne said 'our drummer's flaking out - do you wanna be in a band?'.

So now Richard's replaced Dave and they're practicing all the time. Richard and Mark liked to drink and smoke and stuff but Wayne and Mike were crystal clear. Dave was a decent drummer but Richard wasn't near as good so they let him go nuts and their whole show becomes a big, fun freak out.

:kelvin:

There was a studio in OKC called Benson Sound that did mostly gospel stuff and commercials jingles (I wonder if the BC Clark jingle was recorded here?) but Wayne's dad knew the owner because he'd sold him some chairs or something so the band got to record there. Over a period of several months they finally recorded enough songs to made a demo. They learned a lot about recording and when they'd go see other bands that did have records out they see the difference between the live sound and the recorded sound.

The early 80s saw a big post-punk rise in indie rock. Lots of college radio stations and DJs started really getting into this movement and there was a big indie rock circuit that included Norman. Because of the university and a partly because a guy named David Fallis Norman was on this circuit. David Fallis was an OU journalism major, he played in the punk band No Direction and he was a DJ at the university radio station. Wayne and Mike listened to his radio show and got exposed to the indie rock scene. They'd hear stuff like skinhead rock and they thought it was pretty one-dimensional but then they'd hear stuff like R.E.M. Meat Puppets, Butthole Surfers and they loved it because it was kinda hard but still melodic. It all didn't sound the same and they loved it. Wayne said 'Finally, the punk rockers are taking acid!'.

:norm:

So Fallis met the Lips a short time later and started booking them on campus. He discovered that Wayne has a rockin' PA system and back then if you had a badass PA - you'd get gigs. Everyone wanted a good PA and they had one. Fallis borrowed it quite often even when the Lips weren't playing. He said he never remember one time where Wayne said no. Wayne would even bring it down to Norman for him. Fallis remembered their shows as being full of all kinds of people. Crazy alcoholics...religious dudes handing out hemp - you name it. He said that Wayne and Mike were always sober and very hospitable. He said it was clear that they were just coming from somewhere else.

So the whole barter system thing starting fading and the Lips decided that they would follow the indie rock example, use the last remaining credit at Benson Sound and make themselves an EP. This EP is 'the only one of their records that is about a performance', Wayne said. The books explains each song and how it sounds like something that came out by another band...later. They'd hear the new Jesus and Mary Chain and just go 'GAH!' because it sounded like what they'd already done. When they finished recording it, they sent it off to a pressing plant with money borrowed from Wayne's grandmother and a few weeks later they had 1,000 copies on green vinyl. Wayne took a pic of Richard peeking out from behind the curtain of the meat locker, holding a skull with a candle stuck in the top of it and had candle wax dripping down all scary-like. They used this pic for the cover of the EP. Wayne said that's what the band was about - the home made stuff. The true stuff. Once they actually had a record they started getting all kinds of love. They started going to other states and playing clubs. Wayne's mom started plotting their trips on maps (she worked for AAA).

Mike decided to drop out of school at OU..

:les: HIPPIE SLACKER!!!

...and give the band a full-on shot. He figured he could always go back if it didn't work out. And the road didn't seem to suit Mark. By this time it was 1985 and he had a wife and a house and a car and a job at Tomco and he didn't like being away from home anymore. His wife didn't like it, either and really put a strain on things. Mark seemed to always have been the band's weakest link. He wasn't comfortable being up front singing Wayne's songs and people would always say he sucked. But Wayne was like his dad in that he believed in family loyalty so he never took issue with it. But when it was clear it wasn't gonna work out he told him 'you know, Mark, we aren't going to do this anymore'. Later Mark would say that Wayne was a true artist where he was just out having fun. He said it was good that he got out when he did because the rest of the band was free to explore other types of music where he'd normally have limited them. Wayne and Hali also broke up because of his being gone all the time. She wanted to get married and have a normal life and that just wasn't going to happen with him.

Wayne quickly settled into being the frontman. They played their first show with him up front of the trio in Dallas in 1986. Mike said it was another case of 'let's go - let's see what happens' so that's what they did. And when Richard joined the band he brought a more frenzied style of drumming so their live shows became full-on sensory assaults complete with strobe lights and mirrors and machines that would fill the clubs with bubbles or fog. After they made their EP they were already bored with it - they'd already moved and on wanted to make another record. Bill Hein formed Enigma records with his brother in the early 80s and liked the Lips as soon as he heard them. They came to see him and they signed them rather quickly. They came to make their record and the label struggled to find them someone to produce them. They ended up with Randy Burns who had a break between sessions with Dave Mustaine's band Megadeth (hi, Pat!) and the band spent two days recording with Burns at one Hollywood studio and two days mixing at another. They slept on the floor at the studio(s) the whole time. They clashed pretty good with Burns because they just didn't agree with his ideas. He did actually teach them some chords, though. Heh.

Burns did give in on some of Wayne's ideas and later said that he was glad he did because it turned out really cool. The band then returned home with a cassette of their first full album. "As we drove from L.A. to Oklahoma City, we listened to it a thousand times," Wayne said, "and by the time we got home, we were like, 'Okay, we won't do it that way again.'"

[BigRedJed]

http://www.flaminglips.com/media/gallery/Ephemera/big/Flyers/BlueNote_Tue5Apr.jpg

[BigRedJed]

http://www.flaminglips.com/media/discography/singles/01_theflamingLips/sfc_theFlamingLips.jpg

[Rogue]

This thread is greatness.

[BigRedJed]

Just you wait.

[Jeopardude]

I forgot Randy Burns produced Hear It Is. He also produced Norman band Defenestration's album Dali Does Windows with not so great results.

[BlondeSoonerGirl]

Chapter 2 - Finally The Punk Rockers Are Taking Acid
(The Michele Part)

Michele Vlasimsky was born in Germany in 1966 to well-educated, upper-middle-class parents who had emigrated from Czechoslovakia. Her father was kinda hardcore: He'd been involved in the underground during WWII, escaped from prison twice and was an American spy before he went into the oil business. The family moved to the US and they finally settled in Tulsa. Litte did this dude know that his daughter would become the first manager for the Flaming Lips and Wayne's second girlfriend.

When they got here, Michele enrolled at...

:les: OU!!!

... in 1983 because she was interested in film. She was a film student and was a regular at David Fallis' punk shows in Norman. Back then, there wasn't much to do other than rock or teh football. "At the time, Norman was basically a sleazy little college town, with the old town tavern, a twenty-four-hour diner that was almost like a Socialist place where all the dissidents went, Shadowplay Records, and that was about it," Michele said. About that time she started helping Fallis promote shows and she became his sidekick chick which was how she met Wayne...the PA guy. Heh.

In 1985 Fallis got tired of the whole rock show thing. So Michele took over for him bringing in acts like Sonic Youth and Scratch Acid. Right about the time things were breaking nationally she took it to the next level. She said that she wasn't doing anything special - there was someone doing what she was doing in every city. But in a cultural void you had an opportunity to start something because really, there wasn't much to do.

She did keep up the practice of using Wayne's PA. He'd still bring it down to Norman whenever she called. Wayne was more personable than Mike so she always ended up talking to him and they became friends. "At the time, Wayne was amazing: He was the nicest, kindest, sweetest, most generous guy, who would do anything for anyone. He was completely sacfrificial, obviously; you don't drive 60 miles round-trip with the PA just to do it. He wasn't doing it for the money, he wasn't doing it as a job; he was just doing it to do it, and because he wanted to be part of the scene and help make shows happen and help bands play. He was a super-, super-wide-eyed, nice guy, and a little...I don't want to say hippie-ish, but he had his own personal style."

One night she was laying in bed in her apartment Wayne and Mike came knocking on the window with a copy of the EP. To this day it's her favorite and not because of the music - but because she's emotionally tied to it. Wayne said he recorded it so that she'd fall in love with him.

They started dating, moved in together and became the 'power couple' of the Oklahoma underground. They had everything in common - big dreams and goals, they both wanted to make their mark on the world, they both had a ginormous passion for music, boundless energy, a love for just...talking. She launched her own club called Subterreanea on Main Street in norman and soon after became the Lips' manger. She not only booked shows for them but started doing all the radio, press promotions and micro-marketing with the Restless deal. She said she really didn't know how it all came about...it was all so professionally and personally intertwined...Wayne must have asked her to book some shows for them and that was it.

The book then goes into a breakdown of the songs on Hear It Is but one seems to stand out more than the others. It's an unabashed love song called 'With You'. It's a very simplistic song about just really liking to be with someone. When asked if he wrote it for Michele he said "I don't think I ever wrote songs that were specifically just about me. It was really just about pairing the simple, pop, Phil Spector thing with the demented, noisy, apocalyptic thing."

Funny thing: There's a song called 'Jesus Shooting Heroin' but it's name came from one of their friends, John Mooneyham, that would always say things like 'Well, I'll be dipped in ****'. Kinda like Dean saying 'Jesus H. Christ on a Forklift'. What's funny about this is that the title of this song came up in the discussions when the decision was being made to name the alley in Bricktown after them. They used it as a negative when they really knew nothing about it. I just thought that part was funny.

:dean:


But the book also say something that I think is very important. There's a song called 'Staring At Sound' and it says: "The title 'Staring At Sound' brings to mind the phenomenon of synesthesia - the sensation of 'seeing' sound waves as colors or images, sometimes prompted by a psycedelich trip - and Wayne sings about finding a band that plays 'a song that sounds just like you look', and then following this group like a stalker".

:norm:

Remember that part, people.

Wayne designed the album cover for this album, too. He used a slighty blurry photo of Mike sitting out front with his awesome anglo-fro which inspired some of their fans to make/wear buttons that said 'the Church of Michael Ivins's Hair'. Which makes this very funny to me:

Posts #38 & 39: http://www.soonerfans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=88783&page=2

On the back cover, he used a ginormous photo of an eyeball - one of his favorite artistic motifs.

The album was released in 1986 and got a whole lot of attention on college radio stations. It reached #20 on the college radio charts and got a buttload of love from magazines like Creem. In 1987, Wayne was still rockin' at Long John Silver's and one night as he dumped another batch of fries into the oil the phone rang and his manager told him he had a call from Europe. Said 'some guy wants the band to play there or something'.

:mack:

A few months later in July, 1987 the band flew to Copenhagen, Denmark to play at the 16th Annual Roskilde Festival on a bill that had 24 bands on it. Bands/acts like Iggy Muhfuggin' Pop, Rickie Lee Jones, the By God Pretenders and Van Morrison. One of the festival's promoters had heard 'With You' playing in a record store and liked it so much that he booked the band to play on the smaller, second stage in front of 1,500 people at sunset in the middle of the festival. They followed Sonic Youth and the Hoodoo Gurus followed them. "We were totally psyched" Wayne told Contrast fanzine in 1988. "It was like Woodstock or something. The crowd liked us - people knew our songs and everything - and we were like 'are you sure you got the right band?'"

Richard was worried about them and their music coming across and translating to a larger audience and he had to use a smaller, rented drum kit instead of his big one with pics of nekkid chicks all over it. "But our fearless leader's Pete Townshend-esque jumping and stomping seemd to convey the energy we usually had. We got the total VIP treatment - I still have a Roskilde towel from the hotel - and all in all it was a whirlwind trip that took some Okie boys across the ocean and made us heroes...at least in our own minds."

[Jeopardude]

Chapter 2 - Finally The Punk Rockers Are Taking Acid
(The Michele Part)



Funny thing: There's a song called 'Jesus Shooting Heroin' but it's name came from one of their friends, John Mooneyham, that would always say things like 'Well, I'll be dipped in ****'. Kinda like Dean saying 'Jesus H. Christ on a Forklift'. What's funny about this is that the title of this song came up in the discussions when the decision was being made to name the alley in Bricktown after them. They used it as a negative when they really knew nothing about it.



Half truth/half legend that Mooneyham's the reason for KGOU turning from a rock station to NPR. He was a DJ and played **** Christmas by Fear and either President Banowsky's wife heard it or an irate Greek couple who demanded an apology which Mooneyham told them to go **** themselves.

[BigRedJed]

http://www.flaminglips.com/media/gallery/Ephemera/big/Flyers/Subterranea_Thu3Oct.jpg

[IB4OU2]

"A few months later in July, 1987 the band flew to Copenhagen, Denmark to play at the 16th Annual Roskilde Festival on a bill that had 24 bands on it. Bands/acts like Iggy Muhfuggin' Pop, Rickie Lee Jones, the By God Pretenders and Van Morrison. One of the festival's promoters had heard 'With You' playing in a record store and liked it so much that he booked the band to play on the smaller, second stage in front of 1,500 people at sunset in the middle of the festival. They followed Sonic Youth and the Hoodoo Gurus followed them. "We were totally psyched" Wayne told Contrast fanzine in 1988. "It was like Woodstock or something. The crowd liked us - people knew our songs and everything - and we were like 'are you sure you got the right band?'"


Wow! One hell of a festival..."It was like Woodstock or something. The crowd liked us - people knew our songs and everything - and we were like 'are you sure you got the right band?'"

[bluedogok]

They were playing in Japan when I was working over there (1996), they had a shows in Osaka and Tokyo. We tried to get away from the office in time but weren't able to.

[BlondeSoonerGirl]

Chapter 3 - Everything's Explodin'
[Oh My Gawd!!!...The Flaming Lips (1987) and Telepathic Surgery (1988) - the making albums part]

This chapter's about adventures! Touring adventures! European adventures! Fighting adventures! Yay, adventures!

So they've got their first album out and things are moving really, really fast. Lots of road-warrioring and lots of fast recording. And in these fast recordings, they're learning how to make sounds...ones they like...ones they don't...and they do this by experimentation. Sometimes...that's...not good.

So at this point the guys are in a studio in Dallas called Goodnight Audio recording themselves as they tear up a piano with sledgehammers and other implements. They wanted to use the sounds they made so that their new album would end with a bang (literally) but the sounds weren't as massive as Wayne had hoped do they ended up overdubbing some other destructive sounds over it to get the desired result. They wanted to end the album with one of several standout tracks called 'Love Yer Brain' and these sounds were going to follow. 'Love Yer Brain' is a ballad. It's a ballad about drugs. Wayne wrote it after a druggie friend of his came up to Long John Silver's. Wayne was too busy to chat and later learned that the friend killed himself later that night. Wayne sings:

'...You can love yer brain, even if it slips down the drain...Man I'm no drug addict, but a person's gotta have something/To keep him from going insane...'

The song ends with a minute and a half of the piano (Richard kicks some piano arse in this song) meeting it's demise. They bought it for $300 bucks outside of Ardmore and when they bought it the owners asked if it was going to a good home. Heh.

Remember that last time they recorded (Hear It Is) things did not go well and they said they'd not do it that way again. They wanted more control over what they made and how it turned out. They had lots of people tell them that once you get signed (they were with Enigma/Restless) you get lost in the shuffle and all the things people liked about your first record will be gone. So they knew they wanted to do things different this time. So within 14 months, they released Oh My Gawd!!!...The Flaming Lips in 1987 and the third album Telepathic Surgery in 1988. They did all the recording in Dallas and had become kindof the nonlocal local band there. Goodnight Audio gave them a dude named Ruben Ayala, an engineer, to work with. He was very open-minded and easygoing and he gave them technical guidance without imposing his own views on how records 'should be made'. The guys liked him. When they first met Ayala thought for sure he'd be working with a bunch of drugged-out crazies but he quickly found out that they were some of the hardest-working guys he'd ever been around. No drugs and non-stop working. They never thought they had enough studio time so they worked without sleeping and they had some fun trying to see if they could reach an hallucinogenic state while doing it.

:eddie:

One thing that they always did that set them apart form other indie bands - they always recorded in relatively professional studios instead of doing any of the home-recorded stuff. They knew they wanted it to be as good as it could be. Even when it was stupid...or crazy...or bad - they wanted it to at least sound good. And true. So before they went back to record this time, Wayne and Michael spent a whole lot of time listening to stuff like Pink Floyd...the Beatles...The Who...and they learned what they did and didn't want. They wanted sounds but they also didn't want Richard's rockin' drumming to get lost the way Keith Moon's seemed to get all covered up. They didn't want to sound like crap - but they didn't want to sound slick, either.

Oh My Gawd!!!...was more of them using dynamic shifts and subtle textures of the music...Wayne would alternate acoustic guitar with bursts of electric noise. Richard overdubbed piano sounds and they used lots of samples from other people's stuff. They said it wasn't as much experimental as it was them just having as much fun and seeing what they could do with stuff they loved. They'd work around the clock because they didn't have enough studio time due to a smallish budget. In the middle of recording, the record company called and said that they needed a name for the record because the catalog was about to go to print but they hadn't settled on one yet. So the record company goes 'if you don't give us a name we're just gonna call it 'The Flaming Lips' and Wayne goes 'OH MY GOD! The Flaming Lips?!...and that's how the name was born except they changed it to 'Gawd' because he said it sounded more hickish. Wayne likes being a hillbilly.

:dean:

And even though they thought the titled succed, they did pay some special attention to the album art. They all contributed to a collage inspired by Salvadore Dali. Wayne with his strange phallic creature with huge bulging eyes, Michael and Richard contributed pics of Marilyn Monroe and the Beatles...the crowd at Woodstock...the first moon walk...the space shuttle Challenger blowing up...Jaws...fields of poppies and Nam.

Of the two albums made during this time, this one's better. They stay true to the balls-out rock they love so much with 'Everything's Explodin' and kindof congratulate themselves for rocking so hard they could almost wake the dead. Then they have other songs like 'One Million Billionth of a Millisecond on a Sunday Morning' which is nine minutes long and reminds the listener of a slow and creepy Pink Floyd song. This song was one of their live staples for the next six years. When they heard the playback of this song for the first time after recording it they actually cheered. "'One Million Billionth' is the quintessential Lips song to me, because it's all about this huge universe in this tiny pinhead," Richard said "We were all just standing on chairs in the studio and shouting, 'This is too good!'" But the rest of the album is just a collection of interesting ideas that just don't fit well together. It just didn't quite gel.

There's a song called 'Prescription: Love" that's about people filling their lives with material stuff to make up for a lack of love. It's one of Wayne's favorite hippie notions. 'Ode to C.C. (Part 1)' is some studio silliness that makes fun of people that take backwards masking a bit too seriously. 'Ode to C.C. (Part II)' is about a Jesus freak Wayne met at a bus stop in Norman (remember - Norman's the home of crazy people) who wanted to discuss the state of his soul. He later thought it could have been a really good song if he's treated it as more 'than a one-take toss-off'.

'Maximum Dream for Evel Knievel' will remind you of a Led Zeppelin song...'The Ceiling Is Bendin' will remind you of Alice Cooper and 'Can't Stop the Spring' will stand out because of the orchestra parts.

The last two tracks - 'Can't Exist' and 'Thanks To You' - are love songs written by Richard. He'd later say that it was a testament to how open Wayne can be because they didn't fit and they didn't really reflect what the band was trying to do but as long as they were making '****' he thought they might as well share it. Everyone's **** was welcome. Heh. Wayne would later say that at the time he and Michael were seriously embarrassed by Richard's songs. That they were convinced that 'teaching' or 'shocking' the listener was more important then being real. He said that Richard taught them that it was better to be honest even at the risk of humiliation than to be a poser.

:lwm:

[BlondeSoonerGirl]

DANGIT!!!

That's the third time I've double-posted today!!!

:mad:

[JohnnyMack]

Did this thread ever get good?

:eddie:

[BigRedJed]

This thread is teh awesome.

[BigRedJed]

http://angrycitizen.typepad.com/angry_citizen/images/flaming_lips_042.jpg

[BlondeSoonerGirl]

Did this thread ever get good?

:eddie:


Not yet. You go wait in another thread and I'll let you know when it does.

[BigRedJed]

Sorry, that pic really doesn't belong with this part of the story, but I just love the picture.

[BigRedJed]

http://image.com.com/mp3/images/cover/200/dre900/e960/e96030uhg2o.jpg

[BigRedJed]

Apparently, all of them have freakishly huge hands.

http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/download/560/preview_Artists-Flaming-Lips-.jpg

[BlondeSoonerGirl]

I wonder if they had huge sledgehammers to go with them when they were destroying that piano...

[Rogue]

I'm only posting randomly in here to 'bookmark' my spot so I know where to start reading again. Keep up the good work BSG. I don't know if I want to go get the book now or not until you are done with this thread.

By the way, I'll keep remindin' ya until I'm bloo in the face, the Lips will be Here in June (http://www.bonnaroo.com)

[bluedogok]

David Fallis, that is a name from the past...one of my roommates in Walker knew him and helped with the punk shows at the Armory some.

[IB4OU2]

How in the world they find a $300 piano?

[BigRedJed]

Did this thread ever get good?

:eddie:
This thread got good the moment BSG formulated it in her mind. It was good before she hit the new thread button. THAT'S how awesome this thread is.

[IB4OU2]

Amen! Thanks BSG...

[BoogercountySooner]

Very Interesting BSG thank you!

[BigRedJed]

BlondeSoonerGirl (http://www.soonerfans.com/forums/member.php?u=36577) Replying to Thread
Staring At Sound (An Official Read Along With Me Thread) (http://www.soonerfans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=88867)

GET READY PEOPLE!!

[BlondeSoonerGirl]

Chapter 3 - Everything's Explodin'
[Oh My Gawd!!!...The Flaming Lips (1987) and Telepathic Surgery (1988) - the touring adventures part]

With Michele V. booking their tours, the band spent much of 1987 and 1988 playing smaller clubs all over the country. That's a long time to be on teh road. The went anywhere they could drive to...slowly and strategically building their fanbase...until they were a pretty big underground band. Michele was very good and building relationships with club owners and other bands and she played a big part in this whole 'building' process. They kept their jobs here at home because they had to - touring takes money. Lots of it. They made money on the road but it wasn't enough. So sometimes they'd do things like play LA, drive all the way home, take a shower and go to work.

Michele's talent for networking helped her successfully launch her own booking agency called 'Bulging Eye'.

:les: WONDER WHERE SHE GOT THAT IDEER FROM?

Although the band was grateful for her efforts, Wayne missed his mom plotting and mapping stuff out for them. When Michele arranged things they didn't get directions to places or anything like that. And she used a map that was six inches square so scale could be a bit deceiving. They'd think a place wasn't very far away and it was a 16-hour long drive. Dang.

By 1986, the band had graduated from borrowing parent's cars to buy a big 'ol blue Ford Econoline Van for $8,900. 'Big Blue' was 2 years old and had 27,000 miles on it. When they retired it 8 years later, it had 485,000 miles on it. JEBUS. It was a hunk of junk but they turned into a touring machine. They made bunks and slept on top of their equipment. 'We were lucky with that damn blue van; it ****ing worked forever'" Wayne said. 'We'd sleep on top of the equipment, but still, to this day, it was some of the best sleep I've ever gotten, because you'd be so damn tired. We'd pull up to some rest stop in North Dakota, and you might as well have been in the middle of the ocean or the desert."

They toured and toured and toured and learned the ins and outs of the whole thing. They'd stay on other band's couches and learned that if when someone puts you up you'd better be helping them out when they roll through your home town. They didn't eat (Wayne would fast and see if he could make himself hallucinate just for fun) and they didn't shower - they were true road warriors. In every sense but one - they didn't do the party thing. They could have but they didn't. They concentrated on the business at hand...they wanted their shows to be as good as they could be and as entertaining as they could be. They messed with fog machines...bubble machines...different lights and stuff. One night, a soundman threatened to Kick their asses...

:dean:

...for almost making him have an epileptic fit from their strobe lights. Wayne said that when they first started using them they'd throw up and stuff but they got used to them after a while. One night, Wayne tried to do his Pete Towshend imitation with the whole flying scissor kick and he slipped in bubble juice and landed on his back. They get stuff from hardware stores and just make thie own stage shows. And no one else was doing this at the time...

One time, they were playing the Grand Emporium in KC and Michael had made some flash pots and they were using them...fans started screaming about something burning and he realized that while he had turned around to mess with his amp he had...

:les: SET THE ANGLO-AFRO ON FIRE!!! OMG!!!


A fan jumped up on stage and put his head fire out with a beer (OMG...that's so effin hillbilly).

They were always trying to do something new and exciting...they always tried to shock their audience...they always tried to fit a bigger show into the small space they were playing...and they usually did. And when they got tired of playing their own stuff they played covers and stuff like Pink Floyd's 'Obscured By Clouds' and 'Wish You Were Here'. They'd play The Who and Led Zeppelin...just whatever they felt like playing. Sometimes the house was packed and sometimes, like one night in Portland, there were only six people there. They bought t-shirts and other merch and they'd ask the band 'are you guys gonna play as if there were a lot of people here' and the band would be all 'F*** YEAH!'...and they did.

In 1988, they went to Europe again (remember - they'd already been there once for that festival) being booked by a Dutch booking agency called Paperclip. A Paperclip agent had been impressed with them at Roskilde and gave then a van, a driver rented equipment and...a trip to play in London at the end of the six-week tour which they were really excited about since all the bands they loved were from there. This would be the highlight of the trip. The tour started off well with dates in Germany, Denmark, Switzerland and Austria but things stopped abruptly with a break at the Christmas holidays in Utrecht. The agency split the guys up to stay in two different places with no money...they didn't know the language...they were almost confined to this guy's attic...it was weird.

Then the tour picked back up with them going to Italy...but then something happened at the border...

:norm:

...their Dutch driver got out of the van to talk to the Italian border guards and one of them climbed in the van. With a machine gun in his lap. Now, our heroes are hillbillies and all but this ain't cool. The guy says (in broken English) 'How's it going for you? You have drugs?' Michael later said that the guys was smiling like he was trying to get them to share...trying to trick them...but they just kept telling them 'no - we don't do drugs'...they ended up in Rimini at their first stop and it went great. They were treated very well and they had Italian food for the first time...REAL Italian food...heh. Then they found out what was really going on...

The local Italian promoter had disappeared. So the band drove to the other places they were supposed to play to see if the guy arranged any of their shows before he left but he didn't. So they went on to London to play that last show. But two weeks earlier...Pan Am Flight 103 had exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland - an act of Libyan terrorism that killed 259 people on board and 11 on the ground - so English customs agents were on high alert. They found out the the band had no 'working papers'...ugh. British officials put a ginormous red X on their passprts and that caused them all kinds of grief. They were put in holding cells...they spent the night in detention...they took turns sleeping because they were in with some undesirables...

:mack:

...and they missed playing the show that they'd so been looking forward to and at this point they just wanted to go home. They ended up in Brussels but the big, fat red Xs on their passports prompted the Belgians to freak out on them. They spent another day in holding and then Paperclip formulated a plan to get them out...they wanted to try and get them to Amsterdam...then to London and then on to home. After running up over 10K on Michael's parent's American Express card they finally got home. For Wayne and Michael is was a big adventure but they could see how someone else could be totally put off by it. And that's what happened to Richard...he never felt the same about the whole thing after that.

[BigRedJed]

http://web.mac.com/makentosh/iWeb/tipsfromtheiceberg/Blog/D2A65ACC-0620-4BDE-A4F4-8BEC99656A84_files/red-x.png

[Jeopardude]

This thread is the awsum.