Dan Deacon Remixing “The Terror,” All of It! – UPDATE American Release Delayed

Then there’s the CD versions – which also comes with the “Instant download of ‘Sun Blows Up Today’ upon pre-order purchase” and “The Terror Digital Download” in the US (pre-order it at insound or The Flaming Lips webstore). The UK edition of the CD comes with “a bonus 3 inch mini CD featuring ‘Sun Blows Up Today’.”

Note the iTunes download is twelve tracks: the first nine are each of the album’s main cuts as “individual shuffle” edits; its lengthy tenth track is the full album again, without separation between songs; and finally there’s two bonus tracks – “Sun Blows Up Today” and an as-of-yet, unidentified mystery song.  It is unclear if the “instant download” included with the CD and vinyl editions is the nine “shuffle” edits, the single-track continuous mix, or both.

But wait, here’s the best (or maybe just weirdest) part:
Side 4 of of the double vinyl set is a remix by Dan Deacon
…of the entire album!

Titled “We Don’t Control The Controls (Mashed-The-F-Up-Remix),” could this be the unidentified second “bonus track” listed on iTunes as well?
We’ll see…
While we wait, I spy “We Don’t Control The Controls” on the UK iTunes deluxe edition…which would strongly suggest the mystery track on the American pre-order is the same. Apparently Deacon’s remix lasts 14:36.

“We Don’t Control The Controls” – besides being a key line from the lyrics of “The Terror” title track – is also the name of the latest Flaming Lips documentary in the works.  According to Wayne Coyne’s instagram, the film edits together “hours of talking” about the making of The Terror.

“What we can’t control… if you are like me… we try to control,” Coyne explained in his essay for the press release. “What we can change, we try to change… And so, maybe when we are immersed in chaos for too long, we long for stability or control. And maybe when we have control for too long, we have a desire for chaos. Or maybe we are just hungry worms… yeah… worms that are a thousand feet long… and we are eating our own tail… but we don’t know that, yeah, when we HAVE control, we fear LOSING control… but we think we WANT control… and then chaos comes in and shows us that, if we had control, our lives would be safe… or predict-able…or boring??? We create the chaos BECAUSE we have control… Fuck!! Like I said (or like I feared), we are hungry worms…

“For a short time during the making of “The Terror”, we believed that eyes from beyond were once again watching over us,” Wayne continues. “We longed to have no control of our lives… we tried to believe UFOs were hovering and watching us… we wanted to believe there was a conspiracy of fake truth and that we were being kept hostage by an unknown overpowering enemy and that our only escape was internal… we went inside ourselves…

The Terror is that LOVE is not the magic gravity, the sun of suns… we know now, that even without love, life goes on… we just go on… there is no mercy killing.”

1 Look…The Sun is Rising
2 Be Free, A Way
3 Try to Explain
4 You Lust (with Phantogram)
5 The Terror
6 You Are Alone
7 Butterfly, How Long it Takes to Die (new mix)
8 Turning Violent
9 Always There… in Our Hearts

                                                            .
“The album was produced by the band’s long-time collaborator Dave Fridmann and The Flaming Lips at Tarbox Road Studios,” according to the album’s press statement. “It is comprised of nine original compositions that reflect a darker-hued spectrum than previous works, along with a more inward-looking lyrical perspective than one might expect – but then again, maybe not. It’s up to you, the listener, to decide what it means to you.”

UPDATE March 20th
As previously mentioned here, The Terror’s American release date has been pushed back two weeks to April 16th. The Lips announced the Australian release date is April 12th.  Those in the land down under can pre-order on iTunes/au…

Today Warner Brothers further confirmed “US release date of April 16th (the UK release date remains April 1st)” at flaminglips.com, while somebody from Tarbox Road Studios – presumably Fridmann – posted this on facebook: “No comprendo in the age of the internet why albums come out on different days in different formats and different countries. Seems you would lose momentum and interest of the people who would like to buy it when they are excited about it. If it isn’t available, people can’t buy it. Business. The only thing worse is never making it available in certain countries, like the US for example.”

True dat…

UPDATE March 21st

“Customers who have pre-ordered the LP of The Terror by Flaming Lips,” were notified today by UK’s Rise Music that the online store has “just been notified that due to manufacturing problems, the LP will now be out on the 15th of April.”
This comes just two days after Bella Union allegedly confirmed the LP would still be released on April 1st in Europe and the day after Warner Brothers confirmed the same for UK.  It is unclear if the e-mail concerns vinyl only, or all formats – though UK iTunes currently lists the release date as….
…..March 31st!