More Explorations of 2009

We’re digging for deep cuts from 2009 (album tracks, songs that went mostly unnoticed, one-offs etc) but not so much that there’s not room for the Black Eye Peas. As with last time, the order is based not on some rating or ranking system, but on the themes and flow of the music itself. Hear for yourself at http://www.youtube.com/user/psychexfutureheart

Psych Explorations of 2009

PsychExFutureHeart’s culmination to our Martian Christmases at the Zoo Countdown last week was a musical look back at the last year, of the first decade, in the twenty-first century… no easy task! Not only is music fragmenting, recombining and evolving at an unprecedented pace, so is how we access it and how it plays into our lives…even how we conceptualize what “music” is (as a product, as a service, as a personal experience, its social function, etc). With all this in mind, how can we make sense of this year in music?

Yes Yes Yes: So Embryonic It’s All Right

The Secret Show today isn’t just another gig or album release promo obligation, it’s the culmination of everything discussed above, from Switzerland to Conan. The Lips have used the status and connections they’ve earned since The Soft Bulletin and an understanding (as well as anyone can) of how the music industry and the internet currently works to develop throughout 2009 not just a sound or a modified aesthetic, but a sense of something “happening”…a thrill for enthusiasts of daring rock n’ roll. It’s not merely a matter of new songs, but that once again “blaring like a trumpet” their “potential has arrived” and these same phrases the “Happy Anniversary Soft Bulletin” blog used (from the lyrics of that album) to describe the larger significance of ten years ago apply today… but this time they have a sizeable fan-base to participate and observe as it unfolds.

Happy Anniversary Soft Bulletin

Today marks the tenth anniversary of the U.S. release of The Flaming Lips’ The Soft Bulletin, the album that not-so-suddenly changed everything for the band. In the past decade its reputation has solidified to what only a few had instantly recognized it to be: not just one of the most imaginative, heartfelt and spirited albums of the ‘90s, but the sound and the shape of rock n’ roll to come. Likewise, since its release The Flaming Lips’ repute has gone from fringe freaks –typically dismissed as novelty one-hit wonders– to an unanticipated standing as one of the most creatively enduring, critically respected and consistently exciting groups of the past three decades… all while remaining fearless freaks.