Flaming Lips - The Day They Shot a Hole in the Jesus Egg (reissue)
(Reckless)
The nicest birthday surprise I've received in a long time came last month, when, after I wasn't able to go to the sold out Beck/Flaming Lips show (I would have been there for the Lips, not Beck, just to let you know), my friends (two of whom were unfortunately not present) took me out to dinner and presented me with a Lips shirt they'd bought at the show. For me! It was just great. There are two points to this story: the first is that my friends are wonderful; the second is that I'm a huge Flaming Lips fan. So, you can imagine my excitement when I heard they'd be re-releasing their fantastic 1989 effort, In A Priest Driven Ambulance, replete with an entire CD (!) and a half (!!) of bonus tracks and outtakes! The fact that, in the past two years, I'd not found a copy of In A Priest..., thanks to the, um, reckless distribution of Reckless Records was a giant bonus. "So, Anthony," you're asking, "how does it hold up?" I'm here to say: pretty darn good.
The actual In a Priest Driven Ambulance album is not only good; it's a highlight of the Lips' catalogue. Featuring a concept that at first struck me as dumb, but, as I listened, revealed its brilliance, and songs that are on par with the best stuff of Hit to Death in the Future Head and Transmissions from the Satellite Heart; it's pretty darn sweet. First, let me outline the concept, as described in the extensive and brilliant liner notes written by resident genius and psychedelia maven Wayne Coyne: In a Priest Driven Ambulance is an album that, ostensibly, is about Jesus and God and religion, but, as you get further into it, becomes less about religion and more about what religion offers: the ideals of sanctuary and eternal love; the brilliance of the album is in its execution of the concept: the songs are so dark that it's easy to see how the idea of eternal love and peace can be depressing as hell. This is no better explained than on the album's two most heart-wrenching tracks, "Five Stop Mother Superior Rain" and "There You Are"—these songs are as dark as can be, with pessimistic lyrics (which I won't repeat, because there's no lyrics sheet and I'm too lazy to transcribe) and sparse instrumentation, perfectly exemplifying how an ideal can fail to work. On the other hand, songs such as the two alterna-rock stompers, "Unconsciously Screamin'" and "Mountainside," and "Shine On Sweet Jesus" highlight the fear and joy that are experienced when putting your entire faith into something. "Shine On Sweet Jesus," especially: it contains some of the best pre-Transmissions Lips lyrics, with standout lines such as, "Lookin' up in the sky/Jesus is floating by/Shine on sweet Jesus, shine on." It's easy to see where the Lips were heading in later work with songs like these, and stuff like "Mountainside" lay in the course they'd take on Hit to Death in the Future Head really well.
As for the bonus material, it's more than a little touch and go. I mean, I love it, but in a lot of ways it's a strictly-for-the-fans kind of thing. Examples of this are the two early versions of both "Unconsciously Screamin'" and "Five Stop Mother Superior Rain"—I find each of them to be really interesting sketches of what the songs would eventually become, but the recording are so muddy and abrasive that it's hard to listen to them a lot. On the other hand, songs that have not seen any real sort of release up until now, like the bonus tracks "Lucifer Rising" and "Drug Machine" are both pretty swell. It's really an interesting mix, when it comes down to it, of outtakes, songs that were kept off of the album for one reason or another, and absolutely fantastic rarities. In that regard, it's an interesting parcel for anyone, whether you're a fan or not. But if you go in expecting the bonus material to sound in any way like their more polished stuff, it doesn't. And, a caveat for all: this is definitely not the album to start with; pick up Clouds Taste Metallic, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, and Transmissions from the Satellite Heart—while I still think this is one of their better albums, it's definitely not one of the more listener friendly ones. I mean, come on, the band were still basically a bunch of kids, and while it's not as sloppy or as druggy as earlier albums, it's still... well, pretty druggy, but not as sloppy. In any case, it's still great.
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