Hear It Is

by The Flaming Lips

Overview

Hearing Hear It Is years later, after all the band had done up to the new century, makes for an almost surreal experience. No swirling orchestral parts, no Beach Boys-on-Mars homages, even Wayne Coyne's immediately recognizable cracked fracture of a voice isn't present. Instead, it's raunchy bar-band-gone-insane fun or calmer but not too wracked ruminations from Coyne, with music to match. It isn't as completely discontinuous as might be thought, though -- Coyne's vision was already distinctly gone, in ways that most bands would kill for. The gentle acoustic strumming that starts the album on "With You" or the steady pace and mournful singing on "Godzilla Flick" shows that subtlety was as much a part of the game as stomping, fried electric guitar insanity. Throughout Hear It Is, there's a gleeful "try what works" approach that would only become stronger later -- the band may have been punk-inspired and birthed, but Coyne and company drew on everything from country & western to classic rock crunch and more; there are even some clear early goth rock touches. If anybody was kin at the time, it would be the Meat Puppets, with perhaps a little less interest in high lonesome sounds. Texas psych types like the 13th Floor Elevators and the Red Krayola were clear forebears -- one can easily imagine Roky Erickson coming up with shaggy dog stories and music for the likes of "Trains, Brains and Rain." The group's own uniqueness comes through, though. Consider the blunt imagery of "Jesus Shootin' Heroin" or the clearly humorous yells and climax of "Charlie Manson Blues" as two examples of many. Initial CD versions of the album included the self-titled EP, while later pressings only added an enthusiastic fuzz-take of Eddie Cochran-via-Blue Cheer's "Summertime Blues." ~ Ned Raggett

Product Details

Release Date:	07/27/2018
Label:	Rhino
UPC:	0603497860357

Tracks

1. With You
2. Unplugged
3. Trains, Brains, and Rain
4. Jesus Shootin' Heroin
5. Just Like Before
6. She Is Death
7. Charlie Manson Blues
8. Man from Pakistan
9. Godzilla Flick
10. Staring at Sound/With You (Reprise)

Album Credits

Performance Credits

The Flaming Lips   Primary Artist
Wayne Coyne   Guitar,Vocals
Michael Ivins   Bass,Vocals,Guitar (Bass)
Richard English   Drums,Vocals

Technical Credits

The Flaming Lips   Design,Composer,Producer
Irving Berlin   Composer
Wayne Coyne   Composer
Jerry Capehart   Composer
Randy Burns   Engineer,Producer
Michael Ivins   Composer
Eddie Cochran   Composer
Richard English   Composer
Michele Vlasimsky   Photography