My beloved record collection…

SEPTEMBER 9, 2023 (#358)

Husker Du: "Gravity" Replacements: "Unsatisfied" Scratch Acid: "Owner's Lament" Cult, The: "Rain" Love And Rockets: "Ball Of Confusion" Jesus And Mary Chain, The: "April Skies" Big Audio Dynamite: "Just Play Music" R.E.M.: "Stand" Smithereens, The: "Drown In My Own Tears" XTC: "King For A Day" Flaming Lips: "Shine On Sweet Jesus (Jesus Song No. 5)" New Fast Automatic Daffodils: "Fishes Eyes" Pulp: "Countdown" Frank Black: "Hang On To Your Ego" Suede: "Still Life" Elastica: "Waking Up" Guided By Voices: "Jane Of The Waking Universe" Death Cab for Cutie: "Information Travels Faster" Radiohead: "How To Disappear Completely" Interpol: "Take You On A Cruise" Sneaker Pimps: "The Chauffeur" IAMX: "Sailor" Fischerspooner: "The 15th" Cansei De Ser Sexy: "Bezzi" LCD Soundsystem: "Someone Great" Cut Copy: "Cold Youth" Small Black: "Bad Lover" Juan MacLean, The: "Tonight" Minks: "Ophelia" Yeasayer: "O.N.E." Neon Indian: "Should've Taken Acid With You" Hot Chip: "Flutes" Franz Ferdinand: "Stand On The Horizon" (Todd Terje RMX) Prince Rama: "Bahia" Caribou: "Silver" Classixx: "A Mountain With No Ending" Toro Y Moi: "A Girl Like You" Washed Out: "Olivia" Brian Jonestown Massacre: "Pish" Mark Lanegan: "Flatlands" Pixies: "All I Think About Now" Beach House: "Drunk In L.A." Nothing: "Eaten By Worms" Porcupine Tree: "Chimera's Wreck" Florence & The Machine: "What Kind Of Man" Shannon & The Clams: "King Of The Sea" King Gizzard: "Head On / Pill"

We welcome all of our listeners to Omega Radio, WUSB's most diverse show on its grid. Tonight, we start off our Autumn broadcasting season in a major way. It's a double-deluxe program as we take over for Everything Must Go with four hours of marquee artists, tried-and-true synthpop, chillwave, and newer all-around favorites. We also revisit some artists that we haven't played in quite a while and ones who are featured here for the first time.

A huge thank you to @tewz for proving us with lots of ideas for tonight's show. We'll have plenty of Autumn sounds to go around, including ending the year with our annual 'second-chance' broadcast. Thanks for listening.

September 23, 2023 (10PM New York City): deluxe Omega

October 7, 2023 (10PM New York City): deluxe Omega

October 21, 2023 (10PM New York City): deluxe Omega

November 4, 2023 (10PM New York City): final deluxe Autumn Omega + Year 11 broadcast.

Hello! I noticed there wasn't any sort of (active) Discord server for the group, so I made one. Hoping this gets somewhere. Feel free to join!

Pink Robot drawing I did a while ago🤖

The Flaming Lips

New Year, New Me

Hello, we are The Poppet Sisters, a trio of writers, artists, and overall creatives. We are trans, autistic, and plural.

So what's our deal? Let's start with me. I'm Penny, I'm a burnout artist by day and a psychonaut by night! I delight in exploring the deepest reaches of my subconscious to transcribe the experience with pen unto page. My primary interests are the game Psychonauts, Fantastic Four, and LEGO.

Um hello, my name is Alice, and I'm a plush rabbit. I kinda just sleep all day and hug plushies because I'm really shy, but sometimes I get my lil rabbit heart pumping with some video games. I really like Zelda and Undertale, and I wanna get into more stuff, just I don't come out all that often. I hope we can be friends!

MY TURN!! BEHOLD THE TRICKSTER GOD OF THE 7TH COMET, THE TRY-HARD TEFFLING: EVE!! BEING ME IS LIKE A HIT OF ADRENALINE, JUST YOU SEE!! I LOVE MUSIC, FAVOURITE BANDS ARE JIM NOIR, GEROGE HARRISON, BRIAN WILSON, JIM NOIR, JANELLE MONAE, FLAMING LIPS, JIM NOIR, ANIMAL COLLECTIVE, COSMO SHELDRAKE, AND JIM NOIR!! FANTASIA 2000 AND KOYAANISQATSI CHANGED MY LIFE, AND- HEY HEY I'M NOT DONE TYPING!! PENNY NOOOOO-

Eheh... it's a lot of fun up here. Expect to see artwork, hyperfixations on current stims, jokes, ideas, really anything that poppets into my head. We also take art commissions. Just DM us and we can discuss!

The Flaming French Bowie-Batman Connection.

If I can just share a random musical fact that leads into a greater lyrical appreciation of a song that was featured in the soundtrack to Batman Forever....

In 1968 David Bowie was approached by a music publisher to translate the 1957 French song, Comme d'habitude into english. The original song was about falling out of love and the end of a relationship. Bowie had translated a few other songs before for this publisher, and so he took this job too.

His song, Even A Fool Falls In Love, was rejected by the original song rights holders because they believed Bowie was too obscure of an artist at this point, and they wanted a huge hit so they could get residuals.

A short time later Paul Anka bought the rights for the song and rewrote it, and had another artist cover it. It was a huge hit for the artist and soon became their signature tune. The Artist? Frank Sinatra. The Song? My Way.

Bowie was understandably a little miffed by all of this. So, he wrote a parody song that used some of the same chord progressions and melody. That Song? Life on Mars.

"WHAT DOES ANY OF THIS HAVE TO DO WITH BATMAN?!" I hear you scream into the night.

In 1995 Warner Brothers releases Batman Forever. Two songs stood out from the associated soundtrack release. Seal's Kiss From a Rose, and Bad Days by The Flaming Lips. The later of which was to serve as the "theme song" for Jim Carrey's Riddler. The Batman Forever soundtrack was the first album the song debuted on. And so is considered the official release of the song.

"But Cody," I hear you ask, "What does that have to do with Life on Mars and My Way?"

It is a song about escaping your bad days into your dreams. The song opens with the lines:

"You're sorta stuck where you are, But in your dreams, you can buy expensive cars Or live on Mars, and have it your way. "

The inflection at the end of the line is identical and mocking of Sinatra's My Way. Wayne Coyne was obviously aware of the connection between the two songs, which is impressive in a pre internet world. But we forget that pre internet, fans would actually read fan magazines and interviews, and such. So being into music, he would have definitely heard of this story.

But there is another layer!

Bowie was hired to write a translation of a song for a record company. The Flaming lips were hired to write a song by a record company. So the line is also a nod to The Flaming Lips (a band from Oklahoma City) getting some recognition, and maybe moving forward. The chance to buy expensive cars, live on mars, and have it their way. Beyond that there is the double reference of "Have it your way" being the slogan that Burger King used against McDonalds.

Batman Forever was a huge advertising monster, and had a tie in with McDonalds.

So it was possibly another way for the band to take a dig at the whole concept behind the song as a way to sell a movie tie in for Warner Brother's records, AND a dig at McDonalds.

GENIUS! And all of that coded in two sentences!

12/19/23.

Today is the 9th anniversary of this blog. There are over 2600 posts to peruse. Better get cracking.

I think I first heard Frog (New York, New York) on November 11, 2023. I immediately bought the CD and posted. Their S/T CD from 2013 suddenly was one of my favorite releases of all time. Every single song is stunning. Apparently, Frog has been building a following over the past several years. I don't think Dan (now joined by his brother Steve) Bateman ever stopped making music, they've just been receiving more attention. I mean, Pitchfork reviewed "Grog" in early December. They mentioned that David Berman (Silver Jews) was a huge fan and even wrote Dan a letter.

"Grog" is the newest release via Audio Antihero. And while this collection of songs didn't hit me as quickly as their S/T, I have no doubt this will be a favorite soon. Pavement and The Flaming Lips are still clear touchstones. This batch of songs are more traditional in length.

One thing I appreciate about Frog is that they're not shy about letting us into their family lives. Look at that young kid holding the CD - the pride in holding onto Dad's talent. So cool.

The Flaming Lips

Gallery: The Flaming Lips @ Commodore Ballroom - Vancouver, BC Date: February 28, 2023 Photographed by: Ray Maichin

the flaming lips fight test

The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots Part 1 (2002)

it sounds like mario screaming when he falls