Interactive Poll: Outta This World

No problem.  It looks like Mike (Silly Puppy) wasn't able to see that 2nd one either, so I figured it was best to just nominate another one.  Being a big The Flaming Lips fan, I can always post another one some other time.

Hiram:  Tuomari Nurmio “Punainen Planeetta”  Starts off with lovely guitar riff and a mid-range voiced male singer.  The song is light-hearted in feel, whatever his experiences, he is more bemused than frightened by it, I would think. Enjoyable, wish I had the lyrics in English, you’ll have to let me know if I’m correct on my feelings about how the person took this close encounter.  J.M.K.E. “Antikristus ja kuldsed talrikud “  Intriguing title!  Much harder edged than the previous choice.  Definitely moves along, in a fairly typical punk-ish sort of way.  Lots of driving bass and crashing of drums throughout, with chorded electric guitar for the most part.  Luuranko “Erakkomaja ja avaruuslaiva”  Begins right off with the full band, vocals are fairly monotone.  I enjoy the guitar riff, with it’s surf-type embellishments and the feeling of being slightly imbalanced, or off-centered. 

Mike:  Minus the Bear “I’m Not Totally Down with Rob’s Alien”  Love that title! Begins with some percussive sounds, twinkly guitar and some keys.  Vocals join in, way way back in the mix.  The vocal comes to the fore with more twinkly guitars underneath.  The guitars become very thick and distorted during the chorus-y parts.  Keyboards create a wash underneath it all.  Love the whimsical feel of the whole thing.  The piece ends with some beacon-y keyboards, fading out.  Gorillaz “Every Planet We Reach is Dead”  This one has a wry feel to it, with wah-wah guitar and repetitive keys, and percussion that sounds almost like fingersnaps.  Vocalist reminds me a bit of Jack Bruce, kind of more laconic, however.  There is a quavery chorus behind.  Love hearing that string finger-squeak at 2:08.   A wall of sounds comes in about 3 mins in with keyboard chords and a synth wiggle waggle.  The song becomes very bluesy, but with a modern edge provided with the mixing technique.  Before the end, there is a bit of a string section (on keys, I think) before the song ends.  Flaming Lips “UFO’s Over Baghdad”  Begins with a horn playing the familiar notes of “Taps.”  Keyboards are played over and the band kicks in with a marching beat on the drums.  An alt rock sound to the act, there is a waveriness to the singer’s voice that brings Ray Davies to mind.  Sorry I compared not just one, but two vocalists in your choices, I don’t tend to do that a lot, but there it is.  Hope you don’t mind. There is a wistfulness to this song, as was prefaced with the choice of the intro.  It seems as though the song is done, but there are some ominous sounds that come back in for the final couple of minutes.  Flaming Lips “Space Oddity”  Ominous start, with single notes with a marimba sound.  Nice cover and lovely theatrics.  It almost feels like they’ve turned into a cult that worships Bowie, lol, like years after he’s gone with the quasi-religious theme.  I like this band a lot, thank you. 

Lorenzo:  Eugenio Finardi “Extraterrestre” Bass, keys and drums at the start.  A singer in the style of what I think of now, thanks to Lorenzo in particular, as being in “the Italian style,” although, obviously, there are many more styles that make up the Italian perspective.  This has a horn section punctuating the piece, which in general, feels upbeat.  Sitar or sitar/guitar comes into play as well.  From the words, I get the feeling of wherever you go, there you are, after all.  Even if you manage to get to another universe.  Also, the idea that the striving is the important part of the journey of self-realization, not the attainment of it.

dr wu23:  Graham Parker “Waiting for the UFOs”  I do know both of your selections, first thought I had from the topic was the very fun “Purple People Eater,” a classic.  Graham Parker’s tune is very much in his style of straight ahead singer/songwriter rock and Sheb Wooley’s song is as already said, a classic!  I hope that for some it is new, since it’s a clever novelty song.  Fleetwood Mac “Hypnotized”  Familiar with this one, as well.  As mentioned with cstack’s choice, I like this era of them a lot.  Good choice. 

cstack3:  Fleetwood Mac “Bermuda Triangle”  This has a mild bluesy feel, but touches on jazz as well, as did most of his material.  I enjoyed much of this era of Fleetwood Mac, it was a logical continuation of the Peter Green era, which was extremely bluesy, as most know around here, I would guess.  Loved his “Jewel-Eyed Judy,” song on Kilnhouse, in particular.  Fun speculative song, this one.

George:  Billy Thorpe “Children of the Sun”  Mysterious woogly sounds start this one off, then the drums kick in in an unpredictable way.  More wooglies and swirlies, then the vocals begin in a quavery, yet clipped voice.  The vocalist reveals that his more of a gravelly singer, than quavery.  The song moves into slow motion, almost, with guitars and chorus-y vocals, which are much effected.  Guitar commences with a more standard rock/blues lead.  The oddly syncopated drums return with bass at the fore.  

siLLy puPPY: J Geils Band “No Anchovies Please”  Peter Wolf’s outfit, this one is comedic, as would be expected from the title.  A spoken piece with wonkly sax and music behind.  The Smiths “Panic”  Morrissey’s funny song about hanging the DJ, another humour-laden song, including little kid voices in the chorus. 

Hyruchu:  Marek Biliński & Bank "Opowieści kosmiczne"  This one begins with dark sounds, almost militaristic to me, then the lead guitar, although it’s back in the mix, becomes more jubilant.  Keyboards come to the fore.  The pace switches to become a bit slower about halfway in, a musical bridge, I would think.  And yes, back to the main theme again to closing, with more swirly-whirlies on keys and back to guitar lead to closing.

Of course I don't mind the vocal comparisons, it adds some good insight to the songs.  I'm glad you like what you heard by The Flaming Lips, they are quite an interesting band, doing things in odd ways.  They've made a 24-hour long album that was sold as a memory stick inside of a candy skull for a sale price of $10,000.  Of course, it's quite rare, but you can hear the song on YouTube.  They have also had some interesting guests on some of their albums, from Jim James to Miley Cyrus to Henry Rollins.  They also did a complete cover of the entire Dark Side of the Moon album and it's really strange.  But their original music is always the best and varies from regular pop to really spaced out psych rock.  They have quite a huge discography too.