Charger Arts & Entertainment

For your aural pleasure...."Oooooooklahoma, where the wind comes sweepin; down the plain"

Erin McMillan, Charger Staff

Regrettably, the summer is once again winding down, and the time has come to get the educational ball rolling for the new school year. Luckily, the new academic year means nine more months to encounter new bands, so let it begin. This month’s bands are The Secret Machines, who have been gaining popularity partially through comparisons to The Flaming Lips, and, also, The Flaming Lips themselves, whose latest musical effort has earned them a good deal of recognition. Over the past months Christina

Milian “dippin’ it low” has caused massive head trauma, but have hope, better music exists.
The first band, The Secret Machines, includes a set of brothers. Rolling out of Texas, Brandon and Benjamin Curtis, along with Josh Garza, started doing their thing in 2000. All were playing in numerous other bands, but came together to create the 2000 EP, September 000. After leaving Texas they went to New York and opened for ... And You Will Know Us By the Trail Of the Dead. They continued touring throughout 2002, when they returned back to New York, their newly adopted hometown, and cut  their debut full-length on Reprise Records, Here is Nowhere this year. As new as this band is, they are creating waves in the musical world. "It's A Bad Wind That Don't Blow Somebody Some Good" and "What Used To Be French" from the September 000 EP are worth listening to along with "Road Leads Where It's Led."

When one mentions Oklahoma, images of rock gods securing their place in music history do not come to mind. This could not be more untrue than for the second band of brothers, The Flaming Lips. The Flaming Lips came to be one fateful night in 1983 when their future bass player, Michael Ivins's parents went out of a town. Like any teenager preoccupied with debauchery he threw a drunken party where Mark Coyne, the vocal frontman to be, came, uninvited. As it would turn out this meeting planted the seeds of what would become The Flaming Lips. After the party, Wayne Coyne, brother to Mark, came to Michael because he knew that Michael played bass. This was the first draft of the band's lineup. After testing out drummers, the band mates decided upon Richard English, who would remain only until 1988.

After playing their first show in a transvestite club, the boys decided they needed a new road to musical success and purchased a PA. Equipped with the only one in the area, The Flaming Lips quickly racked up opportunities to play in the Oklahoma punk rock circle with bands like Husker Du, Black Flag, and the Minutemen. This was the beginning of their twenty-year success.

Since then, numerous members have replaced both Richard English and Mark Coyne. The current line up boasts original musicians Wayne Coyne and Michael Ivans along with drummer Steven G. Drozd. Oh, and they have also accumulated eleven full albums, the latest being the ever popular Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots. Recently you may have seen them featured on a VH1 commercial with the song "Do You Realize??" playing while animated singers flash on screen.

The Flaming Lips come complete with a sound perfect for anything. Bombastic, symphonic, psychadelic, and catchy are all commonly used to describe their sound, and the truth is, it is hard to put a distinct label on the type of music they make. Listen for yourself. For starters, try "Ego Tripping at The Gates of Hell" and " Fight Test" from Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. Also give a listen to "Spark That Bled" from Soft Bulletin, and " Bad Days (Aurally Excited Version) from Clouds Taste Metallic.

So here it is, two marvelous bands that will get productive juices flowing and open the floodgates to a year dripping with scholastic potential. Look again next month when two more bands and two more opportunities will be present to replace your Hoobastank CDs with something a bit more substantial.