In 1997, the flaming lips released a quadruple album called Zaireeka, designed for playing on four CDs simultaneously. That same year saw the band’s “Boombox” and “Parking Lot” experiments, in which mainman Wayne Coyne attempted to conduct first a roomful of ghetto blasters and then about 40 drivers and their car stereos. After that little lot, a DVD with dazzling audio and visual extras and various points of access encouraging heavy interactivity isn’t much of a stretch.
The Flaming Lips’ first DVD-Audio is as crammed with ideas as their music. To make the most of the Advanced Resolution Multi-Channel Surround Sound, you do need a DVD-Audio player, but all of the other elements can be enjoyed on a regular DVD machine. There are Frequency Waveform Cartoons, which are brightly coloured psychedelic computerised images synced to each track from Yoshimi that change as per the tone and mood of the music, and which you can leave on as a sort of ambient visual backdrop at dinner parties for reformed acid casualties. There is a documentary on the making of the DVD-Audio?the first time, apparently, a band has ever recorded anything specifically for the format, in which Coyne waxes lyrical about “sound fields” with his usual gusto and verve.
You also get 10 videos: the promos for the “Do You Realize??”, “Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots Pt 1” and “Fight Test” singles plus Making Of…documentaries for each and a couple of alternative edits, including one called “Phoebe Battles The Pink Robots”, an acoustic version specially reworked for Lisa Kudrow’s scatty character Phoebe to perform in the Central Perk caf