Experimental jet set, no trash, star

Lately I've been feeling a little lucky. So when I was asked if I wanted to interview Dave Fridmann, the studio genius behind the electro-pop band the Flaming Lips, I stuttered for a second as if in a stupor, and nodded my head gleefully. At that moment, I had an epiphany; I knew somebody out there must be looking out for me. And for some reason, I thought, maybe this was all related, maybe this strangely hip band whom I had just recently been introduced to via their 10th and most recent record, The Soft Bulletin, played a more significant role than I could have previously imagined. In any event, I was determined to answer this (rhetorical) question.

COURTESY FLAMING LIPS The Flaming Lips: 10 albums and counting

True artists don't appreciate being misrepresented. So when I got the call and the group's manager realized that I planned on conducting the "informal" interview without a recording mechanism, he flipped. Fortunately, having a journalist's training, I write a decent shorthand and also have a decent memory. All this in the midst of a world tour that led the group to Hartford's Webster Theatre on Wed., Apr. 19. It was slightly disarming, I must admit, to know that Fridmann was phoning from none other than Los Angeles, land of the pimps and the moneymakers, neither of which I can be said to belong to.

For all you indies out there, I can assure you that the Lips have not sold out. While they may technically work for a major label (Warner Bros.), the group clearly retains total artistic freedom, if only because they're good enough. While The Soft Bulletin may strike a dissonant chord with Lips fans who know the ins and outs of their previous nine efforts, Fridmann succeeded in assuring me that the new album is a culmination of many arduous years spent on the road and in the studio. In his words, "Why throw away all the different colors when you've just got 'em?"

It seems to me that those who simultaneously succeed in creating radical music and in going pop signify pure genius: as the Staple Singers once put it (along with many others), Jesus Christ was a superstar.

And unlike so many musical efforts in this age of decadence and debauchery, the Lips hit a spiritual groove that pulses throughout the record. On "What is the Light?" for instance, the band waxes poetic on the connection between human love, Creation, and chemical transmitters. Normally, the aforementioned concoction would leave me grinning at the band's assumed naïveté, snobbery, or plain arrogance; but the eerie (heart)beat at the outset, coupled with Beach Boys-like harmonies, make "What is the Light?" a masterpiece, and a possible hit single.

The Soft Bulletin is a special piece of art in its ability to fuse virtually new and untested philosophical ideas with beautiful contemporary music. These are not half-baked philosophers, nor half-baked musicians for that matter. The sound, Fridmann emphasized, is the culmination of the "ideas embodied in the record."

The most striking feature is the merging of technology with humanity, a theme brilliantly stroked by groups like Radiohead. The opening cut, "Race for the Prize," narrates the emotionally charged quest of two brilliant but—here's the catch—"only human" scientists. It's as if the group pared down the entire history of western philosophy in one catchy, short ditty.

The thing that sets the Lips apart, in my mind, is that they remain objective in recognizing their own human imperfection. Maybe this is what I was meant to glean from our 20-minute conversation. Even the biggest stars are human. The album ends with a simple loop, repeating "Race for the Prize" along with "Waiting for Superman." If the Lips don't constitute the Superman of the electronic music scene (which they themselves seem to suggest), than as an avid listener I ask the question: to whom else should we turn?

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