Loud Reading
STARING AT SOUND: THE TRUE STORY OF OKLAHOMA'S FABULOUS FLAMING LIPS
(Broadway Books)
Some readers, even those enamored of rock tomes, are going to wonder how a band like the Flaming Lips, which has had one novelty hit in the U.S. and never a platinum-selling album, could deserve its own biography. But music fans know better; as a band going on 23 years old, Oklahoma City's most psychedelic sons have had as wide, varied and interesting a career as anyone in rock history. Critic and noted Lips enthusiast Jim DeRogatis tells the Lips' story as well as anyone could, keeping his prose lean and fact-based, letting the bandmembers relate the history as much as possible. (Though he doesn't hesitate to offer his opinion on the group's oeuvre.) It probably goes without saying that bandleader Wayne Coyne is the most loquacious, and he offers many fascinating insights into the head space of one of modern rock's most creative bands. If you're a Lips fan already, this is an essential item. If you're not, pick this up anyway, and by the end of it you'll join the rest of us in the weird, wonderful world of the Flaming Lips. Michael Toland [buy it]
