Zaireeka
Studio album by The Flaming Lips
Released	October 28, 1997
Recorded	1996 - 1997
Genre	Experimental rock
Length	45:32
Label	Warner Bros. Records
Producer(s)	The Flaming Lips, Dave Fridmann, Scott Booker
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link Pitchfork Media (0.0/10) link
The Flaming Lips chronology
Clouds Taste Metallic (1995)	Zaireeka (1997)	The Soft Bulletin (1999)

Zaireeka is the title of the eighth studio album by the alternative rock band The Flaming Lips. Released in 1997, the experimental rock album consists of four compact discs. Each of its eight songs consists of four tracks, one from each CD. The album was designed so that when played simultaneously on four separate audio systems, the four CDs would produce a harmonic or juxtaposed sound. The discs may be included in different combinations, omitting one, two or three discs. The album's title is a portmanteau of the words Zaire (symbolizing anarchy, based on Wayne Coyne's hearing of a radio news story about the political instability of the African nation of Zaire) and eureka (representing new ideas).^[1] Zaireeka This is an album cover. ... A Studio Album is an album of regular studio recordings. ... The Flaming Lips (formed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in 1983) are a Grammy-award winning[1] American alternative rock band. ... October 28 is the 301st day of the year (302nd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 64 days remaining. ... 1997 (MCMXCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... 1997 (MCMXCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A music genre is a category (or genre) of pieces of music that share a certain style or basic musical language (van der Merwe 1989, p. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Art rock. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Warner Bros. ... In the music industry, a record producer (or music producer) has many roles, among them controlling the recording sessions, coaching and guiding the musicians, and supervising the recording, mixing and mastering processes. ... Dave Fridmann is a musician and record producer. ... The All Music Guide (AMG) is a metadata database about music owned by All Media Guide. ... Image File history File links 4_stars. ... A typical example of Pitchforks main page, as of 12-12-06 Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork and occasionally shortened to P4K or pfork,[1] is a United States-based daily Internet publication devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. ... The Flaming Lips (formed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in 1983) are a Grammy-award winning[1] American alternative rock band. ... Clouds Taste Metallic is the seventh album by the band The Flaming Lips released on September 19, 1995. ... The Soft Bulletin is the ninth album released by The Flaming Lips on May 17, 1999 (see 1999 in music) in the UK, with a US release following on June 22, 1999. ... A Studio Album is an album of regular studio recordings. ... Alternative rock (also called alternative music[1] or simply alternative) is a genre of rock music that emerged in the 1980s and became widely popular in the 1990s. ... The Flaming Lips (formed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in 1983) are a Grammy-award winning[1] American alternative rock band. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Art rock. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Sound recorder redirects here. ... In acoustics and telecommunication, the harmonic of a wave is a component frequency of the signal that is an integer multiple of the fundamental frequency. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Anarchy, in its broadest sense, refers to a political and social theory in which human society exists without government. ... Eureka (Eureka!, or Heureka; Greek (later ); IPA: (modern Greek), (ancient Greek, both former and later forms), Anglicised as ) is a famous exclamation attributed to Archimedes. ...

Zaireeka was the first album made by the band since the departure of guitarist Ronald Jones.^[2] It acted as a preview of the music and style that would surface on the next album, The Soft Bulletin (1999)^[3] and is the predecessor to the band's more conventional surround sound releases.^[4] Ronald Jones(born 1970?) was a guitarist in the Oklahoma indie-rock band The Flaming Lips from 1991 to 1996. ... The Soft Bulletin is the ninth album released by The Flaming Lips on May 17, 1999 (see 1999 in music) in the UK, with a US release following on June 22, 1999. ... Surround sound is the name for a variety of techniques for expanding and enriching the sound of audio playback by recording additional sound channels that can be reproduced on additional speakers. ...

Track listing

All four discs have identical track listings:

1. "Okay I'll Admit That I Really Don't Understand" – 2:51
2. "Riding to Work in the Year 2025 (Your Invisible Now)" [sic] – 7:03
3. "Thirty-five Thousand Feet of Despair" – 4:59
4. "A Machine in India" – 10:23
5. "The Train Runs Over the Camel But Is Derailed by the Gnat" – 6:14
6. "How Will We Know? (Futuristic Crashendos)" – 2:23
7. "March of the Rotten Vegetables" – 6:28
8. "The Big Ol' Bug Is the New Baby Now" – 5:05

All tracks written by The Flaming Lips.^[1]

About the songs

Zaireeka opens with "Okay I'll Admit That I Really Don't Understand", a mantra of sorts about the admitted lack of comprehension regarding one's situation.^[clarify] The second track, "Riding to Work in the Year 2025 (Your Invisible Now)" tells a science-fiction story about a man who pretends to be a secret agent in the future and imagines his own psychological demise from the stress "of being the most important secret agent in the world." "Thirty-five Thousand Feet of Despair", the third song, is the tragic story of an airplane pilot who commits suicide mid-flight. The next song, "A Machine in India", is about the "dull and depressing, mild insanity" that Wayne Coyne's partner slips into during her menstrual cycle. Next, "The Train Runs Over the Camel But is Derailed by the Gnat", is a speech by a man who is on the verge of discovery, but ends up "talking himself into circles." Track six, "How Will We Know? (Futuristic Crashendos)", is based on an urban legend that being exposed to high and low frequencies can cause a person to experience premonitions, and thus contains its infamously extensive frequencies that caused the band to place a warning on the album cover and inside the booklet. The seventh song, "March of the Rotten Vegetables", is "music for a cartoon about a group of demented vegetables." The eighth and final song, "The Big Ol' Bug is the New Baby Now", contains a spoken-word story about Coyne's dogs and ends the album with loud barking from each disc.^[1][5] Image File history File links The_Flaming_Lips_-_35k_Feet_(Disc_1). ... Software development stages In computer programming, development stage terminology expresses how the development of a piece of software has progressed and how much further development it may require. ... Image File history File links The_Flaming_Lips_-_35k_Feet_(Disc_2). ... Software development stages In computer programming, development stage terminology expresses how the development of a piece of software has progressed and how much further development it may require. ... Image File history File links The_Flaming_Lips_-_35k_Feet_(Disc_3). ... Software development stages In computer programming, development stage terminology expresses how the development of a piece of software has progressed and how much further development it may require. ... Image File history File links The_Flaming_Lips_-_35k_Feet_(Disc_4). ... Software development stages In computer programming, development stage terminology expresses how the development of a piece of software has progressed and how much further development it may require. ... Image File history File links The_Flaming_Lips_-_35k_Feet_(stereo_mixdown). ... Software development stages In computer programming, development stage terminology expresses how the development of a piece of software has progressed and how much further development it may require. ... Science Fiction redirects here. ... Menstrual cycle The menstrual cycle is a recurring cycle of physiological changes in the females of some animal species that is associated with reproductive fertility. ... An urban legend or urban myth is a kind of modern folklore consisting of stories often thought to be factual by those circulating them. ... A premonition occurs when future events, often calamitous in nature, are foreknown via individual psychic experience. ...

History

Historical Context

Adverse circumstances led to the production of Zaireeka. The departure of guitarist Ronald Jones compelled the band to change fundamentally. In addition, the limited success of the previous album (Clouds Taste Metallic [1995]) threatened their status at Warner Bros. Records. They eventually found that drummer Steven Drozd could compensate for the loss of Jones by becoming a multi-instrumentalist. However, live shows proved to be more challenging and in order to maintain activity and output, Wayne Coyne conceived the Parking Lot Experiments.^[6] Clouds Taste Metallic is the seventh album by the band The Flaming Lips released on September 19, 1995. ... Steven Drozd (born June 11, 1969, Houston, Texas) is a multi-instrumentalist and drummer for The Flaming Lips. ...

Parking Lot Experiments

During 1996 and 1997, The Flaming Lips ran a series of events known as "The Parking Lot Experiments". Inspired by an incident in his youth, where he noticed that people in the parking lot for a concert performance were playing the same songs at the same time,^[7] Wayne Coyne created 40 tapes to be played in synchronization. The band invited people to bring their cars to parking lots, where they would be given one of the tapes and then instructed when to start them. The music was "a strange, fluid 20 minute sound composition".^[8]

Production

Production of the album was preceded by two unfortunate events, which were recounted in "The Spiderbite Song" from The Soft Bulletin. Michael Ivins was involved in a car crash, and Steven Drozd was allegedly bitten by a spider.^[9] In reality however, Drozd's "spider bite" was an infected abscess caused by injection of an illegal drug.^[10] Michael Ivins (born March 17, 1963 in Omaha, Nebraska) is the bassist for The Flaming Lips. ...

The Flaming Lips began work on Zaireeka in April, 1997 in the then-new Tarbox Road Studios. Initially, the band was frustrated while making the album. Even after diverting half of the budget for the next album into Zaireeka, there were no tangible results. The band experienced difficulty writing for the four-CD medium. Finally, Coyne exclaimed "Look, we don't have to be friends… but we have to make this record!" Whilst this philosophy aided progress, the band only began to complete songs when they learned to write for the medium as opposed to trying to split normal songs across four CDs.^[11] 1997 (MCMXCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... ...

The group wrote several songs that were unsuccessful in the four-CD format. These songs, including "Race For The Prize", were reserved for the next album, which would eventually become The Soft Bulletin.^[11]

Release

Warner Bros. Records was initially apprehensive about releasing Zaireeka, so manager Scott Booker carefully researched the costs of releasing a box set. Booker discovered that Zaireeka could be released so that once 12,000 copies had been sold, the label would break even (advance orders came to 14,000 copies). Booker pitched the album to Warner Bros. Records president Steven Baker. The Flaming Lips (formed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in 1983) are a Grammy-award winning[1] American alternative rock band. ... Steven Bakes Paul Baker (born May 22, 1980) was drafted in the 1998 AFL Draft in a second round priorty pick to the St Kilda Football Club at pick 27. ...

Eventually, the two factions reached an agreement in which the album would be released, although Zaireeka would not count towards the seven albums The Flaming Lips were contracted to create. For an advance of $200,000, the band would make both Zaireeka and The Soft Bulletin. In addition, Booker mentioned that by allowing the media to proclaim how "weird" the band was with Zaireeka, they would be more prepared to treat The Soft Bulletin as a serious album.^[12] Zaireeka was released in October, 1997. As of 2006, 28,000 copies have been sold.^[3] Look up October in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... 2006 is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Boom Box Experiments

Wayne Coyne "conducting" a Boom Box Experiment^[13]

After completion of Zaireeka, The Flaming Lips tried an unconventional method to tour the album. "The Boom Box Experiments," like the Parking Lot Experiments that preceded work on the album, involved tapes being played at the same time. However, these shows were held in conventional rock venues, and the band supplied their own boom boxes. Coyne and Drozd conducted two "choirs" of people controlling the boom boxes, giving them instructions for actions like turning the volume up or down, while Ivins controlled the PA mixer.^[14] Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ...

Songs played in the Boom Box Experiments include:

• "The Big Ol' Bug is The New Baby Now"
• "A Winter's Day Car Accident Melody"
• "Altruism, or That's the Crotch Calling the Devil Black"
• "Heralding In a Better Ego"
• "Realizing the Speed of Life"
• "Schizophrenic Sunrise, or The Loudest Blade of Grass"^[15]

Aftermath

With Zaireeka, The Flaming Lips had overcome the loss of Ronald Jones and proved they could still work as a band. The situation at Warner Bros. Records was still dire, including a risk of being dropped from the label. However, songs had already been written for the next album. That album, The Soft Bulletin (1999), would be both a critical hit for the band and act as their breakthrough into mainstream.^[16][17] Following the release of Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots (2002), The Flaming Lips would return to the concept of surround sound with a DVD-Audio special-edition of that album in 2003.^[4] Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots is the tenth album by The Flaming Lips, released on July 16, 2002 and characterized by synthesizer-driven, psychedelic-tinged alternative rock compositions. ...

Zaireeka is viewed by the band as nothing more than an experimental release. "It was, and still is, intended to be listened to by other artists, musicians and producers," Coyne would later state in the liner notes for The Soft Bulletin 5.1, adding that they "never expected the less involved members of our (The Flaming Lips') audience to care about it."^[18]

Logistics

Zaireeka is typically played with more than one piece of equipment. Here, discs one and three are in two boomboxes.

The speakers being used may be physically positioned in many different configurations — for example, at different heights or even in entirely different rooms. Some listeners may even choose to disable the left or right speaker of one or more systems. Synchronization errors between the audio systems may cause effects such as echoes being heard on one disc before the original sound is produced from another. Further, the type and quality of each audio system affects the relationship between the four CDs.^[19] Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (1494x793, 160 KB) Picture of two discs from The Flaming Lips box set Zaireeka. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (1494x793, 160 KB) Picture of two discs from The Flaming Lips box set Zaireeka. ...

Other formats

Wayne Coyne confirmed that Zaireeka will eventually be released on DVD format in the vein of the surround-sound special editions of Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots (2002), The Soft Bulletin and At War With The Mystics (2006).^[18] At War with the Mystics is the title of the eleventh album by the Flaming Lips. ...

In the UK, the "Race for the Prize" (1999) and "Waitin' for a Superman" (1999) singles were released in 2-disc sets. Each disc of the two sets contained a different version of "Riding to Work in the Year 2025 (Your Invisible Now)" and "Thirty-five Thousand Feet of Despair" from Zaireeka. This marked the first time material from the album would be released in the four-disc format in Europe. The "Waitin' for a Superman" Maxi-CD, as released in the US, contains stereo mixes of the two songs.^[20]

Critical reception

Critical reaction to the album was mixed. Rolling Stone gave Zaireeka four stars out of five, writing: "Zaireeka's wall-of-surround-sound approach melds droning-rock dissonance with warped, off-kilter pop melodies, producing a totally immersing post-Pet Sounds audio seance."^[21] All Music Guide mentioned that the album would only really be accessable to hardcore Flaming Lips fans, but that "they're in for the musical experience of a lifetime."^[22] This article is about the magazine. ... Pet Sounds is a 1966 album recorded by American pop group the Beach Boys. ... The All Music Guide (AMG) is a metadata database about music owned by All Media Guide. ...

Critics who disliked the album cited what they viewed as a ridiculous concept. Pitchfork gave the album its rare 0.0 rating, criticizing the concept for its "ridiculousness" and dismissing the project as "completely useless" however, the reviewer admitted that he did not listen to the album as intended and did not listen to all four discs at once.^[23] The Flaming Lips' next album, The Soft Bulletin, received a rating of 10.0 (nearly as rare as 0.0)^[24] Similarly, Salon remarked in its review that "Musically… their 1995 album Clouds Taste Metallic offers the same psychotic results without all the technological hassle. And conceptually? The same thing, just all at once: stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid."^[25] A typical example of Pitchforks main page, as of 12-12-06 Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork and occasionally shortened to P4K or pfork,[1] is a United States-based daily Internet publication devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. ... Screenshot of Salon. ...

References

1997 (MCMXCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Flaming Lips (formed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in 1983) are a Grammy-award winning[1] American alternative rock band. ... Warner Bros. ... 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the Anno Domini (common) era. ... March 19 is the 78th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (79th in leap years). ... 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the Anno Domini (common) era. ... March 19 is the 78th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (79th in leap years). ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Flaming Lips (formed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in 1983) are a Grammy-award winning[1] American alternative rock band. ... Warner Bros. ... 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the Anno Domini (common) era. ... February 9 is the 40th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the Anno Domini (common) era. ... February 5 is the 36th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the Anno Domini (common) era. ... February 5 is the 36th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the Anno Domini (common) era. ... February 5 is the 36th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the Anno Domini (common) era. ... February 10 is the 41st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the Anno Domini (common) era. ... March 5 is the 64th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (65th in leap years). ... 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the Anno Domini (common) era. ... February 9 is the 40th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the Anno Domini (common) era. ... February 10 is the 41st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the Anno Domini (common) era. ... March 20 is the 79th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (80th in leap years). ... 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the Anno Domini (common) era. ... February 10 is the 41st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the Anno Domini (common) era. ... February 10 is the 41st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the Anno Domini (common) era. ... February 10 is the 41st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the Anno Domini (common) era. ... February 10 is the 41st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... The Soft Bulletin is the ninth album released by The Flaming Lips on May 17, 1999 (see 1999 in music) in the UK, with a US release following on June 22, 1999. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... The Flaming Lips (formed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in 1983) are a Grammy-award winning[1] American alternative rock band. ... Warner Bros. ... 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the Anno Domini (common) era. ... February 5 is the 36th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the Anno Domini (common) era. ... February 5 is the 36th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... November 22 is the 326th day (327th on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the Anno Domini (common) era. ... February 10 is the 41st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the Anno Domini (common) era. ... February 19 is the 50th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the Anno Domini (common) era. ... February 5 is the 36th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the Anno Domini (common) era. ... February 10 is the 41st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ...

External links

• Album information at the official Flaming Lips website.
• Information about the Parking Lot Experiments at the official Flaming Lips website.
• Information about the Boom Box Experiments at the official Flaming Lips website.
• Complete transcription of Zaireeka liner notes.
• Zaireeka at All Music Guide.