Steven Drozd has departed the Flaming Lips.
The Flaming Lips are a seminal psych-rock act. For the last 33 years, the sound from the classic weirdos has rounded out to the stuff legends are made up of thanks to one guitarist/keyboardist/everythingist; Steven Drozd. Several people will fight me, saying that Wayne Coyne (Singer) has been as important to the band's sound as Steven's playing. I really don't think I agree...
It's been a sordid few years for the Flaming Lips
With some genuinely weird shit happening.
Over that span of time, I can point to several things that marked the unraveling, starting with the departure of original bassist, Michael Ivins. Since then, there's been some stuff that the public clearly does not know that heightened tensions. However, two noteable events do stand out as clear indicators. The first is the odd disappearance of Steven's daughter. The second was when Wayne outed personal details about Steven's drug use to Japanese media.
Here's what I do know -
Wayne's comments were pretty harsh in that Japanese article. He said it with such fleeting brush-offism. It was a case of the pot calling the kettle black. I mean, folks, let's be real - This is the Flaming Lips we are talking about. Wayne is NOT squeaky clean himself. Certainly not enough to be airing other people's shit.
Any Flaming Lips fan ALSO knows
that Wayne Coyne is a 'big personality'. This can be a lot to deal with at times. The perfect foil to this was Steven Drozd, with his calm and collected demeanor. Steven gave you something to watch in awe when seeing the Flaming Lips that was not hoaky. Now all I get to look at is Wayne popping balloons? Without Steven's playing to support the bombastic nature of the Flaming Lips we have known in the past, Wayne's bit definitely wear thin.
My most recent occassion with the Flaming Lips came last August
when seeing them with Modest Mouse. Modest Mouse were great. I loved the Flaming Lips' set. This is despite the band lacking Steven. It was a good show; I sang along, I danced. Good songs are still good songs. Here's the entire point behind this whole rambling article -> Without Steven it sounded plastic. The best example of this was when the band played what is possibly my favorite Lips' song, Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots Pt. II -> Mind you that is Pt. II -> In Philly, this was reduced to a backing track as an interstitial moment for everyone to tune up and grab water.
A very long time ago
Steven endeared himself to me. This was long enough ago that Tame Impala was opening for The Flaming Lips. We caught the show at Jones Beach. I was enthralled with whatever sound Steven was belching forth from his cell phone. I said what the hell, and sent him a message on Twitter asking what exactly he was doing. He was kind enough to answer with the name of the app and a recommendation for it, saying it, 'Really ripped.'
I thanked him, of course, but can't say we've talked since. That is still way more effort for a fan than I can say I've seen from his former bandmates. Would any of them taken the time to answer one guy with one question? Maybe, but I can't speak for them. Fact is, Steven is the only one where that question WOULD come up.
More than personal preferences, this upsets me because it is not an amicable split. The former bandmates appear to be fighting. There was a weird Facebook post about Steven 'selling gear to the band'..? This is the most Un-Flaming-Lips-like conduct one could imagine.
I look forward to hearing what both the Flaming Lips and Steven Drozd put out in the future.
I'll be listning to both. Though, I'd definitely prefer to see them all just work it out on their own and put stuff aside. It really does not seem like it will be happening this time. I hope to be wrong.
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