I don't know about you, but I love finding new Christmas traditions to enjoy, especially if there's a whiff of irreverence, weirdness, or adult fun involved, hence my annual Flaming Lips Christmas. When I fell in love with the Lips ten years ago, I was overjoyed to discover their fondness for Christmas sprinkled throughout their discography, as well as tantalizing word of a movie that Wayne Coyne was making in his backyard called Christmas On Mars about. I waited for six years for that movie, and when it finally arrived at Record Theatre in late 2008 I was there (alas there were no local screenings), and for the last four years it just wouldn't be Christmas without it.
While the acting and script is frequently.... rough, the film still works. There are nods to Soviet and French New Wave cinema that give it a pedigree beyond "drugged out rock and roll movie nonsense," while the film's special effects and visual set pieces are ambitious and exceedingly well executed, elevating the film beyond the DIY homemade movie genre it firmly and proudly belongs to. Plus, for a do-it-yourselfer, it benefits from a bold score steeped in film score history from musical genius, Steve Drozd, that's alternately disconcerting and hauntingly beautiful. Christmas On Mars is a series of minor and major triumphs: for the humans in the movie on the receiving end of a quasi Christmas miracle; for Steve Drozd who was going through a REAL rough patch when the film was shot in the late 90's and early 00's, but pulled through to find married happiness and fatherhood (and more feats of musical genius); and for Wayne, who finished his artistically ambitious whacked out backyard movie.
Yes, Christmas On Mars is totally ____ed up, but damn, everybody tried so hard, and it's just so much fun to watch that it's become a holiday tradition that makes me feel warm, fuzzy, and weird. This rather clever trailer gives you a taste:
The rest of my Flaming Lips Christmas includes a tour of the rest of the Lips Christmas oeuvre, which I'm including for your holiday consumption and consideration:
"Christmas At The Zoo," from Clouds Taste Metallic, 1995. Animal lovers will love this, while music lovers will love the glorious wall of sound and the fact that it's a Christmas song that doesn't suck. I'm also keen on the fact that the Lips included it on an official album as opposed to a b-side or an outtake. Album space is valuable real estate, and for me it shows a genuine commitment to Christmas to include a Christmas song like this.
"White Christmas" live from 1999. There's something wonderfully sweet about this stripped down rendition of the Bing Crosby holiday standard. Steven Drozd's keyboards are symphonic, and Wayne is utterly sincere in his effort. I'm sure Bing approves.
"A Change At Christmas (Say It Isn't So)," 2003. This live in-studio track, which was included on the Ego Tripping At The Gates Of Hell ep, is gorgeous and devastating in it's honesty about the human condition. Wayne's right, why does everything have to go back to "normal" after Christmas? Why can't the peace and goodwill towards your fellow humans go out the window at 12:01 AM on Boxing Day? It's a damn shame that we can't hold onto it a little longer. Drozd's keyboards and arrangement are again sublime.
The Flaming Lips Christmas. Enjoy.
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