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The acts participating in “Write the Night”–Tortoise, the Jesus Lizard, Built to Spill, and Yo La Tengo–will be playing songs selected by Internet voters, a process likely to result in the resuscitation of fan favorites that’ve dropped out of the bands’ regular sets for one reason or another.
And that’s exactly my beef with this situation, and with the band in general. The Flaming Lips used to be a bizarre and fearless band that wasn’t afraid to fail nobly, or in any other fashion. Even their breakthrough album, The Soft Bulletin, was a ballsy experiment, despite its unaggressive vibe–Coyne and his group were ditching a significant amount of the formula that had brought them what success they’d had. It’s a move I respected them for, even though I hated the record and have hated everything they’ve released since.
