Author: h

Sorry for the late post – I’ve been preparing to go to Tijuana with five close friends and a bunch more to build a house for a family there with the partnership of Amor. -h

Jill and I tiptoed away from our post at the Friends of the Kaw River beer tent just in time to see the Lips on the main stage at Wakarusa Friday night, resolving a chord of mine that had hung suspended for nine years.
The winter of 99-00 after “The Soft Bulletin” had come out, Wayne Coyne & Co. toured through Lincoln NE. Advertising for the Knickerbocker’s show wasn’t consistent; some posts listed the admissible ages as 18 & over, some as 21 & over. Charles and I called the club and it sounded like we, as 18-year-old seniors in high school, would be able to get in. We drove through a light snow and arrived at the door with only hoodies for warmth (the club was notoriously hot inside) and were told that we couldn’t get tickets yet, but to hang around in case some were made available. In retrospect I’m sure the club was near a sellout at the 21-and-over level and didn’t want to sell tickets to kids who couldn’t buy drinks if they didn’t need to. We froze in the doorway for an hour; Wayne walked out, and back in; and after pleading our case one more time it became obvious we weren’t going to see The Flaming Lips that night.

Weather last Friday couldn’t have been more different than it was for Charles’ and my attempt. The Kansas City spring humidity (!) lifted, a breeze circled the crowd, and it was gloriously perfect to be outside with a bunch of young hippies.

Following a spot-on space rock introduction the Lips meandered through cuts from their past three records including “Free Radicals,” “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Pt. 1,” “Race For The Prize,” “The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song,” and “The W.A.N.D.” We sang along enthusiastically, but not with abandon; we maintained appropriate Midwestern reserve. Between songs Wayne gushed about the greatness of Wakarusa, the importance of love, the political significance of the ritual of rock music, and his vision of a day when the Ceremonial Bugle is only needed at Flaming Lips shows, not funerals.

Somewhere in the middle of that long moment I realized that my heart makes a theological response to The Flaming Lips.

It takes incredible love to make pop music out of:

Do you realize that you have the most beautiful face?
We’re floating in space?
That happiness makes you cry?
That everyone you know someday will die?

And instead of saying all of your goodbyes let them know
You realize that life goes fast
It’s hard to make the good things last
You realize the sun doesn’t go down
It’s just an illusion caused by the world spinning round

Or:

If you could blow up the world with the flick of a switch
Would you do it?
If you could make everybody poor just so you could be rich
Would you do it?
If you could watch everybody work while you just lay on your back
Would you do it?
If you could take all the love without giving any back
Would you do it?
And so we cannot know ourselves or what we’d really do…

With all your power
With all your power
With all your power
What would you do?

The lyrics don’t even come close to capturing what happens when this love is chanted over freakishly fuzzed-out guitars and intergalactic synthesizers while aliens and construction workers dance and Wayne fires streamers and confetti into the crowd with a shotgun-like launcher device.  It’s transcendent.  It’s egoless.  It’s a pause from everything in life that separates us from ourselves, from each other, and from Infinity.

It’s fun!  It’s beautiful.

It’s no wonder I bring my theological lens to bear on it, but I don’t mistake my point of view for what is actually happening.  Weird as they might seem on the surface I love The Flaming Lips for their music, their questions, and their sheer courage to have a concrete vision of where this world could go when it would be much cooler and more indie to snark, posture, criticize, and remain aloof and uncommitted to anything anybody might disagree with.

See them if you ever have the chance.  They’ll show you what they’ve found at the depth of things, and you may not walk away the same.  -h

Catch me on drums next Friday night June 20 with The Sleepover in Omaha, NE at The Slowdown.

I’ve had cause over the past couple weeks to attempt explaining my various bands, projects, and recordings to an audience that’s been mostly out of the loop since howie&scott’s signs.comets. We determined quickly that a flowchart of sorts was needed, and it was interesting enough to put together that I thought you guys might dig it too.

PRIMER: Bands of -h

Any conversation about They Might Be Giants starts for me with a memory of seeing them with Tim, Rebecca, JT, and Bluebird of Friendliness knows who else six or seven years ago at the old Royal Grove in Lincoln, NE.
It was a strip club.

Not during TMBG, though!  The venue regularly held rock shows, then clear everybody out after the music and switch over.

It was the James K. Polk tour, complete with light show, confetti, bunting and Polk banners.  The Band of Dans killed.  Linnell gave me a masters class in surliness, while Flansburgh rocked. out. on. the Telecaster, lifting it high for anything remotely resembling a big riff, roaming the stage with his wireless mic and stand, and tearing into his background vocals with an enthusiasm usually reserved for the showiest of show choir members.

Happily, not too much has changed.

Jill, Doug, and I were thoroughly rocked by the Giants’ set Friday night.

Kudos to the Beaumont for starting yet another show on time; this is becoming quite the habit over there.  And the sound was solid, with the exception that Flansburgh’s vocals were a little buried.

TMBG’s current incarnation is a stripped-down, loose outfit that reminds me of nothing so much as early Elvis Costello.  Their set spanned their entire career, including the expected highlights from “Flood” and a few selections from their recent children’s albums (“Seven”).  Flansburgh joked (At least I think he was joking) that the band doesn’t rehearse for their children’s gigs (they had one Saturday) except for onstage at their adult shows.

Given my history with the band, hearing the phrase “adult shows” from the stage was extra-special.

TMBG gave us a few surprises, including a masterful acoustic guitar introduction to “Istanbul,” a noisy, deconstructed interlude in the middle of “Particle Man,” Flansburgh introducing the members of the band…  twice…  and a pleasantly ramshackle version of “Fingertips.”

If you’ve ever been a fan of the band, or think you might become one, catch them on tour.  They don’t disappoint. -h

“Songs of -h” is still available; mail your cash or check gift to

St. Peter’s United Church of Christ

Mexico Trip 2008

700 E. 110th St.

Kansas City, MO 64131

and we’ll use it to build a house in Tijuana this June for a family that needs one. In the meantime, check out these desktops!

800×600 1024×768 1280×1024

1. Songs of -h.  Tim and Jill are helping print & fold the oragami cases and liner notes today.  Make sure to come by 700 E 110th St. next Saturday, April 19, between 10 AM and 4 PM to hear howie&scott rocking out!
2. I’ve finished vocals for 8 out of 10 “There is Something and not nothing” vocals!!!111  Matt has come over twice to work on drum parts, we have ideas for what he wants to do on most of the songs.  Closer and closer – I’m super-pumped to get this record OUT.
3. No 5*C action yet, but we have a plan.  I’m anxious to hear what Joel’s been up to.
4. Fifty Bears haven’t practiced in a while due to schedule-y stuff…  but Tim in Lincoln (of Rent Money Big fame) has recorded vocal ideas over all of our nine demo’d jams, and his stuff is sounding rad.  We’re going to have him down to KC soon to jam with us and talk about the logistics of living three hours apart.  If it’s possible, it’s easier with the vocalist being separate and being able to work back and forth with me in ProTools.
5. -h