The Fearless Freaks
Director: Bradley Beesley
Here's our first documentary (and a music documentary no less).
I'm a music snob. Ever since my freshman year of college, I have acquired music at a frightening pace. This has made me into a sort of annoying music fan. I'm a total hipster who loves indie rock and things lauded by Pitchfork Media.
I'd call myself a casual fan of the Flaming Lips. My first exposure to the band was when I heard Ben Folds' (a high school favorite) cover of "She Don't Use Jelly". Loving the song, I went out and bought the album Transmissions from the Satellite Heart. This was WAY to weird and loud for my high school junior self. I gave the band another shot in college and found some of their later material to be right up my alley. I love Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots and the Soft Bulletin (a recent favorite). These albums perfectly combine geeky sensibilities with weird, sincere symphonic pop music.
This documentary about the band really showed who these guys are. They're just regular people from Oklahoma City who make strange music, both with and without the influence of drugs. I was surprised by how normal frontman Wayne Coyne seemed. He's just a nice guy who still lives in the slummy neighborhood he grew up in. He wants to make music that is fun and that inspires people (I'd say he's been successful).
The most interesting part of the film, though, was about the drug addiction of band member Steven Drozd. There's actually a scene in the film where you see him do heroin while he explains the drug and his addiction. it was one of the most eye opening scenes I've ever seen in a documentary. More powerful than any "drug movie". This portion of the film does has a seemingly happy ending.
Overall, this was a decent band documentary that made me like the Flaming Lips a little more than I already did. It didn't come anywhere close to the greatness of my favorite rock-doc, Gigantic: A Tale of Two Johns (about TMBG).
Lesson learned: Regular people can make some really odd music (especially when they're on drugs).
PS- I'll finally see this band live this year at Pitchfork Music Festival!
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