February 6, 2006

• The Flaming Lips 'Zaireeka' Experience
  OU students got together this weekend to test a ‘Lips’ album of unique layering

  By Calvin Son
  February 05, 2006
  

  There were colorful flashing lights, loud music and a disco ball, but nobody was dancing. There were three bottles of Jarritos, pastries and a lemon birthday cake, but nobody was eating. At this party, 20 students huddled together in a storm of shrieks, barks and rumbles blaring from four different directions as they sat quietly, staring into space.
  

  The Flaming Lips’ 1997 album “Zaireeka” was the centerpiece for the listening party that took place Feb. 4 in the apartment of Eric Mai, civil engineering junior.
  

  “I’m using [my birthday] as an excuse to throw a Zaireeka party,” Mai said.
  

  The 40-minute, eight-track Warner Bros. album featured four separate CDs that must be played simultaneously.
  

  “More than anything, it just makes you feel uneasy,” said Mai, who dual-wielded Facebook and his cell phone to invite his friends. “It’s a noise experiment that’s a conversation between four CD players.”
  

  According to www.flaminglips.com, Lips frontman Wayne Coyne was tired of songs with easily identifiable influences.
  

  “Well, now no one can say that we’re doing anything that’s been done before,” Coyne stated.
  

  Mai used four amplifiers, four portable CD players, three friends and good-humored patience to cue the CDs. After a few false starts, listeners were treated to an aural jumble including drums circling the room, high-pitched screams and lyrics that mentioned everything from dogs to a “bleeding vagina.”
  

  Matt Duckworth, communications junior, had heard the album five times but said the experience was different every time due to the different speeds of CD players.
  

  “It’s like hearing the loudest, softest, most beautiful, scariest, weird, most normal thing all at the same time,” he said. “Every now and then there were magical moments where they locked up. It was loud and good.”
  

  Mai said he considered playing the albums through four iPods to have consistent playing speeds but decided to keep it “old school.”
  

  “A lot of the fun of it is synching it up,” he said. “It’s better than watching TV or something.”
  

  Alex Shafer, Oklahoma State University freshman and fan of the Flaming Lips, heard the album for his first time.
  

  “It just sounded so amazing,” he said. “Anyone who hasn’t done it should try it at least once.”
  

  Mai said he plans on hosting more listening parties every three weeks.
  

  “Zaireeka doesn’t really have memorable melodies,” Mai said. “My goal in doing this is to shake up the college campus in Norman and get people more interested in music.”
  

  The listening session ended with applause and without any appearances from the OU police department. Guests socialized, ate and looked through the album tracklist that identified the first track as the appropriately titled “Okay I’ll Admit That I Don’t Really Understand.”
  

  Maddie Barker, letters senior, said she would want to listen to the album again though it was not as exciting as she anticipated.
  

  “I wouldn’t listen to it under the influence of alcohol,” she said. “Some of it is pretty creepy.”

  
  

  • 10:32 am
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