There is a grassroots movement heading inbox to inbox, which, like bowl games and political debates on opinion, we as a staff of arts professionals have to take a stance on: Yoshimi's battle with 3 Doors Down.
The Flaming Lips, whose was chosen the eighth-best album of 2002 by this publication, had been originally slated to appear at this year's All Campus Party. Why choose The Flaming Lips, wondered the All Campus Party committee, when we can hire 3 Doors Down?
That the university will spend a boatload more money to give its students what they think we want is amicable. A boatload, in this case, is a difference in asking price of $25,000 to $55,000, according to Clear Channel's bookers. I applaud the committee's desire to provide students with 25 grand more love. I just doubt that 3 Doors Down is actually worth the price of The Flaming Lips and a Buick.
\You know, I've never been a big fan of alternative music, but these guys rocked the house!"" So said Steve on ""Beverly Hills 90210"" while The Flaming Lips were touring after their seemingly contrived top 40 hit, ""She Don't Use Jelly."" The hit garnered popularity from a sticky hook, catchy enough to veil the irony of a masturbatory poppish song about masturbation. But the Flaming Lips' musical style never stayed in one place very long, and within a few albums they were reinvented. Blissful alternative became the toned-down sound of , which gave way to the soundscapes of . They are not a band easy to evaluate on a single album, let alone a single song.
You could never expect a full concert of ""She Don't Use Jelly."" Not in the same way I fear a concert of 3 Doors Down's ""Kryptonite."" The novel style of 3 Doors Down's style on their hit was reused so often on the album that it became hard to locate Billboard's darling single. With so little material to draw on, 3 Doors Down really shouldn't cost as much as The Flaming Lips plus the average salaried first year of an MIT grad.
True, most people who come in fans of 3 Doors Down seem pleased by the hard rocker's performances. But they are not known for converting doubters by their shows, not like the epic, life-altering Flaming Lips shows do. Not just a good live band, The Flaming Lips have built a name for their live act through Bunny-suited dancers. Oftentimes celebrities who had pulled strings for free tickets land up under fuzzy masks on stage-I later heard the show I saw had Kim Gordon prancing behind the band. If students aren't fans of The Flaming Lips now, they would be after a show-especially the six in-state students we could pay tuition for by picking that band over 3 Doors Down.
Campus partiers might guess that 3 Doors Down has greater mass market appeal. But Rolling Stone, the arbiter of mainstream cool, listed in their Top 10 albums of last year and gave four stars to . 3 Doors Down's 2002 release went unlisted. Don't underestimate The Flaming Lips' appeal. Indie rockers like them, but so will Badger fans (especially when we buy the student section Dagwoods from Denny's). Both frat boys and emo girls will like The Flaming Lips (and the 150,136 cans of PBR Light), even 3 Doors Down fans would like them (and the black market liver to adorn someone with). Above all else, Flaming Lips fans like them; college students are the target market of bands like The Flaming Lips, while 3 Doors Down goes for angst ridden teenagers.
The Flaming Lips really are the better of the bands, and the better of the concerts. They'd throw a party students will remember fondly as alumni. And they could pay off my student loans. Twice.
jhuchill@wisc.edu.
