Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots cover
Studio album by The Flaming Lips
Released July 15, 2002 (U.K.)
July 16, 2002 (U.S.)
Recorded Tarbox Road Studios, Cassadaga, New York
June 2000 - April 2002
Genre Alternative rock, Space rock
Length 47:25
Label Warner Bros. Records
Producer The Flaming Lips, Dave Fridmann, Scott Booker
Professional reviews
The Flaming Lips chronology
The Soft Bulletin
(1999)		 Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
(2002)		 At War with the Mystics
(2006)
Alternate cover
Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots 5.1 cover.
Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots 5.1 cover.

Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots is the tenth album by The Flaming Lips, released on July 16, 2002. It is characterized by electronic influenced, psychedelic-tinged alternative rock compositions. It has been certified Gold by the RIAA.[1]

Contents

[edit] Structure and release

The lyrics of Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots concern a diverse array of subject matter, mostly deeply melancholy ponderings about love, mortality, artificial emotion, pacifism, and deception, while telling the story of Yoshimi's battle. The title character is believed to be an allusion to Boredoms/OOIOO member Yoshimi P-We, who also performs on the album. Some listeners consider Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots to be a concept album; however, the story is debated, as it is only directly apparent in the first four tracks. However, despite the story-type title and science fiction themes of the album, the Flaming Lips frontman, Wayne Coyne, has made it clear that the album is not intended to be a concept album[2].

The vocal melody of track one, "Fight Test", echoes Cat Stevens's "Father and Son". Stevens, now Yusuf Islam, is receiving royalties following a relatively uncontentious settlement. The band's frontman, Wayne Coyne, claims that he was unaware of the songs' similarities until producer Dave Fridmann pointed them out [3]. This claim however is contradicted by his statement to Rolling Stone magazine: 'I know "father and Son" and I knew there would be a little bit of comparison. "Fight Test" is not a reference necessarily to the ideas of "Father and Son", but definitely a reference to the cadence, the melody and stuff like that. I think it's such a great arrangement of chords and melody'[1]. The song was also the theme song for the short-lived MTV cartoon, 3 South. The song is also briefly played in the 2003 remake of Freaky Friday. It plays in the background of the cafeteria scene, at the very beginning of the scene.

The album's lead single, "Do You Realize??", has been used in numerous commercials, including VH1 for a number of months in 2004-2005.

The final track, "Approaching Pavonis Mons by Balloon (Utopia Planitia)", won a 2002 Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance. The Lips also won the same award for "The Wizard Turns On...", taken from At War with the Mystics, in 2006.

In addition to the single compact disc format, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots was also released as a special two-disc release in 2003. This version contains the regular album and a DVD containing various alternate takes, b-sides, music videos, video footage from the album recordings, and the trailer for The Flaming Lips' upcoming film, Christmas on Mars. In addition to bonus content on the DVD, there is a 5.1 DVD-Audio version of the entire album included. There was also a limited edition translucent pink/orange LP version.

A secret message from the band is included on the original album on the inside of the right spine. It reads "You Have Found The Secret Message, Do You Have too Much Time on Your Hands? ...Let it Go". It also features Japanese script. This script reads "Happiness can make you cry".

In recent years, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots has proved itself to have a bigger commercial impact than the band's 1999 breakthrough album, The Soft Bulletin, and became their first gold-certified release in April 2006. [4]

Yoshimi's motivation and training for battling the Pink Robots is discussed on track 3 "Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots Pt. 1" this track also appeared on the sound track for Definitely Maybe, chosen by Adam Brooks, according to the notes inside the album art for the OST, because it felt like a song Brooks could believe that the main character and his daughter could be listening to together.

Yoshimi is referenced on James Blunt's 2007 album "All the Lost Souls" on the final track "I Can't Hear the Music." The chorus includes the lines "So run, Yoshimi, run. 'Cause Billy's got himself a gun,/And you're right to be afraid: they'll send you to your grave/'Cause you're strange and new."

In 2003, British bastard pop DJ Eric Kleptone released a mashup album called Yoshimi Battles the Hip-Hop Robots which paired instrumentals from the album with rap samples and lyrics.

[edit] Broadway musical

It was announced in March 2007 that the album is to be made into a Broadway musical by The West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin and director Des McAnuf. [5] Frontman Wayne Coyne said of the plot:

“ There's the real world and then there's this fantastical world. This girl, the Yoshimi character, is dying of something. And these two guys are battling to come visit her in the hospital. And as one of the boyfriends envisions trying to save the girl, he enters this other dimension where Yoshimi is this Japanese warrior and the pink robots are an incarnation of her disease. It's almost like the disease has to win in order for her soul to survive. Or something like that. ”

It was also announced in Rolling Stone issue 1025/1026 that Coyne plans to include songs from The Soft Bulletin and At War with the Mystics, as well as write some originals.

According to touring drummer Kliph Scurlock, the musical was halted by the 2007 WGA Writer's Strike, but is still being developed.

[edit] Track listing

[edit] Regular edition

  1. "Fight Test" – 4:14
  2. "One More Robot/Sympathy 3000-21" – 4:59
  3. "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 1" – 4:45
  4. "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 2" – 2:57
  5. "In the Morning of the Magicians" – 6:18
  6. "Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell" – 4:34
  7. "Are You a Hypnotist??" – 4:44
  8. "It's Summertime (Throbbing Orange Pallbearers)" – 4:20
  9. "Do You Realize??" – 3:32
  10. "All We Have Is Now" – 3:53
  11. "Approaching Pavonis Mons by Balloon (Utopia Planitia)" – 3:09

[edit] Special edition DVD

  1. "Fight Test" – 4:12
  2. "One More Robot/Sympathy 3000-21" – 5:01
  3. "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 1" – 4:48
  4. "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 2" – 2:52
  5. "In the Morning of the Magicians" – 6:25
  6. "Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell" – 4:25
  7. "Are You a Hypnotist??" – 4:50
  8. "It's Summertime" – 5:45
  9. "Do You Realize??" – 3:32
  10. "All We Have Is Now" – 3:53
  11. "Approaching Pavonis Mons by Balloon (Utopia Planitia)" – 3:12
Bonus DVD audio tracks
  1. "Up Above the Daily Hum"
  2. "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 1 (Japanese version)"
  3. "If I Go Mad (Funeral in my Head)"
  4. "Do You Realize?? Floating in Space Remix (Edit)"
  5. "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 1 (AOL sessions)"
  6. "Do You Realize?? (CD101 version)"
Bonus DVD video tracks
  1. "Do You Realize?? (Mark Pellington version)"
  2. "Do You Realize?? (Wayne Coyne * Bradley Beesley * George Salisbury version)"
  3. "Making of the Do You Realize?? Video"
  4. "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 1"
  5. "Making of the Yoshimi Video"
  6. "Fight Test"
  7. "Phoebe Battles the Pink Robots"
  8. "Christmas on Mars (Movie trailer)"
  9. "Making of the Yoshimi DVD-A"
  10. "Are You a Hypnotist?? (George's Photogenic Stimulation Theory #1134)"
DVD-ROM extras
  1. "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 1 (Animated episode)"
  2. "Fight Test (Animated episode)"
v • d • e
The Flaming Lips
Wayne Coyne · Michael Ivins · Steven Drozd · Kliph Scurlock (Touring Only)
Mark Coyne · Dave Kostka · Richard English · Jonathan Donahue · Nathan Roberts · Ronald Jones
Studio albums
EPs
Compilations
Singles
"She Don't Use Jelly" · "Turn It On" · "Bad Days" · "This Here Giraffe" · "Brainville" · "Race for the Prize" · "Waitin' for a Superman" · "Do You Realize??" · "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 1" · "Fight Test" · "The Golden Path" · "The W.A.N.D." · "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song"
Films and Videos
The Fearless Freaks · Christmas on Mars · VOID · U.F.O.s at the Zoo
Related articles
Languages