Zaireeka is the eighth studio album by the American rock band the Flaming Lips, released on October 28, 1997, by Warner Bros. Records. It consists of four CDs designed so that when played simultaneously on four separate audio systems, they would produce a harmonic or juxtaposed sound; the discs could also be played in different combinations, omitting one, two or three discs. Each of its eight songs consists of four stereo tracks, one from each CD.
The album's title is a portmanteau of two words. Zaire was chosen as a symbol of anarchy after Wayne Coyne heard a radio news story about the nation's political instability. The word Eureka (literally: "I have found it") was selected as an expression of joyous discovery.
Zaireeka was the first album by the band after the departure of guitarist Ronald Jones. It acted as a preview of the music and style that would surface on the next album The Soft Bulletin (1999), which was recorded during the same sessions as Zaireeka, and is the predecessor to the band's more conventional surround sound releases.
Background
Adverse circumstances led to the production of Zaireeka. The departure of guitarist Ronald Jones compelled the band to change fundamentally. In addition, the limited success of the previous album, Clouds Taste Metallic, threatened their status at Warner Bros. Records. They eventually found that drummer Steven Drozd could compensate for the loss of Jones by becoming a multi-instrumentalist. However, live shows proved to be more challenging and in order to maintain activity and output, Wayne Coyne conceived an experimental show.
The Parking Lot Experiments
During 1996 and 1997, the Flaming Lips ran a series of events known as "The Parking Lot Experiments". The concept was inspired by an incident in Coyne's youth, where he noticed that car radios in the parking lot at a concert were playing the same songs at the same time, Wayne Coyne created 40 cassette tapes to be played in synchronization. The band invited people to bring their cars to parking lots, where they would be given one of the tapes and then instructed when to start them. The music was "a strange, fluid 20 minute sound composition".
Production
Production of the album was preceded by two unfortunate events, which were recounted in "The Spiderbite Song" from The Soft Bulletin. Michael Ivins was involved in a car crash, and Steven Drozd's hand became severely infected. Drozd initially claimed that his hand had been bitten by a spider, although later he admitted the infected abscess was caused by injection of heroin.
The Flaming Lips began work on Zaireeka in April 1997 in the then-new Tarbox Road Studios. Initially, the band was frustrated while making the album. Even after diverting half of the budget for the next album into Zaireeka, there were no tangible results. The band experienced difficulty writing songs for the album. Finally, Coyne exclaimed, "Look, we don't have to be friends... but we have to make this record!" While this philosophy aided progress, the band only began to complete songs when they learned to write for the medium as opposed to trying to split normal songs across four CDs.
The group wrote several songs that were unsuccessful in the four-CD format. These songs, including "Race for the Prize", were reserved for the next album, which would eventually become The Soft Bulletin. Zaireeka was released in October, 1997. , 28,000 copies have been sold.
The Boom Box Experiments
After completion of Zaireeka, the Flaming Lips tried an unconventional method to tour the album. "The Boom Box Experiments", like "The Parking Lot Experiments", involved tapes being played at the same time. However, these shows were held in conventional rock venues, and the band supplied their own boom boxes. Coyne and Drozd conducted two "choirs" of people controlling the boom boxes, giving them instructions for actions like turning the volume up or down, while Ivins controlled the mixer.
Songs played in The Boom Box Experiments include:
- "The Big Ol' Bug Is the New Baby Now"
- "A Winter's Day Car Accident Melody"
- "Altruism, or That's the Crotch Calling the Devil Black"
- "Heralding in a Better Ego"
- "Realizing the Speed of Life"
- "Schizophrenic Sunrise, or The Loudest Blade of Grass"
- "Should We Keep the Severed Head Awake??" (used in both the Parking Lot and Boom Box experiments. Part of it was included on "Sleeping on the Roof" on The Soft Bulletin.)