Flying Saucer Attack >> And I hardly feel surprised as I look up in the sky

Flying Saucer Attack - "Up In Her Eyes"

(Drag City Records / Domino Records, 1997)

Well, as you may notice, I've decided to stop doing the little embellishments to each song title, but it was exciting while it lasted.  Flying Saucer Attack, named after a terrible late '70s New Wave hit by the Rezillos, was masterminded by a guy named Dave Pearce.  In a current music scene populated with band names like How To Dress Well, Pissed Jeans, I'm From Barcelona, LMFAO, and Pygmy Lush, it's good to know that there used to be bands with names like Flying Saucer Attack, one of the few truly tattoo-worthy band names ever.  Based in the rugged multicultural seaport city of Bristol, famous as the birthplace of trip-hop, Pearce had initial help from Rachel Brook, who was later in ambient slow-poppers Movietone.  FSA released a huge slew of music in the early to mid '90s, but only performed live about a dozen times, probably due to the logistics of recreating all the strange tape loops & noises from the studio recordings.  The maelstrom of ambient feedback and noise seems to be on the verge of overwhelming this song's delicate melody, but the melody stays strong and wins out.  In addition to Pearce's beautifully enunciated vocals, the throbbing bassline is what really puts this song over the top and into an unclassifiable genre.  The weird thing is that, having been reared on Sonic Youth, I didn't even notice all the noise in this song at first, but several years later I realized "Whoa, dude, that's a lot of noise."

All Music Guide said:

"While the more experimental parts of New Lands aren't really Pearce completely trashing his general aesthetic and trying something new, they do show him attempting and often succeeding at introducing further variety to his murky, intriguing field.  Thus, 'Up in Her Eyes' has a very familiar vocal and guitar style, but the obsessive, upfront yet still shadowy percussion -- sounding more like a chugging train engine than anything else -- dominates the track, at least up until its slightly more ambient, free-flowing end... Through it all, the combination of Pearce's tender, dark folk vocals and skybursting guitar provides the central point of the experience, making for some fascinating, entrancing results."

I borrowed this CD, New Lands, from friend Andrew Mister in '99, around the same time I bought FSA's self-titled '93 debut album.  About ten years later I found out that "Up In Her Eyes" was originally released as a free 7" flexidisc in issue 6 of Stop Smiling magazine in 1995.  The album version is a re-recorded one, since its liner notes say "album recorded late 96 / early 97."  I got a huge-ass fold-out glossy promo poster for New Lands on eBay in 2005, surely the biggest promo poster I've ever obtained, and I have hundreds of promo music posters and concert flyers up several art portfolio folders in several closets in multiple area codes.  The cover art of this album is particularly unsettling, yet Zen-inducing.  A page from the CD booklet:

Drag City Records' fall '97 press release:


the long-awaited follow-up to further has been a long time coming -- over two years, to be honest. since that acoustically-tinged offering, the sound of fsa has revolved into metallic pastures...
this new fsa sound steers through the past pop music into the direction of rhythmic loopery. bass anchors the familiar guitar fuzz, edgelessly felt through the wall of sound and giving it a beat where one was only imagined before.
previously only hinted at, this pulse booms forth in a bigger way, although still obscured by clouds.
phase two. the beat is the new thing. previously only hinted at, this pulse booms.


A photo I took of my Philodendron, var. 'Burle Marx,' leaning towards the sunrise on Tuesday at about 7 AM:

This plant variety was named after this guy

Planets with similar climates: Colfax Abbey - "Feel" (1996), My Bloody Valentine - "Several Girls Galore" (1988), Unwound - "Lady Elect" (1996), Plexi - "Dayglo" (1996).


The best old Onion article I've found recently: I'll Thank You Not To Call My Collection Of Sequential-Art Erotica 'Dirty Comics'