Convinced of the Hex

Album: Embryonic (2009)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This is the opening track of experimental rock band The Flaming Lips' twelfth studio album, Embryonic. The closest thing on the record to a traditional pop song, the band's frontman Wayne Coyne described it to The Daily MailSeptember 18, 2009 as, "The first take of a traditional jam."
  • The roots of Embryonic can be traced to Summer 2008, when multi-instrumentalist Steven Drozd and Coyne set up gear in the Oklahoma City house that Drozd was selling and started jamming. This was the first fruit from their sessions. Coyne told Billboard magazine: "I think with this there was an element of accidentally stumbling upon more spontaneous sort of freak-out stuff. We were sitting at (multi-instrumentalist) Steven's house and we just started out having these freak-out jam sessions where he'd play drums and I'd play bass and we just would sort of do freaky stuff. Some of those recordings, even though they're not recorded very well, really had a spontaneity about them that we probably wouldn't have purposely done. So we just went with some of that and use those as sort of the bedrock of what we'd do later on with overdubs and lyrics and stuff like that. It sounds very exciting."
  • Coyne explained this song in the album's press notes: "This was our first successful attempt at merging a low-fi distortion jam with hi-fi computer overdubs. This was the first in a series of lyrics inspired by repeated viewings of the controversial film The Night Porter (made in 1974 by the radical Italian director Liliana Cavani). Its themes of submission and obsessions and cruelty and pleasure really put the zap on my sleep-deprived head."
  • Embryonic debuted on the Billboard 200 at #8, giving The Flaming Lips their first ever Top 10 album.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Tommy James

Tommy JamesSongwriter Interviews

"Mony Mony," "Crimson and Clover," "Draggin' The Line"... the hits kept coming for Tommy James, and in a plot line fit for a movie, his record company was controlled by the mafia.

The Fratellis

The FratellisSongwriter Interviews

Jon Fratelli talks about the band's third album, and the five-year break leading up to it.

JJ Burnel of The Stranglers

JJ Burnel of The StranglersSongwriter Interviews

JJ talks about The Stranglers' signature sound - keyboard and bass - which isn't your typical strain of punk rock.

Christopher Cross

Christopher CrossSongwriter Interviews

The man who created Yacht Rock with "Sailing" wrote one of his biggest hits while on acid.

Bands Named After Real People (Who Aren't In The Band)

Bands Named After Real People (Who Aren't In The Band)Song Writing

How a gym teacher, a janitor, and a junkie became part of some very famous band names.

70s Music Quiz 1

70s Music Quiz 1Music Quiz

The '70s gave us Muppets, disco and Van Halen, all which show up in this groovy quiz.