Tulip Frenzy

Here at Tulip Frenzy, we don’t take ourselves particularly seriously, and when we try to alert gentle readers to an album by one of our fave offbeat bands they might not otherwise, in the ordinary course of being an American human, come across, we often are a little tongue’n’cheek about the rock’n’roll that twangs our woogie.  But earlier in the week, when we gushed about Thee Oh Sees and declared their new album, Floating Coffin, to be somewhere between the best record since the British Invasion and Thee Oh Sees’ next one — which we figured, given their prolificness, might show up around summer — we found ourselves alternately showing off, having fun with this whole rock crit’ anything goes style-o’ writing and the sober-as-a-judge realization that, Holy Moley, this thing really is fantastic.  Little waves of seriousness lapped ashore throughout our *review*, and we found ourselves, a day or so hence, goin’, “Is it really that great, or is it even greater?”

Folks, we are serious as a heart attack when we pronounce the following: after three days, metaphorically speaking, locked in our basement with the headphones on, cheeseburgers slid under the door by loved ones since we won’t come out, playing Floating Coffin over and over and over again some more, we are compelled to report that it is (intentionally designed quote alert) the most thrilling rock’n’roll album we have listened to since at least Ty Segall’s Twins, and maybe since that first Elastica album, or even Surfer Rosa/Come On Pilgrim.

We’re not going to go through the damn thing song by song, but let us just say that if want 39 minutes of sheer cussed joy; if you are looking for an album that will get your heart rate raised while you grok on its sheer sonic blissfulness; if you are looking for an album that gallops along with Secretariat’s speed but has moments of beauty like My Friend Flicka nuzzling your neck; if you want an album by a band that, at this amazing stage in its development, could blow the roof of any punk rock Hellhole in Christendom, yet also, we believe, could get the stoned out hippies at a jam-band forum like Bonnaroo to shake their R. Crumb asses, well, stop what you’re doing, get Floating Coffin and prepare for years of bliss.

Yeah, we can rejoin the world now.  And someone else can go clean the basement.