Brainville

Album: Clouds Taste Metallic (1995)
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Songfacts®:

  • Although the narrator is trying to find a way to the elusive Brainville in The Flaming Lips' goofy tune, it's not really a place you'd want to visit. Frontman Wayne Coyne explained in the biography Staring At Sound: The True Story Of Oklahoma's Fabulous Flaming Lips: "I imagined these guys who put fliers up all over town saying, 'Brainville University, Tuition One Dollar' and listing this back alley as the address, and then they beat up and rob anybody dumb enough to show up."
  • The band argued over how the handclaps should sound, with guitarist Ronald Jones voting for mighty, Queen-style claps and Wayne preferring looser smacks akin to The Stooges' first album. Drummer Steven Drozd settled the argument by playing David Bowie's 1971 album, Hunky Dory, and they emulated the syncopated handclapping of "Andy Warhol."

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