Video: Flaming Lips Feat. Erykah Badu - Western Esotericism Offical Video

The Flaming Lips and Erykah Badu are no strangers to shocking people, I actually think its one of their favorite pastimes. The video for their cover of  "The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face" features Badu's very naked sister, Nayrok Badu covered in glitter, paint, and some sort of semen looking substance. The cut has a beautiful simplicity, entrancing audio [...]

First and foremost, this is one of the most provocative videos I have ever seen to date. In fact, I didn't know what to think on first listen of Flaming Lips ' unique take on Roberta Flack 's " The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face ." Renaming the song, " Western Esotericism " leaves so much for interpretation. From taking this to slavery days of Africian-American women's domination by their white masters to the purest form of sex, from the symbolism of blood and semen, to the use of golden sand to heighten [...]

Hard to know where to start with this one. All I know is that just about every second of this video is captivating. This certainly wouldn't be the first time The Flaming Lips have come with a classically what-the-fuck piece of avant-garde film. It's also not the first time Ms. Badu has decided to bare all in the interest of provocative art. But the inaugural collab from these two eccentric acts is up there with each of their strangest- cosmic, psychedelic, visually stunning, strangely sexual, and beautifully unsettling. There's a lot worth talking about here, including the excellent [...]