The Southern Oklahoma Cosmic Trigger Contest

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Only available at the early screenings of Bradley Beesley's film, this is a short CD of the Lips contributions to the soundtrack. It was recorded in the practice space at Wayne's house, and is in a fairly atypical country style, to fit the atmosphere of the film (which is about a bizarre sport of catching catfish with yer hands, or your arm mostly). It is not planned for these songs to be used elsewhere.

The main track is the only one to feature vocals, and begins with an old-style Wayne intro tale about the genesis of the song (a la Waterbug and The Big Ol Bug). Seems that he originally thought 'Noodling' meant something else and, when he found it tough to come up with a song about crazy guys trying to drown themselves by doing some weird catfishing, he decided to return to his original misconception for lyrical inspiration. So the song is a yearning little ditty about the joys of teenage, er, 'self-exploration' with your hands.

And a glorious little number it is too. Country but not as we know it, and certainly not rock, it has great twanging guitars and a rattling rhythm that weave into a happy crescendo and an elusive floating chorus that sticks in the mind for quite some time. The sound is suitably tin-pot yet not too muddy. Coupled with beautiful harmonies and that dogged pop sensibility that the Lips tend to wheel out when you're least expecting it, this all perfectly leaves you thinking of a sunset by the river. Not bad for an ode to a cult of manually enlightened teenagers.

The other two tracks are fairly brief but ever-entertaining instrumentals. Featuring croaking frogs, handclaps, banjos and proper skronky guitars, they either belong at a real wobbly hoedown or somewhere in the middle of "O' Brother, Where Are Art Thou?" - either way, another mission accomplished.