This came out in 2003 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
Pop Quiz: Oklahoma neo-psychedelicists The Flaming Lips have spent the last year: a) Banging the drum for their latest album Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots; b) Serving as Beck’s warmup and backing band on the road, and; c) Filming and starring in their own sci-fi holiday film Christmas On Mars.
Amazingly, the answer is d) All of the above. And you get a little taste of everything on the new sample-platter EP Fight Test. Along with the title cut from Yoshimi, there are live radio-appearance covers of the Kylie Minogue hit Can’t Get You Out Of My Head, Beck’s Golden Age and even Radiohead’s Knives Out, all delivered with the Lips’ usual lazy grace and lysergic originality. Toss in the mandatory remix track — a Scott Hardkiss expansion of Do You Realize? — a new electronica number called The Strange Design Of Conscience, a hee-larious C&W tossoff titled Thank You Jack White (For the Fiber-Optic Jesus That You Gave Me), a video for Fight Test and even a head-scratching trailer for the Christmas On Mars flick, and this EP easily passes the test.
