Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle: wade bednar

Constructor: Wade Bednar

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (just 'cause the musical names might be unknown to many solvers)

THEME: SONG DYNASTY (64A: First Chinese government to establish a permanent standing navy ... or a hint to 17-, 30- and 47-Across) — musical acts (i.e. writers of "songs") have the names of various Chinese dynasties embedded in their names:

Theme answers:

FLAMING LIPS (17A: Psychedelic rock band with the 2003 tune "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 1," with "the")
HANS ZIMMER (30A: German film composer who wrote "Cornfield Chase" and "Time")
WU-TANG CLAN (47A: Hip-hop group that wrote "C.R.E.A.M." and "Protect Ya Neck")

Word of the Day: FLAMING LIPS (17A) —

The Flaming Lips are an American psychedelic rock band formed in 1983 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The band currently consists of Wayne Coyne (vocals, guitars, bass, keyboards), Derek Brown (keyboards, guitars, percussion), Matt Duckworth Kirksey (drums, percussion, keyboards), AJ Slaughter (guitar, keyboards, pedal steel) and Tommy McKenzie (bass). Coyne is the only remaining founding member following the departure of bassist and keyboardist Michael Ivins in 2021. From 1991 to 2024, Steven Drozd played a crucial role in the band as co-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist.
The band started out playing garage punk and noise pop, before branching into more psychedelic and experimental territory. They recorded several albums and EPs on an indie label, Restless, in the 1980s and early 1990s. After signing to Warner Brothers they released Hit to Death in the Future Head (1992), followed by Transmissions from the Satellite Heart (1993) and the hit single "She Don't Use Jelly" which broke the band into the mainstream. They later released The Soft Bulletin (1999), which was NME magazine's Album of the Year, followed by the critically acclaimed Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots (2002). In February 2007, they were nominated for a BRIT Award for "Best International Act". The group has won three Grammy Awards, including two for Best Rock Instrumental Performance. They were placed on Q magazine's list of the "50 Bands to See Before You Die" in 2002. (wikipedia)

• • •

Points for originality, for sure. Before I ever knew what was going on with the theme, I was enjoying the (unexpected!) musical acts. FLAMING LIPS—bold opener! Of the three dynasty-containing answers, I think this will be the least well known by the crossword-solving population, but that band is old enough and big enough for me to know who they are despite never having really listened to their work, so the answer seems fair. HANS ZIMMER, definitely fair, but ... he's not really known as a "song" writer, is he? He's a (decorated) film composer. He's known for scores, not songs. Those "songs" in his clue ("Cornfield Chase"? "Time"?) were unrecognizable to me. I had to look them up. "Cornfield Chase" is the second cut on the Interstellar soundtrack, and "Time" was apparently a track from Inception, though it was remixed in a collaboration with Norwegian DJ Alan Walker in 2020, to some acclaim.

Probably the weakest part of the theme is the "song" part. There's no doubt that all these acts composed and released "songs," but none of the songs mentioned in the clues are what you'd call iconic or universally known. The theme might've made more sense if the dynasty names had been embedded in actual songs. Like, say:

So, the "songs" in question are not superpopular and Zimmer isn't even really known for "songs." And I think the theme would've been more elegant if there had been absolutely no other "song" people in the grid (no DRE, no NIALL, no SYMS)—keep the theme tight! And yet, this puzzle is really imaginative, and it was fun to solve—way more fun than your typical Tuesday. So I'm for it. I'm not for that spelling of AOKAY (?) (tragic mess) and SYSCO and IGER feel stale, but otherwise, the fill is solid, occasionally vibrant. Yeah, it's got Reagan :( but it's also got DUMPLINGS :) You lose, you win, you eat, you drink, the facts of life, the facts of life.

[Joe Jackson knew]

Beyond the proper nouns, the puzzle was appropriately easy. Tuesday-easy. I slipped up with SLIP instead of SKIP (8D: Go past), and NIALS instead of NIALL (31D: Singer Horan of One Direction). The answer that gave me the most trouble was, ironically, the tiniest answer in the puzzle (well, tied for the tiniest with several other answers)—it was "DO I!" (56A: "Abso-freakin-lutely!"). I got the terminal "I" first and thought "... 'OUI!'?" Then got the "O" and thought "... 'MOI!'?" But no, two words!! Bah! Parsing fail! I'm supposed to be an OLD PRO. And yet!

Bullets:

28D: Island that's the world's third-smallest country, after Vatican City and Monaco (NAURU) — I think this is, technically, an error. In a bizarre coincidence, I learned just yesterday that NAURU recently changed its name to NAOERO. How did I learn this? From a crossword puzzle, of course. One of Peter Gordon's "Newsflash" puzzles, I think (these are puzzles that take their content straight from current headlines). " In May 2026, a constitutional amendment was passed to change the English name to "Republic of Naoero", matching the spelling in the Nauruan language." (wikipedia)
71A: Prey for polar bears (SEALS) — well that's a grim way to come at SEALS. Accurate, but ...
39A: Mario's video game brother (LUIGI) — another Marioverse answer. Giving the Star Wars universe a run for its money.
63A: Ingredient in a Dark 'n' Stormy (RUM) — the other ingredients: ginger beer, lime slice.

That's all. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. Happy birthday to Andrew Nestler, who works in the math department at Santa Monica College. If you know him, say hi for me.

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