The Flaming Lips
Encyclopedia
The Flaming Lips are an American alternative rock
band, formed in Oklahoma City
, Oklahoma
in 1983.
Melodically, their sound contains lush, multi-layered, psychedelic rock
arrangement
s, but lyrically their compositions show elements of space rock
, including unusual song and album titles—such as "What Is the Light? (An Untested Hypothesis Suggesting That the Chemical [In Our Brains] by Which We Are Able to Experience the Sensation of Being in Love Is the Same Chemical That Caused the "Big Bang" That Was the Birth of the Accelerating Universe)". They are also acclaimed for their elaborate live shows, which feature costumes, balloons, puppets, video projections, complex stage light configurations, giant hands, large amounts of confetti, and frontman Wayne Coyne
's signature man-sized plastic bubble, in which he traverses the audience. In 2002, Q magazine
named The Flaming Lips one of the "50 Bands to See Before You Die."
The group recorded several albums and EPs
on an indie label, Restless
, in the 1980s and early 1990s. After signing to Warner Brothers
, they scored a hit in 1993 with "She Don't Use Jelly
". Although it has been their only hit single in the U.S., the band has maintained critical respect and, to a lesser extent, commercial viability through albums such as 1999's The Soft Bulletin
(which was NME
magazine's Album of the Year
) and 2002's Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
. They have had more hit singles in the UK and Europe than in the U.S. In February 2007, they were nominated for a 2007 BRIT Award in the "Best International Act" category. By 2007, the group garnered three Grammy Awards, including two for Best Rock Instrumental Performance
.
On October 13, 2009 the group released their latest studio album, titled Embryonic
. On December 22, 2009, The Flaming Lips released a remake of the 1973 Pink Floyd
album The Dark Side of the Moon
. In 2011, the band announced plans to release new songs in every month of the year, with the entire process filmed.
singing lead vocals and Michael Ivins
on bass guitar. The band debuted at Oklahoma City's Blue Note Lounge. After going through a host of different drummers, Richard English joined the band in 1984. That same year they recorded their only release with Mark Coyne singing lead vocals–The Flaming Lips
.
After his brother's departure, Wayne assumed the vocal duties and the band released their first full-length album, Hear It Is, on Pink Dust Records (the psychedelic-rock imprint of Enigma Records
) in 1986. This line-up recorded two more albums; 1987's Oh My Gawd!!!
and 1989's Telepathic Surgery
, the latter originally planned to be a thirty minute sound collage.
Nathan Roberts replaced English and Jonathan Donahue
(also a member of the alternative rock band Mercury Rev
) joined in 1989. In a Priest Driven Ambulance
, their first album with producer Dave Fridmann
, was recorded at the State University of New York
in Fredonia
for $5 an hour on a $10,000 budget. The album was host to a marked expansion in the band's sound and their previous experiments in tape loops and effects were given a more prominent role. During this period, Coyne made his transition to a higher, more strained vocal style akin to Neil Young
, which he first used on Telepathic Surgery
's "Chrome Plated Suicide" and has employed ever since.
In 1990 the band caught the attention of Warner Bros. Records
and were signed promptly after a representative of the label witnessed a show at which the band almost burned down the venue (American Legion Hall in Norman, Oklahoma) with the use of pyrotechnics
.
after the recording of which Donahue left the band to concentrate on Mercury Rev. Roberts left the band as well, citing creative differences. They were replaced by Ronald Jones
and Steven Drozd
respectively.
In 1993, they released Transmissions from the Satellite Heart
. This was the only studio album since In a Priest Driven Ambulance to date in which Dave Fridmann
has not been involved. Because of the success of the album and the single "She Don't Use Jelly
", the band was featured on three popular television series: Beverly Hills, 90210
, The Late Show with David Letterman and Beavis and Butt-head
. The success of this record led to long stints of touring, opening for bands including the Red Hot Chili Peppers
and Candlebox
.
Clouds Taste Metallic
was released to much critical fanfare in late 1995, though it did not achieve the commercial success of its predecessor. The strain of the year-long Clouds tour added to the stress from the three years touring in support of Transmissions was a major factor in the departure of Ronald Jones in late 1996. He was said to be suffering from a severe case of agoraphobia
, although the documentary Fearless Freaks
states that he left because of his growing concerns over Drozd's drug use.
(1997), a four-CD album which is intended to be heard by playing all four CDs in four separate CD players simultaneously. The music incorporated both traditional musical elements and "found" sounds (as in musique concrète
), often heavily manipulated with recording studio
electronics.
As part of the development of this project, the band conducted a series of "parking lot experiments" and then later, "boombox experiments". In the parking lot experiments up to 40 volunteers were given cassettes created by the band to be played at a parking lot in their cars' stereo systems simultaneously. In the "boom box experiments" an orchestra composed of up to 40 volunteers with modified "boombox"-type tape players was "conducted" – directed to vary the volume, speed or tone of the tape they were playing (again composed by the band) – by Wayne Coyne
.
In the meanwhile, a series of unfortunate incidents (recounted in the 1999 song "The Spiderbite Song") beset the band. Drozd's arm was almost amputated needlessly because of what he claimed was a spider
bite (it turned out to be abscess
ed as a result of Drozd's heroin use), Ivins was trapped in his car for several hours after a wheel spun off of another vehicle into his windshield, and Coyne's father died after a long battle with cancer.
. Marrying more traditional catchy melodies with synthetic strings, hypnotic, carefully manipulated beats, booming cymbals and oddball but philosophical lyrics (sung much more strongly than on earlier releases), the album quickly became one of the underground hits of the year, even widely considered to be one of the best albums of the entire decade.
Compared by many music critics to The Beach Boys
' Pet Sounds
because of its inclusion of harmonies and orchestrated sounds, The Soft Bulletin also featured greater use of synthesizers, drum machine
s, sound effects and more studio manipulation. After this album was released, Coyne stated that, "if someone was to ask me what instrument do I play, I would say the recording studio." The band considered an attempt to recreate this complex album live solely with additional musicians to be complex and expensive, the group decided to tour as a three-piece and make extensive use of pre-recorded music to fill out those parts that were not performed live by the members of the band. Perhaps most notably, this led to the decision to have the drummer Drozd play primarily keyboards and guitar live instead of the drums. This, in turn, led to a decision to utilize video recordings and projections of Steven playing the drums for some of the band's older songs.
To enhance the live experience for their audience and to accurately reproduce the sound of The Soft Bulletin live, the Lips devised the concept of the "Headphone Concert". A low-powered FM
transmitter was set up at shows, and the concert was simultaneously broadcast to small Walkman
-style receivers and headphones made available for free to audience members. This would, in theory, allow the audiences greater sonic clarity while still feeling the power of a full live P.A.
. This concept was debuted in Dallas
, Texas and at the South by Southwest
conference in Austin
, Texas in March 1999, and was subsequently used on the International Music Against Brain Degeneration Revue tour. This tour featured Japanese band Cornelius
, Sebadoh
, Robyn Hitchcock
, Sonic Boom's E.A.R. and IQU
.
Three years later, in the summer of 2002, The Flaming Lips joined bands Cake
and Modest Mouse
on the Unlimited Sunshine Tour
. They also released the full-length Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
to much critical acclaim. Featuring guest musician Yoshimi P-We
and demonstrating more use of electronic instruments and computer manipulation than The Soft Bulletin, Yoshimi is widely considered to be The Flaming Lips' first critical and commercial success after nearly twenty years as a band. The final track on the album, "Approaching Pavonis Mons by Balloon (Utopia Planitia)" earned a 2003 Grammy Award
for Best Rock Instrumental Performance
, and the album was certified gold on April 10, 2006. In March 2007, the band revealed that they have recently teamed up with screenwriter Aaron Sorkin
to produce a Broadway musical based on the album.
Both The Soft Bulletin
and Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
have been released on DVD-Audio
.
Following the success of "Yoshimi", Steven Drozd completed rehab for heroin addiction. This decision was spurred by a physical altercation between Wayne Coyne and Steven Drozd.
in the same vein of their previous album's robotic theme and containing remixed songs from Yoshimi, Fight Test
and Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell. They also appeared on the track "Marching the Hate Machines (Into the Sun)" on the Thievery Corporation
album The Cosmic Game
. In 2002 they were invited to work in the studio with The Chemical Brothers
, they produce together the single called The Golden Path, included in Chemical Brothers compilation album Singles 93-03. In this song, the lead vocals were performed by Wayne Coyne with Steven Drozd performing harmony vocals. In addition to their EPs, The Lips had been working for several years on a feature film entitled Christmas on Mars
. Filming for the movie ended in late September 2005 and premiered on May 25, 2008 at the Sasquatch! Music Festival.
In 2002, they performed as the opening act, as well as the backup band for singer Beck
on his Sea Change tour. In the summer of 2004, it was announced that The Flaming Lips would appear among the headliners on the 2004 Lollapalooza
tour, alongside such artists as Sonic Youth
and Morrissey
; however, the tour was canceled because of lack of revenue. Following the concerts' cancellation, the band entered Tarbox Road Studio with producer Dave Fridmann
and began work on their eleventh album, the more organic-sounding At War with the Mystics
. The record, aimed to be a more guitar-based and heavier effort than recent albums, featured more politically conscious lyrics than any of their previous releases, and was released in April 2006 to a mixed yet mostly positive reception. Also in 2004, the band recorded the song "SpongeBob and Patrick Confront the Psychic Wall of Energy" for the soundtrack of The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie
.
In 2005 the band was the subject of a documentary called Fearless Freaks
, featuring appearances by other artists and celebrities such as Gibby Haynes
, The White Stripes
, Beck
, Christina Ricci
, Liz Phair
, Juliette Lewis
, Steve Burns
, Starlight Mints
, and Adam Goldberg
. In that same year, The Flaming Lips contributed a version of "Bohemian Rhapsody
" to the album Killer Queen: A Tribute to Queen
. Also in this year, The Flaming Lips released the DVD VOID (Video Overview in Deceleration)
, which chronicles all of their ventures into music video that have been produced since they signed with Warner Bros in 1991. In October 2005, The Flaming Lips recorded a cover of "If I Only Had a Brain" for the soundtrack of the video game Stubbs the Zombie, which features modern rock bands covering songs from the 1950s and 1960s. Additionally, the band released one new song, "Mr. Ambulance Driver", for the soundtrack of the 2005 film
Wedding Crashers
(a slightly edited version of the song found its way on the new record).
The band released two singles from At War With the Mystics: "The W.A.N.D.", which was featured in a Dell commercial and which was originally put out as a download-only single in early 2006, and "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song", which became their highest-charting single on the UK Singles Chart
, peaking at #16. A 4-track EP, entitled It Overtakes Me, was released later in the UK that year. The only instrumental on the album, "The Wizard Turns On... The Giant Silver Flashlight and Puts on His Werewolf Moccasins", earned a 2006 Grammy Award
for Best Rock Instrumental Performance
, making it twice in a row the Lips have been nominated in that category and won.
Following the April 4, 2006 release of At War with the Mystics
, the band began a tour to support the album in the United Kingdom, including a finale at the Royal Albert Hall
and performances at the O2 Wireless Festival. At the Leeds England date of the festival, the band opened for The Who
, of whom they are long standing fans.
The band continued to tour throughout the fall of 2006 stopping in Montreal
, the Virgin Festival on the Toronto Islands, Atlantic City's House of Blues, The University of Vermont
in Burlington
, their hometown Oklahoma City
, the Austin City Limits Music Festival
in Austin, Texas
, and New York City, NY
as well as several other cities. The homecoming show in Oklahoma City was performed at the Zoo Amphitheater and included the unveiling of a new UFO
stage prop
, and would provide footage for the U.F.O.s at the Zoo concert DVD.
On December 5, 2006, Oklahoma City honored the band with a downtown alley named after the band. Vince Gill
and Charlie Christian
were also given street names by the city. Flaming Lips Alley is at the center of Oklahoma City's entertainment district, Bricktown. At the official dedication in 2007, Coyne said of Oklahoma City, "...We’re on the way to becoming, I think, the fucking coolest city in America."
film entitled Christmas on Mars
. Completed in 2008, the film tells the story of the first Christmas of a colony set-up on the surface of Mars. Christmas On Mars was written by Wayne Coyne, and co-directed by Wayne Coyne, Bradley Beesley and George Salisbury
. The band and their friends act in the movie.
The band brought the film to rock festivals across America during the summer of 2008 and screened it in a large circus tent they had bought for that purpose.
The film was released on DVD on November 11, 2008, along with a soundtrack written and performed by The Flaming Lips.
, "I Was Zapped by the Super Lucky Rainbow" for Good Luck Chuck
, "Love the World You Find" for Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium
, and “Maybe I’m Not the One” and “Tale of the Horny Frog” for The Heartbreak Kid
.
In 2009, the band released their twelfth studio album and first double album, Embryonic
. The album, which was the band’s first to open in the Billboard top 10, was widely critically acclaimed for its bold new direction. In December of the same year, the band released their second album of the year and thirteenth overall, a track-for-track cover of Pink Floyd
's The Dark Side of the Moon, which was recorded with Stardeath and White Dwarfs
and features guest appearances from Henry Rollins
and Peaches
. The album was released physically on vinyl and CD in 2010.
and must be played simultaneously to be heard as intended.
In March 2011, the Lips released the EP Flaming Lips 2011: The Flaming Lips with Neon Indian
.
In April, the band released the "Gummy Song Skull
" EP,a seven pound skull made of gummy bear material with a gummy brain, which contained a flashdrive with 4 songs on them. This release was extremely limited, but was soon leaked on the internet shortly after its release.
In May, the band released its second collaboration EP entitled "The Flaming Lips with Prefuse 73". It contains four songs and was released in a similar way to the earlier Neon Indian EP, in that the run was extremely limited and consisted of randomly colored, one of a kind discs. This EP was briefly available on the band's official website but sold out shortly after it was put up for sale.
June saw several releases by the band, the first being "The Soft Bulletin:Live la Fantastique de Institution 2011", a live-in-studio recording of the band's 1999 album "The Soft Bulletin
" which was on a flashdrive embedded in a marijuana-flavored brain inside a strawberry flavored gummy skull. This was only released at the band's two night show at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery on June 14th and 15th. This show was a special two-night, one morning event in which they played the entirety of The Soft Bulletin one night and a new revamped version of Pink Floyd's 1973 album "The Dark Side of the Moon
" and collaborated with Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros
for a performance of "Do You Realize??
" at dawn of the second day. Also included on this flashdrive was a best-of compilation entitled "Everyone You Know Someday Will Die" put together especially for the occasion by the band's drummer Kliph Scurlock
. It included songs from every portion of the band's career as well as a newly recorded intro. The final June release was the "Gummy Song Fetus" EP which consisted of three songs on a flashdrive embedded in a bubblegum-flavored fetus made of gummy bear material. This release, as with the rest, was extremely limited, although the songs did leak on the Internet several weeks after it was released.
In July, the band released "The Flaming Lips with Lightning Bolt", a collaborative EP with experimental rock group Lightning Bolt
. Although called a collaboration, this release (consisting of four tracks) is actually just The Flaming Lips' versions of two songs (found on side A) and Lightning Bolt's versions (found on side B). This EP was released on randomly colored vinyl as with the previous two collaborative EPs.
In late August, the band announced that it would be recording a six hour-long song entitled "I Found a Star on the Ground". This, along with two other songs, were released in September packaged with a set of spinning discs with animations on them. This release is officially called Strobo Trip. Featured in "I Found a Star on the Ground" is Sean Lennon
who, with his band Ghost of a Sabertooth Tiger, opened for the Lips in early 2011. In the song Lennon reads off several lists of names. These names are of people who donated $100 on a dedicated website. All proceeds were donated to the Oklahoma City SPCA and Academy of Contemporary Music at University of Central Oklahoma. 212 names are featured in the song. At Midnight October 31st 2011, a 24-hour song was released entitled "7 Skies H3". It is up for free download, but is also available for purchase as a harddrive encased in an actual human skull. There are exactly 13 up for purchase at $5,000 dollars each. It also includes a psychedelic gummy frog, an artistic collaboration with Oklahoma City-based clothing company Warpaint, a collaboration with Nick Cave
, and a stompbox that will, among many other things, play new Flaming Lips music. Future collaborations have been referenced in interviews by members of the band, including collaborations with Panda Bear, Death Cab For Cutie
, Black Moth Super Rainbow
and Ghostland Observatory
.
" was announced as the official rock song of Oklahoma. Ten choices were put to a public vote, and out of 21,000 votes cast nearly 51% were for "Do You Realize??" The Oklahoma Senate
approved this choice unanimously. The Oklahoma House of Representatives
failed to confirm the choice after Rep. Mike Reynolds, R-Oklahoma City attacked the band for its use of offensive language, and Rep. Corey Holland, R-Marlow said he had been "really offended" when Michael Ivins came to the announcement ceremony in March wearing a red T-shirt with a yellow hammer and sickle
. However, that evening Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry
announced he would sign an executive order naming the song the official rock song. Henry said that for more than 20 years the Flaming Lips have produced "creative, fun and provocative rock music." "The music of the Flaming Lips has earned Grammys, glowing critical acclaim and fans all over the world", the governor said. "A truly iconic rock n' roll band, they are proud ambassadors of their home state." "They were clearly the people's choice, and I intend to honor that vote."
Former
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
band, formed in Oklahoma City
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Oklahoma City is the capital and the largest city in the state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, the city ranks 31st among United States cities in population. The city's population, from the 2010 census, was 579,999, with a metro-area population of 1,252,987 . In 2010, the Oklahoma...
, Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
in 1983.
Melodically, their sound contains lush, multi-layered, psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock is a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues rock bands in United States and the United Kingdom...
arrangement
Arrangement
The American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...
s, but lyrically their compositions show elements of space rock
Space rock
Space rock is a subgenre of rock music; the term originally referred to a group of early, mostly British, 1970s progressive and psychedelic rock bands such as Hawkwind and Pink Floyd, characterised by slow, lengthy instrumental passages dominated by electric organs, synthesizers, experimental...
, including unusual song and album titles—such as "What Is the Light? (An Untested Hypothesis Suggesting That the Chemical [In Our Brains] by Which We Are Able to Experience the Sensation of Being in Love Is the Same Chemical That Caused the "Big Bang" That Was the Birth of the Accelerating Universe)". They are also acclaimed for their elaborate live shows, which feature costumes, balloons, puppets, video projections, complex stage light configurations, giant hands, large amounts of confetti, and frontman Wayne Coyne
Wayne Coyne
Wayne Michael Coyne is the lead singer, guitarist, and principal songwriter for the band The Flaming Lips.-Early life:...
's signature man-sized plastic bubble, in which he traverses the audience. In 2002, Q magazine
Q (magazine)
Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom.Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology...
named The Flaming Lips one of the "50 Bands to See Before You Die."
The group recorded several albums and EPs
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
on an indie label, Restless
Restless Records
Restless Records was started in El Segundo, California in 1981 by Enigma Records and primarly released alternative, metal and punk records. Restless also licensed and released records from Bar/None Records, Metal Blade Records and Mute Records...
, in the 1980s and early 1990s. After signing to Warner Brothers
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...
, they scored a hit in 1993 with "She Don't Use Jelly
She Don't Use Jelly
"She Don't Use Jelly" is a 1993 song by The Flaming Lips, and is their biggest radio hit to date. The song became popular after being featured on the MTV show Beavis and Butt-head, nearly a year after the album's release. It is still their highest charting single to date "She Don't Use Jelly" is a...
". Although it has been their only hit single in the U.S., the band has maintained critical respect and, to a lesser extent, commercial viability through albums such as 1999's The Soft Bulletin
The Soft Bulletin
-UK & Australian CD release:-Vinyl release:-The Soft Bulletin 5.1:On January 31, 2006, Warner Bros. re-released The Soft Bulletin in the US as a two-disc package titled The Soft Bulletin 5.1. It includes a remastered CD and a DVD-Audio disc that contains a 5.1-channel surround sound mix of the album...
(which was NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
magazine's Album of the Year
NME album of the year
Every December, British music magazine NME compiles a list of what it considers the best albums of the year. It was started in 1974. The list is usually published in one of the issues sold before Christmas – in 2006 it was published in the issue for December the 9th...
) and 2002's Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
-Special edition DVD-Audio:-The Flaming Lips:* Wayne Coyne - guitar, vocals, artwork, mixing, production* Michael Ivins - bass guitar, keyboards, vocals, mixing, production, additional engineering...
. They have had more hit singles in the UK and Europe than in the U.S. In February 2007, they were nominated for a 2007 BRIT Award in the "Best International Act" category. By 2007, the group garnered three Grammy Awards, including two for Best Rock Instrumental Performance
Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance
The Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance was an honor presented to recording artists for quality instrumental rock performances at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards...
.
On October 13, 2009 the group released their latest studio album, titled Embryonic
Embryonic
Embryonic received general acclaim from critics upon release, garnering a 81/100 critic score on Metacritic. The New Musical Express noted that "ten years after their last masterpiece, The Flaming Lips have finally produced another one," while Paste Magazine described the record as "a wonderfully...
. On December 22, 2009, The Flaming Lips released a remake of the 1973 Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd were an English rock band that achieved worldwide success with their progressive and psychedelic rock music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially...
album The Dark Side of the Moon
The Dark Side of the Moon
The Dark Side of the Moon is the eighth studio album by English progressive rock band Pink Floyd, released in March 1973. It built on ideas explored in the band's earlier recordings and live shows, but lacks the extended instrumental excursions that characterised their work following the departure...
. In 2011, the band announced plans to release new songs in every month of the year, with the entire process filmed.
Early history and releases (Debut EP to In a Priest Driven Ambulance)
The Flaming Lips formed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in 1983 with Wayne Coyne's brother MarkMark Coyne (musician)
Mark Coyne is an American musician and one of the original members of the rock band The Flaming Lips. Coyne co-founded the group along with his brother Wayne in Norman, Oklahoma, in 1983. The original lineup of the Flaming Lips was Mark on lead vocals, Wayne on guitar, and Michael Ivins on bass...
singing lead vocals and Michael Ivins
Michael Ivins
Michael Lee Ivins is the bassist and one of the founding members of The Flaming Lips.Along with Mark Coyne and Wayne Coyne, he formed The Flaming Lips in 1983 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. According to Wayne, Michael was found as the bassist for the band because of his punk-rock look, and not...
on bass guitar. The band debuted at Oklahoma City's Blue Note Lounge. After going through a host of different drummers, Richard English joined the band in 1984. That same year they recorded their only release with Mark Coyne singing lead vocals–The Flaming Lips
The Flaming Lips (EP)
-Personnel:*Wayne Coyne*Mark Coyne*Michael Ivins*Richard English...
.
After his brother's departure, Wayne assumed the vocal duties and the band released their first full-length album, Hear It Is, on Pink Dust Records (the psychedelic-rock imprint of Enigma Records
Enigma Records
Enigma Records was a popular rock and alternative American record label in the 1980s. It was initially a division of Greenworld Distribution, an independent music importer/distributor, which it split-off from in 1985 to become its own company...
) in 1986. This line-up recorded two more albums; 1987's Oh My Gawd!!!
Oh My Gawd!!!
Oh My Gawd!!! is The Flaming Lips' second album, released on Restless Records in 1987. It is a slightly heavier album than their debut Hear It Is.-Track listing:...
and 1989's Telepathic Surgery
Telepathic Surgery
CD track listing- Personnel :* Wayne Coyne - Lead Vocals, Guitar* Richard English - Drums, Vocals, Guitar* Michael Ivins - Bass, Vocals* Produced by The Flaming Lips* Engineered by Ruben Ayala* Craig 'Niteman' Taylor - Harmonica...
, the latter originally planned to be a thirty minute sound collage.
Nathan Roberts replaced English and Jonathan Donahue
Jonathan Donahue
Jonathan Daniel Donahue is an American rock musician. He has been an integral member of two of North America's more influential indie/experimental bands of the 1990s; The Flaming Lips and Mercury Rev....
(also a member of the alternative rock band Mercury Rev
Mercury Rev
Mercury Rev is an American alternative rock group, that formed in the late 1980s in Buffalo, New York. Original personnel were David Baker , Jonathan Donahue , Sean Mackowiak, a.k.a...
) joined in 1989. In a Priest Driven Ambulance
In a Priest Driven Ambulance
In a Priest Driven Ambulance is the fourth album by The Flaming Lips, released in 1990 . It is a concept album primarily focused on frontman Wayne Coyne's fascination with religion. It is generally considered among critics to be one of the best early period Flaming Lips albums...
, their first album with producer Dave Fridmann
Dave Fridmann
Dave Fridmann is an American record producer and musician. From 1990 onwards he co-produced all releases by Mercury Rev and The Flaming Lips...
, was recorded at the State University of New York
State University of New York
The State University of New York, abbreviated SUNY , is a system of public institutions of higher education in New York, United States. It is the largest comprehensive system of universities, colleges, and community colleges in the United States, with a total enrollment of 465,000 students, plus...
in Fredonia
Fredonia, New York
Fredonia is a village in Chautauqua County, New York, United States. The population was 11,068 as of 2009.The Village of Fredonia is in the Town of Pomfret south of Lake Erie...
for $5 an hour on a $10,000 budget. The album was host to a marked expansion in the band's sound and their previous experiments in tape loops and effects were given a more prominent role. During this period, Coyne made his transition to a higher, more strained vocal style akin to Neil Young
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...
, which he first used on Telepathic Surgery
Telepathic Surgery
CD track listing- Personnel :* Wayne Coyne - Lead Vocals, Guitar* Richard English - Drums, Vocals, Guitar* Michael Ivins - Bass, Vocals* Produced by The Flaming Lips* Engineered by Ruben Ayala* Craig 'Niteman' Taylor - Harmonica...
's "Chrome Plated Suicide" and has employed ever since.
In 1990 the band caught the attention of Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...
and were signed promptly after a representative of the label witnessed a show at which the band almost burned down the venue (American Legion Hall in Norman, Oklahoma) with the use of pyrotechnics
Pyrotechnics
Pyrotechnics is the science of using materials capable of undergoing self-contained and self-sustained exothermic chemical reactions for the production of heat, light, gas, smoke and/or sound...
.
Signed to Warner Bros. (Hit to Death in the Future Head to Clouds Taste Metallic)
In 1992, the band released their major label debut Hit to Death in the Future HeadHit to Death in the Future Head
-Personnel:* Wayne Coyne - guitar, vocals* Michael Ivins - bass* Jonathan Donahue - guitar* Nathan Roberts - drums...
after the recording of which Donahue left the band to concentrate on Mercury Rev. Roberts left the band as well, citing creative differences. They were replaced by Ronald Jones
Ronald Jones (musician)
Ronald Jones is an American musician, who was a guitarist in the Oklahoma rock band The Flaming Lips from 1991 to 1996....
and Steven Drozd
Steven Drozd
Steven Gregory Drozd is an American musician. He is a multi-instrumentalist and lead guitarist for The Flaming Lips.-Early life:...
respectively.
In 1993, they released Transmissions from the Satellite Heart
Transmissions from the Satellite Heart
Transmissions from the Satellite Heart is The Flaming Lips' sixth album, released in 1993. Its fourth track, "She Don't Use Jelly", is notable for being The Flaming Lips' first charting radio hit, after its video was featured on the MTV show Beavis and Butt-Head, nearly a year after the album's...
. This was the only studio album since In a Priest Driven Ambulance to date in which Dave Fridmann
Dave Fridmann
Dave Fridmann is an American record producer and musician. From 1990 onwards he co-produced all releases by Mercury Rev and The Flaming Lips...
has not been involved. Because of the success of the album and the single "She Don't Use Jelly
She Don't Use Jelly
"She Don't Use Jelly" is a 1993 song by The Flaming Lips, and is their biggest radio hit to date. The song became popular after being featured on the MTV show Beavis and Butt-head, nearly a year after the album's release. It is still their highest charting single to date "She Don't Use Jelly" is a...
", the band was featured on three popular television series: Beverly Hills, 90210
Beverly Hills, 90210
Beverly Hills, 90210 is an American drama series that originally aired from October 4, 1990 to May 17, 2000 on Fox and was produced by Spelling Television in the United States, and subsequently on various networks around the world. It is the first series in the Beverly Hills, 90210 franchise...
, The Late Show with David Letterman and Beavis and Butt-head
Beavis and Butt-Head
Beavis and Butt-head is an American animated television series created by Mike Judge. The series originated from Frog Baseball, a 1992 short film by Judge. After seeing the short, MTV signed Judge to develop the concept. Beavis and Butt-head originally aired from March 8, 1993 to November 28, 1997...
. The success of this record led to long stints of touring, opening for bands including the Red Hot Chili Peppers
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Red Hot Chili Peppers is an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles in 1983. The group's musical style primarily consists of rock with an emphasis on funk, as well as elements from other genres such as punk, hip hop and psychedelic rock...
and Candlebox
Candlebox
Candlebox is an American alternative rock band from Seattle, Washington. Since their debut, the group has released four studio albums, which have achieved multi-platinum and gold certification, as well as numerous charting singles, a compilation, and a CD+DVD....
.
Clouds Taste Metallic
Clouds Taste Metallic
- Personnel :* Wayne Coyne - vocals, guitar* Steven Drozd - drums* Michael Ivins - bass* Ronald Jones - guitar- Cover versions :"Lightning Strikes the Postman" was covered by Scottish rock band Aereogramme on their album Seclusion....
was released to much critical fanfare in late 1995, though it did not achieve the commercial success of its predecessor. The strain of the year-long Clouds tour added to the stress from the three years touring in support of Transmissions was a major factor in the departure of Ronald Jones in late 1996. He was said to be suffering from a severe case of agoraphobia
Agoraphobia
Agoraphobia is an anxiety disorder defined as a morbid fear of having a panic attack or panic-like symptoms in a situation from which it is perceived to be difficult to escape. These situations can include, but are not limited to, wide-open spaces, crowds, or uncontrolled social conditions...
, although the documentary Fearless Freaks
Fearless Freaks
Fearless Freaks is a 2005 documentary, directed by Bradley Beesley and edited by JoLynn Garnes, chronicling the alternative rock band The Flaming Lips...
states that he left because of his growing concerns over Drozd's drug use.
A change in direction with Zaireeka
The departure of Jones and a general dissatisfaction with standard "rock" music led to the three remaining members of the group to redefine the direction of the band with the experimental ZaireekaZaireeka
Zaireeka is the eighth studio album by the alternative rock band The Flaming Lips. Released on October 28, 1997, the experimental rock album consists of four compact discs. Each of its eight songs consists of four stereo tracks, one from each CD...
(1997), a four-CD album which is intended to be heard by playing all four CDs in four separate CD players simultaneously. The music incorporated both traditional musical elements and "found" sounds (as in musique concrète
Musique concrète
Musique concrète is a form of electroacoustic music that utilises acousmatic sound as a compositional resource. The compositional material is not restricted to the inclusion of sounds derived from musical instruments or voices, nor to elements traditionally thought of as "musical"...
), often heavily manipulated with recording studio
Recording studio
A recording studio is a facility for sound recording and mixing. Ideally both the recording and monitoring spaces are specially designed by an acoustician to achieve optimum acoustic properties...
electronics.
As part of the development of this project, the band conducted a series of "parking lot experiments" and then later, "boombox experiments". In the parking lot experiments up to 40 volunteers were given cassettes created by the band to be played at a parking lot in their cars' stereo systems simultaneously. In the "boom box experiments" an orchestra composed of up to 40 volunteers with modified "boombox"-type tape players was "conducted" – directed to vary the volume, speed or tone of the tape they were playing (again composed by the band) – by Wayne Coyne
Wayne Coyne
Wayne Michael Coyne is the lead singer, guitarist, and principal songwriter for the band The Flaming Lips.-Early life:...
.
In the meanwhile, a series of unfortunate incidents (recounted in the 1999 song "The Spiderbite Song") beset the band. Drozd's arm was almost amputated needlessly because of what he claimed was a spider
Spider
Spiders are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, and chelicerae with fangs that inject venom. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species diversity among all other groups of organisms...
bite (it turned out to be abscess
Abscess
An abscess is a collection of pus that has accumulated in a cavity formed by the tissue in which the pus resides due to an infectious process or other foreign materials...
ed as a result of Drozd's heroin use), Ivins was trapped in his car for several hours after a wheel spun off of another vehicle into his windshield, and Coyne's father died after a long battle with cancer.
Artistic breakthrough (The Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi)
Though their experimental endeavors received some press coverage, their real breakthrough came with the 1999 release, The Soft BulletinThe Soft Bulletin
-UK & Australian CD release:-Vinyl release:-The Soft Bulletin 5.1:On January 31, 2006, Warner Bros. re-released The Soft Bulletin in the US as a two-disc package titled The Soft Bulletin 5.1. It includes a remastered CD and a DVD-Audio disc that contains a 5.1-channel surround sound mix of the album...
. Marrying more traditional catchy melodies with synthetic strings, hypnotic, carefully manipulated beats, booming cymbals and oddball but philosophical lyrics (sung much more strongly than on earlier releases), the album quickly became one of the underground hits of the year, even widely considered to be one of the best albums of the entire decade.
Compared by many music critics to The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys are an American rock band, formed in 1961 in Hawthorne, California. The group was initially composed of brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Managed by the Wilsons' father Murry, The Beach Boys signed to Capitol Records in 1962...
' Pet Sounds
Pet Sounds
Pet Sounds is the eleventh studio album by the American rock band The Beach Boys, released May 16, 1966, on Capitol Records. It has since been recognized as one of the most influential records in the history of popular music and one of the best albums of the 1960s, including songs such as "Wouldn't...
because of its inclusion of harmonies and orchestrated sounds, The Soft Bulletin also featured greater use of synthesizers, drum machine
Drum machine
A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument designed to imitate the sound of drums or other percussion instruments. They are used in a variety of musical genres, not just purely electronic music...
s, sound effects and more studio manipulation. After this album was released, Coyne stated that, "if someone was to ask me what instrument do I play, I would say the recording studio." The band considered an attempt to recreate this complex album live solely with additional musicians to be complex and expensive, the group decided to tour as a three-piece and make extensive use of pre-recorded music to fill out those parts that were not performed live by the members of the band. Perhaps most notably, this led to the decision to have the drummer Drozd play primarily keyboards and guitar live instead of the drums. This, in turn, led to a decision to utilize video recordings and projections of Steven playing the drums for some of the band's older songs.
Frequency modulation
In telecommunications and signal processing, frequency modulation conveys information over a carrier wave by varying its instantaneous frequency. This contrasts with amplitude modulation, in which the amplitude of the carrier is varied while its frequency remains constant...
transmitter was set up at shows, and the concert was simultaneously broadcast to small Walkman
Walkman
Walkman is a Sony brand tradename originally used for portable audio cassette, and now used to market Sony's portable audio and video players as well as a line of Sony Ericsson mobile phones...
-style receivers and headphones made available for free to audience members. This would, in theory, allow the audiences greater sonic clarity while still feeling the power of a full live P.A.
Sound reinforcement system
A sound reinforcement system is the combination of microphones, signal processors, amplifiers, and loudspeakers that makes live or pre-recorded sounds louder and may also distribute those sounds to a larger or more distant audience...
. This concept was debuted in Dallas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
, Texas and at the South by Southwest
South by Southwest
South by Southwest is an Austin, Texas based company dedicated to planning conferences, trade shows, festivals and other events. Their current roster of annual events include: SXSW Music, SXSW Film, SXSW Interactive, SXSWedu, and SXSWeco and take place every spring in Austin, Texas, United States...
conference in Austin
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
, Texas in March 1999, and was subsequently used on the International Music Against Brain Degeneration Revue tour. This tour featured Japanese band Cornelius
Cornelius
Cornelius is a Roman family name and a masculine given name. It could be derived from Latin cornu "horn". People, places and things named Cornelius include:-Surname:...
, Sebadoh
Sebadoh
Sebadoh is an American indie rock band, formed in 1986 in Westfield, Massachusetts by Eric Gaffney and Dinosaur Jr bass player Lou Barlow. Along with such bands as Pavement and Guided by Voices, Sebadoh helped pioneer lo-fi music, a style of indie rock characterized by low-fidelity recording...
, Robyn Hitchcock
Robyn Hitchcock
Robyn Rowan Hitchcock is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist. While primarily a vocalist and guitarist, he also plays harmonica, piano and bass guitar....
, Sonic Boom's E.A.R. and IQU
IQU
IQU is a lo-fi music group from Olympia, Washington-History:The band formed in Olympia, initially as ICU, and comprised Michiko Swiggs , Aaron Hartman , and K.O. . Swiggs and Oiwa had met at a rave in Osaka, Japan...
.
Three years later, in the summer of 2002, The Flaming Lips joined bands Cake
Cake (band)
Cake is an American alternative rock band from Sacramento, California. Consisting of singer John McCrea, trumpeter Vince DiFiore, guitarist Xan McCurdy, bassist Gabe Nelson and drummer Paulo Baldi, the band has been noted for McCrea's sarcastic lyrics and deadpan voice, DiFiore's trumpet parts, and...
and Modest Mouse
Modest Mouse
Modest Mouse is an American indie rock band formed in 1993 in Issaquah, Washington, by singer/lyricist/guitarist Isaac Brock, drummer Jeremiah Green, and bassist Eric Judy. They are based in Portland, Oregon. Since their 1996 debut album, This Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think...
on the Unlimited Sunshine Tour
Unlimited Sunshine Tour
The Unlimited Sunshine Tour is an American traveling music festival headlined by alternative rock band Cake, and featuring an eclectic mix of bands from multiple musical genres....
. They also released the full-length Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
-Special edition DVD-Audio:-The Flaming Lips:* Wayne Coyne - guitar, vocals, artwork, mixing, production* Michael Ivins - bass guitar, keyboards, vocals, mixing, production, additional engineering...
to much critical acclaim. Featuring guest musician Yoshimi P-We
Yoshimi P-We
Yoshimi P-We, is a Japanese musician best known for her role as the longest consistent drummer in the Japanese rock band Boredoms.Yoshimi also plays trumpet, guitar, and keyboard, and sings....
and demonstrating more use of electronic instruments and computer manipulation than The Soft Bulletin, Yoshimi is widely considered to be The Flaming Lips' first critical and commercial success after nearly twenty years as a band. The final track on the album, "Approaching Pavonis Mons by Balloon (Utopia Planitia)" earned a 2003 Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
for Best Rock Instrumental Performance
Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance
The Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance was an honor presented to recording artists for quality instrumental rock performances at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards...
, and the album was certified gold on April 10, 2006. In March 2007, the band revealed that they have recently teamed up with screenwriter Aaron Sorkin
Aaron Sorkin
Aaron Benjamin Sorkin is an Academy and Emmy award winning American screenwriter, producer, and playwright, whose works include A Few Good Men, The American President, The West Wing, Sports Night, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, The Social Network, and Moneyball.After graduating from Syracuse...
to produce a Broadway musical based on the album.
Both The Soft Bulletin
The Soft Bulletin
-UK & Australian CD release:-Vinyl release:-The Soft Bulletin 5.1:On January 31, 2006, Warner Bros. re-released The Soft Bulletin in the US as a two-disc package titled The Soft Bulletin 5.1. It includes a remastered CD and a DVD-Audio disc that contains a 5.1-channel surround sound mix of the album...
and Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
-Special edition DVD-Audio:-The Flaming Lips:* Wayne Coyne - guitar, vocals, artwork, mixing, production* Michael Ivins - bass guitar, keyboards, vocals, mixing, production, additional engineering...
have been released on DVD-Audio
DVD-Audio
DVD-Audio is a digital format for delivering high-fidelity audio content on a DVD. DVD-Audio is not intended to be a video delivery format and is not the same as video DVDs containing concert films or music videos....
.
Following the success of "Yoshimi", Steven Drozd completed rehab for heroin addiction. This decision was spurred by a physical altercation between Wayne Coyne and Steven Drozd.
Continued success (At War with the Mystics)
Shortly after Yoshimi, The Soft Bulletin was estimated to have sold 300,000 copies in the United States, and later went gold in May 2007. The Flaming Lips released two EPsExtended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
in the same vein of their previous album's robotic theme and containing remixed songs from Yoshimi, Fight Test
Fight Test
Fight Test is an EP by The Flaming Lips featuring the song of the same name, released on Warner Bros. Records in 2003. The single version of "Fight Test" was released on June 23, 2003, peaking at #28 in the UK Singles Chart...
and Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell. They also appeared on the track "Marching the Hate Machines (Into the Sun)" on the Thievery Corporation
Thievery Corporation
Thievery Corporation is a Washington, D.C. based recording artist and DJ duo consisting of Rob Garza, Eric Hilton, and their supporting artists, including current drummer Jeff Franca...
album The Cosmic Game
The Cosmic Game
The Cosmic Game is the 2005 album release from the downtempo group Thievery Corporation. It features various styles of music, including club, future-bossa, breaks, rock and more. It debuted at #74 in the UK Albums Chart. After the success of their previous album, Richest Man in Babylon, the guest...
. In 2002 they were invited to work in the studio with The Chemical Brothers
The Chemical Brothers
The Chemical Brothers are a British electronic music duo comprising Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons. Originating in Manchester in 1991, along with The Prodigy, Fatboy Slim, The Crystal Method, and fellow acts, they were pioneers at bringing the big beat genre to the forefront of pop culture.- Background...
, they produce together the single called The Golden Path, included in Chemical Brothers compilation album Singles 93-03. In this song, the lead vocals were performed by Wayne Coyne with Steven Drozd performing harmony vocals. In addition to their EPs, The Lips had been working for several years on a feature film entitled Christmas on Mars
Christmas on Mars
Christmas on Mars is a science fiction feature film from the Oklahoma psychedelic alternative rock band The Flaming Lips, written and directed by the band's frontman, Wayne Coyne and featuring the entire band in the cast, as well as many of their associates, including Steve Burns, Adam Goldberg,...
. Filming for the movie ended in late September 2005 and premiered on May 25, 2008 at the Sasquatch! Music Festival.
In 2002, they performed as the opening act, as well as the backup band for singer Beck
Beck
Beck Hansen is an American musician, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, known by the stage name Beck...
on his Sea Change tour. In the summer of 2004, it was announced that The Flaming Lips would appear among the headliners on the 2004 Lollapalooza
Lollapalooza
Lollapalooza is an annual music festival featuring popular alternative rock, heavy metal, punk rock and hip hop bands, dance and comedy performances, and craft booths. It has also provided a platform for non-profit and political groups. The music festival hosts more than 160,000 people over a...
tour, alongside such artists as Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth is an American alternative rock band from New York City, formed in 1981. The current lineup consists of Thurston Moore , Kim Gordon , Lee Ranaldo , Steve Shelley , and Mark Ibold .In their early career, Sonic Youth was associated with the No Wave art and music scene in New York City...
and Morrissey
Morrissey
Steven Patrick Morrissey , known as Morrissey, is an English singer and lyricist. He rose to prominence in the 1980s as the lyricist and vocalist of the alternative rock band The Smiths. The band was highly successful in the United Kingdom but broke up in 1987, and Morrissey began a solo career,...
; however, the tour was canceled because of lack of revenue. Following the concerts' cancellation, the band entered Tarbox Road Studio with producer Dave Fridmann
Dave Fridmann
Dave Fridmann is an American record producer and musician. From 1990 onwards he co-produced all releases by Mercury Rev and The Flaming Lips...
and began work on their eleventh album, the more organic-sounding At War with the Mystics
At War with the Mystics
-At War with the Mystics 5.1:Like The Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi, At War with the Mystics was released as a special edition 5.1 CD+DVD-Audio mix on October 24, 2006...
. The record, aimed to be a more guitar-based and heavier effort than recent albums, featured more politically conscious lyrics than any of their previous releases, and was released in April 2006 to a mixed yet mostly positive reception. Also in 2004, the band recorded the song "SpongeBob and Patrick Confront the Psychic Wall of Energy" for the soundtrack of The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie
The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie
The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie is a 2004 American animated film based on the popular Nickelodeon television series SpongeBob SquarePants. The film stars the voices of Tom Kenny, Bill Fagerbakke, Clancy Brown, Rodger Bumpass, Doug Lawrence, Scarlett Johansson, Alec Baldwin, Jeffrey Tambor, and...
.
In 2005 the band was the subject of a documentary called Fearless Freaks
Fearless Freaks
Fearless Freaks is a 2005 documentary, directed by Bradley Beesley and edited by JoLynn Garnes, chronicling the alternative rock band The Flaming Lips...
, featuring appearances by other artists and celebrities such as Gibby Haynes
Gibby Haynes
Gibson Jerome "Gibby" Haynes is an American musician, radio personality, and painter, and the lead singer of the group Butthole Surfers.-Early life and career:...
, The White Stripes
The White Stripes
The White Stripes was an American rock band, formed in 1997 in Detroit, Michigan. The group consisted of the songwriter Jack White and drummer Meg White . Jack and Meg White were previously married to each other, but are now divorced...
, Beck
Beck
Beck Hansen is an American musician, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, known by the stage name Beck...
, Christina Ricci
Christina Ricci
Christina Ricci is an American actress. Ricci received initial recognition and praise as a child star for her performance as Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family and Addams Family Values , and her role as Kat Harvey in Casper...
, Liz Phair
Liz Phair
Phair's entry into the music industry began when she met guitarist Chris Brokaw, a member of the band Come. Brokaw and Phair moved to San Francisco together, and Phair tried to become an artist there...
, Juliette Lewis
Juliette Lewis
Juliette Lewis is an American actress and musician. She gained international fame for her role in the 1991 thriller Cape Fear for which she was nominated for both an Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress...
, Steve Burns
Steve Burns
Steven Michael "Steve" Burns is an American entertainer. He is best known as the original host of the long-running children's television program Blue's Clues.-Early career:...
, Starlight Mints
Starlight Mints
Starlight Mints are an indie pop band from Norman, Oklahoma. The band was formed in the '90s and has varied in size between four and seven members. The current lineup consists of Allan Vest , Andy Nunez , Marian Love Nunez , Ryan Lindsey and Javier Gonzales...
, and Adam Goldberg
Adam Goldberg
Adam Charles Goldberg is an American actor, director, producer, and musician.-Early life:Goldberg was born in Santa Monica, California, the son of Donna and Earl Goldberg, a former lifeguard. His father is Jewish and his mother is a "lapsed" Roman Catholic of Irish, French, and German descent...
. In that same year, The Flaming Lips contributed a version of "Bohemian Rhapsody
Bohemian Rhapsody
"Bohemian Rhapsody" is a song by the British rock band Queen. It was written by Freddie Mercury for the band's 1975 album A Night at the Opera...
" to the album Killer Queen: A Tribute to Queen
Killer Queen: A Tribute to Queen
Killer Queen is a tribute album of Queen songs. The album is named for the 1974 Queen song of the same name that first appeared on the Sheer Heart Attack album.The album peaked at #104 on the Billboard 200 on August 27, 2005...
. Also in this year, The Flaming Lips released the DVD VOID (Video Overview in Deceleration)
VOID (DVD)
VOID is a 5.1 surround sound DVD by The Flaming Lips released on August 23, 2005.It contains new commentary by the band and nineteen music videos made by the band throughout their musical career.-Track listing:# "Mr...
, which chronicles all of their ventures into music video that have been produced since they signed with Warner Bros in 1991. In October 2005, The Flaming Lips recorded a cover of "If I Only Had a Brain" for the soundtrack of the video game Stubbs the Zombie, which features modern rock bands covering songs from the 1950s and 1960s. Additionally, the band released one new song, "Mr. Ambulance Driver", for the soundtrack of the 2005 film
2005 in film
- Highest-grossing films :Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top-grossing films that were first released in the United States in 2005...
Wedding Crashers
Wedding Crashers
Wedding Crashers is a 2005 American comedy film directed by David Dobkin. It stars Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn, with Christopher Walken, Rachel McAdams, Isla Fisher, Bradley Cooper, Diora Baird, Jane Seymour, and an uncredited Will Ferrell....
(a slightly edited version of the song found its way on the new record).
The band released two singles from At War With the Mystics: "The W.A.N.D.", which was featured in a Dell commercial and which was originally put out as a download-only single in early 2006, and "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song", which became their highest-charting single on the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
, peaking at #16. A 4-track EP, entitled It Overtakes Me, was released later in the UK that year. The only instrumental on the album, "The Wizard Turns On... The Giant Silver Flashlight and Puts on His Werewolf Moccasins", earned a 2006 Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
for Best Rock Instrumental Performance
Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance
The Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance was an honor presented to recording artists for quality instrumental rock performances at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards...
, making it twice in a row the Lips have been nominated in that category and won.
Following the April 4, 2006 release of At War with the Mystics
At War with the Mystics
-At War with the Mystics 5.1:Like The Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi, At War with the Mystics was released as a special edition 5.1 CD+DVD-Audio mix on October 24, 2006...
, the band began a tour to support the album in the United Kingdom, including a finale at the Royal Albert Hall
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941....
and performances at the O2 Wireless Festival. At the Leeds England date of the festival, the band opened for The Who
The Who
The Who are an English rock band formed in 1964 by Roger Daltrey , Pete Townshend , John Entwistle and Keith Moon . They became known for energetic live performances which often included instrument destruction...
, of whom they are long standing fans.
The band continued to tour throughout the fall of 2006 stopping in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, the Virgin Festival on the Toronto Islands, Atlantic City's House of Blues, The University of Vermont
University of Vermont
The University of Vermont comprises seven undergraduate schools, an honors college, a graduate college, and a college of medicine. The Honors College does not offer its own degrees; students in the Honors College concurrently enroll in one of the university's seven undergraduate colleges or...
in Burlington
Burlington, Vermont
Burlington is the largest city in the U.S. state of Vermont and the shire town of Chittenden County. Burlington lies south of the U.S.-Canadian border and some south of Montreal....
, their hometown Oklahoma City
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Oklahoma City is the capital and the largest city in the state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, the city ranks 31st among United States cities in population. The city's population, from the 2010 census, was 579,999, with a metro-area population of 1,252,987 . In 2010, the Oklahoma...
, the Austin City Limits Music Festival
Austin City Limits Music Festival
The Austin City Limits Music Festival is an annual three-day American music festival that takes place in Austin, Texas at the city's central public park, Zilker Park...
in Austin, Texas
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
, and New York City, NY
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
as well as several other cities. The homecoming show in Oklahoma City was performed at the Zoo Amphitheater and included the unveiling of a new UFO
Unidentified flying object
A term originally coined by the military, an unidentified flying object is an unusual apparent anomaly in the sky that is not readily identifiable to the observer as any known object...
stage prop
Theatrical property
A theatrical property, commonly referred to as a prop, is an object used on stage by actors to further the plot or story line of a theatrical production. Smaller props are referred to as "hand props". Larger props may also be set decoration, such as a chair or table. The difference between a set...
, and would provide footage for the U.F.O.s at the Zoo concert DVD.
On December 5, 2006, Oklahoma City honored the band with a downtown alley named after the band. Vince Gill
Vince Gill
Vincent Grant "Vince" Gill is an American neotraditional country singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He has achieved commercial success and fame both as frontman to the country rock band Pure Prairie League in the 1970s, and as a solo artist beginning in 1983, where his talents as a...
and Charlie Christian
Charlie Christian
Charles Henry "Charlie" Christian was an American swing and jazz guitarist.Christian was an important early performer on the electric guitar, and is cited as a key figure in the development of bebop and cool jazz. He gained national exposure as a member of the Benny Goodman Sextet and Orchestra...
were also given street names by the city. Flaming Lips Alley is at the center of Oklahoma City's entertainment district, Bricktown. At the official dedication in 2007, Coyne said of Oklahoma City, "...We’re on the way to becoming, I think, the fucking coolest city in America."
Christmas On Mars
In 2001, The Flaming Lips began filming a low-budget indieIndependent film
An independent film, or indie film, is a professional film production resulting in a feature film that is produced mostly or completely outside of the major film studio system. In addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies, independent films are also produced...
film entitled Christmas on Mars
Christmas on Mars
Christmas on Mars is a science fiction feature film from the Oklahoma psychedelic alternative rock band The Flaming Lips, written and directed by the band's frontman, Wayne Coyne and featuring the entire band in the cast, as well as many of their associates, including Steve Burns, Adam Goldberg,...
. Completed in 2008, the film tells the story of the first Christmas of a colony set-up on the surface of Mars. Christmas On Mars was written by Wayne Coyne, and co-directed by Wayne Coyne, Bradley Beesley and George Salisbury
George Salisbury (director)
George E. Salisbury is a film and music video director and graphic designer based out of Oklahoma City, OK.- Career :George Salisbury best is known for his work as the principal art director and music video director with the American rock band, The Flaming Lips.Salisbury has also worked with The...
. The band and their friends act in the movie.
The band brought the film to rock festivals across America during the summer of 2008 and screened it in a large circus tent they had bought for that purpose.
The film was released on DVD on November 11, 2008, along with a soundtrack written and performed by The Flaming Lips.
Embryonic and Dark Side of the Moon
The band released their first live concert DVD, UFO's at the Zoo: The Legendary Concert in Oklahoma City, on August 7, 2007. The band also contributed original songs to the soundtracks of several 2007 films, including "The Supreme Being Teaches Spider-Man How to be in Love" for Spider-Man 3Spider-Man 3
Spider-Man 3 is a 2007 American superhero film written and directed by Sam Raimi, with a screenplay by Ivan Raimi and Alvin Sargent. It is the third film in the Sam Raimi Spider-Man trilogy based on the fictional Marvel Comics character Spider-Man...
, "I Was Zapped by the Super Lucky Rainbow" for Good Luck Chuck
Good Luck Chuck
Good Luck Chuck is a 2007 romantic comedy film starring Dane Cook and Jessica Alba. In the film, women find their "one true love" after having sex with a dentist named Chuck...
, "Love the World You Find" for Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium
Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium
Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium is a 2007 film written and directed by Zach Helm. The film stars Dustin Hoffman as the owner of a magical toy store, and Natalie Portman as his store employee.-Plot:...
, and “Maybe I’m Not the One” and “Tale of the Horny Frog” for The Heartbreak Kid
The Heartbreak Kid (2007 film)
The Heartbreak Kid is a 2007 romantic comedy film directed by Bobby and Peter Farrelly. Starring Ben Stiller and Malin Åkerman, The Heartbreak Kid is a remake of the italian film Luna di miele in tre and a version of the 1972 film of the same name. Also starring are Michelle Monaghan, Jerry...
.
In 2009, the band released their twelfth studio album and first double album, Embryonic
Embryonic
Embryonic received general acclaim from critics upon release, garnering a 81/100 critic score on Metacritic. The New Musical Express noted that "ten years after their last masterpiece, The Flaming Lips have finally produced another one," while Paste Magazine described the record as "a wonderfully...
. The album, which was the band’s first to open in the Billboard top 10, was widely critically acclaimed for its bold new direction. In December of the same year, the band released their second album of the year and thirteenth overall, a track-for-track cover of Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd were an English rock band that achieved worldwide success with their progressive and psychedelic rock music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially...
's The Dark Side of the Moon, which was recorded with Stardeath and White Dwarfs
Stardeath and White Dwarfs
Stardeath and White Dwarfs is an experimental rock band from Norman, Oklahoma, formed in late 2004. The band has released one album, one single and an EP, as well as contributing to The Flaming Lips' 2009 remake of The Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd.The band consists of Dennis Coyne, Casey...
and features guest appearances from Henry Rollins
Henry Rollins
Henry Rollins is an American singer-songwriter, spoken word artist, writer, comedian, publisher, actor, and radio DJ....
and Peaches
Peaches (musician)
Merrill Beth Nisker , better known by her stage name Peaches, is a Canadian electronic musician and performance artist who lives in Berlin, Germany. Her songs are noted for disregarding traditional gender norms and their use of sexually explicit lyrics...
. The album was released physically on vinyl and CD in 2010.
2011 releases
In January 2011, the Lips announced their intention of releasing a new song every month of the year. In February, they released the first track titled "Two Blobs Fucking". The song exists as 12 separate pieces on YouTubeYouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
and must be played simultaneously to be heard as intended.
In March 2011, the Lips released the EP Flaming Lips 2011: The Flaming Lips with Neon Indian
Flaming Lips 2011: The Flaming Lips with Neon Indian
-Personnel:*Wayne Coyne*Steven Drozd*Michael Ivins*Kliph Scurlock*Neon Indian...
.
In April, the band released the "Gummy Song Skull
Gummy Song Skull
Gummy Song Skull is an EP released by The Flaming Lips as part of the The Flaming Lips 2011 series of monthly music releases. This was a limited release contained on a USB keydrive and placed inside a brain-shaped gummy that was further encased in a gummy skull. The EP was only sold in a few record...
" EP,a seven pound skull made of gummy bear material with a gummy brain, which contained a flashdrive with 4 songs on them. This release was extremely limited, but was soon leaked on the internet shortly after its release.
In May, the band released its second collaboration EP entitled "The Flaming Lips with Prefuse 73". It contains four songs and was released in a similar way to the earlier Neon Indian EP, in that the run was extremely limited and consisted of randomly colored, one of a kind discs. This EP was briefly available on the band's official website but sold out shortly after it was put up for sale.
June saw several releases by the band, the first being "The Soft Bulletin:Live la Fantastique de Institution 2011", a live-in-studio recording of the band's 1999 album "The Soft Bulletin
The Soft Bulletin
-UK & Australian CD release:-Vinyl release:-The Soft Bulletin 5.1:On January 31, 2006, Warner Bros. re-released The Soft Bulletin in the US as a two-disc package titled The Soft Bulletin 5.1. It includes a remastered CD and a DVD-Audio disc that contains a 5.1-channel surround sound mix of the album...
" which was on a flashdrive embedded in a marijuana-flavored brain inside a strawberry flavored gummy skull. This was only released at the band's two night show at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery on June 14th and 15th. This show was a special two-night, one morning event in which they played the entirety of The Soft Bulletin one night and a new revamped version of Pink Floyd's 1973 album "The Dark Side of the Moon
The Dark Side of the Moon
The Dark Side of the Moon is the eighth studio album by English progressive rock band Pink Floyd, released in March 1973. It built on ideas explored in the band's earlier recordings and live shows, but lacks the extended instrumental excursions that characterised their work following the departure...
" and collaborated with Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros is an American band led by Alex Ebert, vocalist of the power pop group Ima Robot. Their first full-length recording, Up from Below, was released July 7, 2009, digitally and July 14, 2009, physically on Community Records...
for a performance of "Do You Realize??
Do You Realize??
"Do You Realize??" is a song by The Flaming Lips, released as the first single from their 2002 album Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. It is widely considered to be one of the group's most accessible and popular songs...
" at dawn of the second day. Also included on this flashdrive was a best-of compilation entitled "Everyone You Know Someday Will Die" put together especially for the occasion by the band's drummer Kliph Scurlock
Kliph Scurlock
Kliph Scurlock is an American musician. He is the drummer for the alternative rock band The Flaming Lips.He was born Clifton Thomas Scurlock in Topeka, Kansas, the son of Roger W. Scurlock and Linda Louise Rokey . His love of music was inspired by his mother...
. It included songs from every portion of the band's career as well as a newly recorded intro. The final June release was the "Gummy Song Fetus" EP which consisted of three songs on a flashdrive embedded in a bubblegum-flavored fetus made of gummy bear material. This release, as with the rest, was extremely limited, although the songs did leak on the Internet several weeks after it was released.
In July, the band released "The Flaming Lips with Lightning Bolt", a collaborative EP with experimental rock group Lightning Bolt
Lightning Bolt
Lightning Bolt is a noise rock duo from Providence, Rhode Island, composed of Brian Chippendale on drums and vocals and Brian Gibson on bass guitar. The band met and formed in 1994, when the members of the then-trio attended the Rhode Island School of Design. The band signed to Load Records in...
. Although called a collaboration, this release (consisting of four tracks) is actually just The Flaming Lips' versions of two songs (found on side A) and Lightning Bolt's versions (found on side B). This EP was released on randomly colored vinyl as with the previous two collaborative EPs.
In late August, the band announced that it would be recording a six hour-long song entitled "I Found a Star on the Ground". This, along with two other songs, were released in September packaged with a set of spinning discs with animations on them. This release is officially called Strobo Trip. Featured in "I Found a Star on the Ground" is Sean Lennon
Sean Lennon
is an American singer, songwriter, musician, guitarist and actor. He is the only child of John Lennon and Yoko Ono. His godfather is Sir Elton John.-Early life and education:...
who, with his band Ghost of a Sabertooth Tiger, opened for the Lips in early 2011. In the song Lennon reads off several lists of names. These names are of people who donated $100 on a dedicated website. All proceeds were donated to the Oklahoma City SPCA and Academy of Contemporary Music at University of Central Oklahoma. 212 names are featured in the song. At Midnight October 31st 2011, a 24-hour song was released entitled "7 Skies H3". It is up for free download, but is also available for purchase as a harddrive encased in an actual human skull. There are exactly 13 up for purchase at $5,000 dollars each. It also includes a psychedelic gummy frog, an artistic collaboration with Oklahoma City-based clothing company Warpaint, a collaboration with Nick Cave
Nick Cave
Nicholas Edward "Nick" Cave is an Australian musician, songwriter, author, screenwriter, and occasional film actor.He is best known for his work as a frontman of the critically acclaimed rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, established in 1984, a group known for its eclectic influences and...
, and a stompbox that will, among many other things, play new Flaming Lips music. Future collaborations have been referenced in interviews by members of the band, including collaborations with Panda Bear, Death Cab For Cutie
Death Cab for Cutie
Death Cab for Cutie is an American alternative rock band formed in Bellingham, Washington in 1997. The band consists of Ben Gibbard , Chris Walla , Nick Harmer and Jason McGerr ....
, Black Moth Super Rainbow
Black Moth Super Rainbow
Black Moth Super Rainbow is an American experimental band from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Their music contains elements of psychedelia, folk, electronica, and pop...
and Ghostland Observatory
Ghostland Observatory
Ghostland Observatory is an American music duo based in Austin, Texas. Their music has been described as a combination of electro, rock and funk by Allmusic, and "electro-dance soul rock" by Gothamist....
.
Awards
- Grammys
- Won: (2003) Best Rock Instrumental PerformanceGrammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental PerformanceThe Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance was an honor presented to recording artists for quality instrumental rock performances at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards...
for "Approaching Pavonis Mons by Balloon (Utopia Planitia)" - Nominated: (2004) Best Alternative AlbumGrammy Award for Best Alternative Music AlbumThe Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album is an award presented to recording artists for quality albums in the alternative rock genre at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards...
for Fight Test EP. - Nominated: (2007) Best Alternative AlbumGrammy Award for Best Alternative Music AlbumThe Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album is an award presented to recording artists for quality albums in the alternative rock genre at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards...
for At War With the Mystics. - Won: (2007) Best Rock Instrumental PerformanceGrammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental PerformanceThe Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance was an honor presented to recording artists for quality instrumental rock performances at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards...
for "The Wizard Turns On..." - Won: (2007) Best Engineered Album, Non-ClassicalGrammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-ClassicalThe Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical has been awarded since 1959. The award had several minor name changes:*In 1959 the award was known as Best Engineered Record - Non-Classical...
for At War with the Mystics. - Nominated: (2008) Best Surround Sound AlbumGrammy Award for Best Surround Sound AlbumThe Grammy Award for "Best Surround Sound Album" was first awarded in 2005, as the first category in a new "Surround Sound" field.-Nominees::*An Evening With Dave Grusin...
for At War With the Mystics 5.1. - BRITsBrit AwardsThe Brit Awards are the British Phonographic Industry's annual pop music awards. The name was originally a shortened form of "British", "Britain" or "Britannia", but subsequently became a backronym for British Record Industry Trust...
- Nominated: (2007) for Best International Act.
Official rock song of Oklahoma
In March 2009 "Do You Realize??Do You Realize??
"Do You Realize??" is a song by The Flaming Lips, released as the first single from their 2002 album Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. It is widely considered to be one of the group's most accessible and popular songs...
" was announced as the official rock song of Oklahoma. Ten choices were put to a public vote, and out of 21,000 votes cast nearly 51% were for "Do You Realize??" The Oklahoma Senate
Oklahoma Senate
The Oklahoma Senate is the upper house of the two houses of the Legislature of Oklahoma, the other being the Oklahoma House of Representatives. The total number of Senators is set at 48 by the Oklahoma Constitution....
approved this choice unanimously. The Oklahoma House of Representatives
Oklahoma House of Representatives
The Oklahoma House of Representatives is the lower house of the Oklahoma Legislature, the legislative body of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Its members are responsible for introducing and voting on bills and resolutions, providing legislative oversight for state agencies, and helping to craft the...
failed to confirm the choice after Rep. Mike Reynolds, R-Oklahoma City attacked the band for its use of offensive language, and Rep. Corey Holland, R-Marlow said he had been "really offended" when Michael Ivins came to the announcement ceremony in March wearing a red T-shirt with a yellow hammer and sickle
Hammer and sickle
The hammer and sickle is a part of communist symbolism and its usage indicates an association with Communism, a Communist party, or a Communist state. It features a hammer and a sickle overlapping each other. The two tools are symbols of the industrial proletariat and the peasantry; placing them...
. However, that evening Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry
Brad Henry
Charles Bradford "Brad" Henry was the 26th Governor of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected governor in 2002...
announced he would sign an executive order naming the song the official rock song. Henry said that for more than 20 years the Flaming Lips have produced "creative, fun and provocative rock music." "The music of the Flaming Lips has earned Grammys, glowing critical acclaim and fans all over the world", the governor said. "A truly iconic rock n' roll band, they are proud ambassadors of their home state." "They were clearly the people's choice, and I intend to honor that vote."
Members
Current- Wayne CoyneWayne CoyneWayne Michael Coyne is the lead singer, guitarist, and principal songwriter for the band The Flaming Lips.-Early life:...
– lead vocals, guitar, keyboards, thereminThereminThe theremin , originally known as the aetherphone/etherophone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox is an early electronic musical instrument controlled without discernible physical contact from the player. It is named after its Russian inventor, Professor Léon Theremin, who patented the device...
, bass guitar (1983–present) - Michael IvinsMichael IvinsMichael Lee Ivins is the bassist and one of the founding members of The Flaming Lips.Along with Mark Coyne and Wayne Coyne, he formed The Flaming Lips in 1983 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. According to Wayne, Michael was found as the bassist for the band because of his punk-rock look, and not...
– bass, keyboards, backing vocals (1983–present) - Steven DrozdSteven DrozdSteven Gregory Drozd is an American musician. He is a multi-instrumentalist and lead guitarist for The Flaming Lips.-Early life:...
– drums, guitar, lead vocals, keyboards, bass, backing vocals (1991–present) - Kliph ScurlockKliph ScurlockKliph Scurlock is an American musician. He is the drummer for the alternative rock band The Flaming Lips.He was born Clifton Thomas Scurlock in Topeka, Kansas, the son of Roger W. Scurlock and Linda Louise Rokey . His love of music was inspired by his mother...
– drums, percussion (2002–present) - Derek Brown – guitar, keyboards, percussion (2009–present)
Former
- Mark CoyneMark Coyne (musician)Mark Coyne is an American musician and one of the original members of the rock band The Flaming Lips. Coyne co-founded the group along with his brother Wayne in Norman, Oklahoma, in 1983. The original lineup of the Flaming Lips was Mark on lead vocals, Wayne on guitar, and Michael Ivins on bass...
– vocals (1983–1985) - Dave Kostka – drums (1983–1984)
- Richard English – drums, vocals, piano (1984–1989)
- Jonathan DonahueJonathan DonahueJonathan Daniel Donahue is an American rock musician. He has been an integral member of two of North America's more influential indie/experimental bands of the 1990s; The Flaming Lips and Mercury Rev....
– guitar (1989–1991) - Nathan Roberts – drums (1988–1991)
- Jon Mooneyham – guitar (one month in 1991)
- Ronald JonesRonald Jones (musician)Ronald Jones is an American musician, who was a guitarist in the Oklahoma rock band The Flaming Lips from 1991 to 1996....
– guitar, backing vocals (1991–1996)
Discography
- Hear It Is (1986)
- Oh My Gawd!!!Oh My Gawd!!!Oh My Gawd!!! is The Flaming Lips' second album, released on Restless Records in 1987. It is a slightly heavier album than their debut Hear It Is.-Track listing:...
(1987) - Telepathic SurgeryTelepathic SurgeryCD track listing- Personnel :* Wayne Coyne - Lead Vocals, Guitar* Richard English - Drums, Vocals, Guitar* Michael Ivins - Bass, Vocals* Produced by The Flaming Lips* Engineered by Ruben Ayala* Craig 'Niteman' Taylor - Harmonica...
(1989) - In a Priest Driven AmbulanceIn a Priest Driven AmbulanceIn a Priest Driven Ambulance is the fourth album by The Flaming Lips, released in 1990 . It is a concept album primarily focused on frontman Wayne Coyne's fascination with religion. It is generally considered among critics to be one of the best early period Flaming Lips albums...
(1990) - Hit to Death in the Future HeadHit to Death in the Future Head-Personnel:* Wayne Coyne - guitar, vocals* Michael Ivins - bass* Jonathan Donahue - guitar* Nathan Roberts - drums...
(1992) - Transmissions from the Satellite HeartTransmissions from the Satellite HeartTransmissions from the Satellite Heart is The Flaming Lips' sixth album, released in 1993. Its fourth track, "She Don't Use Jelly", is notable for being The Flaming Lips' first charting radio hit, after its video was featured on the MTV show Beavis and Butt-Head, nearly a year after the album's...
(1993) - Clouds Taste MetallicClouds Taste Metallic- Personnel :* Wayne Coyne - vocals, guitar* Steven Drozd - drums* Michael Ivins - bass* Ronald Jones - guitar- Cover versions :"Lightning Strikes the Postman" was covered by Scottish rock band Aereogramme on their album Seclusion....
(1995) - ZaireekaZaireekaZaireeka is the eighth studio album by the alternative rock band The Flaming Lips. Released on October 28, 1997, the experimental rock album consists of four compact discs. Each of its eight songs consists of four stereo tracks, one from each CD...
(1997) - The Soft BulletinThe Soft Bulletin-UK & Australian CD release:-Vinyl release:-The Soft Bulletin 5.1:On January 31, 2006, Warner Bros. re-released The Soft Bulletin in the US as a two-disc package titled The Soft Bulletin 5.1. It includes a remastered CD and a DVD-Audio disc that contains a 5.1-channel surround sound mix of the album...
(1999) - Yoshimi Battles the Pink RobotsYoshimi Battles the Pink Robots-Special edition DVD-Audio:-The Flaming Lips:* Wayne Coyne - guitar, vocals, artwork, mixing, production* Michael Ivins - bass guitar, keyboards, vocals, mixing, production, additional engineering...
(2002) - At War with the MysticsAt War with the Mystics-At War with the Mystics 5.1:Like The Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi, At War with the Mystics was released as a special edition 5.1 CD+DVD-Audio mix on October 24, 2006...
(2006) - EmbryonicEmbryonicEmbryonic received general acclaim from critics upon release, garnering a 81/100 critic score on Metacritic. The New Musical Express noted that "ten years after their last masterpiece, The Flaming Lips have finally produced another one," while Paste Magazine described the record as "a wonderfully...
(2009) - The Flaming Lips and Stardeath and White Dwarfs with Henry Rollins and Peaches Doing The Dark Side of the Moon (2009)
External links
- Official website
- Wayne Coyne and Oklahoma City
- Interview with The Flaming Lips at VerbicideMagazine.com
- Interview with The Flaming Lips on ManiaTV
- Audio interview on public radio program / podcast The Sound of Young AmericaThe Sound of Young AmericaThe Sound of Young America is a public radio program and podcast based in Los Angeles, California and distributed by Public Radio International...
- Bonnaroo 2007 Live Performance Video
- Wayne Coyne in SPIN's January '09 Issue
- The Flaming Lips on Chicago Public Radio Blog
- Interview with The Flaming Lips on Obscure Sound