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Nearly 15 years since their breakthrough single, 'She Don't Use Jelly,' The Flaming Lips remain on the cutting edge of music. |
BY RYAN LITTLE
FOR THE FREE LANCE-STAR
For the past 25 years, The Flaming Lips have released some of the strangest music out there, but they've still maintained serious commercial appeal.
After 12 albums, three Grammys and one official state song (in March of this year, their tune "Do You Realize??" was voted Oklahoma's official rock song), they've decided to stray from the more polished sound of their recent albums and delve back into the more bizarre, psychedelic sounds of their past.
Frontman Wayne Coyne and his bandmates will be releasing "Embryonic," the follow-up to 2006's "At War With The Mystics," on Oct. 13.
The band will promote the album tomorrow at Merriweather Post Pavilion.
They've already released three songs from the album, all of which are remarkably strange mixes of ambiance and dissonance.
In a recent phone interview, Coyne seemed confident that the drastic changes in the band's sound wouldn't alienate fans.
"I think our audience would always forgive us if we tried new things and failed, but I don't think we'd be worthy of their forgiveness if we just settled in and said, 'We do this one thing and we try to do it well, but we're not concerned with progressing or exploring or experimenting.' I think when we go to do records like this, I feel utterly fearless."
Initially, the band thought it would include some more refined songwriting on the album, Coyne said.
"In the beginning, we intended to do a double record, meaning that we were thinking we would do 10 or 11 of the very produced, 'find the essence of The Flaming Lips' sort of songs."
However, plans changed once work on the album began. "The minute we started to work on the more indulgent, freak-out, free-form stuff, I don't think we ever wanted to go back and do the other stuff," Coyne said.
The Flaming Lips are currently on tour with Star Death and The White Dwarfs, which is led by Coyne's nephew.
The band was originally part of the Flaming Lips' road crew. Coyne explained, "There was a time when they were playing shows with us last year when they were also our road crew. We love their music and they're great guys. They learned how to get all their equipment and their effects in their performance. They saw how we do it, and I think it helped."
The instrumental band Explosions In The Sky, known for its loud performances and its work on the soundtrack to the movie "Friday Night Lights," will also be playing on this tour. Coyne noted, "If you like the more poppy, more 'Yeah Yeah Yeah Song' and 'She Don't Use Jelly' element of the Flaming Lips, Explosions In The Sky might be kind of a challenge to you, but I think you'll like it."
The band is in the unusually fortunate position of having both an extremely long career and still headlining cutting-edge events like the Pitchfork Music Festival.
In regards to The Flaming Lips' continuing relevance after so many years, Coyne said the band has been lucky.
"We're always looked at as part of what's happening now, which is exactly what I think most people want: to be part of whatever the inertia of the time is."
But it doesn't hurt loving the lifestyle that the band has created for itself, he added.
"A lot of musicians and artists get very frustrated with what it's like having to tour and perform all the time for me, I really love the intensity of living like a pirate or like this traveling weirdo."
Ryan Little is a freelance writer and musician in Fredericksburg. Reach him at
Email: FLSRyan@gmail.com.
| What: The Flaming Lips, with openers Star Death and The White Dwarfs, and Explosions In The Sky Where: Merriweather Post Pavilion, 10475 Little Patuxent Parkway, Columbia, Md. When: Tomorrow, 6 p.m. (doors) Cost: $30 to $40 Info: 410/715-5550 Web: merriweathermusic.com |
