The Flaming Lips

Even within alternative rock's wildly varied landscape, the Flaming Lips stand out for their daring approach, frequent flashes of brilliance, and singularly eccentric character. Their path took them from Oklahoma misfits through a mid-nineties breakthrough into mainstream awareness and onward to widespread critical regard in the new millennium, tracing one of pop's most improbable arcs. Years spent in obscurity gave way to a major-label contract secured amid the early-nineties alternative surge, which afforded wider exposure for their blend of psychedelia, noise textures, and sugary hooks; the resulting 1993 release Transmissions from the Satellite Heart yielded the improbable Top 40 single "She Don't Use Jelly." Entering the 2000s, they produced two richly textured and emotionally resonant landmarks, 1999's The Soft Bulletin and 2002's Grammy-winning Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. Subsequent projects channeled their experimental and melodic impulses along sharply divergent lines, whether through work with Miley Cyrus, the stark existential unease of 2013's The Terror, the coming-of-age reflections of 2020's American Head, or the atmospheric Nick Cave interpretations on 2021's Where the Viaduct Looms alongside young singer/songwriter Nell Smith. Across these efforts, their unmistakable sonic identity and uncommon emotional resonance affirmed their standing as genuine originals.

The Flaming Lips came together in Oklahoma City in 1983 when guitarist Wayne Coyne recruited his brother Mark on vocals and Michael Ivins on bass. The group adopted the absurdist name the Flaming Lips, variously linked to a pornographic film, a cryptic drug allusion, or a vision in which a flaming Virgin Mary kisses Wayne in the back of his automobile, and made their first appearance onstage at a local transvestite venue. After cycling through countless drummers they enlisted Richard English, leading to the self-titled debut issued on green vinyl via their own Lovely Sorts of Death imprint in 1985.

Mark Coyne's departure to marry left Wayne in sole command, assuming lead vocal, songwriting, and guitar duties. The trio followed with 1986's Hear It Is and 1987's Oh My Gawd!!!...The Flaming Lips. While on the road with the Butthole Surfers they reached Buffalo, New York, where promoter Jonathan Donahue befriended them; a subsequent jam with Donahue's early Mercury Rev project strengthened the bond, and Donahue later joined as sound technician.

Following the challenging 1988 album Telepathic Surgery, English departed, leaving Coyne and Ivins as a duo until drummer Nathan Roberts arrived and Donahue, now called Dingus, became a permanent member for 1990's In a Priest Driven Ambulance. That record also marked their initial collaboration with producer Dave Fridmann and spotlighted the band's more expansive experimental tendencies; simultaneously Donahue contributed to Mercury Rev's Yerself Is Steam. Warner Bros. signed the group in 1991, and their major-label bow Hit to Death in the Future Head appeared in 1992 once clearance for a Michael Kamen sample from the Brazil soundtrack in "You Have to Be Joking (Autopsy of the Devil's Brain)" was secured. Donahue soon exited to concentrate on Mercury Rev, and Roberts followed.

New guitarist Ronald Jones and drummer Steven Drozd joined for 1993's Transmissions from the Satellite Heart, which the band promoted with second-stage Lollapalooza dates and cross-country tours in a Ryder truck. Sales were initially sluggish, yet nearly a year later "She Don't Use Jelly" emerged as a grassroots success, unexpectedly placing the Flaming Lips on the Top 40. They embraced the moment with appearances on MTV's Spring Break, an arena run supporting Candlebox, and a memorable lip-synced sequence on Beverly Hills 90210 in which Ian Ziering's character Steve Sanders declared, "You know, I've never been a big fan of alternative music, but these guys rocked the house!" After the 1994 limited sampler Providing Needles for Your Balloons, they issued 1995's Clouds Taste Metallic, featuring the singles "Bad Days" (included in Batman Forever), "This Here Giraffe," and "Brainville."

Disarray struck in 1996: Jones exited, Ivins suffered a freak hit-and-run when a detached wheel struck his vehicle, Coyne's father passed away, and Drozd faced near-amputation of his hand from an abscess. By the next year the trio was recording again, producing 1997's Zaireeka, an ambitious four-disc set intended for simultaneous playback. An unreleased track, "Hot Day," surfaced earlier that year on the SubUrbia soundtrack. The 1998 retrospective A Collection of Songs Representing an Enthusiasm for Recording...By Amateurs surveyed their Restless era.

The Soft Bulletin arrived in 1999, its expansive arrangements and poignant material, co-produced with Fridmann, marking a commercial and artistic breakthrough. Following a three-year gap, 2002 brought both a two-volume Restless retrospective and the tenth album Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, titled after and featuring Boredoms' Yoshimi P-We. The record earned heightened acclaim, secured the 2003 Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental Performance for "Approaching Pavonis Mons by Balloon (Utopia Planitia)," received gold certification in the United States in 2006, and later inspired a Broadway musical. The band spent the ensuing two years touring and developing the film Christmas on Mars.

They reentered the studio in 2004, recording extensively through 2005; that year the documentary The Fearless Freaks and the VOID video anthology appeared, building anticipation for 2006's At War with the Mystics, which emphasized guitar-driven arrangements and more overtly political themes. The album garnered another Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental Performance plus Best Engineered Album and a nomination for Best Alternative Album. Christmas on Mars premiered at the 2007 Sasquatch Festival in George, Washington, before its CD/DVD release later that year. Between 2007 and 2008 the group adopted a looser, rawer method for the follow-up, resulting in Embryonic, released October 2009 and becoming their first Top 10 Billboard Albums chart debut. That December they issued their reinterpretation of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, credited to The Flaming Lips and Stardeath and White Dwarfs with Henry Rollins and Peaches Doing the Dark Side of the Moon. Oklahoma also designated "Do You Realize??" the state's official rock song that year.

Rather than full-length projects, the band focused on limited-edition EPs with various collaborators over the next several years. Working with Neon Indian, Prefuse 73, and Lightning Bolt, they issued material in unconventional formats such as USB drives housed in gummy skulls, limited vinyl pressings, and candy fetuses. In 2012 they compiled prior collaborations plus fresh recordings with Kesha, Bon Iver, and Erykah Badu on The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends, alongside their version of King Crimson's In the Court of the Crimson King.

The bleak 2013 album The Terror reunited them with Fridmann for swift sessions centered on vintage synthesizers. They also reworked the Stone Roses' debut with Poliça, Foxygen, and Stardeath and White Dwarfs, issued that November. In 2014 a 45-minute edit of the 24-hour piece "7 Skies H3" appeared for Record Store Day, together with With a Little Help from My Fwends, a track-by-track recreation of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band featuring Miley Cyrus and Maynard James Keenan.

A full-length collaboration with Cyrus, Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz, was offered as a free digital release in August 2015; the artists toured together afterward, and a limited vinyl edition was sold exclusively on those dates. November brought the three-CD/five-LP anthology Heady Nuggs 20 Years After Clouds Taste Metallic: 1994-1997, encompassing Clouds Taste Metallic, the 1994 EP Providing Needles for Your Balloons, additional rarities on The King Bug Laughs, and an unreleased 1996 Seattle concert. For 2017's Oczy Mlody, whose Polish title translates as "eyes of the young," the band rejoined Fridmann for a more melodic collection that included a Cyrus cameo. They also released the EP Onboard the International Space Station Concert for Peace, reimagining several Oczy tracks as if performed live aboard the station. Two archival projects followed in 2018: Scratching the Door: The First Recordings of the Flaming Lips in April and the six-disc Seeing the Unseeable: The Complete Studio Recordings of the Flaming Lips 1986-1990 box set in May.

King's Mouth surfaced in 2019, its songs framed by narration from the Clash's Mick Jones and tied to an art installation by Coyne plus the book King's Mouth: Immerse Heap Trip Fantasy Experience that the frontman authored and illustrated. The album first appeared in a 4,000-copy gold-vinyl run for Record Store Day before wider release that July. Reuniting with Fridmann and enlisting Kacey Musgraves, the band delivered September 2020's American Head, a contemplative album reflecting on their American origins and Coyne's 1970s upbringing. The following November they partnered with Nell Smith, whom Coyne had discovered at a 2018 Calgary concert when she was fourteen, for Where the Viaduct Looms, a collection of Nick Cave covers recorded at that age. A year later they marked the twentieth anniversary of Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots with a deluxe edition containing demos, rarities, and live recordings.