The idea was that each CD should be played simultaneously (on four CD players), creating what you might call an ’octophonic’ sound experience. Each CD consisted of (the same) eight new songs, with different mixes on each CD. He thus made a tape of new Flaming Lips recordings, and then conducted experiments in car parks in North America where he would hand out 40-50 copies of the tape to people, who would then be asked to play them at the same time on their car stereos.Ĭoyne liked the idea of extending this “multi surround sound” idea to CD, and in early 1997, the remaining trio released the US-only 4 CD set, “Zaireeka”. He had, at the time, noted that if you played the same song on different CD players, that the players did not play “in sync”, and you ended up with a different sounding song. Coyne, slightly fed up with the basic “rock music” sound, decided to experiment, and conducted the “Parking Lot Experiments” in 1996. The band also recruited a new guitarist in the form of Ronald Jones, who replaced Jonathan Donohue, who was going “full time” with his other band, Mercury Rev.ġ995’s “Clouds Taste Metallic” was only a moderate success, and it marked something of a dark spell for the band - Jones left, Drozd and bassist Michael Ivens both had near fatal brushes with death, and Warners were wondering why they had signed a band who were failing to sell any records. 1993’s “Transmissions From The Satellite Heart” provided them - eventually - with a shock US hit single in the form of “She Don’t Use Jelly”, and was the first album upon which current guitarist Steven Drozd joined them - but as a drummer. However, they did not do a “Nirvana” or a “Sonic Youth”, and the band’s first major label release, 1992’s “Hit To Death In The Future Head”, was not much of a seller. The band released four albums between 19, all of which were later reissued on Restless Records before being “discovered” by Warner Brothers. The original lead singer was Wayne Coyne’s brother Mark, who left after it’s release. The Flaming Lips had released their first EP in North America, simply titled “The Flaming Lips”. A future blog should deal with the early years and the earlier Warner Brothers days, but this month, I shall detail the band’s four “major” albums and related singles from the last 12 years, as well as looking at how the live show developed tour on tour once they had finally found a new drummer. So, in typical Lips style, we shall look at their career backwards! After all, a DVD of promo clips did this some years back. In order to understand how the Lips became so good at putting on a live show, you have to rewind to the mid 1990’s, when the band were in something of a mini crisis. And even when the crowd have stood there, arms folded, not quite sure what’s going on, the band have never disappointed. We have since seen them five times on the “At War With The Mystics” tour, three times on the “Embryonic” tour, and recently went to ALL THREE of their UK summer gigs, essentially still plugging “Embryonic” - at the Eden Project, Ally Pally, and at the Jodrell Bank Observatory. Having both seen them at different venues on the first leg of the early 2003 “Yoshimi” tour (this was before we first met), we went to our first Lips gig together later that year at a celebratory Hammersmith Odeon (or was it Apollo?) gig. End of discussion.Įver since “The Soft Bulletin” tour, where the band famously played without a drummer, my wife and I have made a pledge to see them at least twice on each headline tour they have done of the UK. The Flaming Lips are the greatest live act to have ever walked this earth.
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