Line #63 Music/FlamingLips


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4	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_flaming_lips.png]]
5	[[caption-width-right:350:We will always love you.[[note]]Left to right: Nicholas Ley, Michael Ivins, Steven Drozd, Wayne Coyne, Jake Ingalls, Matt Kirksey, and Derek Brown.[[/note]]]]
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7	The Flaming Lips are an AlternativeRock band from Oklahoma City, [[UsefulNotes/OklahomaUSA Oklahoma]]. They formed in 1983 and have become one of the most well known cult bands of the past 30 years. They began as a punk band but became more and more eclectic and [[PsychedelicRock psychedelic]] with the passing years. They also moved from indie labels to Creator/WarnerBrosRecords early in TheNineties, where they've remained since.[[note]]Their contract with Warners expired in 2011, which inspired the band to put out [=EPs=] of new material almost every month of that year. They re-signed their contract with the label in America in early 2012, signing with Bella Union in Europe.[[/note]]
8
9	The band personnel has [[RevolvingDoorBand changed several times over the years]], but since 1993 it's more or less been the line-up of singer/guitarist Wayne Coyne, bassist Michael Ivins - the two of whom founded the band - and long-time drummer/guitarist/keyboardist Steven Drozd.[[note]]They had an additional guitarist, Ronald Jones, between 1991-1996; Drozd became the lead guitarist after Jones's departure.[[/note]] Other members include guitarists/keyboardists Derek Brown and Jake Ingalls, who joined in 2009 and 2013 respectively (Ingalls is additionally the frontman for the band Spaceface), and drummers/percussionists/keyboardists Matt Kirksey and Nicholas Ley, who both joined in 2014 and also perform as the DJ duo the Brothers Griiin. [[note]]The previous drummer, Kliph Scurlock, performed and recorded with the band between 2002-2014.[[/note]] In 2021, Ivins retired after serving 38 years with the band. Currently, the band consists of Coyne, Drozd, Brown, Kirksey and Ley.
10
11	Amongst their most acclaimed work - both critically and commercially - is 1999's ''[[Music/TheSoftBulletin The Soft Bulletin]]'', which critics compared to ''[[Music/PetSounds Pet Sounds]]'' for its multi-layered, 'Wall of Sound' style production and poignant subject matter, as well as its 2002 follow-up ''Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots'', which includes "Do You Realize??", which was once the official State Rock Song of their home state of Oklahoma.
12
13	Main studio album discography:
14	* ''Hear It Is'' (1986)
15	* ''Oh My Gawd!!!...The Flaming Lips'' (1987)
16	* ''Telepathic Surgery'' (1989)
17	* ''In a Priest Driven Ambulance'' (1990)
18	* ''Hit to Death in the Future Head'' (1992)
19	* ''Transmissions from the Satellite Heart'' (1993)
20	* ''Clouds Taste Metallic'' (1995)
21	* ''Zaireeka'' (1997)
22	* ''Music/TheSoftBulletin'' (1999)
23	* ''Music/YoshimiBattlesThePinkRobots'' (2002)
24	* ''At War with the Mystics'' (2006)
25	* ''Embryonic'' (2009)
26	* ''The Terror'' (2013)
27	* ''Oczy Mlody'' (2017)
28	* ''[[RockOpera King's Mouth]]''[[note]]featuring narration from Mick Jones of Music/TheClash[[/note]] (2019)
29	* ''American Head'' (2020)
30
31	----
32	!!The Flaming Lips provide examples of:
33	* ActionGirl: Yoshimi in "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots".
34	* AlternateAlbumCover: The band's album covers under Creator/WarnerBrosRecords made prominent use of the label's shield logo as a design element. When Warner lost the rights to the logo in 2019 (thanks to the label no longer being affiliated with Creator/WarnerBros -- they were bought out in 2004, but had a 15 year grace period where they could still use the shield), the band started reissuing their albums with a new emblem on the covers, depicting a skull and spine inside a downwards-facing triangle.
35	* AndStarring: Their full length cover of ''Music/TheDarkSideOfTheMoon'', which is jointly credited to The Flaming Lips and Stardeath and White Dwarfs (a band founded by one of Wayne Coyne's nephews), along with Music/HenryRollins and Music/{{Peaches}}.
36	* ArcWords: Several of their songs are about/make reference to the Sun, most notably "The Sun" (duh) as well as the titles of the first three tracks on ''Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell'': "Assassination of the Sun", "I'm a Fly in a Sunbeam" and "Sunship Balloons".
37	* AscendedExtra: Kliph Scurlock was originally hired as a roadie during ''The Soft Bulletin'' tour, and later became the band's touring drummer to promote ''Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots'', due to Steve Drozd branching out to keyboards and other assorted instruments, but was eventually brought in as the band's full-time drummer.
38	** Similarly, touring backing vocalist/guitarist/keyboardist Derek Brown also recently became a full-time member.
39	* BrokenRecord: The hidden track on the album ''Hit to Death in the Future Head'', which is simply the outro to the song "The Magician vs. The Headache" repeated for close to a half-hour.
40	* BrownNote: ''Zaireeka'' has a [[ContentWarning warning label]] on the front stating that "on rare occasion" the various frequencies used on the album have caused listeners to become disoriented.
41	* CallAndResponseSong: "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song".
42	* CarefulWithThatAxe: In the middle of "Riding to Work in the Year 2025" and in the middle of the second hour of "I Found a Star on the Ground". Also, the entirety of "Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots, Pt 2."
43	* CensoredForComedy
44	* CessationOfExistence: Wayne Coyne's [[UsefulNotes/{{Atheism}} belief]] in this fuels some of their songs like "Do You Realize??", "Vein Of Stars", "All We Have Is Now" and "Feeling Yourself Disintegrate."
45	-->If there ain't no heaven, maybe there ain't no hell.
46	* ChristmasSpecial: ''Christmas On Mars'', Sort of. It's more of an experimental Christmas movie.
47	* CloudCuckooLander: Wayne Coyne in frickin' spades.
48	* ConceptAlbum: ''Embryonic'', ''The Soft Bulletin'', and ''King's Mouth'', focusing on the meaning of morality and literal search of meaning, ''The Soft Bulletin'' in the words of Wayne Coyne "is about despair", and ''Kings Mouth'' being an actual Rock Opera, respectively. ''Yoshimi'' isn't officially considered since only the first four tracks have any actual connection to them, but the album is united by the themes of fighting for what you believe in, ThePowerOfLove, and again our impending deaths.
49	* CoverAlbum: The band decided to do a whole-album cover of Pink Floyd's ''Dark Side of the Moon'', which turned out exactly as bizarre as you'd expect
50	** Followed up by ''With A Little Help From My Fwends'' a cover album of ''Music/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand''.
51	** They also did Music/TheStoneRoses' [[Music/TheStoneRosesAlbum debut]] as a Black Friday exclusive, ''The Time Has Come To Shoot You Down... What A Sound''.
52	* CoverVersion: Apart from the ''Dark Side of the Moon'' album, these are quite rare on their albums. The reissue of ''Hear It Is'' has a cover of "Summertime Blues" by Eddie Cochran, ''In a Priest Driven Ambulance'' has a cover of [[Music/LouisArmstrong "What a Wonderful World"]], ''Transmissions from the Satellite Heart'' has a cover of Ed Cromarty and George Rush's "Plastic Jesus"[[note]]probably best known for appearing in ''Film/CoolHandLuke''[[/note]], ''At War With the Mystics''' [=iTunes=] release has a cover of [[Music/{{Queen}} "Bohemian Rhapsody"]] (originally recorded for a tribute album) among the bonus tracks, ''Heady Fwends'' has a cover of Ewan [=MacColl=]'s "The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face" (in collaboration with Erykah Badu)... and oh yeah, the ''A Collection of Songs Representing an Enthusiasm for Recording...By Amateurs'' compilation also brings up covers of "Strychnine" by The Sonics (mashed with Music/ElvisCostello's "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding") [[note]]They were asked to cover "Strychnine" as a BSide, and used a friend's mix tape to help them learn the song - "Peace, Love And Understanding" happened to be the next song on the tape, so they decided to turn it into a medley[[/note]], [[Music/SonicYouth "Death Valley '69"]], [[Music/LedZeppelin "Thank You"]] and [[Music/NeilYoung "After the Gold Rush"]].
53	* {{Crossover}}: They once did a crossover performance with Music/{{Beck\|Musician}}. They also toured with Music/{{Beck\|Musician}} on his ''Sea Change'' tour in 2002.
54	* DarkerAndEdgier: Arguably ''Embryonic''; while many of the band's songs have touched on dark subjects before, ''Embryonic'' as a whole is almost unrelentingly dark.
55	** The follow-up ''The Terror'', takes the darkness of ''Embryonic'' way up to eleven, with virtually [[DespairEventHorizon no uplifting moments]] and a consistently bleak, discordant atmosphere that borders on the absolutely nightmarish in parts.
56	* DerangedAnimation: The music video to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJR3RBwwHlg "Supermoon Made Me Want to Pee".]]
57	* {{Determinator}}: Wayne Coyne has never given up on the band, and his work ethic is reportedly rather impressive.
58	* DeusExMachina: Defied in "Waitin' For A Superman"
59	* DistinctDoubleAlbum: ''Embryonic'', which was deliberately crafted to be a double album from the start. (Although standard edition versions of the CD still have it at one disc, mainly to cut on manufacturing costs)
60	** Inverted with ''Zaireeka'': while it's split across four [=CDs=], all four [=CDs=] are actually meant to be played simultaneously.
61	* DonutMessWithACop: In the music video for ''The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song," a cop gets donuts duct-taped all over him.
62	* DrugsAreBad: According to the ''Fearless Freaks'' documentary, former guitarist Ronald Jones left the band due to paranoia about Steven Drozd's drug addiction.
63	* EpicRocking: "7 Skies H3", which is 24 hours long. This following on from "Found a Star on the Ground", at six hours. There's also a noise loop on ''Hit To Death In The Future Head'' that's almost half an hour long.
64	* FakeOutFadeOut: "Chrome Plated Suicide" starts to fade out during the outro but fades back in before the fade-out is finished.
65	** "Scratching The Door" takes the trope to its most logical extreme, fading out and back in ''four'' times over the last two minutes.
66	* FanDisservice: The music video for "Watching the Planets", which has a bunch of naked people in the woods discovering a giant hamster ball with Wayne inside it. They manage to break the ball and strip Wayne of his clothing and then crowdsurf him through the woods. And yes, there are no censors.
67	* FromACertainPointOfView: "...the sun doesn't go down, it's just an illusion caused by the world spinning 'round."
68	* FunWithAcronyms: "The W.A.N.D. (The Will Always Negates Defeat)".
69	** '''L'''ovely '''S'''orts of '''D'''eath Records, a vanity label the band founded to release side projects, collaborations, and their more experimental works.
70	* FutureMeScaresMe: "All We Have is Now" is about a man meeting a future version of himself, who has some not-so-great news: "You and me were never meant to be part of the future."
71	* [[LesserStar Garfunkel]] / NobodyLovesTheBassist: Despite being [[TheQuietOne the least visible member of the band]], and [[DreadfulMusician not being able to play during the band's inception]], Michael Ivins manages to somewhat avert this. He's since evolved in a competent instrumentist admired for his cool bass tones, mostly achieved through a vast array of pedals, and has a career as a sound engineer, both with the Lips and other bands.
72	* GratuitousForeignLanguage: ''Oczy Mlody'' is titled in gratuitous Polish, as are several songs on the album, and additional Polish is used in some of the lyrics. Wayne Coyne had visited a used book shop and found a copy of Erskine Caldwell's novel ''Close to Home'' as translated into Polish, and the band started incorporating phrases gleaned from the book into their songs, chosen more for their sound than their meaning. "Oczy mlody" itself means "eyes (of the) young".
73	** Similarly, the end credits to ''Christmas On Mars'' include GratuitousRussian phrases that ''appear'' to be translations of the English credits but are actually nonsense - for instance "Hair & Makeup" gets translated as "the sparkle on the mountain peak".
74	* GratuitousPanning: taken up to eleven with ''Zaireeka'' - the instruments are spread out across 4 separate discs, which are meant to be played simultaneously on 4 different stereos spread out around one room.
75	* GreatestHitsAlbum: There are two.
76	** ''A Collection of Songs Representing an Enthusiasm for Recording...By Amateurs'' covers songs from the band's first four albums.
77	** A Greatest Hits featuring all of their actual hits that they did with Warner Bros Records was released in 2018.
78	* GuestStarPartyMember: Their recent albums have included a few, including:
79	** Music/{{Boredoms}} drummer and OOIOO founder Yoshimi P-We providing guest vocals (read: [[CarefulWithThatAxe screams]]) for "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots pt. 2" from the album of the same name.
80	** Music/{{MGMT}} providing additional instrumentation on ''Embryonic's'' "Worm Mountain".
81	** Karen O of Music/YeahYeahYeahs providing vocals for ''Embryonic'' tracks "I Can Be a Frog" and "Watching the Planets".
82	** And in a rather bizarre note, German mathematician Dr. Thorsten Wörmann provides spoken word bits to "Gemini Syringes".
83	** ''Heady Fwends'' is an entire album of this trope.
84	* HeroicBSOD: "7 Skies H3" is basically a sonic odyssey of this - a chronicle of one day of a man trying to get through the pains of [[StartsWithASuicide his girlfriend's suicide]]. [[spoiler:The man, in the end, [[DownerEnding starts to accept that he could not escape from his despair.]]]]
85	* HiddenTrack: Only one has appeared on the band's albums so far, but given that it's an untitled track consisting solely of the outro to one of their other songs looped for nearly a half-hour, it's hard to say whether it actually counts or not.
86	* IAmTheBand: In 2021, Wayne became this after Michael Ivins, the only other original member, retired, though Steven Drozd plays a huge part in songwriting and production of their music.
87	* LongestSongGoesLast:
88	** ''Hit to Death in the Future Head'' closes with the HiddenTrack "Noise Loop" (29:16).
89	** ''Transmissions from the Satellite Heart'' closes with "SlowNerveAction" (5:55).
90	** ''Clouds Taste Metallic'' closes with "Bad Days (Aurally Excited Version)" (4:38).
91	* MoralGuardians: When "Do You Realize??" was chosen as the official Oklahoma state rock song, the decision was unaminously approved in the Senate but fell three votes short in the House of Representatives, where one representative criticised the band's use of "offensive language" and another claimed to be offended by how Ivins had worn a T-shirt depicting the hammer and sickle at the official announcement ceremony.[[note]]No prizes for guessing their party affiliation.[[/note]] Considering that the Lips have put out songs like "Jesus Shootin' Heroin" and [=EPs=] like ''Yeah, I Know It's a Drag... But Wastin' Pigs Is Still Radical'', it's interesting how this was the only time they ever came to MoralGuardians' attention.
92	* MoralityBallad: "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song (With All Your Power)".
93	* NewSoundAlbum: Has happened a few times in the band's catalogue, largely spurred on by personnel changes.
94	* NonActorVehicle: ''Christmas On Mars''. The bulk of the main cast were the members of the band themselves, rounded out by a few experienced actors and some unknowns who had some connection to the band.
95	* TheNotRemix: ''The Soft Bulletin'' includes remixes of "Race for the Prize" and "Waitin' for a Superman" by Peter Mokran alongside the versions that were mixed by Dave Fridmann like the rest of the album. There are subtle differences between the mixes - one of the most notable is that the Fridmann mix of "Race For The Prize" includes two drum tracks, an arrangement that was a holdover from when the song was in the running to appear on ''Zaireeka''.
96	** Speaking of ''Zaireeka'', they also released stereo mixes of two ''Zaireeka'' tracks, "Riding to Work in the Year 2025 (Your Invisible Now)" and "Thirty-Five Thousand Feet of Despair" .
97	* TheInvisibleBand: In the video for "Do You Realize??"
98	* OddFriendship: Collborated with Kesha and Music/MileyCyrus at different times.
99	* OneWordTitle: ''Zaireeka'' and ''Embryonic''
100	* PowerTrio: The band has been this at two separate points during their career, the first during the 80s (with Wayne Coyne on guitar, Michael Ivins on bass, and Richard English on drums and piano), and the second during the late 90s/early 00s (with Wayne Coyne on guitar, Michael Ivins on bass, and Steve Drozd on drums, keyboards, and damned near any other instrument you can think of)
101	* PrecisionFStrike: "The W.A.N.D.", "I Was Zapped By the Lucky Super Rainbow" and, in a more somber delivery, "Ashes in the Air".
102	** Done with the opening lines of "You Lust" - "You got a lot of nerve / a lot of nerve to fuck with me".
103	* TheQuietOne: Michael Ivins
104	* RecordProducer: Dave Fridmann, who has produced nearly all of the band's albums since ''In a Priest Driven Ambulance''. "Nearly" because he was too busy with Music/MercuryRev and was replaced by Keith Cleversley for ''Transmissions from the Satellite Heart''. Interestingly, this wasn't as big a change as it might seem since Cleversley had previously engineered ''Hit to Death in the Future Head'', and ''Satellite Heart'' itself doesn't sound significantly different.
105	* {{Rockumentary}}: ''The Fearless Freaks''
106	* RougeAnglesOfSatin: The song title "Riding to Work in the Year 2025 (Your Invisible Now)".
107	** Possibly, although it could also be referring to "you" in the possessive sense, in that you are "possessing the invisible now." Knowing how bizarre Wayne is, it wouldn't be surprising.
108	* {{Sampling}}: Some of the band's early songs had this, such as "Can't Stop the Spring" and "Love Yer Brain" from ''Oh My Gawd!!'', and "Hell's Angel's Cracker Factory" from ''Telepathic Surgery''.
109	* SelfTitledAlbum: Well, more like Self-Titled EP, but still.
110	* SerialEscalation: If you thought ''Zaireeka'' was crazy for being an album that requires four [=CDs=] to all be played simultaneously, the band released a free song via their Website/YouTube channel called "Two Blobs Fucking." This one's split into ''twelve'' separate videos intended to be played simultaneously. Hope you have 11 friends with smart phones handy!
111	** Another of the band's releases for 2011 was the song "I Found a Star on the Ground," which is 6 hours long. If that isn't enough, there is also "7 Skies H3," which is ''24 hours long''.
112	* SesameStreetCred: They've appeared on ''Series/YoGabbaGabba'', doing a version of the ''Embryonic'' song "I Can Be a Frog". They also contributed the song "Spongebob and Patrick Confront the Psychic Wall of Energy" to the end credits and soundtrack for ''WesternAnimation/TheSpongebobSquarepantsMovie''.
113	** They also providing the backing music for the theme to the short-lived ''WesternAnimation/DuckDodgers'', with no less than Music/TomJones(!) on the vocals.
114	* ShoutOut: The title of the EP ''Yeah, I Know It's a Drag... But Wastin' Pigs Is Still Radical'' paraphrases dialogue from the film ''River's Edge'' - the actual line is just "Wastin' pigs is radical, man".
115	** Early in their career, they had a tendency to reference or sample Music/TheBeatles - ''Oh My Gawd!!!'' has Beatles samples as {{Bookends}} ("Everything's Explodin'" begins with a sample of "Revolution 9", namely Music/YokoOno saying "if... you become naked"; "Love Yer Brain" ends with a faint background loop of John Lennon singing "Turn off your mind, relax" from "Tomorrow Never Knows"), "Out For A Walk" seems to take it's clip of "La Marseillaise" straight from the intro of "All You Need Is Love", and "The Spontaneous Combustion Of John" quotes from "The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill" ("Like the first time Captain Marvel zapped him right between the eyes")
116	** "The Sun" slightly misquotes a line from Music/CaroleKing's "So Far Away" ("It'd be so kind to see your face in my door", when in "So Far Away" it's "It'd be so ''fine'' to see your face in my door")
117	** "In The Morning Of The Magicians" is seemingly named after ''The Morning of the Magicians'', a book on the occult by Louis Pauwels and Jacques Bergier. However, the song otherwise has absolutely nothing to do with the book.
118	* SomethingBlues: "Charlie Manson Blues" from ''Hear It Is'', "Talkin' 'bout the Smiling Deathporn Immortality Blues (Everyone Wants to Live Forever)" from ''Hit to Death in the Future Head''.
119	* TheSomethingSong: "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song"
120	* StepUpToTheMicrophone: Steven Drozd on "Pompeii am Götterdämmerung", former drummer Richard English on "Can't Exist". Wayne Coyne was originally going to add his own vocals to "Pompeii..." too, but the band decided it sounded better with just [[SelfBackingVocalist a choir of Steven Drozds]] instead.
121	** Steven Drozd sings also on "If" and "Sagittarius Silver Announcement".
122	* SurrealMusicVideo: '''WHERE TO START?!?'''
123	* TechnicianVersusPerformer: Steven Drozd (Technician) vs Wayne Coyne (Performer). Steven is a multi-instrumentalist capable of playing guitar, keyboards, drums, bass, as well as creating multi-layered backing vocals, but Wayne's skill set is mostly limited to vocals and rhythm guitar. Despite this, Wayne is generally considered to be the spirit of the band, responsible for the lyrics and emotional textures of their songs as well as being the most active performer on stage.
124	* TextlessAlbumCover: ''Embryonic'', as well as the physical versions of ''The Terror''.
125	* TogetherInDeath: "Pompeii am Götterdämmerung" depicts a couple committing suicide together by diving into an erupted volcano "as a symbolic sacrifice of their restricted love."
126	* TruckDriversGearChange: In the ''middle'' of "Do You Realize??", [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools usually accompanied by very loud cheers at live shows.]]
127	** Also occurs in "Suddenly Everything Has Changed", where each verse is in a different key.
128	** "They Punctured My Yolk" modulates from C to D in the last verse.
129	* WeAllDieSomeday: "Do You Realize??"... along with a few others.
130	* WhoWantsToLiveForever: The basis of "Talkin' 'Bout the Smiling Deathporn Immortality Blues (Everyone Wants to Live Forever)."
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Context Music / FlamingLips