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Flaming Lips
Of the innumerable one-hit wonders littering the cultural landscape, few, if any, were so brave, so frequently brilliant, and so deliciously weird as the Flaming Lips. To even classify the Lips as merely a one-hit wonder is to do the group a grave injustice: although their standing as a commercial entity proved little more than a blip on the radar screen, their moment of Top 40 success was simply another pit-stop on one of the more surreal and haphazard career trajectories in pop music — an acid-bubblegum band with as much affinity for sweet melodies as blistering noise assaults, their off-kilter sound, uncommon emotional depth, and bizarre history (packed with tales of self-immolating fans and the like) firmly established them as one of the true originals of the post-punk era.
The Flaming Lips is an American rock band with psychedelic influences, formed in 1983 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma by Mark Coyne, Wayne Coyne and Michael Ivins. Over time the line-up has changed constantly, with Wayne Coyne and Michael Ivins providing a stable foundation.
The band is known for its catchy, dreamy guitar-led melodies, overlaid on signature complex and fast-paced drum beats and accompanied by idiosyncratic usage of samples. They are also known for their bizarre and frequently humorous song and album titles, perhaps the most infamous examples being Due to high expectations... The Flaming Lips are Providing Needles For Your Balloons.. (an EP) and Talkin' Bout The Smiling Deathporn Immortality Blues (Everyone Wants To Live Forever) (a song from Hit To Death In The Future Head).
They languished in relative obscurity for long periods of their history, releasing their first four albums on a minor label (Restless Records) before being picked up by Warner Bros. in 1990. By 1994 they were gaining a respectable cult following and some college radio airplay. Following their experimental Zaireeka (1997), a four-CD album which is intended to be heard by playing all four CDs in four separate CD players simultaneously, the band conducted a series of "boombox experiments", where an orchestra comprising 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 (all of which were made by the band) - by the band's lead member, Wayne Coyne. Though their experimental endeavors received some press, their real breakthrough came with the massively acclaimed 1999 release, The Soft Bulletin. Marrying more traditional catchy melodies with languid synthetic strings, hypnotic, carefully manipulated beats, booming cymbals and oddball, philosophical lyrics (sung much more strongly than on earlier releases), the album was one of the underground hits of the year.
Several of the band's records are produced by unofficial fourth member Dave Fridmann of Mercury Rev, with whom the Flaming Lips are often compared. Also the LPs In A Priest Driven Ambulance and Hit To Death In The Future Head featured guitarist Jonathan Donahue, who would later go on to form and front for Mercury Rev. The bands current line-up consists of Wayne Coyne, Michael Ivins, and Steven Drozd. The loss of their former guitarist Ronald Jones, after the album Clouds Taste Metallic, brought the band to its current state.
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Artist Biography - Flaming Lips
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 Most recently, they performed as the backup band for singer Beck on his Sea Change tour.
After a three-year absence from the shelves, 2002 brought several new releases, including the new record Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots and a two-volume retrospective of the Restless years. Yoshimi won the group even more popular and critical acclaim than The Soft Bulletin, which the group maximized by spending half of 2002 appearing with Beck on his Sea Change tour as both his opening act and backing band. 2003 continued the group's flurry of activity, with the release of the Fight Test EP, appearing with Justin Timberlake on BBC's Radio 1 and releasing their first feature film (and its soundtrack), Christmas on Mars.
Discography
Albums
Hear It Is (1986)
Oh My Gawd!!! (1987)
Telepathic Surgery (1989)
In A Priest Driven Ambulance (1990)
Hit To Death In The Future Head (1992) (first WB album)
Transmissions From The Satellite Heart (1993)
Clouds Taste Metallic (1995)
Zaireeka (1997)
The Soft Bulletin (1999)
Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots (2002)
EPs / singles
The Flaming Lips (1984)
Drug Machine (1988) (released on Sub Pop)
Unconsciously Screamin' (1991)
Yeah, I Know It's A Drag... But Wastin Pigs Is Still Radical (1991) (first WB single)
She Don't Use Jelly (1993)
Due to high expectations... The Flaming Lips are Providing Needles For Your Balloons.. (1994)
Turn It On (1995)
Bad Days (1995)
This Here Giraffe (1996)
Brainville (1996)
Race For The Prize (1999)
Waitin' For A Superman (1999)
Do You Realize?? (2002)
Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots part 1 (2003)
Fight Test (2003)
Ego Tripping At The Gates Of Hell (2003)
Filmography
Christmas on Mars (2004)
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For more information , enjoy the official homepage of Flaming Lips
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