Flaming Lips Stretching Out For ‘Mystics’ Follow-Up

Flaming Lips Stretching Out For ‘Mystics’ Follow-Up

Admittedly feeling not so much prolific as just more ambitious, Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne tells Billboard.com his alternative-psychedelic band is planning a late summer street date for its first double album, which is a follow-up to 2006 effort “At War with the Mystics.”

“Somewhere along the way it occurred to me that we should do a double album,” Coyne says. “Just this idea that you can kind of weave a couple of themes into there and you can sort of sprawl a little bit. Our past couple of records we’ve always had this little dilemma, like how many songs do you put on? How many instruments do you put on? What’s the focus?

“And some of my favorite records – thinking Beatles ‘White Album,’ Zeppelin’s ‘Physical Graffiti’ and even some of the longer things that the Clash have done – part of the reason I like them is that they’re not focused. They’re kind of like a free-for-all and go everywhere. It’s not necessarily because we’re prolific, I think we always stay in a sort of perpetual panic of like we never have more songs than we need and we always wonder if any of them are any good to begin with. I do think we probably work best in a panic, so maybe it’s best that I planned it this way.”

So far the band has written 13 tracks, with eight or nine to go before the currently untitled Warner Bros. double-disc release is completed. Coyne discloses the new material’s vibe is different from previous studio polished albums such as 2002’s “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots” and “At War with the Mystics.”

“I think with this there was an element of accidentally stumbling upon more spontaneous sort of freak-out stuff,” Coyne says. “We were sitting at (drummer) Steven’s house and we just started out having these freak-out jam sessions where he’d play drums and I’d play bass and we just would sort of do freaky stuff. Some of those recordings, even though they’re not recorded very well, really had a spontaneity about them that we probably wouldn’t have purposely done.

“So we just went with some of that and use those as sort of the bedrock of what we’d do later on with overdubs and lyrics and stuff like that. It sounds very exciting.”

Among the new songs currently in the mix are the Joy Division-meets-Miles Davis Group (John McLaughlin era)-sounding “Convinced of the Hex” and the John Lennon-inspired “I Don’t Understand Karma,” which Coyne describes as his response to “Instant Karma.”

The band plans on finishing up the lion’s share of the recording before it heads out in June for a little more than a handful of summer concert dates in Europe, Australia and stateside. In addition to playing its version of Madonna’s “Borderline,” which is found on the new covers album “A Revolution In Sound,” Coyne says fans can expect to hear the aforementioned unreleased tracks.

“I would never want to think that we’d want to play too much new material that the audience doesn’t know,” Coyne says. “We have so many requests all of the time to play old stuff, and we’re kind of up for anything, really.”

Oklahoma governor intervenes in Flaming Lips flap

Oklahoma governor intervenes in Flaming Lips flap

Oklahoma lawmakers who voted against making a Flaming Lips tune the official state rock song represent a minority of “small-minded religious wackos,” the band’s lead singer says.

Most state House members voted for a resolution recognizing 2002’s “Do You Realize??,” but conservatives who said they were offended by the band’s clothing and language mustered enough votes to keep it from being adopted.

“Me, I just say look, it’s a little minority of some small-minded religious wackos who think they can tell people what kind of T-shirts and what kind of music they can listen to, and the smart, rational, reasonable people of Oklahoma are never going to buy into that,” frontman Wayne Coyne told Tulsa World in an interview Friday.

Gov. Brad Henry resolved the issue by announcing he would sign an executive order proclaiming “Do You Realize??” the official rock song of Oklahoma. The song earned more than half of the 21,000 votes cast in an online contest.

The Grammy-winning group, formed in Norman in 1983, is known for its psychedelic rock and lyrics.

Rep. Corey Holland, R-Marlow, was offended when band member Michael Ivins wore a red T-shirt with a yellow hammer-and-sickle emblem, a traditional symbol of the Communist Party, during a visit to the Capitol last month.

“The great thing about this country is he has the right to make whatever statement he wants to make,” Holland said. “I have the right to be offended by that.”

The shirt was a Christmas present to Ivins from Coyne’s wife, and he wore it to a rehearsal earlier that day, said Coyne, who was offended by Holland’s implication that the band is un-American.

Rep. Mike Reynolds, R-Oklahoma City, also denounced Coyne for using an expletive at an event.

Despite the criticism, Coyne said he always expected state residents to stand up for their native sons.

“People would have a reason to really fight for us and say, `No, this isn’t what Oklahoma is all about,’” Coyne said. “And I think the governor is very cool, how he’s come to our rescue.”

Flaming Lips - Christmas on Mars

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Flaming Lips - Christmas on Mars

“For a band whose music has long been described as “cinematic,” it’s about time —seven years, to be precise—the Flaming Lips got around to making a full-length live-action movie. “Christmas on Mars” is a characteristic wacky expression of the Lips’ love of psychedelia, birth-and-death themes and uplifting movements. The kicker: Most of the action isn’t in the music, but the acting. A cast featuring Lips Steven Drozd, Wayne Coyne and Michael Ivins alongside the likes of Fred Armisen and Adam Goldberg cobbles together a believable take on human life in a futuristic Martian colony. Stress, hallucinations and technical malfunctions threaten the crew’s collective sanity, but Christmas Day heralds the arrival of a helpful alien (Coyne) and the hope-restoring birth of a human baby. The score, released separately on CD, is more textural and mood-setting than catchy in the vein of modern-era Lips albums. But in the context of the film, it works splendidly, forging a sort-of poor man’s “2001.” —Troy Carpenter”