The Flaming Lips

The band play a mostly acoustic set of songs from their latest album Yoshima Battles the Pink Robots, as well as a wonderfully twisted cover of Radiohead's Knives Out, on this edition of Morning Becomes Eclectic. To begin, the band will be riding an elephant through the streets of Las Vegas after the session today for the Do You Realize video shoot. Truly a whimsical mark of rock stardom.

The Flaming Lips experimental and humble beginnings started in Oklahoma City in 1983, when Wayne Coyne, brother Mark (who stole the band's equipment from a church hall), bassist Michael Ivins and drummer Richard English pulled together as The Flaming Lips, a name they always thought they would later change. The current lineup includes guitarist Ronald Jones and drummer Steven Drozd.

The Flaming Lips are currently on tour with Beck, both as the opening act and as the backing band, playing songs from this year's Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. Even though this is not a concept album, the songs contain a highly animated and emotional thread. Singer Wayne remarks, "It's dealing with your own meaninglessness in the face of the universe...we talk about love, we talk about death, the things that really have impact on people's lives." Indeed, even the title of the album (and two part song by the same name) is based on the tragic death of a Japanese friend. "We're trying to say make your life count.. I hope it makes people look around at the people that they're with, their friends and family, and go 'gosh you know I didn't think about that', and sometimes they don't think about it till its too late." The often grim subject matter of the album is not presented without a smile, balanced by such gestures as dressing in oversized stuffed animal suits on stage. "It became cartoony in a way, so that some of these songs, even though we're singing about death, they actually sound like we're singing 'Happy birthday to you, you're going to die...'"

- Eric Hasenfang (http://www.flaminglips.com/player/index.html)

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