How I Like The Flaming Lips: The Playlist

It’s unlikely you realize just how weird the Flaming Lips are. Seriously. Yes, even if they blew your mind at Bonnaroo. Even if you’re dying to school me on Sun City Girls or the Residents. Lots of bands made zonked out noise for their local scenes in the 80s, the Lips repping for Oklahoma City. Lots of indie bands signed to a major labels in the ‘90s, gaining attention on movie soundtracks and Beavis & Butthead. Lots of hipster favorites went gold in the ‘00s while charming the youth at festivals. But few bands did all these things. And those who did definitely didn’t back Miley Cyrus at the VMAs in the 2010s, while also releasing USBs of otherwise unavailable music inside gummy skulls on the same major, Warner Bros, that grabbed them decades earlier. New music arguably less commercial than what got them on the label in the first place.

It’s unclear whether the Flaming Lips are still on Warner Bros, as their latest release for WB is 2020’s American Head. But, even if the marriage is finally over, the only other acts from the indie-to-major deluge of the early ‘90s to still suck from the same corporate teat (as far as I can tell) are Green Day and the Goo Goo Dolls. Both went multiplatinum with number one hits by the end of the last century, the former now on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame and the latter unrecognizable from their Metal Blade roots (did you know Robby used to sing everything? Do you know who Robby is?). Meanwhile, the Flaming Lips didn’t earn their first - and only - gold record until 2006. Their first gold single was honored in 2023, a decade after its stint as the Official Rock Song of Oklahoma. Sonic Youth and R.E.M. got the attention and the mega-contracts in alt-rock’s heyday, but the Lips somehow survived them both.

(Caveat: some people believe R.E.M. chose to plow forward as a trio for artistic reasons when they otherwise would’ve had to give up a deal rumored to be worth $80 million. Some also feel they broke up for artistic reasons once the deal - quickly declared one of the least astute ever made by a major, new albums failing to even go platinum stateside during it - was fulfilled, and no one was going to fund further recording on multiple continents without serious commercial capitulation. If REM being influenced by absurdly massive and obvious financial matters like these is too repulsive, downright slanderous, an idea to countenance, that’s fine. I promise their legacy will survive any earthly, unflattering implications here.)

Granted, we must acknowledge that “The Flaming Lips” mostly means guitarist turned cirque de psychedelic ringmaster Wayne Coyne. While bassist turned engineer Michael Ivins is credited on everything from their debut EP in 1984 (Wayne’s brother Mark singing lead!) through American Head, Coyne revealed Ivins had quietly retired from the band in 2021. Steven Drozd, drummer turned guitarist/second banana since 1993, just revealed he quietly retired as well in 2024. Their might be more drama behind the scenes - it wouldn’t be the first time - but for now, nobody’s airing beef.

If the Flaming Lips release another album proper, distributed by Warner Bros, Bella Union (their European home for the last decade or so) or some other partner, we should presumably expect a major sea change due to the lack of Ivins and Drozd. Or maybe not! Drozd wasn’t even on my favorite album of the band’s, 1990’s In A Priest Driven Ambulance, or the following major label debut, the nearly-as-terrific Hit To Death In The Future Head. Drozd’s importance to critical breakthroughs like 1999’s The Soft Bulletin and 2002’s Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots (the one that eventually went gold) is obvious. Before adding new musicians to the line-up, the band would perform to videos of Drozd’s drumming while he played guitar on stage! But the fact remains that they’d released five albums with two earlier drummers before his arrival, Ivins having Derek Smalls energy practically since This Is Spinal Tap came out. I don’t know who wrote which melody or added which synth gurgle, but at the very least, Coyne has a Mark E. Smith-like ability to make everything sound like The Flaming Lips. And unlike Mark E. Smith, he can half-way carry a tune and play a musical instrument or two.

Pondering their surreal journey after Drozd announced his departure led to both making this playlist, and realizing I may have underrated albums before and after the eras I perceived as glory days (namely the early ‘90s and the turn of the ‘10s). It’ll be some minutes or months before I can make an album guide, but I can share a bewitching survey of their wares now. “Disc one” of this playlist covers the band’s 20th century output, every full-length appearing once and my three favorites appearing twice. “Disc two” deals with Yoshimi and after, featuring two tracks each from Embryonic and The Terror, one each from the other “real” albums, and a few stray bits of experimentation (a selection from the 24 hour song they put on a USB inside a real skull covered in chrome!) and collaboration (Ke$ha & Mick “Big Audio Dynamite” Jones!). Interludes from the Christmas On Mars soundtrack serve to play each “disc” out. 

While five of these songs are also on the 52-track Greatest Hits, Volume One (Deluxe Edition) from 2018 - we even agree on what song to open with! - this playlist is not a “best-of.” My goal is to make their discography look interesting and impressive enough to explore on your own. So do so! Buy physical albums! And read my Spotify mea culpa if you can’t believe I still use the damn thing. Not that we need to worry Wayne’s not getting enough micro-pennies. He could always do another phone ad.

DISC ONE: US ‘80s-‘90s

1. “Talkin’ ‘Bout The Smiling Deathporn Immortality Blues (Everybody Wants To Live Forever)” (Hit To Death In The Future Head, 1992)
2. “Pilot Can At The Queer Of God” (Transmissions From The Satellite Heart, 1993)
3. “Rainin’ Babies” (In A Priest Driven Amublance, 1990)
4. “The Last Drop Of Morning Dew” (Telepathic Surgery, 1989)
5. “Out For A Walk” (The Flaming Lips EP, 1984)
6. “What Is The Light?” (The Soft Bulletin, 1999)
7. “The Ceiling Is Bendin’” (Oh My Gawd!!!…The Flaming Lips, 1987)
8. “You Have To Be Joking” (Autopsy Of The Devil’s Brain)” (Hit To Death In The Future Head, 1992)
9. “Mountain Side” (In A Priest Driven Ambulance, 1990)
10. “Godzilla Flick” (Hear It Is, 1986)
11. “Christmas At The Zoo” (Clouds Taste Metallic, 1995)
12. “Slow Nerve Action” (Transmissions From The Satellite Heart, 1993)
13. “The Distance Between Mars And Earth, Pt. 1” (Christmas On Mars, 2008)

DISC TWO: 21st Century Madness

1. “2012 (You Must Be Upgraded) (feat. Ke$ha, Biz Markie and Hour The Time Majesty 12)” (The Flaming Lips & Heady Fwends, 2012)
2. “Free Radicals” (At War With The Mystics, 2006)
3. “There Should Be Unicorns” (Oczy Mlody, 2017)
4. “You Lust” (The Terror, 2013)
5. “See The Leaves” (Embryonic, 2009)
6. “Mother, I’ve Taken LSD” (American Head, 2020)
7. “All For The Life Of The City (feat. Mick Jones)” (King’s Mouth: Music And Songs, 2019)
8. “Riot In My Brain!!” (7 Skies H3, 2014)
9. “Always There, In Our Hearts” (The Terror, 2013)
10. “Ego Tripping At The Gates Of Hell” (Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots, 2002)
11. “Atlas Eets Christmas” (Imagene Peise - Atlas Eets Christmas, 2014)
12. “Watching The Planets” (Embryonic, 2009)
13. "Once Beyond Hopelessness, pt. 2” (Christmas On Mars, 2008)

Yes, track 11 on each disc is a Christmas song! Yes, that Brazil sample on the first disc delayed the album by almost a year - and I’m glad they bothered! Yes, I knew what I was doing slipping the American Head title amidst all the others! If you have any other questions, feel free to share them at anthonyisright at gmail dot com.