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The Flaming Lips

The Flaming Lips is an American rock band formed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, in 1983. Instrumentally, their sound contains lush, multi-layered, psychedelic rock arrangements, but lyrically their compositions show elements of space rock, including unusual song and album titles—such as "What Is the Light? (An Untested Hypothesis Suggesting That the Chemical [In Our Brains] by Which We Are Able to Experience the Sensation of Being in Love Is the Same Chemical That Caused the "Big Bang" That Was the Birth of the Accelerating Universe)". They are also acclaimed for their elaborate live shows, which feature costumes, balloons, puppets, video projections, complex stage light configurations, giant hands, large amounts of confetti, and frontman Wayne Coyne's signature man-sized plastic bubble, in which he traverses the audience. In 2002, Q magazine named the Flaming Lips one of the "50 Bands to See Before You Die."

The band is best known for its associations with 1960s and 1970s psychedelic subculture, with elements of this culture permeating the group's instrumentation, effects, and composition. Coyne's lyrics, in particular, both reference and embody the fascination with the science fiction and space opera genres of fiction that were popular during the golden age of psychedelic subculture. His lyrical style tends to use the imagery and plot conventions of space opera to frame more abstract themes about the unfolding cycles of romantic love, highlighting its vulnerability while delving into its metaphysical implications.

The group recorded several albums and EPs on an indie label, Restless, in the 1980s and early 1990s. After signing to Warner Brothers, they scored a hit in 1993 with "She Don't Use Jelly". Although it has been their only hit single in the U.S., the band has maintained critical respect and, to a lesser extent, commercial viability through albums such as 1999's The Soft Bulletin (which was NME magazine's Album of the Year) and 2002's Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. They have had more hit singles in the UK and Europe than in the U.S. In February 2007, they were nominated for a 2007 BRIT Award in the "Best International Act" category. By 2007, the group garnered three Grammy Awards, including two for Best Rock Instrumental Performance.

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Genres rock experimental indie rock psychedelic rock electronic
Top release Embryonic

Albums

  1. Hear It Is
    1986
  2. Oh My Gawd!!!… The Flaming Lips
    1987
  3. Telepathic Surgery
    1989
  4. In a Priest Driven Ambulance
    1990
  5. Hit to Death in the Future Head
    1992
  6. Transmissions From the Satellite Heart
    1993
  7. Clouds Taste Metallic
    1995
  8. Zaireeka
    1997
  9. The Soft Bulletin
    1999
  10. Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
    2002
  11. At War With the Mystics
    2006
  12. 4.0
    Embryonic
    2009
  13. The Dark Side of the Moon
    2009
  14. 24 Hour Song Skull
    2011
  15. The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends
    2012
  16. Playing Hide and Seek With the Ghosts of Dawn
    2012
  17. The Terror
    2013
  18. The Time Has Come to Shoot You Down… What a Sound
    2013
  19. With a Little Help From My Fwends
    2014
  20. Imagene Peise - Atlas Eets Christmas
    2014

Other releases

  1. The Day Andy Gibb Died
    1996
  2. 1984-1990: A Collection of Songs Representing an Enthusiasm for Recording... by Amateurs
    1998
  3. The Soft Bulletin - The Companion CD
    1999
  4. The Soft Bulletin Companion 2
    2000
  5. The Shambolic Birth and Early Life Of
    2002
  6. The Golden Path
    2003
  7. The Flaming Lips with Prefuse 73
    2011
  8. Peace and Paranoia Tour 2013
    2013
  9. Side by Side: Gates of Steel (live)
    2014