1
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.
[Read more on Wikipedia]
Electric Würms are an American band. The band is a collaboration between The Flaming Lips members Steven Drozd, Wayne Coyne and Nashville, TN band Linear Downfall. Their album, Muzik Die Schwer Zu Twerk, was released on August 18, 2014. The first single from the album is a cover version of "Heart Of The Sunrise", a 1971 song by progressive rock band Yes.
The Space Age is a time period encompassing the activities related to the Space Race, space exploration, space technology, and the cultural developments influenced by these events. The Space Age is generally considered to have begun with Sputnik (1957).
Stardeath and White Dwarfs is an experimental rock band from Norman, Oklahoma, formed in late 2004. The band has released two albums, one single ("Toast & Marmalade For Tea" on Half Machine Records) and an EP, as well as contributing to The Flaming Lips' 2009 remake of The Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd.
The band consists of Dennis Coyne, Casey Joseph, Matt Duckworth and Ford Chastain. Lead singer Coyne is the nephew of Flaming Lips lead singer Wayne Coyne.
They released the "That's Cool" EP in 2005. They released their first full-length album, entitled The Birth, on vinyl (with digital download) on May 19, 2009 and on CD on June 9, 2009, on Warner Brothers.
Stardeath and White Dwarfs have toured with Deerhoof, British Sea Power, Band of Horses, Starlight Mints, Explosions in the Sky, Tame Impala, and The Flaming Lips. They have opened for The Flaming Lips at the Tulsa, Oklahoma D-Fest Festival 2007, on their New Year's Eve shows in 2007 and 2008, and during a brief tour in 2009. They also played the 2008 Wakarusa Festival.
In the fall of 2012, Stardeath and White Dwarfs began playing shows with New Fumes, Linear Downfall, and Spaceface. Around the same time, they collaborated with The Flaming Lips, along with New Fumes, Linear Downfall and Spaceface, to do another song-for-song cover of an album. This time, it was the classic debut of King Crimson, In the Court of the Crimson King. They called it Playing Hide and Seek With the Ghosts of Dawn, and released it in November 2012. In 2013 they contributed to "The Time Has Come to Shoot You Down... What a Sound," a reworking of the Stone Roses debut album, also with The Flaming Lips, New Fumes and friends.