Out Tomorrow: Flaming Lips LPs

When something remains ongoing for an extended period of time, people often describe the situation by saying, “The flame still burns,” which is why we were planning to adapt it slightly in order to cleverly mention how today marks the continuation of our Flaming Lips reissue campaign. Unfortunately, “The Lips Still Burn” more like a slogan that should be followed by someone asking, “Have you tried Chapstick?” So we’ve decided to just cut to the chase:

THE VINYL REISSUES OF THE FLAMING LIPS’ RESTLESS-ERA CATALOG BEGINS TOMORROW!

Yes, that’s right: starting tomorrow, Flaming Lips fans can pick up copies of HEAR IT IS, OH MY GAWD!!!...THE FLAMING LIPS, and TELEPATHIC SURGERY, a.k.a. the first three albums of the Wayne Coyne era of the band. No, you won’t know any radio hits from these LPs, because there weren’t any. Okay, maybe some of the songs got played on college radio, but they were mostly left to the discretion of the individual DJs, so we can’t really say for sure which tracks would be deemed the “emphasis” tracks. We can, however, offer some suggestions as entry points.

HEAR IT IS: “With You,” “Trains, Brains and Rain,” “Jesus Shootin’ Heroin”

OH MY GAWD!!!...THE FLAMING LIPS: “Everything’s Explodin’,” “One Million Billionth of a Millisecond on a Sunday Morning,” “Prescription: Love”

TELEPATHIC SURGERY: “Right Now,” “Chrome Plated Suicide,” “Hell’s Angels Cracker Factory”
 
Yes, you can see that The Flaming Lips were very much outside the box from the beginning of their Wayne Coyne-led career. Trust us, it was like that pre-Wayne, too. But by checking out these early albums, you can follow the sonic path to where the band became commercially successful and see how they somehow evolved without ever really getting particularly mainstream with their sound. It’s remarkable, really. But that’s The Flaming Lips for you.