Even within the eclectic world of alternative rock, few bands are so brave, so frequently brilliant and as deliciously weird as the Flaming Lips. From their beginnings as an Oklahoma novelty to their pop culture breakthrough in the mid-'90s to their status as one of the most respected groups of the 2000s, the Lips have ridden one of the more surreal and haphazard career trajectories in pop music. An acid-bubblegum band with as much affinity for sweet melodies as blistering noise assaults, their off-kilter sound, uncommon emotional depth, and bizarre history (packed with tales of self-immolating fans and the like) has firmly established them as true originals.
The Flaming Lips formed in Oklahoma City in 1983, when founder and guitarist Wayne Coyne allegedly stole a collection of musical instruments from an area church hall and enlisted his vocalist brother Mark and bassist Michael Ivins to start a band. Giving themselves the nonsensical name the Flaming Lips (its origin variously attributed to a porn film, an obscure drug reference, or a dream in which a fiery Virgin Mary plants a kiss on Wayne in the back seat of his car), the band made its live debut at a local transvestite club. After progressing through an endless string of drummers, they recruited percussionist Richard English prior to recording their self-titled debut, issued on green vinyl on their own Lovely Sorts of Death label in 1985.
When Mark Coyne soon departed to get married, Wayne assumed full control of the group; in addition to remaining its lead guitarist, he also became the primary singer and songwriter. Continuing on as a trio, the Lips released 1986's Hear It Is, followed a year later by Oh My Gawd!!!...The Flaming Lips.
By 1997, the Flaming Lips were back in the studio, recording an album that, according to Coyne, would be "so different and exciting it will either make us millionaires or break us" — in short, 1997's Zaireeka was a breathtaking and wildly experimental set of four discs designed to be played simultaneously. In 1999, the Lips returned with a superb new studio effort, The Soft Bulletin.
In 2007, the Flaming Lips were nominated for a Grammy for Best Alternative Album for Mystics and won a Grammy for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical. In 2008, the band's long-awaited, seven-years-in-the-making film Christmas on Mars made its debut, and the movie and its soundtrack were released as a CD/DVD set. During 2007 and 2008, the Lips began working on the follow-up to At War with the Mystics, taking a looser, more experimental approach than they had in several albums. The results were released as Embryonic in fall 2009.
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