Back in the 1980’s, the Flaming Lips were just an alternative rock band from Oklahoma. They toured for a decade before finally hitting it big in 1993 with their song "She Don't Use Jelly.” It was an ironic grunge anthem that landed them a cameo on Beverly Hills 90210.
But the Flaming Lips didn’t go all Hollywood — or turn out to be a one-hit wonder. Instead, they ditched their guitars, and started experimenting with tape loops and synthesizers. In 1999 the band released The Soft Bulletin, chock full of big pop hooks and symphonic arrangements — an instant classic, according to critics and fans. This summer, Flaming Lips have been performing the entire album live on tour.
Kurt Andersen speaks with longtime frontman Wayne Coyne about the group’s evolving sound, his earlier career as a fry cook, the near-death experience that changed his life, and his well-publicized diss of fellow indie rockers the Arcade Fire. Coyne is defiant: “Who cares? This is music, this is art — we’re supposed to have opinions, we’re supposed to be weirdos.”
Bonus Track: Obsessed with Britney, Over Oklahoma
In this bit of tape from the cutting room floor, Coyne reveals his infatuation with Britney Spears. He tracked her down at a music festival they were both playing recently. “There’s a force field of people around her and it took me virtually all day to penetrate this thing,” he tells Kurt. “And lo and behold, by the end of the day we met her … and had a very strange unexpected evening.”
He also talks about the controversy that rose up around the band’s song “Do You Realize” after it was made the official state rock song of Oklahoma. When the band when to the capital to receive the honor, “I had no idea that we were going walk into the Senate Chamber. And Michael, the bass player in the group, was wearing this old t-shirt with the USSR hammer and sickle on it.” It didn’t go over well.