THE FLAMING LIPS CHARTING NEW TERRITORY ON EMBRYONIC

Physchadelic alternative rockers, The Flaming Lips, have released their latest album, the double disc “Embryonic” which debuted at #8 on The Billboard Top 200 chart and it’s the bands follow up to their Grammy Award winning album “At War With the Mystics” from 2006. “At War With the Mystic” captured Grammy Awards for Best Engineered Album as well as Best Rock Instrumental for the song “The Wizard Turns On.” For “Embryonic” which features contributions from MGMT as well as Karen O of the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs finds the band will try to duplicate their success in the past although they admit they are charting new territories with the songwriting for their latest album.

Artisan News caught up with lead vocalist and ring leader Wayne Coyne to get his thougths on “Embryonic” and what he feels he can compare it to.

“I’ve written a couple of songs that to me if you have to describe them to people that know a lot about music, it feels kind of like John Lennon doing that first Yoko Ono record. It wouldn’t be out of the realm to maybe compare it to ‘Imagine.’ I think ‘Do You Realize’ falls into that category here and there where it gets compared to that. I’m not saying that I am like John Lennon but we use these sonic things as comparison.”

Coyne also talked about the strange form of Rock music that The Flaming Lips touch on for their latest album “Embryonic.”

“And then I think there’s bits where me and Stephen and Michael along with Dave Freidman have acidentally persued some strange electronic sort of freak out music that to me reminds me of sort of Miles Davis ‘Bitches Brew’ era where he’s got a great ensemble and they are playing a strange form of Rock music. Especially the guys in the band, they can play so well and some times it does stretch out in that way. I don’t know if those two things go together automatically but in some of the ways that we arrange them it works. I can see if you don’t even know John Lennon or Miles Davis. It could be music that you somehow expect from The Flaming Lips but still feel like new territory.”

As of press time The Flaming Lips don’t have any tour dates booked although they once again had a busy Summer on the Rock Festival circuit. As the holidays approach, fans of The Flaming Lips can revist the bands eclectic movie “Christmas On Mars” which was directed by Wayne Coyne and tells the story of the first Christmas on Mars and features a soundtrack written and performed by The Flaming Lips.