The Flaming Lips are well known for pushing the boundaries of music, both in the ways that it’s recorded and the way that it’s consumed. Wayne, always the charismatic leader, has an expressed interest in creating new channels for audiences to digest the band’s music. Their albums have consistently pushed the boundaries of rock music, and their live shows are audio-visual spectacles on an unprecedented level. In music’s ever-changing landscape, a band like The Flaming Lips has the resources to constantly surprise their fans. This section details ways that the Lips want music to be not just listened to, but also experienced.
The Parking Lot / Boombox Experiments / Zaireeka
Frustrated with the way the band was progressing and the ‘static state’ of rock music, Wayne and the band decided to try something different. Inspired by pre-concert rituals and a night spent sleeping outside, the band organized what have become known as the “Parking Lot Experiments.” Wayne created over 40 cassette tapes using a mixture of organized and “found” sound, and each tape had its own unique recording made in relation to the others. Everyone put the tape in his or her car stereo and, on Wayne’s cue, pressed ‘play’ at the same time. Played all together, the cassettes made a cohesive piece of music. An automotive orchestra of noise and melody, if you will. Granted, there is some expected randomness and missed cues, but that was whole point. The fist couple experiments happened in Oklahoma City, but the one that got the most attention happened at the 1997 SXSW Music Conference in Austin, TX. Over 1000 people came to watch what was called “the event” of the conference.
Parking Lot Experiment, 1996
This was followed by a series of “Boom Box Experiments,” which was essentially the same idea, but using 40 people, each with a boom box, all in the same room. Everyone presses play at the same time, and then Steven would ‘conduct’ participants to adjust the volume or speed of the tape at certain points. Again, the experiments were a success.
Boom Box Experiment, 1997
Inspired by these ideas, the Lips wanted to do something that could translate this idea and present it to the masses so everyone could experience it. Warner Bros. agreed and the result was Zaireeka, a set of 4 CD’s to be played simultaneously on 4 different stereos. The experiment assumes that no listening session will ever be alike, which is an exciting idea for commercial music. It is aleatoric music in action; as Wayne says, “purposely unpredictable in its rhythm and synchronization.” You can experience 8-channel surround sound, meant to be experienced collectively. Sure, the CD’s can be listened to individually, but they were meant to be played together. I have personally tried Zaireeka and it's fun and rewarding, much more so than simply playing a normal CD. Some of the sounds are bizarre, yes, and others are down right hard to listen to. But there is a certain thrill in hearing those sounds travel around you and bounce from speaker to speaker. And they succeeded in their goal: to create a new and interactive way to listen to music.
Recently, the band put out a sequel of sorts to Zaireeka called “Two Blobs Fucking”. A 12-part YouTube video series meant to be played simultaneously on iPhones or computers. It is a visual experiment as well, with images traveling from screen to screen with the music.
Two Blobs Fucking - Pt. 1
Music Against Degeneration Revue / “The Headphone Concert”
After The Soft Bulletin was released, the band was concerned that, at live shows, the audience wouldn’t be able to hear the stylized nuances of their newest masterpiece. The record was dense and sonically layered, and the sound quality at concerts is often not good enough for the audience to hear that. Not to mention there were only 3 of them, not nearly enough people to play all the intricate orchestration on the album. In fact, on this tour, Steven played guitar and keyboards on stage and all his drumming was pre-recorded. So they came up with a solution: give everyone in the audience a pair of Megabass MDR-W98 headphones and a radio. A stereo mix was broadcast within the venue using a Ramsey SM100 FM transmitter, and the audience could hear both the live sounds and the pre-recorded ones. The experiment was only a mild success, and since that tour, their live shows have gotten bigger and more elaborate. Going to a Flaming Lips show is an experience, less about the music and more about the show. Since the music is so hard to reproduce live, they might as well entertain you some other way.
Guitar Modification
This link shows off a guitar modification that Wayne made, presumably for no other reason than personal entertainment. He attached a Guitar Hero controller to a double-necked guitar and also added on a Kaossilator dynamic-phrase synthesizer pad.
Recent Ideas
