by Zachary Swickey
The Flaming Lips had a whirlwind of a year in 2011, releasing a five pound gummy skull with a USB of new songs in the brain, recording a six hour song (soon followed by a 24-hour song) and performing their opus The Soft Bulletin and Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon at the legendary Hollywood Forever Cemetery, in addition to their many random collaborations with folks like Neon Indian, Prefuse 73 and Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros. But it appears they are not done yet.
After wrapping the New Year with a pair of hometown shows featuring Yoko Ono’s Plastic Ono Band, the Lips’ unofficial leader Wayne Coyne has revealed some more collabs are on the way for a new LP that he hopes will be out by April. The diverse group of artists that the Lips hope to have on board appropriately reflect Wayne’s whacky music palette: Nick Cave, Ke$ha, Bon Iver, Erykah Badu, and Lykke Li to name a few.
The Bon Iver hook-up is apparently a “go,” according to Coyne’s chat with Rolling Stone, but has yet to take place. He claims to have spoken with singer Justin Vernon, who is reportedly sending two tracks for the Lips to work on “any day now.” A song with Nick Cave is also in the gestating stages with the group already sending the Aussie singer some music to work on.
While several of the collabs are set-in-stone, there are few who haven’t exactly signed the dotted line just yet. Ke$ha, Lykke Li, and Erykah Badu have all been requested by the Lips for some studio sessions, but they have yet to agree. While a Ke$ha collab seems a bit strange (even for the Lips), Coyne sees a little of himself in the singer: “She’s a freak,” he said of their similarities, also noting he knew she was a fan.
The Lips musical concoctions with the Plastic Ono Band, Neon Indian and Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros are already in the bag and have even been released previously through special limited edition vinyl bundles only available in select stores. The collab LP will collect these songs along with the others that have yet to be recorded.
Hopefully, Lykke Li and Erykah Badu can be convinced to join the fun, because we can’t even imagine the amazing audio concoction they could conjure with the Lips.