Oklahoma City, OK · psych-rock · art-rock

The Flaming Lips

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Confetti cannons, giant balloons, and Wayne Coyne's cracked falsetto — a live show engineered as a sensory event, 'Do You Realize??' as the group hug.

The Flaming Lips formed in Oklahoma City in 1983, with Wayne Coyne on guitar, his brother Mark on lead vocals, Michael Ivins on bass and Dave Kotska on drums, debuting at the city's Blue Note Lounge. After Mark left, Wayne took over vocals, and the band's early records for the independent label Restless found it playing as a noisy, garage-punk and noise-pop outfit before drifting toward more psychedelic and experimental territory.

Steven Drozd joined as multi-instrumentalist in 1991 and became central to the band's move toward more elaborate studio work, aided by producer Dave Fridmann. After signing to Warner Bros., the group released Hit to Death in the Future Head in 1992 and Transmissions from the Satellite Heart in 1993, the latter carrying the single 'She Don't Use Jelly,' a novelty hit that briefly put the band on the radio.

Their wider reputation rests on later albums such as The Soft Bulletin (1999), named NME's Album of the Year, and Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots (2002), built from orchestral pop and electronics around Wayne Coyne's frail, high vocals and songs circling death, love and the cosmos. The band has won three Grammy Awards, two for Best Rock Instrumental Performance, and was nominated for a BRIT Award for Best International Act in 2007.

Their concerts are built around confetti, oversized balloons, costumes and video projection, turning shows into elaborate spectacles. The band has also chased unusual formats away from the stage, including an album designed to be played across four stereos at once.

Michael Ivins left the band in 2021, and Steven Drozd's long run as co-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, begun in 1991, ended in 2024. Wayne Coyne remains the sole original member, now playing alongside Derek Brown, Matt Duckworth Kirksey, AJ Slaughter and Tommy McKenzie.

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