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So, How Was Your Decade is a series in which many of the 2010s’ most important musicians answer our questionnaire about the people, places and things that shaped their decade. We’ll be rolling these pieces out throughout December.  Wayne Coyne is parked outside his home in Oklahoma City, sitting inside his Prius. It’s better to talk inside the vehicle than in his house, he says, where there’s cats, dogs, his wife and infant son. “It’s just the easiest spot to do an intimate talk in,” the Flaming Lips frontman says. “I can’t imagine sitting in my living room and having people listen to me all day. So I come out in my own little spot and then it’s just me and you.” In the last 10 years, the Flaming Lips have released three studio albums — The Terror (2013), Oczy Mlody (2017) and King’s Mouth (2019). They’ve also collaborated with a variety of artists on two records, 2012’s The Flaming Lips … [Read more...] about So, How Was Your Decade, Wayne Coyne?

Miley, what’s good? The lunatic pop princess dropped her surprise new album for free at the end of her hosting gig on this year’s MTV VMAs. And it’s a doozy: a psychedelic concept trip about sex, drugs and her dead blowfish, mostly created in collaboration with the Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne. The songs reference this exciting new drug called “pot,” which Miley has discovered and would like to explain to the rest of us. Result: The ex-Disney moppet moans, “How dare you bring another chick in our bed?/You lucky I’m doing my yoga or you might be dead.” “Something About Space Dude” is the real killer here — an aching acoustic sex ballad about a Bowie boy who isn’t even there, leaving her to sob, “I want to be there skateboarding in a space dude’s evil lair.” Most of Dead Petz sounds pretty much like the Lips’ latter-day output — she aims for Coyne-like high notes that … [Read more...] about Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz

Jay-Z and his private plane no longer hold the Guinness World Record for the most multiple-city live concerts in 24 hours. The honor now belongs to the Flaming Lips.   Between Wednesday at 6:30 pm CT and Thursday at the same time, the post-punkers from Oklahoma put on a fast-paced bus tour, stopping in eight different cities from Memphis to New Orleans and outperforming Jay-Z on the way.   The road trip was live-streamed as part of the third annual O Music Awards, which aired exclusively online. Viacom’s newest award show also became the company’s most-viewed digital event and a Twitter trending topic, as it aimed to recapture MTV’s early off-the-cuff irreverence and unpredictability.   “When I was 16, this was the dream – the great inclusive adventure of touring.” Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne told reporters during a tour bus press conference. “Honestly, I don’t think a lot of artists now would look very good doing … [Read more...] about Flaming Lips Break Jay-Z’s Record for Most Shows in 24 Hours

In 2014, in advance of 30th anniversary of Purple Rain, Warner Brothers announced a “new partnership” with Prince — one that promised remastered and unreleased music from his vaults in exchange for returning ownership of the master recordings to all of his albums to him. Broadly, the announcement felt like a harmonious and happy end to the very public battle he fought with the label in the 1990s. At the time, you either thought that he was rightfully standing up for the rights of musicians, or merely indulging in the increasingly odd behavior that culminated in him painting “SLAVE” on his face and changing his name to an unpronounceable symbol. But for fans, it meant something different. Soon, we might be able to toss out our bootlegs in exchange for official, high-quality version versions of “Father’s Song” and dozens – if not hundreds – of other Eighties songs that were never officially released. The Purple Rain sessions … [Read more...] about Let’s Go Crazy: Why Prince’s ‘Purple Rain’ Is a Masterpiece

Every Prince fan has a song that sums up his genius, and for me it’s “The Ballad of Dorothy Parker,” one of the tormented strange-relationship soul laments from his 1987 masterpiece Sign O’ the Times. There aren’t any other songs like this one. Prince is fighting with his girlfriend, so he stomps out and goes to a restaurant to sit by himself and sulk. (“Yeah, lemme get a fruit cocktail, I ain’t too hungry.”) The hipster boho waitress working the night shift picks him up. “You’re kinda cute — wanna take a bath?” For a girl in a Prince song, this is the subtle approach. They decide to spend the night together but not have sex, so he keeps his pants on in the bubble bath while listening to Joni Mitchell. They trust each other, which is a new and scary experience for him. Hanging out with Dorothy teaches Prince how to be a friend to his girlfriend, so he goes back to her and takes another bath with his pants on. All … [Read more...] about Prince: Nothing Compared 2 Him