The band released two singles from At War With the Mystics : “The W.A.N.D.”, which was featured in a Dell commercial and which was originally put out as a download-only single in early 2006, and “The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song”, which became their highest-charting single on the UK Singles Chart…
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In 2005 the band was the subject of a documentary called Fearless Freaks , featuring appearances by other artists and celebrities such as Gibby Haynes , the White Stripes , Beck , Christina Ricci , Liz Phair , Juliette Lewis , Steve Burns , Starlight Mints , and Adam Goldberg…
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Three years later, in the summer of 2002, the Flaming Lips joined bands Cake and Modest Mouse on the Unlimited Sunshine Tour . They also released the full-length Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots to much critical acclaim. Featuring guest musician Yoshimi P-We (who inspired the album’s title track) and demonstrating…
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In 2002, they performed as the opening act, as well as the backup band, for singer Beck on his Sea Change tour. In the summer of 2004, it was announced that the Flaming Lips would appear among the headliners on the 2004 Lollapalooza tour, alongside such artists as Sonic Youth…
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Shortly after Yoshimi and The Soft Bulletin , the Flaming Lips released two EPs in the same vein of their previous album’s robotic theme which contain remixed songs from Yoshimi , Fight Test and Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell . They also appeared on the track “Marching the…
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In 2001, the Flaming Lips began filming a low-budget indie film entitled Christmas on Mars . Filming for the movie ended in late September 2005 and premiered on May 25, 2008, at the Sasquatch! Music Festival. The film tells the story of the first Christmas of a colony set-up on…
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To enhance the live experience for their audience and to accurately reproduce the sound of The Soft Bulletin live, the Lips devised the concept of the “Headphone Concert”. A low-powered FM transmitter was set up at shows, and the concert was simultaneously broadcast to small Walkman -style receivers and headphones…
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Meanwhile, a series of unfortunate events (recounted in the 1999 song “The Spiderbite Song”) beset the band. Drozd’s arm was almost amputated needlessly because of what he claimed was a spider bite (it turned out to be abscessed as a result of Drozd’s heroin use), Ivins was trapped in his…
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Though their experimental endeavors received some press coverage, their real breakthrough came with the 1999 release, The Soft Bulletin . Marrying more traditional catchy melodies with synthetic strings, hypnotic, carefully manipulated beats, booming cymbals and oddball but philosophical lyrics (sung much more strongly than on earlier releases), the album quickly…
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The departure of Jones and a general dissatisfaction with standard “rock” music led to the three remaining members of the group redefining the direction of the band with the experimental Zaireeka (1997), a four-CD album which is intended to be heard by playing all four CDs in four separate CD…
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