AMERICAN HEAD CHARGE
The Flaming Lips are on a roll. Not only have they released a second studio album in less than 18 months, but they’ve also come up with an unusual way for fans to enjoy their live shows. Band leader Wayne Coyne reminisces about growing up in Oklahoma and why their future could involve a lot of bubbles.
Words: Johnny Sharp Images: George Salisbury
Wayne Coyne and Steven Drozd’s fans are getting younger with every album.
“I don’t know if this album is prog rock, but it’s certainly in a classic rock style that could easily be considered prog, you know?”
Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne is on the phone from a car outside his Oklahoma City home, discussing with Prog where his group’s current album, American Head, fits into the musical landscape. If ever there was a band that made up their own rules, genres and stylistic templates, it’s the shape-shifting, psychedelically charged mavericks he’s fronted through countless experiments, detours, collaborations and reinventions since 1983.
One thing that American Head does have that Prog readers will instinctively understand is an overarching concept, or at the very least a strong thematic basis knitting its 13 tracks together. And happily, it comes wrapped in some of the strongest, most evocative songs the band have written in years.