Friday, July 29th 2011

News:  The Flaming Lips

The Flaming Lips And Lightning Bolt Release Collaboration (And It’s Weird)

By Morad Moazami

Just in case new material in the form of USB gummy fetuses wasn’t enough, The Flaming Lips released yet another batch of new songs yesterday; this time an EP from their previously announced collaboration with the Providence-based noise rock duo, Lightning Bolt. The songs, as you might expect, have to do with acid… and NASA.

The project is bizarre to say the least. The opening track I’m Working At NASA On Acid is perhaps the EP’s tamest, with acoustic guitars and an atmosphere that could mostly be regarded as a callback to the band’s excellent 2009 album, Embryonic. Of course, that’s only in its first three minutes before a noisy, psychedelic breakdown takes over, reminding us that these guys should never be working at NASA (particularly not on acid).

On another occasion, Wayne Coyne begins repeatedly creaking like an acid-fueled Tom Waits, singing the words “I want to get high, but I don’t want brain damage” in the aptly titled (you guessed it) I Want To Get High But I Don’t Want Brain Damage. The song is then followed by NASA’s Final Acid Bath, an astonishingly brilliant instrumental composition that would have made Syd Barrett freak out and shave his hair and eyebrows all over again. And then there’s the final track, which is frightening, eerie, and for some incomprehensible reason: musical.

Listen to the four strange but fascinating tracks below:

I’m Working At NASA On Acid:

I Want To Get High But I Don’t Want Brain Damage:

NASA’s Final Acid Bath:

I Want To Get Damaged But I Won’t Say Hi: