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Oct 28, 2020 By Christopher Roberts The Flaming Lips

The Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne has been performing in giant plastic bubbles for years now, but this year due to the pandemic the whole band has also been performing in bubbles and recently they took it a step further, performing a concert in their native Oklahoma City with the whole audience in bubbles. Now they have shared a video from the show, with the band performing “Assassins of Youth.” The band released a new album, American Head, in September via Warner Records (stream it here) and the song is taken from there. Watch the video below.

Read our review American Head.

Longtime collaborator Dave Fridmann co-produced American Head with the band. The album includes “Flowers of Neptune 6,” a new song the band shared in May via a video for the track. The song featured Kacey Musgraves on additional vocals and was #1 on our Songs of the Week list.

When the album was announced in June, the band shared its second single, “My Religion Is You,” via a video for the song. Then they shared another song from the album, “Dinosaurs on the Mountain,” also via a video for the track. Then they shared a fourth song from the album, “You n Me Sellin’ Weed,” also via a video for the track. Then they shared another song from the album, “Will You Return / When You Come Down,” via a video for the track, which was also one of our Songs of the Week. Finally, the band shared one last pre-release single from American Head, “Mother Please Don’t Be Sad,” via a video for the track, which again made our Songs of the Week list. Then on release day they shared a video for “God and the Policeman,” which is a duet with Kacey Musgraves.

In June, The Flaming Lips performed for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, with the entire band in separate plastic bubbles and also their audience, including some kids, in bubbles. And to make it even more timely, they did “Race for the Prize,” a classic from 1999’s The Soft Bulletin about two scientists racing to find a cure. Then in September they did a performance for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon of “God and the Policeman,” with each band member in their signature giant plastic bubbles.

In November 2019 The Flaming Lips released a new live album, The Soft Bulletin Recorded Live at Red Rocks with The Colorado Symphony Orchestra, via Warner Records. As its title suggests, the album featured a live concert of them recording their acclaimed 1999 album in its entirety with The Colorado Symphony Orchestra (and conductor André de Ridder) at Red Rocks Amphitheatre, near Denver, Colorado.

The Flaming Lips also teamed up with Los Angeles garage rock duo Deap Vally to form the collaborative band appropriately named Deap Lips. They released their debut album together, also titled Deap Lips, in March via Cooking Vinyl.

Read our exclusive interview with Wayne Coyne on his all-time favorite album, from our My Favorite Album Issue.

The Flaming Lips released another new album, King’s Mouth: Music and Songs, back in April 2019 for Record Store Day (followed by a wider release in July 2019). King’s Mouth features spoken word vocals by Mick Jones of The Clash.

Read our interview with The Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne on King’s Mouth.

Also read our 2017 cover story interview with The Flaming Lips on Oczy Mlody from our 15th Anniversary Issue.

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