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Apr 28, 2018 The Flaming Lips By Christopher Roberts

The Flaming Lips have announced a new best of simply entitled Greatest Hits. It will be available on vinyl featuring 11 tracks or as a 3-CD and digital deluxe edition featuring 52 tracks, including a disc of B-sides and rarities. The full tracklist is below. Above is the cover art.

A press release lays out some of the rarities and B-sides, describing them this way: “Some of the aural treasures found on disc 3 are among the rarest recorded curios in The Lips musical medicine chest including the previously unreleased demo track ‘Zero to a Million’ which features The Lips short-lived line-up that included Jonathan Donahue on guitar (Mercury Rev) and Nathan Roberts on drums. This track was on the original cassette tape which led to The Lips Warner Bros. Records signing. Another early obscurity ‘Jets (Cupid’s Kiss Vs. the Psyche of Death)’ is one of the three tracks from The Lips first-ever WBR CD EP, Yeah, I Know It’s A Drag…Wastin’ Pigs Is Still Radical.

“Various odds & sods included here that have never been available on CD until now include the epic, fan favorite ‘The Captain’ which was left off The Soft Bulletin and a welcome addition to this set. ‘We Can’t Predict The Future’ is taken from a June 2000 John Peel BBC Session. ‘Your Face Can Tell The Future,’ and ‘You Gotta Hold On’ are outtakes from At War With the Mystics sessions. Another rare gem, ‘Noodling Theme,’ is from the 2001 Lips soundtrack to director Bradley Beesley’s indie-film Okie Noodling about bare-handed fishing in Oklahoma. Those lucky enough to attend early screenings were handed a copy of this now ultra-rare 3-song CD upon entry. ‘Spiderman Vs Muhammed Ali,’ originally recorded for 2007’s Music from and Inspired by Spider-Man 3 soundtrack has never released in any form. Prior to this collection, ‘Enthusiasm For Life Defeats Existential Fear Pt. 2’ existed on a USB drive—along with two other tracks—buried within the edible Gummy Fetus sold on tour in 2011. Closing out the collection is ‘Silent Lord’ which is comprised of The Lips mash-up of ‘Silent Night’ with Spacemen 3’s ‘Lord, Can You Hear Me’ from a Christmas 2008 limited edition 7-inch picture disc. The most comprehensive of any Lips compilation to date, Greatest Hits Vol. 1 Deluxe Edition becomes an essential piece of the puzzle into the wonderful and strange world view of The Flaming Lips.”

The Flaming Lips are also releasing a new six-CD box set that collects their early work, Seeing the Unseeable: The Complete Studio Recordings of The Flaming Lips 1986-1990, on May 25 via Rhino. Last week they released a single disc compilation, Scratching the Door: The First Recordings of The Flaming Lips, on April 20 via Rhino. On Record Store Day they released a new song, “The Story of Yum Yum and the Dragon.” The band teamed up with Dogfish Head Alehouse to make a beer called Dragons & Yum Yums, which was the official beer of Record Store Day, and the song was released on a special 7-inch pressed with the beer (with the B-side fittingly titled “Beer in Your Ear”). The Flaming Lips also shared a video for “The Story of Yum Yum and the Dragon.”

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

Greatest Hits Vol. 1 Tracklist:

Greatest Hits Vol. 1 (Vinyl edition) Tracklist:

Side One:

1. Do You Realize??
2. Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots Pt. 1
3. Race For the Prize
4. Waitin’ For a Superman
5. When You Smile
6. She Don’t Use Jelly

Side Two:

1. Bad Days (Aurally Excited Version)
2. The W.A.N.D.
3. Silver Trembling Hands
4. The Castle
5. The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song

Greatest Hits Vol. 1 Deluxe Edition (3-CD & Digital) Tracklist:

Disc 1:

1. Talkin’ ‘Bout The Smiling Deathporn Immortality Blues (Everyone Wants
To Live Forever)
2. Hit Me Like You Did The First Time
3. Frogs
4. Felt Good To Burn
5. Turn It On
6. She Don’t Use Jelly
7. Chewin the Apple of Your Eye
8. Slow Nerve Action
9. Psychiatric Explorations of The Fetus With Needles
10. Brainville
11. Lightning Strikes The Postman
12. When You Smile
13. Bad Days (Aurally Excited Version)
14. Riding to Work In The Year 2025
15. Race For the Prize (Sacrifice of the New Scientists)
16. Waitin’ For A Superman (Is It Getting Heavy?)
17. The Spark That Bled
18. What Is the Light?

Disc 2:

1. Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots Pt. 1
2. In The Morning of the Magicians
3. All We Have Is Now
4. Do You Realize??
5. The W.A.N.D.
6. Pompeii Am Gotterdammerung
7. Vein of Stars
8. The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song
9. Convinced of the Hex
10. See the Leaves
11. Silver Trembling Hands
12. Is David Bowie Dying?
13. Try to Explain
14. Always There In Our Hearts
15. How??
16. There Should Be Unicorns
17. The Castle

Disc 3:

1. Zero to a Million (Demo)
2. Jets (Cupid’s Kiss Vs The Psyche of Death) (2-Track Demo)
3. Thirty-Five Thousand Feet of Despair
4. The Captain
5. 1000 Ft. Hands
6. Noodling Theme (Epic Sunset Mix #5)
7. Up Above the Daily Hum
8. The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song (In Anatropous Reflex)
9. We Can’t Predict the Future
10. Your Face Can Tell The Future
11. You Gotta Hold On
12. What Does It Mean?
13. Spider-man Vs Muhammad Ali
14. I Was Zapped By the Lucky Super Rainbow
15. Enthusiasm For Life Defeats Existential Fear Pt. 2
16. If I Only Had a Brain
17. Silent Night / Lord, Can You Hear Me

The Flaming Lips Tour Dates:

May 06 - Memphis, TN - Beale Street Music Festival
May 31 - Jackson, WY - Jackson Hole Center for the Arts
June 02 - Eugene, OR - McDonald Theatre
June 03 - Seattle, WA - Upstream Music Fest + Summit
June 04 - Bonner, MT - Kettlehouse Amphitheater
June 06 - Garden City, ID - Revolution Concert House
June 07 - Ogden, UT - Ogden Amphitheatre
June 08 - Aspen, CO - Belly Up Aspen
June 22 - Saskatoon, SK / CAN - Sasktel Saskatchewan Jazz Fest
June 24 - Winnipeg, MB / CAN - Jazz Winnipeg @ Burton Cummings Theatre
July 20 - Cheshire, England - Bluedot 2018, Jodrell Bank
July 21 - London, England - Kaleidoscope Festival, Alexandra Palace
Nov 09 - Weissenhauser Strand, GER - Rolling Stone Weekender, Ferienpark
Nov 16 - Europa-Park, GER - Rolling Stone Park

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