The Flaming Lips

Formed after frontman Wayne Coyne stole a collection of instruments from his local church hall, The Flaming Lips have grown from strange underground oddities to Grammy-winning international stars with a highly individual brand of psychedelic indie pop. Spending years trekking around the independent scene making scratchy, experimental records and supporting the likes of Butthole Surfers, the band was signed by Warner Bros in 1990. Early single “She Don't Use Jelly” became a college radio hit and earned them a guest appearance on the TV show Beverly Hills 90210, but it wasn't until their ninth album, The Soft Bulletin (1999), that they made any real breakthrough. The album's follow-up Yoshimi Battles Pink Robots (2002) received an even bigger reaction, gaining huge critical acclaim and producing the hit singles “Do You Realize??” and “Fight Test”. The band quickly earned a reputation for extravagant stage shows featuring pyrotechnics, fake blood and the bizarre sight of Coyne crowd surfing inside a plastic zorbing ball. And their UK Number 6 album At War With The Mystics (2006) cemented their reputation as one of rock's most brilliantly eccentric acts. Periodically returning with new albums since then, the band have continued to innovate, releasing a pair of EPs released on wacky USB flash drives encased in gummy sweets in 2011, inviting an eclectic cohort of big-name guests including Bon Iver, Erykah Badu, Ke$ha and Nick Cave on board for their 2012 album Heady Fwends, and closely collaborating with popstar Miley Cyrus on her 2015 LP Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz. The group’s sixteenth album, American Head, landed in September 2020.