The Flaming Lips

At War With The Mystics

[4/5] The last time we heard from the Flaming Lips, they were obsessed with flesh-colored androids, karate-kicking Harajuku girls and questions about their own mortality. Well, a lot has happened since the 2002 release of Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots: Oklahoma’s favourite oddballs toured as Beck’s backing band (only to famously upstage him nightly), devastated audiences at the 2004 edition of Coachella, and generally made concerts safe for folks who love dancing in giant racoon suits. With the Lips finally known for something other than “She Don’t Use Jelly,” At War With The Mystics might have been the album where they set their sights on world domination. But, rather than firing off a batch of radio-friendly unit shifters, they take dead aim at adventurers who love the taste of over-proof bong water. Things start out accessibly enough with “Yeah Yeah Yeah Song” serving up alt-pop at its most deliriously off-kilter and “Free Radicals” delivering faux-funk fit for a Prince. But from there, the Lips let their freak flag fly, drifting off to star-dusted frontiers where big questions (e.g., “If there ain’t no heaven, does that mean there’s no hell?”) have no easy answers. Ever wonder what an all-star band featuring Burt Bacharach, Jethro Tull, Black Sabbath and Pink Floyd would sound like stoned on the final reel of 2001: A Space Odyssey? The answer, thrillingly, starts here.
(WARNER BROS.)




Rock’s Like:

Mercury All Is Dream • Pink Floyd’s Meddle • I Am Spoonbender’s Sender/Receiver




IN-STORE SESSION With Flaming Lips singer/guitarist Wayne Coyne




Is At War With The Mystics meant to be a political album? For instance, you seem to be taking shots at the U.S. government with songs like “Free Radicals.”


It always seemed silly to think that a group like the MC5–a bunch of freaks from Detroit on 20 hits of acid–could stand up there and tell Richard Nixon how to run the country. But I think that it’s still wonderful to behold and to watch that happen. So, with some of these songs, I thought, “Wouldn’t it be great if we thought of ourselves as that kind of band–zonked-out-on-LSD-trying-to-change-the-world-through-our-music sort of mentality?” I think parts of [At War With The Mystics] are sort of misguided-radical protest rock.




If this album has something in common with past Flaming Lips records, it’s that you still seem happy and full of wide-eyed wonder. Is that the case?


We get accused of being optimists in the face of some really horrible things that are going on. I think, through the experiences we’ve had, we can honestly say that the world is a wonderful place, even though there are horrible things happening in it. This record isn’t about optimism, though–I think it’s more about an existential acceptance, almost. We can’t change the world; all we can really do is change ourselves.




What makes life so amazing for you?


If you get to be involved in making music or art, you should be in constant awe of the shit that’s around you. If you’re not, you’re either high on crack or an idiot. There’s no way you could see the things that I’ve seen and not feel the same way.




After “She Don’t Use Jelly” became a hit in the mid-’90s, you’d announce the song at shows as being both a blessing and a curse. Why?


When I look at that period, we probably got to a point where we were going, “Why do we have to play this song every night, and why does everyone focus on it when we want to do new music?” But I have to admit, literally days after that, I woke up and went, “Are you crazy? How lucky are we to have people that love our song? How lucky are we to sell half a million records? And how lucky are we to have an audience that cares about us at all?” If we sounded like we were jaded or tired, we were just being stupid.




You’ve had a long run with the Flaming Lips. Was there any time you worried it would end and you’d have to get a real job?


Until recently, we’ve always thought that might happen. We’re just doing what we like without really trying to be commercially successful. We’d love to make millions of dollars–what fool wouldn’t?–but we can only do what we do.




And what if it did all end tomorrow?


Being able to play music and do all the things that we do-man, you really realize this is the life. And I don’t say that because I don’t think I could work a regular job. But I know if all this ended, I’d go work at Target or McDonald’s or wherever would have me and go, “You know what? This is good, too.”
–Mike Usinger