Lips Take On "Yoshimi" Again

The Flaming Lips will release a collector's edition of their most recent LP, Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots, padded with additional tracks and a bonus DVD, on September 2nd. The reissue will feature the songs like "If I Go Mad" and "Up Above the Daily Hum" -- recorded in sessions between 1999's The Soft Bulletin and 2002's Yoshimi -- that have been available thus far only as imports.

"By the end of recording Soft Bulletin, we were kind of done with it," says frontman Wayne Coyne of the decision to withhold the tracks from the original Yoshimi. "'If I Go Mad' has a lot of the same mood and drama and references of love, death and insanity, and even though we liked it a lot and felt it was powerful, we really didn't want to put out another record and have it be 'Soft Bulletin 2.'"

The accompanying DVD features videos, "making-of" videos, a trailer for the Flaming Lips upcoming movie Christmas On Mars, as well as animated representations of the songs "Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots Part I" and "Fight Test."

Shot in Las Vegas, the "making-of" footage of the "Do You Realize?" video features a menagerie of Lips-favored characters. "There's the usual assortment of giant frogs, zebras, wanna-be Victoria Secret's models, me and extras sitting around waiting," says Coyne. "I was sitting in a chair having make-up put on and they brought in an elephant that wasn't behaving the way they wanted it to. I was wearing a fitted Dolce and Gabana suit, and at one point, if you watch closely, the elephant gets snot on the white jacket. It still hasn't come out."

Continuing their year of odd couplings, which has seen them team with the Chemical Brothers and Justin Timberlake, the Lips recently paired with singer Tom Jones on the theme for Duck Dodgers, an animated series on the Cartoon Network.

"Tom Jones just belts the shit out," Coyne says. "He hasn't lost a bit of his bravado."

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Song Stories

“Youth Knows No Pain”

Lykke Li | 2011

“Like on 'Youth Knows No Pain' — we are the ones that should demonstrate, because we can take it,” Likke Li said. “We can pierce ourselves, take Ecstasy, dance all night and still go to work at our McDonald's jobs.” Despite the hedonistic sentiment in the song, the Swedish singer also admitted in hindsight her youth had repercussions. “I remember when I was 18-19 and feeling that I know it all,” Li said. “I always feel that I know it all. But that song is about realizing you don’t, and reflecting, ‘Boy, if I only knew what would follow.’”

More Song Stories entries »

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