Flaming Lips Plot Trippy Beatles Tribute for Howard Stern
The Flaming Lips are taking over Howard Stern’s SiriusXM radio studio this week for a Beatles celebration. The broadcast – airing Friday, April 24th at 11 p.m. EST – will be hosted by Portlandia‘s Fred Armisen and feature songs from the Lips’ spastic Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band tribute LP, 2014’s With a Little Help From My Fwends, along with “other surprises.” The special will be available on Stern’s SiriusXM channel Howard 101, online at the company’s website and through the SiriusXM App.
With A Little Help From My Fwends is a front-to-back reimagining of the Beatles’ psychedelic 1967 masterpiece, with the Lips recruiting guest spots from Miley Cyrus and Moby (“Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds”), My Morning Jacket and J. Mascis (“Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”), Tegan and Sara (“Lovely Rita”), Phantogram (“She’s Leaving Home”), Dr. Dog (“Getting Better”), Grace Potter (“Good Morning Good Morning”) and many others. Proceeds from the LP benefit the Oklahoma City non-profit The Bella Foundation, which helps low-income, elderly and terminally ill pet owners with their veterinary care costs.
In October, Rolling Stone asked Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne to break down his most essential Beatles tracks – from canonical favorites like “A Day in the Life” to more obscure gems like “It’s All Too Much.” The singer also spoke about the Fwends LP – and the inevitable backlash that comes from experimenting with such iconic songs.
“Some very angry rabid Beatles fans are going to want to kill me for remaking Sgt. Pepper, but most people I talk to, they are little more relaxed about their music and really have really been loving it,” Coyne said. “We definitely learned that from doing the Pink Floyd stuff five or six years, where you’re like, ‘Why does this matter so much?’ All I can say to them is that the Beatles music is untouched. . . Ours is just another version of it and if you don’t like it, it has no effect on the other music.”