Considering how rapidly the music industry is changing, it’s a no-brainer for artists to treat the distribution of music as if they were wheeling and dealing in the Wild West. In a world of album leaks and 140 character attention spans, it’s not uncommon for some of the biggest names in the game to be temporarily thrown by the wayside in the minds of consumers who long to be stimulated by new sights and sounds on an hourly basis.
Enter The Flaming Lips. While the Oklahoma City psych-rockers have always had a penchant for turning heads, (remember when they used blood to print tour posters?) frontman Wayne Coyne has revealed that his band – which has released almost 20 albums since 1984 – probably won’t release an album in 2011. Instead, the New Year will find the Lips releasing new songs every month while completely capturing the recording process on film.
“We just want to [release the material] some other way,” Coyne, 49, told Rolling Stone, “Not that I think the old way was boring, but to spend another two years with same 13 songs, it’s just like fuck.” While Coyne hasn’t completely ruled out physically releasing material, he says that the band wants to try to live through their music as they create it instead of having it be a collection of the last couple years of their lives.
He doesn’t know what method the Lips will utilize to distribute the material, but Coyne doesn’t seem keen on just releasing a song and video when a song is finished. “The dilemma is whether we’re going to release it on vinyl, cereal boxes, or some of it on toys we make,” he explained, “Sometimes the music is the simplest part of any of these things.” It all sound characteristically crazy, so while Coyne may be brainstorming ideas, it looks like all we’ll have to do in 2011 is sit back and enjoy the ride.
