Formed by brothers Wayne and Mark Coyne in 1983, The Flaming Lips have been one of psychedelic rock’s most successful and consistently inventive acts.
∙ The Oklahoma City band broke through in 1993 with “She Don’t Use Jelly,” which became their highest-charting single after it was featured on the MTV series Beavis & Butt-head.
∙ Certified Gold in the UK, The Soft Bulletin won 2000’s NME Album of the Year, while Pitchfork gave it a rare perfect score, ranking it No. 3 on its Top 100 Albums of the 1990s list.
∙ The Flaming Lips’ 2002 LP, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, was their first album to go Gold in the US and inspired a musical production in 2012.
∙ Their 2002 single “Do You Realize??” was included among Rolling Stone’s 100 Best Songs of the 2000s and was declared the Official State Rock Song of Oklahoma in 2009.
∙ Embryonic, their 12th studio album, marked the band’s debut appearance in the Top 10 on the Billboard 200.
∙ During the COVID-19 pandemic, the band—known for using giant plastic bubbles onstage—encased themselves and audience members in bubbles for socially distanced concerts.