The Flaming Lips are definitely getting the hang of this here internet contraption in 2011, with Wayne Coyne and his Merry Plush Pranksters flooding the datastream in recent months with shock-and-awe announcements that make Radiohead look like amateurs. So far they’ve got a retrospective vinyl box set and a Neon Indian collaboration in the bag, a Zaireeka-esque iPhone experiment, an edible gummy skull with new songs lodged in its brain, a planned collaboration with Lightning Bolt, and a Soft Bulletin live album in the works that will be housed in another gummy skull, this one “marijuana-flavored.” (By the way: how the hell is a “marijuana-flavored” anything appealing? Marijuana tastes like dirt and sticks and worms.)
Pretty good string of announcements so far, but what many music fans have been asking is: how does this relate to either Odd Future or Animal Collective? No response yet on the former, but according to an interview with Coyne in Esquire yesterday, Panda Bear is the latest to be tapped for a Flaming Lips collab. “We’re gonna do something with Panda Bear, too,” Coyne whispered out of the side of his mouth, setting the world ablaze.
Unfortunately, no other details are available since they presumably haven’t even met up yet, so let the speculation begin. Will this group of songs also be released in a gummy skull? Will the skull be larger or smaller than previous gummy skulls? Will the gummy skull taste like marijuana, or will the collaboration just be called something like Vaporizers Have Feelings Too? Will the gummy skull fit into a pair of Keep shoes, or is that unsanitary? Keep your browser’s homepage set to Tiny Mix Tapes and all will be revealed soon enough.
• The Flaming Lips: http://www.flaminglips.com
• Panda Bear: http://www.myspace.com/pandabear
