Flaming Lips Announce Record Store Day Release

By: Brian Kruse

Legendary Oklahoma-based psychedelic rock band the Flaming Lips have announced that their unusual Record Store Day release for 2018 is going to be a 7-inch vinyl pressed entirely from band members’ collective ear wax. The group’s lead singer, Wayne Coyne, says that the band has been working on this project for at least five years. “Yeah, we were like in the studio one day, working, and I noticed how much ear wax was building up on the headphones we work with, y’know. And I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if we could do something with this rather than throw it all away?’ Y’know, like turn it into a project we could share with the fans. So, we’ve just been kind of collecting it since then and are excited to finally see this project through.” Although the band had been diligently collecting ear wax for the past five years for the release, they only harvested enough to press ten copies, which is sure to make it one of this year’s most sought-after Record Store Day releases.

“Y’know, because this like sort of thing has never been done before, um, there’s a chance this thing might not even play, or it may just play one or two times. But it’s a really cool experiment that allows us to share something intimate with the people who love us,” Coyne stated. As if the unique manner of production wasn’t enough, the release will contain a song composed entirely of music sampled from celebrities blowing their nose. The band’s multi-instrumentalist, Steven Drozd, explained, “When people blow their nose, they make a tonal sound, and everyone makes a sound that’s unique to them. S,o we had a bunch of our friends record themselves blowing their noses and plugged that into our synthesizers. And we were able to compose a unique song out of it.”

Among the celebrities said to be snotting it up on the track are actress Betty White, comedian Kevin Hart, and celebrated international cellist Yo-Yo Ma. Perhaps the most controversial aspect to the recording, though, is the inclusion of political power couple, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump. Coyne states, “Yeah, we met them backstage after a show we did at the 9:30 Club in Washington, DC last year. And it was unbelievable just how cool and down-to-earth they were. I’m not really one to comment on their politics or anything, but I’ve met a lot of famous people like Bob Dylan, and Jared and Ivanka are so much cooler and laid-back than someone like that is.” The band did not, however, inform us whether the celebrities would be blowing their noses into Kleenex or magazines.