In news that’s best filed under ‘totally quirky but ultra awesome’, Pitchfork reports that Flaming Lip and all-around superstar collaborator Wayne Coyne has once again pulled out his (really big) black book of rock star contacts to help out with a radio play.
American radio station KCRW, alternative publishers McSweeney’s (who brought us Beck’s latest ‘album’ of sheet music), and the Flaming Lips were behind the brand new, hour-long sci-fi radio drama, which features new music by the likes of Bill Callahan (aka Smog), Okkervil River’s Will Sheff, Oneida, arranger to the stars Nico Muhly, and Eleanor Friedberger of Fiery Furnaces fame.
The wacky one-hour radio special (which you can listen to in full below) is called Wayne Coyne’s Human Head-Shaped Tumour, and is described as a “continuous-play radio drama in the style of (Orson Welles and) Mercury Theatre’s War of the Worlds” about an imaginary tumour in the shape of a human head that happens to be growing in Wayne Coyne’s leg. With Grizzly Bear’s Ed Droste cast in the role of the titular tumour.
Other notable roles include comedian Paul F. Tomkins as ‘Kevin The Tramp’, while The Flaming Lips’ Steven Drozd, the band’s manager Scott Booker and Coyne’s wife Michelle Martin-Coyne all appearing as themselves.“The wacky one-hour radio special is… about an imaginary tumour in the shape of a human head that happens to be growing in Wayne Coyne’s leg…”
The batty story comes from the minds of Richard Parks and Andrew Leland Foley who co-wrote the serial, and though originally broadcast on KCRW, the hour-long serial is now available to hear online via Soundcloud. Which is handy because it really is just too bizarre for words to do it justice.
It’s not the first time the Flaming Lips’ music has inspired extra-musical activities. Earlier this year, following the 10th Anniversary of the band’s landmark 2002 album Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots, the production company at La Jolla Playhouse put together a musical based on the album.
The new radio serial is also the latest in a long list of all-star collaborations for The Flaming Lips, who this year released The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends, which our Tone Deaf reviewer described as “the Lips having a bunch of fun in the studio with the most eclectic array of artists they could muster.” Namely Nick Cave, Ke$ha, Erykah Badu, Tame Impala and many more.
Not only that, but Oklahoma’s finest also roped in a bunch of psychedelically minded musicians to rework the debut album from prog rock legends King Crimson.
The Flaming Lips joined forces with other psych-freak-out adventurers like Linear Downfall, New Fumes, Spaceface, and Star Death and White Dwarfs (which features Lips frontman Wayne Coyne’s nephew, Dennis), all piecing together a truly spaced-out reworking of 1969’s In The Court Of The Crimson King into a 2012 psych-prog masterpiece, now titled Playing Hide And Seek With The Ghosts of Dawn.
You can have a listen to Wayne Coyne’s Human Head-Shaped Tumour in its (bizarre) entirety, and view the full radio cast below:
Richard Parks AS THE REPORTER
Wayne Coyne, Michelle Martin Coyne, and Scott Booker (The Flaming Lips) AS THEMSELVES
Will Sheff (Okkervil River) AS THE MEDIVAC PILOT
Eleanor Friedberger (Fiery Furnaces) AS HERSELF
Matt Frassica and Rachael Myrow AS THE HOSTS OF US RADIO NEWS
Jack Hitt (This American Life) AS HIMSELF
Mallika Menon AS DR. SAMANTHA MENDELL
Brigid Kaelin AS UDA SMALLSON
Gabe Bullard AS HAROLD GREENMAN
Paul F. Tompkins (The Pod F. Tompkast, Thrilling Adventure Hour, Mr. Show) AS KEVIN THE TRAMP
Andrew Leland AS THE HOSPITAL ORDERLY
Bill Callahan (aka Smog) AS THE DOCTOR
Steve Drozd (The Flaming Lips) AS HIMSELF
Nico Muhly (Björk, Philip Glass, Antony and the Johnsons), Fat Bobby and Kid Millions (Oneida) AS THE SOUND SURGEONS
Edward Droste (Grizzly Bear) AS WAYNE COYNE’S HUMAN HEAD-SHAPED TUMOR
