Few active rock bands consistently bring the weird like The Flaming Lips. Resonant, immersive sonic experiences are the band’s calling card. On American Head, their 16th studio album, Wayne Coyne and company explore somber tones and rapturous uplift. An atmospheric yet somewhat gentle affair, the record nevertheless skirts abrasiveness at…

The morning after Donald Trump was elected president, I cried in my car like many others with a knowledge of history and a functioning ability to empathize, listening to The Flaming Lips “Waiting for Superman.” I was sad and, looking back, probably a little naive, wondering how the political…

The Flaming Lips perform at BottleRock Napa Valley on May 10, 2013. OAKLAND — There’s a feeling you get on hallucinogenic drugs that’s a little like an astronaut in a space capsule reentering the atmosphere: a fear that grips you as you’re traveling at tremendous speeds, hurtling through the thin…

Steven Drozd and Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips interviewed at BottleRock 2013 Napa Valley in Napa. Photos courtesy: Paige K. Parsons. The Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne and multi-instrumentalist/music arranger Steven Drozd won’t mince their words. Their new album, The Terror, is their darkest offering yet. “Dark” isn’t…