Trivia / Flaming Lips

• Chart Displacement: Although their signature hit "Do You Realize??" was well known by many, this song, along with many other fan favorites never charted on the alternative airplay charts or on the Billboard Hot 100. The band's only chart appearance on the alternative chart was "She Don't Use Jelly", which while a big hit, wasn't fondly remembered by many.
• Creator Breakdown: "Try to Explain" was written in response to Wayne Coyne separating with his partner of 25 years.
  • The Terror as a whole was the result of this, further complicated by Steven Drozd's lifelong battle with substance abuse.
• Extremely Lengthy Creation: The Christmas on Mars film; eight years in production with a very low budget, and sets created in Wayne Coyne's backyard.
• Limited Special Collector's Ultimate Edition: Many of the band's recent releases have had this. Of note are the limited edition of their Christmas on Mars film that included a box of Flaming Lips popcorn and the limited edition version of Embryonic that came packaged in a small, furry box.
  • The project that attracted the most attention was a limited-edition batch of Heady Fwends that was pressed on vinyl records filled with blood donated by the guest artists.
  • Taken to extremes with new songs the band has been releasing as of 2011. So far, all of them have been released in small-run, extremely limited quantities batches, including a split 10" with Neon Indian pressed to hand-colored vinyl, four songs released on a USB stick stuck inside a life-size replica of a human skull made out of gummi candy, and a 24 hour song that was packaged via usb inside an actual human skull.
• No Export for You: The original American and UK/Australian CD releases for The Soft Bulletin each featured one song the other territory didn't get: "The Spiderbite Song" was exclusively on American copies, while "Slow Motion" was exclusively on copies sold in the UK and Australia. The 2006 American reissue included both songs, as did the US vinyl version. This still leaves fans from the UK or Australia having to get an imported version to own "The Spiderbite Song" on CD or vinyl.
• One-Hit Wonder: Before "Do You Realize??" they were tagged as one of these for their goofy novelty single, "She Don't Use Jelly".
• The Pete Best: Wayne Coyne's brother Mark sang lead for their first EP (and some demos), left the band after getting married, and was never involved in music again. There have been a few others that would also fit this, namely the drummers the band went through prior to their first permanent drummer Richard English.
• Reclusive Artist: Ronald Jones, who has since refused to say anything about his involvement with his former bandmates.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Certain songs originally meant for Zaireeka were included on The Soft Bulletin instead, because it was felt they'd work better on that album. This is significant because Zaireeka's format of four discs meant to be played simultaneously probably would have left those songs sounding very different. "Race for the Prize" is one example, and as an artifact of its origins as a Zaireeka song, the David Fridmann mix includes two overdubbed drum tracks.
  • It's been noted by the band and other sources that Zaireeka was originally intended to be a 10 CD box set as opposed to the four that they eventually ended up releasing. Some of the mystery of how the 10 CD version would have sounded has been answered, however, due to the band passing out special CDs containing a mixdown of what discs 5-10 would have included during special listening parties to commemorate Zaireeka's 10th anniversary.
  • There's the famous case of Lip$ha, a planned collaborative album between the Flaming Lips and Kesha. The two had already collaborated several times, with the former contributing a production credit on Kesha's "Past Lives", and Kesha appearing as a guest artist on the Flaming Lips' "2012 (You Must Be Upgraded)" and "Elizabeth My Dear". Lip$ha was due to be released sometime in 2014, but Kesha's infamous legal battle with Dr. Luke which prevented her from releasing new music led to it being shelved. On top of the three aforementioned tracks, seven more songs^note "Futuristic Sex Toys", "You Control My Heart", "Powerful", "Beach Boys", "You're the Reason Why Our Kids Are Ugly", "Club Love" and "Made of Stone" are known to exist to varying degrees of listenability.