Okay, folks, after the board armageddon of February 2007 that deleted all the threads on this board, I figured it was time to implement some sort of FAQ to help out fans who generally come here with the same questions. Anyone can ask a question and anyone who thinks they have the answer can respond. I'm sure we'll have some debates and wrong information, and I'm sure it will only be a matter of time before this thing gets unwieldy and full of off-topic chatter, but it will be SOMETHING!

So, without further ado I'll post some Q and As that I know come up a fair amount.

Q: Who is "Kliph"?

A: Kliph, who frequents this board, is Kliph Scurlock, tour drummer for The Flaming Lips. He comes here on his own time to chat and answer questions out of the goodness of his heart, and is one of several moderators on this board. There have been several incarnations of a "So, Kliph" thread, semi-official places where he answers questions about the band that people asked him. The current incaration is here, and he also pops in to other threads to answer questions on a regular basis as long as they haven't already been addressed. He also writes the Tour Diary, which can be accessed from the News tab of flaminglips.com.

Note that there was a Kliph Scurlock username for a while that was a fake. He only goes by Kliph.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: LeahW.,

Q: How do I dance onstage?

A: For those that haven't seen the Lips' live show, since the Yoshimi tour they've had fans dancing on the sides of the stage while they played. The Yoshimi tour featured people in animal costumes and for At War With the Mystics, there were warring factions of go-go girl aliens and Santas. The man in charge of these people is the Animal Wrangler, or Thor, so he's the person to talk to rather than bugging the members of the band.

Before the show, you can try sending the Animal Wrangler a message on his Myspace account. He asks that people don't leave a comment on his profile asking to go onstage, but I'm sure friending him can't hurt. He gets tons of messages for each show, so if you don't hear back from him don't loose heart!

Some people have had luck getting on stage by showing up to the venue super early and lining up. Still, it seems like most fans are picked by hanging out near the back of the auditorium either before the show or during the opening band. I thinks it's easier for the Wrangler to pick people from this location.

While the Animal Wrangler does have a username on this board, he doesn't come here on a regular basis. His Myspace account is the best bet for contacting him. Good luck!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: LeahW.,

Q: Will the Lips sing me Happy Birthday?

A: On the Yoshimi tour they picked people each night who's birthday it was and had the whole audience sing them Happy Birthday. They picked them from fans who slipped them notes before the show or Wayne would have fans yell out their names before everyone sang. While this was super fun (ahem, my 23rd birthday ruled!) they felt like they had done this enough and didn't do birthdays during the AWWTM tour. There was a wedding proposal, and I believe one birthday, but for the most part these were isolated incidents. Sorry!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: LeahW.,

Q: What is The Soft Bulletin Companion?

A: This is a two-disc set of demos, unreleased b-sides and radio sessions that coincide with The Soft Bulletin album. It was created by the band and handed out to friends and family on a very small scale.

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS AN OFFICIAL RELEASE OF THIS SET. ALL EBAY SALES ARE A SCAM AND YOU SHOULDN'T PAY MONEY FOR IT!!

That said, this is an unofficial release and does infringe on WB's copyrights because it includes versions of songs that were released officially on The Soft Bulletin and Zaireeka. As far as we know the band doesn't mind if we share it around, and it was originally leaked by someone "very close" to them, but we don't ask questions as this would definitely get them in trouble! If you want it, search for a thread regarding this bootleg and ask for it there or start a thread with a request. Someone here would be happy to hook you up! I personally think that every fan should have this bootleg, as there's some beautiful songs on there that aren't available anywhere else.

The track-listing is as follows:

Disk 1:
35,000 Feet of Depair
1,000 Foot Hands (Early Mix)
Riding to Work in the Year 2025 (Your Invisible Now)
Buggin' (Lips Mix)
A Machine in India (Edit Version)
Okay, I'll Admit That I Really Don't Understand
The Captain
Satellite Of You
The Spiderbite Song (Early Mix)
Slow Motion (Early Mix)
1,000 Foot Hands (Final Mix)
Little Hands (Rough Mix) (Cover of Alexander "Skip" Spence)
The Big Ol' Bug Is The New Baby Now

Disk 2:
Race for the Prize (Eve Session on 4/21/2000)
Feeling Yourself Disintegrate (Eve Sessions on 4/21/2000)
The Spiderbite Song (Eve Sessions on 4/21/2000)
Above The Daily Hum (Eve Sessions on 4/21/2000)
The Spiderbite Song (GLR on 4/23/2000)
Feeling Yourself Disintegrate (GLR on 4/23/2000)
Everyone's Gone To The Moon (GLR on 4/23/2000)
Feeling Yourself Disintegrate (XFM on 4/27/2000)
The Spiderbite Song (XFM on 4/27/2000)
The Switch That Turns Off The Universe (John Peel Sessions on 6/8/2000)
We Can't Predict The Future (John Peel Sessions on 6/8/2000)
If Remained Unrealized (John Peel Sessions on 6/8/2000)
The Captain (GLR on 6/10/2000)
Waitin' for a superman (glr session)

This message has been edited. Last edited by: LeahW.,

Q: Can I post links to MP3s or other types of music by the Lips on filesharing sites?

A: It depends!

If what you want to share is available for purchase in any way, shape or form, the answer is no! Even if the song or album wasn't released in your country, online stores like amazon.com will ship imports and these songs are often available on iTunes or Rhapsody. This board and all of it's contents are the property of Warner Bros., and no matter what you think about it or if you plan on purchasing the music later, they would be well within their rights to shut us down if they thought we were undermining their sales.

Now, bootlegs of live shows are A-OK and we had some great threads going sharing these that I hope will be revived.

There are some gray areas here. Although it's widely available as a bootleg, The Soft Bulletin was never officially released and is technically a no-no. For whatever reason it seems like we're allowed to share that one on this board, but if we're told otherwise we'll have to stop (or at least keep those messages to PM). Some radio sessions never see the light of day after they are aired and are presumably safe to bootleg (someone correct me here if I'm wrong), but some are recorded and later sold on compilations which would make make them available and therefor something not to bootleg.

If you're unsure, ask, and if you want to share something it's always best to start a new thread so if you've made a mistake the mods can delete it without disrupting anything else. If you post something you shouldn't have, most likely the thread will get deleted without notice. You probably won't get banned or even a warning, but try to be smart about it.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: LeahW.,

Q: What's that song at the end of Fearless Freaks?

A: Fearless Freaks is a documentary about the Lips directed by their friend and colleague Bradley Beesley. The soundtrack for the movie, which was also released as the album "20 Years of Weird: Flaming Lips 1986-2006", consists of mostly live versions of their material and two songs written especially for the movie.

The song that plays over the end credits is called "Enthusiasm for Life Defeats Existential Fear". The lyrics are as follows:

Last night I had a horrible dream
But the dogs barking in the morning
Came and chased it all away

Last night I had a horrible dream
But the sunrise in the morning
Came and burned it all away

Last night I had a horrible dream
But your smile in the morning
Came and took it all away

The second song, release as "Wayne's Intro" on 20 Years of Weird, is a track called "Smokin' a J with the Fearless Freaks". There are two other versions. One with Wayne giving a different introduction, this one for an unreleased version of the soundtrack handed out at early showings of the film. As Wayne explains, this version was intended "as a bootleg give-away that will be presented to all those who attend the first showings of Bradley's spectacular documentary film The Fearless Freaks."

In addition, with Wayne's permission Kliph posted the original, non-talking version on this board and made us promise to continue sharing it. So, if you'd like to hear the original, search for a thread or start your own and somebody will hook you up!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: LeahW.,

Q: Are the Flaming Lips on Myspace?

A: Yes, and these are their only pages. Don't get fooled by all the fake Wayne's floating around!

The Flaming Lips - run by their friend and colleague George Salisbury
Wayne Coyne - note that this is most likely not run by Wayne himself, as he doesn't own a computer
Michael Ivins - run by Michael himself
Steven Drozd - aka Faggotwitch, at this time Steven is limiting his friends list to people he actually knows
Kliph Scurlock - run by Kliph himself

If you hunt around, there are also pages for George, their manager Scott Booker and others. Although they've all chosen to make themselves available to fans, please be nice!

quote:

Originally posted by LeahW.:

The second song, release as "Wayne's Intro" on 20 Years of Weird, is a track called "Smokin' a J with the Fearless Freaks". There are two other versions. One with Wayne giving a different introduction, this one for an unreleased version of the soundtrack handed out at early showings of the film. As Wayne explains, this version was intended "as a bootleg give-away that will be presented to all those who attend the first showings of Bradley's spectacular documentary film The Fearless Freaks."

In addition, with Wayne's permission Kliph posted the original, non-talking version on this board and made us promise to continue sharing it. So, if you'd like to hear the original, search for a thread or start your own and somebody will hook you up!

This was one of my favorite board moments, I had been whining about hoping this would come out for a long time. Therefore here it is:

Smokin' a J with the Fearless Freaks - non blabbed over version

It is so pretty! I will be reuploading and editing this link often in an effort to make it always available, as no one should have to go without this in their lives.

Reuploaded 7-15

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kristen,

Q: Zaireeka sucks, I have to get like 3 extra stereos to play this! Is there an official stereo version?

A: No. Get yourself some friends.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: adzy31,

The Lips also stopped playing it because of Copyright issues. It is actually owned by someone and they had to pay a lot of money, I think it was 50c a head for public performance of the song. And since the lips do big gigs.. big whoopsie there.

Q. Can I go to Waynes house?

A. Can I come to yours? No, you shouldn't. You can, but most likely you'll be dissapointed. Go listen to Free Radicals, and you'll get the point.

Q. Why no more furries?

A. There are. But the current theme is Christianity vs. Scientology. They might go back to the animal costumes some day, but people still go as animals. Heck, I do.

Q: Cat Stevens????
Q: That Blue's Clues Guy, I Thought he was dead?????

so the "current theme" is christianity vs. scientology? that sounds unofficial.

quote:

Originally posted by fastpiss:
so the "current theme" is christianity vs. scientology? that sounds unofficial.

It was at one point or another, at least that's the way Wayne originally described it last spring when they started using the Alien/Santas and Thor was briefly Jesus.

thats silly considering that Christians absolutely hate the jolly saint nick!

Q: What is the best way to contact the Lips?

A: Their P.O. Box! They try to look at everything that comes to them, and respond to what they have time for. The address is as follows:

PO Box 3265
Edmond, OK 73083

Also, I hope you guys aren't waiting for me to answer all those questions myself because for the most part I don't know what the fuck I'm talking about. Little help?

Oh! Sorry, I was just joking around about silly questions from the past that really don't need answering.