electric-wurms

Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne & Steven Drozd releasing debut LP with their new prog group Electric Wurms (stream a track)

Wurms

Because they’re not busy enough as it is, The Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne and Steven Drozd have formed a new musical project called Electric Würms which also features four members of Nashville band Linear Downfall. The group’s debut album, Musik, Die Schwer Zu Twerk, will be out August 19 via Warner Brothers. Let’s quote liberally from the entertaining press release:

It all began in the late 70s when someone invented the right kind of acid that could make you fly! It seemed that everything was, at last, possible. And the overly optimistic freaks of the day began flying into outer space.

They flew in spaceships that were, at first, made of futuristic super metal but before too long they didn’t even NEED ships. They BECAME the ships and they called themselves Electric Würms. I think because they became just bolts of electrified electricity that could penetrate wormholes in the far reaches of the unknown galactic heaven.

And before they died they sent back to earth beings a sonic bible of discoveries and failures. It was, until now, a strange unsolvable mystery of frequencies and rhythms. Two groups of determined musicians, artist and weirdo thinkers set forth to decipher its message. Two members of The Flaming Lips (Steven and Wayne) and four members of Linear Downfall (Charlee, Chance, Doom and Will) were the chosen ones.

What you have is the first of, what could be endless, communicated sound stories. It is titled Musik, Die Schwer Zu Twerk which predicted this modern day dance move by almost forty years ago. Some of it is indeed hard to twerk to but some of it, if I could do it, is not. There is a particular track called Transform!!! that closely resembles a drug fueled boogie freak rock track by Miles Davis. Another verse Heart Of The Sunrise sounds vaguely like a song by the prog folk group Yes. Of course, Yes also turned themselves into space ships so it’s no wonder these songs share a similar vibe.

The record is pretty out-there, man, and you can stream the album’s single, “Heart of the Sunrise,” below.

The Lips, meanwhile, are still working on their tribute/full-album-cover of The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band featuring appearances from Moby, Miley Cyrus and more. That will be out this fall. They’re also on tour, playing festivals this summer, including Saugerties, NY’s The Hudson Project on July 11. All dates, plus the stream of that Electric Würms’ track, album art and tracklist, below…


Electric Würms – Heart Of The Sunrise

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Electric Würms – Musik, Die Schwer Zu Twerk tracklist
Deformed in the Future
Futuristic Halucinations
The Bat
The Second Time
Transform
Heart of the Sunrise

The Flaming Lips – 2014 Tour Dates
July 11 Saugerties, NY The Hudson Project
July 13 Cincinnati, OH Bunbury Music Festival
July 15 Minneapolis, MN First Avenue
July 16 Fargo, ND The Venue at The Hub
July 19 Pemberton, BC, Canada Pemberton Music Festival
July 27 Niigata, Japan Fuji Rock Festival
Aug 10 San Francisco, CA Outside Lands Festival
Aug 16 Crownsville, MD Silopanna Festival
Aug 30 Larmer Tree Gardens, UK End Of the Road Festival
*Aug 31 Larmer Tree Gardens, UK End Of the Road Festival – Electric Würms
*Sept 1 London, England UK The Village Underground – Electric Würms
Sept 6-7 Toronto, ON, Canada Riot Fest (Date TBA)
Sept 12-14 Chicago, IL Riot Fest (Date TBA)
Sept 19-21 Denver, CO Riot Fest (Date TBA)
Nov 9 Reykjavik, Iceland Iceland Airwaves Festival