Pitchfork

Earlier today, this reporter expressed his indifference to the Flaming Lips in a piece about the Darkness. I was just in a cock-rock sort of mood, you see. Last night, I saw both Sigur Ros and Black Mountain, two bands using guitars, albeit in completely different ways. Same instrument, but they sound nothing alike. And it got me thinking...how do the Flaming Lips feel about electric guitars?

After Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots' soothing synths, some fans were nervous about what the Flaming Lips would do with their upcoming album, At War With the Mystics. Would they stray even further into indie-yuppie territory, as per the lukewarm song "Mr. Ambulance Driver" featured on the Wedding Crashers soundtrack?

Well, good news, guitar lovers: Wayne Coyne told MTV.com that the next record is chock full of 'em. He said, "Without any true intention, I think we've found some guitar-rock things that we're freaked out about. People will see that some of it has gone more weird rock." Cue the rock-out emoticon.

Coyne also hinted that the album will definitely be affected by the state of the world: "I don't think you could be making any art in the atmosphere we're in now-- with the war and the different ways people feel about the Bush administration and all that-- without having some things that sort of, not address that specifically, but address this whole idea of what you do with power. When is the time to have mercy? And when is the time to be aggressive?"

But don't worry about a bunch of Bush-bashing songs. Coyne insisted that there are "some things on this record that I hope will stand the test of time long after this war is over and all these young guys come home."

Mystics has been in the works for several years, and was originally scheduled for release early this year. Now it's tentatively coming out in 2006. And so is Christmas on Mars, the Lips' long-overdo epic film project, which is slowly becoming the Chinese Democracy of homemade alien holiday movies. Coyne told MTV, "The way that I work is [not] that much different from the way I would do a painting or even the way that we record our music a lot of the time. We go in and we have a lot of energy and enthusiasm for things that we want to happen and sort of try to shape them up. But if we're lucky, something emerges that's really better than what we intended and we'll go with that. If we're lucky, 'Christmas on Mars' will continue to do that. We'll have built the sets and have actors there, and of course there'll be things for them to say and all that, but something marvelous will happen and we'll be able to incorporate that into the idea of what we wanted to do and it will be better and more expressive and more communicative and more emotional - all those things that I think all artists intend to do."

While we wait, we can pore over the recently released anthology VOID (Video Overview In Deceleration), which collects all of the Lips' music videos on DVD in glorious 5.1 surround sound. It also features commentary from the band for each video. Expand yr mind with these short flicks:

01 Mr. Ambulance Driver
02 SpongeBob and Patrick Confront the Psychic Wall Of Energy
03 Fight Test
04 Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots
05 Do You Realize? (UK Version)
06 Race For The Prize
07 Waiting For A Superman
08 This Here Giraffe
09 When You Smile
10 Bad Days
11 Christmas At The Zoo
12 Be My Head
13 She Don't Use Jelly
14 Turn It On
15 Frogs
16 Talkin' Bout The Smiling Deathporn Immortality Blues (Everyone Wants To Live Forever)
17 Phoebe Battles The Pink Robots
18 Are You A Hypnotist??
19 Do You Realize? (US Version)

The only Flaming Lips live date scheduled at the moment is on board the Xingolati Groove Cruise, sailing from Long Beach, California to Ensenada, Mexico on October 14 through 17. They'll be sharing the boat with G. Love and Special Sauce, Banyan, DJ Logic, Slightly Stoopid, Particle, DJ Greyboy, Medeski, Martin & Wood and some more lame hippie crap. Since this show will take place at sea, it might be possible to witness the Lips literally jumping the shark.