The Flaming Lips is an American
rock band formed in
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, in 1983. Instrumentally, their sound contains lush, multi-layered,
psychedelic rock arrangements, but lyrically their compositions show elements of
space rock, including unusual song and album titles—such as "What Is the Light? (An Untested Hypothesis Suggesting That the Chemical [In Our Brains] by Which We Are Able to Experience the Sensation of Being in Love Is the Same Chemical That Caused the "Big Bang" That Was the Birth of the Accelerating Universe)". They are also acclaimed for their elaborate live shows, which feature costumes, balloons, puppets, video projections, complex stage light configurations, giant hands, large amounts of confetti, and frontman
Wayne Coyne's signature man-sized plastic bubble, in which he traverses the audience. In 2002,
Q magazine named the Flaming Lips one of the "50 Bands to See Before You Die."