Wayne Coyne and His Flaming Lips Get Weird, One Vinyl Press at a Time

It's a Thursday night in late March, a little more than a year removed from the Flaming Lips' memorable free performance—complete with multiple power outages—at the 2010 35 Conferette in Denton. Frontman Wayne Coyne stands swallowed among a mass of fans in the aisles of Good Records on Lower Greenville, chatting up the gushing crowd, signing autographs and, as has long been his habit, shattering assumptions often made about modern musical icons.

Coyne just arrived from A&R Records, the mom-and-pop vinyl-record manufacturer on Riverfront Boulevard, with a batch of his band's just-pressed EP, a collaboration with the Denton-sprung Neon Indian. Before heading home to Oklahoma City, he wanted to drop some off for his fans to purchase. But rather than just leave the records and dash, he sticks around—for four and a half hours, until well past midnight—before finally embarking on his trip back up Interstate 35.

A Dallas Coyne sighting is nothing new. Since the Flaming Lips' inception in 1983, the band has considered Dallas something of a second home. "Dallas was one of the first places where the Flaming Lips ever played, down when Deep Ellum was first starting," Coyne said before that 35 Conferette performance last year. "We played at Theatre Gallery down there, and I still run into people all over the world who saw us at those small shows."

In 2011, though, Coyne has showcased his affection for the region even more often. And in many ways, Coyne has Dallas to thank for what has been a banner year for his band. The Flaming Lips' 2011 gameplan—to put out a different limited release of new music each month—wouldn't be possible without A&R Records, where every record the band has released this year has been pressed.

So, after his most recent stop through town—to drop off another collectible release at Good Records, this one a USB drive of songs embedded within the brain of an edible skull made of gummy candy—we caught up with Coyne to talk about his ties to the region and his vision for the future.