are the flaming lips prog?

I bet if they were German they would get added to Krautrock

Edited by mrcozdude - December 02 2009 at 13:07

They are an excellent band, but not prog in my opinion, more spacey psychedelic rock. 

I don't really care. I just know that they're incredible. The Soft Bulletin is one of the best albums ever made. The rest of their discography is very good too.

I just read through the whole thing, I get the gist of what you're saying.  

Yesterday I've been listening to the previews on amazon for some of the songs on The Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi Battles and they sound interesting, I might download one of those albums to check them out. I remember I saw them covering The Who in a VH1The Who special and thought they were awfull, I can't remember wich song they played. Anyway, about being prog or not I haven't got a clue of course since I didn't heard any of their albums completely.

Rivertree wrote: voted maybe - listenend to their current album 'Embryonic' once - I would say at least for this one it is ...

Agreed.

Ugh, that thorny prog term comes up again. ;) It's not black and white (I commonly have a problem with deeming band/artists, and music, Prog or not Prog --such a dichotomy can be very problematic and what is Prog is open to interpretation).

I won't vote since I probably haven't heard enough of the band's music, but I have listened to many tracks of the band's -- including music off the latest album.  Based on what I've heard, I think that the band deserves serious consideration for the Crossover category.  That said, even though based on what I've heard I would endorse it for PA inclusion, that doesn't mean that I think the band Prog-proper.  I don't think of a great many bands/artists in PA to be Prog even if I would tag albums/ music of theirs as varieties of progressive rock.  I wholeheartedly endorse many in PA (for the so-called Prog categories) that I would not describe to someone as Prog.  In fact,  I might describe ELP as a Prog band, but I wouldn't describe many artists/ bands as Prog even if they make progressive rock (I'd use other term first and with many I'd use various terms to describe their music.  Also, many have made music that is considered Prog and music that is not considered Prog.  Is Genesis a Prog band? Well the band made Prog music but also non-Prog music so to define it just as a Prog band does not take enough of the music into account.  Basically in that case one might say it's Prog and not Prog, but generally for music under the "prog umbrella" I do not like to describe bands or artists as Prog so much as music as Prog or progressive rock.  Can a person or band be Progressive Rock?  I think they can make Prog music, but I don't think of the entities as Prog themselves.

So, I don't think the Flaming Lips are Prog, but I think they made music that would be suitable for inclusion in a site devoted to Prog and music held under the progressive rock umbrella.




Edited by Logan - December 01 2009 at 12:10

Depends on how you define the term I suppose. Their songs don't really have the classic 70's prog formula but again, 21st century bands playing like the ones in the 70's (FK etc) aren't really progressive if you ask me. So in that sense I'd say Yes, they certainly hint at being progressive because of their sound that tends to be "out there".

voted maybe - listenend to their current album 'Embryonic' once - I would say at least for this one it is ...

They're a great band, and experimental but IMo no they are not prog. Still, check em out if you can