The Flaming Lips

While it's nearly impossible to ignore the mounds of fake blood and confetti at Flaming Lips shows — not to mention all the animal costumes — the band's songs also happen to be as subtle as a stun gun to the skull. Here are some highlights from more than two decades of mind-melting music, including the symphonic synth-pop of Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, the sweeping soundscapes of The Soft Bulletin, and a trio of teeth-gnashing tracks ("Watching the Planets," "Convinced of the Hex," "The Sparrow Looks Up At the Machine") that reveal what an instant classic Embryonic is.

All of the above albums return in our Next Steps, but they're joined by everything from key EP cuts to surreal soundtrack selections.

Good luck finding another band as twisted and timeless as the Flaming Lips. After all, we're talking about truly mad men here — guys who've made Madonna ("Borderline") and Radiohead ("Knives Out") sound more psychedelic than the Summer of '69. They've also soundtracked the struggles of a talking sponge ("SpongeBob & Patrick Confront the Psychic Wall of Energy") and asked Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs to howl, bark, and meow into a telephone for a track that's endearing and downright creepy ("I Can Be a Frog").

And as you'll see in our catalog-spanning Deep Cuts, they've been doing it since Reagan was in office.

As stunning as the Flaming Lips' latter-day albums have been (the sputtering, gun-turret percussion of "Worm Mountain," the starry-eyed hooks of "Are You a Hypnotist??"), they've got a hefty stack of other essential releases to sift through. We're talkin' about the woozy waking-dream of "Jesus Shootin' Heroin," the punk-rock pummeling of "Summertime Blues," the fuzz-flinging noise pop of "HIt Me Like You Did the First Time," and the road-trip-ready psych-rock of In a Priest Driven Ambulance (featuring the rhythm guitar flare-ups of Mercury Rev's Jonathan Donahue).

We'll never forget the Flamings Lips' bizarre appearance on Beverly Hills 90210, a scene that ended in the priceless line, "You know, I've never been a big fan of alternative music, but these guys rocked the house!" No kidding. Several GRAMMYS® and critically acclaimed albums later, the Flaming Lips have emerged as one of music's true madcap entertainers. They're also a force of nature in the studio, delivering arty but accessible discs that make us smile, sing, and question the Meaning of Life in the same breath. And like some of the legendary artists they've covered over the years (the Who, Madonna, Radiohead), they're irreplaceable, whether we're talking about the Lips' acid-dipped early days or the Twilight Zone period that's produced such landmark platters as The Soft Bulletin, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, and Embryonic.