October 3, 2011 16:26

Flaming Lips defend releasing 24-hour song embedded in human skulls

Oklahoma’s most psychedelic are proud of boneheaded idea

Photo: PA

Flaming Lips have elaborated on their macabre idea to embed hard drives of their new, 24-hour-long single inside five real human skulls.

The currently untitled track is released on Halloween, and follows earlier gruesome methods of putting out their music, including sealing USB sticks inside gummy skulls and gummy foetuses.

Frontman Wayne Coyne explained to CMU how workers at the shop Skulls Unlimited in their native Oklahoma prepare the disembodied craniums for a musical stuffing:

Nothing that we’re doing is bizarre or illegal. Heads come into this place and they have these flesh-eating beetles – I would have tweeted a picture of it, but they don’t allow it – [they] literally eat every molecule of flesh off of these things and you’ll end up with a human skull.

The five skull packages have already sold out – at $5,000 (£3,233) a pop – but you can get your hands on the track through slightly less sinister avenues on October 31.

The band recently recorded a six-hour track to help the Central Oklahoma Humane Society and the Academy of Contemporary Music at the University of Central Oklahoma. The track, titled 'Found A Star On The Ground', has been described by the band as sounding like The Velvet Underground meets Super Mario Bros..