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Staring at Sound: The True Story of Oklahoma's Fabulous Flaming Lips | 
 enlarge | Author: Jim Derogatis
Publisher: Broadway
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $4.75
You Save: $10.20 (68%)
New (23) Used (18) from $2.38
Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 349024
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.7 x 6 x 0.8
ISBN: 0767921402
Dewey Decimal Number: 782.421660922
EAN: 9780767921404
ASIN: 0767921402
Publication Date: March 14, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
An engrossing and intimate portrait of the Oklahoma-based psychedelic pop band the Flaming Lips, cult heroes to millions of indie-rock fans.
In July 2002, the Flaming Lips released an ambitious album called Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, which merged elements of orchestral pop, electronic dance music, and old-fashioned psychedelic rock with lyrical themes that were simultaneously poignant and philosophical and supremely silly. The album sold a million copies worldwide, introduced the Flaming Lips to a mass audience, and made them one of the best-known cult bands in rock history.
Staring at Sound is the tale of the Flaming Lips’s fascinating career (which, in reality, began in 1983) and the many colorful personalities in their orbit, especially Wayne Coyne, their charismatic and visionary founder. Based on hundreds of hours of interviews with the band, it follows the Flaming Lips through the thriving indie-rock underground of the 1980s and the alternative-rock movement of the early ’90s, during which they found fans in such rock legends as Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones, Robert Plant, and Devo, and respected peers in such acts as the White Stripes, Radiohead, and Beck. It concludes with exclusive coverage of the creation of the group’s latest album, At War with the Mystics.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Great Book October 3, 2008
This is truly an awesome book. Though, I wouldn't recommend it to the casual listener. It shares alot of background stuff that most people would find as interesting. However, if you own a few of their albums, then I would give it a try.
 A Great Read December 25, 2007
This is a wonderful book for anyone who loves the inspired insanity of the Flaming Lips! I could not put this book down and read it straight through the day it arrived. It is a must-read for any Lips fans out there.
A Quirky read December 1, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Staring at Sound is a pleasant little book that chronicles the career of the Flaming Lips. Many labels have been attached to the Lips in their over 20 year career but none more apparent that "hard-working band."
The book is a glossy read that really never equates to much more than a long magazine article. Maybe it is the author's background as a journalist or the simple fact that a quick internet search would dig up the articles and interviews that provided the basis for the book.
Needless to say, the writer never scratches the surface of the Flaming Lips. Their story goes beyond the cliche of sex, drugs and rock and roll, all though there is a little of that in there as well. The revolving line-up of musicians, out of control egos, the environment of alternative music in the eighties and nineties, and countless other factors could have fleshed the book out and gave it some depth.
Instead, we get a portrait of founding members Wayne Coyne as an oddly romantic and sentimental freak, the master of ceremonies and Michael Ivins as the shy guy with enormous hair and an interest n recording. The other musicians and hangers-on come and go without ever really impacting the story, apart from Stephen Drozd, whose heroin addiction and outstanding input within the band's music is treated with less emotion than a Hallmark commercial.
Therein lies the problem with this book; it is completely devoid of the passion, wistfulness, humor or any of the other hundreds of adjectives that can be used to describe the Flaming Lips music.
There is no connection with the band or any insight into much of anything. Staring at Sound shouldn't have been a book it should have been the cover story in a Rolling Stone.
For the casual fan, Staring at Sound explains the circumstances surrounding each Flaming Lips album, sometimes providing background into individual songs. Each chapter is broken up between albums, with the recording and subsequent tour comprising each chapter. Nothing revelatory can be found for the Flaming Lips faithful. If you are relatively new to the band, just check out the music, it is far more interesting than this white bread biography.
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