No one does Record Store Day better than The Flaming Lips. From their full cover of Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon, to their collaborative LP, Heady Fwends, to a toy frog containing the band's first demo, a chocolate human skill, a cover album with Tame Impala and more, Wayne Coyne and friends sure do celebrate the annual holiday right.
Now, according to The Future Heart (via Consequence of Sound), the band has confirmed their plans for this year's Record Store Day: a new vinyl edit of their 24-hour song "7 Skies H3," which they had originally discussed reissuing in abbreviated form during the release party for the recent album The Terror. "7 Skies H3" originally debuted online for Halloween 2011 with 17 copies released later on flash drives incased in human skills, each sold for $5,000.
The vinyl edit is due out for Record Store Day and features a 43-minute version of the song that the band describes as an "extraction and reduction" of the original. The release was mastered by Dave Fridmann and engineered by Michael Ivins. It features artwork from longtime "visualist" George Salsibury.
In an December interview with Alternative Press about the status of the project, Coyne said:
"We made 17 of those [2011 skulls containing "7 Skies H3"] but that music is - a lot of people really, they want to hear bits of the music but it's quite a commitment. So Dave Fridmann and his son have engineered a couple of times this 24 hour song down to three albums, two albums and a one album version...I'm going to listen to all those and see if maybe we would release something that takes the 24 hours, sticks it on something manageable - like a couple of records - and maybe we'd release that. Sounds like it could be really fun. And when I go back and re-visit that music I think fans would really love it."
The band also tweeted a photo of the vinyl test pressing:
7 Skies H3 vinyl! Available on @recordstoreday! pic.twitter.com/5LA7N4axJs
— The Flaming Lips (@theflaminglips) February 25, 2014
Check out the first part of "7 Skies H3" here, and let us know what you think in the comments section below!
