The Flaming Lips‘ new tribute to The Beatles classic album, Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, is now available to stream via NPR First Listen. The album is dubbed With A Little Help From My Fwendz, and features guest appearances from a number of noteworthy musicians, including My Morning Jacket, Dr. Dog, Phantogram, Grace Potter, Foxygen, MGMT, Moby, Miley Cyrus and more.
As was announced last week, the album will see an official release on October 28th. This is the second tribute album released by the Lips, as the band previously released a tribute to Dark Side of the Moon back in 2009. In an interview with Music Radar, Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne talks about the decision to cover these two albums.
“People get very proprietary about this sort of thing. When we did Floyd’s Dark Side, there were some people who had these violent, outraged reactions to us. It’s like we defiled a classic or something. I mean, sure, there’s only one Mona Lisa, so if you put a mustache on it, you really fucked it up. But music isn’t like that. Dark Side Of The Moon by Pink Floyd still exists, and Sgt. Pepper by The Beatles will still exist. We just did our homages to those records, because they inspired us.
It was a special record – and still is. Back then, it was one of the first records that people would sit around and talk about. The drugs The Beatles took, the clothes they wore, they way they did their hair – all of those things were connected to the music, and they were talked about. Sgt. Pepper has amazing music, but it’s really about more than the music. It’s of a time, and now it evokes that time. And the amazing thing is, it lasts – there’s nothing retro about it. It’s still very hip, fresh music.”
With a Little Help From My Fwends Tracklist:
01. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (feat. My Morning Jacket, Fever the Ghost, and J Mascis)
02. With a Little Help from My Friends (feat. The Flaming Lips, Black Pus, and The Autumn Defense)
03. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds (feat. Miley Cyrus, Moby, and The Flaming Lips)
04. Getting Better (feat. Dr. Dog and Chuck Inglish)
05. Fixing a Hole (feat. Electric Wurms)
06. She’s Leaving Home (feat. Phantogram and Juliana Barwick)
07. Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite! (feat. The Flaming Lips, Maynard James Keenan, Puscifer, and Sunbears)
08. Within You Without You (feat. Birdflower and Morgan Delt)
09. When I’m Sixty-Four (feat. The Flaming Lips and more)
10. Lovely Rita (feat. Tegan & Sara and Stardeath and White Dwarves)
11. Good Morning Good Morning (feat. Zorch, Grace Potter, and more)
12. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise) (feat. Foxygen and MGMT)
13. A Day in The Life (feat. The Flaming Lips, Miley Cyrus, and New Fumes)