The Flaming Lips returned to their pandemic-inspired plastic bubbles once again on Friday when the band performed “God and The Policeman” on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. “God and The Policeman” appeared on The Flaming Lips’ most recent album, American Head, which the band released on the very same day as their Fallon appearance.
While Kacey Musgraves provided vocal work on the album version of the track, the band performed the single without her on Fallon, yet executed it wonderfully, even from inside of their socially-distant plastic bubbles.
Characterized by atmospheric vocals, a catch xylophone melody, and spacey synthesizer, “God and The Policeman” highlighted the band’s diverse sound and compositional aptitude. Clocking in at a brisk 2:43, the song saw beautiful vocal work from frontman Wayne Michael Coyne, while the rest of the band aided in backing vocals and setting the tone for the expansive song.
When the band announced the album, Coyne penned a short explanation of what The Flaming Lips were trying to accomplish with American Head,
The Flaming Lips are from Oklahoma. We never thought of ourselves as an American band. So… for most of our musical life (as the Flaming Lips starting in 1983) we’ve kind of thought of ourselves as coming from ‘Earth’… not really caring where we were actually from. So for the first time in our musical life, we began to think of ourselves as ‘an American band’… telling ourselves that it would be our identity for our next creative adventure. … We started to think of classic American bands like the Grateful Dead and Parliament-Funkadelic and how maybe we could embrace this new vibe.
The Flaming Lips definitely hit the mark with this “God and The Policeman” performance. Check out the video below and click here for more clips from The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
The Flaming Lips – “God and The Policeman” – The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
[Video: The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon]
The Flaming Lips currently have several shows scheduled throughout 2021, of course, all depending on the status of the pandemic. Head to the band’s website for the latest information on tickets and tour scheduling.