Because there are very few, if any, ways to top the weirdness factor of selling your collaborators’ blood, the Flaming Lips have announced that they will be pulling a Jack White and taking on a Guinness World Record currently held by Jay-Z. During MTV’s upcoming O Music Awards, Wayne Coyne and Co. will attempt to play Most Live Concerts In 24 Hours. And yes, you read that correctly: The O Music Awards will be 24 hours, putting an end to any jokes about the interminable length of the Oscars.
The band will “board a tricked-out bus and zigzag across” the Mississippi Delta region to hit eight different shows on June 27, beginning in Memphis and ending in New Orleans, the O Music Awards organizers announced. (Hov’s record, according to the Guinness website, was set back in 2006 while he was promoting Kingdom Come on November 18, in Atlanta, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Las Vegas.)
“To me, all this feels exactly like what we’d like a tour to be but what it could never be…. playing weird little places off the path,” Coyne told SPIN of the extra-Lips-y feat. “It’s like Easy Rider, except this time the rednecks don’t win.”
The Lips won’t be the only ones on the bus either — everyone involved in the ceremony will be tagging along, too, marking what organizers are claiming as “the world’s first live 24-hour moving awards show.” The show, which was started last year as a means to “celebrate and honor the artists, fans and innovators impacting digital music culture,” features fan-polled categories like Must-Follow Artist on Twitter, Most Adorable Viral Star (hint: Bone Pugz ‘n Harmony), and Digital Genius Award (for which the Lips are nominated), all of which are currently open for voting on the O Music Awards’ website.
Record-breaking attempts are becoming an annual endeavor for the O Music Awards. For last year’s inaugural event, they hosted Chiddy Bang’s nine-hour vie (and win) for Longest Freestyle Rap and Longest Marathon Rapping. For the second ceremony, which took place only six months later, they put up a group of dancers who broke a record for Longest Team Dance Marathon. Luckily, however, the latter iteration was a fundraiser and collected $32,000 for anti-bullying non-profits. No word yet as to whether the Lips’ eight shows will do the same.
