So far, the details about the Flaming Lips’ forthcoming tribute album to the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band are about as ambiguous as the chicken-scratch list of contributors frontman Wayne Coyne posted on Instagram. However, we now have a fresh cut from the recording process courtesy of Zorch.
We’re told the Austin psych-pop duo’s version of the famous LP’s titular track (below) is an outtake, and that Coyne also tapped Tegan and Sara, Foxygen, and My Morning Jacket for covers of the same tune. Some permutation thereof will end up on the final release, alongside the likes of Lips side project Electric Würms, Miley Cyrus, and Moby, whom we interviewed about the experience last month. We also had a chat with Coyne at Outside Lands about hitting the studio with Cyrus for the upcoming album, which is titled With a Little Help From My Fwends. According to the record’s iTunes preorder page, it’s is due out October 28.
Judging from Zorch’s contribution, the other bands who recorded a version of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” have a lot to compete with, including a painstaking and ingenious recording process. The pair enlisted vocalists like Holland Andrews, Emma Ruth Rundle, Karla Manzur, Ben Aqua, Rich Aucoin, and Sam Chown to sing the track, then cut up each syllable and pieced it back together. Each syllable is sung by a different combination of the vocalists that never gets repeated, and the result is a borderline-noise take on a classic anthem.
Zorch tour dates:
August 21 – Dallas, TX @ Sons of Hermann Hall w/ El Ten Eleven
August 27 – St. Louis, MO @ The Livery
August 28 – Chicago. IL @ The Burlington Bar
August 29 – Pontiac, MI @ the Pike Room *
August 30 – Toronto, ON @ Lee’s Palce *
August 31 – Montreal, QC @ La Vitrola*
September 3 – Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall *
September 4 – Washington DC @ Rock And Roll Hotel *
September 5 – Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s *
September 6 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Bowl *
September 8 – Richmond, VA @ Gallery 5 Arts
September 9 – Nashville, TN @ Queen Avenue
September 10 – Texarkana, TX @ The Silver Dollar
September 28 – Dallas, TX @ Index Fest
November 8 – Austin, TX @ Fun Fun Fun Fest
* w/ Fujiya & Miyagi
