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The Flaming Lips Make Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ Their Sun-Bursting Own

The Flaming Lips' "Bohemian Rhapsody"

The Flaming Lips have been covering “Bohemian Rhapsody” for some time, but now they’re returning to the Queen covers game in distinctive Flaming Lips fashion. On Tuesday, SPIN will be streaming Puscifer’s Donkey Punch the Night EP (due out on February 19), which features the Maynard James Keenan-led band’s towering, impeccable, but mostly faithful rendition of “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Wayne Coyne’s crew have beaten us to the (donkey?) punch with, as Antiquiet points out, a new video for their own version of that multi-part, Wayne’s World-soundtracking classic of proggy, head-banging chamber-pop. As the Lips, who’re coming off a Super Bowl commercial gig, get set to release their bleak but masterful spring album The Terror, they’ve blasted Freddie Mercury to their own sun-scorched planet. Coyne’s voice is typically glassy, and there are heaps of spacey synths and warped guitars. As if unable to shake the ill-advised patterns of 2012, though, the Lips share screen time in their “Bohemian Rhapsody” video with a nude female sunbather who slathers on gross sunscreen. “Nothing really matters,” anyone can see. Wayne’s world, party time, mostly excellent.

For a quick blast from the past, check out the Lips’ comparatively faithful “Bohemian Rhapsody” sing-along at SXSW in 2006.