Well, Wayne Coyne has always wanted to experiment with multiple sound source recorded music. Back in 1996, with bizarre goings on for the Lips in Oklahoma City - Ronald Jones departed, Steven was almost maimed by a serious spider bite, and Michael Ivins had a brush with death in the form of a runaway wheel - Wayne decided it was time to explore that music inside his brain. Properly.

So, he began to organise some little sound experiments. It began with a few tape recorders in the back room, evolved into getting 10 of his friends cars together to play yet more adventurous compositions and ended up as the Parking Lot Experiments - 40 cars arranged to form a kind of wholly unusual soundsystem in a covered car parking space. Perhaps the best way to describe the actual sound that came from that kind of surreal orchestra is as being some how extra real. A sound so fluid and full that it was almost a tangible presence in the air...

A few experiments down the line and it became clear that this idea of audience involving multiple sound could be taken elsewhere - the idea of a four cd set for use in the home was tested and given the go-ahead by Warners. Zaireeka was completed in late summer 1997, just before the next stage began its genesis - in early September at the CMJ conference in New York, the Flaming Lips came and handed out tape players to the delegates and guests. This performance paved the way for the a new form of live performance by a rock band.

By the time Zaireeka was released at the end of October in 1997, it was starting to become clear how the album could be promoted and expounded upon live for the fans - the Christmas show in Norman on the 13th of December was the first proper concert performance of this new show format. It's not Zaireeka, but it takes the idea further and the songs to the next level. The Boombox Experiments have hit the road...