Fight Test | ||||
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EP by | ||||
Released | April 22, 2003 | |||
Recorded | 2002 | |||
Genre | Indie rock | |||
Length | 32:47 | |||
Label | Warner Bros. | |||
Producer | The Flaming Lips, Dave Fridmann, Scott Booker | |||
The Flaming Lips EP chronology | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [1] |
Pitchfork | [2] |
Stylus Magazine | C+ [3] |
Fight Test is an extended play (EP) released by the Flaming Lips released on Warner Bros. Records in 2003. The single version of "Fight Test" was released on June 23, 2003, peaking at number 28 on the UK Singles Chart. It is the third single to be picked from the album Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots .
It is an enhanced CD, containing covers of Radiohead's "Knives Out", Kylie Minogue's "Can't Get You Out of My Head", and Beck's "The Golden Age". In addition, the EP includes two original songs. The UK version was a normal CD single, which also featured some previously unreleased songs. Fight Test was nominated for Best Alternative Album at the 46th Annual Grammy Awards.
The opening of "Fight Test" ("The test begins...now") was sampled from one of the sync tests from the Flaming Lips' own Boombox Experiments. The song was also the theme song for the short-lived MTV cartoon 3-South . It was furthermore used in a season 2 episode of the long-running TV series Smallville . [4]
"Fight Test" is musically similar to Cat Stevens's 1970 song "Father and Son". Following a settlement with the Flaming Lips, Stevens receives 75 percent of the royalties from Fight Test. [5] In an interview with The Guardian , frontman Wayne Coyne stated: [6]
I want to go on record for the first time and say that I really apologise for the whole thing. I really love Cat Stevens. I truly respect him as a great singer-songwriter. And now he wants his money. There was a time during the recording when we said, this has a similarity to 'Father and Son'. Then we purposefully changed those bits. But I do regret not contacting his record company and asking their opinion. Maybe we could have gone 50–50. As it is, Cat Stevens is now getting 75 percent of royalties from 'Fight Test'. We could easily have changed the melody but we didn't. I am really sorry that Cat Stevens thinks I'm purposefully plagiarising his work. I am ashamed. There is obviously a fine line between being inspired and stealing. But if anyone wanted to borrow part of a Flaming Lips song, I don't think I'd bother pursuing it. I've got better things to do. Anyway, Cat Stevens is never going to make much money out of us.
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
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1. | "Fight Test" | Cat Stevens, Wayne Coyne, Steven Drozd, Michael Ivins, Dave Fridmann | 4:08 |
2. | "Can't Get You Out of My Head" (Recorded live on 5 August 2002 at KEXP, Seattle) | Cathy Dennis, Rob Davis | 4:06 |
3. | "The Golden Age" (Recorded live on 29 August 2002 at the CD101 "Big Room", Columbus, Ohio) | Beck Hansen | 3:12 |
4. | "Knives Out" (Recorded on 18 July 2002; broadcast 8 August 2002 on Morning Becomes Eclectic , KCRW (Los Angeles)) | Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, Ed O'Brien, Phil Selway, Colin Greenwood | 4:21 |
5. | "Do You Realize??" (Scott Hardkiss Floating in Space Mix) | Coyne, Drozd, Ivins, Fridmann | 9:06 |
6. | "The Strange Design of Conscience" | Coyne, Drozd | 4:31 |
7. | "Thank You Jack White (for the Fiber-Optic Jesus That You Gave Me)" | Coyne, Drozd | 3:40 |
Chart (2003) | Peak position |
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Australian Albums (ARIA) [7] | 86 |
US Billboard 200 [8] | 93 |
Chart (2003–2007) | Peak position |
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Denmark (Tracklisten) [9] | 12 |
UK Singles (OCC) [10] | 28 |
The Flaming Lips are an American psychedelic rock band formed in 1983 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The band currently consists of Wayne Coyne, Steven Drozd, Derek Brown, Matt Duckworth Kirksey and Tommy McKenzie (bass). Coyne and Drozd have remained the band's only consistent members since 1991, with Coyne being the only remaining founding member following the departure of bassist and keyboardist Michael Ivins in 2021.
Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots is the tenth studio album by American rock band the Flaming Lips, released on July 16, 2002, by Warner Bros. Records. The album saw the band pursue a more electronic direction than previous efforts, incorporating acoustic guitars and rhythms influenced by hip hop and top 40 music. The album was well-received critically and commercially, helping the band break into popularity, and was adapted into a musical in 2012. In 2022, the band announced a 20th anniversary box set version of the album and that they would perform the album in full twice in early 2023.
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Christmas on Mars is a 2008 independent psychological science fiction film from the alternative rock band the Flaming Lips, written and directed by the band's frontman, Wayne Coyne, and featuring the entire band in the cast, as well as many of their associates, including Steve Burns, Adam Goldberg, and Fred Armisen.
Wayne Michael Coyne is an American musician. He is the founder, lead vocalist, main songwriter, and only constant member of the psychedelic rock band the Flaming Lips.
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"The Golden Path" is a song recorded by English electronic music duo the Chemical Brothers, taken from their first greatest hits album, Singles 93–03. Featuring the Flaming Lips, the lead vocals were performed by Wayne Coyne with Steven Drozd performing backing vocals. The song reached number 10 in Spain, number 17 in the United Kingdom, number 20 in Ireland, and number 32 in Italy.
"Do You Realize??" is a song by the Flaming Lips, and was released as the first single from their 2002 album Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. It is one of the group's most accessible and popular songs, having reached No. 32 in the UK Singles Chart. It was adopted as the Official Rock Song of Oklahoma from 2009 to April 2013 and was ranked No. 31 on Rolling Stone's 100 Best Songs of the 2000s. It is also the band's most popular live song, and has rarely been excluded from setlists since its inception into their live shows in 2002.
Clifton Thomas "Kliph" Scurlock is an American musician. He was the drummer and percussionist for alternative rock band The Flaming Lips from 2002 to 2014.
"Father and Son" is a popular song written and performed by English singer-songwriter Cat Stevens on his 1970 album Tea for the Tillerman. The song frames a heartbreaking exchange between a father not understanding a son's desire to break away and shape a new life, and the son who cannot really explain himself but knows that it is time for him to seek his own destiny.
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Bradley Beesley is an American Independent film and video director, producer and cinematographer. Born in Oklahoma and based in Austin, Texas, he "has made a cinematic career documenting oddball Americana, strange sub-cultures and homegrown rock stars."
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Gummy Song Fetus is a three-track EP by the Flaming Lips, consisting of a USB drive embedded inside a gummy fetus. It was first hand-delivered to Love Garden record store in Lawrence, Kansas by Wayne Coyne before its official release date of June 25, 2011, where the early gummy fetuses sold out quickly. Being that the gummy fetuses are smaller than the $150 Gummy Skulls released previously in April 2011, they were originally priced at $30, as opposed to the former's price. Songs were recorded at Tarbox Road Studios in Cassadaga, New York, Steven's computer, Michael's musical M.A.S.H., and Wayne's house in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, March–May 2011.
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American Head is the sixteenth studio album by experimental rock band the Flaming Lips, released on September 11, 2020, on Warner Records in the US and Bella Union in the UK. Produced by Dave Fridmann and Scott Booker, alongside the band itself, the album represents a return to the band's American roots. It is the final studio album to feature founding bass guitarist Michael Ivins and keyboardist Jake Ingalls, who both departed from the band in 2021, as well as drummer Nicholas Ley who departed in 2023. It is subsequently the final album featuring the expanded seven person line-up of the group that began with 2017's Oczy Mlody.