
"The Flaming Lips' 'Fwends' Vinyl Will Contain Collaborators' Blood". "CD review: The Flaming Lips 'The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends' ". "The Flaming Lips & Amanda Palmer – "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" Video (NSFW)". "The Flaming Lips infuriate Erykah Badu, chase silly Guinness World Record". ^ "The Flaming Lips – The Flaming Lips And Heady Fwends – Clash Music Latest Album Review"."Music Review – The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends". "The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends – The Flaming Lips". ^ "Reviews for The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends by The Flaming Lips"."Wayne Coyne Talks New Flaming Lips LP, Working With Ke$ha, Blood". ^ a b c Fitzmaurice, Larry (April 5, 2012)."Erykah Badu Talks Flaming Lips Record Store Day Collaboration". ^ a b Rogulewski, Charley (April 21, 2012)."The Flaming Lips to Release Collaborative Album Heady Fwends Comp Digitally and on CD". Track listing Compact disc and digital editions The records were hand-delivered by AnatomyOne, of Oklahoma City's Womb Gallery, and photos of the buyers holding their copies were linked on Coyne's Twitter account. Customers who bought a copy of this edition also received a copy of the regular vinyl set for listening. 10 more copies (encased in plexiglass with a photo collage cover made from the front cover photo of John Lennon and Yoko Ono's Unfinished Music No.1: Two Virgins) were sold by Wayne Coyne for $2,500 USD each (plus $200 hand-delivery fee), with the proceeds going to the Oklahoma Humane Society and the Academy of Contemporary Music at the University of Central Oklahoma. Custom editions have been sold via the site: One copy was traded for two copies of prominent United customer Jack White's blue liquid-filled 12" single "Sixteen Saltines" (a Record Store Day 2012 exclusive only available at the Third Man Records store). His plan was to have small amounts of the blood sandwiched into the vinyl of a limited edition of the album, and make them available to "interested rich Flaming Lips people." The double LPs with blood inside were pressed at United Record Pressing in Nashville.

Coyne claimed that he had requested and was given blood samples from some of the album's collaborators, including Kesha and Neon Indian's Alan Palomo. Each disc was hand-pressed using multiple shades of vinyl pellets and has a unique pattern. The band released the double LP in vinyl form in a 10,000 unit run on April 21, 2012, as part of Record Store Day. As a result, this video was never officially released, however new vocals were recorded featuring Amanda Palmer, and a similar video to the one with Badu was filmed also featuring Palmer. The music video for "First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" provoked controversy between the band and guest vocalist Erykah Badu when a rough cut was leaked online that misrepresented Badu. Clash commented that the numerous guests tempered the band's usual outlandish workouts but did note that "Whilst that suppressed weirdness may be a detraction to the diehard fans, it makes for the band's most accessible work since Yoshimi." Spin was less positive giving a 6 out of 10 rating, they quipped that the other artists were "globetrotters on Gilligan's Acid Island". Entertainment Weekly gave the album an A rating. Despite the disparate artists involved, Pitchfork stated "his piecemeal patchwork of tracks hangs together amazingly well as a front-to-back album." The website rated the album 8.2 out of 10. Pitchfork commented on the wide variety of collaborators mainstream artists such as Kesha and Coldplay's Chris Martin share space with more experimental artists such as Lightning Bolt and Prefuse 73.
#THE FLAMING LIPS WITH PREFUSE 73 PROFESSIONAL#
Reception Professional ratings Aggregate scores Her track, "2012 (You Must Be Upgraded)", was recorded in Kesha's home studio in Nashville. She contacted Coyne by text message on his birthday. Kesha had expressed interest in working with the Flaming Lips while visiting the band's hometown, Oklahoma City. Other pairings resulted from the initiative of other artists, such as the Kesha track. Badu was initially opposed to covering the well-known 1957 song, but Coyne was able to convince her. The Erykah Badu version of Ewan MacColl's " The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", was a result of Lips frontman Wayne Coyne's unsolicited calls to the singer. The CD, vinyl reissue and digital releases of the album omit the track "I Don't Want You to Die" featuring Chris Martin, but feature an exclusive track with Aaron Behrens of Ghostland Observatory, "Tasered and Maced".

The remaining seven songs were recorded at different times and locations, and are exclusive to the LP.

Four tracks from these sessions appear on the album. Following their last full-length album, 2009's Embryonic, the band produced several EPs with other artists including Neon Indian, Lightning Bolt, Prefuse 73, and Yoko Ono.
