Ender’s Game is a new Summit Entertainment’s sci-fi thriller coming up to a theater near you very soon (November 1st), and, surprisingly (or not) The Flaming Lips will release soon a brand new 6-song EP featuring new music inspired by the movie!
If you watch the trailer here, you will realize in a few seconds that the production was a bit more pricey than the Flaming Lips’ own homemade sci-fi movie, ‘Christmas on Mars’, filmed in Wayne Coyne’s backyard. No, here we are talking big budget, armies of hostile aliens attacking the earth, big and noble veterans played by tattooed-face Ben Kingsley and Star-Wars-resurected Harrison Ford, and next great hope young hero Ender Wiggin (played by Asa Butterfield) who will probably save the Earth.
The Flaming Lips wrote ‘Peace Sword (Open Your Heart)’ exclusively for the film, and the remaining five tracks of the EP were inspired by the movie and the book upon which the film is based. We can’t listen to the music yet as ‘Peace Sword’ will be released on October 29th to coincide with the film’s release on November 1st, whereas the CD and limited-edition 12″ vinyl will only be released on Black Friday/Record Store Day, on November 29th.
But how did the Flaming Lips end up on the soundtrack of this Hollywoodian super production?
‘It’s still a little bit of a mystery to me’ declared Wayne Coyne to Rolling Stone. They actually have been commissioned for a song (‘Peace Sword’) but decided to keep going:
‘In the workings of getting to that song we’d already created a couple of these other little things that didn’t appeal to [the filmmakers] but started to appeal to us. We started to like these little ideas that we kept inserting into this one theme. [We were] just getting caught up in our own little fantasy’, he explained.
But no surprise there, aren’t the Lips always been into this kind of trippy, out-of-space experience? According to Rolling Stone, the songs revolve around the themes of isolation, regret, loneliness and the redemptive power of love, much in line with their ‘Terror’ last album. Plus there was the appeal of a character which helps the creative process, ‘Our most satisfying records to listen to . . . at the end you kind of stumble upon a character and a theme and a story,’ Yoshimi was probably their greatest character!
Except if I can score a ticket for that super secret mini Arcade Fire gig the same day (and that would be close to a miracle) I am seeing the Flaming Lips on October 29th at the Greek theater here in Los Angeles, just in time for freaky Halloween!
Peace Sword track-listing:
Peace Sword (“Open Your Heart”)
If They Move, Shoot ‘Em
Is The Black At The End Good
Think Like A Machine, Not A Boy
Wolf Children
Assassin Beetle – The Dream Is Ending