How to get a head in rock music

In an era of pirated downloads, rock bands are coming up with increasingly bizarre ways to get fans to actually buy their music. This stunt by Flaming Lips has got to be one of the most outrageous.

Earlier in the year, the Flaming Lips released individual songs on USBs embedded in edible ‘gummy’ skulls, provided by a shop in their native Oklahoma City called “Skulls Unlimited”, a grab from site is featured here. But now they are going one further; the group will first record a 24 hour music session as a “song,” then save it onto a hard-drive which will be embedded into one of five actual human skulls. It’ll be released on Halloween (naturally).

The skulls – priced at $5000 – are reportedly (according to Wired U.K.) sold out already, despite the recording not being finished. It seems the Lips, whose previous stunts have involved fans paying $100 to have their names read out by Sean Lennon in a six hour song, are on to a winner.