Before signing with Warner Bros. Records in 1991, the outré Oklahoma band The Flaming Lips paid their musical dues with a series of releases beginning in 1984 with a self-released EP and continuing through a series of albums on the Restless label.  Beginning in April, the Grammy-winning band will revisit their earliest years via a new reissue program from Warner Bros. and Rhino.

On April 20, Scratching the Door: The First Recordings of the Flaming Lips will arrive.  This single-CD compilation features 19 tracks from the first iteration of the band.  It's followed on May 25 by Seeing the Unseeable: The Complete Studio Recordings of The Flaming Lips 1986-1990, a six-CD box set containing all four of the Flaming Lips' Restless albums plus two discs of rarities.  Both releases will simultaneously be released on digital download and streaming services, with over 40 tracks making their digital debut. Later in the year, Rhino will drop vinyl reissues, including remasters of the Restless albums and some vinyl debuts.

Scratching the Door spotlights the music recorded by the band's original lineup including leader Wayne Coyne's brother Mark on vocals.  It includes the band's first and second cassette demos plus their 1984 debut EP, newly remastered from the original analog tapes.  This is the first time these seminal recordings have been collected in one place.  Showcasing the band's influences, the set is peppered with covers such as The Who's "Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere," Led Zeppelin's "Communication Breakdown," and Neal Hefti's "Batman Theme" (which previously was released on Rykodisc's 2002 collection Finally the Punk Rockers are Taking Acid.)

The box set Seeing the Unseeable picks up where Scratching the Door leaves off.  It contains all four of The Flaming Lips' Restless studio albums, originally issued between 1986 and 1990:  Hear It Is (1986), Oh My Gawd!!!...The Flaming Lips (1987), Telepathic Surgery (1989) and In A Priest Driven Ambulance (With Silver Sunshine Stares) (1990). Like the compilation, all of these have been remastered from the original master tapes.  Two discs of rarities collect up odds and ends from this period, including B-sides, flexidiscs, and one-offs from various compilations like the Sub Pop single "Strychnine/Peace, Love And Understanding" and a rendition of "After The Gold Rush" from a 1989 Neil Young tribute album.  Rounding out the box is The Mushroom Tapes, the demos for the band's final Restless LP.  These were previously issued on the Rykodisc compilation CD The Day They Shot A Hole In the Jesus Egg.

Producer David Fridmann has remastered both releases, with the assistance of the Lips' Wayne Coyne and Michael Ivins.  Look for Scratching the Door: The First Recording of The Flaming Lips on April 20 and Seeing the Unseeable: The Complete Studio Recordings of The Flaming Lips 1986-1990 on May 25, both from Warner Bros. and Rhino!  Watch this space for more Flaming Lips news later this year.

Scratching The Door: The First Recordings of The Flaming Lips (Warner Bros., 2018) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Links TBD)

1. Bag Full of Thoughts
2. Out for a Walk
3. Garden of Eyes
4. Forever is a Long Time
5. Scratchin' the Door
6. My Own Planet
7. Killer On the Radio
8. Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere
9. Batman Theme
10. Handsome Johnny
11. Flaming Lips Theme Song 1983
12. The Future Is Gone
13. Underground Pharmacist
14. Real Fast Words
15. Groove Room
16. Jesus Shootin' Heroin
17. Trains, Brains & Rain
18. Communication Breakdown
19. Summertime Blues

Tracks 1-6 from The Flaming Lips EP (Lovely Sorts of Death Records WC 2412, 1984)
Tracks 7-10 and 15-18 from Finally The Punk Rockers Are Taking Acid (Restless Records/Rykodisc 7 73764-2, 2002)
Tracks 11-14 from 2nd Cassette Demo (recorded 1983, commercially released as Lovely Sorts of Death Records vinyl, 2013)
Track 19 from CD edition of Hear It Is (Restless Records 9 72173-2, 1986)

Seeing The Unseeable: The Complete Studio Recordings of The Flaming Lips 1986-1990 (Warner Bros., 2018) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Links TBD

Disc 1: Hear It Is (released as Pink Dust 72173, 1986)

1. With You
2. Unplugged
3. Trains, Brains and Rain
4. Jesus Shootin' Heroin
5. Just Like Before
6. She is Death
7. Charlie Manson Blues
8. Man from Pakistan
9. Godzilla Flick
10. Staring At Sound/With You (Reprise)

Disc 2: Oh My Gawd!!!...The Flaming Lips (released as Restless Records 72207, 1987)

1. Everything's Explodin'
2. One Million Billionth of a Millisecond on a Sunday Morning
3. Maximum Dream for Evil Knievel
4. Can't Exist
5. Ode to C.C. (Part I)
6. The Ceiling is Bendin'
7. Prescription: Love
8. Thanks to You
9. Can't Stop the Spring
10. Ode to C.C. (Part II)
11. Love Yer Brain

Disc 3: Telepathic Surgery (released as Restless Records 72350, 1989)

1. Drug Machine In Heaven
2. Right Now
3. Michael, Time to Wake Up
4. Chrome Plated Suicide
5. Hari-Krishna Stomp Wagon (Fuck Led Zeppelin)
6. Miracle On 42nd Street
7. Fryin' Up
8. Hell's Angel's Cracker Factory
9. U.F.O. Story
10. Redneck School of Technology
11. Shaved Gorilla
12. The Spontaneous Combustion of John
13. The Last Drop of Morning Dew
14. Begs and Achin'

Disc 4: In a Priest Driven Ambulance (With Silver Sunshine Stares) (released as Restless Records 72359, 1990)

1. Shine On Sweet Jesus - Jesus Song No. 5
2. Unconsciously Screamin'
3. Rainin' Babies
4. Take Meta Mars
5. Five Stop Mother Superior Rain
6. Stand In Line
7. God Walks Among Us Now - Jesus Song No. 6
8. There You Are - Jesus Song No. 7
9. Mountain Side
10. What a Wonderful World

Disc 5: Restless Rarities 

1. Death Valley '69
2. Thank You
3. Can't Stop the Spring (Remix)
4. After the Gold Rush
5. Death Trippin' At Sunrise
6. Drug Machine In Heaven (Sub Pop 7" Version)
7. Strychnine/Peace, Love and Understanding
8. Lucifer Rising
9. Ma, I Didn't Notice
10. Let Me Be It
11. She's Gone Mad Again
12. Golden Hearse
13. Stand In Line (Alternative Version)
14. I Want To Kill My Brother; The Cymbal Head
15. Five Stop Mother Superior Rain (Alternative Version)

Tracks 1-2 from The Bob Magazine flexi-disc No. 32, 1988
Tracks 3 and 5 from Finally The Punk Rockers Are Taking Acid (Restless Records/Rykodisc 7 73764-2, 2002)
Track 4 from The Bridge: A Tribute to Neil Young (Caroline/No. 6 Records KAR 002, 1989)
Tracks 6-7 from Sub Pop single SP-28, 1989
Tracks 8-10 from Unconsciously Screamin' EP (Atavistic ALP-04, 1990)
Tracks 11-13 and 15 from The Day They Shot a Hole In The Jesus Egg (Restless Records/Rykodisc 7 73765-2, 2002)
Track 14 from Guitarrorists (No. 6 Records KAR 009, 1991)

Disc 6: The Mushroom Tapes (released on The Day They Shot a Hole In The Jesus Egg - Restless Records/Rykodisc 7 73765-2, 2002)

1. Take Meta Mars
2. Mountain Side
3. There You Are
4. Five Stop Mother Superior Rain
5. Rainin' Babies
6. Unconsciously Screamin'
7. Stand In Line
8. God's a Wheeler Dealer
9. Agonizing
10. One Shot
11. Cold Day
12. Jam