{"id":196574,"date":"2025-12-22T15:37:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T15:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/196574\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T15:37:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T15:37:11","slug":"the-show-is-better-than-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/196574\/","title":{"rendered":"The show is better than ever"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Flaming\u00a0Lips<\/a>\u2019\u00a0drummer\u00a0Matthew Duckworth Kirksey has addressed Steven Drozd\u2019s departure, claiming the band\u2019s show is \u201cbetter than ever\u201d.<\/p>\n

Last week, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Drozd\u00a0appeared to confirm that he had parted ways with the band<\/a>\u00a0in a since-deleted post on Threads. \u201cThey\u2019re done with me \u2013 but we\u2019re not talking about it,\u201d he wrote.\u00a0\u201cSo\u00a0yes\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0moving on. Just keep it to yourself for now. OK?\u201d<\/p>\n

The\u00a0band\u00a0have not formally made an announcement, but Drozd had been absent from their shows in recent months, with AJ Slaughter stepping in. Drozd had been a fixture in the band since 1991.<\/p>\n

Drummer Duckworth Kirksey, who has been with\u00a0the band since 2014,\u00a0has addressed the situation\u00a0in a post on Instagram on Sunday (December 21). Under the caption, \u201cSome thoughts about @flaminglips land\u201d,\u00a0he wrote: \u201cMan\u2026hard\u00a0to read a lot of these comments. Being in a band, for a long time, that never really stops is hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u00a0said\u00a0\u201ca lot of great friends\u201d have \u201ccome and gone\u201d throughout his time with the band, adding: \u201cI still love them, and miss them, and some of them are my family.\u201d<\/p>\n

He went on to talk up the current incarnation of The Flaming Lips. \u201cIf you haven\u2019t heard this newest iteration of the band, give us a shot,\u201d he said. \u201cThe music, and the show is better than ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Appearing to address\u00a0rumours\u00a0that Drozd had been the dominant creative force in the band rather than\u00a0frontman\u00a0Wayne Coyne, he continued: \u201cAnd remember\u2026NONE of this ever happens without Wayne. This idea\u00a0that\u00a0Steven was THE musical genius, and Wayne is just some weirdo artist\u2026It\u2019s\u00a0just not true. Wayne pushes the creativity, the sound, and the show forward, like no artist\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0ever been around.\u201d<\/p>\n

He concluded his message with a tease at upcoming music from the band. \u201cThere is new music on the way and I think it\u2019s the best thing we\u2019ve done in ages,\u201d he teased. \u201cI can\u2019t wait for you to hear it. Come see us this summer if you get a chance. Happy holidays!\u201d<\/p>\n

Among their upcoming dates\u00a0are next year\u2019s Latitude Festival<\/a>, where they will be playing alongside the\u00a0likes of\u00a0Lewis Capaldi<\/a>,\u00a0Teddy Swims<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0David Byrne<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, The Flaming Lips\u00a0and\u00a0Modest Mouse<\/a>\u2019s Isaac Brock\u00a0also recently paid tribute <\/a>to\u00a0Ozzy Osbourne<\/a>\u00a0with a cover of\u00a0Black Sabbath<\/a>\u2019s \u2018War Pigs\u2019 during their joint-headline tour at the Coca-Cola Roxy in Atlanta.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Flaming\u00a0Lips\u2019\u00a0drummer\u00a0Matthew Duckworth Kirksey has addressed Steven Drozd\u2019s departure, claiming the band\u2019s show is \u201cbetter than ever\u201d. Last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":196575,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[156,591,157,111,139,69,121477],"class_list":["post-196574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-indie","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-psychedelia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}