I've heard a fair amount of Flaming Lips music over the years because one of the guys I ride with is a big fan. Short of one song, I've always found their work to be weak. They're a popular underground\fringe band. To me, there's a reason for that.

Part of their allure - and certainly why my friend likes them so much - is the fact that they are unconventional. Only the cool people get them. Their music, to me, doesn't live up to the cult following. They augment their image with gimmicks - headphone concerts, cassette player shows, boombox\parking lot deal, etc. This gummy fetus with a flash drive embedded is just the latest.

Personally, I find the fetus stunt to be in extremely poor taste. Some things should be sacred. They should be used (if they must be used as advertisement at all) to send a plea for help and compassion - not a band's advertising of their latest pop music offerings.

I feel that having an edible, fetus-shaped candy as a vehicle to deliver your latest songs reeks of a "hey, look how weird I am" attention grab. They can say it's all about love and birth all they want, but there is no way in the world they overlooked the fact that it has a weird abortion look and feel to it. Probably the single most polarizing behavior in the human experience.

They'll get their next 15 minutes of underground cool factor for sure. I disagree strongly with how they're going about it. However; Like I said before, to me their music has never been strong enough to carry them, so behavior like this is how they've made up for it.