The Flaming Lips record a Christmas song

The Flaming Lips have just recorded a version of festive favorite “Silent Night.” The track is a musical extension of the band’s recently completed film, Christmas On Mars. Of course, traditionally, movie-related music is recorded in time to actually be included in the movie. Then again, the Lips have never been the most traditional of acts. “Christmas On Mars has, in a sense, some Christmas music in it,” says frontman Wayne Coyne. “But it doesn’t really have a song that we sing per se. So we were doing a song that will be released on iTunes later in the year. I call it panic marketing: You finish and then you go, ‘Oh f—! Now I know what to do!’ ” Spookily, Coyne reveals that their version of “Silent Night” was influenced in part by the work of Pink Floyd keyboard player Richard Wright, who died on September 15, shortly after the band left the studio. “It does have some Rick Wright-ish flourishes” says Coyne. “I think we were listening to ‘Great Gig In The Sky,’ which is one of his big moments. There are subtle, cool shadings going on in there. We talked quite a bit about Rick Wright just over the weekend. It was sort of uncanny.” Coyne also reveals that he hopes to have another Lips album out next June. “The things we’ve been working on are like John Lennon meets Miles Davis and they discover some supercomputer from the future,” he explains. “Those are the references we keep coming back to.” Christmas On Mars will receive a limited theatrical release this fall and then be available on DVD from November 11.