Flaming Lips Have Little Appetite for Success : The foursome doesn’t waste time on fame or fortune. Wayne Coyne says, ‘We enjoy life and enjoy the moment.’

Sort of like the Joads, the four Sooners who make up Flaming Lips are taking a serious road trip, but with better prospects for gainful employment--including a sure-fire opportunity at the Ventura Theatre on Tuesday night.

Oklahoma has long been known for Woody Guthrie, Sooner football, Garth Brooks, Sooner football and license plates that said Sooners were in fact “OK.” With the current success of the quirky single, “She Don’t Use Jelly,” the Lips may join that list of noted Oklahomans.

Just another 10-year overnight success story, the Lips have made six albums since 1985, the first four on independent label Restless before joining the big leagues with Warner Bros. a few years ago. Basically indescribable, original rock with enough humor to make even a statue smile, the Lips have no shortage of off-the wall songs. Titles include “Chrome-Plated Suicide,” “Redneck School of Technology,” “Hare Krishna Stomp Wagon” and “Hit Me Like You Did the First Time.”

Wayne Coyne, responsible for “vocals, guitar, everything else,” chatted from a Seattle hotel room after another all-night drive.

What’s the difference between the small label and the big label?

I think there’s too much emphasis on the major label vs. independent label mentality. As everyone probably knows, it’s hard for smaller labels to compete without a lot of money. But I think if a band makes good music, those who like good music will seek it out. In the indie community, people tend to define their existence by bands they hate. Everyone wants to have an enemy, but who’s the enemy? It’s only music, not brain surgery. If you like it, buy it; if you don’t, then don’t buy it.

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How did you get started?

Around ’83 or ‘84, we used to let hard-core bands use our crappy practice studio P.A. when they came to Oklahoma City to play to about 20 people. We got to see the inner workings of the whole thing. I remember one time Husker Du pulled up in a van, and we figured we could do that.

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Describe Lips music.

I really don’t know. Let me think of a couple of the recent ones. One guy said we were Dr. Seuss meets Jim Morrison, and another thought we were Peter Frampton meets the Butthole Surfers. There’s not really a certain direction to say we’re heading from this to that. It’s just a splattering of songs mixed up with crappy noises. We try to make each song, each record, its own thing. We’ve managed to avoid the flavor of the month so far.

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How does a band survive life on the road?

I think we enjoy life and enjoy the moment. Don’t look to the past, “those were the days.” And don’t look to the future, “things will get better and we’ll make a lot of money.” It’s just us driving around in a van and a big Ryder truck.

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Did the band get signed by making crank calls to Warner Bros.?

That’s a good story, but not what really happened. We always had these months when we knew we weren’t going to have enough money, and we knew the phone was going to get turned off, so we’d load up on calls to the West Coast. There’s this game called “How Far Can You Go?” where you’re supposed to be able to reach anyone in the world with seven phone calls. Once I talked to Bob Dylan’s maid, and another time, I almost talked to Joe Perry from Aerosmith.

We called Warner Bros. a few times, but by the time we’d get to whoever it was, we had nothing to say.

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What advice would you give to an aspiring musician wasting his life frying burgers?

To work a day job like that gives you the most freedom there is. A mindless job gives you a lot of time to think about a lot of stuff. I worked for Long John Silver’s, this fried fish place, for about 10 years, and I had some of my most serene moments there. If you’re doing something you enjoy, it takes up a lot of time. So just take the money and go buy a guitar or something.

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If not this, then what?

I don’t know, but I still have my Long John Silver’s uniform clean and pressed in the closet. There’s too much emphasis on success in this business, and I’ve seen too many people making music who aren’t enjoying it.

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Where do all those weird songs come from?

We don’t have many boundaries. My songs are so simple--one verse, one chord. They don’t get much simpler than that. It’s fun turning that into something. We record noises, bugs, all sorts of things to keep it interesting over the years. We’ve always felt every record we’ve ever made would be our last one, and we kinda always expect to get a call telling us it’s over. So far, no one has caught on.

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Turning to football, will the Sooners be better with Howard Schnellenberger replacing Gary Gibbs as head coach?

I dunno, I haven’t been keeping up the last four years or so, but I know when Sooner football is doing well, the whole state is doing well.

Details

* WHAT: Flaming Lips, Archers of Loaf, Beatnik Filmstars.

* WHEN: 8 p.m. Tuesday.

* WHERE: Ventura Theatre, 26 Chestnut St., Ventura.

* HOW MUCH: $15.

* CALL: 648-1888.