The Flaming Lips will try to break Jay-Z’s world record for most shows in a 24-hour period as part of the Viacom Music Group’s third O Music Awards.
Jay-Z performed seven shows in different cities, so the Oklahaoma City-based Lips will aim for eight shows on June 27 while traveling on a bus from Memphis to New Orleans.
MTV announced the Lips’ performances while unveiling the 24 different categories for the 24-hour show, which will be live-streamed across MTV's digital properties and potentially on television.
Categories include “Must Follow Artists on Twitter,” “Hottest Music NILF (Nerd I’d Like to F—),” “Best Music App” and the Digital Genius Award.”
As those suggest, the show is dedicated to the nexus between music and technology, rewarding those artists who have best used the Internet to innovate or advance their stardom.
Nominees include everyone from Azealia Banks to the Flaming Lips to Yoko Ono.
"There are lot of places in between that we would never play because they’re just little joints," Lips lead singer Wayne Coyne told TheWrap about the tour. "One place is a hot-dog stand at 5 a.m. I don’t know if we’ve ever really played in Mississippi. It makes it more appealing since we get to do this variety of shows, stop at all these places with different artists and different songs along the way."
Each of the past two O Music Awards shows have set Guinness records, as Chiddy Bang took the crown for Longest Freestyle Rap and a dance team for Longest Team Dance Marathon.
Coyne said the Lips wouldn’t obsess over the record, focusing instead on the experience.
“I don’t care if we make the world record or not,” Coyne said. “If in the end we’ve broken some rule that keeps us out of the book, we don’t care. If we are in the 22nd hour and want to play longer than they’ll let us, we’ll do what we wanna do instead of what they wanna do.”
