By The Flaming Lips / Stardeath and White Dwarfs, 2009

Like the prism on the iconic cover of Dark Side of the Moon, Pink Floyd's legacy can be refracted many different ways. For one, there's the different eras marked by different bandleaders, from Syd Barrett's storybook psychedelia to Roger Waters misanthropic art-rock to David Gilmour's inoffensive arena-filling stuff. But there are also more subjective takes on the Floyd's influence: you could view them as psych-prog pioneers or the bloat that inspired punk, the band that pushed the limit of the rock concert or the band that made the concert more about theatrics than music, studio wizards or mere inventors of a popular stereo test record.

You might divine then why Floyd appeals to the Flaming Lips right now. I count at least five of those things on that list that could be lobbed (fairly or un-) at the Lips after 27 years; being hated by Johnny Rotten is the only one (probably) beyond their reach. And their appreciation runs deep-- in an interview with Pitchfork's Ryan Dombal, Wayne Coyne remembered goofing on Jesus and Mary Chain fans by covering "Wish You Were Here", when the bands toured together in 1984.

But why tackle hoary old Dark Side now, on the heels of the band's triumphant return to in-your-face psychedelic weirdness on last year's Embryonic?And why invite a cavalcade of characters-- Peaches, Henry Rollins, Coyne's nephew's band-- certain to make people think it's all a gag?After all, Dark Side of the Moon is an album so ingrained in the collective consciousness your grandma can probably call "Money” from the first ring of the cash register.

It was also, arguably, Floyd's big money play-- a strange thing to say for a 40-minute continuous song cycle, but a clear conclusion when you look at the swollen 20-minute epics and found-sound experiments that came before it on Meddle and Atom Heart Mother. Ambitious and as tightly wound as a symphony, Dark Side is nevertheless made up of detachable movements that can double as standalone pop songs and classic rock staples.

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