FEW Spirits Debuts Collaboration with The Flaming Lips

By Sam Slaughter September 15, 2016

The flaming lips — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Whiskey and rock and roll go together like…well, whiskey and rock and roll. If we put together a playlist of all the songs that married the two, we’d have a playlist that’ll last until the end of time (thanks, country music). There is almost no more appropriate pairing than these two wonderful things and Chicago’s FEW Spirits is doing the Lord’s work by bringing those two together in their newest release, Brainville Rye Whiskey.

Made from a combination of rye, corn, and malted barley, all grown within 150 miles of the FEW distillery, the whiskey is bottled at 80-proof and will be released in select markets in October. Because they ferment the spirit using a French wine yeast, you can expect stone-fruit, apple and pear notes complemented with background spice characteristics.

Sounds hard to beat, but what gets us is the second half of this collaboration–the Flaming Lips–and more so than that, the kick ass label design. Created by Justin Helton of Status Serigraph in Knoxville, Tennessee, the label is the distilled essence of what makes the Flaming Lips so awesome. It’s bright, it’s colorful, it’s psychedelic—what more could you want?

Related: Getting Real with Lydia Loveless

The collaboration goes beyond just slapping a label on it, though, especially for master distiller Paul Hletko. For Hletko, music has always been an important part of his life. From playing lead guitar in a band called BerBer (short for Bourbon Bourbon) to founding a pedal effects company, Custompbox, Hletko has been involved in or around music for a long time.

Need more convincing that you should pick up this spirit? What about Flaming Lips lead singer Wayne Coyne’s thoughts on the matter?

“Whiskey… it’s such a volatile drink. Upon pouring a drink It’s like accepting that you may become a werewolf … And really… Who doesn’t want to become a werewolf? Ha…”

There’s only going to be 5,000 bottles available (they’ll be selling for $124.99 each), so if you want to rock out with this rye, you might want to get yourself some soon.

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

Sam Slaughter was the Food and Drink Editor for The Manual. Born and raised in New Jersey, he’s called the South home for…

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