The Flaming Lips are planning a theatrical production of their classic album ‘Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots’.
Speaking to Billboard, Lips frontman Wayne Coyne said "It'll be a big chunk of Flaming Lips music, probably about 30 songs. It's a big deal. It's hokey and wonderful and poignant and powerful. It's really become a perfect combination of my fantastical robot-world vision and [director Des McAnuff's] little, internal, humanistic version of what that music is. I really believe it could work -- and luckily I don't have to do much!”
Des McAnuff is no stranger to working on theatrical productions of albums. He was the mastermind behind The Who’s ‘Tommy’, as well as the much more recent international hit Jersey Boys, which told the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.
The Lips aren’t just looking back to 2002 this year. They have plans to put out music in all sorts of weird and wonderful ways, including flexi-discs (remember them?) which will appear on cereal boxes and even in an issue of Mad Magazine.
In the same Billboard interview, Coyne said he didn’t want to make the band’s music impossible to get.
“We're not making our music less available," he says. "We want people to have it. And we know that if we put it on iTunes, virtually at the same moment someone will post it and it becomes out there and available virtually for free, but we still want it to be heard.”
Fans in North America, South America and Europe can check out The Flaming Lips at any of the following shows:
APRIL
3 - Lollapalooza, Santiago, Chile
5 - Estadio Geba, Buenos Aires, Argentina
29 - Beale Street Music Festival, Memphis, TN
MAY
13 - The Fillmore, Detroit, MI
14 - Nelsonville Music Festival, Nelsonville, OH
15 - The National, Richmond, VA
17 - The Fillmore Charlotte, NC
18 - Ryman Auditorium, Nashville, TN
19 - The Tabernacle, Atlanta, GA
20 - The Tabernacle, Atlanta GA
20 - Hangout Music Festival, Gulf Shores, AL
25 - Primavera Sound Festival, Barcelona, Spain
27 - Sasquatch! Music Festival, Quincy, WA
JUNE
4 - Forbidden Fruit Festival, Dublin, Ireland
10 - Harmony Festival, Santa Rosa, CA
17 - The Boulevard Pool at the Cosmopolitan, Las Vegas, NV
24 - Dave Matthews Band Caravan, Atlantic City, NJ
30 - Eden Project, Cornwall, UK
JULY
2 - Jodrell Bank, Manchester, UK
7 - The Aragon Ballroom, Chicago, IL
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