Video: The Flaming Lips featuring Erykah Badu and Siri “Now I Understand”
Is it April yet?
On this drowsy Tuesday, I’m posting some of the music that’s keeping me awake, including this clip of The Flaming Lips’ recent collaboration with Erykah Badu, also featuring the voice of the iPhone 4S.
The Lips have been working on a number collaborations with other artists for an album due on Record Store Day, which is April 21. Along with Badu, others with whom the Lips have been working include Yoko Ono, Bon Iver, Nick Cave, Ke$ha and Lykke Li.
-BAM
Wednesday Video Spotlight: HOTT MT featuring Wayne Coyne, “Never Hate Again”
I know it’s early in the year, but this may just be one of the best music stories of 2012.
On the morning of his 51st birthday (Jan. 13), Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne answered the door at his Oklahoma City home to find three strangers bearing a gift: Nick Logie of the Los Angeles alt-rock quintet Telegram, his girlfriend Ashleigh Allard, and their friend Adam Ashe were holding an extravagantly packaged copy of an album Logie and Allard had just finished recording, according to Spin.com.
Coyne tweeted a photo of the trio along with the note, “Some weirdos showed up on my porch … They drove all the way from LA to bring me a birthday gift!!!”
The Lips leader – who gets visitors but doesn’t encourage them – did more than just tweet about the visit: He invited them in and according to Logie, “He said, ‘You guys look like weirdos! Come inside, just please don’t kill me.’ ”
The visit turned into a four-night stay in which the trio – a psych-pop side project Logie and Allard launched called HOTT MT (Hour of the Time, Majesty Twelve) – and Coyne wrote a song and recorded the music video called “Never Hate Again,” which basically tells a skewed version of the real story.
The Lips are known for their eagerness to collaborate with many and varied fellow musicians, but that is just over the top.
I adore this story, guys, and the song is pretty rad, too. It’s like reason number 1,273 to love the Lips!
-BAM
John Mellencamp, Arlo Guthrie to headline Tulsa’s Woody Guthrie Centennial Celebration in March
Woody Guthrie (AP file)
The L.A.-based Grammy Museum, in conjunction with Woody Guthrie Publications Inc. and the Woody Guthrie Archives, announced today details about their plans to commemorate the life and career of Oklahoma folk music legend Woody Guthrie in Tulsa.
Designed to celebrate Guthrie’s extraordinary body of work and impact on American music, Tulsa’s Woody Guthrie Centennial Celebration will take place March 5-11 and will include an exhibition, educational programming, a conference at The University of Tulsa and a tribute concert headlined by John Mellencamp and Guthrie’s son Arlo Guthrie.
Arlo Guthrie (Photo by Bryan Terry, The Oklahoman Archives)
Tickets to the concert, which also will feature The Flaming Lips, Hanson, Rosanne Cash, Del McCoury Band, Old Crow Medicine Show, Tim O’Brien and Jimmy LaFave, will go on sale Saturday, Feb. 4.
Special exhibition
Kicking off the Tulsa celebration is the launch of the new exhibition “Woody at One Hundred: The Woody Guthrie Centennial Celebration 1912-2012,” sponsored by the George Kaiser Family Foundation.
Curated by The Grammy Museum and the Woody Guthrie Archives, the exhibit will open at Gilcrease Museum on Feb. 5 and remain on view through April 29. The exhibition will consist of a broad array of Guthrie’s lyrics, journals, original artwork and ephemera from the Okemah native’s life, according to the announcement.
As part of the special exhibit, Guthrie’s original draft of the alternative American anthem “This Land is Your Land” will be on display for the first time in Oklahoma. Additionally, a week-long series of educational programming, produced by The Grammy Museum, will support the exhibition.
As a special addition to the programming, the cast of the musical “Woody Sez” will perform at Tulsa elementary schools throughout the week.
“We are delighted that Gilcrease Museum has been selected as the venue for the debut of the exhibition celebrating the life and body of work of Woody Guthrie. The exhibition will offer the public its first glimpse into the Guthrie Archives recently acquired by the George Kaiser Family Foundation,” said Duane H. King, Ph.D., Executive Director of Gilcrease Museum, in the announcement.
The George Kaiser Family Foundation, a Tulsa-based charitable organization, purchased the Woody Guthrie Archives in 2011 from Woody Guthrie Publications in New York and plans to create a permanent home for the archives and make Guthrie’s collection available for research and education in downtown Tulsa.
Educational Conference
“Different Shades of Red,” the March 10 University of Tulsa conference, will explore Woody Guthrie’s Oklahoma roots. It will feature three panels, each with three speakers. The panels include “A Culture of Protest,” which examines the political and cultural environment that shaped Guthrie’s views; “Red Dirt Roots,” which considers Guthrie’s musical influences; and “Echoes of Woody,” which addresses Guthrie’s legacy as it pertains to the Dust Bowl and Depression-era Oklahoma.
“For far too long, Woody Guthrie’s contributions have not been fully appreciated in his home state of Oklahoma. Now, 100 years after his birth, we are able to honor his musical legacy, explore his societal contributions and truly appreciate this iconic piece of state – and national – history right here in the Heartland. The University of Tulsa is thrilled to kick off this yearlong celebration of Guthrie’s multifaceted life,” said Brian Hosmer, H.G. Barnard Associate Professor of Western American History at TU, in the announcement.
For more information and to register for the conference, go to www.utulsa.edu/guthrie. Registration is $40 and includes lunch. National radio commentator and bestselling author Jim Hightower will deliver the keynote address. Students may register for $15 and must show a valid ID at check-in.
Tribute concert
The apex of the Tulsa celebration will take place on Saturday evening, March 10, with
John Mellencamp (AP file)
the first installment of “This Land Is Your Land ~ The Woody Guthrie Centennial Celebration Concert” at the historic Brady Theater. John Mellencamp, Arlo Guthrie, Rosanne Cash, Del McCoury Band, The Flaming Lips, Old Crow Medicine Show, Hanson, Tim O’Brien and Jimmy LaFave will perform classic Woody Guthrie songs at the star-studded event.
Ticket prices range from $45 to $250 and will go on sale to the general public at 10 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 4, at www.protixonline.com.
People who register for the March 10 TU educational conference by Friday, Feb. 3, will have a special opportunity to purchase advance tickets to the benefit concert.
“The goal of The Woody Guthrie Centennial Celebration is not just to pay tribute to Guthrie’s obvious contributions to American music, but to also broaden the national understanding of his cultural impact,” said Grammy Museum Executive Director Bob Santelli in the announcement. “The lineup scheduled for the Brady Theater show in Tulsa speaks volumes about Guthrie’s influence. It’s truly an honor to be producing this all-star event.”
Woody Guthrie was born July 14, 1912, in Okemah. The prolific songwriter, folk musician and crusader for social justice died Oct. 3, 1967, from complications of Huntington’s disease but not before having a vast impact on American music and culture.
The Woody Guthrie Centennial Celebration is one of the largest and most comprehensive centennial celebrations ever staged for an American music icon. For the most up-to-date information and a complete schedule of events for the nationwide Woody Guthrie Centennial Celebration, go to www.woody100.com.
-BAM
Wednesday Video Spotlight: Flaming Lips and Nels Cline cover The Beatles at Oklahoma City’s New Year’s Eve Freakout #5
The word “epic” gets tossed around a lot these days, but I can’t just think of a more appropriate adjective to describe this 17-minute cover of The Beatles’ awesome blues-rocker “I Want You (She’s So Heavy),” which The Flaming Lips and Wilco guitarist Nels Cline performed during the Lips’ New Year’s Eve Freakout #5 at Oklahoma City’s Coca Cola Bricktown Events Center.
Thanks to George Salisbury and the visual geniuses at Delo Creative (including one-time BAM’s Blog contributors Nathan Poppe and Matt Carney) for sharing the video, since it absolutely made my day.
Besides the obvious musical value, Poppe promises that if you watch the entire 17-minute epic, you get to make a wish at the end. No wishing for more wishes ’cause that’s just copying me.
-BAM
Flaming Lips collaborative album to include Bon Iver, Nick Cave, Yoko Ono and more
The Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne performs at the New Year's Eve Freakout #5 at the Coca Cola Bricktown Events Center in Oklahoma City. (Garett Fisbeck, The Oklahoman)
Oklahoma City-based psychedelic rockers The Flaming Lips are bringing the collaborative spirit they embraced in 2011 into the New Year.
Lips frontman Wayne Coyne tells Rolling Stone that the band is finishing up a new album that features collaborations with a dizzying array of musical stars.
Yoko Ono performs at The Flaming Lips' New Year's Eve Freakout #5 in Oklahoma City. (Garett Fisbeck, The Oklahoman)
The band already has recorded collaborations with their hometown New Year’s Eve Freakout #5 cohorts Yoko Ono and the Plastic Ono Band and Neon Indian. They’ve also already recorded with Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros.
Coyne tells the magazine the Lips also have been in contact with Australian musician Nick Cave and have already sent him a track to work on.
In addition, Coyne says the band definitely will be working with Grammy-nominated indie folk band Bon Iver. Coyne says the Lips expect to receive two tracks from Bon Iver singer-songwriter Justin Vernon any day now.
The Lips are still trying to get Ke$ha, Lykke Li and Erykah Badu on board for the project, says Coyne.
In addition, Coyne gushed about the New Year’s Freakout, the band’s two-night musical extravaganza that this year featured Yoko Ono and took place at the Coca Cola Bricktown Events Center:
“It was better than I could have dreamed of,” he tells Rolling Stone. “[Ono] was wonderful and gracious.”
For a possible preview of the upcoming collaborative album, check out this video of the Lips performing with Neon Indian at the New Year’s Day Freakout in OKC:
-BAM
Video: The Flaming Lips cover The Beatles’ “I Am the Walrus”
On Wednesday, I shared video highlights of Oklahoma City-based psychedelic rockers The Flaming Lips’ New Year’s Eve Freakout #5, which was last weekend at the Coca Cola Bricktown Events Center. The two-night extravaganza – which included NYE and New Year’s Day shows – featured Yoko Ono, Sean Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band.
Highlights of the show included covers of The Beatles’ “Strawberry Fields” and “Happy Xmas (War Is Over),” the famed holiday anthem Ono wrote and recorded with her late husband, John Lennon. Some fans who attended the show have kindly posted videos from the show for our viewing enjoyment, and as a follow-up, this video of the Lips performing The Beatles’ “I Am the Walrus” at the Pink Floor Studio in Oklahoma City has been brought to my attention.
Check out The Oklahoman’s review of the NYE show by special correspondent Joshua Boydston by clicking here. Or see photos of the Freakout #5 taken for The Oklahoman by Garrett Fisbeck, click here.
-BAM
Photo gallery: Flaming Lips’ New Year’s Eve Freakout #5 in Oklahoma City
- Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon, the widow and son of the late, great Beatle John Lennon, join the Flaming Lips on stage during the Flaming Lips New’s Year’s Freakout #5 at the Coca Cola Event Center in Oklahoma City, Saturday, Dec. 31, 2011. Photo by Garett Fisbeck, The Oklahoman
Oklahoma City-based psychedelic rockers The Flaming Lips performed their fifth annual New Year’s Eve Freakout last weekend at the Coca Cola Bricktown Events Center. The two-night extravaganza – which included NYE and New Year’s Day shows – featured Yoko Ono, Sean Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band.
Check out these great photos taken for The Oklahoman by Garrett Fisbeck.
Highlights of the show included covers of The Beatles’ “Strawberry Fields” and “Happy Xmas (War Is Over),” the famed holiday anthem Ono wrote and recorded with her late husband, John Lennon. Plus, Lips manager Scott Booker presented Ono with a proclamation from Mayor Mick Cornett declaring NYE “”Yokolahoma City Day” in Oklahoma City.
To see a few fans videos from the show, click here.
Check out The Oklahoman’s review of the NYE show by special correspondent Joshua Boydston by clicking here.
Scott Booker, Flaming Lips manager, presents Mayor Mick Cornett's proclamation that Dec. 31w ill be known as "Yokolahoma City Day" during the Flaming Lips New's Year's Freakout #5 at the Coca Cola Event Center in Oklahoma City, Saturday, Dec. 31, 2011.
Wayne Coyne, of the Flaming Lips, rolls around the crowd in his "space ball."
The crowd celebrates as The Flaming Lips perform during the Flaming Lips New's Year's Freakout #5.
Yoko Ono performs during the Freakout.
Yoko Ono sings during the Freakout.
Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne is all smiles.
Wayne Coyne sings during The Flaming Lips' set.
Wednesday Video Spotlight: Highlights of The Flaming Lips New Year’s Eve Freakout #5 featuring Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon
Oklahoma City-based psychedelic rockers The Flaming Lips performed their fifth annual New Year’s Eve Freakout last weekend at the Coca Cola Bricktown Events Center. The two-night extravaganza – which included NYE and New Year’s Day shows – featured Yoko Ono, Sean Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band.
Highlights of the show included covers of The Beatles’ “Strawberry Fields” and “Happy Xmas (War Is Over),” the famed holiday anthem Ono wrote and recorded with her late husband, John Lennon. Some fans who attended the show have kindly posted videos from the show for our viewing enjoyment.
Check out The Oklahoman’s review of the NYE show by special correspondent Joshua Boydston by clicking here.
-BAM
13 Days of Oklahoma Music: The Flaming Lips experiment through 2011, play annual hometown Freakout tonight and Sunday
Since it’s the last day of 2011, this is the final installment of my “13 Days of Oklahoma Music,” a video series looking back at musical milestones reached by recording artists with state ties in the year almost past.
More than ever, Oklahoma City-based psychedelic rockers The Flaming Lips engaged in wild musical, visual and merchandising experimentation in 2011.
They’ve recorded six- and 24-hour-long songs, music on hard drives and USB drives encased in gummy fetuses, $5,000 real human skulls and strobe light toys.The Lips also have collaborated with Neon Indian, Prefuse 73 and Lightning Bolt.
The Lips’ latest collaboration involves Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon (widow and son of the late, great John Lennon), along with the Plastic Ono Band, with whom their playing their hometown New Year’s Freakout #5.
Now a two-night extravaganza, the fifth Freakout is set for 8 p.m. today and Sunday at the Coca Cola Bricktown Events Center, 425 E California. Tonight’s show is sold out, but tickets are still available at www.ticketstorm.com for Sunday’s show. Tonight’s after-party has been moved to the OKC Farmers Market, 311 S Klein, after the OKC fire marshal nixed plans to have it in the new Womb gallery, which Lips frontman Wayne Coyne co-owns. For more information, click here.
Along with playing the Freakout together, the Lips and Plastic Ono Band have been working on a four-song collaboration, which includes a Christmas song called “Atlas Eets Christmas.” The new recording will be on sale at the New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day shows.
Sean Lennon also helped the Lips on their six-hour song “Found a Star on the Ground,” which raised $20,000 for two Oklahoma charities.
“Well, we had played some shows with Sean Lennon’s group, the Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger,” Lips leader Wayne Coyne told The Oklahoman’s Gene Triplett in a recent phone interview. “We only played like five or six shows together. But you know, you travel around together, you do sound checks together, you’re in each other’s hotels partyin’ and stuff. And they’re just really wonderful, you know? Especially to think of all the people in the world who could be (screwed)-up sons and daughters of very famous, iconic people. He’s just a normal, real sharp, cool, you know, fun person to be around.”
Check out this and more of the Lips’ memorable musical experiments of 2011:
-BAM
UPDATED: Video: OKC Farmers Market to host Flaming Lips’ Freakout after-party after fire marshal rejects party plans at the Womb gallery
UPDATE: The Flaming Lips and Womb have posted on their Facebook pages this YouTube video confirming that the Lips’ after-party as well as the planned art exhibit opening at the Womb have been moved to the OKC Farmers Market.
Oklahoma City psychedelic rockers The Flaming Lips are scrambling to find a new venue for the after-parties they were planning to go along with their New Year’s Freakout #5.
The Oklahoman’s Business Writer Steve Lackmeyer, one of my excellent colleagues, reports that the Oklahoma City fire marshal issued a cease-and-desist order issued Thursday afternoon at the Womb, an eclectic art gallery operated by Lips frontman Coyne and artists Rick Sinnet and Jake Harms.
The gallery, 25 NW 9, was to host the Flaming Lips, Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon (the widow and son of the late John Lennon), and members of The Plastic Ono Band following their joint concert performances New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day at the Bricktown Event Center. Admission to the gallery parties was included in tickets sold for the shows at the Coca Cola Bricktown Events Center, which can accommodate about 1,500 concert-goers.
Fire Chief Keith Bryant said inspectors visited the gallery Thursday after an inquiry by the police department, which was responding to an anonymous complaint about the party.
“We looked at it from a fire code perspective,” Bryant told Steve.
“The party that is planned, the building they plan to hold it in, doesn’t meet current fire codes in terms of public assembly. It’s still listed as a garage. It still needs a sprinkler system, alarms and exits. We visited the building, found out there was a lot of work being done, but no permits pulled out from the city, no permits for a special event.”
Sinnett confirmed this morning that they were not able to reach an agreement with city officials that would allow for the Womb to stay open for the parties and art showing. He told Steve that efforts are under way to relocate the event to the Oklahoma City Farmers Market, 311 S Klein. To learn more, check out the NewsOK video posted above.
The after-parties at the Womb, which opened earlier this year, were among the many changes made to the Lips’ fifth annual hometown New Year’s concert. The biggest change was in the venue of the concerts. In previous years, the Lips performed their New Year’s Eve show in the Cox Convention Center, but this year’s event will be moved into the much smaller Bricktown Events Center.
Now a two-night extravaganza, the fifth Freakout is set for 8 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 31 and Sunday, Jan. 1 at the Bricktown Events Center, 425 E California. The Flaming Lips and The Plastic Ono Band will play both nights, Phantogram will play on NYE only, and Neon Indian will perform on New Year’s Day only.
Tickets for this year’s Freakout also are pricier than past years: This year, tickets are $100 for one night or $150 for both shows. Many Lips fans have complained online about the price increase.
“I would say, to some people that is gonna be a lot of money and they’re not gonna be able to afford it,” Coyne told The Oklahoman’s Entertainment Editor Gene Triplett, my award-winning boss.
“But I would also say that just because there are things in the world that you can’t afford, that doesn’t make them bad. We know that we’re playing to a smaller audience by playing at the Coca-Cola Center, and it almost demands that you charge more money, but I think it’s a better show. Everybody gets great, great seats, everybody gets to be there at these shows and at these parties.”
He was referring to the all-night after-parties that were planned at the Womb following each night’s show. The band’s plan was to let all ticketholders for the concerts into the parties.
“Sean and Yoko Ono and all of our friends, and all of Oklahoma City that deems music and getting together important, will be there,” Coyne told Gene before the flap with the fire marshal started. “And it’ll be wonderful. … The Flaming Lips will play other shows, perhaps, but I don’t know if they’ll ever be able to play again with Yoko Ono and Sean. You know, to play Christmas songs together and stuff, it’s a pretty special moment.”
All the hoopla surrounding the after-parties aside, the NYE and Jan. 1 shows are still on, and the Lips are presumably still planning to sell recordings of their four-song collaboration with Ono, Lennon and their cohorts. Similar to the team-ups the Lips have already released in 2011 with Neon Indian, Prefuse 73 and Lightning Bolt, the recording will include a collaborative Christmas song titled “Atlas Eets Christmas,” Gene reports.
“The minute they kind of started to hint that they were going to be able to do the New Year’s Eve shows with us, I immediately thought, well, let’s do a recording that we can just put out at the same time,” Coyne told Gene. “Because you know it has to be a songwriter’s dream in a sense, to be able to do a Christmas song where, again, you’re the person with Yoko, doing this great message of peace and love to the world.
“And I don’t want anybody to say it or to write about it, feeling like we’re the entity of the John Lennons in the song with Yoko. To me it’s just a song, especially a Christmas song with such an iconic entity who’s always been about this message of tolerance and peace and love and all that. That’s just in another realm. You just don’t think that’s gonna happen.”
Although the New Year’s Eve show is sold out, tickets for the New Year’s Day show are still on sale at www.ticketstorm.com.
-BAM
