When you’re on little-to-no sleep, it’s amazing how annoying all of Wayne Coyne’s boundlessly enthusiastic creative energy can be. I just saw his tweet from the other day about The Flaming Lips’ fifth annual New Year’s Freakout thingy with its nine or so exclamation points, and it literally made me wince and reach for my coffee. I mean, I love the guy and all, but can’t a guy just be unexcited about one of these kooky Lips schemes for once? But anyway, yeah, they’re doing two shows this year, December 31 and January 1, at the Bricktown Events Center in Oklahoma City. Oh, and speaking of tiring, they’re bringing Yoko Ono’s Plastic Ono Band with them. According to their publicist, the band is going to “pull out all the stops with MORE of everything” (then there’s an exclamation point at the end of that sentence, but like I said earlier, I’m not typing that). “More confetti, more balloons, massive volume, and maximum weirdness.” God, guys.
Oh, and speaking of obnoxious, there’ll be a bunch of crazy and exclusive merch available at this thing, including: some gummy fetuses that contain a USB drive with three new songs on it that I’m sure are probably loud (“Enthusiasm For Life Defeats Existential Fear Part 2,” “Steven’s Moonbow,” and “Squishy Glass”); some gummy skulls that contain “The Soft Bulletin: Live La Fantastique de Institution 2011”; a “mesmerizing light illusion toy,” The Strobo Trip, which also includes a USB drive with three exclusive tunes (“Butterfly, How Long It Takes To Die,” the six-hour “I Found A Star On The Ground,” and “Evil Minds”); and probably more stuff that’s equally obnoxious to the sleep-deprived. Tickets are $100 per night or $150 for both nights, and each ticket gets you into the afterparty at The Womb (which will feature, according to Coyne, “naked movies,” “paranoid soundscapes,” and Stardeath and White Dwarfs “playing an electric sunrise interpretation of Mahler’s 9th Symphony” so that you can stay awake even fucking longer). The band recommends you get your tickets at this place over here. Whew, alright. Made it to the end of this. Goodnight, everybody. Sorry, Wayne.
• Flaming Lips: http://www.flaminglips.com
• Warner: http://www.warnerbrosrecords.com
