Isn’t it funny to watch Warner Bros. Records flail around to try and promote oddball acts like The Flaming Lips these days in the hopes that they’ll somehow sell 10,000,000 records? Case in point, to coincide with this week’s release of The Flaming Lips’ freaky new abandoned-moonbase-under-water-sounding double-LP Embryonic (TMT Review), Warner will be doing their best hungry, DIY label imitation by opening a pop-up store this Thursday, October 15. The one-day-only store, located at the NIKE/Ricardo Montalban Theater at 1615 Vine St. in Los Angeles, will feature all kinds of exotic and special-edition Lips gear, including CDs, vinyl, the Embryonic "Furry Package" (which features a bonus DVD and fur box), and goodness knows what else. Though I guess if there’s any place where it makes sense to sell “furry packages” on the street, L.A. would be the place.
And once they get over the weird suspicion that they must be on drugs, (sure, you might be tripping, but that store over there is as real as... well, as real as Empiricism will allow, at least. Why not stop licking that lamppost over there and mosey over to browse some limited-edition Lips gear?) visitors to the surreptitious store will also have a chance to win tickets to see The Flaming Lips at one of them there MySpace secret show things where a big old band plays a secret show at a small, undisclosed venue (not-so-subtle hint: it's at the Ricardo Montalban Theater, which holds 1,200 people). Tickets for this show are being distributed on a first-come, first-served basis as soon as the store opens. Remember MySpace?? Hop to it, Californians!
For the rest of us, Embryonic is out today, and the band will be making a special musical appearance on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien tonight to promote the freak-flag-flying record... because THIS ALBUM’S GOING PLATINUM, DAMNIT.
