Latest news with #TheFlamingLips
Scotsman
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
The Flaming Lips, Edinburgh review: 'a technicolour extravaganza'
Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter, get the latest news and reviews from our specialist arts writers Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... The Flaming Lips, Usher Hall, Edinburgh ★★★★ Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips |Every Flaming Lips gig is an occasion but this show was a particular celebration of the Oklahoma alchemists' 2002 quasi-concept album Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. This joyful, thoughtful collection has inspired a stage musical, though it was hard to imagine a more vivid theatrical performance than the one delivered by the band themselves. 'Three minutes until showtime,' announced a disembodied voice which sounded a lot like frontman Wayne Coyne. Just enough time to play a Cocteau Twins track, emit some excited whoops and inflate some giant pink robots, which were manually swayed during the first song Flight Test. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips |What followed was a rapturous technicolour extravaganza, with rainbow spectrum lasers, pink robot-shaped confetti showers, a dazzling disco ball and an inflatable rainbow. Also, existential pondering on In the Morning of the Magicians, lysergic odes to sentient AI on (One More Robot) and exultant pop paeans to active love (Do You Realize??). And that was just the first half. The post-intermission jukebox choice of The Proclaimers' I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) heralded a second set of fan favourites, kicking off with singalong She Don't Use Jelly, profound in its dorkiness. Playtime props included a petal headdress to rival Peter Gabriel for cosmic country track Flowers of Neptune 6, the time-honoured human hamster ball during sci-fi miniature A Spoonful Weighs a Ton, a Wonder Woman costume for the bittersweet Waitin' For Superman, dancing sun and aliens during The Golden Path, inflatable eyeballs and lips for a turbo-charged take on The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song and many more confetti showers.
Irish Times
26-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
The Guide: Kilkenny Roots Festival, The Flaming Lips and other events to see, shows to book and ones to catch before they end
Events of the week May bank holiday weekend festivals Various times, venues and prices; websites as below From Louth to Cork, Wicklow to Galway, and Kilkenny to Belfast, more festivals are taking place in counties and towns around the island next weekend than over perhaps any other in the year. Jazz fans are well catered for at Bray International Jazz Festival (Friday-Sunday, May 2nd-4th, Co Wicklow, ) and Ballydehob Jazz Festival (Friday-Monday, May 2nd-5th, Co Cork, ). Fans of Americana should head to Kilkenny Roots Festival (Friday-Monday, May 2nd-5th, ). Multidisciplinary festivals include Drogheda Arts Festival (Friday-Sunday, May 2nd-4th, Co Louth, ), Bealtaine Festival (Thursday-Saturday, May 1st-3rd, nationwide, ) and Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival (Thursday, May 1st, until Sunday, May 11th, Belfast, ). Theatre lovers should check out the programme at Galway Theatre Festival (Friday, May 2nd, until Saturday, May 10th, ). And poetry devotees can look forward to Strokestown International Poetry Festival (Friday-Sunday, May 2nd-4th, Co Roscommon, ) and to a wealth of words on Poetry Day (Thursday, May 1st, nationwide, ). Gigs The Flaming Lips Monday, April 28th (sold out), and Tuesday, April 29th, 3Olympia Theatre, Dublin, 7pm, €61.85, The Flaming Lips After 40 years and 16 albums, and with Wayne Coyne as the sole remaining original member, The Flaming Lips do what many legacy bands fall back on when they don't have a new album on the horizon: they choose a record from their back catalogue to honour. Stretching the notion of 20th-birthday celebrations somewhat, the band's 2002 album, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, will be played in its entirety. Following almost 50 minutes of a 'lush and haunting electronic symphony', as Fortune magazine puts it, The Flaming Lips will then perform selections from other albums. West X Sound West: A Blowtorch Records Showcase Thursday, May 1st, Róisín Dubh, Galway, 6pm, €15, Adore The Galway-based indie label Blowtorch Records pitches itself as the future sound of Ireland – and with a roster that includes excellent acts such as Adore, Virgins, Nixer, The Savage Hearts, Scattered Ashes and Some Remain, it has a point. This inaugural Blowtorch showcase features those bands along with their fellow signings Innuendo, Nerves and The Swedish Railway Orchestra. The overall style, according to label head Richard Blowes, is punk, postpunk, electronica and shoegaze. 'If you're looking for singer-songwriters and chart music,' he says, 'then Blowtorch is probably not the place for you.' An Evening of Music by Ryuichi Sakamoto Thursday, May 1st, Solstice Arts Centre, Navan, Co Meath, 8pm, €20/€18, Ruth McGinley Several years before he died, in 2023, the Japanese electronic music composer Ryuichi Sakamoto said he wanted to leave a legacy of music he wouldn't be embarrassed by. He needn't have worried, of course, and he continued producing excellent work until ill health halted his creative process. Irish musicians influenced by Sakamoto include the boundary-breaking classical pianist Ruth McGinley and the innovative musician Matthew Nolan, who pay tribute to the composer with distinctive interpretations from his back catalogue. READ MORE [ Ryuichi Sakamoto obituary: electronic music pioneer behind soundtrack for film Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence Opens in new window ] Literature/poetry Read Irish Women Sunday, April 27th, Pavilion Theatre, Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin, 8pm, €20, Karina Clifford, a manager at Dubray Books, created the Read Irish Women Challenge six years ago. Her primary inspiration, she said, was reading Call Me George, Anne Enright's London Review of Books essay on the poor representation of women writers in the review pages of Irish newspapers. This year's challenge panel discussion features four Irish writers – Elaine Feeney, Sinéad Gleeson, Liz Nugent and Roisín O'Donnell – talking about existing books, forthcoming books, which books they love and have been inspired by, and many areas in between. The panel moderator is the Irish Times journalist Nadine O'Regan. Stage From a Low and Quiet Sea From Tuesday, April 29th, until Saturday, May 3rd, Gaiety Theatre, Dublin, 7.30pm, €41.05/€35.45/€26.45, Donal Ryan's 2018 novel, which was longlisted for that year's Booker Prize, was adapted for the stage in 2022 as part of Galway International Arts Festival. The play returns under the guiding hand of its director, Andrew Flynn, with Ryan's four protagonists – refugee, idealist, mother, penitent – presenting their emotionally wrought (and interconnecting) personal stories against a spartan, purposefully cloudy backdrop. Aosaf Afzal, Darragh O'Toole, Eve Bartley and Denis Conway feature. Visual a r t Staying with the Trouble From Friday, May 2nd, until Sunday, September 21st, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, free, Venus Patel Inspired by the 2016 book of the same name by the philosopher Donna Haraway, this exhibition features wide-ranging work from more than 40 Irish and Ireland-based artists that question, challenge and explore ideas of how to reconsider and restructure ways in which to balance society's complex issues with innovation and respect. The artists include Áine Mac Giolla Bhríde, Michael Kane, Venus Patel, Samir Mahmood, Elizabeth Cope and Farouk Alao. Choral Cork International Choral Festival From Wednesday, April 30th, until Sunday, May 4th, various times, venues and prices, Founded in 1954, Cork International Choral Festival has been applauded for its far-reaching and high-quality programming. The opening gala (Wednesday, April 30th, Cork City Hall, 8pm, €30/€25) features The Dream of Gerontius, by Edward Elgar, with East Cork Choral Society, the Guinness Choir and the Cork Fleischmann Symphony Orchestra. Still r unning Sarah McQuaid Tuesday, April 29th, Solstice Arts Centre, Navan, Co Meath, 8pm, €18/€16, ; Thursday, May 1st, Linenhall Arts Centre, Castlebar, Co Mayo, 8pm, €18/€16, ; Friday, May 2nd, Finn's Folk Club, Borrisoleigh, Co Tipperary, 8pm, €15, Sarah McQuaid Between village halls and arts centres, the Cornwall-based singer-songwriter Sarah McQuaid (a former resident of Dublin) regularly tours the length and breadth of Britain and Ireland, offering a community-focused presentation of durable, melodic folk music. Book it this week The Shark Is Broken, Gaiety Theatre, Dublin, May 13th-17th, Bill Callahan, NCH, Dublin, July 20th, Daniel Herskadal Trio, nationwide, October 21st-26th, Nick Helm, Sugar Club, Dublin, November 12th,
Scoop
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Scoop
OK GO'S AND THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE – The Grammy®-Winning Band's First Album In A Decade
OK Go returns with And the Adjacent Possible, the band's ambitious fifth studio album and first full-length release since 2014's Hungry Ghosts. Even for a band known for pushing boundaries, the album is wildly eclectic—postmodern and genre-dissolving, with nods to Phil Spector, Toni Visconti, and Nile Rodgers sandwiched between the fuzzy, psychedelic opener, 'Impulse Purchase,' and the meditative, Zen-like closer, 'Don't Give Up Now.' Glued together by the distinctive mixing of the band's longtime collaborator Dave Fridmann (The Flaming Lips, Spoon, Tame Impala, MGMT), the twelve tracks collectively paint a portrait of a band comfortable in its own chameleon skin. Listen to And the Adjacent Possible, released via Paracadute here: The band will deliver an extra special performance of 'Love,' its new single, on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Tuesday, April 15. Like the album's first track 'A Stone Only Rolls Downhill,' 'Love' is written from a father's perspective, but the weighty concerns of the first song give way to wonder and joy on this soaring new anthem. Advertisement - scroll to continue reading Damian Kulash says, 'You know that dream where you're somewhere familiar, maybe your childhood home, but there's a door, one that was never there before, leading to some impossible magical place? Having children did that to my understanding of love. Suddenly, a huge new ballroom opened up off of the little apartment I've inhabited so long: a whole new wing of love, grand and soaring and utterly overwhelming. It is endlessly amazing that we exist — little, conscious clusters of stardust occurring, apparently by chance, in the vast emptiness of the universe. And we get to experience love. It is unbelievable.' And since this is OK Go, of course there is a mind-melting music video. It always seems like the band can't possibly top themselves, but with today's release of the video for 'Love,' they've done it again. The single-take video features complex choreography between the band, 29 robots, and upwards of 60 mirrors to create a dazzling — and this time deeply moving — spectacle of infinite reflections and human-scale kaleidoscopes. Shot in the faded glory of a Budapest train station, the clip was concepted in partnership with creative agency SpecialGuest, co-directed by Damian Kulash, Aaron Duffy, and Miguel Espada, and produced by 1stAveMachine, with technology integration by SpecialGuestX. View the video for 'Love' here: Always looking for new ways to document their elaborate videos, OK Go's Damian Kulash, Timothy Nordwind, Andy Ross, and Dan Konopka wore Ray-Ban Meta glasses throughout the production to capture behind-the-scenes footage - watch HERE: Learn more about the Universal Robots in the video HERE: For a more in-depth behind-the-scenes documentary on the making of the video courtesy of Project Management Institute - please view HERE: 'We're always drawn to spectacle and wonder,' says Kulash, 'and the goal, this time, was to take them somewhere more heartfelt and emotional than we have before. This song is so personal for me, and the infinite reflections bouncing between two mirrors are a perfect metaphor for the kind of overwhelming, reality-shifting love that I'm singing about. Two simple things come together, and new dimensions burst from them into existence. Magic unfurls endlessly. It's the impossible, right there before you. That's the kind of wonder that can bring me to tears.' Combined views of OK Go's previous video, the stunning moving mosaic for 'A Stone Only Rolls Downhill' that features 64 videos playing across 64 phones, has already surpassed five million. Directed by Kulash and Chris Buongiorno (Star Wars: Skeleton Crew), it required more than a thousand takes, and over two hours and twenty minutes of single-take clips which are condensed into the final frame. Filmmaking magazine Shots marveled, 'Whenever a new OK Go video drops, the creative community's mixture of anticipation and professional jealousy is palpable." The album packaging also demonstrates boundless creativity and meticulous attention to detail. The first vinyl pressing, limited to 3,000, is a two-LP set on 180-gram, 45RPM discs in a foil-stamped gatefold with full-color inner sleeves. A 3-dimensional sculpture pops up when listeners open it. The packaging was designed by Yuri Suzuki and Claudio Ripol from Team Suzuki with 3D sliceform design and popup structure by Wombi Rose, Hà Trnh Quc Bo, and Emilio LaTorre for Lovepop. To listen to And the Adjacent Possible is to be taken on an emotional rollercoaster… in the best way possible. While the music is largely upbeat, the lyrics can be dark. OK Go's sardonic wit drives 'Impulse Purchase,' a playfully direct address to the algorithms that will choose its audience: 'Now, as a practical matter it's pointless/to address you directly here/Any probabilistic adjustments/will dissolve in the sea/of the everything-everyone-everywhere-ever-has-done that you swallowed before.' Even the brightly titled 'A Good, Good Day at Last' features lines like, 'Anger, she's more loyal/than her fickle sister Hope.' Yet rays of hope ('Love,' 'Don't Give Up Now') also abound. Track Listing – And the Adjacent Possible Impulse Purchase A Stone Only Rolls Downhill Love A Good, Good Day at Last Fantasy Vs. Fantasy This Is How It Ends Take Me with You Better Than This Golden Devils Once More with Feeling Going Home Don't Give Up Now
CBC
14-04-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Remembering Nell Smith and celebrating her debut album Anxious
At 13, Nell Smith made headlines for releasing an album of Nick Cave covers with one of her favourite bands, The Flaming Lips. After that, the promising young singer from Fernie, B.C., started working on her debut solo album, Anxious. But this past October, at 17, Smith's life was tragically cut short by a car accident. Now, her record has been released posthumously. Sage McBride and Tim Newton of the Fernie-based indie band Shred Kelly helped Smith write some of the music on the album. They join Tom Power to share their memories of her. WATCH | Official video for Anxious:
Yahoo
06-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
B.C. teen who worked with The Flaming Lips gets posthumous album release
Four months after she died in a car crash, Nell Smith, the B.C. teenager known for her collaboration with the Grammy Award-winning rock band The Flaming Lips, has had her first solo album announced. The album, Anxious, is scheduled to be released by Brighton, U.K.,-based record label Bella Union April 11. According to the label, profits from the album sales will go toward a memorial fund established to support young, emerging artists. Smith's parents, Jude Smith and Rachel Cline, told CBC Daybreak South host Chris Walker that listening to the new album was challenging, so soon after their daughter's death. The test pressings arrived at their home in Fernie, B.C., a couple weeks ago. "We got kind of excited, I think, to get them, but then we opened it up and we just left them. It just suddenly brought up too much for us. We just couldn't listen to them," said Cline. Their 13-year-old son eventually convinced them to the play the album. "It was really tough. I haven't listened to it again," said Cline. "It's a lot right now." Flaming Lips collaboration When Smith was 13, she cut nine tracks with The Flaming Lips in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. The tracks make up the album Where the Viaduct Looms — all of which are Nick Cave covers. The album was released in 2021 and earned praise from Cave, as well as a musical appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. WATCH | Nell Smith performs with The Flaming Lips: The collaboration's origins go back to when Smith was just 10 years old and attending The Flaming Lips concerts with her father. She was eventually noticed by the band's lead singer, Wayne Coyne, who connected with her and her family. WATCH | Nell Smith at a Flaming Lips concert: Coyne suggested the collaboration and chose the Nick Cave songs he thought Smith should cover. She emailed him the vocal tracks to be backed up by the band in Oklahoma. Anxious Smith was struggling as a teen during the pandemic, according to her mother, which is reflected in the new solo album. "There's lots of songs on the album about relationships, teenage life — you know, the title track of the album is Anxious. She suffered from a lot of anxiety and worrying," Cline said, adding that the album — in contrast with the The Flaming Lips collaboration — took a long time to complete. "She was really worried about people judging her and that this album wouldn't be liked and a feeling of failure around things. I think the thing that's so sad is she's not going to get to see the positive reaction when this album actually comes out." WATCH | Nell Smith's title track off the soon-to-be-released debut solo album, Anxious: Memorial fund Smith's parents have created a fund in their daughter's name, the Nell Smith Memorial Fund, with the hope that it helps keep her memory alive. They're aiming to raise $100,000 so they can distribute $10,000 per year to young, emerging artists. Cline said the idea came from their experience helping their daughter apply for grants to get her musical career started.
