The Flaming Lips

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Though it may still officially be winter, it is starting to feel a bit like spring as an increasing number of music festivals announce their 2011 lineups. This week brings us the announcement for the 10th annual Sasquatch! Festival located in Washington State at the breathtaking Gorge Amphitheatre. Sasquatch! caters to up and coming indie and electro acts, as well as those bands that established the genres. Out of the 92 acts, there’s an emphasis on Pacific Northwest artists, and there’s a comedy tent, which is sweet, ‘cause we love funny stuff. The festival sells out every year, with 50K music lovers making the pilgrimage to the center of the state; the small town of George, WA on the Columbia River. Headliners include Foo Fighters on the heels of a new album, WA acts Death Cab for Cutie and Modest Mouse. Indie granddaddies Wilco will make an appearance, as will Rodrogo Y Gabriela and The Flaming Lips, both back for their second go-round (in 2008 The Lips brought their UFO show and it was bananas). Portland, Oregon’s Decemberists and Bright Eyes, as well as Ireland’s folk punksters Flogging Molly are all coming to the party, too. Even Canadians Death from Above 1979 are reforming and descending from the Great White North. The emphasis on electro-rock excites us and there are a lot of acts about which we are pumped. Swedish muse Robyn, DJ genre-blurer Bassnectar, and duos Ratatat, MSTRKRFT and Chromeo have us all a-twitter. On the groove- side is Seattle’s own Wheedle’s Groove band, funkateers of the highest caliber from 1965-1975, as well as vocal powerhouse, Ms. Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings. -Court

Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne recently told Rolling Stone that the Oklahoma trio will soon hit the studio and plans to release new songs every month in 2011. It can be a challenge to keep fans engaged; providing a new track each month, augmented by video of the writing and recording process, provides rare insight into any band’s psyche. "We’re going to spend a lot of time recording at our houses or wherever we are at. We'll try to release a song a month and document the song in the making, whether it takes us three or five days or a week," Coyne explained. "Not that I think the old way was boring, but to spend another two years with the same 13 songs, it's just like f**k!! Once we get 11 or 12 songs together, maybe we'll do something else with it. We want to try to live through our music as we create it, instead of it being a collection of the last couple years of our lives," he said. "We'll be making these little videos that connect in the end to a bigger movie we'll be making next year as well. It sounds like a bunch of f**king work, but it’s a different way of thinking about songs than just holing up." On New Year's Eve, the Flaming Lips brought their one-of-a-kind psychedelic live show to Oklahoma City's Convention Center for an iClips webcast of their 1999 disarmingly beautiful classic, The Soft Bulletin, in its entirety. -Court

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