Formed in Oklahoma City, OK in 1983, The Flaming Lips have since become one of the most iconic, influential, unpredictable, and vital forces in American alternative rock music. The band has garnered three GRAMMY® Awards, a Tony nomination, and an RIAA Gold-certified Record for Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. Q Magazine named them one of the “50 Bands to See Before You Die.” The band has made countless late night television appearances, appeared in a Super Bowl commercial, contributed to many film soundtracks, and collaborated with artists such as Miley Cyrus, Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Kacey Musgraves, Yoko Ono, The Chemical Brothers, and so many more. They have set countless records, broken records, created spectacular interactive audio/visual events now regarded as legendary.
Frontman Wayne Coyne has been recognized for works of art that graced many LIPS album covers along with his traveling art exhibit “The King’s Mouth,” an audiovisual art installation that has been featured in many contemporary art museums around the US. Their latest LP, American Head, marks a return to a more melodic and song-oriented body of work and has critically been lauded as their best work in years placing on several Year End/Best Of lists around the world. Even after a combination of 22 studio recordings, 16 singles, 11 compilations, 11 EP’s and 11 self-released experimental collaborative oddities released in various forms, quantities and unique mediums, The Flaming Lips remain in a creative apex that has no bounds. To that end, they have become an American Treasure and created a genre all to themselves.
Having recently completed another successful run with Pixies and Cat Power, Modest Mouse continues to prove themselves to be one of the most consistent live acts today. Modest Mouse released their highly anticipated new album, The Golden Casket, on June 25, 2021 via Epic Records. The Golden Casket heralds another new chapter in the GRAMMY® Award-nominated multi platinum band’s unpredictable evolution. Produced with Dave Sardy and Jacknife Lee in Los Angeles and in Modest Mouse’s studio in Portland, the album hovers in the liminal space between raw punk power and experimental studio science, frontman Isaac Brock explores themes ranging from the degradation of our psychic landscapes and invisible technology, to fatherhood. The twelve tracks behave like amorphous organisms, undergoing dramatic mutations and mood swings that speak to the chronic tug-of-war between hope and despair that plays out in Brock’s head.