at Marymoor Park

The Flaming Lips are a piece of the beginning of a very long musical story for me. Country girl moves to city, meets guy in Tripping Daisy shirt, gets musical education and learns some hard lessons about life. That Tripping Daisy guy brought over the Soft Bulletin record, and my life really was never the same again. I can recount many nights spent with my best friend in my Camaro, seats laid back all the way, smoking a joint and marveling over Soft Bulletin or Clouds Taste Metallic. I've spent all these years pining for the Flaming Lips, embracing all their weird projects (hi Zaireeka) and geeking out on each release they put out. Finally seeing them perform, and in a venue so beautiful and comfy as Marymoor Park, was the culmination of all those years of anticipation.

Stardeath & White Dwarfs, the opener, is an Oklahoma band as well and the lead singer just happens to be Wayne Coyne's nephew Dennis. I give absolute props to them on the fact that they opened their set with "Sweet Loaf" from the Butthole Surfers. That song set the tone for the rest of the set, swirling psychedelia punctuated by seizure-inducing disco light flashes. The raspy-voiced Dennis sported nifty white jumper pants with suspenders, channeling classic rock mainstays like Black Sabbath or Pink Floyd, with a sprinkle of the weirdness of Can. Topping off their set was an overly dramatic and bro-rocky cover of Madonna's "Borderline", which would have probably been better left to queen of pop herself.

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We're counting down to Bumbershoot - but that hasn't stopped the weekends full of shows leading up to the big Labor Day fest.

Imaginary Shrie saw the Flaming Lips {words and photos to be posted soon!}, and {one of my favorites} No-Fi Soul Rebellion was at the Sunset... what did you do to mark Friday, Saturday and Sunday?

Thanks to nlarzalere for the Photo of the Day, a fab Flaming Lips photo in the Flickr Photo Pool!

I would be really really upset if I lived my whole fabulous life and never took the opportunity to see The Flaming Lips. From those early psychadelic garage-rock days to the immaculately produced and executed work of the last few years, they are a constant wonderment to me. Not only are their albums some of the most noted in indie rock, but the down-to-earthness of their personalities (as seen through the phenomeal docu-realness Fearless Freaks) and their continued sonic genius make them hard to put down.

A perfect venue for a near-perfect band, I'm positive that Marymoor Park will help put The Lips' best foot forward on Friday night (August 21st). I'm excited to experience their antics, be they Hatorade for the Arcade Fire or the NEW King of Pop outfitted in a fetching dolphin suit, I'll be there to soak it all up.

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As someone who has yet to see The Flaming Lips live, I get kind of tired of hearing accounts from my friends of how transcendent their shows are. I assure you this fatigue stems entirely from jealousy.

Enough about me, though, because you could care less about my pettiness and we have more important things to discuss. We have a pair of tickets to give away to a (very) lucky reader. The drill is that you need to send an e-mail to tig@threeimaginarygirls.com sometime prior to 9am on August 3rd with "FlamingLips" (all one word) in the subject line. The winner will, of course, be notified shortly thereafter to give you plenty of time before the August 21 show at Marymoor Park to brag to your neighbors, coworkers, postmen and women, et al.

What will The Flaming Lips show entail? Dancing Justin Timberlakes in dolphin costumes? Shit-talk about The Arcade Fire?

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Judging by how fast tickets for The Shins' and Iron and Wine's two night stands sold out, everyone loves their schmindie. So, as a public service announcement, I'm compiling some schmindie-related news stories in one neat post.

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As if Yo La Tengo, Built to Spill, Jesus Lizard and Tortoise weren't enough.. the brilliant minds (or not so) behind the lauded Pitchfork Music Festival have added the infamous Flaming Lips to the Sunday ender show, "Write the Night: Set Lists By Request". Ticketholders will be emailed a link to a website in which they can vote on which song they'd like to be played by each band. 

Setlist decided by audience!!! ("Kim's Watermelon Gun", "When You Smile", "A Spoonful Weighs A Ton"! I can't decide.)

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It's a war of words between Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips and Win Butler of The Arcade Fire. Who wins? Gossip fans like us.

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Seattle has some of the most picturesque vistas (most of which are found within local clubs like Chop Suey and the Comet Tavern). It's no surprise that TIG photographer Kyle Johnson has a stack of photos he loves that have been taken by some of Seattle's finest photographers.

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TIG photographer Kyle Johnson has been quite busy this year. Taking the impeccable press and editorial photos as well as covering shows and festivals for TIG, Kyle has amassed a great portfolio for 2008.

Here's a recap of his personal favs from the past year.

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The Flaming Lips never surprise me, but always amaze me. That kooky shaggy-haired cutie Wayne Coyne has a bag of goodies for us... the long awaited "Christmas on Mars" is finally here!

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