OKC mayor reads proclamation honoring The Flaming Lips at hometown show
Formed in OKC in 1983, the Grammy winners commemorated their 40th anniversary as a band with two hometown Labor Day weekend shows Aug. 30-31.
Night 1 of The Flaming Lips‘ free, two-night 2024 “Summer Freak Out,” a hometown celebration of the iconic band’s 40th anniversary at Oklahoma City’s Zoo Amphitheatre, will be released as a live album on Nov. 28, which is Black Friday.
One of the exclusive offerings for Record Store Day’s Black Friday 2025, the Lips’ latest live album, “Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots – Live at the Zoo Amphitheatre, Oklahoma City, August 30, 2024,” will be released via Rhino Records.
Formed in OKC in 1983, the Lips commemorated their 40th anniversary as a band as well as the enduring influence of two of their seminal albums last year with hometown Labor Day weekend shows. With so much to celebrate, the three-time Grammy-winning art-rockers, who are renowned for their otherworldly songs and lavish live shows, pulled out all the stops on the 90-year-old outdoor stage, where they had previously performed at least one legendary concert.
The psychedelic rockers kicked off their “Summer Freak Out” on Aug. 30, 2024, by performing their landmark 2002 album “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots” in its entirety, from the Grammy-nominated opener “Fight Test” to the Grammy-winning instrumental “Approaching Pavonis Mons By Balloon (Utopia Planitia).”
For their Aug. 31, 2024, show, the experimental rockers started out by playing the whole of their 1999 masterwork “The Soft Bulletin,” which ranked No. 3 on Pitchfork’s Top 100 Albums of the 1990s.
Their Record Store Day Black Friday 2025 offering will be the live recording of “Summer Freak Out” Night 1, when the Lips played all of “Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots” live during the first half of the concert. The release will feature new cover artwork by Lips frontman Wayne Coyne.
The live album starts with a snippet of Mayor David Holt reading his proclamation declaring it “Flaming Lips Weekend” in OKC.
Exclusively for Record Store Day Black Friday, “Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots – Live at the Zoo Amphitheatre, Oklahoma City, August 30, 2024” is being released as a limited edition two-LP set on 45 rpm color vinyl in highlighter yellow. It also will be available starting Nov. 28 on CD.
How can fans buy The Flaming Lips’ latest Record Store Day Black Friday release?
In 2007, Record Store Day was dreamed up at a gathering of independent record store owners and employees as a way to spotlight and spread the word about the unique culture surrounding nearly 1,400 independently-owned record stores in the United States and thousands of similar stores across the globe. The first Record Store Day took place on April 19, 2008, and the celebration typically takes place on the third Saturday in April.
In 2010, Record Store Day coordinated its first Black Friday event, which gives record stores exclusive releases as an attempt to redirect the focus of the biggest shopping day of the year to special items that can be found at local, independently owned small businesses.
Music lovers who want to buy “Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots – Live at the Zoo Amphitheatre, Oklahoma City, August 30, 2024,” or other Record Store Day Black Friday exclusives have three options:
Find and visit a local record store (If you want a specific item, calling your local store first is recommended, as there is no guarantee as to what products may be in stock in your area.)Purchase from a local store that sells online or from an indie store on RSDMRKT.comPurchase digitally from recordstoreday.com, which serves local record stores
Ahead of Thanksgiving, Coyne stopped by Guestroom Records’ OKC location to sign some copies of the new release.
Also, a signed, limited edition graphic novel adaptation of “Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots: The Original Story by the Flaming Lips,” written and Illustrated by Coyne, is available for pre-order via Third Man Books and is due to be released during the holiday season.
The Flaming Lips’ OKC ‘Live at the Zoo Amphitheatre’ Night 1 tracklist
Here is the tracklist for the two-LP vinyl set of “Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots – Live at the Zoo Amphitheatre, Oklahoma City, August 30, 2024:”
Side 1
“Fight Test” (featuring an introduction from OKC Mayor David Holt)
“One More Robot/Sympathy 3000-21”
Side 2
“Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Part 1”
“Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Part 2”
“In the Morning of the Magicians”
Side 3
“Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell”
“Are You a Hypnotist??”
“It’s Summertime”
Side 4
“Do You Realize??”
“All We Have Is Now”
“Approaching Pavonis Mons by Balloon (Utopia Planitia)”