The road from Oklahoma City to the quirky 1993 alt.pop hit, "She Don't Use Jelly" was a long one for The Flaming Lips, who, after spending a decade as cult heroes in the underground rock and roll scene, were catapulted to radio stardom.
I mean, come on, a year ago, their "Do You Realize??" was named the official rock song of the State of Oklahoma. That's the big time!
Luckily, Wayne Coyne and Michael Ivins haven't let all that success water down the band's sound and although more and more people got to hear records like "The Soft Bulletin" and "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots," those records remained outside the mainstream musically.
So, when The Flaming Lips come to town this week for a Wednesday, April 21 performance at The Riverside Theater, they arrive from an enviable place. Not only do they get the benefits of being successful -- 2009's double-disc "Embryonic" peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard Top 200 album chart, for example -- but they remain respected by pundits and fans alike.
If you want some evidence that The Flaming Lips haven't let anything slow down their desire to seek new challenges and try new things, two days ago, "Dark Side of the Moon," a cover of the Pink Floyd LP of the same name -- recorded with Stardeath and White Dwarfs (who open the show at the Riverside), Henry Rollins and Peaches -- was issued on vinyl in honor of Record Store Day. A CD version arrives in shops on May 4.
The band will perform "Dark Side of the Moon" in its entirety at Bonaroo this year.
Tickets for the 8 p.m. Milwaukee show are $38.50. I'll be there and if you're lucky, so will you. --Bobby Tanzilo
OK, so it's not technically a concert, but it is a gig at The Pabst Theater. It's comedian Demetri Martin, whose show "Important Things with Demetri Martin" on Comedy Central has stolen many a-heart in less than two seasons. If you're a fan of the show, expect much of the same when you see him live. Think: charts, graphs, simple sketches, drawings and the occasional song dealing with the mundane aspects of everyday life in only the way Martin can. The show is Saturday, April 24 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $35. -- Julie Lawrence
They were mainstays of the Summerfest Main Stage "back in the day," but Huey Lewis and the News have slipped into "Bay Area regional bar band heroes" mode in recent years. The group will headline the Northern Lights Theater inside Potowatomi Bingo Casino on Monday and Tuesday. --Drew Olson
Steve Martin is a successful actor, comedian and writer, but he's also an accomplished musician. Martin, who has been playing banjo in clubs for decades, appears Tuesday at the Pabst Theater along with Steep Canyon Rangers. --D.O.
