The Flaming Lips save Valentine’s Day

Pub date February 3, 2014
WriterEmma Silvers
SectionNoise

It doesn’t matter if you’re single, dating, or attached at the hip to your spouse/live-in partner(s)/[insert questionable pet name here] — Valentine’s Day has always presented a veritable Hallmark-sponsored landmine field of ways to screw up, disappoint your loved ones, and/or generally feel terrible about yourself. Until now.

As per the best press release in my inbox this morning: Flaming Lips’ frontman Wayne Coyne will be selling a limited-edition, 12-inch, 20th anniversary reissue of the band’s deliciously scruffy first EP on a handful of select “Record Store Tour” dates on the East Coast next week, and — speaking of delicious — said EP comes packaged with a life-sized, anatomically correct, “hand-crafted, custom-made chocolate skull.” But that’s not all! The skull also contains “a special Gold Coin” that gains the bearer entry to any Flaming Lips show in the world. It’s pretty logical, really. Willy Wonka + (even more) hallucinogens + the ability to just inform your marketing team that you want life-sized, edible skulls to be part of your thing now = Wayne Coyne.

Unfortunately, this little tour will only take our lovably demented hero through a handful of currently snowy cities and nowhere near SF, so if you want to get your hands on one of these bad boys, you’ll need to call an East Coast-based friend and wheedle a bit. Tell them it’s for a special someone. Because nothing says “I love you” like using the money you could have spent on a fancy dinner to ship anatomically correct, promotional chocolate body parts cross-country.

“Record Store Tour” dates to convince your friends to attend for you:
02-08 New York, NY – Other Music (11 a.m.)
02-08 Brooklyn, NY – Rough Trade (4 p.m.)
02-09 Boston, MA – Newbury Comics/Newbury St. Location (1 p.m.)
02-10 Philadelphia, PA – a.k.a music (5 p.m.)
02-11 Baltimore, MD – Sound Garden (5 p.m.)