The Flaming Lips are set to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their landmark 2002 album, Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots, with a special edition box set. Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots: 20th Anniversary Edition will arrive via Warner Records in CD and digital formats on November 25 with the LP box set carrying an April 14, 2023 release.
Both packages include the original album along with dozens of unreleased and rare tracks in the form of B-sides, demos, remixes, radio sessions, live cuts and more. Some of the highlights in the B-side and outtake category include “Assassination of the Sun” and “Thank You Jack White (For the Fiber-Optic Jesus You Gave Me).” There is also a 25-minute demo, “Psychedelic Hypnotist Daydream.”
Additionally, the collection boasts a trove of radio sessions from the era which not only see the band performing Yoshimi songs but also covering Pink Floyd’s “Lucifer Sam” and “Breathe,” Radiohead’s “Knives Out” and Kylie Minogue’s “Can’t Get You Out of My Head.” The box set also includes a lush instrumental version of perhaps the LP’s most famous song, “Do You Realize??”
Also noteworthy in the collection are two contrasting live concerts. One is a banter-heavy 2002 private performance for a small audience of radio contest winners in Boston. The other features the Lips in all their psychedelic spectacle glory at The Forum in London in 2003.
Head here for tracklist and package info. Stream the collection’s “Ego Tripping At The Gates Of Hell” from an XFM session recorded on November 11, 2003 here:
The Flaming Lips also have a pair of 2023 concerts in Washington D.C. and London on the books around the Yoshimi celebration where they will perform the LP in its entirety. Check out those dates along with the rest of the Lips’ 2022 itinerary below:
