(Los Angeles) – Particle Kid (Los Angeles-based composer/multi-media artist Micah Nelson)is excited to announce that he will join Grammy Award-winning The Flaming Lips on their U.S. tour in autumn 2021 and spring 2022.
Tickets are on sale now. Click here for more info or visit the venue links below.
The Flaming Lips, the Oklahoma City psychedelic rock band whose Space Bubble Concerts got a lot of attention during lockdown, have invited Particle Kid to be the very special guest on their highly anticipated U.S. tour this fall and next spring. Particle Kid, which is Micah Nelson and a rotation of musicians he enlists, and The Flaming Lips have already collaborated in various ways.
Nelson was a featured musician on The Flaming Lips’ 2020 album, American Head, adding guitar and vocals to the band’s life-affirming and imaginative sound.
Lips fans likely saw Particle Kid in April 2021 on Jimmy Kimmel Live, when he joined the band to perform “Will You Return/When You Come Down” from American Head. Watch the performance here.
In 2019, The Aspen Times wrote about Particle Kid’s opening set for The Flaming Lips: “He set the tone at the outset with a jarring dose of extended feedback, emerging from the haze of noise with ‘Myssus Crow’-from his 2017 album, Everything Is Bullshit-which juxtaposes jangly guitars and sweet bubblegum-pop vocals with harsh and brutal passages of distorted guitar…
There’s a playful Frank Zappa spirit in Particle Kid’s arty rock and a refreshing indifference to the pop trends of the moment. His mercurial guitar-based sound, with touches of folk and punches of distortion, is occasionally punctuated with glitchy electronic samples.”
Born into a highly creative and prolific family, Micah Nelson is comfortable on the world stage, having toured and/or collaborated with everyone from Neil Young and Tinariwen to John Doe and Willie Nelson (Micah’s father, who also coined the Particle Kid moniker).
Micah began creating animation and videos as a child, attended art school and currently has a production entity called Spitball Pictures, which produces music videos for his own projects, as well as those by Edie Brickell & New Bohemians (“Tripwire” and “My Power”), folk-punk musician Sunny War (“Age of a Man”), Tinariwen (“Wartilla, Dan Caret Dub”), and ukulele and guitar duo Folk Uke (“Small One”).
Micah is currently working with Neil Young on an animated short film adaptation of Young’s 1982 dystopian sci-fi concept album, TRANS. He is also a member of his brother’s band, Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real, a member of Neil Young’s band, touring and recording with Young and being part of his full-length film Paradox.
Particle Kid has headlined shows around the world and opened for The Flaming Lips, Tinariwen, Meat Puppets, Margo Price, and Sheryl Crow, and played at festivals such as Luck Reunion, UTOPiAfest and the Outlaw Music Festival. In an article titled “The Trippy Troubadour,” Rolling Stone called Micah Nelson a “musical polymath who, according to Willie, ‘plays everything,’ combining an indie DIY aesthetic with a questing hippie spirit and a relentless work ethic.”
Micah told Rolling Stonethat playing music with Neil Young has been like “getting a master’s degree in Jedi training.” Nelson calls Particle Kid his “experimental future-folk solo project,” and has released five albums of original music since 2012 and is preparing new material for an upcoming release, some of which will likely be part of his opening set list.
In addition to performing an opening set at these shows, it’s likely that Particle Kid will join The Flaming Lips onstage during this tour.
THE FLAMING LIPS + PARTICLE KID on Tour 2021/2022:
2021:
Sun Nov 07 The Fillmore Philadelphia, PA
Mon Nov 08 Brooklyn Steel Brooklyn, NY
Tue Nov 09 Brooklyn Steel Brooklyn, NY
Thu Nov 11 Stage A&E Pittsburgh, PA
Fri Nov 12 Crouse Hinds Theater Syracuse, NY
Sat Nov 13 Palace Theater Albany, NY
Mon Nov 15 House of Blues Boston, MA
Tue Nov 16 The Anthem Washington, DCThu Nov 18 MTELUS Montreal, QC
Sat Nov 20 Royal Oak Music Theater Royal Oak, MI
2022:
Mon Apr 25 Mission Ballroom Denver, CO
Thu Apr 28 Knitting Factory Boise, ID
Fri Apr 29 Crystal Ballroom Portland, OR
Sat Apr 30 Knitting Factory Spokane, WAMon May 02 Commodore Ballroom Vancouver, BC
Tue May 03 Commodore Ballroom Vancouver, BC
Wed May 04 Showbox SoDo Seattle, WA
Fri May 06 Warfield Theatre San Francisco, CA
Sat May 07 Warfield Theatre San Francisco, CA
Mon May 09 The Wiltern Los Angeles, CA
Click here for additional ticket information.