The gig takes place on Tuesday the 23^rd at Hangout in Sai Wan Ho, Hong Kong Island, and New York-dwelling, Japanese-fronted Asobi Seksu are the bee’s knees. Here are five audio-visual reasons why. (If you’d like to skip the music and just find out where to get tickets then head to the bottom of the page.)

My first…

Latecomers occasionally have the best deal; when they hear a band there is sometimes already an exciting body of work to delve into and explore. This is how I was with Asobi Seksu. A good friend of mine sent me a link to this video just this summer and I was instantly hooked.

‘Transparence’ is almost archetypal Asobi Seksu – blissful dreampop, shoegaze undertones and a pretty girl up front. All winning elements. This track appears re-recorded on the album Hush and renamed ‘Sunshower’.

The deal sealer

‘Transparence’ hooked me in and ‘Me & Mary’ sealed the deal. This track shows the band have a bite, with the layers of distortion and urgent drumming in the chorus underpinning the sweet vocals.

The pure pop moment

Every band has their roots and gladly Asobi Seksu visited theirs for a b-side. This charged take on The Crystals’ Phil Spector-produced classic ‘Then He Kissed Me’ is bliss.

The hit

‘Thursday’ is the song they seem to be most well known for so remember to memorise the intro to look ‘with it’ at the gig.

The Japanese!

Opening their excellent self-titled album is “I’m Happy But You Don’t Like Me” – a beautiful, twee Japanese language pop song with some explosive guitars that pop up every so often. It’s just so right.

So it’s settled, we’ll see you there.

If you want to get tickets in advance you can do just that and in doing so you boast a saving of $40 ($40 better spent at the bar). Tickets are $280 (advance) and $320 on the door, if you must.

Advance tickets are available from White Noise Records, Zoo Records and Dama Boutique (Staunton Street).

You can also get them online here.

Support comes from Milkteeth and A Roller Control’s Alok.

Date: 23/11, 7.30pm
Location: Hangout 蒲吧 (3/F, 2 Holy Cross Path, Sai Wan Ho// 香港西灣河聖十字徑二號) – Sai Wan Ho MTR Exit B

Check in at the Facebook site.

Wayne, what are you expecting from Hong Kong?

Once we’re there we can live in the moment and will be sure to enjoy the sights, food, meeting new friends and all the experiences.  It’s one of the benefits of being able to travel around the world and experience these things.

For those who’ve not experienced a Lips show, how would you describe it?

What we do is overwhelm you with stuff.  Whether we use balloons, volume, our emotion or whatever – we get your full attention.  When everyone is engaged like that then we can all create something special together.

You want any group to command people’s attention.  The worst thing I’ve seen happen to a lot of bands I love is that the audience gets distracted.  That energy and power of the crowd is part of the experience and when a band loses the attention then the whole show suffers.

You’ve embraced Twitter (@waynecoyne) – what got you into that and kept you doing it?

What I like about it for myself is that it forces me to, five or six times a day, pause and question what am I doing? What’s interesting right now.  It gives me a good reason to do something. Even if it’s a waste of time or the greatest thing ever, I can tell people about it and am no longer compelled by just my own interest.

We need a flourishing music and art scene – what is the first step to take?

I think you already have made the first step through the frustration and felt the need to take that step.  People are often so complacent that they don’t feel the need to participate in their own culture.  I live in a place here in Oklahoma that is often so empty of culture.  But you have to remember – art isn’t made in a place and not made by collaborations or encouragement.  It’s made by weirdos who just have to make it.  You do what you must do.  And if you don’t feel like you must create art/music/film/skyscrapers or whatever, then you probably shouldn’t.  I don’t wait for permission. I’m so stupid and insane that I wake up every day and just do it, whether people care or not.

What makes you really, really, really bored?

I try to remember that boredom is really nothing.  It’s a state of mind, and if I’m bored that’s my own fault.  There’s always something to explore – to read, to draw, to listen to.  When people say they’re bored, I think there’s so much you can do.  I can always do yoga and get my mind thinking.

What’s a surefire way to combat it?

A good way is to not be around boring people, and preferably ones with money to spend.

What’s next for the Lips?

We’re playing around with the idea of releasing a track a month – record something, mix it and get it out and have that schedule for a year.  We’re thinking about that.  I like the panic and the immediacy of having to put something out. It would be absurd but could be great fun and fantastic.

After Asia we have our annual Halloween and NYE shows in Oklahoma to look forward to. This is when we can get our most freaky with 10,000 people all sharing an evening together.

Flaming Lips tickets cost $620 and are an ESSENTIAL PURCHASE from www.hkticketing.com or HMV, with two fantastic support acts thrown in, in the form of The Raveonettes and local heroes The Merriweather Deer.

Take yourself, your friends, your family and anyone else you’ve ever met to have your minds blown and lives affirmed by the spectacle that is The Flaming Lips live.

Stay tuned for the Brouhaha guide to The Flaming Lips – coming soon.

In the meantime…

From the priceless Lichtenstein adorning the centre wall of that chic-hipster’s penthouse loft, to the endless supply of cultural revolution caricatures along Hollywood Road, to the “Garbage Pail Kids”-on-canvas rip-off your buddy bought for $100 on Pottinger Street, it’s always been the most widespread way of embracing your popular culture obsession – not to mention easy to pass off as classy and respectable.

Many scholars state that the purpose of pop art, the defining characteristic of the movement isn’t really about the art itself. It’s about the attitudes that lead to that piece of art – for Lun, his attitude is based on his upbringing and all that he was exposed to, how the past 20 years of pop culture have infected and shaped mainstream culture.

His formidable years, the ’80s, were the “big embrace” of popular culture, a time when nearly every major medium was at its forefront: movies were endlessly re-watchable on VCRs, Nintendo broke video games into the mainstream, comic books and Saturday morning cartoons were hitting peak after peak – an infinite amount of creative diversions at your fingertips, enough to shape views that would last well into the years when they could be channelled into their own art form.

And it seems only fitting that for an art movement that was inspired out of the swinging ’60s, through the pop music phenomenon and ideas of rebellious youth damning the man, should once again begin to change, to move from away from the ironic and humorous and into fields of respect and reverence.

Because for all the Basquiat’s and Schnabel’s, all the post-’80s hubbub about how Chinese art will dominate, the one thing that truly came out of that decade and lasted in the mind of every young artist emerging on the scene is an obsessive sense of admiration for popular culture. And nowhere is that more evident than at “Pop Attack!”

–noun