Pitchfork

Photo by Matt Jordan

Ah, summercamp. Sleepless nights in smelly, bug-infested cabins. Capsizing canoes, grueling hikes, bouts with poison ivy. Escaping the kids who beat you up at school to get beat up by kids out in the woods. Weeks of utter freedom for mom and dad. Those were the days!

It's too bad, though, that we didn't have the Flaming Lips soundtracking our summertime misadventures. Lucky for Cameron, Spencer, Holly, and Boo-- the young subjects of acclaimed documentary Summercamp!-- the Lips do in fact soundtrack theirs.

Eternally campy Wayne Coyne and co. contribute original music to the film, directed by Bradley Beesley and Sarah Price. Summercamp!, which premiered at several festivals last year, finally kicks off a theatrical run next week.

The film opens at New York City's IFC Center on July 18, and will play in Milwaukee, Chicago, Boston, Portland, Oklahoma City (naturally), Lincoln, Los Angeles, and elsewhere thereafter. Click here for a complete list of showings. And if you dwell in a decidedly more rural locale, fear not: Summercamp! is also available now on DVD.

Beesley, as you may recall, also directed the Flaming Lips doc The Fearless Freaks, and shares a co-directing credit with Coyne on the U.F.O.s at the Zoo DVD, which landed this week in Roswell and everywhere else. Beesley's also done a bunch of Lips videos and has a significant hand in the upcoming Lips flick Christmas on Mars.

The Lips themselves, meanwhile, wrap up an overseas jaunt this weekend. They return to North America in late fall for a spate of shows with Black Moth Super Rainbow opening.

Summer camp:

07-13 Barcelona, Spain - Summercase Festival
07-14 Madrid, Spain - Summercase Festival
07-15 Glasgow, Scotland - Victoria Park (Indian Summer Festival)
07-27 Tulsa, OK - Diversafest
08-02 Gergen, Norway - Lost Weekend
08-04 Haldern, Norway - Down on the Farm
09-07 Chicago, IL - Aragon Theater *
09-09 Minneapolis, MN - The Myth *
09-12 Kansas City, MO - Uptown Theater *
09-14-15 Morrison, CO - Red Rocks Amphitheatre (Monolith Festival)
09-18 Vancouver, British Columbia - Orpheum Theater *
09-19 Portland, OR - Roseland Theater *
09-20 Seattle, WA - Paramount Theater *

* with Black Moth Super Rainbow