Remember back in the day when musicians were musicians, and we all knew where we stood?

These days, they’re either putting pen to paper or japing around in ballet shows. The Flaming Lips have always had ambitions that extend beyond the sonic: take a look at their staggering live shows or, if you’re feeling adventurous, their crackbrained Christmas On Mars feature film. As NME report, their brilliant 2002 album Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots is now set to be turned into a musical.

The show, set to play at Los Angeles’ La Jolla Playhouse at the end of the year, elaborates the sort-of-maybe-just-about-a-concept running across the LP. The story will follow a Japanese stripling who ventures into a world populated by malevolent robots and has to save the day, find herself &tc. According to director Des McAnuff, The Social Network writer Aaron Sorkin was originally down to write the book:

“Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips and I have been working on Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots for some time. Aaron Sorkin initially planned to write a book for the musical, but when it became clear that the musical would be ‘sung through,’ Aaron turned his attention to other projects. Wayne and I continue to fine tune the libretto and score for the musical which will go into rehearsal in La Jolla in the middle of September.”

The show will also feature tracks from 2006’s At War With The Mystics and 1999’s high-watermark LP The Soft Bulletin. Here’s hoping for a rock musical to rival The Little Shop Of Horrors, as opposed to a Mamma Mia-grade atrocity.