This morning, out of nowhere, Flaming Lips ringleader Wayne Coyne tore the Arcade Fire a new asshole, accusing the beloved Canadian indie rockers of being pompous pricks who treat everybody — crew, fans, Oklahoman psych-pop bands — like shit. Blogging on his band’s site, Win Butler expresses disbelief about the situation. He only met Wayne once years ago, so WTF? Then he drags Beck into it. The full statement…
Via arcadefire.com:
Wow,
I can’t believe I am actually writing to defend my band’s “real” personality. I wish I could not respond to something like this, but the reality is, is that people will be asking me questions for the next 5 years. I also fear that people will base their opinion of our band on the media quotes of a guy who doesn’t even know us.The only time we have ever shared a stage with the Flaming Lips was our last show on the Funeral tour at a festival in Las Vegas (over 3 years ago)…we arrived the morning of the show from Brazil, slept all day and awoke into some kind of surreal Vegas jet-lag dream in which we were playing after the Flaming Lips…how strange…I was really excited to meet Wayne. Clouds Taste Metallic was a huge record for me, and growing up in the weirdness of Houston, I always imagined Oklahoma City to be in the same universe. I was really nervous to meet him and I felt a little weird that we were playing after them. We traded a little hello, but he was a hard guy to get a read on. Steven Drodz was super nice, and I felt good after talking to him…
So…I am not sure Wayne is the best judge (based on seeing us play at a couple of festivals) if we are righteous, kind and goodhearted people like The Edge and Justin Timberlake (who I am sure he knows intimately as well). I can’t imagine a reason why we would have been pompous towards The Flaming Lips, a band we have always loved, on that particular night, all those years ago. Unless I was way more jet-lagged then I remember, I hope I was less of a “Prick” then telling Rollingstone that a bunch of people I don’t know at all are really a bunch of assholes.
As a closing note, the main point that I am offended by in this whole thing is for Wayne to say we treat our audience like shit…At times like these I am comforted by knowing that even though Wayne slammed Beck all those years ago, he seems like a really nice guy to me. I guess everyone has a different idea of what being pompous means.
Win
Re: Beck, Win’s referring to a 2003 Guardian interview:
“Beck had issues… don’t print anything bad – actually, I don’t care … I just don’t get it when the slightest thing goes wrong before a gig and the artist is, like, fuck this. … Honey, it was totally disappointing. It’s a total devastation to know that he’s not a relaxed Californian stoner. When you hear his songs, you think he must really have some tender feelings, but then you find out it’s a made-up thing.”
You can read that here. In it he also describes the Verve as atrocious and egotistical and calls Richard Ashcroft a “pompous fool.” Noticing a pattern here.
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Does it really matter if Win is a pompous prick or if Wayne Coyne is attention seeking? What should really matter is their music. I love the Lips and quite like some early Arcade Fire and neither of those things have anything to do with who they are as people. You wouldn’t buy someone’s record because you hate the music but think they’re a really nice person. If personality really mattered, nobody would ever listen to Bob Dylan.
I agree!
There is nothing about The Arcade Fire that isn’t pompous. What a dreadfully boring band. That said… Wayne, can we get back to rock n roll and leave the Birthday Party shtick behind? Hit to death in the future head my friend!
Wayne Coyle is fantastic. He’s like everyone’s Dad on tour. But the cool dad. Like John Stamos. Arcade Fire is just jealous that their music is absolute garbage. In all seriousness though Wayne is a fantastic person & would never say something like that for no reason. The man is just opinionated that’s all. And he is both fantastic and entitled to do so.
Win is the shit and if anyone bashes the Arcade Fire, there is something severely wrong. We can see this by the language of their posts. Win is obviously superior. The Flaming Lips aren’t even that good…and if the man bashes a shit ton of people, then I think his credibility is shot. You can’t meet people once and call them out like that. I don’t care how nice people say Wayne is. To me, his music doesn’t compare, therefore he does not compare. He should keep his weird, crude comments to himself, because people really aren’t going to care when they like the music. I, sure as fuck don’t.
I’m amazed that people might be amazed that a rock musician might be pompous, self-centered, or have the qualities inherent to an asshole. On some level, all creative personalities have an ego. It takes an ego to think that something you created might even be worth someone else’s time/attention/money. This isn’t excusing someone like Kanye from throwing constant temper tantrums, but generally most artists will come across as pompous to someone at some point during their career. Christ, Coyne himself would probably be viewed as pompous by most mainstream musicians and their fans.
at least wayne is honest about everything . . . id rather have that so we can find out the real stories behind everything . . .
i wish win could cut the bullshit and just say what he really feels and thinks.
then we could agree on whose side were on more clearly. cause all of this “im so disappointed, i dont know whats goin on cause i love so and so’s music” is pretty damn annoying.
This makes me really sad to see mostly because I’ve always dreamed of a Flaming lips/Arcade Fire concert…
I guess that’s out the window now. Then again… I can see a reunion tour coming out of this whole thing… it’s a stretch, I know.
I’m a bigger fan of the Lips than Arcade Fire, but I like both bands. Maybe Wayne Coyne caught him on a bad day, so maybe it’s not entirely true, but it was funny to read.
I keep hearing that Beck is a dickhead. Believe this or don’t- a friend’s mom got in an elevator in downtown LA 8 years ago with another guy. There was silence for a few seconds until the man asked her, “Don’t you know who I _am_?” He’s also a Scientologist.
So his records are great, but I’m personally inclined to think that he’s an asshole. That’s cool with me. Dylan was a pretty huge fucker too (by almost all accounts), and I still love his music.
I mean, maybe Nickleback is filled with really cool guys. Wouldn’t change the sucking.
hm… I don’t know but does everyone has a different idea of what pompous means? I thought you’re either pompous or you’re not.
Arcade Fire is ta bomb I love Arcade Fire!!!!!!!!!\
There is a lot to be said for a guy who kicks out half his band, replaces it with his brother and some other dudes, then gets famous and tries to payout his former band members/ex-co-songwriters with moderate sums of money to cut them out of future royalties. I know that’s the biz, but AF has gotten famous off of taking advantage of the extremely low-paid artists and talent in Montreal who they have employed–and I use that term very loosely. Win may be a nice guy, (he was nice to us when we were helping out with Neon Bible) but it’s not worth it to work for them. They’re cheap and they’ve pissed off a lot of folk.
Wayne Coyne FTW!
They’ve both always struck me as being pretty nice guys. I think Wayne’s comment was out of line though; he really shouldn’t be bashing people like that, especially from limited experience.