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So, Wayne Coyne doesn’t really care for the Arcade Fire, dropping some really spectacular quotes— including the bon mot “They have good tunes, but they’re pricks, so fuck ‘em”—into an interview with Andy Greene of Rolling Stone.
More of Wayne gone wild:
“I’m a fan of them on one level, but on another level I get really tired of their pompousness,” says Coyne. “We’ve played some shows with them and they really treat people like shit. Whenever I’ve been around them, I’ve found that they not only treated their crew like shit, they treated the audience like shit. They treated everybody in their vicinity like shit. I thought, ‘Who do they think they are?’ I don’t know why people put up with it. I wouldn’t put up with it. I don’t care if it’s Arcade Fire or Brian Eno. If either of them walked into a room and treated people like shit I’d be like, ‘Fuck you, get outta here.’
In a war between Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips and the French-Canadian basketball stealers of the Arcade Fire, choosing is easy. In the three limited contexts in which I’ve met Wayne, he was certainly one of the nicest people I’ve ever met, and I don’t really care for the Arcade Fire’s music. Wayne helped create The Soft Bulletin and signed a poster for my then-two-year-old son with the note “See you out in the the world.” The Arcade Fire, with the exception of a few songs, bore me to tears. Sign me up for Team Wayne!
Somehow, while a cover, this song seems appropriate.
“War Pigs”:
Exclusive: Wayne Coyne Tears Apart Arcade Fire! [Smoking Section]
Well…
Even though Canadian…I am going to choose Wayne everytime…
Sounds like Arcade Fire are dicks…
“Who do they think they are?”
Tell em why you mad, Wayne….
I knew AF were dicks when I read about their lyrics regarding Haiti, very much “oh, the remorse of the colonizer is as great as that of the colonized” in a Waltz with Bashir style (though predating the film). Also the mainman went to Phillips Exeter Academy, which is not so terrible in and of itself, but it lets you know the privileged background from which he emerged, and which probably allowed him to “concentrate” on music.
Hate to quibble, but “Haiti” was written by a Haitian. Methinks you’ve misinterpreted those lyrics a bit.
And I’m not at all surprised that they’re dicks. Win in particular has always come off that way to me.
Still looking forward to the next album though.
Such a no-brainer. Sign me up for Wayne’s army.
I can’t speak for them as people offstage, but when I saw the Arcade Fire live a couple years ago, I had never before wanted to hit a girl more than their accordion player. Ugh.
/still think they’re okay.
In light of this and Coyne’s similiarly frank remarks about Beck, I don’t know if I think the guy is a little too quick to talk shit about tourmates or if I totally admire his candor.
hooray! this means Arcade Fire 100% won’t be paying ATP! :D
@ZipZapZopZoup: What do you mean? You don’t have to be black to be a Haitian citizen, strictly speaking? If a colonizer of privileged background gains citizenship of the colonized country then her anguish is equal to that of the poorer colonized?
How do you feel about South Africa?
@Marth: with your dick?
@anumberofnames: What do YOU mean? What do you know of her background? Her family is as Haitian as (I assume) yours is American. They fled during Duvalier’s rule. I think she’s entitled to her anguish. Weighing it against others is a fairly insensitive thing to do. You’re in Grad School, aren’t you?
@ZipZapZopZoup: Have you seen the Battle of Algiers? If so, did you root for the French?
I’m not in grad school, but what do you have against learning things?
@anumberofnames: …and I’m also on your team.
@anumberofnames: *raises hand* Ooh! Ooh! I’ve seen it!
Also, I’m kinda getting used to the general notion that people I admire musically (and otherwise) = assholes, or at least have asshole-ish moments that get out into the world at some point.
See: David O. Russell flipping his shit at Lily Tomlin, Frank Zappa exploiting the Mothers, Steve Albini in general, etc.
Doesn’t make me love ‘em any less. I <3 the Flaming Lips and the Arcade Fire almost equally. Can’t we all just get along?
@anumberofnames: Nothing, but too often grad students take on the same self-righteous, champion-of-oppressed attitude that you’ve displayed here. Real life is rarely as black and white as you apparently view it.
I would love to hear from anyone that was at the “bad” night of Arcade Fire’s two-night stand at the Greek in L.A. last May.
I heard reports of Win making all sorts of tasteless remarks, particularly ones regarding wild fires that had recently swept through the area. Needless to say, the audience was not amused.
I was there the second night, where Win seemed to have learned his lesson, and went out of his way to “connect” with the audience, including marching all the way to the last row of the place during one song…
PS: I’m with Wayne all the way on this one, regardless.
I would love to hear from anyone that was at the “bad” night of Arcade Fire’s two-night stand at the Greek in L.A. last May.
I heard reports of Win making all sorts of tasteless remarks, particularly ones regarding wild fires that had recently swept through the area. Needless to say, the audience was not amused.
I was there the second night, where Win seemed to have learned his lesson, and went out of his way to “connect” with the audience, including marching all the way to the last row of the place during one song…
PS: I’m with Wayne all the way on this one, regardless.
In the full (printed) version of this Rolling Stone interview, Win Butler ditches interviewer Gavin Edwards (full disclosure: friend of mine) on the side of the road to take a phone call. No shit.
That said…
@grainy16mm: Agreed that if I judged my art the way I judge the people who make it, I’d be listening to, say, John Mayer or Dave Matthews instead of, say, Sly Stone or Kurt Cobain. And I wouldn’t be buying computers or iPods from affirmed genius and total prick Steve Jobs, either.
Can we not overlook that talking shit about people in print is a similarly dick move?
Is Wayne not being shitty to Win?
@Marth: Holy crap! She bugs the ever-living heck out of me. I wouldn’t say hit or anything, but yeah. It’s weird because I’m actually a pretty big fan of Funeral. Aren’t Win and his brother really from Iowa, not that it matters?
And I love the Lips, so there is that. I lean Wayne, but I need more evidence.
@Thesemodernsocks: That’s pretty fair. The stuff with Beck was a little out of hand. To bad, because that tour was rad and was maybe one of the first times that Beck was actually good live.
@grainy16mm: That reminds me of the Minutemen’s encounter with Public Image Ltd. They opened for PiL where Mike Watt recalled seeing John Lydon standing at the side and pointing at his watch. The Minutemen later gave a liner notes shout-out to “PiL (or our idea of them).”
@Lucas Jensen: For the record, I’m totally comfortable with taking shots at shitty people, I’m just saying that it makes you a little shitty too, but maybe in a good way.
Further, I missed that one, but saw Beck last time around for Modern Guilt and he killlllled- that band was just monstrous.
The Flaming Lips have been around for more than 20 years and they’re still making incredible music. Will anyone even remember the Arcade Fire in 20 years? I rest my case.
I love you, Wayne Coyne.
Oh man, I just read the Final Fantasy dudes Twitter response on P-fork. “Win might not be all hugs and rainbows and kittens, but neither is he drug culture, confetti, pot paraphernalia and bullshit.” As Daniel Plainview would say…I’m so sorry, you lose.
@DaeSu: It remains to be seen- Neon Bible is classic sophmore slump, but Funeral really is a great record. They have, at the very least, potential to be around for a long time. Without any evidence of their lack of staying power available, arguing that they have no staying power isn’t going to stick.
Again, though, I’m in the Lips camp in this one. Especially if it means I can be on the other side of those jerks in Final Fantasy.
@Lucas Jensen: And, for the record, I’m not about to hit a woman. That is all.
So from everyone (anyone?) who’s met him, is Wayne Coyne really a good guy? He seems cool to me and everything, but part of me always wonders if his overt happiness and get-up-and-go attitude are really a front for some sort of runaway egomania. Is this not the case? That said, I’d probably still follow him straight into hell.
@Thesemodernsocks: Perhaps, but I just don’t see it. I find AF’s music too precious, too self-impressed. They’ll never be great because they already think they are. Still, let’s meet back here in 2029, and we’ll see.
@KikoJones: Did Beck do that, though? The Lips were selling out pretty big venues by that point, and I’d hazard a guess that Yoshimi sold about as well as Beck’s releases at the time, right? Maybe I’m wrong here. The problem was that Beck seemed visibly annoyed onstage with Wayne’s antics, which he should have known about before he hired them. Still a good series of shows.
Wait, didn’t we all agree that he was kidding about the Beck thing? Because I thought we did, and I thought this was a joke, too.
When the Lips played Coachella in ‘04, Wayne exhorted the audience to do some group cheering, but advised that they shouldn’t feel strange about doing some “Bon Jovi bullshit.”
WILL THE DISSING OF FELLOW ARTISTS NEVER END???
@Marth: My old company’s interactions with the Lips crew were always stellar. And I really don’t see them as stoners at all. Stephen’s problems with heroin addiction are well-noted, but I thought the band was pretty clean beyond that. In fact, they haven’t been a “stoner” band for years, right?
@MayhemintheHood: Owen from Final Fantasy is most definitely not a jerk and was probably one of the sweetest, most affable guys I ever worked with in the music industry, hands down. I wouldn’t call “them” jerks at all.
@Chris Molanphy: If anyone’s interested, Gavin republished the full Arcade Fire profile/Win-Butler-boots-him-out-of-the-limo story on his blog.
Scroll down to the final paragraph, just before the “Sidebar.”
For what it’s worth, a friend of mine has done a fair amount of video work with the Lips, and he says Wayne is an absolute prince and is not a big fan of hallucinogens.
@DaeSu: Deal!
Of course, the real culprit in all of this is the nun puppet.
@mackro: It’s not just Beck–who, truth be told, put the Lips in front of the biggest audiences they’d ever played for at that point–and The Arcade Fire he’s ragged on; he recently dissed Nirvana and compared their music to Nickleback.
I don’t care for The Arcade Fire, but Coyne’s shit-talking is a turn-off.
@Al Shipley: The Beck remarks I read in the Guardian seem pretty tame compared to bad stories I heard about that tour. I think he was being quite reserved in that case. And that makes me think that he witnessed some REALLY crappy behavior from the AF. Team Hulk Fists.
@ZipZapZopZoup: There’s nothing self-righteous about this for me; I have no stake in it. You seem to be making this much more personal than it needs to be, with your inferences about me and my status in life, which is not the topic at hand. I’m simply saying that as children of privilege and former colonizers (R Chassagne was born in Canada, which makes her own self-seriousness all the more ridiculous), Arcade Fire may shed all the crocodile tears they like for Haiti, but that doesn’t mean I have to take it seriously or find it tasteful or meaningful. If a former French Algerian were to write a song about the anguish he or she felt about losing her home in Algeria, or if a former Sun City resident were to do the same, no one would take it seriously. So why should I take Arcade Fire seriously?
As you are an ardent defender of the personalities behind Arcade Fire I presume you agree with their position backing Obama. This does not seem to square with your anti-intellectual “aw shucks we don’t need no education i ain’t no hippie zach de la rocha” attitude, which I had hoped we would see the end of after Bush left office.
I will always side with Wayne Coyne.
PS The Clara Peller tag is genius.
The Lips have toured with so many other bands. If Wayne was known for being a compulsive shit-talker, he’d be doing — well — a whole lotta shit-talking, but we only hear from him from time to time. Beck, and now Arcade Fire.
Before that, I think Wayne said that he liked then-tourmates Sebadoh personally, but wasn’t into their recent material or something like that. E.A.R. and other bands were on that tour with them. (Music Against Brain Degeneration tour or some tour title that’s very Wayne-esque?) So, yeah, I’d think Wayne is just being a really honest guy and he gives his bad-tourmates heads-up in public.
So, yeah, if you’re shitty, don’t tour with the Lips. Sounds fair to me.
(and i briefly met Wayne circa “Hit To Death” at my alma mater college station. Surprise, he was really engaging and sweet.)