Win Butler from the Arcade Fire, called out for pomposity by supposed good guy Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips, fired back late yesterday what’s shaping up to be the Musical Beef Of March 2009. (It’s at least on par with some of the great beefs of the past, like Canibus vs. LL Cool J, Canibus vs. Eminem, and Canibus vs. relevance!) Butler says he only met Coyne once briefly and found him “a hard guy to get a read on.” He doesn’t recall any jerkiness, but he does say the band was jetlagged from a trip to Brazil. He also says that “Steven Drodz” [sic] was nice and is a big fan (as well he should be) of Clouds Taste Metallic.
The full statement is here as a screen capture because the Arcade Fire has a fancy-pants site.
I can feel Win trying to hold back the anger here. There is thinly veiled snark: “So… I am not sure if 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).” To be fair to Wayne, JT did join the Lips onstage as a dolphin, which is the type of bond between men that can never be undone. Then he turns the tables a bit and calls out Wayne for talking smack to Rolling Stone, which is a valid point. He even brings Beck back into it! Finally, he defends his band’s treatment of audiences, which is something I’ve never heard a bad word about myself. In fact, they often bring people from the audience up onstage to sing with them!
Though I am bad at taking my own advice, I usually say don’t respond to this kind of stuff, but with people lining up behind Coyne and the stories getting more ridiculous online (he made his wife cry onstage!), it’s probably for the best he responded in as measured way as he did. There are some jabs there, but none of them see too out-of-bounds given the nature of the first accusation by Coyne. I think the ball is definitely back in Wayne’s court. Should he apologize or keep on ranting? As a writer, I hope for the latter.
Arcade Fire [Official site]
Flaming Lips = bloated and past their prime
Arcade Fire = super-serious pretentious to the point of self-parody
the real loser here is humanity for being reminded of both these bands’s existence
Coyne should instead concentrate on making a decent followup to that crappy At War with the Mystics album and put to rest being the one-man TMZ he’s kinda become lately.
In fact, they often bring people from the audience up onstage to sing with them!
Evidence for the prosecution. (But not as much as that photo you put up there.)
@tim_loves_cats: That’s being a little unfair to the Lips. They made a mediocre last record, sure, but I think they’ve still got something in them. At least I hope they do.
And does seriousness=pretentiousness?
@KikoJones: One man TMZ. Haha.
@tim_loves_cats:
I have never been more in agreement with a manifesto, and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
It’s kinda awesome to be able to sign your angry internet volleys “WIN.” (I’m totally naming my kid Fail.)
I know this has nothing to do with anything, but god are the Decemberists an ugly band.
@Bob Loblaw: i’m gonna name mine Audi.
@Mike Barthel: Hahaha. That’s funny, but I do know a few ladies who like Colin Meloy.
Wayne Coyne is literally old enough to think Rolling Stone is relevant. Win Butler is still in his 20s. One of these men is laying down a smart, measured response that subtly illuminates the other’s desperate namedropping (”omgz, ur friends with JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE!”), the other is gossiping about people he’s met once like he’s in fucking “Mean Girls.” Signing the letter was almost a redundancy.
@tim_loves_cats: More kudos to you sir! Wanted to post something very similar yesterday but came late to the discussion. Both sides of this tet-a-tet getting their panties in a wad need to take a good hard look at their own faults before ragging on others. When it’s Miley ragging on Radiohead, the side to take is a no brainer, but here I could care less what either of these camps have to say about each other.
@RaptorAvatar: Ageist much?
@JZ13: C’mon, really? So you don’t like these bands. They are pretty big-selling bands with huge fanbases. It’s not like people needed to be “reminded” of their existence. Ludicrous.
@tim_loves_cats: 3rd-ed. lips haven’t made a good album in ten years. the arcade fire, two or three good songs? bah! the whole thing is stupid. i mean if wayne was really gonna talk shit and make it a public discussion, he needed to be specific and give us the dirt.
@eriq78: In ten years? I thought Yoshimi was pretty darned good, and Mystics has a few great songs despite the dross.
@Ned Raggett: That was funny.
@Lucas Jensen: Expecting someone who is approaching 50 to demonstrate more maturity than someone who was 10 when I was in kindergarden isn’t ageist: It’s expecting a grownup to behave like a grownup. However, I will admit that The Rolling Stone dig was probably a little cheap and obvious.
@RaptorAvatar: They don’t have millions of subscribers because they are irrelevant to people. Perhaps they are irrelevant to you and what you do, but most bands, Lips-level or otherwise, fall over themselves to reach that subscriber base.
How do grownups behave? Seriously, I don’t know. I read people posting stuff on the internet all day long. I’d say calling out people for dickish behavior, whether true or not, is hardly out of bounds of normal adult behavior.
I think the ball is definitely back in Wayne’s court
So Win gave it back this time? I say we settle this feud with a game of H-O-R-S-E (with an Idolator liveblog?).
@Thierry: FTW!
Hiding out in their Brazillian mansion, B.I.G. and Tupac laugh themselves stupid.
@Lucas Jensen: I’ve had little to no respect for the Lips for a while now, since they seem to have embraced spectacle showmanship over quality music. Wayne Coyne getting in the big ball and rolling over the crowd might have been cool the first few times, but now it’s just screams “diversionary tactic to distract from sub-par tunes.”
As for Arcade Fire, I was a fan of Funeral, but the band lost me as it quickly took all the praise for that album to heart and believed in it’s own greatness. Maybe that’s more the media’s fault than the band’s. I definitely agree when people down them for being too “Meaningfulcore.” Could just be me missing Pavement’s flippant sarcasm, though.
@JZ13: What’s wrong with spectacle over musicianship? They put out ONE moribund album, and people are saying things about them being irrelevant. I think the spectacle is fun, and I’ve never been disappointed. And as long as they still play “Lightning Strikes The Postman” live, I’m happy.
And I love Funeral, too, despite what the band or the media says. Agreed on Pavement’s sarcasm, always misinterpreted as irony.
Me, I like all the smack-talk.
@Lucas Jensen: That’s the thing, it isn’t like he’s calling them out; he’s just vaguely asserting that AF “treat everyone like shit” which just makes it seem like, were you to press him, his answer would be “Well, you know… They treat people like dirt man. Like, everyone man.” and then he’d maybe have an anecdote about being snubbed in Vegas that jibes with Win’s version. I’d hope that someone who’s been dealing with the music press for somewhere in the ballpark of 20 years would be a little bit above randomly blindsiding a band (that he actually admits he likes on a musical level) with wanton, unsubstantiated shit-talk that (as you pointed out) will reach millions.