Wayne Coyne Says Sorry
08:01 AM,
Wednesday 5/6/09
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After saying Arcade Fire are “pompous … pricks” that treat their fans like crap, The Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne is trying to backpedal, explaining that he wasn’t really talking about the band.
If you missed the drama between Coyne and Arcade Fire, back in February the Lips frontman went off on the Canadian indie rock band during a phone conversation with Rolling Stone writer Andy Greene.
"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," Coyne said.
"People treat Arcade Fire like they're the greatest thing ever and they get away with it. … They have good tunes, but they're pricks, so f*** 'em.”
City Stages, Birmingham, Ala.
June 15, 2008
(Scott Legato / RockStarProPhotography.com)
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Arcade Fire frontman Win Butler then posted a gracious response on the band’s Web site, entitled "I still like clouds taste metallic," a reference to the Lips’ seventh album – 1995’s Clouds Taste Metallic.
“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 Rolling Stone that a bunch of people I don't know at all are really assholes.”
In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Coyne told the magazine his words were actually misinterpreted.
“I wish that had never happened. I didn’t necessarily mean it about the people in the Arcade Fire. I meant it about the guys that were running their stages at a couple of festivals. I wish whatever had been said wouldn’t have been taken as such a defiant statement from the Flaming Lips, because it wasn’t. I just assumed [Arcade Fire's response] was a joke,” Coyne said.
Arcade Fire's Win Butler
(Matt Schwenke)
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Entertainment Weekly then asked Coyne if he wanted to take the opportunity to apologize to Arcade Fire.
“I would. I really feel bad about it. I like enough of their music. The idea that I’m somehow against them… I’m not!”
I wonder what Butler and the gang think about Coyne’s amazing apology. I think it was pretty lame. I would almost respect Coyne more if he had stuck to his guns, defended his original statement and hadn’t “apologized.” If you’re going to be a jerk, go all the way.
Besides, he’s not really apologizing, he’s making excuses that make no sense. He was obviously talking about the band, not the guys running their stages. Duh!
Coyne, what’s up with you not keeping it real?
Read the Entertainment Weekly article here.
Read the Rolling Stone article here.
Read Win Butler’s response on the Arcade Fire Web site here.
(Click on "Win" in the upper left hand corner, and then click on "I still like clouds taste metallic")
--Sarah Marie Pittman