Last week, Arcade Fire/the Reflektors were in town, did play three concerts and I attended none of them. The first one, inside the Capitol Records, was very intimate and private, so I wasn’t invited. To attend the second one, on the roof of the Capitol Records, you had to come up with all kinds of imaginative artsy shenanigans with the theme of the album (pictures, costumes,….) plus send them through social media such as Instagram or twitter, and shit, did I have the time to do this!!? So I also passed on this one, and I couldn’t get a ticket for their third performance at the Palladium, as I missed the pre-sale on Friday morning (yeah I have to work sometimes) and I didn’t get through when the tickets went on sale at noon on Saturday despite being in front of my computer right on time!
Instead, I went to see the Flaming Lips on Tuesday and it’s funny because there is an old ‘feud’ between Wayne Coyne and Win Butler, which goes back to 2009 and was just resurrected by another ‘attack’ by Wayne Coyne! Remember, in 2009, the Flaming Lips frontman declared he found Arcade Fire pompous and he even said they were used to treat people ‘like shit’, harsh words immediately followed by a myriad of comments by fans on websites, describing how awesome Arcade Fire members really were….
Naturally, Win Butler didn’t take it too well, but it’s well known you should never take Wayne Coyne seriously. He apologized and said that it was kind of a joke, that he wasn’t really talking about the band but about their crew? Or was he? Beck, who has also received the Coyne treatment a few years before, has admitted that Coyne is just ‘on permanent truth serum’. Interesting for a guy who was described as the perfect dick by Coyne.
So you thought this Butler-Coyne feud was over? Wait until you read Wayne’s last interview with Stereogum! When asked about Diplo imitating one of his most famous gimmicks (the giant bubble), Wayne Coyne said he didn’t have a problem with it! As a matter of fact, it seems he doesn’t roll inside the plastic bubble anymore during shows, and this is why:
‘Only because we wanted to do something different at the beginning of the show. And it just sort of became like, “If you haven’t seen the space bubble by now, I mean, you must not like us.” It sort of seemed like, I mean, we’ve done it for 10 years almost every time that we play. And I was already thinking that we were going to stop doing it. And then I swear almost at the exact same time that we were like, “We’re not going to do it,” I saw that Diplo was doing it, which I thought was perfect. So to me, I like him, and I would never be like, “Who’s he think he is?” It’s like, it’s a fucking cool thing. I’m surprised more people don’t do it. It’s just such a cool thing. But you do kind of have to be committed to it. It’s not as easy as it looks. So I’m like, “Go for it!” It’s absurd. Do it! But I never felt like it was mine. I didn’t own it. I’d just do it, and it is what it is. But I could see where the audience would say, “The Flaming Lips did that. You shouldn’t do it.” But I think in the world of people’s creations and things, it’s almost like, “Well, if the Flaming Lips did it, then I should do it!” I mean, I can see it going both ways, so yeah. And I like him, so I don’t have any — now if it was the Arcade Fire, then I’d have a problem with it.’
Ha! Here we go again, he is provoking Win Butler one more time, just the week when these two bands are in concurrence – they are both releasing new music and were playing shows in the same city. We are waiting for Win Butler’s overheated answer.