Flaming Lips and Arcade Fire Get Their Feud On

Back and forth bickering is nothing new when it comes to celebrity heiresses or rappers, but you don’t see it too often in the indie rock world.  When it is time to bring the cattiness though, no indie rocker can be relied up more than Wayne Coyne of Flaming Lips.  In the past, he’s gone after Beck and Nirvana’s Nevermind album.  Now, his scorn is being directed at Arcade Fire.

In a story posted on The Smoking Section at Rollingstone.com, Coyne attacks Arcade Fire as a whole for their alleged pompousness, mistreatment of the people around them, and in general prick like behavior.  Among the more choice quotes:

“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.”

“They have good tunes, but they’re pricks, so fuck ‘em.”

Ouch!  Not willing to stand for accusations of dickheadedness, Arcade Fire frontman Win Butler has posted a response on his band’s website.  In the posting, Butler implies that Coyne may not be the best judge of the band’s character being that they have only played a few festival shows together.  He also implies that, during the show in question, the band was jet lagged and tired, which sounds less like a denial and more like an excuse for being jerks.  But what do I know?  I just hope this feud doesn’t result in any hip-hop style violence.  I think we’re safe there.

Any opinions on who is telling the truth here?  Have you met Arcade Fire?  Were they douchebags?  Did Wayne Coyne just catch them on a bad night?  Do you care?  Let me know.