Update: Arcade Fire's Win Butler Responds To Wayne Coyne's Remarks
3/5/2009 By Brock Thiessen

As we previously reported, Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne went on quite the anti-Arcade Fire rant yesterday, telling Rolling Stone the Montrealers are nothing but pompous “pricks” who treat their crew, their fans and basically everyone around them like complete and total shit. Well, head Arcade Fire man Win Butler read the news and he’s a little baffled, to say the least.

In a blog post made Wednesday evening (March 4), Butler responded to Coyne’s little tirade (or gross misquote), saying he’s never really met the guy and even used to look up to the Flaming Lips.

You can check Butler’s message in its original form at Arcade Fire’s website by clicking on “Win” in the top left-hand corner, and then on “I still like clouds taste metallic.” Or you could just read it right here in its unedited form:

Wow, I can't believe I am actually writing to defend my band's "real" personality. I wish I could not respond to something like this, but the reality is is that people will be asking me questions about it for the next five years. I also fear that people will base their opinion of our band on the media quotes of a guy who doesn't even know us.

The only time we have ever shared a stage with the Flaming Lips was our last show on the Funeral tour at a festival in Las Vegas (over three years ago)... we arrived the morning of the show from Brazil, slept all day and awoke into some kind of surreal Vegas jet-lag dream in which we were playing after the Flaming Lips... how strange... I was really excited to meet Wayne. Clouds Taste Metallic was a huge record for me, and growing up in the weirdness of Houston, I always imagined Oklahoma City to be in the same universe. I was really nervous to meet him and I felt a little weird that we were playing after them. We traded a little hello, but he was a hard guy to get a read on. Steven Drodz was super nice, and I felt good after talking to him...

So... I am not sure 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). 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 than I remember, I hope I was less of a "prick" then telling Rollingstone that a bunch of people I don't know at all are really assholes.

As a closing note, the main point that I am offended by in this whole thing is for Wayne to say we treat our audience like shit...

At times like these I am comforted by knowing that even though Wayne slammed Beck all those years ago, he seems like a really nice guy to me. I guess everyone has a different idea of what being pompous means.

Win

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