Brian Wilson / Wayne Coyne Interview

[cablegeddon]

No offense but BW is acting very "dopey" in that interview and it's ironic that this original slacker guy is offended by that.

[Tristero]

No offense but BW is acting very "dopey" in that interview and it's ironic that this original slacker guy is offended by that.

Say what you will about Wayne, but he's no slacker.  He's actually one of the hardest working guys in the business and for all his freakiness, he's very outgoing and functional.  I can almost see why he might be disappointed after meeting Brian, but I didn't care for some of his comments after that interview--a bit too judgmental.  Apart from the Beck incident, he also got into a kerfuffle with Arcade Fire, so he does seem to have a bit of an attitude.

[theCOD]

You have to wonder what he was expecting. Being unimpressed is one thing, but I think it's wrong to judge anyone suffering from mental illness. People who haven't experienced it can't even begin to imagine what it's like, and it comes off as incredibly ignorant. I would no sooner mock someone with a physical handicap for not getting around as well as I do.

[soniclovenoize]

The Beck thing, Beck was being a douche and not carrying his weight for their collaboration.  So Wayne was honest about it.  

How is that? I don't know the details specifically, so not questioning you, just wondering what was said.

Well, it was the case of Beck acting like a pampered rock star.  The Flaming Lips showed up at the studio, ready to rehearse the material with Beck, but Beck didn't bother showing up... for days.  And when he did he'd just listen, give a few suggestions, and then leave.  He essentially pulled the "I'm beyond you guys, I'm a musical director who will come and go as I please" schtick, and The Flaming Lips had assumed that they would all rehearse as a band...

And as I think you said (or someone else), we're talking about a band who, even to this day, hauls their own gear onto stage and sets it up themselves and is known to hang out with fans (I could tell you a pretty awesome personal experience!), but then Beck, who would be too cool for interviews, too cool to come out of his dressing room, bitches and moans about is rider, and so forth.  You know what I mean?  

But I will say is the "feud" between Beck and The Flaming Lips that happened at the time was a hoax, a deliberate experiment to see if they could create a press-driven ruckus...  So the differences between the two, I'd say, is just their work ethic, and how they handled stardom, you know?  I'm sure they respect eachother and are friendly...  

On the Flips boards, their drummer Kliph has a Q&A thing, and I'm looking for his quote about Beck, clarifying it all but can't seem to find it.  I'll post it when I do!  

Meh, I think people just assume Wayne is more exposed to things than he probably really is. I also think Steven is probably the real Beach Boys fan in the FLips. Wayne, if anything, is probably just a casual fan.

Ha, I will say that the sound-design and arrangement of Zaireeka/The Soft Bulletin (the orchestration and such) was entirely Steven's idea and execution.  He had wanted to incorporate those music ideas into the band for a while, but couldn't as long as Ronald was still in the band.  After he left, the was free to 'take reigns'...  

[cablegeddon]

No offense but BW is acting very "dopey" in that interview and it's ironic that this original slacker guy is offended by that.

Say what you will about Wayne, but he's no slacker.  He's actually one of the hardest working guys in the business and for all his freakiness, he's very outgoing and functional.  I can almost see why he might be disappointed after meeting Brian, but I didn't care for some of his comments after that interview--a bit too judgmental.  Apart from the Beck incident, he also got into a kerfuffle with Arcade Fire, so he does seem to have a bit of an attitude.

The Flaming lips, I lump them together with bands like Phish and Black Crowers, 80s/90s hippies, stoner/slacker guys who'll smoke a joint before doing a tv-interview. This kind of thing........but I know nothing about them

[Tristero]

Wayne's kind of funny when it comes to drugs.  From what I understand, he rarely parties anymore--he's way too busy for that--but he obviously did in his youth and their music has been strongly influenced by the whole psychedelic experience.  Steven had some well publicized struggles with heroin several years back, but he's been clean for a while.  So maybe part of Wayne's attitude is "Yeah, we messed around with that stuff too, but we were able to keep our sh*t together."  But I don't want to put words in his mouth.  Brian's a whole different story.  He had some deep psychological issues to begin with and the drugs just exacerbated them.  I don't think Wayne ever had to contend with auditory hallucinations and the like.

[Ron]

Brian is humble and lets his talent for music speak for itself. Wayne has to apparently play the jerk hipster role to justify his lesser talents. Brian is more hip than any other jerkoff "hipsters"

I've never heard of Wayne Coyne. 


I think that really says all we need to say about who said what, who's a jerk, who's hip, etc. 

[Dr. Tim]

Saw a FLips show last year and it was by far the loudest, freakiest gig I ever saw.  An acid trip on stage, I must say a lot of work went into it.   Another Wayne Coyne obsession is, well, uh, the female reproductive organ.  It gets, shall we say, a lot of exposure in the video background to their shows.   Also a frequent theme, so to speak, in their Christmas on Mars DVD.   The road crew and Wayne's nephew have their own band, Star Death and White Dwarves, which is the USA equivalent of XTC's Dukes of Stratosphear sixties-knockoff, channeling Vanilla Fudge, early Black Sabbath, James Gang stoner rock,  and the like.

[pixletwin]

Brian is humble and lets his talent for music speak for itself. Wayne has to apparently play the jerk hipster role to justify his lesser talents. Brian is more hip than any other jerkoff "hipsters"

I've never heard of Wayne Coyne. 


I think that really says all we need to say about who said what, who's a jerk, who's hip, etc. 

Uh ok. I guess you must have your finger on the pulse of hipster-dom then eh?

What is a hipster anyway? I hate that word.

[TheManchesterMan]

The Flaming lips, I lump them together with bands like Phish and Black Crowers, 80s/90s hippies, stoner/slacker guys who'll smoke a joint before doing a tv-interview. This kind of thing........but I know nothing about them

That seems quite apparent when you lump them in with those other bands that are nothing like them. Have a listen to The Soft Bulletin (or Zaireeka if you have four CD players handy).

[Tristero]

Brian is humble and lets his talent for music speak for itself. Wayne has to apparently play the jerk hipster role to justify his lesser talents. Brian is more hip than any other jerkoff "hipsters"

I've never heard of Wayne Coyne. 


I think that really says all we need to say about who said what, who's a jerk, who's hip, etc. 

Just like I wouldn't be too quick to judge Brian--I haven't walked in his shoes--I wouldn't rush to judgment over Wayne's comments either.  I don't like to get too hung up on the personalities--I prefer to judge artists by their work.  I've enjoyed a lot of the Flaming Lips stuff over the years (though some of the recent stuff has left me scratching my head).

[SMiLE Brian]

Brian is humble and lets his talent for music speak for itself. Wayne has to apparently play the jerk hipster role to justify his lesser talents. Brian is more hip than any other jerkoff "hipsters"

I've never heard of Wayne Coyne. 


I think that really says all we need to say about who said what, who's a jerk, who's hip, etc. 

Uh ok. I guess you must have your finger on the pulse of hipster-dom then eh?

What is a hipster anyway? I hate that word.

I take back what I said about Wayne after reading the full interview and finding Wayne is saying a good message overall.

[cablegeddon]

The Flaming lips, I lump them together with bands like Phish and Black Crowers, 80s/90s hippies, stoner/slacker guys who'll smoke a joint before doing a tv-interview. This kind of thing........but I know nothing about them

That seems quite apparent when you lump them in with those other bands that are nothing like them. Have a listen to The Soft Bulletin (or Zaireeka if you have four CD players handy).

Not musically! Image, drug use, fanbase etc...

[hypehat]

Brian is humble and lets his talent for music speak for itself. Wayne has to apparently play the jerk hipster role to justify his lesser talents. Brian is more hip than any other jerkoff "hipsters"

I've never heard of Wayne Coyne. 


I think that really says all we need to say about who said what, who's a jerk, who's hip, etc. 

Man, I love the internet.

[TheManchesterMan]

The Flaming lips, I lump them together with bands like Phish and Black Crowers, 80s/90s hippies, stoner/slacker guys who'll smoke a joint before doing a tv-interview. This kind of thing........but I know nothing about them

That seems quite apparent when you lump them in with those other bands that are nothing like them. Have a listen to The Soft Bulletin (or Zaireeka if you have four CD players handy).

Not musically! Image, drug use, fanbase etc...

That's far off the mark too though.

[Ron]

Brian is humble and lets his talent for music speak for itself. Wayne has to apparently play the jerk hipster role to justify his lesser talents. Brian is more hip than any other jerkoff "hipsters"

I've never heard of Wayne Coyne. 


I think that really says all we need to say about who said what, who's a jerk, who's hip, etc. 

Uh ok. I guess you must have your finger on the pulse of hipster-dom then eh?

What is a hipster anyway? I hate that word.

Uh ok.  The point is, it's similar to somebody at Taco Bell being rude to Brian.  In the grand scheme of things, it doesn't matter. 

Hipster a derogatory term used to put down people who have to try really hard to be cool.  Truly 'cool' people, 'hip' people don't try, others just notice it.  Kind of like how Brian is respected by millions of people around the world from infants to grandmas.... and people like me who own thousands of albums have never even heard of Wayne Coyne.  I'm sure he's a great guy and all, but in the grand scheme of things he's so far out of the realm of a cool guy like Brian Wilson that his opinion or tact regarding Brian Wilson is about as unimportant as mine. 

To break out the crayons and construction paper : The point is, Brian's universally known to be 'hip', and nobody thinks he's a jerk.  I know 5 year olds that know this.  Wayne Coyne hasn't even reached Vanilla Ice status yet in the minds of the public.  That's reallllllllly uncool.  Doing things like flashing pictures of a vagina on the screen behind you while you sing isn't cool, either.  It's trying too hard.   Doing something like inventing the way pop music is recorded... that's pretty cool. 

Does this really need explanation?

[hypehat]

I don't mind if one of my favourite musicians states a point about the overuse of the word 'genius' in relation to Brian Wilson. I wonder about that myself.

But to get out the crayons - You said you don't know what you're talking about. Stop talking about it, then.

[Iron Horse-Apples]

I think anyone is capable of doing anything that could be considered "genius."

Bollocks.

The correct definition of musical genius, as understood about 250 years ago when things like this began to be considered is quite simple.

A "musical genius" is someone who can hear five or more lines of polyphony (harmony) in their head simultaneously.

So I would agree with him that genius is an overused and completely misunderstood word. Even he misunderstands it!

[pixletwin]

Brian is humble and lets his talent for music speak for itself. Wayne has to apparently play the jerk hipster role to justify his lesser talents. Brian is more hip than any other jerkoff "hipsters"

I've never heard of Wayne Coyne. 


I think that really says all we need to say about who said what, who's a jerk, who's hip, etc. 

Uh ok. I guess you must have your finger on the pulse of hipster-dom then eh?

What is a hipster anyway? I hate that word.

Uh ok.  The point is, it's similar to somebody at Taco Bell being rude to Brian.  In the grand scheme of things, it doesn't matter. 

Hipster a derogatory term used to put down people who have to try really hard to be cool.  Truly 'cool' people, 'hip' people don't try, others just notice it.  Kind of like how Brian is respected by millions of people around the world from infants to grandmas.... and people like me who own thousands of albums have never even heard of Wayne Coyne.  I'm sure he's a great guy and all, but in the grand scheme of things he's so far out of the realm of a cool guy like Brian Wilson that his opinion or tact regarding Brian Wilson is about as unimportant as mine. 

To break out the crayons and construction paper : The point is, Brian's universally known to be 'hip', and nobody thinks he's a jerk.  I know 5 year olds that know this.  Wayne Coyne hasn't even reached Vanilla Ice status yet in the minds of the public.  That's reallllllllly uncool.  Doing things like flashing pictures of a vagina on the screen behind you while you sing isn't cool, either.  It's trying too hard.   Doing something like inventing the way pop music is recorded... that's pretty cool. 

Does this really need explanation?

Nope. It is pretty clear you know less about Wayne than Wayne knows about Brian. 

[soniclovenoize]

Wayne Coyne hasn't even reached Vanilla Ice status yet in the minds of the public.  That's reallllllllly uncool. 

So you are saying an artist has to be recognized by the mainstream media to be "cool"?  Is that your definition of success?  Also, are you suggesting your view of "cool" is the exact same as mine or anyone else's? 

Doing something like inventing the way pop music is recorded... that's pretty cool. 

But The Flaming Lips recorded a 4-CD album meant to be played simultaneously on 4 separate sound systems (each disc contained the same 8 songs, but each disc had different sound elements and/or tracks from each song, so that you could control what you hear, and the randomness in the playback would allow for decays to happen before the attack of certain sounds.  It also forces the listening experience to be a social event, as you would need three other people to synchronize the other discs. 

They also conducted Boombox Experiments, in which each audience member was handed out a boombox of pre-recorded sounds and Wayne played the part of a conductor, signaling to audience members when to turn the volume up or down on their boombox.  This was a continuation of the Parking Lot Experiments, in which they handed out 50 pre-recorded tapes and audience members were instructed to play each tape at the same time from their car...

Also most recently they recorded a 6-hour song, and if one donated $100 to charity, your name would be put into the song (which was read by none other than Sean Lennon).  They've also recently been releasing music contained on a USB drive, stuck in the center of a gummi fetus, so you would have to eat the gummi fetus to get to the music.  They also literally just released a 24-hour song last week. 

How is that not reinventing how music is recorded and released? 

[Alex]

They also literally just released a 24-hour song last week. 

I'm starting to think that the Lips are coming down with "Yes Disease", aka "Tales From Topographic Oceans Syndrome."

[TdHabib]

This is a tricky one for me, as The Lips Soft Bullettin is one of my top 10 albums...yet Coyne doesn't have the talent of Brian (heck, almost no one does!). In any event, Wayne is critical of Brian but I've heard he's quite a nice guy in real life. In any event, the Lips recent offerings aren't quite my cup of tea, Brian's an amazing talent yet lacks great social skills in interviews and all I can say is what Ringo says: Peace and love, peace and love, peace and love.

[Tristero]

They also literally just released a 24-hour song last week. 

I'm starting to think that the Lips are coming down with "Yes Disease", aka "Tales From Topographic Oceans Syndrome."

Well, I can tell you that compared to what the Flaming Lips have been doing lately, Tales From Topographic Oceans sounds concise and well thought out!  I actually enjoy a lot of progressive/improv music and I'm not afraid of a long song, but I made it through about an hour of I Found A Star On The Ground (their six hour opus) and I thought it was just a noisy, unfocused jam, pretty self indulgent.  I've been a fan of the Lips for nearly twenty years now too and have enjoyed most of their stuff up until this point.  I'll give them kudos for marching to their own drummer, but they've been losing me with this stuff lately.

[guitarfool2002]

What is it with hipsters and Pabst Blue Ribbon beer?

[SMiLE Brian]

What is it with hipsters and Pabst Blue Ribbon beer?

Me and my friends were trying to figure that one out a couple days ago as well. What is it about PBR that makes it so popular with them?