Miley Cyrus is on tour

That she kissed Katy Perry [warning: shit website where videos autoplay] comes as no surprise.

But... bringing on the Flaming Lips and doing Yoshimi twice?

That's perhaps a little more surprising. And probably doing as much to take the shine off the Flaming Lips as her tired 'look at me' Perry kissage undermines bisexuality everywhere.

Coyne calls Beck a dick; Beck's kind of a dick about it

Beck and The Flaming Lips went out on tour together, and Beck thought they were having a good time. But then... well, then things turned sour:

The 'Loser' singer hired The Flaming Lips to support him on tour in 2002 but frontman Wayne Coye criticised him after the gigs, describing him as a ''d**k'', which led Beck to believe he wasn't liked in the industry.

He said: ''I really don't know [why he said that]. I was very surprised, because I have a videotape of the last night where they were saying, 'I love you, this tour has changed our lives, you're a brother', so it really messed my head up. I went around for a year thinking people hated me.''

For a year. Based on one word in one interview from one man.

The tour, by the way, happened in 2002.

He then continues to pick away at it:

He added in an interview with MOJO Magazine: ''Wayne probably sensed I'm the kind of guy who cares what people think, that I don't come off as some asshole rock-star type.

''What he didn't know was that I was really sick during the tour, I had some condition and I barely had the strength to pick up a guitar.

''So after the shows, I had to go to my bunk and sleep. One show, I got food poisoning so I delayed it half an hour, which he probably thought was theatrical. But we had a good time! I was hoping afterwards that we'd do a record together.''

You know what, Beck? It's probably this sort of churning over something which happened a spaniel's lifetime ago that made Coyne think you were a dick in the first place.

Coming tomorrow: Beck on why that third-grade teacher who said he was disruptive had failed to take account of the weather conditions on the day.

Wayne Coyne is that idiot holding up the TSA queue

The presence of the TSA at airports in the US might do very little to stop terrorists, but they do perform a diligent job of stopping gun nuts taking their nutty weapons onto planes - the last week in October, for example, they stopped 38 loaded guns being taken on board by twitchy fellow travellers. And a throwing star. And a bunch of grenades.

Yes, a bunch of grenades. While you're juggling a sudoku book and an iPod, there are people who put grenades in their carry-ons. Perhaps they don't intend to use them. Perhaps they plan to show their displeasure if the beef meal has run out by the time the steward makes it to their seat.

There's an awful lot wrong with the TSA, but stopping the sort of people who are deluded enough to take live or fake weapons into a tiny plane is a really useful byproduct.

I mean, what sort of person would try to take a grenade onto a plane?

What's that? Wayne Coyne, you say?

Yes, Coyne held up a security queue - causing people to miss flights and lose money. Because he had a grenade in his carry-on.

Coyne can explain, though:

The Embryonic leader described the airport officials as "very nice," and admitted some fault, but Coyne wouldn't accept full responsibility for inconveniencing his fellow travelers (even though he did tweet that apology the same day as this mishap). "I would agree that it was stupid of me, but I don't feel wholly responsible if people missed their flights," he said. "I'm not making the rules. It's not illegal for me to have that grenade with me."

The grenade was a fake, and Coyne claims he "forgot" he had it with him. I guess it's possible - only last June I forgot I hadn't put my bottle of water in the bin as I moved towards the front of ORD. I mean, who wouldn't forget they'd put a grenade in their bags, right?

It's just disappointing that Coyne won't accept that he was in the wrong, and it was his fault. Because despite what he says, realistic explosives are banned from flights, either as carry-on or in baggage.

Mainly because the only way to tell if a grenade is a real grenade or just an uncanny lookalike is to set it off.

Mainly because if someone stands up on your plane demanding that Miss Congeniality II is shown as the in-flight movie, it's pretty hard to tell if they're waving round a genuine grenade or (as Coyne had) "a non-explodable grenade painted gold".

Yes, Coyne is convinced because it had been painted gold, that somehow showed that it wasn't a threat to the flight.

It's true that Coyne doesn't make the rules. It's true the TSA might have some odd rules and some awkward moments applying them, but not taking things that look like they could blow up a plane onto a plane is a pretty good rule, and really, if you don't want to follow that sort of rule, Wayne, stick to the bus in future.

One-a-month for the Lips

The Flaming Lips are doing a song-a-month throughout 2011. Which is the perfect chance for David Gedge to point out that The Wedding Present has done that, and to offer some advice:

August: If it's not working by now, stop

"They shouldn't lower their standards of songwriting and recording. We agreed that if we felt the music was suffering, we would stop because it wasn't that important to us."

The real delight is the Guardian readers slipping Weddoes song titles into the comments section.

Polka News Network: Lips

Hello, if you're a young person joining us through the Facebook for the first time. We're grinding the terrible, out-of-touch, decision the Grammys organisers made in dumping polka from the awards in their faces.

(A moment's pause as the young persons joining us through Facebook scramble for the exit again.)

If you need further evidence of just how huge polka is, though, look no further than The University of Oklahoma's Academy Of Contemporary Music. For who should turn up there to play a polka masterclass than Steven Drozd of the Flaming Lips:

When Steven Drozd was growing up, his father led a polka band called Vernon Drozd and the Texas Brass, which recorded several songs in the late 1960s. Sitting behind a drum kit, Steven Drozd pounded away to “Juarez, Mexico,” a 1969 recording by his father the younger Drozd had on his iPod Nano.

“I remember my dad bought me a little toy drum set when I was about 5, and I tore it up in just a couple of days,” Drozd said. “But I loved it, and I think my dad saw that and thought, ‘Maybe there’s something here.’”

In other words: banish polka, and you banish the whole world.

Wayne Coyne takes a bath

An email from Ginsoakedboy promises "possibly the greatest music story of the year".

And he could well be right: Google Street View has managed to catch Wayne Coyne taking a bath. In the street:

The image of Coyne [...] shows the singer sat in the bath next to a banner saying "blob in the bath"

It's actually possible, knowing Coyne, that this isn't an attention-grabbing stunt arranged with prior knowledge of the routes and timings of the Street View car.

Indeed, it might even be likely:

Fans on The Flaming Lips' official forum verified that it was Coyne in the photo, citing the fact that he had previously posted video footage of the same bath on the band's MySpace page, Myspace.com/flaminglips, along with several pictures of it.

According to notes on the MySpace page, the bath was set up by Coyne and his wife Michelle for a Halloween party in 2007.

Still, it would be nicer to think he heard the sound of Google coming and rushed out to take an extra dip. Much more appealing than the people of Broughton gathering to rail at the car. Indeed, if you really wanted to stop Google photographing the world, warning them there's a risk that wherever they go they might catch a naked Coyne abluting might do the job better than forming a human chain.

Wayne Coyne still has a problem with The Arcade Fire

It's still a bit of a mystery why Wayne Coyne decided to have a go at The Arcade fire earlier in the year. And then why he offered a half-hearted apology. Now, though, he's half-assedly withdrawing the lame apology:

"It's so silly. People say things about The Flaming Lips all the time and I don't give a shit. For Arcade Fire to even think that what I would say would have any impact on their egos... it's all silly," says Coyne. "Who cares?"

Well... nobody, really, but Coyne then suddenly decides that people do care, and suggests there's an army of people disgruntled with Butlers who see Wayne as the only man brave enough to face them down:

"In my defence, I would say it was a casual conversation with the reporter. I don't care. I know what I said was absolutely the truth. I run into people virtually everywhere we play and they're like, 'Wayne, you're the only one that says anything'. I would say in their defence that perhaps they have changed. But I don't care. A lot of silly gossip gets built up into epic proportions. I can understand people who loved their music thinking I was out of line for saying it."

In his mind, at least, he's like the guy in V who first goes round spray painting over the alien posters.

Flaming Lips flap flames

After Oklahoma voted against Do You Realize being adopted as state song because, in part, of the band's response to an earlier honour, presumably Wayne Coyne is making soothing noises to try and sort out a solution, right?

Right?

Oklahoma lawmakers who voted against making a Flaming Lips tune the official state rock song represent a minority of "small-minded religious wackos," the band's lead singer says.

Well... I suppose that's one approach to soothing things over.

The governor of the state has since stepped in, and used his powers to sign the song into Official status, thereby overriding the democratic decision of the senate. Remember how we used to love it when Bush did that sort of thing?

Lewd slips sinks Lips

Oklahoma were all about to adopt Do You Realize as the official state song.

Trouble is, some people carry grudges:

Republican Rep Mike Reynolds also spoke against the band, opting to diss the Lips because singer Wayne Coyne once dropped an F-bomb while expressing gratitude in 2007 for Oklahoma City naming an alley after the band.

“Their lips ought to be on fire,” Reynolds said.

Do you see what he did there?

They might have been able to get past the rudeness, but unfortunately Michael Ivins made the mistake of assuming it was the same year in Oklahoma as in the rest of the world:

A state representative took offense because Ivins wore a t-shirt emblazoned with a hammer and sickle – the longtime symbol for communist Russia when it headed up the now defunct Soviet Union – during the band's visit to the state capitol.

Republican state representative Corey Holland said he was bothered by the emblem,” reports The Oklahoman.

“I’m rising in opposition because of my disappointment in one of the band members’ decision to come in here wearing a communist T-shirt.”

In the end, the house voted against adopting the song as an official tune. Mainly because of a t-shirt.

In other business before the Oklahoma Senate on the same day, proposals to try and drag the state into the 21st Century were rejected by unanimous vote, while attempts to overturn the motion decrying electricity as "the clear and ill-intentioned work of a demon or demons unknown" lost by 49 votes.

Flaming flames Fire; Fire fans flames

Wayne Coyne, it turns out, isn't impressed with impressed with the Arcade Fire:

"We've played some shows with them and they really treat people like shit," he said. "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. I thought, 'Who do they think they are?'"

The Arcade Fire aren't taking that lying down, as if they were some sort of doormat. Not that they use doormats, they make a roadie get on the floor for that sort of thing. Win Butlers has slapped a blog up [in Flash, and impossible to link directly to] in which he suggest Wayne Coyne might not be the best person to judge if the band "are righteous, kind and goodhearted people like The Edge and Justin Timberlake" (of whom Coyne approves). Butlers concludes by suggesting that it might be slightly prick-like to tell Rolling Stone that "people [Coyne] doesn't know" are "arseholes".

Bet Chris Martin wishes he'd thought of that.

Coyne-operated game

To push the Christmas On Mars DVD, The Flaming Lips have launched an online game. I've had a bit of trouble getting past the loading scheme, but that could just be me - I used to struggle telling the time on a Game & Watch.

Bookmarks: Some stuff to read on the internet

The New York Times visits Wayne Coyne at home:

The vacant lots on either side of the main house belong to him as well. In Flaming Lips circles, the ever-expanding property is known simply as the compound.

“It’s our firewall,” Mr. Coyne said, standing under a pecan tree in the fenced-in courtyard surrounded by the houses. “It staves off the crack dealers.

Spiderman III soundtrack: half super Spidey sense; half Peter Parker

Thank god for digital downloads and the unbundling of the album, which will make it easy to pick out the decent tracks being produced for the Spiderman III soundtrack (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Flaming Lips) and leave the hackneyed and overblown (The Killers, Jet, Snow Bloody Patrol).

The album in full:
Snow Patrol - 'Signal Fire'
The Killers - 'Move Away'
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - 'Sealings'
Wolfmother - 'Pleased to Meet You'
The Walkmen - 'Red River'
Black Mountain - 'Stay Free'
The Flaming Lips - 'Spiderman vs. Muhammad Ali'
Simon Dawes - 'Scared of Myself'
Chubby Checker - 'The Twist'
Rogue Wave - 'Sight Lines'
Coconut Records - 'Summer Day'
Jet - 'Falling Star'
Sounds Under Radio - 'Portrait of a Summer Thief'
Wasted Youth Orchestra - 'A Letter to St. Jude'
The Oohlas - 'Small Parts'

Chubby Checker's version of The Twist? Heaven help us all.

Wayne Coyne and the wankers

Now, we've said before we don't have a problem with erotica. What we do find soul crushing, though, is the sort of pat-women-on-the-head/butt attitude of the Playboy-Hooters type of establishment, using nudity to demean and making money off the back (or, rather, front) of the women they pretend to be celebrating.

Which is why some of the bands who've joined in a Playboy stunt to try and flog extra issues of their magazine by designing some sort of t-shirt. Oh, yes, it's for charity, but if, say, The Flaming Lips wanted to help LIFEbeat, couldn't they find a way that didn't involve cosying up to Hugh Hefner's empire? Kasabian we expect no better of, but... come on, Wayne. Playboy?

The full list of bands who are contributing a tshirt is:

The Bronx
Dean & Britta
The Flaming Lips
Home Video
Illinois
Johnossi
Kasabian
Lil Jon
Metric
Monsters Are Waiting
Oh No! Oh My!
Rhymefest
Soulwax
stellastarr*
Tahiti 80
The Thievery Corporation
Trainwreck Riders
Whitestarr
Your Vegas

Surely a tuna would be more apt?

A member of a boyband hangs out with the coolest act in the world, in a "let me carry your bags"/"please like me" act of desperation. As Justin Timberlake dresses up as a dolphin for the flaming lips, no rock asks: Is history repeating Robbie Williams as farce?

Flaming Lips: A review

Thanks to Morag, head being at Twang magazine, for this report from Manchester:
We arrived mid way through british sea powers set and oh! How I want to love them as Rachel said she did. So few bands make an effort this days; I don't want band to melt into the audience and certainly they win points for trying. Costumes, pog jumping, model animals and trees and big bass drums….check. check. Check. Merchandise included chocolate too. The problem was the tunes; alarmingly average and prone to self indulgence. But maybe it wasn't there night; I was so excited at seeing my current second favourite band in the world perhaps I wasn't listening. I'll cock a kindly ear should they pop up on the radio and fingers crossed they will grow into the rather ace name.

After they had done, and beers had been bought, and crowds marveled at, I let Rachel into my secret route to the front of the stage. Never fails at The Academy (oh. I mean Academy One of course) and so we were suddenly at the very front, stage left. Hell, the security guy even ushered me into an even more perfect spot than the one I had identified.

Suddenly theres a huge cheer; some smelly looking bloke in a bad hat has meandered onto the stage. Oh wait; its damon gough., and its a Manchester, hence the near hysteria. I have issues with bdb; he has a smattering of solid gold pop nuggets but they are forever getting buried in his shambolic, self indulgent shit. Bah. Anyhow, despite his inherent arrogance (its not your show, fucker. We don't need you telling us how great the band is – we paid hard earned cash for our tickets) this was a time I couldn't help but love him. This was mainly because he only played three songs; not enough for me to get bored. And the middle one was a wonderous rendition of you were right, complete with the night joe strummer died. [sigh] I love this song, I love the way it starts off and you think its some crappy indiefied lady in red and then it all kicks into place and you think: yes. So simple and so right. Of course, becuase the bdb world revolves around Oldham street there was an extravagant ending of feud with alfie – like we were all caring about that one, eh kids? – but its no time to be churclish. This was a lovely little bonus before the main event.

Suddenly Carmina Buranda strikes up and the stage is invaded by dancing people in animal costumes. And in the midst is wayne coyne urging the crowd to keep bouncing the giant balloons he is throwing into the crowd. I gasp in delight as the opening notes of `race for the prize' kick in. There's someth9ing in the air and I just know its going to be a magical night. And so it is.

the lips weave a spell that is so joyful and full of wonder. I don't know how long it lasts; while they are playing I'm in a parallel world a lot like this one but stranger, happier and less cynical. At one point they talk about how every show is like a birthday party for them, and the thing is you believe them; wayne coyne looks so joyous and bouncy that its infectious and its impossible to have an ounce of cynicism when he talks about how `all that we have is now'. Hell, he even manages to dedicate a song to the volunteers of the world and how great their fans are without sounding cheesy or resorting to trite platitudes.

I have to say this makes him a deeply sexy man; it's he sheer force of will and that grin and the way he moves and… between him and the animals (what a stroke of genius!) I was transfixed. It wasn't until the next show I noticed the films behind them; mostly promo clips and tv appearances. Waiting for superman is still one of my favourite videos ever.

The sound is *fantastic* full and rich and washing over an ecstastic crowd. Most of the set is from the last two albums; when they played a kick ass version of `she don't use jelly' I marvelled at how far they've come. I mean, that's a good song to dance to, but the soft bulletin and yoshimi… are albums to change your life.

Its hard to pick highlight.s. The famous nun puppet returned to sing the last verse of a tender yoshimi…; all that we have is now was truly epic, and by the time they asked `do you reaslise happiness makes you cry' well, yes, because the tears were there. Sometimes its all you can do, when words don't exist for how marvellous something is. This is one gig I am glad I didn't go to alone because man, I needed a hug at the end. By the time they finished with `lifted up the sun' I was exhilarated and inspired and unable to stop grinning. It amy only be January but this may well be gig of the year.

The show was full of moments of childlike innocence and wonder and songs of wonderous, shimmering, life affirming beauty. If anyone asks me why music matters when there's a war going on, well I'll play them yoshimi… and if they still don't get it, fuck em.

The only chart that leaks

Since this week's TOTP could be the best one since Kid Jensen was presenting (Electric Six and Audiobullies), with Flaming Lips midweek position at 14 and The Libertines at 15, next week's could be even better.