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.

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 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.

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.

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