Talk about a band at the crossroads…
Word on the street that tonight’s Flaming Lips show in the Crossroads is an epic disaster in terms of ticket sales raises serious questions about the band’s future.
The combination of Father Time, a nasty falling out with its recently axed drummer from Lawrence, Kansas and a tone deaf response from Lips leader Wayne Coyne to concerns about good taste by Native American‘s appears to have the band on the ropes.
Even the standard issue puff piece in this week’s Kansas City Star Preview section touting tonight’s show by the band was more put down than plaudit.
“The Flaming Lips lost a lot of good will among area rock fans when Lawrence-based drummer Kliph Scurlock was ousted from the band this year,” it begins. “The scuttlebutt related to the highly public split reflected poorly on the Flaming Lips’ flamboyant front man, Wayne Coyne.”
The public split was punctuated by a flurry of high profile leaked accusations by Scurlock pertaining to why he allegedly had been fired. Which according to Scurlock was for publicly criticizing a 27 year-old musician friend of Coyne’s – the daughter of the Governor of Oklahoma – for posting a photo of herself in a Native American headdress and later offering an insincere apology.
The controversy went viral and weeks passed before the Flaming Lips responded.
“I’s all just made-up lies,” Coyne told Rolling Stone. “(Surlock) knows we struggled with him for years and it didn’t occur to us that it seemed that significant. I don’t even use the word ‘fired.’ He just doesn’t play drums with us anymore – that’s the way I’d put it.”
Christina Fallin
Coyne claims Scurlock called her a “cunt” on social media for wearing this.
Coyne’s take on the reasons for the axing differed from Scurlock’s.
“I don’t like having any hate go anywhere. I absolutely loved Kliph, but he had a lot of problems with being immature and he would just hate everything. Anybody that wants to look at what he does with his Twitter, he usually is hating people. And I never thought about it very much. It was only brought to my attention because I’m friends with Christina. I didn’t vote for her mother, but I’m still friends with her, and he’s an asshole bully who thinks he can just call someone a ‘cunt’ on Twitter and on Facebook and think he’s changing the world. And I’m like, ‘Hey dude, that’s our friend. Why are you doing that? Why are you just being a typical cowardly Internet hater?’ ”
Coyne’s side of the story was conveniently left out by Star music writer Tim Finn in a puff piece about Scurlock being ” lot happier” now that he’s basically out of a high-profile, high-paying job and contributing some drumming to a Welsh artist named Gruff Rhys.
nd there were no mentions of Scurlock’s social media indiscretions – such as calling a musician a cunt – in Finn’s piece
Instead Finn served up a hometown schmooze treatment for Scurlock, including lengthy shots at the Lips like, “a lot of people write and tell me they’re done with the group. But I think a lot of people had been getting tired of a lot of things that Wayne or we as a group had been doing, and had sort of written us off. The last couple of years, concert attendance was going way down.”
If you look closely you can see the dude Lips main man Wayne Coyne was marrying at this summer’s Wakarusa Fest is wearing a headdress.
Coincidence?
All of that said, Coyne didn’t do the band any favors by putting out pics of his dog wearing an indian headdress. Or with his tepid apology to people with Native American sensibilities who might have been offended, by telling Rolling Stone: ”I would say that I’m very sorry, to anybody that is following my Instagram or my Twitter, if I offended anybody of any religion, any race, any belief system. I would say you shouldn’t follow my tweets; you shouldn’t even probably want to be a Flaming Lips fan…”
Slights by a disgruntled home town dude and political correctness aside, the fact remains that the Flaming Lips have been on the scene for more than 30 years – a dozen or so with Scurlock as roadie-turned-tour drummer-turned full time drummer.
That’s a long time for a cutting edge alt rock band to remain cutting edge relevant.
The Beatles barely made it 10 years. The Eagles greatest hits CD is described as 1971-1975. Getting there and staying there – let alone as a major headlining act – is no easy feat.
Coyne will be 54 years old in January; Topeka native Scurlock just turned 41.
“They don’t have the draw that they once had, because they’ve over saturated the market and basically they do pretty much the same show every time,” says KC Confidential music writer Matt Donnelly. “Do you know anybody who actually listens to Flaming Lips albums anymore?
“I’ve seen the band a number of times and while they’re entertaining still, it’s the same show every time. I think they work better in a festival setting, because if it’s just them, are you going to pay to go see something you’ve already seen so many times?”
Said it before, will say it again- Coyne is a dick-faced a-hole.
They’re old!! Their flame is now a light flicker! Vintage and age can be great things, but not if you’re the jerky old wanna-be!!
It is true about their show being exactly, and I mean exactly the same every time they play. I have seen them several times in the past few years and even the stage setting is the same. Yoshimi was the best album of that year in my opinion. At War with the Mystics was one of the worst of its year….and the earlier Lips stuff, almost unlistenable. Just crazy psycho-punk. The problem with their live shows is that they haven’t evolved in any way. I guess you can’t blame them. As long as they are making money why would they. Do they really want to tour until they are in their 60’s? Do they really have anything left to say? No. They’ve become a party band for better or worse.
Well i dont know LEGENDARY HOG—i guess touring “into your 60s” has worked out well for The Who and The Rolling Stones.
Dear cmcm:
I’m not much for nostalgia acts, particularly the two you just names. However, there’s no comparison between the successes achieved by the Who and Rolling Stones and the Flaming Lips.
Besides, the Who and Stones are mailing in gawdawful performances as they pursue the almighty buck and whatever sort of ego payoff fading rock stars either in or pushing their 70s want to pursue.
Besides, when did three wrongs make a right?
Kliph is a friend of mine and for sure this entire thing was on Wayne. Growing up in Lawrence made Kliph very sensitive to Native American Issues, and Wayne being from Oklahoma should have done the same. I mean, read your history son. It sure took a whole lot more balls for Kliph to call out Wayne on the issue than for Coyne to fire Kliph and then dismiss the whole issue as Kliph being imature. Fuck that band, seriously.
I’m kind of with you, b kinder…
However
Calling a woman the C word on social media is hardly taking the high road.
And from what I’ve heard and read, your pal Kliph – his real name is Cliff, he started misspelling it in high school supposedly because another friend of his was Cliff too – has a habit of publicly trashing other bands and people.
Because of his keen sensitivities?
Doubtful.
More likely because he likes to bash people for whatever suits his purposes.
Then again, you’re 100 percent right about Coyne.
How clueless can you be to be from a state with an abundance of Native Americans and needlessly and stupidly pull the kind of stunts Wayne did?
Especially as a dude pushing 60 who’s on the downside of his career and trying to appeal to a far younger audience that is likely to be sympathetic to Native American concerns.
And what a ridiculous faux apology.
He’s not really sorry, he’s only sorry if what he said bummed you out.
But then, if it did, maybe you just shouldn’t be a Flaming Lips fan.
Stupidly arrogant.
Sorry to say it but Kliph seems like an ultra P.C. hipster. I recently saw him(Kliph) in a photo wearing some kind of Viking headgear and wanted to call him out on his insensitivity to Vikings. –Sounds stupid doesnt it?? I think Wayne was just waiting for a reason to can Kliph and look for a new drummer.
Flaming?
Smoldering is more like it.
They’ve played the exact same show for 15 years.
/reads comments
I see this has been mentioned.
The issue with Scurlock is not the reason the Lips are flaming out. Wayne Coyne’s mid-life crisis is the reason they are floundering.