Where Have All The Indie Beefs Gone?!

With Wayne Coyne awkwardly side-stepping from 'pricksgate' earlier this week - the hilarious Arcade Fire beef he instigated and a fallout which I reckon had great potential - 2009 is starting to look like a dire year for indie beefs.

The Coyne vs. Arcade Fire incident aside, the last six months or so have been a barren wasteland for band feuds. Christ, even degenerate pop stars have had their handbags out more often than our purportedly opinionated, gobby rock stars. Yep, we've had to settle for slim pickings like Lily Allen calling Katy Perry a 'copycat' or Little Boots saying Leona Lewis has a “lack of personality”. Harsh words eh? Christ, even fucking Mick Hucknall has got more verbal bile to get off his chest than our music idols.

I'll give Noel Gallagher his dues, the feud stalwart has taken to bashing those pesky Kaiser Chiefs, the aforementioned Simply Red troll and Madonna. Yet, the Oasis man's vitriol has either spectacularly fell on deaf ears or has merely provoked lacklustre remarks back (Whitey from the Kaisers called Noel “a bitter old man” - kind of ironic when he's a 35-year-old man performing songs about, and for, kids?).

Call me old fashioned, but I prefer my music feuds to have a bit more humour than this. I'm not exactly promoting violence (except in extreme cases, of course), but some unfounded words and a splash of venom never go amiss. Beats mutual arse licking any day of the week in my book. Better still, sometimes rock stars can come across like fucking idiots.

(Obvious Blur vs Oasis saga aside) Remember The Killer vs. The Bravery beef of 2005 for one? Sam Endicott came up with side-splittingly dire swipes at Brandon Flowers, allegedly calling him a “a little girl” and “a kid in a wheelchair” in a radio interview. Idiotic or what?!  He even said of The Killers' bassist Mark Stoermer, “(He) looks like a little Dutch girl with a beard. A nine-foot-tall, Dutch-girl mutant." To be fair though, he's got a point >>>>>

Although the Las Vegas bible bashers failed to be drawn into such overt juvenile tactics, The Killers were forced to react, which in turn provoked more name-calling and boasting from The Bravery. Choice cut from Endicott: "We know we're going to be here for a long time." Erm, how many copies did 'The Sun and the Moon' shift Sam? More to the point, where are you now? 

In these dire global times we're all drastically in need of entertainment, as well as good music.  And what better way to be entertained than two indie-rockers with over-inflated egos knocking verbal shit out of each other?! Discuss.