TEAM SANITY:

The other day, my friend said to me that he couldn’t listen to an artist if he thought they were a douchebag.

I laughed uproariously for about a minute.

Unfortunately he was serious.

I think that people share his habit, though, and so this is what I say. I understand that listening to a person’s music seems like you have a personal connection with them, and so in that sense of course it seems strange to want to listen to somebody who has, say, hit somebody once, or exposed their nipple on live TV (whatever makes you frown).

but the truth is, I don’t think the artist(or indeed the human) exists that is permanently nice on all sides. Yes, I know you hear interviews where Artist A sez “Oh Artist B is just the nicest, sweetest person, I love touring with them”. But on a long enough time scale, everybody’s kindness rate drops to zero.

Sometimes you’re at the end of a 18-month tour and some keen reporter doesn’t know what “I am tired and would like to go to sleep” means.

Sometimes you just had an awful fight with your bassist just before you go on stage, and then you end up yelling at him in the middle of the set while the world watches.

Just think about your requirements, is what I’m saying. If you’re asking that every artist, no matter how tired or angry or sad or human, should always be bursting with love and smiles for every reporter, every audience, every cameraphone, and on top of that you’re asking that they keep it real? Start your own band. And not to mention, if I was Arcade Fire I would frankly feel betrayed because this is _another_artist_ that is saying this, somebody who should know better, somebody who’s probably been through the same (and who knows, we’ll probably see some interview in the next month where somebody blasts Wayne Coyne).

so, to sum up:

I am trying to stick with Team Sanity. I will still listen to both bands’ music, just as I would be friends with somebody who was rude to somebody once. But I am somewhat annoyed at Wayne Coyne for prattling about things that A} he takes out of context and B} he probably knows the context of. and in the end, what’s his point?