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dogs, and I play it all the time at the<br />
house and nothing happens to them.<br />
Nardwuar: There’s none, you<br />
swear to god, Wayne Coyne of The<br />
Flaming Lips, no dog whistles in<br />
“Do You Realize”?<br />
Wayne: No intentional ones.<br />
Nardwuar: So why do you think<br />
the dogs go crazy again?<br />
Wayne: I think it’s because they’re<br />
Canadian!<br />
Nardwuar: Ba-boom!<br />
Wayne: [laughs]<br />
Nardwuar: Now going back here<br />
to The Cramps…<br />
Wayne: Back to The Cramps?<br />
Nardwuar: Well we started talking<br />
about The Cramps.<br />
Wayne: Right, right we did.<br />
Nardwuar: Now, when I was listening<br />
to your early records, it<br />
really does sound a bit<br />
Crampish.<br />
Wayne: There is an element of<br />
The Cramps in there. But The<br />
Cramps are one of those inspirations,<br />
because they’re just<br />
such weirdos, and people<br />
don’t know how old they are,<br />
and where they come from,<br />
and all that sort of stuff, and I<br />
think there’s an element of that<br />
to The Flaming Lips.<br />
Nardwuar: But you don’t do<br />
any of that any more. You only<br />
go as far back as “Jelly.” You<br />
only go to the “Jelly.”<br />
Wayne: Well, it’s because we<br />
have been around for so long<br />
and our audience is perpetually<br />
like a new audience, and<br />
you’re always playing to people<br />
who just know your last<br />
couple of records, which I<br />
think is wonderful. And so, we<br />
try to play songs that we think<br />
everybody out there will<br />
know. And so I could play<br />
some old songs, but there’d<br />
only be like three or four<br />
weirdos like yourself in the<br />
audience who would know<br />
what we’re playing, and so I<br />
play songs that they want to<br />
hear. And when we do radio<br />
shows or shows at record<br />
stores or something, then we<br />
know we’re really connecting to the<br />
people who are weirdo, weirdo fans<br />
and who are perhaps even weirder<br />
than you, and then we will play<br />
some of the older stuff, just because<br />
we know… [laughs]<br />
Nardwuar: Thank you so much,<br />
Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips.<br />
Now I have a little joke here for<br />
you. I was listening to your early<br />
records, going way, way back, and<br />
your early records don’t sound like<br />
the Polyphonic Spree.<br />
Wayne: But that’s a good joke,<br />
right? Because I love the<br />
Polyphonic Spree…<br />
Nardwuar: You’re supposed to<br />
laugh at that.<br />
Wayne: Oh, okay. [laughs]<br />
Nardwuar: Is that funny? Is that<br />
funny? Can you tell the people the<br />
joke I was trying to get across?<br />
Wayne: Right, the joke is that people<br />
think that they sound like The<br />
Flaming Lips now, the Polyphonic<br />
Spree, right? That’s the joke? But I<br />
don’t think so. I think they sound<br />
like them.<br />
Nardwuar: But people have ripped<br />
you off, Wayne Coyne of The<br />
Flaming Lips…<br />
Wayne: No, no…<br />
Nardwuar: Yes, touring with STP<br />
and Candlebox. They ripped you<br />
off, didn’t they? Tell me the story<br />
about that.<br />
Wayne: No, they didn’t rip us off.<br />
We actually played up here in<br />
Vancouver with both of those<br />
bands.<br />
Nardwuar: I thought you played<br />
with Candlebox, and then they<br />
ripped you off, and then they failed,<br />
because they couldn’t copy The<br />
Flaming Lips!<br />
Wayne: No, they failed. Who<br />
knows why they failed.<br />
Nardwuar: You said…<br />
Wayne: No.<br />
Nardwuar: …in an interview that<br />
they copied you, and then they only<br />
sold four hundred records.<br />
Wayne: No. I think because we<br />
were on tour with them, and we got<br />
to be friends and they really<br />
admired our music, and I think they<br />
thought, “We want to be more<br />
weird and experimental like you<br />
guys.” And as you know, a band<br />
like Candlebox being experimental,<br />
that sounds…<br />
Nardwuar: You see, I was wondering<br />
about that, because Redd Kross<br />
toured with Stone Temple Pilots,<br />
and then Stone Temple Pilots totally<br />
ripped off Redd Kross. Would<br />
you admit to that, Wayne Coyne of<br />
The Flaming Lips?<br />
Wayne: No, I think music is one of<br />
those things…<br />
Nardwuar: Come on. Redd Kross<br />
were completely ripped off by the<br />
Stone Temple Pilots! “Big Bang<br />
Baby” – that’s total Redd Kross!<br />
Wayne: Nobody owns a certain<br />
element of what you can do in<br />
music. Everybody is always influenced…<br />
Nardwuar: What sort of kickback<br />
are you getting back from the Stone<br />
Temple Pilots?<br />
Wayne: [laughs] I’m not, I just<br />
wouldn’t make… I don’t think anybody’s<br />
even ripped us off. I think<br />
you can just do whatever you want.<br />
Nardwuar: [quickly] Polyphonic<br />
Spree.<br />
Wayne: No. Polyphonic Spree are<br />
great.<br />
Nardwuar: Wayne Coyne of The<br />
Flaming Lips, De La Soul. You<br />
toured with De La Soul. What’s it<br />
like touring with a rap band and<br />
what other rap bands have you<br />
toured with?<br />
Wayne: De La Soul are really gentle,<br />
loving, peace-and-love sort of<br />
guys, which is great, but you hope<br />
that when you’re touring with rap<br />
acts and hip-hop acts that it’s a constant<br />
barrage of smoking crack and<br />
having sex and guns and all that<br />
sort of stuff, but it wasn’t.<br />
Nardwuar: Have you played with<br />
any other rap groups? Any other rap<br />
groups? Have you met any other<br />
rap groups?<br />
Wayne: Of course. We played with<br />
Jurassic 5 just last night, and about<br />
a month ago with Public Enemy, so<br />
yeah.<br />
Nardwuar: What was that like?<br />
That must have been a bit of a<br />
downer.<br />
Wayne: No, it was great.<br />
Nardwuar: Flava Flav is getting<br />
pretty big isn’t he?<br />
Wayne: What do you mean?<br />
Nardwuar: You’ve kept very<br />
fit and trim, and you exercise.<br />
Wayne: Flava Flav looks virtually<br />
the same, only I think<br />
the clocks are getting bigger.<br />
He still had the clocks on and<br />
everything.<br />
Nardwuar: Ba-boom!<br />
Wayne: [laughs]<br />
Nardwuar: I love you guys<br />
because you were, like, covering<br />
Dark Side of the Moon,<br />
the entire album opening for<br />
punk bands years ago…<br />
Wayne: [laughs]<br />
Nardwuar: I mean that is<br />
punk. That is punk. When did<br />
this happen – quickly winding<br />
up here – doing that for<br />
punk bands?<br />
Wayne: We didn’t cover the<br />
whole thing.<br />
Nardwuar: Yes, there’s a<br />
punk band called No Trend<br />
from Washington, DC that<br />
says you opened for them and<br />
you did the entire album .<br />
Wayne: I know, but they’re<br />
exaggerating that we did the<br />
entire album. We would play<br />
Pink Floyd songs and that<br />
was indeed confrontational to<br />
that crowd at the time. But in<br />
defense of ourselves, we didn’t<br />
do it because it was confrontational.<br />
We did it<br />
because we liked the music and we<br />
thought, “Well, these people are<br />
punk rock. They should like it that<br />
we’re doing what we like.” I<br />
thought that’s what it was all about,<br />
but in some ways you see it’s very<br />
restricted in other ways.<br />
Nardwuar: Just quickly, this interview’s<br />
winding up. But why did<br />
your Brian Wilson interview never<br />
see the light of day? You interviewed<br />
Brian Wilson! Why did it<br />
not see the light of day!? What the<br />
hell happened?<br />
Wayne: Because Brian Wilson, I<br />
mean – I know me and you are a<br />
pair of weirdos – but compared to<br />
us, Brian Wilson is just too weird.<br />
It’s unsettling to see 25<br />
NARDWUAR THE HUMAN SERVIETTE
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