Indiana stage collapse follows Flaming Lips, Cheap Trick incidents

We are all right. We are praying for our fans, and the people of Indianapolis. We hope you’ll join us. They need your strength.
The members of Sugarland • In a tweet sent out soon after last night’s devastating stage collapse at the Indiana State Fair, where Sugarland was performing last night. There has been a spate of these lately — just last weekend, The Flaming Lips suffered a bunch of damage to their gear after a similar stage collapse in Oklahoma which took out a massive video screen. And prior to that, Cheap Trick had a stage fall to the ground in Canada, nearly injuring the band and thousands of spectators. The Indiana situation was clearly the worst, however — five lives were lost and 40 people were injured, and those numbers could go up. Devastating. source

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The Lips joined up with fellow band Stardeath and White Dwarfs, which features Wayne Coyne’s nephew, to do a killer cover of Madonna’s “Borderline.” Sweet. (And the video’s cool too.)

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1. St. Vincent could easily get placed into the same bargain bin as indie femme fatales like Feist or Bat for Lashes, but Annie Clark is way more subversive than that, plus the girl can rock out as much as the guys – see “Actor Out of Work.”

2. We’re on an female indie superstar kick this week, so it’s only fitting that Neko Case, she of New Pornographers and awesome solo career, get a mention for “Your Control,” a near-perfect meshing of vocals with Crooked Fingers’ Eric Bachmann. *

3. This cover gives us goosebumps. A b-side off of Iron & Wine’s killer new rarity collection “Around the Well,” Sam Beam’s cover of “Waitin’ for a Superman” somehow matches and exceeds the hushed desperation of the Flaming Lips’ original.

4. Ben Gibbard and Feist may as well be the king and queen of indie rock to mainstream audiences, and this cover of Vashti Bunyan’s “Train Song” from the “Dark Was the Night” compilation doesn’t become either of theirs. They share in the beauty. *

5. The Appleseed Cast, a long-running post-rock band, likes to build slowly then go huge. It takes nearly six minutes for vocals to show up on the epic “As the Little Things Go,” and we wouldn’t have it any other way. *

* – Thanks much to friend of the site Davey Jones for these picks.

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I don’t know why people put up with it. I wouldn’t put up with it. I don’t care if it’s Arcade Fire or Brian Eno. If either of them walked into a room and treated people like (*&% I’d be like, ‘%*%& you, get outta here.’
Wayne Coyne • In a Rolling Stone interview where he ripped everyone’s favorite indie band a new one. Coyne has a history of this – he famously ripped Beck a while back. Arcade Fire lead singer Win Butler responded by saying he played with the Lips over three years ago when the band was jet-lagged. “I am not sure Wayne is the best judge,” Butler wrote. • source

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The Flaming Lips are rockin’ their home state. Wayne Coyne must be proud. Today, the state legislature passed a resolution naming the state’s official rock song, and the one they picked is frickin’ killer. “Do You Realize??,” off the Oklahoma band’s “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots,” beat out songs from the last 50 years (including the All-American Rejects, thank God) to win one for the indie kids. source

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14 Aug 2011 11:23