Amidst surprise bobble head guests, covering Blondie tunes with Debbie Harry and trolling their audience with a fake Daft Punk, Arcade Fire managed to pack in a quick dig at electronic music acts, during their filled-to-the-brim Coachella sets.
“Shout-out to all the bands still playing actual instruments at this festival,” frontman Win Butler said during the set, in a comment that was largely lost amidst the performance’s other major events. But the put-down wasn’t lost on EDM producer Joel Zimmerman, more widely known as the mouse-hat wearing Deadmau5.
In a characteristic Twitter rant, Deadmau5 hit back at his Canadian counterparts, telling Arcade Fire they needed to “settle down” and that “some dudes devote their lives to instruments, others to electronic composition by [computer].” “Dafuqs yer problem?,” he added
He also reminded the band that “a computer is a tool, not an instrument.” Deadmau5 added that while he doesn’t expect to see Daft Punk “pull a Steve Vai on stage”, referencing the famed Whitesnake guitarist, “I’ll go watch them fake it, and enjoy it more than you hate the fact that they cant play guitar. inb4 some fucking hipster throws a hackeysack at me.”
Deadmau5 rounded off his rant by metaphorically singing the praises of operatic and orchestral music, describing the orchestral pit as a “cesspool of pure skill” and tweeting, “If I wanna watch real artists perform, I’d pick the opera before wasting a fucking minute of my life with Arcade Fire. #do youevenscorebro?”
shit to remember: A computer is a tool, not an instrument.
— deadmau5 (@deadmau5) April 23, 2014
arcade fire needs to settle down. some dudes devote their lives to instruments, others to electronic composition by cpu, dafuqs yer problem?
— deadmau5 (@deadmau5) April 23, 2014
i dont expect to see daft punk pull a steve vai on stage…i expect to listen to some decent music, n see cool robots. no problem.
— deadmau5 (@deadmau5) April 23, 2014
if i wanna watch real artists perform, id pick the opera before wasting a fucking minute of my life with arcade fire. #do youevenscorebro?
— deadmau5 (@deadmau5) April 23, 2014
but since some EDM is enjoyable to me, ill go watch them fake it, and enjoy it more than you hate the fact that they cant play guitar.
— deadmau5 (@deadmau5) April 23, 2014
inb4 some fucking hipster throws a hackeysack at me.
— deadmau5 (@deadmau5) April 23, 2014
… but seriously, im just sayin… you should get out to the opera if you ever get a chance, the orchestra pit is a cespool of pure skill.
— deadmau5 (@deadmau5) April 23, 2014