Black Lips End Beef With Wavves, Start Feud With Beethoven

No one loves the Black Lips more than music journalists. Not only do the Atlanta quartet steep their music in obscure psychedelic and garage rock from the '60s, but they also feed writers' unabashed hunger for dirt. It makes for great copy, but it often results in trouble for the band.

"Sometimes you're just talking and people blow it out of proportion," Black Lips guitarist Cole Alexander tells Spinner. "Just because you say something, doesn't mean you necessarily mean it."

Last year, the band made headlines all over the blogosphere when Black Lips bassist Jared Swilley made disparaging remarks about the band Wavves, a beef that eventually culminated in a New York bar fight between Swilley and Wavves singer-guitarist Nathan Williams.

"That whole thing started as such nonsense," says Swilley, with typical irreverence. "I was doing a radio interview in Norway and I was just running my mouth when we weren't on air. I thought it was off the record, but [the interviewer] quickly jotted down what I said and sent it straight to Pitchfork. The next day, it was all over the Internet."

Strangely, Wavves haven't been the highest-profile victim of the band's loose lips. That honour belongs to Ryan Seacrest, current host of 'American Idol' and former schoolmate of Jared Swilley and Cole Alexander.

"I know I said some rude stuff about him, but I kind of take it back," Alexander says. "I didn't actually know him that well in high-school, so I shouldn't be talking s--t."

But Alexander has his own reasons for making amends.

"I heard he took over [Dick Clark's] 'American Bandstand.' I love 'American Bandstand!' Ryan may be metrosexual, but that's cool. He's just doing his thing. If that's the route 'American Bandstand' is going in, then I might have to get with it."

"We have no actual hatred for anybody, even it comes off that way in interviews sometimes," says Swilley.

Surprisingly guarded, the Black Lips sound more interested in diffusing conflict than igniting it, but after a bit of prodding the band gave Spinner the scoop on their latest feud.

"The Black Lips hate Beethoven," spouts Swilley. "That guy needs to spend more time on the piano and less time in front of the mirror."

"Yeah, he's f---in' deaf anyway," adds Alexander. "He can't even hear his own damn music."

Eat that up, Internet.