Wayne Coyne
Wayne Coyne, 2006
Background information
Birth name	Wayne Michael Coyne
Born	(1961-01-13) January 13, 1961 (age 51) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Origin	Norman, Oklahoma, U.S.
Genres	Alternative rock, Experimental, Neo-psychedelia
Occupations	Musician, songwriter, actor, director
Instruments	Vocals, guitar
Years active	1983–present
Labels	Warner Bros.
Associated acts	The Flaming Lips

Wayne Michael Coyne (born January 13, 1961) is the lead singer, guitarist, and songwriter for the band The Flaming Lips.

Early life[link]

Coyne was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on January 13, 1961, the son of Thomas Coyne and Dolores "Dolly" Jackson. The fifth of six children, Coyne moved with his family from Pittsburgh's Troy Hill neighborhood to Oklahoma in early-1961.^[1] Coyne grew up in Norman, OK. Coyne preferred listening to music and playing pickup football. He and his brothers dubbed themselves “The Fearless Freaks” for their brutal backyard football games. Tommy Coyne, Coyne's older brother, described the games as a "semi-civilized gang fight." ^[2]

Coyne earned money in high school as a fry cook for a Long John Silver's restaurant in Oklahoma City. During his second year of employment there was a rash of robberies in Oklahoma City. The restaurant was robbed and Coyne and other employees were held at gunpoint and forced to lie on the ground. Coyne was certain he was going to die.^[3] The assistant manager couldn't open the restaurant's safe, however, and the robbers eventually fled. Coyne believes "this is really how you die...one minute you're just cooking up someone's order of french fries and the next minute you're laying on the floor and they blow your brains out. There's no music, there's no significance, it's just random." ^[2]

With the Flaming Lips[link]

Coyne at Lollapalooza, 2006 Grant Park, Chicago

Coyne formed the Flaming Lips in 1983 with brother Mark singing lead and Michael Ivins on bass guitar. Mark later left the band and Coyne assumed vocal duties. Both Wayne and Michael have been the only two consistent members of the band since its founding.

During large-crowd festival performances, Coyne makes his entrance by descending from an alien mother ship (a nod to Parliament-Funkadelic^[4]) in a bubble and floats across the audience. Coyne has also been known to pour fake blood down his face via a hidden tube during live shows. Coyne does this to pay homage to a famous picture of Miles Davis who, after a performance, had blood on his suit because a police officer had beaten him during the show.

Flaming Lips concerts also feature confetti cannons, lasers, laser pointers, images projected on to a screen, dozens of large balloons,a stage filled with dancers dressed as aliens, yetis, etc.^[5] Before performing, Coyne can be seen helping the stage crew. Their performances have been likened to psychedelic experiences rather than something so benign as music shows, a tradition that goes back to the band's formation.^[2]

Experimental art[link]

In 1996 and 1997, Coyne developed “The Parking Lot Experiments,” where forty different tapes were distributed. The band instructed forty cars to start the tapes at the same time, resulting in a surround sound. Over 1,000 people gathered in a parking lot for this experiment.

The parking lot experiments led to the experimental album Zaireeka, which is made up of four stereo tracks, each on four different CDs. The four CDs are meant to be played simultaneously in order to hear the complete tracks. Coyne believes Zaireeka embraces "...a kind of anarchy in art. It was like an art happening – you have to bring four sound systems together. Sometimes you get great synchronicity; other times, it sounds haphazard. You get to hear music in a whole new way."^[6]

At the New Year's Eve Freakout in Oklahoma City on January 1, 2010, Coyne instructed the audience to set their cell phone alarms for 12:55 a.m. When the alarms went off, the alarm sounds were drowned out by cheering. Coyne remarked that "someone has a loud fucking iPhone."

In October 2010 Coyne created a screen print using his own blood.The poster commemorated The Flaming Lips appearance at Austin City Limits festival 2010. It has a picture of a skull drawn in a Wes Wilson style, Coyne printed it using his blood collected in a vial. The print will soon go on auction. The frontman stated, "We thought it would be silly to use chicken blood or something, they don't need to sacrifice their vital fluids anymore than I need to" Livemusic.fm

Directorial debut[link]

Coyne began making his science fiction film, Christmas on Mars, in 2001. It was a low budget project and principal photography was shot on a set in his backyard. The different parts of the spaceship set were built by Coyne.^[2]

The film tells the story of the first Christmas on a colonized Mars. In the film, Coyne plays a super-being who is curious about a baby being born on Mars.

"Christmas on Mars" was shown for the first time at the Sasquatch! Music Festival in a circus tent. The Flaming Lips took the tent with them on tour, showing the movie after each performance. "The concept was to come up with another one of those midnight movies, like 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show,' that I went to see as a teenager, all toked up, before the days of cable."^[6]

Other projects/appearances[link]

Wayne Coyne in Brighton Centre, UK in 2003

• Bradley Beesley directed a 2005 film about Coyne and the Flaming Lips, The Fearless Freaks, which features much footage of Coyne's early life, as well as his narration about his experiences in the band.
• In 2003, Coyne provided vocals on "The Golden Path" by The Chemical Brothers. This track was released on the Singles 93-03 album (CD1, Track 13).
• In 2005, Coyne recorded "Marching the Hate Machines (Into the Sun)" with the electronic-duo Thievery Corporation on their album The Cosmic Game.
• On May 24, 2006, a video of Coyne was shown at the graduation ceremony at his old high school, the Classen School of Advanced Studies in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. In the video he spoke of not being a high school graduate, working at Long John Silver's, selling marijuana out of his apartment, and the value of life experience.^[7]
• In 2006, Coyne appeared in a Swedish music program called 'Musikministeriet'^[8] ('The Ministry Of Music'). He was featured in every episode, beginning and ending each one with a few eloquent words about that particular episode's theme, and his opinions about it.
• On January 1, 2007, Coyne appeared in Pasadena, California's annual Rose Parade on the "Oklahoma Rising" float with members of the Flaming Lips, and other celebrities who claim Oklahoma as their native state, including astronaut John Herrington, 2006 Miss America Jennifer Berry, creator of "Desperate Housewives", Marc Cherry. It was the state's centennial birthday.
• Coyne and The Flaming Lips guest starred in an episode of the television show Charmed.
• Coyne and The Flaming Lips appeared on an episode of Beverly Hills, 90210, playing at the Peach Pit. They sometimes show the clip at live concerts.
• Coyne sings on the opening track, "Revenge", of Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse's album with David Lynch, "Dark Night of the Soul".
• Coyne sings on the track Colossal Gray Sunshine of Faultline's album Your Love Means Everything
• Coyne has contributed several tracks to Kesha's upcoming sophomore album, "Spandex on the Distant Horizon".

Personal life[link]

Coyne lives with his wife Michelle in a compound of four houses in the same neighborhood he grew up in. Each Halloween, Wayne dresses up to scare trick-or-treaters who come to his home. He feels that it is good to scare children, because when they grow older, there are things "that are horribly scary...you can't just run away from them or turn on a light and it runs away."^[2] Though an atheist, Coyne says "I wish I did believe in God. It would be a great relief to think, 'God'll take care of it. God'll put gas in the car tomorrow.'"^[9]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Wayne Coyne

• Official bio from The Flaming Lips website
• IMDB on Fearless Freaks
• 2006 OKC Classen Commencement Speech Part 1 on YouTube
• 2006 OKC Classen Commencement Speech Part 2 on YouTube
• 2008 Wayne Coyne interview with Jon Niccum
• Wayne Coyne Interview in SPIN's January '09 Issue

Danger Mouse
Background information
Birth name	Brian Joseph Burton
Born	(1977-07-29) July 29, 1977 (age 34)
Origin	White Plains, New York, United States
Genres	Hip hop, alternative rock, neo-psychedelia, electronica, neo-soul, alternative hip hop, indie rock, folk rock, ambient
Occupations	Music Producer, Artist, Musician
Instruments	Piano/keyboards, organ, guitar, bass guitar, drums, Percussion, synthesiser
Years active	1998–present
Labels	Capitol / EMI, Lex
Associated acts	Beck, The Black Keys, Broken Bells, Cee Lo Green, Danger Doom, Electric Guest, Gnarls Barkley, The Good, the Bad and the Queen, Gorillaz, Jack White, Jemini, Joker's Daughter, MF Doom, Norah Jones, POP ETC, Sparklehorse
Website	dangermousesite.com

Brian Joseph Burton (born July 29, 1977),^[1] better known by his stage name Danger Mouse, is an American musician, songwriter and producer. He came to prominence in 2004 when he released The Grey Album, which combined vocal performances from Jay-Z's The Black Album with instrumentals from the Beatles' White Album.

He formed Gnarls Barkley with Cee Lo Green and produced its albums St. Elsewhere and The Odd Couple. He produced the second Gorillaz album, 2005's Demon Days, as well as Beck's 2008 record Modern Guilt and an album with Joker's Daughter in 2007. He has been nominated for a Grammy Award in the Producer of the Year category five times (2005, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2011), and won the award in 2011. In addition, Burton worked with rapper MF Doom as Danger Doom and released the album The Mouse and the Mask and the EP Occult Hymn.

In 2009 he collaborated with James Mercer of the indie rock band The Shins to form Broken Bells. The group's first album was released on March 9, 2010.

Danger Mouse was listed as one of Esquire magazine's seventy-five most influential people of the 21st century. In 2010 he began producing an album for U2.^[2]

Early life[link]

Brian Burton was born in White Plains, New York. He spent much of his childhood in Spring Valley, New York. Burton also lived in Athens, Georgia for a while, where his trip-hop work was released under the name "Pelican City".^[3] He also remixed work by several local artists, including Neutral Milk Hotel^[4] and DJ'd for University of Georgia radio station WUOG-FM. From 1998 to 2003, Burton also created a series of remix CDs and records under the stage name Danger Mouse. He performed in a mouse outfit because he was too shy to show his face, and took his name from the British cartoon series Danger Mouse.^[5]

Music career[link]

While in Athens, Burton took second place in a 1998 talent contest and was asked to open for a concert at the University of Georgia featuring OutKast and Goodie Mob. Afterwards, Burton approached Cee Lo Green, a member of Goodie Mob, and gave him an instrumental demo tape. It would be several years before the pair made contact again, but the two would eventually collaborate as Gnarls Barkley.^[6]

2001–2004[link]

Burton moved to Britain for a couple of years, living in New Cross in London and working at the Rose^[7] pub near London Bridge. While there, he sent a demo to Lex Records, which signed him. Burton's first original releases under the name Danger Mouse were his collaborations with rapper Jemini, including the album Ghetto Pop Life, released in 2003 on Lex Records. While the Danger Mouse debut was well-received by critics, he did not rise to fame until he created The Grey Album, mixing a cappella versions of Jay Z's The Black Album over beats crafted from samples of The Beatles' White Album. The remix album, originally created just for his friends, spread over the Internet and became very popular with both the general audience and critics, with Rolling Stone calling it the ultimate remix record^[8] and Entertainment Weekly ranking it the best record of that year.^[9] He discussed his feelings about any controversy the album may have created in the documentary Alternative Freedom. Danger Mouse was also named among the Men of the Year by GQ in 2004 and won a 2005 Wired Rave Award.^[10]

2004–2007[link]

The Grey Album also got the attention of Damon Albarn, who enlisted Danger Mouse to produce the Gorillaz' second studio album, Demon Days. Demon Days earned Burton a Grammy Award nomination for Producer of the Year.

Danger Mouse collaborated with MF Doom who together are known as DANGERDOOM.

Danger Mouse's next project was The Mouse and the Mask, a collaboration with MF DOOM (as DANGERDOOM) about and for Cartoon Network's Adult Swim. The two had previously collaborated on the Danger Mouse remix of Zero 7's "Somersault", on the Prince Po track "Social Distortion", and on Gorillaz' "November Has Come". A year later, DANGERDOOM released a follow-up EP called Occult Hymn. The 7-track EP featured new songs as well as remixes of tracks from The Mouse & The Mask and was released exclusively as a free download on Adult Swim's site.

In 2006, Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo (as Gnarls Barkley) released their first album, St. Elsewhere, which included the international hit single "Crazy". "Crazy" became the first UK number-one single based solely on downloads.^[11] He also produced two tracks on The Rapture's 2006 album Pieces of the People We Love. In the Autumn of 2006, Sparklehorse released their fourth album, 'Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain', a collaboration with Danger Mouse and Steven Drozd of The Flaming Lips. In August and September 2006, Danger Mouse collaborated with British graffiti artist Banksy to replace 500 copies of Paris Hilton's album Paris in English music stores with altered album artwork and a 40 minute instrumental song containing various statements she had made.^[12]

2007–present[link]

Danger Mouse (left) and Cee Lo performing as Gnarls Barkley in 2007

In January 2007, Danger Mouse produced another collaboration with Damon Albarn on The Good, the Bad and the Queen, along with Clash bassist Paul Simonon, former Verve guitarist Simon Tong and Afrobeat pioneer and Africa 70 drummer Tony Allen.

In March 2008, The Odd Couple, the second album of his and Cee-lo's Gnarls Barkley project, was released. In May 2008, an album with Martina Topley-Bird, titled The Blue God, was released. Martina collaborated on "All Alone", one song on the Danger Mouse produced Gorillaz second LP, Demon Days. Also released in May 2008 was Replica Sun Machine, an album with the band The Shortwave Set, including a collaboration with Van Dyke Parks and the Velvet Underground's John Cale, according to British music magazine New Musical Express.

Upcoming releases include a follow-up to Ghetto Pop Life entitled Kill Your Heroes. KYH was scheduled to be released in summer of 2006, but its release has been pushed back to an undetermined date. A collaborative album with Black Thought of The Roots is said to be in the works.^[13] He was also working on an album with The Black Keys and Ike Turner. Turner's death was expected to cancel the album, but The Black Keys and Danger Mouse released Attack & Release in April 2008. Some songs must have been recorded by Turner, however, as a posthumous Danger Mouse produced album has been mentioned, as well as another collaboration with MF Doom.^[14]

Danger Mouse also produced Beck's album Modern Guilt, which was released in July 2008.^[15] In April 2009, he and Helena Costas released an album as Joker's Daughter titled The Last Laugh. Danger Mouse was also listed as one of Esquire's 75 most influential people of the 21st century.

Since 2005, Danger Mouse (as a producer as well as an artist with Gnarls Barkley) has been nominated for 11 Grammy Awards: Producer of the Year (2005, 2006 and 2008), Record of Year (2006), Album of Year (2006), Best Alternative Album (2006 and 2008), Best Urban Alternative Performance (2006), Best Short Form Music Video (2007 and 2008) and Best Pop Performance (2008) He won two Grammy Awards in 2006 for Best Alternative Album and Best Urban Alternative Performance.

Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse were due to release an album in the summer of 2009 entitled Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse Present: Dark Night of the Soul (together with a 100+ photo book with photographs by David Lynch).^[16][16][17] Due to a dispute with EMI the album was not released officially until 12 July 2010 .^[18] However, the BBC reported that Danger Mouse planned to release a full illustrated jewel case with a blank CD-R included in it.^[16][17][19] The CD-R was to be labeled:

"For Legal Reasons, enclosed CD-R contains no music. Use it as you will."^[16][17][19]

On November 8, 2009, Paste Magazine named Danger Mouse the "Best Producer of the Decade (2000-2009)."^[20]

Together with James Mercer, Danger Mouse (billed by his real name, Brian Burton) formed Broken Bells. The project was first announced on Tuesday, September 29, 2009.^[21] 21 December 2009 the band informed fans in an e-mail message of the release of their debut single "The High Road", which was made available as a free download on their official site.^[22] The self-titled debut album was released in the U.S. on March 9, 2010.

In 2010 Danger Mouse began producing an album with the band U2, rumoured to be released in 2012. U2's frontman, Bono, said, "We have about 12 songs with him. At the moment that looks like the album we will put out next because it's just happening so easily."^[23]

Since 2005, Danger Mouse has been composing a spaghetti western album with composer Daniele Luppi. Jack White and Norah Jones do the main vocals on the album. Instrumentation was done mainly by musicians who played on the original Ennio Morricone scores. Danger Mouse does not play any instruments on the album. The style of the album reflects much of Danger Mouse's work since 2005, such as segments of Beck's "Modern Guilt", aspects of "Dark Night of the Soul", and songs like "Mongrel Heart" off of the self-titled Broken Bells album. The album is titled Rome and was released on May 16, 2011.^[24]

On February 13, 2011, Danger Mouse won a Grammy for Best Producer for his work on the Black Keys' Brothers, Broken Bells selftitled, and the Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse album Dark Night of the Soul.

On November 1, 2011, Los Angeles-based indie band Electric Guest released their first single, "Troubleman/American Daydream", produced by Danger Mouse. Danger Mouse produced the band's whole debut album Mondo which is set for release on April 24, 2012.

On May 1, 2012, Norah Jones released her Danger Mouse-produced fifth studio album Little Broken Hearts (Blue Note/EMI).^[25][26]

Danger Mouse co-wrote the song "Keep It for Your Own" by POP ETC, which is set to be released with the band's first album under their current name on June 12, 2012. ^[27]

Philosophy[link]

In an interview for the New York Times magazine, Danger Mouse was compared to a film auteur, basing his music production philosophy on the cinematic philosophy of directors like Woody Allen. "Woody Allen was an auteur: he did his thing, and that particular thing was completely his own," he said. "That's what I decided to do with music. I want to create a director's role within music, which is what I tried to do on this album (St. Elsewhere)... I can create different kinds of musical worlds, but the artist needs the desire to go into that world... Musically, there is no one who has the career I want. That's why I have to use film directors as a model."^[6]

Awards[link]

• 2004 Entertainment Weekly Album of the year (Danger Mouse - The Grey Album)
• 2004 GQ Magazine "Men of the Year"
• 2005 Wired Magazine Rave Award (Music)
• 2005 Grammy Nomination (Danger Mouse - Producer of the Year)
• 2005 Q Magazine (Best Producer)
• 2006 Grammy Award - Best Alternative Album (Gnarls Barkley -St. Elsewhere)
• 2006 Grammy Award - Best Urban/Alternative Performance (Gnarls Barkley - Crazy)
• 2006 Entertainment Weekly Album of the Year (Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere)
• 2006 Grammy Nomination (Danger Mouse - Producer of the Year)
• 2006 Q Magazine (Song of the Year - Gnarls Barkley "Crazy" )
• 2008 Rolling Stone Magazine Best Producer in Rock
• 2009 Esquire Magazine 75 Most Influential People of the 21st Century
• 2009 Grammy Nomination (Danger Mouse - Producer of the Year)
• 2009 GQ Magazine Album of the Year (Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse - Dark Night of the Soul)
• 2009 Paste Magazine "Producer of the Decade"
• 2010 Grammy Nomination - Best Alternative Album (Gnarls Barkley - The Odd Couple)
• 2010 Rolling Stone Magazine - Song of the Decade (Gnarls Barkley - Crazy)
• 2011 Grammy Award (Danger Mouse - Producer of the Year)
• 2011 Grammy Nomination - Best Alternative Album (Broken Bells - Broken Bells)
• 2012 Grammy Nomination (Danger Mouse - Producer of the Year)

Discography[link]

Danger Mouse albums[link]

• Danger Mouse and Jemini – Ghetto Pop Life (2003)
• Danger Mouse – The Grey Album (2004)
• Gorillaz – Demon Days (2005)
• Danger Doom – The Mouse & The Mask (2005)
• Danger Doom - Occult Hymn (2006)
• The Rapture – Pieces of the People We Love (2006)
• Sparklehorse – Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain (2006)
• Gnarls Barkley – St. Elsewhere (2006)
• The Good, the Bad & the Queen (2007)
• The Black Keys – Attack & Release (2008)
• Gnarls Barkley – The Odd Couple (2008)
• The Shortwave Set – Replica Sun Machine (2008)
• Martina Topley-Bird – The Blue God (2008)
• Beck – Modern Guilt (2008)
• Joker's Daughter – The Last Laugh (2009)
• Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse – Dark Night of the Soul (2010)
• Broken Bells – Broken Bells (2010)
• The Black Keys – Brothers "Tighten Up" (2010)
• Broken Bells – Meyrin Fields (2011)
• Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi – Rome (2011) (UK chart peak: #20)
• The Black Keys - El Camino (2011)
• Electric Guest - Mondo (2012)
• Norah Jones - Little Broken Hearts (2012)
• U2 - Unknown

Solo singles[link]

Pelican City[link]

• The Chilling Effect (1999)
• Rhode Island (2000)
• Pelican City vs. Scanner – EP (2002)

Promos[link]

• Danger Mouse Promo: Volume 1 (1998)
• Danger Mouse Promo: Volume 2 (1999)
• Danger Mouse Promo: Volume 3 (2000)
• Danger Mouse Promo: Volume 4 (2000)
• Danger Mouse Promo: Remix EP 12" White (2001)
• Danger Mouse Promo: Remix EP 12" Red (2002)
• Danger Mouse Promo: Remix EP 12" Yellow (2003)

Contributions[link]

• Verve Remixed 3 (2005) – Dinah Washington – "Baby, Did You Hear?" (Danger Mouse remix)
• The Now Sound Redesigned – "To a Black Boy" by Danger Mouse (with Murs)

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

References[link]

Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi join the Virgin Red Room for a sunglasses-clad interview.

External links[link]

• Official website
• Danger Mouse Breaks Down The Grey Album
• EFF: Grey Tuesday: A Quick Overview of the Legal Terrain
• Illegal-art.org: The Grey Album Download
• Cease and desist letter from EMI #1
• Conversation with Danger Mouse and Jason Bentley – June 21, 2006