The War on Drugs photo by Morten Aagaard Krogh; Mark Kozelek photo by Tonje Thilesen
During Sun Kil Moon's set at the Ottawa Folk Festival earlier this month, Mark Kozelek didn't take too kindly to the sound bleed between his stage and the stage where the War on Drugs were simultaneously playing."I hate that beer commercial lead-guitar shit," he said after being told where the noise was coming from. Then, he introduced his next song by saying, "This next song is called 'The War on Drugs Can Suck My Fucking Dick'."
As Stereogum points out, Kozelek later posted a noteonhis website, in which apologized:
To War on Drugs from Mark Kozelek in regards to Ottawa:
I had never heard of your band prior to taking the stage in Ottawa the other night. But to give you an idea of how bad the bleed was, my drummer said that it would have been easier for him to play along to your set than ours. It could have been any band's music blaring from over the hill, and I still would have made jokes.
I hope to catch your set someday when it's not drowning out my own. The schedule wasn't your faultI get it. That was my third rodeo with The Ottawa "Bleed" Fest. They're still figuring things out over there. I hope they get it together someday.
Peace and all the best,
-Mark Kozelek
But he got back to his fighting ways--seemingly jokingly-- in an interview with Smile Politely, as Stereogum points out. When asked how new listeners should approach his 2014 record,Benji, Kozelek responded:
It sounds best when War on Drugs isn't drowning it out with beer commercial lead guitar, and it doesn't go over well in a bar full of drunk hillbillies.
The second part is a reference to the incident at Sun Kil Moon's Hopscotch set when he called the apparently noisy crowd "fucking hillbillies." (He is still selling t-shirts on his website that say "ALL YOU FUCKIN' HILLBILLIES SHUT THE FUCK UP.")
In other Kozelek news, we reported earlier today that he's going toappear in Paolo Sorrentino's newfilm The Early Years.
Read our interview with Kozelek from earlier this year, and watch Sun Kil Moon perform "Richard Ramirez Died Today of Natural Causes" at Pitchfork Music Festival:
