TAS Headlines: The Black Lips And Wavves Have Weekend of Fisticuffs; Lady Sovereign Arrested

Just when Oasis' warring Gallagher brothers called it quits, leading to humble hopes of peace, bonhomie and harmony in the rock world, along comes a bloody fist fight on Friday night in Brooklyn between The Black Lips Jared Swilley and Wavves' Nathan Williams to disrupt that short-lived tranquility. As clarity dawns on this Monday, both parties are pointing fingers, one is making threats and both are holding ice packs to their bruised noggins and egos, but Brooklyn Vegan has broken the ongoing scuffle down, step by histrionic step.

Apparently, following The Black Lips' set at Roseland Ballroom opening for Yo La Tengo and Wavves' show at Market Hotel, both Swilley and Williams ended up at 4AM at Daddy's, a Williamsburg bar. According to one patron who observed the fight at midpoint, Swilley and "a popular DJ" charged Williams, punches were thrown, the quarreling duo were separated and the police were called.

"The lights at Daddy's were turned on, the cops showed up," reported the eyewitness to the blog PopJew, "but Jared and the chick were not ready to stop fighting and were even trying to fight other people outside the bar. Jared was bloody. Nathan was fine. Insane. Weirdest indie rock moment I've experienced."

On Saturday, a peeved Williams issued an official statement about the altercation: ""Talking s**t about me on the Internet is one thing, I can handle that all day but when some dude is just looking for a fight at 4 in the morning talking s**t to my face and his girlfriend is spitting in the face of all my friends it's a whole different story. I have no problem with Black Lips or anybody else that i havent met but Jared has been at me every chance he had. I just want to play music and have fun. It was unfortunate that it escalated to that point but he got what was coming to him."

Unfortunately, in his threatening counter to Williams' statement on Sunday, Swilley dipped himself into hotter water, claiming that Wavves wasn't involved in the fight, yet describing Williams with a homophobic epithet. The rest of his rambling statement is as follows:

"I've never "come after" that kid, it wasn't four a.m., that wasn't my girlfriend, no one was spitting, and I didn't attack him. I don't give a s**t about that kid and his music. What happened was, after we finished our set I went to Daddy's with some friends and saw that ****** from Wavves talking to a photographer friend of mine. The only thing I did was walk up to him and say "You're that ****** from Wavves and I don't like you". He smiled a bit but didn't say anything. After that, I went outside and saw their tour manager hanging around with some guys. They started getting all chuckles with me and so I told them I wasn't gonna have it. After that, Wavves tour manager hit me square in the face with a bottle. Blood started pouring out and six dudes f****g started kicking me until I blacked out. All I remember is getting hit with the bottle and my friends dragging me to another bar. They wrapped my head up until I looked like a Confederate soldier.

So yeah, I lost the fight. I also missed three flights. I've been in the airport all day having stewardesses cleaning my head because it kept cracking open. You can't go on board if you're bleeding. Bottom line is that ****** from Wavves didn't even hit me. Never touched me. And he should've, cuz he had a free shot. He's coming to Atlanta October 3rd and we're gonna get ugly on him. We're gonna destroy their van, we're gonna destroy their faces, we're gonna get crazy on em'. Nasty style."

Anger management classes, anyone? Or better yet, grow up.

*************

It wasn't a good weekend for rapper Lady Sovereign either. The pint-sized British MC, who had just arrived hours earlier in Australia for a tour, was arrested and jailed in Brisbane on Friday night after she allegedly spit at the doorman of a nightclub.

According to Billboard, Lady Sovereign, real name Louise Amanda Harman, was tossed from the club, detained by police and charged after she plead guilty to assault and being drunk and disorderly. She was released and fined $400 ($345) Australian dollars and ordered to pay $200 ($172) to the spat-upon bouncer, no doubt for dry-cleaning.

Not content to allow the situation to go unremarked upon, Harman twittered her discontent, complaining that "spitting in someone's face is nasty, but how about a guy dressed up as a girl running at you in the toilets and punching you in the head?"

Despite her night in the slammer, Harman made her gig at Brisbane's Parklife Festival and yesterday's show in Perth. She continues her tour of Australia through October 5.