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Throw your comedy aspirations out the window kids, because the funniest thing ever to have happened has just happened. Crunchy nu-banjo family Mumford & Sons have gotten themselves entangled in a little schoolyard beef with Jay Z's recently launched streaming service Tidal. Tidal is owned by big-name musicians like Rihanna, Kanye West, Madonna, Beyoncé, and Jack White, who, incidentally, are all very rich, and the Mumford boys are not cool with that.
The Daily Beast's Marlow Stern recently sat down with Mumford & Sons, and when the subject of Tidal came up, all the energy the band usually reserves for on-stage jigs was directed towards Tidal's celeb owners. First, there's this: "To Mumford & Sons, the very mention of Tidal is greeted by a series of loud fart sounds." That's right, the band's takedown began with fart sounds.
"New-school fucking plutocrats."
Mumford & Sons went on to lament the ridiculous combined wealth of Tidal's owners, with guitarist Winson Marshall calling them "new school fucking plutocrats."
"When they say it’s artist-owned, it’s owned by those rich, wealthy artists," frontman Marcus Mumford said. And, in case you were wondering, Mumford said, "We wouldn’t have joined it anyway, even if they had asked."
To some extent, I agree with what they're saying. It's true that Tidal doesn't seem concerned with helping small, fledgling bands. Yes, Tidal is owned by a super wealthy minority who don't really need to worry about money, but what multi-million dollar company isn't? And it's not like Mumford & Sons are exactly eating pizza scraps in their van and playing shows in college basements. According to Billboard, the band earned more than $6 million in 2013 alone.
Did you know Winston Marshall is also taking improv comedy lessons?
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