Kaiser Chiefs Slap Back at Gallagher

English indie outfit Kaiser Chiefs responded Monday after falling beneath the unrelenting crosshairs of slander-spouting Brit-pop rail gun Noel Gallagher. Gallagher spanked the band rather sharply Friday, comparing them to the Monkees and denying any love for the band, even at the heights of intoxicated jollity.

“I did drugs for 18 years and I never got that bad as to say, 'You know what? I think the Kaiser Chiefs are brilliant,’” he remarked.

Coming back as much as is possible after a Monkee Dart has been thrown, the Chiefs responded that they are “not offended,” and that Gallagher’s clipping is probably no more than a publicity stunt.

“I do actually like it, I think it's a bit of sport,” Kaiser Chiefs drummer Nick Hodgson told BBC Newsbeat Monday. He added, “It is funny though because it does happen every single time they put out an album … When I was 17 and Noel was going on about Blur I was watching it, and now I'm 30 and he's 50 and he's talking about us, it's brilliant.”

Gallagher, who is actually 41 but whose liver may indeed be much older, only recently came out of a media slap fight with Jay-Z, having criticized the rapper and rap in general during the setup of the Glastonbury Festival. Jay-Z responded by making the guitarist the subject of one of his songs, handing his pompous ass back to him and creating a flurry of pro- and anti-Gallagher commentary among Internet comment posters.

In defense of the guitarist’s latest stomp-victims, Kaiser Chiefs’ live shows, in fact, inspire heavy drinking, fist-raising and partying in the audience rather than the insipid head-nodding and hand-holding that would likely infest a Monkees audience, and if even the happy-drunk Noel can’t appreciate a good party band, then I’d hate to be the one to repair the walls of angry-drunk Noel.