honeyisfunny wrote:There's one guy from a large label beginning with P and ending with arlaphone that emails everyone for CDs and gigging updates. His approach is to spread the net as wide as he can to see what bites. It's fine if you understand that, but like someone else said, don't let yourself get flattered too easily.

Falling for one of these is like thinking the "really attractive looking fake girl" on Myspace who sent you a message actually WANTS to hang out with you. You look at 'her' profile and there are tell tale signs that this is not a "real" person. If you give this internet entity any contact information, "she" will probably use it to send you lots of spam.

I've recieved e-mails from various sources about releasing my music or doing something to aid it. One telling me how Casio Jet could appear on Warped Tour, which got me to thinking... "They saw our myspace, but I'm sure they didn't listen to any of our music." Even an independent label asked me if I'd like to appear on a compilation. I thought, "Why not?". I sent them an email and got a reply asking for a few hundred dollars in order for my song to appear on their compilation. I was not offered any copies of said compilation. I was not offered anything. I was only offered to pay this label in order to appear on their record. I smelled bullshit, and I didnt bite.

Individuals like these will shower you with compliments. They hope that it boosts your ego enough for you to be willing to get fucked over, lose money, and maybe even lose the rights to your music. I plan on staying far away from the majors for now.

turnbullac wrote:Sick Room:

No contract, One record at a time, artist keeps all publishing rights. Losing money since 2002...

This is an excellent label.....

Marsupialized wrote:I say show 'we are playing a show'
I hate 'gig' sounds like something dudes who work at guitar center do
'we've been gigging around the northern suburbs doing our zeppelin set'
hate it

Thank you! Ever since I was a little kid and my dad and his bandmates would say "gig" it has made me sick....I have always said show.....

I say gig. It has a nice attack to it. gi-G.

"When you're a musician a job is called a 'gig'"

sleepkid wrote: Actually I was almost tempted to start a new thread based on this. Major Labels that were decent, or artists who had survived in Major Labels, etc. I can think of a few ...

Regarding some of the bands Sleepkid mentioned ....

In Greg Kot's book on Wilco, he quotes Wayne Coyne as saying Warner Bros.'s debacle in rejecting Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and dumping the band was the best thing that ever happened to the Lips. After the hellbroth of bad publicity WB received from that little fuckup, the label has treated the Flaming Lips (the other hipster/critic's fave band on the label) with kid gloves ever since. Apparently they were on thin ice before that, as their sales weren't that hot, but now WB believe they can't afford the bad press of letting them go. (Of course, the irony was Wilco were actually making money for WB ... they just weren't scoring the kind of big blockbuster hits the label needed.)

I read a recent piece on Sonic Youth in which Thurston Moore has said the band's deal with DGC/Universal has run out and they don't expect the label to re-sign them, so they're in label limbo at the moment.

And Gang of Four were fairly open about the fact that the reason they re-recorded their old stuff for Return The Gift on V2 was because they were still in "unearned position" on their old, expired deals with Warner Bros. (USA) and EMI (EU) and had no idea when or if they would ever get royalties their back catalog. Who knows what Go4 will do now that V2 has gone under.

Elsewhere, someone mentioned Mike Watt, and while Sony seems to have let him do as he pleases, it's worth mentioning that The Secondman's Middle Stand sat on the shelf for nearly a year before it was finally released, since everyone involved seemed to know the album wasn't likely to sell beyond Watt's fan base.

It seems that on a major label, unless or until you're U2 or Justin Timberlake, your best bet is to be the oddball act that gets treated like the three-legged dog who can't do much, but no one has the heart to shoo away. Still doesn't sound like a great place to be.

WoundedFoot wrote:Speaking of Reprise, I talked to Brann from Mastodon right after they got signed. He said "the label only wanted Mastodon to be Mastodon".

It seems they got quite a band friendly deal. They didn't get a shitload of new gear (which would be using a good chunk of the labels money), hired the same producer from Leviathan for Blood Mountain and dont seem to be suffering financially. Seems like they played it smart and Reprise/Warner brothers gave them enough control.

Too bad the record wasn't that great.

Am I the only person who didn't dig Blood Mountain?

horsewhip wrote:Am I the only person who didn't dig Blood Mountain?

Nope. Metal got old in my 20's....most of the people I run into seem into it, though.

rayj wrote:

horsewhip wrote:Am I the only person who didn't dig Blood Mountain?

Nope. Metal got old in my 20's....most of the people I run into seem into it, though.

same here I could give 2 shits about this mastodan band, ten million metal bands I dont give a shit about why should I give a fuck about this one

honeyisfunny, Etch, Cesb, whirlindervish - Thanks for your advice.

Thinking it over, there's a couple of bands in this city that signed major UK deals in the last couple of years without touring/establishing themselves beforehand...neither of them have even got albums released, and it's not looking good for them, so it's not like we'd go into anything completely naive about what could happen. I know record companies sign 10 bands in the hope that one of them succeeds in a big way...but it is still very tempting to try and jump from a one-in-a-thousand (?) chance of making a decent living at music to a one-in-ten, especially if it means you could concentrate solely on making music in the interim.

As regards the slow-build - we play as often as we can, with work/family/college commitments coming first, hence the non-touring. It's just that, from the earliest days of this band (a year ago), there has been industry interest in one way or another (press hype, showcase, big-time manager type (who actually wasn't helping day-to-day at all, just looking for a cut if anything happened)), so we've been led to believe a deal of some description is always just around the corner. Yeah, I realise it sounds like foolish and short-term thinking, and the chances are nothing will happen, but when you're in the middle of it all you think anything is possible. And it still could be, that's the thing.

We don't even really know what these guys are seeing in us, we're not a haircut/new wave/whatever's current band at all, and perhaps we have only got "raw potential"....but the attention does mess with your head, maybe even swell it a tad.

Anyway, enough of this. I didn't come on this forum to talk about my band and whether or not we'll get signed, I just wanted to point out that it's easy to slag off the majors, and we've all heard the horror stories, but from the perspective of a smalltime musician with money troubles it's NEVER going to be an easy decision to reject them out of hand.

DrAwkward wrote:Allegedly the guy at the show whose beer Yale stole, drank, and returned the empty to during the set was the guy from American. I dunno. Shockingly, we never heard from them again!

Yes I stole a beer from an American Records reps hand drank it down and gave him the empty pint to return to the bar, I did this right infront of his face and after doing so I thought, "I bet this is the only way my band could ever deal with a major lable and not get screwed over"

Mark Lansing wrote:And Gang of Four were fairly open about the fact that the reason they re-recorded their old stuff for Return The Gift on V2 was because they were still in "unearned position" on their old, expired deals with Warner Bros. (USA) and EMI (EU) and had no idea when or if they would ever get royalties their back catalog. Who knows what Go4 will do now that V2 has gone under.

Curious: what does "unearned position" mean?