Caltrops - Motherfucking News - Biting the hand that fed her.

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by Fussbett 02/25/2003, 4:48pm PST

Courtney Love is a hypocrite, sure, because what she wants is fame AND fortune ~~and a little smack to get her through the bad days~~ , and she wants to use that major label machinery to get what she wants and still destroy it. Her original sound was a LOT punkier, edgier, and lo fi than she started trying for after she met Kurt.

I agree with most of that. I used to PLAY Garbageman in my crappy high school band. I was a FAN. Saying that meeting Kurt inspired the change in how she wrote music is generous and debatable, but we'll move on.

If it was me, and I don't know, my husband committed suicide because of the major label rock experience, maybe I'd, I don't know, put it down.

DGC killed Kurt! If only Kurt signed with K Records instead, he would've turned out fine. They'd probably have a nice farm near Olympia, growing free range heroin when they're not flying back to LA to attend Academy award show parties and the like.

It's true that White Stripes spent $4,000 on White Blood Cells, and bully for those niggers. I think Jack White is a genius. But you must recognize that it's a crappy sounding album. Their particular gift is to turn crappy sound into a strength.

Yet is the gap between White Blood Cells and the Three Doors Down album $496,000? If so, it's clearly Three Doors Down that are the problem, or it's the studio simply manufacturing debt.

Where the money goes for those million-dollar records is, I suspect, the same place that it goes for shitty major-label movies. The suits hand you $800,000 dollars and say, "For this we want you to use this $10,000/day studio, and we'll pay Butch Vig $400,000" and you say "Wait! I think we can do it much less" "We have standards, here, mister. If your album doesn't sound radio-ready, you're going to owe us that 8 hundy, but we won't show the record to anybody. Did I mention that you can't record for anybody else?" So, you make the album, for $700k, and then the label wants changes, and now you're overbudget. Then SPIN gives you two stars, and you only sell a couple thousand records. Say Hello to Verve Pipe when you guys are closing the Lansing McDonalds.

Here's the real point of what I was saying: why did this band agree to a contract where they are forced to spend money they don't have on a studio and producer they don't want? A contract where they get into the black only if they land a hit (read: win the lottery). That's a stupid move. Unless it was sko Suge Knight shakedown, I'm assuming that they can read a contract and make business decisions. Oops! No they can't, they've just got teenaged dreams clouding their vision, and here's me not caring that The Verve Pipe got fucked.

If Courtney took the stance of "Hey bands, don't make this mistake..." it would be a tolerable cautionary tale (yet with mixed signals as she is famous from the process she derides). Blaming the majors for min/maxing in capitalism is bizarre, pointless, and with her martyrdom and hypocrisy mixed in, it's shameful and lacks credibility.