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

Forum Overview :: Motherfucking News

by No Pocky For Titties 02/25/2003, 7:35pm PST

Fussbett wrote:

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.

I don't think his blood is on David Geffen's hands, or that making it onto Touch & Go like they wanted to would have changed anything. But it certainly didn't help. When Kurt Cobain was in the worst shape of his life, rock-bottom, he still had to be out on the road, in the public eye but all alone, when he should have been with family and friends. An indie label would have called Nirvana home. And, as has been pointed out, at least at the time he wouldn't have made less money.

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.

The place where I got that article (Google: White Stripes recording budget) mentioned that the best rock records nowadays are made on a shoestring. But, then, that's how it's always been, isn't it? Isn't Surfer Rosa better than Trompe Le Monde?

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, .

Bam! That's the nail, being hit on the head. Bands enter into these terrible contracts because they've worked hard, for a long tiime, with pathetically small reward, all the while with the unshakable conviction that international stardom is their inalienable right. So, when that shitty contract comes along, they get the business equivalent of beer goggles. They can overlook the bad parts because their fantasy fills in those gaps. As wrongly as Ms. Love goes about it, this kind of talk prompts bands to look into this type of thing, and so I think she is providing a public service, even if she is a blowhard and an insignificant talent.