[QUOTE=Henrik]EDIT: Why do people still talk about the lawsuiting thing? In this letter it says that therewas no threat of legal action.
[url]http://www.musicianforums.com/forums/showpost.php?p=10733681&postcount=952[/url][/QUOTE]

Fat Wreck threatened legal action if PIX didn't remove the ham boards, a message board where people talked and often called Against Me! sellouts.

[B]Mitch Clem on Against me! major label news.
[url]www.nothingnice.com[/url]
[/B]
[I]People keep asking me what I think about Against Me signing to a major label. [URL="http://www.negativland.com/albini.html"]I think they're in for a real treat.[/URL]

It's difficult to apologize for a band who no longer encompasses a single one of the things that made me love them in the first place. Oh well. It's happened before, it'll happen again. It just makes me appreciate the people who actually do have faith in a musical underground free from corporate interference and charts and polls and Teen Beat and TRL and PR reps all that crap that much more. Those of us who can make a living off of what we do without signing our artistic rights away to some huge company. Sure, we might throw them a song (or, in my case, a drawing) here and there to keep rent taken care of, but in the end, our creations are still ours, and we still answer only to ourselves. We still have fun with what we do. I will be very surprised if Against Me enjoys playing music anymore after they spend five years on a major label, but I guess only time will tell.

Butt Trumpet, now there's a band. When Nirvana and Green Day got all huge back in the 90s, the major labels didn't know what to do, so they sent A&R scouts out to punk rock shows all over the country and tried to sign up every single band they could find hoping to catch the next Kurt Cobain on the rise. With the exception of MAYBE five bands, everyone ended up screwed, legally, by the majors that were supposed to rescue them from poverty, their singles never hit the radio, their videos never made it onto MTV, their albums never got released, their bands were forced to break up, blah blah blah. Keep watching all these punk bands signing to majors right now. Pay close attention over the next year or two. You'll get to see it for yourself what happens when people try and co-opt a culture to make a profit.

Anyhow.

Butt Trumpet was one such band. They got signed in the wake of Green Day getting huge, someone threw a ton of money at them, and they recorded the worst, most unlistenable, and absolute LEAST radio-friendly album probably ever released on a major. The thing is long since out of print, so good luck getting your hands on a copy, but dear god are you in for a treat if you can find it. I recommend the track "I'm So Pissed" for some good old fashioned major label punk rock fun.

Good luck to Against Me, I guess. At this point it's just about paying their bills, and I'm not particularly interested in watching someone else at work, so I doubt I'll be paying them any attention anymore, but I shouldn't let my personal feelings on the politics of music stop them from trying something I wouldn't. I met a couple of the guys once, they seemed really cool, so I don't wish them any ill-will. Maybe I'll run into them backstage some day and they can tell me about their experiences over a few drinks.

Me? I've still got people like Salinas and No Idea to keep me warm at night.

And god bless us, everyone.[/I]

I'm searching for Butt Trumpet on Slsk.

:lol: Tell me if you find any.

That Steve Albini article was very good.

Yeah it was, I really enjoyed it. Steve seems like an awesome guy, and produces tons of albums.

Steve is a bit of a hypocrit though. He's notorious for being very controlling as a producer and makes these records for big companies.

I really enjoyed that article.

It was good, but Albini ain't a saint.

[QUOTE=CameoRole]It was good, but Albini ain't a saint.[/QUOTE]

I don't know anything about him, but my post wasn't directed to you it was just my opinion on the article.

Alright, there wasn't any hostility aimed in my reply either.

I know hehe I was just clearing it.

[QUOTE=rawdog]Because it was still a [size=2]c[/size]unt of a thing to do. I was just listening to searching for a former clarity, and i think I have found the worst against me lyrics ever :
Gotta make your money while you got the chance,
do whatever it takes to sell it.

And to me I think he might even mean it, its from Unprotected Sex With Multiple Partners for those who didn't know. How you guys interperet this song???
[URL="http://www.plyrics.com/lyrics/againstme/unprotectedsexwithmultiplepartners.html"]http://www.plyrics.com/lyrics/againstme/unprotectedsexwithmultiplepartners.html[/URL][/QUOTE]

Tom said in an interview that that song was meant more of a stab at himself, and how he actually deals with all that percentaging, and that even though it all sounds fair, it wasn't something he imagined he'd ever be doing.

I was thinking about it and I thinkt hat Problems might be about him getting ready to get out of the udnerground. Like, what are you usually about to do when you take inventory? Usually going on a trip right? And the "Losing semblance of coherence to a former self" is probably being a totally different person.

One other thing: just because you work for a major corporation, doesn't mean you ARE the major corporation.

Try stepping back from just music for a second. Think about the economy as a whole. Are 95% of the people on earth sellouts for getting jobs? The real sellouts are the executives and the ownership class. Everyone else is just trying to make a living off of them, which is a bull**** premise in the first place, but it has to be done at this point of progression in our society.

Maybe one day in the future, probably after you and I are long dead and buried, there will be a time when the people who actually create the wealth will get to own the wealth instead if it funneling up to a handful of people who do nothing but move the money around.

Until that time, by all means get your money, but do it with a fighting spirit and keep working toward that goal of wiping out that false sense of privilege that these few people have. If Against Me start becoming apologetic to their masters and water down their message in an attempt to keep everyone happy, THEN you can justifiably call them sellouts.

For some reason, though, I'm expecting their most radical message yet to come on their major label debut... we'll see...

But then there is the Even at Our Worst. I dunno, that song, and Searching For, give me faith that they just wanted exposure. It sounds like he's conflicted between promises (which he recognizes are largely empty) of a better future at the sake of his past or sticking to his guns.

[QUOTE=CameoRole]Fat Wreck threatened legal action if PIX didn't remove the ham boards, a message board where people talked and often called Against Me! sellouts.[/QUOTE]

I don't see what they would sue them for. Is talking about music illegal? Or disliking a band? Their own forum was one thing. They had every right to shut it down.

But now they'll sue the DIY punks if they make fun of them.

[QUOTE=Sid]I don't see what they would sue them for. Is talking about music illegal? Or disliking a band? Their own forum was one thing. They had every right to shut it down.

But now they'll sue the DIY punks if they make fun of them.[/QUOTE]

Jer said it was Fat Wreck. He didn't say it was the band. I honestly don't think they would do that to a different site, but I can see FW doing it.

[QUOTE=CameoRole]Jer said it was Fat Wreck. He didn't say it was the band. I honestly don't think they would do that to a different site, but I can see FW doing it.[/QUOTE]

Do you really think Fat Wreck would bother threatening legal action if AM! didn't have a problem with it. Of course they would hide behind the label. And Fat Mike probably jumped at a chance, he reads those boards and knows people make fun of him and his label for being on/once being on the RIAA's list of protected labels.

[QUOTE=Sid]Do you really think Fat Wreck would bother threatening legal action if AM! didn't have a problem with it. Of course they would hide behind the label. And Fat Mike probably jumped at a chance, he reads those boards and knows people make fun of him and his label for being on/once being on the RIAA's list of protected labels.[/QUOTE]

Fat Mike wouldn't do something like that =(. He is too cool.

[QUOTE=Sid]Do you really think Fat Wreck would bother threatening legal action if AM! didn't have a problem with it. Of course they would hide behind the label. And Fat Mike probably jumped at a chance, he reads those boards and knows people make fun of him and his label for being on/once being on the RIAA's list of protected labels.[/QUOTE]

I think Fat would do it at the drop of a hat. He knew that PIX couldn't afford a legal battle so it's a way to push the smaller company around and to ensure that AM's name is kept clean.

[QUOTE=CameoRole]I think Fat would do it at the drop of a hat. He knew that PIX couldn't afford a legal battle so it's a way to push the smaller company around and to ensure that AM's name is kept clean.[/QUOTE]

But Fat Mike is just trying to get punk music heard! rite? rite???

God I love you sid. Come on aim sometime buddy.

That Steve Albini article doesn't apply to bands like Against Me! or Rise Against or Anti-Flag.

That article applies to bands who have no real following and at most a minor album under their belt.

Bands like the above have huge followings and no real need of the major labels. The Major's know this and can't screw these bands like they can unknown bands.
Mitch doesn't really know what he's talking about right now. He uses the Greenday and Butt Trumpet anecdote but it couldn't apply to this situation less.

Against Me! has huge barganing power with the majors because the major isn't taking any risk in advancing them money or producing their record or distributing it. The built in fanbase takes care of that. Plus, having recorded 3 albums, AM know what it really costs to record an album and won't stand for the majors forcing 10k a day for studio time.

Rise Against have similar ethics to AM. It didn't bother me when they signed. This doesn't bother me either. It's just music after all.

And Against Me anarchist? "Baby I'm an anarchist" is satire.

I don't know what's going on with the PIX thing. If someone explains it I'll comment on that.

Kith, have you ever listened to Against Me? Of course Baby I'm an Anarchist is satire just like Love Me, I'm a Liberal is satire, but Phil Ochs was as left as gay could be. If you have, you would recognize the anarcho message in their early stuff.

Against Me is going to make money from signing to a label; you are right about that. They can get shafted artistically due to unwavering and expensive contracts, but the fact remains that it is in direct opposition to their ethics and message.

Yes, though I've never looked at lyrics for the old stuff, much of which is unitelligible. Their old stuff is years ago anyway. 5 years can be a long time. And reality is very different from theory.

I doubt Against Me is going to make any more money from the major label than they would from Fat Wreck. Just like Rise Against didn't. You don't make money signing to major labels. But they won't get fu[size=2]cked[/size] over like a small act would.

My point is that Against Me is big enough that they won't get shafted artistically.

[QUOTE=Kithkin]Yes, though I've never looked at lyrics for the old stuff, much of which is unitelligible. Their old stuff is years ago anyway. 5 years can be a long time. And reality is very different from theory.

I doubt Against Me is going to make any more money from the major label than they would from Fat Wreck. Just like Rise Against didn't. You don't make money signing to major labels. But they won't get fu[size=2]cked[/size] over like a small act would.

My point is that Against Me is big enough that they won't get shafted artistically.[/QUOTE]

I think they will. Contracts are binding/expensive to get out of.

[QUOTE=Kithkin]Yes, though I've never looked at lyrics for the old stuff, much of which is unitelligible. Their old stuff is years ago anyway. 5 years can be a long time. And reality is very different from theory.

I doubt Against Me is going to make any more money from the major label than they would from Fat Wreck. Just like Rise Against didn't. You don't make money signing to major labels. But they won't get fu[size=2]cked[/size] over like a small act would.

My point is that Against Me is big enough that they won't get shafted artistically.[/QUOTE]
Just to point out the obvious, even if they don't make anymore money on the major, there must be something more beneficial they see and that's more exposure to more people which will bring in more cash.

They had enough exposure as it was on Fat Wreck, I don't think that was much of a problem. They're probably the most popular band within the punk genre, and that's exposure enough. I can't see them getting mass amounts of airtime on mainstream radio within the next few years. I think they're just going to Sire for more money.

[QUOTE=TakeWarning]They had enough exposure as it was on Fat Wreck, I don't think that was much of a problem. They're probably the most popular band within the punk genre, and that's exposure enough. I can't see them getting mass amounts of airtime on mainstream radio within the next few years. I think they're just going to Sire for more money.[/QUOTE]
But as Kith said they don't always make more money on the Majors. Where's the proof that they do?