I was doing my daily reading at the Lefsetz Letter and he DEMANDED that I read this article:
Oh What A Mangled Web We Leave
So I did, and I got way more than what I thought it might be.
Before you read what I’m about to write I would suggest you read the article. Be aware that it is a sort of long article and I know how resistant kids are to read a little these days. But come on, step out of that box a little bit, for the future of music’s sake.
It’s an article about the start of The Pink Spiders, and their dealings with the major label world. Never heard of them? Not sure many outside of Nashville have. And not sure that the people in Nashville even like them. One of the first things said in the article is that The Pink Spiders wanted to establish a cool look. That’s where they went wrong, right from the start. Fuck the look, make some good music.
From The Pink Spiders Wikipedia page:
The Pink Spiders are an American Pop Rock band from Nashville, Tennessee, that formed in 2003. The band initially consisted of Matt Friction (guitar and vocals), Jon Decious (bass), and Bob Ferrari (drums).
A while back I saw their music video when I was at a friend’s house, who had MTV on for some background noise. I happened to glance and see this flashy music video called “Little Razorblade” with chicks skating in circles around this boyish looking band called “The Pink Spiders”. I thought the song and video was pretty catchy and appealing for the 12 year old depressed little girl in me.
After some good time playing in shitty basements and in the surrounding Nashville area, they scored a gig that was a private Major-Label-Showcase. This is an excerpt about that gig:
“We played…to a room full of suits who were madly texting on their BlackBerrys the entire time,” says Friction. “After the set, the curtains closed and Jordan Schur [then president of Geffen Records] ran onstage. He was immediately stopped by security but just barreled through them.”
“He was like, ‘I gotta have this band!!!’ with his arms wide open and all that,” says Ferrari, “and we were like, ‘That guy’s cool!’ “
After they finished their set, they moved through the crowd, shaking hands and fielding offers. In a matter of weeks, they had 11 major-label offers on the table. Paulson was in awe—his old friends appeared poised to take over the world.
Here’s an excerpt talking about recording their first record signed with Geffen Records:
They made themselves comfortable quickly in Los Angeles, but they were soon yanked from one coast to the other when the label chose former Cars frontman Ric Ocasek to produce their debut in New York at Electric Lady…But the recording process was stressful—Ocasek would not tolerate drinking in the studio—and the band didn’t take well to New York.
And for the first time, the Spiders found themselves without the production control they had grown accustomed to. When Friction stepped in to try to mix the album, their high-profile mixer, Tom Lord-Alge, wouldn’t let him. “Every time [Matt] had a suggestion, [Lord-Alge] would just point at the wall of platinum and gold records. He wouldn’t even talk,” says Ferrari.
“In hindsight, [Ocasek's mix] may have been better, but it wasn’t really thick or big, which was what the label wanted,” Decious says. “They were like, ‘It has to sound like a Blink-182 record.’ “
Okay, let’s pretend for a minute that these guys actually had a shot at “making it”. Basically, they fucked up from that very first show for all the “men in suits” as they called them. Why were they playing for men in suits? Those aren’t the people, those aren’t the fans, they are simply “men in suits” hoping to cash in.
Next mistake, they probably didn’t read the record contracts very thoroughly, bands get complete creative control all the time, and that includes mixing and producing. That’s their own fault for getting some asshole producer and asshole mixer and having no control. If you have the biggest of labels interested in you, but not one of them wants to give you complete creative control, then you need to say “fuck them we will stick to basements and what WE want to do for OUR fans”. Being a Blink-182 fan I loved the reference, of COURSE they want your records to sound awesome like a Blink record. But do you know WHY the Blink record sounds so damn good? Because they didn’t let the label tell them what to do, they had control of all their own shit.
The article talks about how the band wanted a different song for their first single, but the label insisted on Little Razorblade, a song that the band didn’t seem to like in the first place. The band also had a huge problem with the release date of their album. Decious dishes:
“We were on TRL in April[2006], and the fuckin’ record comes out in August[2006], so this song’s being played on the radio like a motherfucker,” says Decious, “and there was no product. You couldn’t go anywhere and get it…. We did the whole fucking Warped Tour with a single and no product…. We’d sell some copies of Hot Pink, but we kept thinking we were gonna have Teenage Graffiti, but…do you sell this album with all these [original recordings of the] songs on it? It’s gonna confuse people.”
That was 2006, two years ago. Had this band never heard of the internet? This is one of millions of reasons to not rely on a major label. This band had the album finished and recorded but had to, scratch that, CHOSE TO wait 4 months for a piece of plastic to get shelved. Here’s a new plan for a new millenium: FINISH THE ALBUM AND THEN THROW IT ON YOUR WEBSITE THE NEXT DAY. If the kids want the piece of plastic that spins and they want the pretty booklet then they can wait 4 months for that. But give them the music immediately. Yes, for free. Because if you haven’t heard already, the shows, t-shirts, etc. are the product and the music is the promotion. The music is ONE HELL OF A promotion, because it’s more than that and it deserves a better name, duh…MUSIC.
Here’s my favorite part of the article that shows just how smart these guys are:
“It was funny, ’cause [the Motorola reps] were like, ‘We can’t get any bands to hold the gear.’ And we were like, ‘Well, fuck, we’ll do it. We don’t care,’ ” says Ferrari. “We wanted to be nothing like any other band. Every other band is like, ‘We’re not gonna hold the phone,’ and we were like, ‘Fuck it. I’ll drink Coke. I like Pepsi better, but I’ll say I like Coke better if they’re gonna give me a check.’ Why not? [The production company people] were like, ‘Well, you’re not gonna be one of those bands that just, like, wants their integrity, and all this bullshit’…. And we were like, ‘No, no, no, no, no!’ “
Here’s a tip: YES, YOU WANT TO BE A BAND THAT WANTS THEIR INTEGRITY. First, saying you’ll hold the Motorola or drink the Coke is NOT different. Bands do it all the time and most of the time those bands suck. Second, what differentiates you from the other bands should be the music and NOT what you do or what you say or what you look like.
For whatever the reasons may be two of the Pink Spiders members, Jon Decious and Bob Ferrari, quit the band in June 2008. They joined a band called Dixie Whiskey. I hope the best for them because hopefully the realized the insanity of all the shit that happened with their previous band.
The Pink Spiders still exist under the lead singer and guitarist, Matt Friction. They have a new lineup that isn’t worth taking up more space to type.
The moral of the story is do NOT do what these guys did. It’s that plain and simple. Start a band. Make good music. Get fans of your music. Play for them. Respect them. Understand them. The “men in suits” are not your fans. The press are not your fans.
Now that I’ve talked all this shit, it’s time to get my shit off the ground already.
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Tags: blink 182, bob ferrari, geffen records, jon decious, little razorblade, matt friction, Music, Music Industry, the pink spiders, warped tour
August 3, 2008 at 3:21 pm |
LOL. They were playing to “men in suits” because it was a major label showcase. It’s a common way to get big labels interested. True, it’s a bunch of big shots looking to “cash in” but the Pink Spiders, according to this article, never claimed to be about integrity. (Maybe they should have realized the implications before getting the machine’s wheels rolling.) Now I seriously doubt your claim that bands get creative control including mixing and producing “all the time.” To my understanding labels have a big say in who the producer is most of the time, and you really have to prove yourself worthy to self-produce your own record, especially for a major-label debut. And LOL, your statement about Blink 182 having total control and basically saying “fuck you” to the suits…Blink 182 was a major pop machine of the late 90s/early 00s and I seriously doubt the suits let them run wild. None of us will never really know what went on unless we were there though, so let’s not make any outrageous claims. Your views that bands who compromise “suck” are rather naive…this game is all about compromise. They just want to *portray* themselves to the fans as “uncompromising.” To deny that image maintenance is integral to success shows great naivety, in my opinion.
August 3, 2008 at 10:50 pm |
Hey David,
You make a point, I took it to the max when i said “bands get creative control all the time” when I don’t REALLY know. But I also think that a band should have the MOST say in who the producer is, if it is not themselves. And the proving of that should happen right in the beginning of that compromise and NOT AFTER they have already been molded by the label.
Blink-182: Again, I sometimes forget that I will never TRULY know what goes on. But I have been a HUGE follower of Blink-182 since early on in their career, and I believe that their huge fans and I have gotten to know them better than the casual listener. Seeing every single piece of footage and interviews and videos of Blink, and most recently, being a part of Modlife you KNOW these people to an extent. And what we know is that Blink-182 are the most responsible for all their music and sounds, which is hard to say about some bands.
About the part where you said, “Your views that bands who compromise “suck” are rather naive” I didn’t say bands who compromise suck. I said that a band that is all about promotions with major corps such as using a Motorola in public or drinking Coke instead of Pepsi for a quick check to cash probably sucks. Now let’s say that YOU say I’m wrong in saying THAT. Well I honestly can’t think of a really good band who is sucked into the shameless-promotion-Machine. But therein lies another problem, I don’t listen to EVERY good band.
Regarding image maintenance: Maintenance is good, yes. But in that article it was said that the FIRST thing they cared most about was getting a cool look down. All I am saying is that can come second or third to the music and maybe some good business sense.
August 20, 2008 at 7:24 am |
You neglected to mention anywhere about how good their actual music is.
August 25, 2008 at 7:27 pm |
Good post overall, ryan. I haven’t listened to the pink spiders, nor have I heard of them up to this point, however, I support your opinion about how stupid their plan of action was. It makes me wonder, in modern music, what’s the most important thing to an up-and-coming band? Is it money? Do they do all they do to achieve a certain look or aesthetic?
If a band is looking to ‘make it’ these days, the chance of them NOT envisioning or striving for a pop-product, poster-boy status is very small.
Some of the greatest bands in the world are happy playing small(er) shows to a hardcore group of fans and doing things for themselves (meaning self-promotion), as opposed to playing massive shows and doing label pushed junkets and interviews, all the time.
The ideal musician/label relationship is the relationship between The white stripes and whatever label they’re on.
The music they make, they are happy making. The music they’re happy making is the same music that became extremely marketable. Because their music was marketable as is, they didn’t have to change shit when the label got a hold of them. And after 2 studio albums that remained under the mainstream radar, they had just enough fan base to ensure that they’d float (no matter what!) if ‘white blood cells’ was a flop. They got a lot of help from the film industry to maintain a sense of universal compatibility. Their music can be played at a gritty venue and nordstroms and still be enjoyed.
I think a lot of their success had to do with Jack White’s sense of professionalism. If more bands carried themselves as serious musicians with creative goals, more would be as successful and as respected as The White Stripes.
“The pink Spiders” made a lot of mistakes. In my opinion, their first was calling themselves the spink spiders.
btw, regardless of what it sounds like, I’m not a huge white stripes fan by any means*
November 28, 2008 at 12:51 am |
you’re fucking retarded. the pink spiders did what they had to do to survive, integrity is fucking bullshit. it’s just how you stand compared to someone else. if you don’t give a shit what anyone else thinks, you can drink jager for another night or play your fucking show for another tour. THE MUSIC is what they have, who gives a shit about whatever else they have to do to get it to you. fuck you. TPS isn’t fucking greedy, they just have needs like you do, asshole.
November 28, 2008 at 12:52 am |
i’m rea–well I’m tipsy, I didn’t even capitalizeanything so I hope I didn’t offend anyone with my language, but the message is the same.
November 28, 2008 at 10:37 am |
@ Shitfaced Stacie
They didn’t do what they had to do to survive. The big hand reached down and picked them, and they decided that it was party time. Then when it was too late they realized the were screwed.
And here I am still talking about a band who I have yet to hear on the radio or see on TV since a couple years ago. So we can see how far this actually got them.