MetalSucks

There are too many fucking metal tours happening in the U.S. right now. Whether this is a result of the decline of record sales is impossible to measure given the absence of a control group, but it’d be hard to argue that’s not at least a factor; lacking revenue from royalties, bands are having to go out on the road in order to make any money. The result is a complete oversaturation of the tour marketplace, and the result of that is that bands are right back where they left off, their audience spread too thin amongst too many shows.

Case in point, we’re right in the middle of 10 straight days of metal shows here in NYC. Several of these days have two or even three shows from which to choose:

• Thur, Nov. 12: Periphery, The Binary Code, Empyreon -also- Machine Head, Mutiny Within
• Fri, Nov 13: Krallice, Liturgy, etc. -also- Hung, Ikillya, Devil to Pay -also- The Austerity Program etc
• Sat, Nov 14: Skeletonwitch / Black Anvil -also- Metallica, Lamb of God
• Sun, Nov 15: Shrinebuilder / Rwake, Liturgy -also- Metallica, Lamb of God
• Mon, Nov 16: Aphonia, The Binary Code, Brock Murdock -also- The Jesus Lizard
• Tue, Nov 17: Valient Thorr, Red Fang -also- The Jesus Lizard -als0- Dark Castle, Wetnurse, The Atlas Moth
• Wed, Nov 18: Javelina, Black Tusk, Batillus
• Thur, Nov 19: Cave In, Trap Them, Narrows
• Fri, Nov 20: Baroness, Earthless

Not even halfway through this mess and I’m fucking beat.

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Forget record labels, expensive music videos, fancy photo shoots or physical distribution… just come up with an interesting idea to make people pay attention to you and they might just like what they hear. Don’t bother trying to hit the mass populace over the head via carpet-bombing marketing tactics; gain credibility as a trusted source for reliable material and you’ll make a fan for life.

I sound like Bob fucking Lefsetz. But that’s exactly what Trondheim, Norway based Miksha have done with their viral video tribute to late TV sales guru Billy Mays. Everything is well done; the acting, the subtitles, playing the music for just long enough… it’s a quality production through and through. Because I was watching the video while the music was playing, I listened to a band I may not have paid attention to before… and it worked! Miksha’s music is quality, just like this video. Next time I see their name mentioned on a blog or in a press release, I’ll definitely read more.

Watch the video below.

-VN

[Thanks: longtime MS reader / Miksha bassist and vocalist "fritz"]

You know how I know things aren’t all terrible in the metal world right now? The people who run iTunes think there’s enough money to be made that they’ve now created an entire metal section.

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Seems my post about Earache’s 360 deal with Gama Bomb has set off quite a controversy. It inspired The Blogronaut (aka Sacha Dunable) to write a lengthy missive about why he thinks 360 deals aren’t worth it for musicians. That article in turn inspired The Austerity Program’s Justin Foley to leave a doozy of a response in the comments. At the heart of the matter, it seems, is whether record labels really have any value to bands now that “getting the record in stores” isn’t an issue, and if they do have value, what it is. Justin’s comment is damn brilliant and more or less exactly how I would’ve responded, so I’ll just re-post the whole thing here and offer a brief addition afterwards. Here goes:

Labels will continue to offer a few things.

First, they’ll act as tastemakers. Given the lower barriers for entry [i.e. cheap recording rigs / Garageband. -Ed.], more and more people are saying “fuck it, I want to be in a band”. Even with the ease of sharing and finding out about new music, the signal to noise ratio is low enough that bands need help connecting with their intended audience. When people know that they like the music a label puts out, they’ll naturally pay attention to a new affiliated act.

Second, while it’s easier to market and record music, it is still more expensive and time consuming to do it right rather than just do it. Labels should develop the marketing expertise to know where to spend money on a particular act. Maybe your money isn’t best spent on a Metalsucks banner ad, maybe it is. How do you know? (Note: the “you” here isn’t directed at the post’s author.)

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So this is pretty ri-goddamn-diculous.

Reader Justin Omidian just brought to our attention that the Kittie song “My Plague,” from their most recent release, In the Black, is a blatant rip-off of Lamb of God’s “Laid to Rest.”

Seriously. As Vince noted, it’s totally egregious. I can’t believe Kittie ever thought they’d get away with this – in fact, I think the only reason it hasn’t made headlines ’til now is because no Lamb of God fans actually like Kittie.

Check it out. Here’s Kittie’s “My Plague”…

…and on the off-chance you’ve never heard it, here’s Lamb of God’s “Laid to Rest.”

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Earlier this week Earache Records was the subject of an extremely long-winded rant about the state of the metal industry. Now it’s Roadrunner’s turn.

First we get a press release announcing that Roadrunner has signed heavy rock band Hail the Villain. MS reader “Shit Sandwich” alerted us that the label also recently signed indie rockers The Jakes. Then comes the latest fracas involving Rob Zombie suddenly pushing back the release of Hellbilly Deluxe 2 saying “everything was turning into a chaotic mess” which was actually code for “I’m jumping ship to Roadrunner.” Methods of Mayhem… let’s not even go there. And the label is touting Ratt’s new record as one of its flagship releases for early 2010. I mean, I LOVES me some Ratt, but seriously?

All this following the dismissal of long-tenured A&R man Mike Gitter a few months back. Gitter brought Killswitch Engage, Opeth, Megadeth and many others onto the Roadrunner roster.

What the?!?

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In a move that’s seen relatively little press, Earache announced on Monday that they’ll be giving away the entirety of Gama Bomb’s new album Tales From The Grave In Space for free via Rapidshare.

Woah, what? For free?!?!? “But there’s money to be made on music sales!!” cry the industry curmudgeons. That sound I just heard was a certain old-school metal publicist screaming in disgust when she wasn’t even asked to.

This is the most forward-thinking business decision I’ve seen any metal label make to date. It’s absolutely groundbreaking, and Earache should be applauded. Now I’m going to tell you why in exactly 1,123 words.

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I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Dave Mustaine is a brilliant fucking musician, but that doesn’t mean he’s not also a whiney little bitch.

Reader Elvin sent us the below, which Mustaine apparently posted on the Megadeth forums:

Droogies!

I don’t know what to say.

How a record company could be presented with a Worldwide [sic] critically acclaimed record, and that they can let it plummet down the charts in just four weeks into the hundreds, is inexplicable.

I knew I shouldn’t have done this. Why didn’t I trust myself?

I regret a lot of things in my life, but this is the most regretable [sic].

A very disgusted Megaman.

Now let me tell you why I have a serious problem with what Mustaine is saying.

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The fellas in Cobalt are angry at Garden of Exile records. How angry? Very, very, very angry. Here’s a posting from their MySpace page:

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When Vince and I saw Alice in Chains last month, there was a lot of hub-bub in the crowd ’cause Scott Ian and his wife, Pearl “Meatloaf’s Daughter” Aday, were very visibly sitting in the VIP section of the balcony. But seeing Scott Ian at a New York metal show isn’t really that unusual, so I didn’t think much of it at the time.

As it turns out, though, Ian and AIC’s Jerry Cantrell are, indeed, friends – and now business partners. So says a press release:

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Earlier today in response to my Scar Symmetry post, MS commenter “cougar party” asked:

Could someone explain the reason release dates are always different in the US and Europe? I don’t see the logic behind two different dates.

The reason is that bands often have different record labels in different territories. A band may be signed to Nuclear Blast in Europe, but a different label in the U.S.; even when a band is signed to the same label in two territories, the European office often operates differently than the U.S. office. The reason for this is pretty simple; a local label has a much better understanding of how their own market and scene work and can more effectively work a band there, get them in the right press outlets, get them on the right tours, pitch them to the correct radio stations, etc. When it comes to marketing and setting up a record for release, it’s much easier to do a focused, territorial campaign than one that attempts to satisfy all the varying needs of the different regions of the world. A band could be hugely popular in Europe but have little to no following in the U.S., so it could make sense to wait to “release” it in the U.S. until a proper label can get behind it here and spread the word to the masses.

This was all well and good for many decades. Then the Internet came along and fucked everything up.

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Our boy Bram Teitelman at Metal Insider reports that Guitar Center – a.k.a. “the bane of Eyal Levi’s existence” – is now the defendant in a class action lawsuit, along with the National Association of Music Merchants (you know them as NAMM). See, as it turns out, those fuckers (I guess I should say “allegedly”) conspired to fix the prices of fretted instruments, even go so far as to as to attempt “to quash competition from online retailers by threatening to boycott manufacturers selling through online competitors.” Very nice.

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Live Nation, one of the big, mega-conglomerate concert promoters in the U.S., is offering a stupidly enticing deal to concertgoers for the rest of 2009: for a limited time only, fans can buy The Live Nation Club Passport for $49.99, All-In and No Fees, to see every eligible show at Live Nation clubs in their city for the rest of the year. This is such a good deal that even if you only plan on going to two or three metal shows for the remainder of 2009 you’ll be getting your money’s worth.

The catch is that the Passport doesn’t *guarantee* entry — so if a show is sold out in advance or you arrive once the venue has filled up, you’re out of luck. Also, from what I can tell, the initial list of available metal shows is kinda weak, though Live Nation promises there will be more added daily. Check out the list of eligible shows and venues; for New York, the closest we get to metal is Stryper. A quick look at other markets shows mixed results, but it seems that the smaller the market is, the better chance you have of good metal shows being included in the program… and hopefully, more killer shows will be added with time.

What’s interesting to note is that Live Nation could potentially be taking a big hit on this.

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We’ve covered industry pundit Bob Lefsetz in this space before (most famously his public debate with Ki$$ scumbag Gene Simmons); Lefsetz’s rants against the music industry are sometimes pure genius while his take on modern music is more often than not woefully out-of-touch, but he’s nothing if not endearing in his conviction and passion for the art form of music. His latest notable quotable (as deemed so by Bram Teitelman of Metal Insider) heaps praise upon Nine Inch Nails opening act Dillinger Escape Plan, whose noise/math metal we’ve of course been following for years but who’ve just reached the level where they’re on the radar of walled-up industry higher-ups like Lefsetz:

Encore two was performed with the Dillinger Escape Plan. An act I’d never heard of, but I’ll never forget. A complete band, a NIN doppelganger, who took the stage with such energy that you could feel it blasting in your face. The drummer pounded, then they kicked around his big bass drum, threw it in the air. The guitarist twirled his guitar around his body, again and again. And the lead singer jumped into the audience. Rick Mueller said it was the most exciting act he’d seen all year, Jim said he wanted to see them again. All I’ll say is they got my attention!

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I love Metal Insider’s Bram Teitelman so much right now I could kiss him on his Quaker Jewish mouth right now (And no, I’m not kidding. And, oddly enough, Teitelman is the second Quaker Jew I’ve known. Bizarre.). See, Bram noticed what the rest of us failed to – that the riff from the new Kiss song, “Modern Day Who Gives a Fuck,” is more or less a total rip-off of The Sword’s Freya.

Think Bram is wrong? Listent to both and decide for yourself.

Here’s Kiss:

And here’s The Sword:

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Metal Injection has posted a video clip from David Ellefson’s industry-centric video blog The Rock Shop, in which the ex-Megadeth bassist explains in detail how artists get paid from sales of their recorded music. We see retarded comments all the time by people who just don’t understand how the industry works, so if you’re one of these people (as if any of you would be self-aware enough to realize) or you’re in an unsigned band gunning for a record deal, you should definitely give this 5-minute clip a watch. Personally I think he’s being quite generous with his $2 per record figure, but I guess the math works out nicely for his example. The takeaway: your band needs to sell a shitload of records before you start seeing any money from those sales.

-VN

Over at Invisible Oranges, Cosmo Lee continues his ongoing meditation on all things metal, now by offering some advice to upstart metal acts: get back to the mentality of the tape-trading days and give your first album away for free.

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Sellouts or smart businessmen? Unlimited CMU Daily reports [via MS Maniac Charlie F.]:

‘O)))Bow 1′, a track from Sunn O)))’s 2001 album ‘Flight Of The Behemoth’, has been used in a new advert for Norwegian design agency and clothing company Anti-Sweden’s new line of ‘True Black Metal Jeans’. The jeans will also feature the occult-inspired artwork of American artist and Sunn O))) collaborator Justin Bartlett on their labels.

Is licensing your music for use in a commercial tantamount to selling out? Personally I think that if Sunn O))) can get money for it then more power to ‘em in today’s increasingly lean times for sales of recorded music, but I’m sure there are many of you who will cry “false metal” at the mere thought of it. Watch the advertisement above.

-VN

I imagine that when the members of, say, Daath get together for rehearsal, no one expects to be paid for said rehearsal. They’re all dudes who are friends – some of them even grew up together, if I’m not mistaken – and it’s not like they’re making squillions of dollars playing metal. Rehearsal, then, has to be viewed as an investment – get better as a band, put on a good show for the crowd, and, knock on wood, your band will get bigger and the money will come.

I also imagine it’s different being in someone’s solo band. If your boss is Ozzy Osbourne or Axl Rose or Dave Mustaine or Trent Reznor, there’s going to be a lot of money involved, and your creative input is going to be somewhat limited (I imagine). I know for a fact that the members of nu-GN’R are paid an annual retainer, just in case they’re needed; I assume members of certain other solo bands are given a similar (if perhaps less lucrative) deal. And actors definitely get paid to rehearse; granted, the rehearsal rate is less than the performance rate, but the unions insist that if you want an actor there for rehearsals, he or she must be compensated.

Now. Sebastian Bach’s record sales obviously are not what they used to be. But the guy still opens for arena bands, routinely plays large festivals, and, by his own admission, gets paid very large sums of money to appear on crappy reality shows. Doing something like, say, paying for his band’s member’s gas so they can get to rehearsal seems reasonable, especially when you’re talking about dudes like Metal Mike Chlasciak, who, even if he’s not exactly Zakk Wylde, has played with dudes like Halford, and is definitely a “known entity.”

Well, Baz disagrees. He’s looking for a new guitarist and a new bassist, and, more specifically, he’s looking for someone to do it for bubcus. Check out this statement from the Old Dude Gone Wild:

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It’s always sad to see any metal label, let alone a reputable one, bite the dust. But you can’t say SPV didn’t have it coming. SPV put out plenty of quality records over the years, but it seems like recently we received in inordinately high amount of promos from head-scratchingly obscure European bands on SPV; I’m thinking, “these make you guys money? ok then…” After all, it is a business.

So is SPV really going away or what? Here’s the money quote in a recently released lengthy statement from the label:

“An ongoing international artist relationship and export business is planned…”

Translation: the label will continue on selling their catalog and repacking their most popular albums in special editions, box sets, compilations and greatest hits collections. And why not? It’s easy money. Sad to see the core label go, though.

-VN