artists who've fucked over record companies--c/d, s/d

Kool Keith to thread!

The Sisters of Mercy did something along these lines with East/West, though I couldn't specify what.

Nah, Trux blew it. They were in a position to do something great and their crap, slack 2nd album for Virgin was only a "fuck you" by default.

Royal Trux also blew their advance (a couple thousand dollars) from Matador on drugs, and gave Drag City Twin Infinitives instead.

Royal Trux didn't fuck anyone at Virgin over!! WTF did they think they were suddenly going to start releasing top 40 material! They used the advance the way a BAND should: on STUFF for them! It was there fucking money after all. Virgin got what they signed (and shit this a band who according to rumor spent a Drag City advance on smack and then had to record an album for pennies--buy fucking beware) and shouldn't have expected any different.

Vice did an article on this a few years back.

Billy Mackenzie to thread many times over. Here's one of the more inspired ones, along the lines of the BJM's adventures -- the Associates were scrounging for a deal in 1981 but only getting nibbles from the majors, who would consent to give pay for demo time but no more. They did get a lower key offer from Situation 2 for singles, though, where they would get cash in hand upon delivery of two new tracks each time. The solution was elegant:

The majors kicked down funds for demos as mentioned, which the band used to their fullest -- what they did, though, was record full new tracks, which they then gave to Situation 2, happily pocketing the cash. Meanwhile, older demos the majors didn't know about were passed off to said majors as the new demos. The singles on Situation 2 raised the band's profile even more and eventually resulted in a complex licensing deal that saw them signed to WEA (and in an even smarter move half the WEA advance was immediately turned over to Mike Hedges to block book three months of studio time for an album). The singles were compiled as Fourth Drawer Down and the WEA debut was Sulk = the scam was worth every penny.

But perhaps his most outrageous move happened when WEA finally dumped him. After a final meal with his chief A&R contact in London, the two of them drove back to WEA, where Mackenzie asked if WEA wouldn't mind footing the cab bill for him home. The contact agreed and so Mackenzie called a cab and went home.

To Dundee, Scotland.

Now MBV and Teenage Fanclub totally fucked over their respective labels.

TS: MC Shy D vs. Luke Records

http://www.rapcoalition.org/artist_wins_royalty_suit.htm

didn't that petrol emotion do well out of phonogram post Babble ..

they walked away and dropped straight into Virgin as Phono 'forgot' to take up the option for more sounds ..

sommat like that .. i'm sure other ilm folks know the real facts ..