LAROMLAB's album is entirely stolen

stealing from completely obscure dudes doesn't seem like much of a countercultural triumph to me.

real punks don't apologize afterwards

both good points. it's funny, we all found out on april fool's day and a friend sent him email lashing out at him thinking the whole thing was a joke.

maybe it still is.

if it wasn't some brash stance, how on earth did he think he was going to get away with it?

dramah.
m.

gotta love the "buy at Insound" ad at the end of the article

His name is "Balmoral" backwards, so hey.

An apology from Laromlab
Current mood: disappointed
Category: Music

Dear anyone who liked Laromlab,

To start an apology letter off is one of the hardest things that I have ever had to do in my life. To start this apology letter off is even harder because I am letting down my peers, my family, my friends, and just about everyone I know. So I will get right to it: Laromlab as a music making project was a hoax, a complete fallacy, all of the music on the Laromlab "S/T" record on Mushpot was made by the collective known as the YM Rockers, more specifically Crazy Q and Dma-SC. I never once thought it was the right thing to do, and I never was happy with myself for stealing these hard working musicians music but I did and now I will be paying the consequences for it! Whether it be legal action, monetary payment, or humiliation, I am deserving of all three. To justify this would be a laughing matter but I would at least like to explain myself to get it off of my chest, because I am in fact a real person. A couple of years back I was making electronic music that sounded very different and I hit a dry spell. There is no explanation for it but the music wasn’t very good anyway, and somewhere deep inside of my brain it told me that I should just grab these guys’ music and pawn it off as my own. The trouble started when people began to notice the "Laromlab music" and a record label was interested and everything got out of hand. All the while, I had this in the back of my head that I was going to get caught but never dreamed that it would get this much attention. And stealing their music was not done as a malicious act but rather a pathetic one. I am a painter by teaching and I would not know what to do if all of a sudden I didn’t know how to make another painting that I liked ever again. That is what happened with my music! It took a lot of gall to do what I did and I take full blame. I pulled the wool over everyone’s eyes, including my wife (she had no clue), all of my friends, my tour partners, people that bought the CD, people that listened, everyone!!! But it also takes a lot of balls to come to everyone and say....I am a fake, none of this shit is mine. The people that made this music...are all amazing composers, seem to be nice people, and I could only hope to be as amazing at whatever I attempt in the future, but it wont be Laromlab. There are some exceptions to this, not all of my music was stolen, and the people that I made those special tracks for will be notified and I will tell them that these songs are really done by me, but this most recent record is not created by me one bit. I am ready to deal with what I have to deal with now but I do not think that I will be able to deal with myself for doing this to people I care about. If I still have friends after this is over they will be the best friends of my life and I encourage anyone who is thinking of writing me off as a friend to please call me on the phone or email me and I will show you that somewhere inside of this lying shell of a music thief is still a good person and this is the first and last time lies will seep their way into my life, it has destroyed an credibility I have, any credibility I hoped to gain, and any that remains. I would like to end this rationally with all parties involved and I think we will be able to and I would also like to apologize by name to a few people that I have hurt the most.

Mainly Jenn De la Vega of Mushpot Records: you have done so much for what you thought was an amazing musician and I did nothing but lie to you, I am worthless at best and have already accepted full responsibility for our "working relationship" but if somehow inside of the amazing person you are there is room to continue a friendship I will consider myself the luckiest boy alive, I am sorry that in one fatal swoop I have tarnished one of the most amazing record labels to ever exist and I hope Mushpot can stand up after this and brush off the dust that was Laromlab and continue forward. If there is anything in the world I can do for you, Jenn, I think we all know I owe it to you.

The Ym Rockers: all of you make music so great that it makes unstable people, like myself, do insane stuff like want it to be theirs. I know it means nothing but you have the most respect I can give you and Crazy Q, Dma-SC, Dubmood, all the others you have boundless talent and that is enough to conquer things beyond my wildest dreams! Each and every one of you seem like great people and had we met in different circumstances I know that I would want to get to know you all individually. I am sorry for this injustice that I have brought before you and I hope we can settle this thing righteously and move on with our lives.

To my friends and family: once again I am sorry beyond explanation and I had a major lapse in judgment. It saddens me to know how many of you I have disappointed and if you find it in your heart to forgive me you will find the same old guy that you have always known. With this I say, the times were good (even if they were fabricated) and I hope to move on with my life and I hope that me and my wife can live a normal life without ridicule and embarrassment.

Over and out,
Brandon Harrod

http://myspace.com/laromlab

also within the day an official statement from Mushpot Records and robotcowboy will be posted at http://www.mushpotrecords.com

feel sort of bad for the dude

depressing story

he's a cool guy. it's all very strange.
m.

If he's better at painting than music, why didn't he just stick to that? Overreaching, greed, etc.

he wanted it all.

He could have at least run it through a distortion pedal or something.

Um, in some little insular, obscure scene like chiptunes, didn't he think people would notice entire songs ripped off from them?

Seems like some sort of publicity stunt for the label to me, maybe all these "ripped off" artists were in on it.

whatta moron. dont feel bad at all.

it's pretty weird that what you would decide to steal is an 8-bit cover version of daft punk

I don't know why I am reading this. Who cares if he ripped off a bunch of IDM dorks with like 12 fans each.

I would like this guy a whole lot more if he just laughed at the pointlessness of the whole situation.

17-year-old Missouri synth-popper and Myspace superstar is here to melt your heart!

huh?

Yeah, I think it's def suspect that the first time anyone hears about ANY of these bands is in the "news" story about plagiarism

Mushpot Children's Compilation 2, "Better Than Your Blanket" - Released Febuary 2006.
A compilation composed of lullabies for the tall and the small. Designed by Sam Sellers.

lolz. TS IDM vs Twee Indie

FINALLY LAROMLAB GETS THE COMEUPPANCE WE'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR

do i smell some chiptunes envy?
m.

This is mental. It's like Borges or something, only pathetic rather than extraordinary.

it cracks me up that he played the cmj.
m.

i really don't think it was a publicity stunt either because our mutual friends were pretty stunned.

m.

This is mental. It's like Borges or something, only pathetic rather than extraordinary.

-- Scik Mouthy, Friday, April 4, 2008 12:56 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Link

i think it's a stretch to call this borgesian.

so this was NOT an april fools joke?

it would be a pretty insane april fool's joke!

maybe its a really extended joke

april fool's month

april fool's life

This guy's a total fantasist if he though for one second he wouldn't get rumbled.

this is all leading up to the first commercial break on his vh1 behind the music special.

Yeah, I think it's def suspect that the first time anyone hears about ANY of these bands is in the "news" story about plagiarism

-- Whiney G. Weingarten, Friday, 4 April 2008 00:04

otm

i just assumed this was like one of Greatest Acid Hits albums where all the 'artists' were basically Atom Heart under different pseudos.

I definitely have never heard of any of these artists. What is "chiptunes" anyway?

music created with old computer or game console soundchips

And someone in this scene biting other members of the scene is actually newsworthy?!

"biting" is a really mild way of describing the act of repackaging someone's entire song and recording as your own. where's the thread about that 'mysterious classical piano prodigy' who didn't exist and all their CDs were just tracks ripped from other pianists' recordings?

I didn't mean to suggest it's not wrong, just wanted to repeat Whiney's point that this news item is probably the first time most people have heard of any of these artists.

It's weird/suspect, yeah, but if true the story is definitely unusual enough to be considered newsworthy.

Doesn't this sort of stuff mostly get distributed for free in the net anyway? Though I guess it's still wrong for someone to put it on CD and sell it under his own name.

Also, note that this thread is started by someone who knows Laromlab. I wouldn't be shocked if this thing was a total hoax.

^^

Whiney G. OTMgarten

thread started by trusted longtime member of ILX who is personally vouching for him being an ok if confused person

I basically think it's reached the point where the workflow of the software is making this so easy to do, that people are not keeping internal track of authorship the way people used to be able to do, they even fool themselves. Joyce Hatto's career being the most spectacular example (puts this case to shame really)

I have heard of Laromlab before this thread, got some publicist / promo emails about the cd

I can't see this being a stunt --

If I still have friends after this is over they will be the best friends of my life and I encourage anyone who is thinking of writing me off as a friend to please call me on the phone or email me and I will show you that somewhere inside of this lying shell of a music thief is still a good person

"haha lol just kidding april fool's"

wow i like the self-pitying grandiosity of the email: "the lying shell of a music thief".

holy shit man, just get a job at starbucks, go to community college, and make some new friends. in 5 years you'll have a whole new life!

he should have just released it as a mix

I'd heard of dubmood before this; I'd say he was one of the less obscure people in that scene, but that might just be because he's done work in other styles I'm more interested in too. And looking at pouet I'd say he is more pissed off than anyone would pretend to be for a hoax.

I don't know why this in particular is news in non-chipmusic circles, but chipmusic and ex-tracker people are tightknit scenes that like to check out the newcomers and every so often there's an uproar about somebody "ripping" part of a track, so I don't know how this guy thought they might not go crazy at a whole album of entire songs.

But I guess this stuff has never been nearly as big a deal in the US as in mainland Europe, and suddenly chip/game music is supposed to be "cool" to a new audience who's not aware of any history and/or "scene", which might make it seem tempting to a kid just starting out on some live shows or putting demos out locally. Which doesn't begin to explain why someone a bit older (I'm guessing? he's married, looks late 20s) would think it was a good idea to carry on even to the point of an album deal, etc, but it seems to have worked until now if the guy's done a tour of US venues, been played by mainstream DJs, and been written up in CMJ, because that doesn't tend to happen for the original artists.

if it's a hoax, it's news to me. i only brought it here because it was on cmj. i felt that dissolved it from any connection i had. good grief. culture of fear and suspicion. what motivates the ilm shark pit?

anyway, laromlab had two things going for him a) he puts on a show. b) he's making electronic music in the midwest (he's a small town kentucky boy) which is novelty, etc. less to drown in. easier to play shows where most people's experience with electronic music is moby or the chemical brothers. put on a synth beat electroclash party and everybody's yr friend. "yay this music's like the 80s give me beers!"

i guess that's how it worked out... until he really started moving up a bit...

who the penis is laromlab

http://www.gamesetwatch.com/silly/r3.jpg

^^^ This guy

the joyce hatto story is the kind of thing that keeps this all totally worthwhile. hivemind awareness!!

Different kettle of fish though. We're talking about passing off other people's original compositions here.

I don't give a shit about chiptunes or classical piano concertos tbh. the hatto thing was more entertaining because OH NOES ITUNES GRACENOTE DB ATE MY FRAUD

I suppose it was smarter/more likely to succeed. This just seems like a publicity stunt to me, anyway.