Death Grips

xp

"They gave away music that Epic was supposed to be making money off of. "

Sure, but this only matters if you believe that this was 1) replace another record that Epic could have made money off or 2) that this was going to so saturate the Death Grips that no one would want another Death Grips in which case you probably made a mistake signing them anyway.

"sure, but for that to work the band needs to be obnoxious to everyone but the label"

Not sure that's true in this day and age.

eh to me it's all good to fuck shit up on an indie level, but if you do the whole major label gamble you may as well jump through their hoops, because there's no real benefit to doing it for a few months in a self-sabotaging way other than impressing whatever anti-corporate tightasses are out there still thinking this is how you 'fight the power'

Yeah I don't know. I don't even know what Death Grips gets out of this whole thing. Except for some bonus money and a lawsuit.

what i'm saying! their motives are far more of a mystery to me than a big label acting the way big labels have always acted.

They are definitely a weird bunch of dudes.

"They gave away music that Epic was supposed to be making money off of. "

Sure, but this only matters if you believe that this was 1) replace another record that Epic could have made money off or 2) that this was going to so saturate the Death Grips that no one would want another Death Grips in which case you probably made a mistake signing them anyway.

― One bad call from barely losing to (Alex in SF), Thursday, November 1, 2012 11:35 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i'm not sure why you find the idea of spacing out releases so weird? my favorite band on the planet would probably tire me out if they released two records a year.

or to put it another way, epic's only goal is to sell as much death grips as possible; this is made considerably more challenging if they don't control the flow of death grips material.

Why do you find the idea of releasing a mess of stuff weird? Some of my favorites seem to have no problem releasing two or three records a year, etc.

Also, iirc, this actually was the exact album the band had been promoting all year and I'm sure Epic was planning on releasing it. They'd mentioned this one by name when they signed to Epic.

the whole thing of "we're putting out two albums this year! even if it means canceling a tour we already booked!" was just bizarre to begin with. the only way this would all make sense to me is if it turned out that the label made them stay off the road and finish the album and then was like 'actually we don't need it til next year after all.'

xxxp you are aware that Death Grips basically has made videos for like every single song on their album? I think it's pretty hard to imagine a world where Epic was going to be able "control the flow" and not sure again why they'd be interested in that. Again both Epic and Death Grips motives here are kinda opaque. I'm not clear (other than money for DG) what either was expecting to get out of this relationship.

"I'm sure Epic was planning on releasing it."

Not anytime soon according to Death Grips.

what the hell do videos have to do with anything

Anyway, I do like the alternate covers that have popped up online, besides the band sanctioned one with the "suck my dick" socks. There's, uh, the female equivalent of the cover. But this is the one I gave the album for my iPod:

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mbapo5wk5l1qcrevfo1_500.jpg

Not anytime soon according to Death Grips.

Uh, I guess? I'm not sure what your argument is anymore.

i think epic just wanted to be able to release death grips albums on a schedule by which they'd be in a position to market and promote them. if you find that opaque i don't know what to tell you.

"what the hell do videos have to do with anything"

You're not really up on how a lot of people listen to music these days are you?

you'll have to explain to me what you meant by "their album" alex, i'm sry i'm not up on death grips youtubes

didn't Epic tell the band they were going to release the album in early 2013? that's pretty soon

xxxp again I find Epic's motives for signing DG in the first place opaque. I understand their motive for dropping them. I find that motive weird given who Death Grips is and how I would figure you would try to market them, but I have no problem comprehending it.

Or to be more clear I find people overly protective of the value of the music of a band who releases a bunch of stuff for free seems to me to be kinda weird. Like maybe you shoulda thought of that before you signed them? I don't know.

lots of artists release a bunch of music for free AND THEN get signed and focus on selling it. that's kind of the standard these days, in fact.

Plenty of artists still release music for free though at the same time they sell it.

yeah, and they coordinate w/ the label that's selling it

xxxp again I find Epic's motives for signing DG in the first place opaque. I understand their motive for dropping them. I find that motive weird given who Death Grips is and how I would figure you would try to market them, but I have no problem comprehending it.

― One bad call from barely losing to (Alex in SF), Thursday, November 1, 2012 11:55 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i don't find the motive for signing them opaque at all; they were basically looking for another rage against the machine. difference being rage always played ball with their corporate overlords.

xp Haha yeah very clearly label cooperation not high Death Grips priority list.

xp did DG give the impression of being willing to play ball ever? That's just not how I read them.

they probably fucking did when they were in the room signing the contract, alex!

i mean how do you think these things work

do you think death grips said "we will ignore your instruction on when to release music, epic records" and the epic guys were like "oh, you lil cute indie rap band, what are we gonna do with you"

yeah noone's saying they can't be crazy free spirits that answer to nobody! thousands of musicians do that every day! they just don't sign anybody's contract or taking anybody's money!

xp that seems to be how they are behaving?!?!

xp and most record labels don't try to make 'em either!

Anyway obviously not a match made in heaven.

xp that seems to be how they are behaving?!?!

― One bad call from barely losing to (Alex in SF), Friday, November 2, 2012 12:10 AM (44 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i don't even know why i'm bothering but how they are behaving today and how they were behaving when they signed might well be two different things!

for chrissakes you act like the band was forced into this arrangement

I have no idea how they behaved when they signed the contracts or what's in said contracts, but yes I do think that Epic seemed like they were all "you scallywags you" until suddenly they were like "hey wait".

"HEY THAT'S OUR PENIS COVERED ALBUM YOU ARE RELEASING FREE ON THE WEB. CEASE AND DESIST!"

God this is all so dumb

That said the emails might be fake, the whole thing might be a put on. Who knows. Whole saga is bizarre.

Epic's profit motivations notwithstanding, it's seems most likely that Death Grips breached their contract and then were assholes about it. No shortage of off-contract mixtapes/minor releases being independently offered by musicians under contract, but you typically should OK it with the label first, no?

if label put up the fucking recording budget and in turn pledged to allow you to release album... i mean FFS.

this could be some kind of adolescent "stick it to the man" thing or maybe they're just a mess. certainly canceling a tour at the last minute suggests the latter.

"in turn pledged to allow you to release album"

er i mean you pledged to allow them to release the album

re: them signing in the first place, it just kinda seemed like the extension of major labels gobbling up anything that seemed viral/internet-friendly post-Odd Future. no idea why the band signed onto that though

as weird major label signings go, it always reminds me of when Foetus was on Sony back in the mid-'90s, like who thought that'd be a big-ticket release ever

Again both Epic and Death Grips motives here are kinda opaque. I'm not clear (other than money for DG) what either was expecting to get out of this relationship.

lol

it's just sad to see a respected label taken for a ride by a bunch of bums like this. gets me pissed thinking of all the anti-corporate tight-asses getting their jollies at such an unprofessional breach of contract

it's really surprising how there's this weird naive MRR editorial-writer vision of THE MAJOR LABEL, MAAAAN that people still adhere to - dude signs a contract, breaches it, hey you go you proud rebel! you stuck it to those major labels, who exercise a Svengali-like hold on the public imagination! a blow for justice!

idk, man, maybe this band is just really bad at doing things they said they'd do