Death Grips

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

guys're going to be way pissed when eTix starts garnishing their sales and funneling it directly to Epic

Yeah I hope this doesn't result in them canceling this tour (again) only to appear two months from now as Life Gloves or something.

Epic Gripes

i like death grips but they are acting like jackasses

idk

they are though. your word's your word. if you don't like the suits, don't shake hands with the damn suits. thousands of great artists over the years have been offered contracts they didn't like and said "well, I could use the money, but I can't agree to those terms" and moved on. "I signed a contract I fully understood but Labels Are Assholes Amirite?" is infantile imo

they should have just signed with like fucking Load or something and they could have penised it up all they wanted to, but they signed to epic, you knew fucking well that there would be release schedules to adhere to....

also Zach Hill is in this band and he's def been around, it's not like some naive 17 years old here

zach hill has done l.a. session work iirc!

the thing is that even indie labels need a few months to do promo leading up to a release!

if they don't need/want any marketing support, and they don't need a recording budget (i'm pretty sure they have their own studio setup), it does seem pretty stupid to sign to a major label. maybe they got an advance to live on while making records, but how do they expect to pay that back if they don't deliver the record?

step 2: ????

death drips

aero killing shit itt

^^

if nothing else maybe this is a good illustration of the death knell for the "subverting from within" tactic irt major labels, though. i mean if you're not gonna sell shit anyway, and there's no avenues for a label the size of epic to really push your music toward anything even approaching a large subcult audience at this point, then cash the check and stfu imo. this isn't the 80s or the 90s and you knew what you were getting into.

i went out and got a new copy of the black/white death grips album today as a result of all this fracas so there you have it

btw this is really good!

dash of aphex, little horrorcore

yes! it sounds like something he might have done right after windowlicker.

my favorite rap album since the salem s/t

u_u

love the "dance beats" at the end of the album

my favorite rap album since the salem s/t

― the late great, Friday, November 2, 2012 8:22 PM (53 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

u_u

― fanute da croupier (D-40), Friday, November 2, 2012 8:41 PM (34 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

haha i decided a while back to just read all the late great's posts about music as if he's trying to troll me personally and it's been tons of laughs

i'm just kidding!

OK so you actually are trolling some of the time. pretty sure you often aren't but it still feels like it, though.

i do really like this, and i do really like the "dance beats"

the videos they produced for "hustle bones" and "i seen footage" were what swung me toward getting it

Anyone else at Electric Ballroom last night?

how was it? toyed with the idea getting tickets on the door

saw them at p4k in paris

death shits

anyone else?
thinking of seeing them in a couple of weeks, any good live?

They were good last night but all I can really remember now is MC Ride physically pushing Miss Red off the stage when she came on to dance which was pretty alarming.
The Bug were great.