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[ChrisCrusher]

about bands not getting paid at soundfest?  Just seeing if everyone is getting the word, and what the stories people are hearing are.  It definitely happened, and continued to happen on his show(s)? after the fact.  Just wondering if there are any awesome rumors/stories flying around!

[Sifl]

All I've heard is that he made pretty high guarantees and none of the bands got any money. 

Hope this doesn't put a sour mark on any future potential fests in the NW.   

[dan10things]

All I've heard is that he made pretty high guarantees and none of the bands got any money. 

Hope this doesn't put a sour mark on any future potential fests in the NW.

Is this for the local bands or even the bigger touring bands? I can't see bands like Stiff Little Fingers, Cocksparrer or the Dickies not getting anything and putting up with it.

[Kayla]

Is this for the local bands or even the bigger touring bands? I can't see bands like Stiff Little Fingers, Cocksparrer or the Dickies not getting anything and putting up with it.

WISH Cocksparrer played Soundfest!

[SAUCE]

Lou is a nice guy, and I understand how shit got fucked up and I have some empathy for the guy's situation...Its not even the fact that he fingered all the local bands, but all our touring friends took a big hit and I've heard a few bands almost getting stranded on their way home because they ran out of money.

The part that I think is stupid is he keeps referring to these shows a month after the fact as "sound fest" shows....


ALSO the sound festival is a gigantic mid west hip hop festival every year so I think they should have came up with a better name

[Luke Atmyballs]

Yeah well, the word is officially out...

http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/reverb/2011/09/unsound_fest.php

[SAUCE]

I feel really bad for Benny in all of this

[BrianMyFatAss]

I feel really bad for Benny in all of this

seconded

[Craven Rock]

Yeah well, the word is officially out...

http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/reverb/2011/09/unsound_fest.php

"In this day and age, when everybody's living month-to-month in a crappy economy and it's really hard to get a band out the door and on the road at all, not paying the bands can really hurt people," he (Jello Biafra) said. "If they don't pay our brothers and our sisters, then we're not going to be doing this again. And nobody else should either."

In this day and age... oh I get it, as opposed to the day and age when Jello wasn't paying royalties the rest of the Dead Kennedys? I'm glad he made that clear.

[dead end yob]

"In this day and age, when everybody's living month-to-month in a crappy economy and it's really hard to get a band out the door and on the road at all, not paying the bands can really hurt people," he (Jello Biafra) said. "If they don't pay our brothers and our sisters, then we're not going to be doing this again. And nobody else should either."

In this day and age... oh I get it, as opposed to the day and age when Jello wasn't paying royalties the rest of the Dead Kennedys? I'm glad he made that clear.

or Neurosis http://www.hellbound.ca/2010/09/scott-kelly-of-neurosis-the-hellbound-interview/

[passiveaggressiveflyering]

"In this day and age, when everybody's living month-to-month in a crappy economy and it's really hard to get a band out the door and on the road at all, not paying the bands can really hurt people," he (Jello Biafra) said. "If they don't pay our brothers and our sisters, then we're not going to be doing this again. And nobody else should either."

In this day and age... oh I get it, as opposed to the day and age when Jello wasn't paying royalties the rest of the Dead Kennedys? I'm glad he made that clear.

Amazingly enough,this was covered extensively in the San Fransisco Chronicle when this happened. But, having met people involved with that and knowing that "Holiday In Cambodia" was offered to Levis for a commercial combined with the amazingly bad fake Dead Kennedys tour WITHOUT Jello makes it difficult to feel any sympathy for the "Dead Kennedys" for loss of profit from Jello and AT's failure to promote their back catalogue aggressively enough. Speculating on possible royalties (yes,this was brought up) sounds like someones attempt to get as much cash as possible through litigation.Nothing wrong with that,I guess. If someone is a hardline capitalist.

[Craven Rock]

Amazingly enough,this was covered extensively in the San Fransisco Chronicle when this happened. But, having met people involved with that and knowing that "Holiday In Cambodia" was offered to Levis for a commercial combined with the amazingly bad fake Dead Kennedys tour WITHOUT Jello makes it difficult to feel any sympathy for the "Dead Kennedys" for loss of profit from Jello and AT's failure to promote their back catalogue aggressively enough. Speculating on possible royalties (yes,this was brought up) sounds like someones attempt to get as much cash as possible through litigation.Nothing wrong with that,I guess. If someone is a hardline capitalist.

I agree, I think the Levi's ad makes them pretty despicable and I have no respect for them even less than Jello. I just think it's funny that Jello used this for the moral high ground instead of taking responsibility for fucking them and other bands over. Then people paid him to watch him do spoken word tours where he'd get up and start bitching about it (in nasal voice), "I got screwed." To get back on track I just think it's really ironic when taking into account his quote in that article.

[ChrisCrusher]

can anyone say for sure that any bands got screwed by Alternative Tentacles at any point?  This is the first I've ever heard of it.  I know SST never paid bands, but that was always the agreement from point one.  If the bands aren't smart enough to work out a deal that gets them money, then it's not the record label's fault.

[bobcat]

got to give Lou credit for at least trying to do something that 99.9% of us would never dream of.  Hate all you want on that. 

[dan10things]

can anyone say for sure that any bands got screwed by Alternative Tentacles at any point?  This is the first I've ever heard of it.  I know SST never paid bands, but that was always the agreement from point one.  If the bands aren't smart enough to work out a deal that gets them money, then it's not the record label's fault.

Well the original members of Dead Kennedys certainly did, they won the lawsuit against Jello.  I'd never heard that about Neurosis. I don't think Jello intentionally screwed anyone though, he just kept sinking the money back into the label.

[dan10things]

got to give Lou credit for at least trying to do something that 99.9% of us would never dream of.  Hate all you want on that.

It sounds like they bit off more than they could handle. They tried to go way too big for a first time festival instead of starting small and growing it. And from what Shaun Stern was saying, Lou already didn't have a great track record putting on shows and paying bands in California. I'm all for thinking big, but I also think you need to be smart and work your way up to things and really learn the ropes and a business before jumping in without all the skills to handle it. I've seen it happen so many times, people spend a lot of time, money and effort opening a bar, restaurant or other small business when they've never worked in one before and they make about every mistake you could make. With Soundfest they probably should have joined forces with an established booker that could have given them a reality check on turnout, how much to spend on bands, how much to spend on advertising, etc. It generally takes a few years to grow a festival crowd too, people have to hear from reviews and their friends about how awesome it was before they decide to go. You want to learn all those lessons on a smaller scale first so you don't make those kinds of mistakes on such a massive scale.

[ChrisCrusher]

what dan said.  The big bummer is that it seemed like most Seattle people kinda knew it wasn't going to be overly successful in the first year, but would be something we'd all need to grow with.  Guarantees were given when they weren't even asked for, and people got upset, if you have EVER booked a show before, these are really simple principles you have to know and be ready for.  Lou wasn't prepared at all.

[ArrowTop]

http://www.punknews.org/article/44527

Let the shitstorm flamewar commence!

[ChrisCrusher]

http://www.punknews.org/article/44527

Let the shitstorm flamewar commence!

Yup. I'm glad this is finally getting aired so people know what's up.

[ArrowTop]

Yup. I'm glad this is finally getting aired so people know what's up.

Well, if it's on Punknews it just gotsta be true, right?

[ChrisCrusher]

Well, if it's on Punknews it just gotsta be true, right?

I don't get what you're saying here.  the article is 100% true.  It sucks, but that's the way it is!!

[ArrowTop]

I don't get what you're saying here.  the article is 100% true.  It sucks, but that's the way it is!!

Oh, I'm just being contrary today, making fun of Punknews in general, because of the barrage of bullshit that's usually on it. I know the article's true, they copy and pasted from the Stranger.

[ChrisCrusher]

Oh, I'm just being contrary today, making fun of Punknews in general, because of the barrage of bullshit that's usually on it. I know the article's true, they copy and pasted from the Stranger.

oh yeah, Punknews is generally bullshit.  totally agree.

[Ogre]

Not that I ever trust the Stranger on anything ever, but they got this one right.

[Lukas]

Seattle Weekly <> The Stranger