Sticky-pinned: 2019 was our 30th anniversary as a band even though, because things have been on hiatus for most of the decade, there wasn’t much to-do about it at this end (like say, a series of shows at a now-gone Maxwell’s, for ex.). You can read more about those medieval beginnings here where typically late to my/our own party, I'll be posting a few things about music’s least-impressive 30-year run over the next week or so (that’s, um, January 2020).
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Silver, ce n'est pas moi
Back at the end of November, On Record Store Day, our first album, Silver, was (re-re-)rereleased, and for the first time on vinyl (I think, who knows?). A number of folks had very sweetly tweeted etc. about it and although I usually try to acknowledge social media posts (out of a feeling of true appreciation that people’d still bother) with a quick reply (typically rife w/ dad jokes) or at least an easy ‘like’, I didn’t this time, for any of them, in part ‘cause I was sorta conflicted on the whole thing, in part ‘cause it’s a bit complicated and partly ‘cause the fall-into-the-holidays was especially bonkers and I couldn’t seem to work up a proper reply.
My very-minor inner conflict really just comes down to that on the one hand, it is nice - and appreciated - that someone thinks that re-releasing old stuff is what they want to do (for whatever reasons). On the other though, understandably, many of the folks commenting or who wrote asking about it assumed that it was my/our doing & plan or that at least we were involved in some way, and that tied to that, maybe it was boding well for the release of this next record.
In short, no, we had nothing to do with this.
We got an email from someone at Craft Recordings, saying they were planning the vinyl issue for Record Store Day and in that way, also breaking the news, I guess, that they now owned it. The hilarious chain of corporate boom, bust & takeover that ended in someone at Craft’s inbox is, to the best I’ve got it down & remember it, thus:
we signed a two-record deal with Grass Records (1993) which was then owned by Dutch East India distribution. That was bought in ’95 by Alan & Diana Meltzer, who retooled it with all kinds of money & staff and re-launched the new Grass with, if I remember rightly, the release of our second album, Seacucus (and the fiendishly underrated O-Matic’s "Dog Years”). We parted ways shortly after that w/ the Meltzers who sorta closed up shop and then re-emerged as Wind-Up Records, released Creed onto an unsuspecting planet and began lighting cigars with bills with Ben Franklin on them.
From there the corporate avalanche tumbles more quickly & is harder to follow (and I didn’t really until this came up) but goes something like this:
Wind-Up was bought by EMI, then by Universal (or that bought EMI or something), then Bicycle bought the Grass (and I guess, Wind-Up) back catalog, then Bicycle was merged into or bought by Concord, then Concord ditched the Wind-up holdings or something and so now Concord's reissue sorta enterprise, Craft, is putting out bits of the catalog (along w/ a host of actually valuable recordings - ha). Holy crap. So that’s how you get an email 7-to-9 labels later about your own record.
And part of my minor inner indifferen…conflict, is that I had really hoped to re-do these ourselves after this new one comes out (which yes, while Silver’s vinyl version isn’t actually a master-planned sign of anything or our doing, this new record will indeed be 2020), esp. since there would presumably be more interest then. So, rushing to get it out, for RSD, when we haven’t had a release in 16 years at that point, but with a new one right around the corner, seemed typically corporately short-sighted. We’re also talking about a record which only sold about 700 copies in total initially,
So part also is that after I'd met with Meltzer in about ’05 in an effort to get these two albums back (which he declined but did agree to the erasing of all $70k-some of band debt, most of which was typical music industry preposterousness), Wind-Up went ahead and re-released them, and then a year or two later Absolutely Kosher, our friend Cory who we did the meadowlands with, re-re-released them (my timeline memory is iffy, in part ‘cause I don’t actually care). Both outings prob. moved…I don’t know since there’s no accounting from Grass/Wind-Up/EMI/Univ./Bicycle/Concord/Craft (I sorta love doing that)…maybe a hundred copies?
See? Complicated AND boring. Deadly. Hopefully this doesn’t sound complain-y, there are bigger problems pretty much everywhere, there’s just often that much stultifying detail behind even the most mundane indie label/record story. I’m also tired and don’t feel like editing - ha (and have lazily pasted some of this from my reply to an RSD thread on Stereogum).
So to wrap…not my plan, we won’t make anything on them & it’s doubtful I’ll even get a copy of the record. They’ll sell in the dozens, rightfully so and as I've said before, honestly, the album is an abomination unto the Lord, with like three good songs (all Kevin's) and gut-wrenching production (by me). Just stream it. It'll only take one time - ha.