{"id":358,"date":"2006-05-23T15:30:20","date_gmt":"2006-05-23T21:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bittermancircle.com\/wordpress\/2006\/05\/23\/another-sad-example-of-the-music-business\/"},"modified":"2006-06-02T00:17:34","modified_gmt":"2006-06-02T06:17:34","slug":"another-sad-example-of-the-music-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bittermancircle.com\/?p=358","title":{"rendered":"Another sad example of the music business"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb_share_1\" style=\"clear:left; float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-top:10px;;width: 55px;\" name=\"fb_share\"><div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#appId=125029517579627&amp;xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/www.bittermancircle.com\/?p=358\" send=\"false\" layout=\"box_count\" width=\"55\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\"><\/fb:like><\/div><p>We all know that being good, intelligent and tasteful in the music biz will usually get you nowhere. Some of the best writers and performers will get some attention, maybe signed and an album put out. But sales and the youth culture still reign supreme; the companies would rather put out the same junk that sold well over and over again in a newer younger body and often the same old song.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ll admit that my tastes have always leaned well away from the mainstream; while my classmates were listening to Kiss, I listened to the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Dixie_Dregs\">Dixie Dregs<\/a>. The soundtrack to my senior year included <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thetubes.com\/\">The Tubes<\/a>, Jeff Beck and other tasteful players who would not pull down the same numbers as the big boys. I won&#8217;t even go off into my jazz and world music leanings as you would have to use a micrometer to record their sales.<\/p>\n<p>One such band that has always been a beacon of good to me was <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kingsxonline.com\/\">King&#8217;s X<\/a>, the trio from Katy, Texas that defied most pigeon holes from the start and has continued to grow for 25 years as men and artists. They could obviously play, wrote catchy songs that were complex in construction but not to the ear. They rocked hard, harmonized like they had paid close attention to the Beatles and the Beach Boys and were de-tuning their guitars Waaaaaay before those nu-metal kids figured out the trick.<\/p>\n<p>Often with bands that stand out early and have classic recordings that find a place in their fan&#8217;s hearts, they never make anything that touches their fanbase the same way. King&#8217;s X continued to grow, stretch and try new things each time they went into the studio. Sometimes they created albums that were more true to where they were at in their own lives than a record exec would like. I have gone back to some of those middle albums recently and found gems, songs that resonate even more now than when they originally caught my ear. I&#8217;m glad I&#8217;m kept up with them and their music all these years as I am continually rewarded for being a listener and a fan.<\/p>\n<p>I received an e-mail this morning from my dear friend and often co-backline guy Bobby Schneck. One of the things that help build our friendship was our common love for King&#8217;s X. It&#8217;s rare to find touring people who are strong fans of anything other than easy schedules, tour bonuses and abundant shower towels. Most people would look at us like we were listening to static; their loss I say. One other tech who got them was Gary Williams and once again when he and Bobby met, it was like they spoke the same language. Music is a really strong thing, even for tired, jaded guys in black cotton.<\/p>\n<p>The e-mail included a heart wrenching post from <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Doug_Pinnick\">Dug Pinnick<\/a>, the bass player from King&#8217;s X, who went on to share his frustration and sadness at their current place in the business. I&#8217;m going to include it here, though quite long. I&#8217;m still looking for a direct link to his original post though Bobby sent me <a href=\"http:\/\/www.roadrun.com\/blabbermouth.net\/news.aspx?mode=Article&#038;newsitemID=52609\">one from a repost<\/a> on the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.roadrun.com\/blabbermouth.net\/\">Blabbermouth.net<\/a> site.<\/p>\n<p>For some of you, this will not be filled with surprises; for others it might open your eyes to how the business will throw you by the wayside again and again if you don&#8217;t bring them the money they want. Perhaps this is the greatest argument for grassroots and self- provided music in a clearly not-podsafe world. The record companies are no longer the only game in town&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>posted by Dug Pinnick of King&#8217;s X:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>dUg&#8217;s words<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I have read about 2 pages of this thread, I wish I<br \/>\ncould set down and answer all the questions, and<br \/>\nspeculations&#8230;I will try to make light of some of<br \/>\nthe things said and suggested..you guys are<br \/>\nwonderful so please dont take anything I say as<br \/>\nnegative or bitching&#8230;.theres no anger here&#8230;.just<br \/>\nlove &#8230;here goes&#8230;we never fit in, no matter what we do we<br \/>\ncant get the masses on board, and weve done<br \/>\neverytnig there is, I now you all have suggestions<br \/>\nof what we could do do get more successful, but we<br \/>\nhave done everything there is to do! or at least<br \/>\ninquired about it all&#8230;we just cant get the folks<br \/>\non board&#8230;woodstock 94 we played for 300 thousand<br \/>\npeople, and the next week on soundscan we sold about<br \/>\n200 CD&#8217;s .then the week later nothing to comment<br \/>\non&#8230;.the rest of the bands on the bill, Jackel,<br \/>\nSheryl Crow, Live, Candlebox, stc.. sold millions!!!<br \/>\nwe got the best slot of the day, and USA today,<br \/>\nHoward Stern, MTV,said we were the best band that<br \/>\nday..! we sold nothing&#8230;and it changed my life&#8230;.I<br \/>\ncut my hair and almost gave up! plus I was going<br \/>\nthru mid life crisis..I started getting panic<br \/>\nattacks and got blinded by my self hate&#8230;Ear Candy<br \/>\nwas the result&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>management?.. we have had people check us out and<br \/>\nthey say were doing a better job by ourselves than<br \/>\nthey could,,,after they see what we have to go thru<br \/>\nto get a gig&#8230;and keep the boat afloat&#8230;others say<br \/>\nwere precieved as an old band and they feel they<br \/>\ncant help us&#8230;.<\/p>\n<p>record companies? we tried to give Atlantic a done<br \/>\nCD with nothing to do but throw it out there&#8230; they<br \/>\npassed, saying they are only interested in new young<br \/>\nbands&#8230;.ALL other companies rejected us accept<br \/>\nMetal Blade and Inside out&#8230;thank the gods for<br \/>\nthat&#8230;.<\/p>\n<p>booking agent?.. they say they cant get many<br \/>\npromotes to bring us, they all think they will loose<br \/>\nmoney&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Deep Purple? were trying to get on that tour, and<br \/>\nanyother oportunity we can&#8230;but we have to pay to<br \/>\nplay, its all political&#8230;.thats the way all bands<br \/>\nare treated now, they all pay, Ozz Fest&#8230; the<br \/>\nrecord companies pay to get all the bands on the<br \/>\ntour&#8230;.we dont have the $$, we opend for many bands<br \/>\nin the past to no avail..a few new converts, but not<br \/>\nenough&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Paul Scheafer plays Born to be loved all the time&#8230;<br \/>\nbut to get to play live on the Letterman show?<br \/>\npracticly impossible&#8230;.I wish you all could<br \/>\nunderstand how impossible the situation is these<br \/>\ndays for many bands..it sucks! the rejection to KX<br \/>\nis overwhelming in the music marketplace&#8230;you can<br \/>\nimagine how it makes us feel&#8230;..<\/p>\n<p>Christian music scene,?? yeah we could have been<br \/>\nmaybe the biggest band in christian music, but were<br \/>\nnot hippocrites, and when the christians find out<br \/>\nthat we drink, smoke weed and I am gay!, they would<br \/>\nturn on us anyway, so why go there&#8230;that just<br \/>\nhurts&#8230;besides that, they rejected us anyway after<br \/>\nthey learned who we were&#8230;&#8230;..theyre human, they<br \/>\nhide it&#8230;.were not like that, were to honest. thats<br \/>\nwhy I am down on christian music&#8230;in the name of<br \/>\ntruth they live lies&#8230;.thats never been me..or<br \/>\nkingsX..its one of our biggest faults&#8230;The<br \/>\nchristian music scene was a dead end for us no<br \/>\nmatter what had happend in our career&#8230;.I am<br \/>\nagnostic now anyway, we just couldnt justify being a<br \/>\nchristian band&#8230;it just wasnt the truth&#8230;I was<br \/>\nraised christian and have seen the christian music<br \/>\nscene first hand&#8230;I cant be a part of it and I<br \/>\ncouldnt back then either&#8230;and were still called a<br \/>\nchristian band to this day, it wasnt kosure back<br \/>\nthen either, I remember so many people saying tat<br \/>\nthey couldnt get thier friend to listen to KX cause<br \/>\nwe were christian, even thoug Stryper were<br \/>\nsuccessful&#8230;now its accepted being a christian<br \/>\nband&#8230;.but were not one of those bands&#8230;..whats<br \/>\ndone is done and its the past&#8230;&#8230;.<\/p>\n<p>downhill career?.. Manic Moon Light was a good CD, I<br \/>\ndont care what anyone says&#8230;I put my heart in that<br \/>\nCD and wrote some songs that I am proud of&#8230;there<br \/>\nwas some waisted space on it but isnt that the way<br \/>\nmost CD&#8217;s are? we realy did our best with what we<br \/>\nhad and who we were at the time&#8230;this band started<br \/>\nout down hill, now were in a hole&#8230;we couldnt get<br \/>\nthe $ for a producer for years, so we did it<br \/>\nourselves, at least we tried&#8230;.then we payed for<br \/>\nMichael Wagner out of our own pockets&#8230;.and<br \/>\nfinished the CD paying for it ourselves&#8230;.we are<br \/>\nrealy trying to do the right things but all we get<br \/>\nare walls&#8230;.theres only so much we can do without<br \/>\nmoney, record company support and attendance&#8230;.we<br \/>\nhave maybe sold a million CD&#8217;s combined from day<br \/>\none&#8230;!. thats not many in the real world&#8230;.<br \/>\n&#8230;..and Atlantic put millions into promoting<br \/>\nus..more than most we have had the oportunity for<br \/>\nexposure and we got it&#8230;&#8230;..<\/p>\n<p>I know some of you think theres things we should be<br \/>\ndoing, but trust me, we have tried or checked out<br \/>\nall the possibiity, its just not as easy as you may<br \/>\nthink&#8230; we need all ages shows, and its almost<br \/>\nimpossible to get them&#8230;thats just fact&#8230;it sucks<br \/>\nplaying at such late times when people have to go to<br \/>\nwork or drive hours to attend&#8230;.we always ask for<br \/>\nearly shows and all ages, it just dosent happen..<br \/>\n.bands that are successful without airplay or much<br \/>\npromotion?,,,its a mystery, were doing what they did<br \/>\nand here we are..<\/p>\n<p>were going home from this tour broke&#8230;I get no $<br \/>\nwhen I am off tour, I have to fend for<br \/>\nmyself&#8230;.thats life i guess. same as everyone else,<br \/>\nI wish it wasnt so..<br \/>\n.<br \/>\n25 years of doing this with KX&#8230;.even in the early<br \/>\ndays before the record deal, we couldnt get good<br \/>\nattendance doing covers, when the other bands we<br \/>\ncompeted with packed the clubs&#8230;.its always been<br \/>\nthis way, we just dont appeal to the<br \/>\nmasses&#8230;..maybe if we had about 10 million to<br \/>\npromote us??? but theres no guarantee&#8230;<br \/>\nwere precieved as an old band in the marketplace<br \/>\nthat is well respected but not a money maker&#8230;..<br \/>\nbands try to take us out with them but thier<br \/>\nmanagement always reject us,<br \/>\nwe may not tour for a while because if all of<br \/>\nthis&#8230;we cant&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>we have made mistakes for sure in our career, but we<br \/>\nhave realy tried to do the right things.. were not<br \/>\nthe same people as we were when we started this<br \/>\nband, and we always try to do ur best and make the<br \/>\nbest music we can&#8230;sometimes it didnt seem like it<br \/>\nwas the best effort at the time, but if you were<br \/>\nthere you would understand&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>we are so thankful for the support from the<br \/>\nfaithful&#8230;we wouldnt be here if it wasnt for all of<br \/>\nyou people&#8230;the band is realy down these days,<br \/>\nfrustrated, and out of money and ideas that will<br \/>\nwork&#8230;.were not young upcoming wide eyed kids<br \/>\nanymore, and this music biz is obsessed with youth,<br \/>\nthe whole US is this way, just look around&#8230;.its<br \/>\nnot over untill the fat lady sings they say&#8230; well,<br \/>\nshes at the mike&#8230;..<\/p>\n<p>I have had a wonderful adventure being in this band<br \/>\nand being me&#8230;I have been blessed more than most..I<br \/>\ntake nothing for granite..we could go on and on<br \/>\nabout what we should do and what we havent&#8230;.but at<br \/>\nthe end of the day we have done the best that we<br \/>\ncould with what is before us&#8230;..were not done, were<br \/>\nnot breaking up&#8230;.were still hoping to be the<br \/>\nbiggest band in the world&#8230;.and I have many more<br \/>\nsongs in my head and on demos to throw out there for<br \/>\nyou guys..good or bad, you can decide&#8230;..I will<br \/>\nmake music as long as I can breath&#8230;I have<br \/>\nquestioned my whole life and this bands place in the<br \/>\nworld&#8230;.its still a mystery to me&#8230;.this band I<br \/>\nhave invested 25 years of my life to&#8230;..and I think<br \/>\nabout my place in this more than anyone could<br \/>\npossibly know or understand&#8230;.and still dont know<br \/>\nwhy no one realy gives a feck on a major scale&#8230;and<br \/>\npeople wonder why I have low self esteem&#8230;.I am one<br \/>\nof the biggest loosers that there is&#8230;and I dont<br \/>\nknow why&#8230;.no one in KX knows why it hasnt happend<br \/>\nfor us&#8230;.but I will keep doing what I do because I<br \/>\nknow nothig else and I love making music&#8230;.thanks<br \/>\nfor letting me ramble&#8230;thanks for hearing me out<br \/>\nand like I said before, without you guys I probably<br \/>\nwouldnt be alive&#8230;.thanks for saving my life&#8230;.I<br \/>\nlove you all&#8230;..keep the faith, its not taken for<br \/>\ngranite&#8230;..dUg . &#8220;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div>\n<div>Love and support the music that moves you; don&#8217;t steal it and point at the record companies. This is what can happen to your favorite acts.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We all know that being good, intelligent and tasteful in the music biz will usually get you nowhere. Some of the best writers and performers will get some attention, maybe signed and an album put out. But sales and the youth culture still reign supreme; the companies would rather put out the same junk that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[3,10],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peNcU-5M","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bittermancircle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bittermancircle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bittermancircle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bittermancircle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bittermancircle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bittermancircle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bittermancircle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bittermancircle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bittermancircle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}