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areuonsomething.com Rick wrote: My dreams came true in March of 1995. Stuck Mojo's first release, "Snappin Necks," could be found on the shelves of music stores all across the world. We had formed in 1989 so, after six years of counting change to buy bean burritos, sleeping in our rehearsal space and playing every small watering-hole that would have our southern-fried, rap-rock, funk-metal hybrid, we felt like we had finally made it. Well, as it turned out...not so much. Ray: Ok, here we go, couple of ol' dogs barking at the young pup. I'm going to lay it down the way it is. The question to ask is, how much truth can you handle? Here we go. You write, " after six years of counting change to buy bean burritos, sleeping in our rehearsal space and playing every small watering-hole that would have (us)" we felt like we had finally made it. That
is what a rock band does! That is the gig! Rock and Roll is not for the
timid. Like Lynyrd Skynyrd you've got to become STREET SURVIVORS! Every
band in the world starts out playing shit hole bars and clubs and some
do that for their entire lives. That's where 99% of every rock group that
is or ever was performs their music, very few play Madison Sq. Garden
or headline at Bonnaroo. Some
of the lucky ones bust out of the bar scene….become 'big time' for
a while and then end up back in the bars.There are hundreds of examples,
but lets take Leslie West. Started out in The Vagrants, one of the greatest
bar bands in history and played every dive in New York. Then he put Mountain
together and they moved up the food chain headlining at the Fillmore's
and doing Woodstock and all that. Then he even rose higher with West,
Bruce and Laing and headlined the big arenas and festivals. Rick:
For a while, things didn't really change that much. We had spent more
on recording "Snappin' Necks" than the record company had given
us as an advance. Rick:
Now we are approaching the end of 2006 and, as the Machine Head album
so appropriately notes, "The More Things Change, The More They Stay
The Same." Ray: I agree, that's what I'm talking about here. You and your band may be young and doing your thing today, but nothing that you are going through is new. Another way to say it is… it's always new for someone… and in this case you and your band are that someone. Maybe you don't know about it, but it is the way it always was. From The Pogues web site: "Shane MacGowan suffered severe damage to the ligaments of one of his knees when he fell on stage at the Orpheum Theatre, Boston on March 11. Regrettably this injury caused the late cancellation of the March 14 opening (sold out) New York show at Roseland Ballroom in Manhattan." Flashback to March 11, mid 70's. I was the local promotion guy in Manhattan for The Who and I got word that Keith Moon "got messed up somehow" at the gig in Boston and that the sold out show in New York was cancelled. "The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same." Rick:
In the past twelve years I've had seven official releases with Stuck Mojo,
three with Fozzy, one with Sick Speed and one with The Duke, my solo effort.
Rick:
Every success was accompanied by a great desire to achieve and do more.
Every failure was an opportunity to learn from our mistakes and was humbly
embraced. Everything I have learned from being signed to four different
record companies and from having licensed albums to over a dozen distributors
around the world has brought me to a single conclusion. From now on we
really should try to make and sell albums without them. Rick:
Looking back, Century Media was a great record company for Stuck Mojo.
The people who worked for the label took pride in doing a great job and
worked hard for our band. The down side was that, at that time, we were
just a bunch of young, eager and naive musicians who signed a contract
that would prohibit us from making much more than if we had taken jobs
at McDonalds. Of course, that's our fault, not theirs, as they did not
force us to sign the deal. In fairness, we never cared about the contract,
the publishing or the royalty rate. Rick:
We just wanted to destroy the stage in whatever town we were in and then
get in the van, drive to the next town and do it again and again. Rick:
In retrospect, it was the best experience that I ever had with a label.
We were broke, but we had lived the dream. But, this is where the nightmare
began. Palm Records, after putting out the debut Fozzy album in October
of 2000, disappeared off the face of the earth. Palm has never returned
a phone call, paid us a cent of royalties or even attempted to send us
a sales statement. Sonic Rendesvous, the Dutch label who released my Sick
Speed record in 2002, delivered my first statement on schedule (didn't
include the check, but that's nit-picking), but shortly thereafter disappeared
and is still selling that album years after the contract has expired.
To date I have still never received a cent from the sales of that album. Rick:
When the process began to write and record the third Fozzy record, "All
That Remains," the decision was made to record (Rich) and finance
(Jericho) the album ourselves. This would allow us 100% creative control
with a maximum return on the financial investment. Well, once again....not
so much. But I'll get to that in a second. To get the album in shops,
we licensed the album to a different distributor in each major market
around the world. In Europe, it was distributed by SPV....and they still
owe us money. In Canada, by Koch.....and they still owe us money. But,
the award for the largest debt (in excess of $100,000) goes to our US
distributor, SMD. At least all of these companies admit to owing us the
money. I guess that's the first step toward collecting on a debt owed
for almost two years. Rick:
I signed "The Duke" to Spitfire/Eagle Records for a two album
deal. The debut album, "My Kung Fu Is Good," was released in
April of 2005 and, as stated in the contract, my first sales statement
was due by September of that same year. As of today (12-10-06), I have
still not received that first statement from Spitfire. So, as you can
imagine, no royalties have been paid either. |