Our Top Story: We've seen enough bands break up over the years to no longer be surprised when personalities and money get in the way of the music. The business is a business, and we are seldom allowed to forget that fact. However, there are times when the moves made by people still stand out as being either underhanded, petty, or just plain weird. The motivations of people are difficult to figure out, and we can spend a lot of time sorting through the psychology of 'why'.
Fear Factory has both returned and blown up in recent weeks. The story started with the band announcing they were starting a crowd-funding campaign to update and improve their new album, which is scheduled to come out next year. This was already a questionable development, since the album is, even by their own admission, done. Dino Cazares no longer wants to put out an album with programmed drums on it, despite having done so before. Perhaps this is understandable.
Burton C. Bell, the band's singer, immediately spoke up, saying he knew absolutely nothing about this development. This is where things started to get awkward. In the years since we last heard from the band, Dino had purchased the entirety of the band's name, meaning he is now in full control of all business decisions. That might be legally right, but there is something rather off about not informing the only other member of the band what is going on, to avoid that very scenario of the two being at odds. Burton accused Dino of trying to profit off the money, and there was no single voice to speak on the band's behalf. It was terrible management on Dino's part, and made the band look foolish and greedy.
They went back and forth online, another sign of decay, which ended with Burton leaving Fear Factory. The album is still scheduled to be released next year, with Burton's vocals, and presumably with new and live drums. This coming despite the band no longer being together.
Things get further complicated when Dino announced he also intends to update one of the band's older albums with live drums as well, without any explanation for how he will have the money to do that, but not the money for the new album. It's a curious thing, one that does seem to play into Burton's theory that Dino was intending to pocket some of the money raised from the fans.
But what makes this episode sadder is Dino's attitude toward Burton. Regardless of the current situation between them, Burton is the voice of Fear Factory, and has been there the whole way through, even when Dino was gone. Dino has written him off, going so far as to say to the fans it doesn't matter who the band's singer is. Yes, it does. For more than twenty years Fear Factory has had a signature sound, and a big part of that is Burton's voice. I understand Dino owns the name and can do what he wants with it, but there's something seedy when a band tries to tell the fans what to think.
Fear Factory may return, but given what we've just seen, do we even want that?
In Other News: Taylor Swift's catalog has been sold once again. Not long after having her life's work sold out from under her to a man she is actively at odds with, he has turned around and sold her master tapes to a new group, once again leaving Taylor without control over her own work.
According to her, she was given a chance to purchase her tapes, but before any negotiation could even begin, she had to sign an NDA barring her from ever speaking negatively about the new former owner. I know that litigation is baked into the American system at this point, but the idea of using legal documents as a cudgel to prevent your own toxic life from being exposed is unseemly. And to hold someone's work hostage for that goal, even when they are willing to pay you an astronomical sum of money, shows what kind of weasel was allowed to get the tapes in the first place.
The good news of this story is that Taylor has indicated she is indeed following through on her threat to re-record all of the albums that fall under this deal. New versions will be coming, and she can use her substantial leverage to push those wanting to license her music to use the versions that put money in her pocket, not an investor's. While I have no intention or interest in ever hearing those recordings, I applaud her for using the levers of power to stand up for herself as an artist. It was never right for the label system to be set up where an artist had no control over their own work, and taking back what she can is an important step for Taylor.
The only downside is that since Scooter Braun has sold the catalog, he will not be the one holding a devaluing asset. He was able to psychologically abuse Taylor, and get out of the deal before the money dried up. Once again, bad people get away with being bad people.
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