Forum - View topicPR: The Slants Reject Chance at Million Dollar Recording Contract; Turn Down Bodog Battle-of-the-Ban
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aluria
 Posts: 367 Location: New Westminster, B.C., Canada |
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Never heard of this band before but good for them. They didn't let the big companies push them around. They're into it for making music, not money.
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 9902 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
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Other than reminding me of spoiler[Solanin], I fail to see how this press release has anything to do with anime or manga.
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Vortextk
 Posts: 892 Location: Orlando, Fl |
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I figured this was going to be a japanese band at first. Why is this in the news?
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MokonaModoki
 Posts: 437 Location: Austin, Texas |
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They are Asian and they play at a lot of anime conventions, which is why a lot of their press releases end up on ANN.
It isn't in the news. Just another press release. |
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Vortextk
Posts: 892 Location: Orlando, Fl |
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This is the "news" network and so I pretty much look at the main site as a page of rolling headlines. Whatever you'd like to call it, semantics, I just had no idea why this was covered until you linked the two.
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gridsleep
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A little bit Alan Parsons, a little bit Steve Vai, and a lot of their own originality. Thank god there are people with integrity still in the music world. (I was going to write "music business" but it is that business that is corroding the whole art. These need to be balanced for it all to work and all we are seeing is the imbalance in favor of business. Once again, the corporations are the corrupting influence.) Go, Slants, Go!
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Ishmoo
 Posts: 413 Location: Fredericksburg, VA |
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These guys totally have my respect. Now I'm gonna go buy their album. I hope they can make it on their own terms now that they've refused to sell their souls to the corporate machine.
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BellosTheMighty
 Posts: 767 |
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I have the feeling that's exactly the reaction they expected. Marketing strategy successful. Well, that's not entirely fair. There's a decent chance that the contract was unfair, in which case they were right to give Bodog the kiss-off. Still, I can't help but notice that they get to have their cake and eat it too- they get the publicity from being a big hit on the show, and by getting out with an upraised middle finger they also get to "stick it too the man" and win over the downloaders who get off on that kind of stuff. The exposure corporate music can provide and the respectability which comes from not dealing with corporate music, at the same time. |
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Ishmoo
Posts: 413 Location: Fredericksburg, VA |
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I have no problem with that whatsoever. If they did it on purpose more power to them! It was a brilliant move. Record labels have been trapping artists into terrible contracts for decades. It's almost become par for the course for brand new acts. Regardless, times have changed with the ease of digital media. It's time for a new business model. Radiohead sold over a million digital copies of their "In Rainbow" album before the end of the first day it was released by producing it themselves and allowing their fans to pay what they thought it was worth. Supposedly, that album made them a wicked amount of money. No record contract, no paltry royalties, no corporate micro-managing. It's time for musicians to take control of their own music. We fans will only benefit. Real artistry will flourish and the generic pop swill record companies love to push down our throats won't be the only thing on the radio anymore. I can dream anyway. |
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simonslant
Posts: 3 Location: Portland, OR |
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Hi, My name is Simon and I play in The Slants. As someone noted above, we are not Japanese; we're more like a pan-Asian band. Sometimes I like to call it Jrock, but with a C, K, P, V, and T instead. And yes, we do play a lot of anime/Asian cultural conventions worldwide. We're also sponsored and work with several anime companies, etc. And we have manga's relating to the band, etc. Anyway, we never actually made it onto the tv show - that was the contract that we rejected. We had 4 different attorneys look at it, and every single one told us not to sign it because it would allow the company to own anything we played on the show as well as other synch licenses and rights...about 73 pages of glorious legal terminology. A lot of our fans have been following and supporting us through the news - including this site - so I felt it was our responsibility to let them know why we suddnely dropped out of this competition. I also felt that I should warn others going into similiar situations to be very careful of people trying to lure honest, hardworking artists into a binding contract. Believe me, I'd love to be able to do this full time as a living rather than scrape by while working a 60-hour job; but I'm not going to do something to allow someone else to own the soul of the band. |
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Ishmoo
Posts: 413 Location: Fredericksburg, VA |
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Hey there Simon. You guys obviously made the right call and earned a lot of repect to boot. I used to know a lot of musicians and some were faced with similar spirit killing contracts. I'm glad you were smart and didn't fall for the corporate pushers. They can be really convincing and a lot of artists have ended up with disasterous chains around their necks for years. Hopefully, your stand will cause the other participants to look more closely at what they're asked to sign as well.
Wishing you all the luck in the world! Alecia |
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Mohawk52
 Posts: 8202 Location: England, UK |
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So are they children of rich parents, or bohemian fantasists? One thing for sure they won't be around for long. Enjoy them whilst they last.
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simonslant
Posts: 3 Location: Portland, OR |
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Thank you, I appreciate it! Regards, Simon |
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slickwataris
 Posts: 1334 Location: Carol Stream, Illinois |
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I bought into the publicity and pre-ordered the new cd.
When can I expect it in the mail simonslant. |
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simonslant
Posts: 3 Location: Portland, OR |
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Haha, awesome. Thank you very much, I seriously appreciate it. We'll be sending you a the cd (when it gets in our hands...probably 2-3 weeks), some stickers and I'll see what other goodies we can thorw in (probably a poster, maybe a button or patch). We do appreciate it very much and I hope we'll see you this summer on tour! ~simon |
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