Thursday, March 19, 2009
Dear Brandon Ebel....GROW A FUCKING PAIR!
Tonight, I stumbled across some interesting information. While sitting around, "borrowing" wireless from my neighbors and listening to He Is Legend I decided to do some looking around. While on their last.fm page, I noticed that there were several tour dates listed that are not listed on HIL's myspace page, most notably of these dates were several dates on the VANS Warped Tour, which I was not aware that they were on this year. I did a little bit of investigating(i.e. Google) and came to no fruitful conclusion on this, as nothing official came up. So I decided to check Solid State's website and see if they had any info on this. none. what's more, He Is Legend is no longer listed on their active roster. This would lead one to believe that they are no longer with the label. Rumor concerning this have been circulating since, uh-oh, they dropped the F-Bomb in one of their new demos(which have since been removed from their myspace, with the exception of "Everyone I Know Has Fangs") This rumor is further advanced due to their recent work with Tragic Hero Records out of NC, with a song being featured on a sampler as well as performances on Tragic Hero affiliated shows. Hearsay has led to the belief that HIL's forthcoming album will be titled It Hates You and should be released some time in March/April, though this tentative release date is seeming less likely as time goes by. Anyway, HIL is also not listed as a former band on Solid State's website, so, its completely possible that their contract has ended and they are currently talking through another possible contract. However, I highly doubt this is the case with rumors going around for years that the band has been known to be potheads of sorts, the picture of Schuylar smoking a bowl that he use to sport on his myspace page doesn't help alleviate this rumor. On top of all that, we can't have poor Christians ears being corrupted and tortured with such vile words as, "fucking". As if words made you any more or less Christian, need I direct you to a little band called Raft of Dead Monkeys featuring unquestionably Christian T&N alumni such as Jeff Suffering and John Spalding(90lbs. wuss), Doug Lorig(Roadside Monument), Matt Johnson(Roadside Monument and Blenderhead), Jonathon Ford(Roadside Monument and Pedro the Lion), and Damien Jurado. It kind of seems like Ebel has gotten scared of controversy and takes too much pressure from "Christian Book Stores" that are idiotic enough to carry the entire catalog of a "not strictly Christian" label and then demand that stickers be put over disturbing album covers, see exhibits 1 and 2, and were shocked to discover that The Agony Scene is not nor ever was a Christian band. As soon as you start slapping the label "Christian" on anything you are bound to run into controversy and I'm pretty sure Jesus ran into his fair share of controversy back in the day. so, yeah, rant over, I'm gonna go listen to that David Bazan song where he says "camel fuckers".
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2 comments:
Ebel's a businessman in a niche market worth hundreds of millions of dollars, so it's not surprising.
The most notorious example of the Christian music industry's bigotry, though, has to be the case of Marsha Stevens, a hugely popular bland kinda Christian AOR singer who came out as a lesbian and was met with a ruthlessly Stalinist campaign of not only denying that she was still part of the CCM industry, but attempts to erase all evidence that she ever was.
It's funny how uniform statements of condemnation from artists within the so-called Christian music scene are, and not just from predictable quarters like the punks. It's genuinely held in contempt by the people who make all the money for the record company owners.
I understand Ebel is trying to keep his market but I would expect him to have a little more integrity and stand by his statements that Solidstate Records is not a strictly Christian record label and when you look at bands formerly on the roster there was much more diversity and controversy was handled much better. I of course, don't know why exactly He Is Legend is on the label and my post is nothing but speculation and hearsay, as HIL probably signed the standard two record deal with SS and they themselves could have chosen to leave the label. the fact of the matter is, I don't really know, but I am calling them like I've seen them in the past and in the last few years SS has been steadily going down the drain. whereas they use to provide quality, unique artists, now they simply provide watered down, Christian versions of what ever is trendy at the time or to try and match the success of other SS bands(Demon Hunter, Norma Jean, UnderOATH)
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