Hey Craig. Where do you get off suggesting people download the 'good' songs from our new record on your amazon review? Fair enough there's songs you don't like, and we're all for constructive criticism, but that is totally FUCKED. I know it's gonna happen anyway, but to tell people it's a good idea. well that is just rotten behaviour.
shame on you AIH
I changed my amazon.com review of "Fingers Crossed" to warn people that one of the tracks on "In Case We Die" sucks. I said that people should download only the good songs. I had no idea that they would ever read it!
I already emailed them back. I told them that "The Cemetary" really is a shitty song, and that I was sad that they'd actually let it on their album. Then I said that I'd take down the 'download only the good songs' stuff.
quote:
(from the amazon.com "warning") I'm just so disappointed in the band for letting a song this bad make it on to a full-length album. If you have no other means of "obtaining" (wink wink) In Case We Die, you still should buy it so that you can hear some of their best songs yet, but consider yourself warned when you get to the second half of the album.
I guess you have to give Amazon an e-mail address to be able to post the review, and AIH got it from Amazon and then just sent you some unexpected, bolt-from-the-blue message extolling your virtues as a guide to all the good people who shop through Amazon or research Fingers Crossed? Is that what happened or do you also communicate with AIH through their website, so they already know you? That e-mail sounded like one person, not a band, so you know who actually wrote it?
"Naked Woman, Naked Man Where did you get that nice sun tan?"
Posts: 12874 | Location: Behind the Orange Curtain | Registered: 14 May 2004
Wow. I guess I understand the band doesn't want people to "steal" their music, but that's taking it a little too far.
Honestly, I they had done that to me, I probably would have sold their records at a used store and stopped being a fan. I don't need people who don't know me saying "shame on me". And the fact that they had to track you down to do it...I guess there was no privacy for your email vis a vis Amazon?
I give you credit for excising your "obtain" comments at their behest. I would have told AIH to sit and spin.
Posts: 3875 | Location: ATL, GA | Registered: 25 May 2004
Originally posted by philosopherEric: Wow. I guess I understand the band doesn't want people to "steal" their music, but that's taking it a little too far.
Honestly, I they had done that to me, I probably would have sold their records at a used store and stopped being a fan. I don't need people who don't know me saying "shame on me". And the fact that they had to track you down to do it...I guess there was no privacy for your email vis a vis Amazon?
Okay, now that's just silly. He publicly endorsed music piracy (in particular, piracy of their music), and they just contacted him in private to tell him that's not on. It's not as if their e-mail conisted of, "Cease and desist or we're taking you to court".
I'll agree with you on one point, though: privacy of such details as e-mail addresses really should be an option. Who says that it isn't, though?
Posts: 687 | Location: Adelaide, South Australia | Registered: 01 January 2005
craig. we love your passion. and thank you. but we couldn't really disagree with you more about the song. we spent 8 months making the album and our choice to put that song on was informed and we are proud of the way it works, lyrically and musically within the themes of the album. it is not a joke it is not corny and you are totally missing the point, but hey, we're the artists, it's easy for us to say that...
btw that is cameron singing all male lead vocals on the album...
don't hate us, AIH
Posts: 571 | Location: Detroit (suburbs) | Registered: 18 May 2004
Now Sweetie, although we are getting lots of juicy info about which AIH would probably shit if they knew it was HERE, what's the story about how they got your e-mail address?
"Naked Woman, Naked Man Where did you get that nice sun tan?"
Posts: 12874 | Location: Behind the Orange Curtain | Registered: 14 May 2004
I don't actively try to keep my email address a secret. I get emails from people about my amazon.com reviews and whatnot pretty often. I'm really honored that they notice me. I just sent them a reply to tell them that and that I still think they're a great band that makes great music.
Posts: 571 | Location: Detroit (suburbs) | Registered: 18 May 2004
Okay, now that's just silly. He publicly endorsed music piracy (in particular, piracy of their music), and they just contacted him in private to tell him that's not on. It's not as if their e-mail conisted of, "Cease and desist or we're taking you to court".
I don't think it's silly at all. There's nothing illegal about making endorsements of music piracy. If he was offering a place where people could GET those tracks, that would be different. I've personally never downloaded anything illegally in my life, but if the band thinks that some anonymous endorsement in an Amazon review is going to encourage piracy, I'm not sure what world they're living in. If I was on the fence about piracy, what Sweetie says about the new AIH in his Amazon review wouldn't be that one push I'd need to become a pirate.
My point was simply that I don't need anyone who doesn't know beans about me, particularly some musician I've never met, giving me the tsk-tsk-tsk. They've got no business telling me what I should or shouldn't say, particulary when what I'm saying isn't illegal.
And the subtext (based on the other emails) was that they were just as mad that he was criticizing their song as they were that he was advocating music piracy.
I would have sent them an email detailing everything I didn't like about their record and chastizing them for what they did that I didn't like. That's basically what they did to him.
At least they were nicer in the second email, but they still had to take shots at him for his view of their music: don't musicians have more important things to do than troll around on the web looking for fans to criticize? They should be patting Sweetie on the back for the number of times he's plugged them in these Forums.
Posts: 3875 | Location: ATL, GA | Registered: 25 May 2004
Well, he was sort of saying that people should download the album instead of buying it, at a website where AiH can expect to get some large proportion of their total sales. If he said 'you should download the album' here, the band wouldn't have bothered. But he said it somewhere that anybody who's considering buying the album on Amazon would see it. I can understand AiH being annoyed, but they did sound a little self righteous with the 'shame on you' junk.
Posts: 1783 | Location: Around Boston. | Registered: 24 February 2005
Fair point. I forget that many people buy a lot of stuff online. I still belong to a generation that buys things in stores.
I understand why the band was upset. I just thought they took a very "holier than thou" attitude towards Sweetie. But since Sweetie still loves them, i guess it's merely MY overblown reaction to the situation.
I probably would have WANTED to do what I said I do, but I probably wouldn't ACTUALLY do it. I'm a wuss that way.
Posts: 3875 | Location: ATL, GA | Registered: 25 May 2004
I don't think it's silly at all. There's nothing illegal about making endorsements of music piracy.
Just because something isn't illegal doesn't mean it couldn't be harmful to their business.
I'm not sure what Sweetie said exactly, though, so I might have been jumping the gun a bit. It could have been something relatively innocuous, a sort of "Try before you buy" sort of suggestion, rather than, "Don't buy this CD; download it instead" (although, there is a reason why Amazon posts 30-second samples). I just thought that the suggestion of disowning the band over this was absurd.
But this dispute has been settled with no harm done to either party (as far as I can tell), so the particulars aren't important
Posts: 687 | Location: Adelaide, South Australia | Registered: 01 January 2005
Hmmm....I've been asigned to review the new AiH...
________________________________________________________ "The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." - Hunter S. Thompson tinymixtapes.com / The Skinny / PopMatters
interesting... i think that "cemetary" is a great track, and that the album in general is quite excellent. better than their last, which is saying something.
"neverevereverdid" is probably my favorite song of the year so far.
------------------------- Many years ago we found that light and sound were ample food.
Posts: 38 | Location: Toledo | Registered: 15 May 2004
