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PO: RX Bandits "Progress" - Up 11/12


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For the lazy:

Apparently DTR is making more money from our album Progress by selling it for a vinyl pressing we were not asked nor do we get 1 cent from it, just business as usual for DTR ripping off bands.

http://www.facebook.com/RxBandits#!/rxbanditsofficial/posts/147764965270314

I wouldn't blame Enjoy The Ride at all for this. They wanted to put out this record on vinyl, so they went to the people who had the rights to it—Drive-Thru—to obtain a license. While it may have been short-sighted of them for not trying to get Rx Bandits' blessing before doing it, it certainly isn't something they had to do. ETR is not in the wrong.

A similar situation is that of Robbed The Bank Records putting out those Spitalfield and Forecast records. Jason just went to Victory directly and got licenses without the bands even knowing (although he did contact the bands after the fact to clue them into what he was doing).

I agree.

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Just send them a bunch of copies to sell on tour. Problem solved.

Sacrifice profit to fund future albums because someone else decided to be a greedy asshole?

It really sucks from the band's perspective, but it's a bit unfair to put the responsibility of making everyone happy on the shoulders of ETR. Maybe send the band some tests pressings to sell or something, but giving up a chunk of inventory for their charity is a lot to ask.

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i think the way this release is being handled is stupid (ie. dedicating 3/5 of the entire pressing to 100 3-packs) but ill go ahead and agree that this has little to nothing to do with ETR. sure, maybe he should have got the bands blessing but in general id say that goes above and beyond the general obligations of somebody licensing a release from whoever owns it. im guessing it was being assumed that the band was being taken care of based off of whatever agreement they signed way back then.

this seems for the par for DTR though. buy it, dont buy it, i dont really care about the album, ETR, or DTR but it sounds to me this an issue that the band needs to take up with DTR.

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A similar situation is that of Robbed The Bank Records putting out those Spitalfield and Forecast records. Jason just went to Victory directly and got licenses without the bands even knowing (although he did contact the bands after the fact to clue them into what he was doing).

thats not entirely true. I was working with The Forecast well before I pursued Victory about doing the album. Spitalfield may be a different story which I emailed both parties (Victory & Spitalfield) at the same time. And I kept both bands in the loop throughout the entire process, including how much I paid for the licensing and I may have even supplied them with copies of invoices, ect.

However, I do not blame Enjoy the Ride as I am sure that they paid royalties to press the records. And its as shitty to find out that Victory has yet to pay both bands that I pressed.

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i know this isnt ETR's fault at all. they bought the rights fair and square, but still, its hard to support something that a band themselves openly doesnt support. even if they DID sign a contract, i dont think it was in the right for DTR to sell them without talking to the band.

but hey, i guess thats how DTR works, buncha scumbags.

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Hey all

I am owner of ETR which im sure you all know...I had months of negations with Richard Reines regarding the licensing of 6 drive thru records releases. I had emailed both their management regarding the manner back in the early summer once we got the contracts signed as well as emailing and tweeting at steve choi letting them know I was doing this and trying to get the involved. I also facebook friended both steve and matt from the band along with messages saying who I was and why I was contacting them. After getting no response other than a friend accept from steve I then emailed him and asked a mutual friend to touch base with him about this. our mutual friend then told me that steve responded to him saying that "he saw my email and knows of my existence and is trying to get ahold of the contract". If anyone ever responded directly to me then I would have been happy from day one to send you a copy of the contact. In all honesty I am a huge fan of the band and an honored to be able to release this album on vinyl which is also a huge passion of mine. This is part of a series entitled "Music from the underground: A decade in review" which are a series of the best albums from the last decade that has yet to see a vinyl release. Each album in the series includes "look back liner notes" which is basically just a paragraph or two from one of the band members sharing their experience both recording that given album and/or what the time period in general was like for that respective band. I really wanted to band to take part in that but as of now they didnt seem interested. ....... All that being said, I got an email from their management last night along with 5 separate hate emails(calling me a corporate fat cat and accusing me of stealing from the bandits when im in reality thousands in debt still trying to recoup on my musical endeavors) from fans calling me scum bag when i took all the proper steps and legal issues to get this done, not to mention going above and beyond by trying to get in touch with their management and band members with no luck(management has since said they saw the email and thought i was asking them to license it, not that i already had...which is their own fault for not reading my email well enough. Regardless their management totally understands i did nothing wrong and more so have a major issue with DTR for taking money from me to make the records when they have yet to pay rx bandits a dime for anything(which is news to me). We are in the process or working out a solution that works for everyone which I will inform everyone once we come to a conclusion but please understand that i did nothing wrong and simply caught in the middle of a decade long feud/argument...that being said i know dozens of people on here have asked for this album to be pressed on vinyl which is why i went ahead and spend dozens of hours in contract negotiations and thousands of dollars getting this pressed so i really dont feel its fair to look down upon me or my company for this, let alone boycott the release. If anyone has any additional questions or comments please email or pm me...Thanks for all your time

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Can't believe ETRR didn't contact the band. But they did release three different picture discs for one album so they obviously know what they are doing.

speaking of contacting the band, didn't brett specifically want three picture discs?

yea he did, he wanted us to make the "platinum and gold records the band never earned"...so whoever make a crack about that...sorry I was trying to make the band happy and give them a product they requested

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A similar situation is that of Robbed The Bank Records putting out those Spitalfield and Forecast records. Jason just went to Victory directly and got licenses without the bands even knowing (although he did contact the bands after the fact to clue them into what he was doing).

thats not entirely true. I was working with The Forecast well before I pursued Victory about doing the album. Spitalfield may be a different story which I emailed both parties (Victory & Spitalfield) at the same time. And I kept both bands in the loop throughout the entire process, including how much I paid for the licensing and I may have even supplied them with copies of invoices, ect.

However, I do not blame Enjoy the Ride as I am sure that they paid royalties to press the records. And its as shitty to find out that Victory has yet to pay both bands that I pressed.

Sorry dude, didn't mean to misrepresent your situation! My bad.

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speaking of contacting the band, didn't brett specifically want three picture discs?

yea he did, he wanted us to make the "platinum and gold records the band never earned"...so whoever make a crack about that...sorry I was trying to make the band happy and give them a product they requested

Picture discs suck and if I had to put out a record on a picture disc I'd just pick a different release.

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thats not entirely true. I was working with The Forecast well before I pursued Victory about doing the album. Spitalfield may be a different story which I emailed both parties (Victory & Spitalfield) at the same time. And I kept both bands in the loop throughout the entire process, including how much I paid for the licensing and I may have even supplied them with copies of invoices, ect.

However, I do not blame Enjoy the Ride as I am sure that they paid royalties to press the records. And its as shitty to find out that Victory has yet to pay both bands that I pressed.

Sorry dude, didn't mean to misrepresent your situation! My bad.

not a problem man.

i have tried to license stuff before without actually asking the band themselves. it kind of makes sense to ask who has control if you can or cant license something. i think after you get the rights to do it, then you should contact the band. which was done in Enjoy The Ride's case. Its not his fault there are shitty labels out there that make TONS of money off bands and then never pay them.

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Geez, it's business. Let the guy do what he needs to at least make his money back. He didn't cheat anyone.

Some people here with their M.B.A degrees telling him to give away his product to the band so their won't be hard feelings.....I hope you don't run a business because you will run that shit into the ground.

I for one will be buying the LP on Friday and I'm a huge RxB fan. It's a shame that DTR fucks their bands the way they do, but how many record labels from major to indie practice business in this manner. It's not an excuse, but without DTR, I might have never heard of the Bandits, been to their shows, bought their merch, and so on.

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^^ I kind of agree with this. RX Bandits may not be seeing royalties from the vinyl release of this album, but it sounds to me like they never got royalties from the CD release either. They probably got stuck in a shitty Victory/major label style contract, and had the numbers cooked so it looks like the label never recouped their costs. All the people on the RX Facebook page are talking about how they won't buy it and they're going to boycott this release - I bet you they own a copy of this CD. It's not really all that different, only the format has changed. It would be nice of ETR to at least offer the band copies at wholesale/cost though.

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The band could see all this, open up a paypal/donate type site? I am sure their email/contact/networking reach is pretty far. If there isnt a logical way to help the band out, why not have everyone toss them a dollar or whatever if they buy the record. 1.00 per record isnt bad, plus if they are able to get some from the label etc etc.

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