|
RockinTrivia Test your knowledge |
RockinForum Add your comments |
|
|||||||||||
| |
|||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||
Blue October
It seems once a label drops a group there is no coming back. Being dropped means failure and in an industry that ruthlessly pursues the bottom line, failure is not an option.
When a group doesn't live up to sales expectations a flurry of emails fly around the label's corporate offices. A lot of money is spent on recording and promoting a group. When there's no chance to recoup that investment, panic sets in. Everyone who might possibly have some connection with the act in question is busily distancing themselves.
"Who signed these guys?"
"If you'll read my memo of 6/24 you'll see in the fifth paragraph that I had serious doubts about this band?"
"I was only interested in this band because so-and-so (someone no longer with the label) was so hot on them."
In the end, the disaster is often blamed on some low level grunt with no signing authority. And just to put a fine point on it, he gets fired.
As for the band, they are almost an after thought in this process. They are expected to go away peacefully and either break up or fade into oblivion.
Blue October went through this process but amazingly they were re-signed by their original label, Universal Records. But it wasn't easy.
Blue October formed in Houston with a two guitar line-up, along with bass and drums. Thanks to Ryan Delahoussaye, they were a bit unique incorporating violin and mandolin. Indie release, "The Answer," rolled out in '98 and was good enough to get them signed by Universal with their major label "Consent To Treatment" being issued in '00. Rock radio passed and so did the public. Blue October was cut loose. Three years later Brando Records unfurled "History For Sale," followed by the live "Argue With A Tree…" Those efforts led Blue October back to Universal for their '06 album "Foiled."
Blue October's "Foiled" is lackluster. The songs are passable but they are often given more weight than they deserve. A pair of acoustic numbers "Hate Me" and "Let It Go" deliver varying results. "Hate Me" is intimate and appealing, as is the mid-tempo "Everlasting Love," but "Let It Go" sounds like it was written for a high school talent show. Maybe sophomore girls are impressed but few others. When Blue October takes it up a notch on "You Make Me Smile" and "Drilled A Wire Through My Cheek" they finally connect.
It's little wonder that "Consent To Treatment" failed to resonate. It's an aimless journey with only a few bright spots, namely "Conversation Via Radio (Do You Ever Wonder") and "Libby, I'm Listening."
"Argue With A Tree..." is just more of the same but with a self-confessional emphasis.