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November 1, 2007

Trail Of Dead Dumps Interscope ... On Their Interscope Blog

P4K pointed us to an interesting news report yesterday, detailing ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead's fiery frontman Conrad Keely's very public and acid-tongued breakup with Interscope records and Jimmy Iovine. It's a fun read:

So as has already been announced, ...Trail of Dead has once again made history, this time being the first band to drop Interscope. OK, we're not the first. Actually, Trent Reznor beat us to it. Let's just say we're the first rock band to do so... this year. Ever since label head Jimmy Iovine started dating the lead singer guy of the Pussycat Dolls it became impossible to get him on the phone, so that was a first bad sign. Then their idea of marketing became keeping it a secret that we'd released a record. The industry is in a strange place these days, and the only way they can make money is to sell urban pop music. Which is what I thought we were writing, but apparently I was wrong.

That's not saying the label didn't do great things for us. At the expense of a massive debt to them of half a million dollars, they really helped us to grow. They've taught us about the worthlessness of A&R people, how to yell at idiots running an art department, and how to shake hands with smiling retailers who have no idea who you are. And I love Jimmy Iovine for having worked with John Lennon and Phil Spector on the Rock and Roll sessions. I mean, that was thirty years ago, and the Rock and Roll sessions sound pretty bad over all, and John Lennon is now dead and Phil Spector has murdered people since then, but hey, that was really cool that Jimmy did that, thirty years ago, back then, and dated Stevie Nicks. He's had a great dating record, he just won't have the next TOD record.

And Conrad went on with some non-Interscope related rambles (Iraq, writing songs, and a lame interview he did for Yahoo) -- although the whole thing seems to have been removed from the original source (the band's site). No worries for those that missed it; you can just check it at a cached version of the since-removed, Interscope-hating post by Conrad on the band's Interscope-hosted blog. And that's perfectly poetic. And hilarious.

Posted at 2:03 PM
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3 Comments

That was hilarious!

Posted by: dudeasincool at 11/01/07 3:02 PM | Reply
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It's also hilarious and ironic that the banner ad on the cached site is for Nicole Scherzingerizzle's (whatever her name is, the Pussycat Doll chick) single at iTunes. Her singles bombed so much they aren't even releasing her album.

Posted by: HiLo at 11/01/07 3:28 PM | Reply
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conrad keely is a whiney dumbass. of course they dont care about you; they're a major label, and you happen to not be making them money. boo hoo hoo hoo cry etc.

Posted by: american bad ass at 11/02/07 12:51 AM | Reply
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