In one of the worst examples of justice involving the music industry, on May 19th a jury found ex-Dead Kennedys frontman Jello Biafra (Eric Boucher) guilty of failing to promote the band's back catalog and failing to pay back-royalties to his three former bandmates, East Bay Ray (Ray Pepperell), D.H. Peligro (Darren Henley) and Klaus Flouride (Geoffrey Lyall). Biafra was ordered to pay damages in excess of $200,000.

East Bay Ray and his cohorts had brought suit against Biafra, claiming that the vocal head of Alternative Tentacles had not done enough to promote the Dead Kennedys' seminal back catalog. The trial became ludicrous at times, with D.H. Peligro stating at one point while on the stand that, "Biafra's not really a musician."

As well as accusing Biafra of promoting his own solo career at their expense, the three former bandmates also claimed in the suit that Biafra mismanaged royalties relating to the band's back catalog. Biafra in turn was rewarded $5,000 in a countersuit against East Bay Ray which claimed that Ray had taken a portion of the band's royalties without consent.

While mishandling of royalties due his former bandmates (with malicious intent or otherwise) might have been a tangible issue, the claim that Biafra had failed to adequately promote the Dead Kennedys is simply asinine. Biafra is synonymous with the Dead Kennedys--insurmountably more so than Ray, Peligro and Flouride combined. All one has to do is take a walk along any gutter punk avenue in Western society and you'll find a DK badge sewn on the jacket of most every pimple-faced snot-nosed young punk you come across. The Dead Kennedys are more popular now with a generation who weren't even born when their first album, Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables, was released. And if you were to ask any one of those kids who the singer is, they would confidently answer: Jello Biafra. Ask them who East Bay Ray is and you might go 50-50. D.H. Peligro? Klaus Flouride? Best of luck.

The real travesty and the real question of this trial is: What have Biafra's former bandmates been doing to promote the Dead Kennedys music? Well, we may find out in short order. The jury also concluded that the publishing rights for the band's music is owned by Decay Music--a business partnership headed equally by Biafra, Ray, Peligro and Flouride--and not Alternative Tentacles. While still to be formally ruled on by the judge, by awarding the music rights to Decay the jury in effect gave Ray, Peligro and Flouride rights to use the music as they see fit, as the Decay partnership rules on the basis of a majority vote. This, of course, will probably very well mean that we will indeed finally hear Dead Kennedys songs in advertisements by Levi's, Nike and the like. Who says you can't put a price tag on punk? According to the jury, Ray, Peligro and Flouride--against the wishes of Biafra--very well can now.

Says Biafra: "The last thing I wanted was for Dead Kennedys to be the ugliest memory of my whole life."

But fear not, intrepid reader. Biafra has both survived and won two nasty lawsuits: The infamous obscenity case back in the '80s having to do with the inclusion of a Geiger painting in an album, and a more recent case regarding similar obscenity charges having to do with a Crucifucks cover (a band on Alternative Tentacles). And this one is far from over. Stay tuned.

Napster of Puppets

This one will be short and brief, for one can't sneeze without hearing about the recent lawsuit brought by Metallica against Napster. Acquiescing to pressure, last month Napster agreed to terminate their service privileges to several hundred thousand Internet users who Metallica claimed had illegally traded in the band's music. Dr. Dre has subsequently filed lawsuit against Napster and, as well, has asked for guilty parties to be banned from Napster's services. Metallica's claim that people (fans or otherwise) are illegally infringing on the band's music is somewhat interesting in a ho-hum way when one remembers that if it weren't for Metallica's fans fanatically trading bootlegged tapes of the band back in their early days, the band wouldn't be in the position they are now; a position that allows them to flex the kind of muscle it takes to pull off this sort of feat.

However, the argument is not whether we hate Metallica and like Napster (or vice versa), but ultimately who holds the rights to the music and is a distribution format like Napster infringing on those rights. For a big band like Metallica, their cantankerous claim seems a bit shallow considering how vastly wealthy they are. But when one considers that the band themselves (and not a record company) acutally holds the rights to their music, we must cut them some slack. For ultimately, the big fuss over lost sales is coming from record labels who are the ones who hold the rights to most music sold today, and who are the ones who stand to lose the most through digital bootlegging forums such as Napster.

Public Enemy frontman Chuck D. has been a vocal supporter of Napster for that very reason. He makes the honest claim that most artists aren't losing to Napster because they don't own the rights to their music in the first place. Furthermore, he has argued that digital outlets like Napster are a way for musicians to circumvent the chokehold of major labels and control their music on their terms. As someone who has done quite well on exploiting Internet technologies (Rapstation, Slam Jamz) to send his music far and wide, he definitely deserves to be listened to and heeded as an authority. He recently went head-to-head against Metallica's Lars Ulrich on The Charlie Rose show on the subject, and even more recently has testified before Congress on the matter.

Chuck D. recognizes what the record companies don't want to admit: That you can't control the flow of technology. Your best defense is to embrace it and use it to your advantage. Furthermore, bands and labels need to realize what the fans have long known: People who have unlicensed music (in whatever format) are usually, without fail, fans who already own every release by the artist or band in question. You alienate and offend your fan base and you're dead from the neck up. Simple as that.

It will be interesting to see where the debate ends up, but a piece of data we found worthy of note was a recent poll conducted by Insound, where people were asked what their favorite music format was:

Compact Disc: 43%
Vinyl: 49%
MP3: 3%
Tape Cassette: 3%
8-track: 2%

Insound also reports that their vinyl sales have increased every month since they launched their site in March of 1999. If Earpollution recalls correctly, it was the record industry who announced the death of vinyl when CDs first appeared. Interesting indeed to see where this all will end up.

Artist Formerly Known as the Artist Formerly Known as Prince

That's right, the petite purple one reclaimed his former moniker at a press conference in mid-May. Announcing that since his publishing contract with Warner Bros. Records expired on December 31, 1999, Prince decided to once again become Prince instead of using the symbol "I adopted as a means to free myself from all undesirable relationships."

Prince--himself someone who has vocally voiced his dissent over the stranglehold of record companies and who, like Chuck D., has wholeheartedly embraced the Internet as a means around such villainy--will be releasing Rave In2 the Joy Fantastic, a version of 1999's Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic available only on the Internet.

Given the date of his contractual release with Warner Bros., one can only guess that Prince partied like it was 1999.

Thieves Are Scum (Happy Days Are Here Again Remix)

As reported last month, turntablist Kid Koala had several dozen of his records stolen while on a train in the south of France. While posting reward posters near the train station, Kid Koala checked in with local authorities to discover that the police had found his missing records. Koala was overjoyed, but not surprised. "The records are in shit condition. The [thief] basically broke the lock on the box and went through and didn't find anything--didn't find those Blue Note pressed and sealed originals, so they just left 'em there."

Smashing Pumpkins Calls It Quits

Shiny centerpiece Billy Corgan announced on May 23rd that the Smashing Pumpkins will be breaking up at the end of this year. Announcing that there was nothing wrong with the band, Corgan blamed Britney Spears on the breakup, much like Soul Coughing's M. Doughty blamed Ricky Martin on their recent decision to part ways.

While Earpollution finds it disheartening that another band has decided to call it a day on account of "The Britneys," we find it hard to shed any tears for Corgan and Co., but still wish him the best as he moves on--perhaps to join former bassist D'Arcy as an actor. I hear there's a new Addams Family movie in the works, and Corgan would make for a lovely Uncle Fester.

Flutist Sues Beastie Boys

Famous flutist James Newton has filed a lawsuit suing the Beastie Boys for $150,000 in a claim that states the band used samples of his 1982 piece "Choir" in their song "Pass the Mic" without Newton's permission. Newton is also suing ECM Records. Problem is, the Beastie Boys did request permission to use the sample, made the proper requests through ECM and even went as far as to thank Newton on the album's liner notes. Turns out it was ECM who, unbeknownst to the Beasties, dropped the ball by not securing the rights to the sample. Apparently Newton was aware of this and still chose to include the band in his lawsuit.

Neil Young Stomps Biographer

And in more sue-happy news, Jimmy McDonough is suing Neil Young for not allowing him to publish a biography McDonough had written about Young's career, apparently with his consent and blessing. The book, titled Shakey: The Biography of Neil Young was started in the early '90s and spent the next eight years being flushed out by McDonough, but in 1998 the biographer claims that Young "[used] the wealth and power he had accumulated from his musical and business success to squelch publication of the biography [...] without ever stating a single specific objection to any material."

McDonough is suing for $1.8 million, claiming that that was the cost of "almost a decade of creative life."

Currently on rotation at eP:

Pitchshifter Deviant
Therapy? Troublegum
Secret Hate Pop Cult Vomit
Grandaddy Sophtware Slump
Pogues Peace and Love
Meg Lee Chin Piece and Love
The Clash Live From Here to Eternity
Smith and Mighty Big World Small World
Perfect Circle Mer De Noms
Letter E EP

Craig Young
Editor, Earpollution