Quote from carligula on Dec. 16, 2006 at 7:58 AM
So it's going to be on Mean Buzz Records (like the new Privates record)? I thought someone told me at one time it might come out on Heatstroke Records.
This is correct. Chris Slack approached me with the idea of putting out a Slack seven-inch sometime around this past summer, perhaps even late May-ish, to which I gladly accepted. It sounded like a pretty cool idea, and a great way for me to put out some vinyl that might actually sell.
Then about a month later Chris told me he had talked to Rollum and the Features were good to make it a split, and even wanted to contribute an exclusive song (I do remember this was a fair amount of time before the Contrast EP was even announced). And of course, I was absolutely ecstatic about that. The only stipulation on the Features' part was that it be limited to 500, which seemed like a cool idea, since limited vinyl is generally cooler than unlimited.
Talks about that vinyl were pretty exciting for a while. Chris was even trying to pull some strings to get Jack White to be on the cover with them (nonchalantly, of course), but that didn't work out as the Raconteurs were touring the world and wouldn't be home for a few months. In any case, while I was involved it was scheduled to be the Features' "Late Night" (recorded with Matt Mahaffey the previous year as demos for what would've been the 2nd Universal album...this would also make this the last release to feature Yaw on keys) b/w Slack's "Over the Threshold." We actually went pretty far along with it; I spoke on the phone with the Features' management (I believe Mr. Meeks?), and someone at Grand Palace who was going to screenprint the cover. I actually probably still have the artwork mockups Chris Slack had sent me, complete with Heatstroke logo and catalogue number. The idea was to have it out by October or November, with a killer Slack/Features doublebill release show at the Exit/In, which I would've probably flown down for to party it up. Sounded like a pretty awesome plan.
Anyway, just as everything was set up and maybe a week before it was to go to presses, Chris called me up with some crap about how Matt Bell had called him, apparently "very pissed off," bitching him out because at one point in the distant past Chris had promised him a Slack seven-inch. Of course, this meant that I was getting the shaft; I couldn't understand why Chris couldn't just proceed with the Heatstroke single as planned while also giving Matt a seven-inch some other time (after all, the whole Features involvement had developed while the project was under my jurisdiction, so why not keep the two projects separate?), but of course I didn't really have any grounds to assert otherwise. Chris mumbled something about getting "Feable Weiner or someone" to do a split with them on Heatstroke later on, but I could tell he didn't really mean it and still felt very insulted, and disappointed in someone I had sincerely considered a friend.
The situation was especially crummy because I had requested that they keep a tight lid on the thing till it gets back from the pressing plant, 'cause I knew how fickle this stuff could be. Chris was actually the one who went and announced it on his blog, which then got reported by the bigger Nashville scene blogs (I guess WOTT was it, at the time), which was fine enough assuming that it did indeed come out...but then this switch-around happened and I was somewhat humiliated by the whole ordeal, when I was the one who was trying to prevent that from happening. I figure if you go and announce the damn thing personally, you're obligated to see your own word through on it, but I don't know..."that's the industry," yadayadayada, still wouldn't mind giving that Bell boy a piece of my mind. I think he probably realizes that stealing vinyl releases from teenage record label owners while Ric Ocasek's recording your mutli-million dolar debut for Geffen is kinda petty and sad, but then again, he also does a lot of coke and thinks opening for Yellowcard will make his band "the next Beatles"...
I haven't spoken with Chris since emailing him something honest shortly thereafter, but I do know at some "friends covering friends" show they said into the mic, "Jakob Dorof would crap his pants if he were here for this" (or something to that effect), before playing a few bars of an old Caesar's Glass Box song. And I actually probably would've found that cool -- not sure how to interpret that in light of what had transpired a few days prior, but it was interesting to hear about nevertheless.
Oh, and to clarify, no ill will to the Features about this at all. They weren't really involved on the business side of things, I just know they wanted to a split with Slack on whichever label wanted to put it out.
