this was the cover article on Sunday's Austin American Statesman Life/Arts section... gives some insight in to what's been happening the past few months and whats next for Sounds Under Radio...
Austin band Sounds Under Radio returns to where it was a year after signing and then breaking up with major label.
By Michael Corcoran
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Comedian Norm MacDonald used to have a bit about how weird it is to see a homeless person with a dog. "The dog's gotta be thinking, 'Hey, I can do this on my own,' " MacDonald said. "He's out on the world's longest walk."
Guitarist Lang Freeman and bassist Bradley Oliver of Sounds Under Radio laugh lustily when they hear a retelling of that joke. After all, they felt like that hungry dog with the red bandanna for a year, learning the hard way that major labels can't do much for you unless they know you can sell a million records right out of the chute.
New album-oriented bands don't sign with major labels. Not in today's music business climate, when CD sales plummeted 20 percent during the first quarter of 2008, according to SoundScan. The bigger music corporations are looking for download sensations like "Crank That Soulja Boy," not a four-piece modern rock band that needs time to grow.
But Freeman and Oliver claim they were told it would be different at Epic, which brought in the team from V2 Records that had developed the White Stripes. "They offered to build the band up brick by brick, with a real grass-roots approach," Freeman says. "They sold us on the idea that it would be an indie label philosophy, with major label clout."
A visit to the 35th floor offices of Epic on Madison Avenue during the courting process proved intoxicating to the band of young Texans, all in their 20s. "You'd see all these platinum records for bands like the Clash and Oasis and Sly," Oliver recalls, "and you'd also see some of the newer acts (Epic has broken) like Yellowcard and Good Charlotte." Freeman says it was never the band's stated intent to sign with a major. "Our No. 1 goal has always been to get this record out and available to as many fans as possible. We really believed in Epic as the best way to do that."
But less than a year after signing a three-album deal, Sounds Under Radio announced its departure from Epic with a fingerpointing statement. "It became obvious to us that they weren't honestly interested in developing new artists as they had originally promised," the early August release charged. "It seems Epic Records President Charlie Walk isn't prepared to face the future of the record industry and step up to its new order of challenges."
Jeff Wooding of Epic (a subsidiary of Sony), who signed the band, declined to comment on the press release or other charges, saying, "I remain a fan of the band and wish them well. They made a great album."
Now free agents, Sounds Under Radio announced the Oct. 14 release of "Cinematica" on its label. The Will Hoffman-produced album was originally set to be released on the band's label in October 2007.
A rocky road
Things happened fast for the 2-year-old Austin band, rounded out by drummer Sonny Sanchez (ex-Sunflower) and guitarist Doug Wilson. Working day jobs, the members saved their money and hired Hoffman, the ex-Pushmonkey guitarist who's a budding star behind the board, to produce the band's debut LP of slightly subversive pop/rock songs (hence the band's name).
Sunflower's former manager Peter Raspler, who now handles 311, had gotten a copy of an EP sampler of "Cinematica" to a friend who's big in music placement in films. Eventually, a higher up at Sony Pictures licensed "Portrait of a Summer Thief" for the "Spider-Man 3" soundtrack. SUR were the only unsigned band on the CD, but that wouldn't be for long.
Sounds Under Radio was seriously courted by at least three labels, Freeman says, before settling on Epic. The ink dried in November and then ... nothing. "The first red flag was when we couldn't get anything done on the redesign of our Web site," says Freeman. Worst of all, there was no reliable record release date. "First it was going to come out in February," Freeman says of "Cinematica," which the band completed in March 2007.
"They kept pushing it back, and finally we realized that we had an invisible release date," Oliver says. "We were talking to our A&R guys every day and it was clear that they were not getting to do what they wanted to."
Frustration and disappointment peaked on a freezing February night in Dayton, Ohio. Rather than sit around and wait for the record to come out, SUR toured the northeast and midwest in the van that cost every bit of what the band made from the "Spider-Man 3" companion CD, which, unlike the movie, was a bit of a flop. To fill the gaps between bigger cities, the band booked "jumper" gigs for gas money in towns along the way. The gig in Dayton was in a pizza joint with about 23 people on hand and, to make the night even creepier, the band that opened broke up onstage. It was one of those miserable, miserable nights when being on the road in a rock 'n' roll band seems to be a career choice along the lines of signing up for the Army during Vietnam.
"We went back to the Holiday Inn, just as down as we could be," Freeman says. "We had just found out that our record wasn't coming out as planned, and we'd just played a pizza joint and the freezing rain was coming down and I said, 'This is as bad as it gets. Are you guys still in?' and everybody looked at me like, 'Yeah, of course we are.' "
Starting over
They all agreed that the first order of business was getting out of the Epic contract. The band just wanted to get "Cinematica" out and Epic, which owned the rights for 10 years, seemed to be in no hurry. In the band's favor was that it didn't owe Epic anything. The advance was modest, basically covering what the band had spent out of pocket on "Cinematica." A video for "Sell Out," the leadoff single that was released digitally in February, was low budget. SUR also declined tour support because it didn't want to go into debt with the label.
After three months of negotiations, Sounds Under Radio's divorce from Epic was final; it received full custody of "Cinematica," the concept album about taking control of your life (using the metaphor of directing the movie of your own life).
"There is a sense of morality at Sony (Epic's parent company),"Freeman says. The label didn't have to give the album back. "I think they know they wronged us and they wanted to make it right."
Almost a year has passed since the original October 2007 release date of "Cinematica," but the band refuses to see it as a lost year. "I'm not going to tell you we weren't incredibly upset and frustrated," Freeman says. "But we're a better band now. We're a lot tighter now, as musicians and as band members."
SUR is more ready, more battle-tested now than they were a year ago. Rock-bottom nights in Dayton can have that effect.
'Cinematica' timeline:
March 2007: Sounds Under Radio wraps up recording its debut LP 'Cinematica,' with producer Will Hoffman (ex-Pushmonkey)
May 2007: 'Portrait of a Summer Thief' lands on the companion CD to the 'Spider-Man 3' blockbuster, joining such acts as Flaming Lips, the Killers and Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
October 2007: The band had planned to release 'Cinematica' independently, but after interest from several labels, SUR instead signs with Epic to release 'Cinematica' as is in a few months.
February 2008: Epic releases a three-song digital EP with 'Sell Out' as the first single. The release date for 'Cinematica' is pushed back a month, then another.
April 2008: The band and manager Will Hoffman officially ask to be let out of the three-album deal with Epic. Negotiations begin.
July 2008: The band is no longer under contract to Epic.
August 2008: Sounds Under Radio announces that it will release 'Cinematica' on its own label on Oct. 14, 2008, almost a year to the day that it had originally intended to release the album on its own label.
