Band Cracker gives Virgin Records the finger
from Blogging Muses

These are the stories I like to see. I am not on a crusade against record labels - but I love to see a band step up and fight when they feel they are someone's stooge.

The band Cracker and Virgin Records did not part on the best of terms. Apparently, without informing the band, the label decided to release a Greatest Hits record - Cracker's Greatest Hits: Get On With It. As you may or may not know, this is standard practice in the industry. Bands don't make a whole lot of money of these kinds of greatest hits albums. The label owns the masters.

What is a band to do?



Cracker decided to re-record all their songs the label planned to put out in Greatest Hits (entitled - Get On With It) package and will compete head-to-head at the record stores and online for fans. They also added a bonus song (and others) with direct references to Virgin Records, in a song appropriately titled "It Ain't Gonna Suck Itself".

It is likely there are some casual Cracker fans who remember the song Low from their college days. Perhaps these casual fans will buy the Greatest Hits version issued by Virgin Records.

However, Cracker has a rabid and loyal fanbase, harkening back to their earlier band - Camper Van Beethoven. My prediction is Cracker's own Greatest Hits (Redux) will outsell the Virgin Records version.

The songs are real good. The quality of the recording is on par with the original masters, and some of the songs have been slightly reworked - but not so much that you still would feel the need to buy the original recordings.

The fans seem to be doing their job as well. Over at Amazon.com, where both albums are for sale, loyal Cracker fans have already seeded the (evil) Virgin Records Greatest Hits package with comments recommending people go buy the band-created Greatest Hits package.

David Lowery from Cracker, and Velena Vego are currently running Pitch-a-Tent Records, where they release their own recordings and a handful from other artists. With a boutique label, the are definitely able to put the artist first:

"After we pay our own bills, we try to give our artists the money from their album sales (usually 40 to 60 percent). (In other words, if you buy Pitch A Tent cd from your local big box, our artists will get around a buck or two, but they can easily get eight or nine bucks if you buy from us.) "

Let's just say it's "Cracker's way of sticking it to the man."

Does it include "It Ain't Gonna Suck Itself" off of Countrysides?

Yeh, I saw this a while ago. Love it.

And "Ain't Gonna Suck Itself" is awesome.

The LooGAR Reading Comprehension Award of the Day goes to: LOOGAR!!

I'll buy the band's album. I've been waiting for a Cracker comp like this.

So, Virgin decided the "Garage D'Or" greatest hits record from 2000 hadn't milked the cow quite dry enough and wanted to give it another shot?
What a bunch of shits.

Note to Athens GA kids: That Velena Vego is the same who booked gigs at the 40 Watt, possibly still does for all I know. Nice lady.

What he said.

Good for them, I love Lowery I always have, the guy has been trying to point out the evils of their label for a few years now.

i wish they would have put the song, "shake some action" on the greatest hits...i freakin love that song for some reason

Won't be the first time, bucko.

this was on emusic last i knew

Yes, she's still there booking and running Pitch-A-Tent.

Kickass. She was tough, but good people. And she let my untalented ass play there.

I liked hearing this too. Funny thing is, I saw the albums before I saw the news and I had a feeling that Cracker was trying to make a statement about how they feel about the Virgin package.

This is awesome.

And "It Ain't Gonna Suck Itself" made me lol.

Actually took a look at the big label version and slapped on the front of the cds it says something to the effect of Original Versions, Produced with Full Cooperation with the Band. Odd. Though I have heard the thing Fu reported on around the time Greenland came out.

This is such a great story. Thanks for reporting this Fu. I might go out and buy the bands version because of this.

I just DL'd "Ain't Gonna Suck Itself" from iTunes earlier. Awesome track. Funny as hell.

Then I discovered it's also on emusic and promptly smacked myself. I still have 26 downloads left for this month.