SOS Fledgling

Taking it to the Internet

by Brett Milano

In some ways, fights with one's record label are a time-honored, music-biz rite of passage. Metallica did it, Trent Reznor did it, Prince is currently making a career out of it. But fights with labels are usually the province of established artists, who have high-level careers on the line. It's not often that a virtually unknown band will take the trouble of going up against their label -- especially in public.

An exception is Fledgling, the London-Boston pop band who attracted a low-level buzz with a solid debut album, Fledgling, at this time last year and are now suing their label, TVT. Fledgling have been venting their collective spleen over the Internet in recent weeks, claiming they're locked into a contract with a label that has no intention of releasing their completed second album, or even listening to it. "Gottlieb [label owner Steve Gottlieb] is not honoring the deal that we and he signed," singer Eileen Rose said in a recent posting to the industry newsgroup Velvet Rope. "We asked for release, he said no, we sent him the next album over eight months ago, he claims that `nobody has listened to it yet' . . . The man is a spoiled child who treats artists like toys that he can take out and play with when it suits him and stuff into the back of his closet when someone else flashes dollar signs."

As expected, Gottlieb isn't happy about these postings. Reached by phone last week, he rejected the band's assertions. "Every artist deals with commercial failure differently," he said. "Since May, we've been in contact with her [Rose's] lawyer with regard to her moving to a different record company; she thanked us for release and we were willing to comply. Her lawyer didn't like the terms of the release, and this is just a negotiating ploy."

Fledgling's lawyer, Michael Toorock (yes, the same guy who worked with TVT's good buddy Trent Reznor), confirms that TVT is willing to let the band go but says that the terms offered would leave Fledgling in debt for life. TVT, he says, wants to get back half the money it put into promoting Fledgling -- a sum that the label says is well over $250,000, and that the still-unestablished Fledgling are unlikely to get from their next record deal. "They wanted more money than Fledgling had a reasonable chance of making. We're not looking to springboard them into a major contract, just a bare-bones record deal."

To play devil's advocate here, why shouldn't Fledgling be liable for money that TVT spent to promote them?

"Because no band ever is," Toorock replies. "The money that a record label invests in a record isn't a loan. It's a sum of money that the label can recover only if royalties are sufficient."

Gottlieb and TVT have been involved in controversy before, when bad blood developed between the label and Reznor (the case was resolved before going to court, and Reznor dealt with the situation in the Nine Inch Nails EP Broken). The big differences, however, are that Reznor was an established star at the time, other labels were waiting to sign him, and NiN had had considerable success with their TVT album Pretty Hate Machine. Fledgling sold a miserable 420 copies (according to SoundScan), and their future is by no means assured.

In the meantime, TVT has deleted the album -- standard practice when a label has no intention of further recording with a band. As a TVT publicist pointed out, with the album deleted, the band or another label can buy back the masters and re-release it if they choose. But singer Rose feels that the band are being held in career limbo by the label. "At the moment, we have to spend money to sue a label that has to spend money to defend itself over a band it doesn't even want. We can't record, and we're bankrupt. It's a career murder."

That 420-copy sales mark is the part making the least sense -- people who sell tapes at subways often sell more than that. Fledgling had a promising local buzz going at this time last year. WBCN had their album in regular rotation, which doesn't happen often with local albums on indie labels. They were profiled in these pages as well as the Globe and the Noise; they landed a number of high-profile gigs, including an anti-censorship show at Axis (sponsored by the Krist Novaselic's Music Industry Coalition) and a WBCN Christmas showcase, during which they played to a full room at the Middle East upstairs. The band also have cult-level support in England: members and management of Catherine Wheel have said nice things about them, as has ex-Eurythmic Dave Stewart (who let them record the new album at his Church studio at a reduced rate, according to Rose).

You'd expect such a band to sell lots more than 420 albums -- especially if the label has spent the promotion money TVT says it did. Gottlieb says that the money went for radio, TV, and print ads and tour promotion, and that the album died because the public didn't like it. (He also offered to open up the company's books to the Phoenix and show us the canceled checks.) "There's a difference between artistic merit and commercial reality," he points out. "Whether an artist's music connects and becomes commercially viable is not only a question of the money spent on it but also of the magic thing that happens between the public and an artist."

Toorock isn't denying that TVT spent the money, but he wonders whether it was spent wisely. "I haven't seen a breakdown of how the money was spent, but let's assume for the moment that it was. But there's spending money and there's spending it intelligently. Friends and family alone could account for 400 copies. And since theirs was received so well critically, you have to wonder . . . There's a myriad of questions that have to be answered here, and it can amount to a primer on how to promote an album in 1996."

Fledgling were hardly flush during the period around the album's release. At the label's advice they moved back to Boston and lived out of their van. Meanwhile, cracks began to develop in their relationship with TVT, including personal disputes with A&R representative Tom Sarig. Their manager, Gloria Butler (with whom they've since split), agreed to take on another TVT band, Gravity Kills -- who, they feel, got considerably more of TVT's investment.

Reached by phone from San Diego, Butler suggests that the band's relationship with TVT never quite recovered from their fallout with Sarig (after which Gottlieb took over as their de facto A&R man) -- and that the pressure over Fledgling's sales didn't help. "It's mind-boggling, because I think it's a great, great record. You look at the effort TVT spent, and it still didn't move. And that baffles me as well."

The case appears likely to drag on for a while, and if anything is unusual about this particular band/label dispute -- besides Fledgling's public appeal for help via the Internet -- it's the heavy level of bruised feelings on both sides. "I think it's very sad," Butler says. "Unfortunately, this has gotten so unpleasant for both parties that I can't imagine either of them walking away from this feeling good or happy. And if this had not become a public issue -- had everybody dealt with this in a different fashion, then the band would be on their way to another deal right now."

Toorock counters that the band have a bright future once they're out of the TVT deal. "I don't think that their future is going to be determined by the performance of the first album. They have enough talent, intelligence, and stick-to-it-iveness to get where they want to go."

"There's always trouble when a label feeds into a band's fantasies of being stars," notes a local musician who's worked with TVT. "There's a sense of hope, and the behavioral management has to come in when things don't pan out. Things look groovy when you sign, then two years later you're suing each other." The only thing definite at this point is that Fledgling's two albums -- both the unreleased new one and the deleted Fledgling -- have joined the ranks of worthwhile local music that nobody is likely to hear.

COMING UP

There are a handful of NEMO showcases in town tonight (Thursday), with Honkyball headlining the Rat, El Dopa and Quintaine Americana at the Middle East downstairs, Vera Go-Go upstairs, and Q Division's monsters of pop -- Talking to Animals, Gravel Pit, Poundcake, and Jules Verdone -- at T.T. the Bear's Place. Groovasaurus are part of a showcase at the Hard Rock Café. Meanwhile, zydeco ace C.J. Chenier plays Johnny D's . . . The Allstonians play the Phoenix Landing, Happy Bunny are at Finnegans Wake, Ronnie Earl stops into Johnny D's, and Tidal Wave headline the Rat. And the new and fine Quivvver are part of a Halloween bill at Club Bohemia that also includes Rootlock and the Strangemen.

Say a fond farewell to Smackmelon, who play their last show at T.T.'s Saturday with the Flying Nuns opening. Meanwhile, Papas Fritas are at the Middle East upstairs while the Bentmen play with Jeff & Jane Hudson opening downstairs. Shana Morrison, a new Irish singer whose dad has also made a few records in his time, plays Johnny D's. And the Genitorturers bring their whips & chains to Axis . . . Robert Forster of the Go-Betweens plays solo at T.T.'s on Sunday . . . Prickly and Shelf Life do a record-release party together at Charlie's on Tap Monday, and Linda Perry of 4 Non Blondes fame plays the Middle East . . . That wacky Evan Dando brings his new Lemonheads to Avalon Tuesday.