Butch Walker Is Free, Praise Jesus!! :P

From Butch Walker's MySpace blog:

"Speaking of 'records', let's talk about that for a bit.

I feel a little silly and ol' school by calling them that, but I am a romantic, and need that sense of comfort. That said, I am always up for doing something new and different. I don't think I will release (my next solo record, Sycamore Meadows) as an actual CD. Those are kinda becoming the new cassettes anyways.

I guess I get tired of working so hard to really make a great collection of songs, then putting them all onto one record, dealing with artwork, yada yada... All for them to never find their way into ¾ of the stores in the world (I saw them in plenty of stores, Butch, gathering dust. Ed.) What the fuck is that all about?

Wouldn't it be easier on you, me and your brains if I just made the songs available to buy on my website?

Maybe even follow the genius of Radiohead and give folks some monetary options for acquiring the songs? I like it.. I never made a damn dime off of some record company putting it out (I guess advances don't count? Ed.). They are the ones who made sure to fuck it up anyways, so I would rather just cut them out - wow... Who woulda thought it would come to saying this? Praise!!! From now on, I deal with you personally, cool? This will be fun. And easy (spoken with all of the overconfidence of someone who has never done it. Ed.). Just like my 11th grade cheerleader girlfriend. Oops... That's one's gonna come back to get me."

And from an article circulating this week:

"Viva la freedom from cubicle music!" Walker declares in an official announcement going out tomorrow. "The record business is f---ed, but not for bands. It's the most exciting, positive time for music, as rock and roll and indie pop have gone completely back underground. And to see artists be able to release albums whenever they want, for whatever they want, and not have to fear sending in their cover art, only to have the art department airbrush off the singer's mustache (in fear of not selling to a certain demographic or f---ing statistic) is wonderful. Essentially, everything they have or haven't done in the past, I will purposely do the opposite... And probably make my first paycheck (Still trying to float the "I've never seen a dime" bit? Work, it, Holmes. Ed.)."



Having dug Butch's work with Marvelous 3, let me first sat that Marvelous 3's "Ready Sex Go" was a nice record. Seriously, I've played the CD for buddies who are into that type of stuff, but have never heard of the band, and, by the time we're half way through the first tune ("Little Head"), they've expressed complete amazement at how great the record is, why the fuck they've never heard of it, and, dude, can they borrow it. Without exception.

When the band broke up and Butch released his first solo album, I was really, really psyched to hear the results. My hunch about M3 was that they were much like Material Issue (actually, I've long known that the M3 guys were fans of the Ish, but I digress) in that it was basically Butch's show and they were the dedicated foot soldiers that accompanied him into battle, so to speak. At some point, realizing he was writing the tunes, producing the records, being the front man, he figured, "Fuck, I can go into battle by myself."

The bummer was that the best track on "Left of Self-Centered" was the parody "Rock Vocal Power", with "My Way" being the only real standout song. The rest of the material, while over-ambitiously performed and produced, was not really as chock-full of "holy fuck!" moments as I'd hoped.



Being that, at that point, Butch was one of those guys whose albums I would buy sight-unseen, I picked up "Letters", his first record under a new pact with Epic. It was so obvious that Butch thought "Mixtape" was the song that would put him over the top. While Epic never quite flexed any muscle to do so, Butch did everything he could to make sure that song was the emphasis track on the album. The only problem was that it wasn't really that great a song. At best, it was one of those songs that would have been a third single off the Verve Pipe record that had "The Freshman" on it, or whatever. In truth, the best song he had in his possession at the time, "Last Plane Out", didn't even make the album (unless you count the Japanese version). Instead, it was included on his "Heartwork" EP, which was only sold through the Sony online store and at live shows and, sigh, also had not one, but two goddamned versions of "Mixtape" on it.

While "Letters" did seem to have a couple nice moments on it - mainly "Uncomfortably Numb" and "Best Thing You Never Had" - the rest of the album alternated between half-baked toss-offs ("Race Cars And Goth Rock") and overly emotive attempts to tug at the tear ducts ("Joan" - about a girl prone to abusive relationships, and "Thank You Note", about a friend of his who died of cancer). In addition, "Lights Out" was a derivative slice of glam that went right by my ears, but was obviously the basis for Butch's foray into the "glam slam" that was "The Rise And Fall Of Butch Walker & The Lets Go Out Tonites".

By "glam slam", of course, I mean "one of the worst records of 2006". I guess it should come as no surprise to anyone that an album with song titles such as "Oooh...Aaaah", "Paid To Get Excited", "Song Without A Chorus", and "Too Famous To Get Fully Dressed" was either recorded live at The Standard, or just a really, really bad attempt to make light of, well, having more money and acclaim than you deserve or know what to do with.

You just knew Butch thought it was the shit, though, pulling in Avril to star in the video for "Bethamphetamine", but even her star power couldn't erase the fact that the song was a complete and total dud.

The guy's writing "hits" for the likes of Avril, Pink and Bowling For Soup (!) and that's the song he decides to put the money on? Double-you-tee-eff.

After spinning the CD a few times, it dawned on me that Butch had become high on his own fumes.



Meanwhile, he began displaying equally poor choices in outside projects, teaming up with fellow tat-hound Tommy Lee to write the theme for "Tommy Lee Goes To College" and then involving himself in "Rock Star: Supernova". While he plays down his part in that trainwreck, the truth is he co-wrote ten of the album's eleven steaming piles.

At the time, I actually thought to myself that he must be living in L.A. these days because his every move was starting to resemble that of someone trying to maintain "the lifestyle", renting some house out in Malibu, the whole nine yards. I shit you not.

Hearing Butch complain about never seeing a dime from the sale of his albums doesn't negate the fact that he obviously cashed the advance checks. Thus, his sudden celebration of independence rings a tad hollow to me. This is a guy who, perhaps more than anyone, has benefited from the complete ineptitude of the major label system and has milked it for all it is worth.

My hunch is that Butch's decision to take his solo career underground wasn't completely his own idea (in other words, he didn't jump, he was pushed...or about to be) and he'll no doubt balance his newfound independence by taking on any and all major label projects that come his way in order to maintain the lifestyle to which he has become accustomed.

Dude could certainly use a producer, though.

Butch Walker - Crazy (Gnarls Barkley cover, live)