Lots of people rip on the punk/ska genre. Whatever. Sure, it was a trend for a second, millions of bands copied it, then became swing bands, then became rap-metal bands, then they were emo and now they're indie.Anyway, a great record that music fans should dig is the upcoming reissue by Operation Ivy. The band featured Tim Armstrong and Matt Freeman, who later formed Rancid (another great band in my humble opinion). The record had been on Lookout! Records, a credible indie label... that apparently doesn't always pay it's artists royalties. Green Day 's first two albums were released on that label, but Green Day took them from the catalog when the rights reverted to them... also because of unpaid royalties. You might say, "Well, Green Day, those guys are millionaires - why would they care about royalties from an indie label?" Which is fair. But so is getting paid for the work you've done. In Op Ivy's case, the two non-Rancid guys, Jesse Michaels and Dave Mello, would probably appreciate the money. So, the album is coming out on Tim Armstrong's Hellcat Records, distributed by Epitaph.
It's interesting that indie labels, seen as very credible, have ripped off artists as much as major labels have, and sometimes more. For all the complaining Trent Reznor does about Interscope, I know he hates TVT more, because he felt that they really ripped him off.
Back to music: last year, Jesse Michaels joined Rancid on stage for a few Op Ivy songs - man, it would be cool if they reunited.
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