In the 2 months since Low’s Alan Sparhawk suffered the lack of his spouse and bandmate Mimi Parker, he has remained lively each on-line and off, enjoying exhibits along with his different band DAMIEN and maintaining a gradual stream of communication through Twitter. This week his focus has been on the battle to regain management of the grasp recordings for Low’s early discography from Universal Music Group, one of many Russian nesting dolls that accommodates the band’s former label Vernon Yard.
Replying to a request for a repress of Low’s 1994 debut album I Could Live In Hope on Wednesday, Sparhawk responded, “@UMG won’t give the rights back. We’ve asked. Original advance was tiny, did 3 1/2 records with them that they won’t give back to us after 25+ years now. They keep licensing to crappy reissue companies and we see nothing. Meanwhile, we can’t tour anymore and tour was all our $.” When prompted to get a lawyer, Sparhawk wrote, “Been doing that for several years now. We get the run-around and end up nowhere.”
One person steered a partnership with Numero Group, the reissue label that has been centered on archival ’90s indie rock releases these days, as a result of Low’s account has posted about Numero a number of instances. Sparhawk’s reply to that one: “Love them. They are doing great work. Blondie is bigger. Smaller groups like us don’t have the pull to renegotiate. We are hardly worth sending the intern to the warehouse for. Maybe a little public pressure with change their mind. We don’t know what else to do.”
The tweets have been amplified by friends akin to Damon Krakowski of Galaxie 500 and Tim Burgess of the Charlatans, two of the extra outstanding voices advocating for musicians’ rights on-line, amongst many different supporters of Low’s trigger. We’ve reached out to UMG for remark and can replace this put up in the event that they reply.
Thank you, mates. If this doesn’t work, it’s secure to say we’ll know the place @umg stands. The system will crumble – they’ve an opportunity right here to regulate and be helpful to the longer term or fade to mud, clinging to their items of silver.
Love you all. Peace on earth.
❤️🥁❤️
— LOW (@lowtheband) January 5, 2023