i guess i haven't been paying much attention lately but apparently there's a bunch of digital releases on sites like Amazon.com and eMusic.com that sure look like bootlegs to me. case in point: check out the releases by "Garage Masters Records":

on eMusic

on Rdio

has anyone heard of Garage Masters before? i mean, c'mon, that "Halloween Garage Rock" comp has FIFTY-FIVE songs on it. "Roots of the Cramps" has 56! is any of this legit? here it is on Amazon, too. wtf?

maybe i'm wrong....maybe it's a legit label and royalties are being paid out to the songwriters/artists, but it sure does look shady to me.

Thanks Trashman. But I bet you won't be wearing tight white pants and knee high boots when you shout it! ;-)~

^Post of the year Don.  Thanks for sharing.  and of course I ran to youtube right away to listen to Always Always.  Better yet, I see it down the right hand column of this page right now.  A sneering punk - "Hey Lets Go Now" will be my battle cry for sometime now.  thanks again.

I'm not familiar with Garage Masters, but I do know (or think I know) that sometimes reissue recordings can be done in good faith and not with the desire to  just rip off the creative artists.

Just over a year ago I created and posted a video of my own mid-sixties group The Abstracts just for the hell of it.  On several forums people responded with such comments as "That should be on Nuggets of Pebbles."  I, having been out of the music scene for many years, had no idea what they were talking about so I Googled both words and leaned about the garage band scene and about the work of such people as Greg Shaw. Then, when digging deeper, I had the total surprise (shock really!) of finding that my band's long thought forgotten single's b side -- the song "Always Always" -- WAS included on a Pebbles cd. (Essential Pebbles Volume II)

I did not get paranoid about it. Instead I contacted Bomp Records, introduced myself, and inquired how that had come to be.

Instead of the generic letter from some admin assist I expected to recieve I got a very personal email from Suzie Shaw herself telling me how much she and Greg loved the song and explaining that Greg always did whatever he could to find and credit the artists.  I took her words 100% with good faith.  In fact no one knew who The Abstracts were. And on the record -- released by a long defunct and little known label -- even the name of the composer -- Andy Bonime -- had been  misspelled. 

Could I have been angry? Felt cheated?  I suppose so. But in fact Greg's including the song on the Essential Pebbles cd proved to be a wonderful thing -- far more wonderful then the few dollars in royalties we lost but his using the track without being able to pay those royalties. So instead of being huffy I took the opportunity to thank all the people that had heard the song and decided to share it on their YouTube Channels and the like. My doing so was as innocent as Greg and Suzie was -- it was based on a love for the music.  And those "thank you"s led to an on line discussion with a stranger about whether I had actually seen the record. When I responded "yes, it is hanging framed on my wall. I was the band's lead guitarist" a door was opened to right-hearted people to give The Abstracts the credit that  they were do. And that, just one year later, led to the release of our album "Hey, Let's Go Now!" -- this time with full credit and fair reimbursement.

In truth musicians have been ripped off by unscrupulous record makers for years and years. Some even felt that way (unfairly IMO) about people like the Chess brothers.  But I see -- indeed make an effort to see -- other possibilities, other motives. And in many cases I think that includes love of the music - the desire to see it "out there," being enjoyed an appreciated.

-Don

Well, I know for a fact that Tim Warren has dealt with this issue multiple times ever since he put out the first Back From the Grave comp, and yes, he has written royalty checks to the songwriters or artists if and when these issues present themselves (i.e., a band or musician contacts him). He's even said that he will first try to locate and contact the artists ahead of time to get their approval, but in most cases this is next to impossible, or the band members think he's crazy for even wanting to reissue that stuff that they think is worthless! (I think that was the case originally with "Green Fuz"). It'd actually be great to try and get Tim to weigh in on this topic. That said, I know what you mean regarding some other entity holding the mechanical rights to songs, but even then I still don't see the difference, nor does this excuse Garage Masters from just pulling any songs they want from any other comp or release and re-releasing them on their own digital comps. My question is and remains, does Garage Masters get approval from whomever owns these rights before they assemble their compilations?

trashman said:

^the only thing I try and gather out it is those old timers do not neccessarily own the rights to their songs but perhaps a label that Orchard deals with does.  Look at all the old performers that don't see a dime anymore.  But the label receives it.

I noticed that garage masters label have a handful of fuzztones songs included on their comps.  I don't see them getting away with that unless Orchard is somehow tied to Italy Gone Down label or whatever they are working with now or in the past.

Is this any different than all the other comps that exist- BFTG, GP Unknowns, etc, etc.  NO way these compilationers are tracking down lead artists from teen bands long disbanded to pay royalties for inclusion on a comp.  If so, that is a great article that should be written - what it takes to make a garage punk compilation.

So in the end, I don't think there is anything stopping us from dong what garage masters label did as long as we find the consortium like orchard; browse a list and start compiling.  Rumors of a BFTG volume 9 - I wonder how they will do it?

 

^the only thing I try and gather out it is those old timers do not neccessarily own the rights to their songs but perhaps a label that Orchard deals with does.  Look at all the old performers that don't see a dime anymore.  But the label receives it.

I noticed that garage masters label have a handful of fuzztones songs included on their comps.  I don't see them getting away with that unless Orchard is somehow tied to Italy Gone Down label or whatever they are working with now or in the past.

Is this any different than all the other comps that exist- BFTG, GP Unknowns, etc, etc.  NO way these compilationers are tracking down lead artists from teen bands long disbanded to pay royalties for inclusion on a comp.  If so, that is a great article that should be written - what it takes to make a garage punk compilation.

So in the end, I don't think there is anything stopping us from dong what garage masters label did as long as we find the consortium like orchard; browse a list and start compiling.  Rumors of a BFTG volume 9 - I wonder how they will do it?

I'm still confused by this whole thing. What's stopping you or me from making our own label, putting together a bunch of goofy compilations of tracks from other albums (without first getting the permission of the artists or songwriters, mind you), whip up a cover, and distribute them through The Orchard (and therefore make money from the sale of 'em on those sites)? Am I missing something here? I hope I am... cuz this just doesn't seem right.

trashman said:

nice work kopper.  I kept seeing The Orchard show up but thought it was one of the comp titles.  Hope someone tells Bob Taylor.

I see they feature the Raveonettes, Nancy Sinatra, Ryan Adams, Coldplay, Tommy Waits and hosts of others thru labels.

They include the Garage Masters Label in their database - search our catalog feature here

http://www.theorchard.com/music

nice work kopper.  I kept seeing The Orchard show up but thought it was one of the comp titles.  Hope someone tells Bob Taylor.

I see they feature the Raveonettes, Nancy Sinatra, Ryan Adams, Coldplay, Tommy Waits and hosts of others thru labels.

They include the Garage Masters Label in their database - search our catalog feature here

http://www.theorchard.com/music

I agree. They definitely look like bootlegs. That said, I did some digging and saw (on eMusic) that whomever is behind this label is using The Orchard for their digital distribution. I wasn't that familiar with The Orchard until I looked them up on Google and saw that they have a connection with IODA, and the site does say that they pay out royalties. Click here. So maybe anyone can just create a label like "Garage Masters" and start putting together comps like these and sell them as long as the distributor (in this case, The Orchard) handles royalty collection? That seems very odd to me...

Noticed this in the comment section on Amazon:

I was just told about the rather cool fact that some dude is actually trying to SELL my guitar work from almost 50 years ago! I'm Bob Taylor, the lead guitar player, arranger and writer of the cuts done by The Lancers, which actually includes the very FIRST cut, "Dr. Casey Twist," wrongly attributed to some guys called The Cornells! The sax player you hear is Gene Linfors, a doctor on the East Coast, and the rest of the guys are all alive and kicking and mostly still making music all around the country. Would you believe the self-titled album these three tunes were ripped from was cut and pressed as an LP in 1961 in the Panama Canal Zone? No kidding!

I LOVE the fact that our 50 year old music is magically out there on the net, but I wonder about the legality of trying to make a buck on somebody ELSE'S work and creative product.

Maybe the supposed "publisher/copyright holder" of THIS work product will inform us all about this question as HE sees it...

I have always been confused about this - I feel that in many instances the songwriters/artists do not own the rights to their songs.  So maybe the only deal that must be reached is with the producing companies who might own the rights.  Same goes for all the comps.  then the comp creators will chase down the blog sites on anyone who posts the recordings.

I would expect some level of legitimacy given the breadth of places you can buy the albums under that label.

but I hope someone with some real insight replies to the entire comp business.