Posted by spookycookie at 216.163.246.4 on February 08, 2002 at 07:19:42:
In Reply to: SlipKnot? God they are worse than Limp Bizket. posted by JasonBeckerOneManArmy on February 08, 2002 at 05:29:50:
read this before you say ANYONE is worse than limp bizkit(pasted from another message board):
Some of you may have heard about the Limp Bizkit guitarist search. Basically,
the band has been "touring" the country visiting Guitar Center stores,
holding auditions for a new guitarist to replace the one who left the band.
The deal is this. From 7:00 to 11:00 AM you can sign up for a slot to try out
that day. The tryouts are from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM. During this time, they
take you into a room to play your stuff. At the end of that time, you leave.
They call three to ten people at 5:30 to come back to the place and play in
front of Limp Bizkit. Out of those people, one is selected to return at 9:00
to jam with the band, and anyone who participated is invited to watch -- a
free concert, basically.
So I arrive there, with a copy of our band's full CD in hand. I'm with a
friend who wants to try out, so I go ahead and sign up too. We get there at
5:00 AM and we're 83rd and 84th in line. Not incredibly bad. Free Krispy
Kreme donuts and coffee, so all isn't too bad.
10:00 rolls around. The line is moving slow, but that's to be expected. We
finally get up around the corner of the building to the front of the line at
about noon. Current total time there: 7 hours.
Get to the table, and I notice there's a waiver you have to sign. No problem,
standard stuff. Then I notice it's a three page contract. This contract
basically said that if you play, you must sign the contract. Okay. No big
deal here either. So I keep reading it. An interesting note. Anything you
play can NOT be copyright, and can be used by Limp Bizkit in audio, video, or
recorded form of any sort. Other big words which basically translated to the
fact that if you play something, they are fully authorized to steal it and
use it on a CD. The artist agrees to zero compensation and zero rights over
the track, and will get their name in the liner notes "if possible."
This didn't sit well, as me and the guy I was with were planning on playing
something we wrote with Starfront. So we sign it and decide to make something
up. An annoyance at the very least, but we'd waited seven hours to get this
far.
Then we got to stand in the parking lot for another two hours. We finally get
inside at about 2:30, where it's another 30 minute wait for your turn.
Current total time there: 10 hours.
So then we get the "rules". They are outlined for us straight out. No guitar
solos. No playing cover songs. No playing copyrighted material. No playing
Limp Bizkit songs. This effectively means that you're forced to play
something that you made up, but don't have a copyright for. You may see where
this is going.
Entering the room, there's one guy. He's got a mute button under his foot.
His job is to make sure you follow the rules. If you break any, you get muted
and kicked out immediately. So I go in, and there's one amp for me to plug
into, and the settings are turned to "mud". It sounded awful, and was not
pleasing to the ears. And it was loud enough that the awfulness didn't go
away for some time. Then comes another fun part.
"You have 60 seconds to play. Starting now."
One ****ing minute?! I mean, ****ing... okay. So since the thing I'd been
planning was two minutes and thirty seconds, I cut most of the parts out.
Kept it under time (about 57 seconds), but it still sounded worse than a
handful of ass due to that beautiful amplifier (hmm). And I leave the room
and the line proceeds. We're told that the winners will be announced at 5:30.
And that we are to remain in the front parking lot until that time. No
leaving. Period. This makes for unhappy people. We're talking 200+ people
here, plus any wives / girlfriends / husbands / boyfriends / family / friends
which accompanied them. But what can you do? We stay until 5:30. Total
current time there: 12 hours, 30 minutes.
5:30 rolls around. People are getting ansi. The band management promised
"free pizza". It came, and there were two boxes of pizza. Two large
pizzas. For about two hundred people at least. No cool points here either.
Anyway, the clock keeps ticking, and it's 6:00 before we notice anything
going on. Guitar Center management flags all their people and security to
come inside to discuss something. They go in there, and the guy in charge
walks out with a megaphone. After getting everyone's attention, the guy on
the megaphone speaks:
"This competition has been called off effective immediately and will not be
rescheduled. The band will not be performing with nor for anyone. They will
not be signing autographs. This is beyond our control, but please exit the
area immediately."
The guy then proceeds to enter back inside the huge glass doors, and two
armed officers stand behind the door. They lock the building as the massive
amount of people head directly towards them. After reaching the building,
people start going apeshit. Cops are called in basically a way to clear the
crowd. After about an hour, most have gone home or been "taken" home by the
police. The radio station is completely screwed, having brought their entire
broadcast booths out to cover it. Everyone is very, very pissed. Me and the
other guy stayed awhile to figure out what was going on. It's now about 7:30
PM.
FM99 is having a field day with it. They're referring to this as "**** Fred
Durst Friday", taking calls in from people who went. But unless you've read
this carefully, I don't think you understand what happened.
Limp Bizkit now has over 200 guitar parts, written by various artists around
here, which are unowned and not copyrighted. Limp Bizkit now owns these
riffs. Limp Bizkit just stole 200 pieces of material right out from under
these guitarists' noses, myself included. If I'd played something off our CD,
I would be ABSOLUTELY pissed. I *am* absolutely pissed. They have completely
ripped off hundreds of people, and they're getting away with it because they
can. They're on their way to Georgia, and the radio station here has given
out request line numbers for the stations down there for us to call and let
them know what's happening over the course of this event, to warn them. But
people aren't going to buy it. They're going to go and get their shit stolen
too.
Someone needs to beat the living hell out of him. He's an asshole, and
someone who doesn't deserve to be breathing the same air as a ****ing
cockroach.
To add insult to injury, Guitar Center ran a contest where the winner would
get to watch the band play even if they didn't play guitar. One person and a
friend. That person also won an autographed Gibson Les Paul Studio ($1500+
guitar) by the band. She showed up after a near 200 mile drive to the area.
Guitar Center told her that the band refused to acknowledge the contest at
this point, and so not only did she drive three and a half hours for no
performance (which she took her ten year old kid to see as his first
concert), but apparently the guitar wasn't given either. All because the band
wanted to be one giant collective asshole.
If any of you know anyone who's considering going to these tryouts, show them
this message. If they have any questions they can contact me directly. I'm
doing everything I possibly can to make sure this does NOT happen to anyone
else. It's not my stuff I'm concerned about -- our CD is copyrighted
completely and legally -- but I'm guessing 90% of the local bands who passed
Durst a copy of their CD are going to be ****ed. Many bands, especially newer
local ones, don't have the money or know-how to copyright their stuff, and by
giving it to them tonight, they just basically tossed them a new Limp Bizkit
CD if Fred wants to do that. I wouldn't be surprised if he copyrights their
shit tomorrow.
It hurts to look around and see hundreds of people get excited at the chance
to be able to make something of their guitar work; to have a shot at being in
a popular band, making a living doing what they dream of. Fred Durst and Limp
Bizkit are taking that dream and ****ing it over. And anyone who wasn't there
who just caught the coverage at noon and 5:00 on the news just think
everything is perfect. Happy Fred Durst in front of the cameras behind the
place, fenced off, saying how good the turnout is and how happy everyone
seems, and talking about all the great shit he's hearing. That man is the
true meaning of a music label representative. He's the perfect salesman and
nice guy in front of the media, and turns around and screws everyone involved
in the ass without having to take any hit in his overall popularity, and
possibly gaining a shit ton of new music in the process that he's ripped from
people.
Not many things piss me off, but I'm pissed off. I'm not the only one. All
sorts of "this band is playing tonight at this place, and they'd like me to
announce to Fred Durst that if you're still in the area and you come to this
venue, you will be able to see what a REAL band is like -- right before the
real band beats your skull in." This radio station is sick of the shit from
this band, and so are its listeners. If this keeps happening, I wouldn't be
surprised if some shit goes down somewhere really damn soon. If it does, I'll
let you know. "