Hello everyone! The time is almost upon us. Next week (or perhaps THIS WEEK, depending on when you read this), OCtoberflame begins.
OCtoberflame is, for those of you who have not heard, a festival of sorts that will be headlined by Tiger Army for each of five nights at The Grove in Anaheim, CA, beginning this Thursday, Oct. 23rd and concluding on Halloween night.
They're not going to be just any shows, and I wanted to take this opportunity to tell you a bit more about them and what they mean to us.
Just over two years ago, we entered the studio to begin the process of recording our latest album, Music From Regions Beyond. When we completed the album, we immediately went to Europe and didn't stop touring from there. In the year and a half since we left the studio, we've done the equivalent of three full U.S. tours, our first-ever Canadian tour, tours of Australia, Japan, and four separate trips to Europe. It's funny, because there are still places we need to go. There were a lot of great shows and a lot of great experiences there, but touring can be a void – endless like space. If you're not careful you can get lost in it, and not be able to come back.
Some people seem to be unaware of just how much we've toured. We've gotten more than a few messages lately saying "Don't you guys ever leave California?" Sometime when you're bored, check out the Gig Archive, it's got a list of literally ever live appearance we've ever made. It's linked from the Tourdates section at our site TigerArmy.com. As you can see from that, it's more like we never stay in California. But that's about to change.
After two years of almost non-stop work, Tiger Army's taking a break. Our lifestyle of constant touring will shift into something else. It's something I need to be creative, something I need to write the next record. OCtoberflame will be a goodbye of sorts, the end of a moment in time. It's also a thank you to all the fans for all their support over these last two years, and all the years before that.
We're not just playing five shows in a row somewhere (well four in row then Halloween, but you get the idea), a LOT of work is going into these shows to make them something special and unique, for even the most diehard Tiger Army fan who's seen us everytime we play in Southern California.
We've been hitting the practice space on a regular basis – our goal is to play TWENTY unique songs over the course of five nights, you will hear at LEAST four songs each night that are not played on ANY other night. The setlist will change quite a bit nightly in addition to those unique songs as well, it's not just gonna be the same core set plus four new songs. As always, we'll draw on the entire catalog for our setlist – including songs that haven't been played live in YEARS, and a few that haven't been played live EVER.
For those of you who haven't heard about the fourth show, Sunday October 26th, that's gonna be another special night. Adam Carson of AFI, who also happens to be the original drummer of Tiger Army, will rejoin the band for one night only. The set will consist solely of songs that he recorded with the band, or were played during the era he performed with us. We've practiced with Adam several times so far, and I already know it's going to be a blast. Sometimes touching base with the past is a good way to look towards the future, it's funny how that works.
What else? We might be joined onstage by some friends and special guests. I've got to leave some surprises.
Sadly, T.S.O.L. had to cancel, something related to their drummer. I was sad to hear this because they were one of my favorite bands scheduled to play, and I've been a fan since I bought Dance With Me at age eleven. But an important announcement: not only are horrorpunks "Calabrese" from Arizona playing, but as of today a special surprise guest has been added to the bill for the Saturday, Oct. 25th show! We can't announce them til Monday, but I think a lot of you will be excited, I know I am.
Another bit of information that's important to OCtoberflame that I haven't mentioned here – as you may have heard, the next record I do will in all likelihood not be a Tiger Army album, but a Nick 13 solo album. A little background: as most of you know, I grew up in a town called Ukiah, CA with Dave, Jade and Adam from AFI (as well as Geoff Kresge from Tiger Army!). Dave and Jade's lives have been similar to mine in the sense that we've all basically devoted our lives to our respective bands. In the last year or so, they found time to do a side project called Blaqk Audio. I've wanted to do an album vintage-inspired honky-tonk for years, and there was something inspiring to me about their example. They found the time to make a record and even do a quick tour with something that was musically different from what they do, without it taking away from the band that they've dedicated their lives to. A lot of things have been important to my plan to finally do this record, like Tiger Army's trip to Nashville this year, but there's a VERY good chance it'll happen. BTW, think "Outlaw Heart", "In the Orchard", "The Long Road", "Where the Moss Slowly Grows" for musical direction.
So let's take a look at what this could mean for playing live with Tiger Army. A disclaimer – you NEVER know what's going to happen. We took somewhat of a break to write for Music From Regions Beyond in '05/'06 and that's when we were offered shows we felt we couldn't decline by Morrissey and AFI. We also did a show here and there because we missed playing live when the writing process took longer than I wanted to, as it often will. So things like this could happen again, but they also could NOT.
That being said, let's take a look at one scenario: finish OCtoberflame on Halloween night. Chill for a couple months. Write for a few months. Record Nick 13 solo country album for a few months. Play a few shows, maybe a quick tour or two with country project. Back to Tiger Army at that point, but maybe straight back to writing or the studio – it could be a year or more until Tiger Army plays again! I'm not saying it will be for a fact, I'm just saying that with the country project in the mix, NO ONE knows the next time Tiger Army will play a show and as things stand now, anything before at LEAST mid-2009 is unlikely. So if you're in Los Angeles, San Diego, wherever else, don't wait for us to come to your doorstep. I wish I could have one version of myself to tour constantly, and another version to write, record and create constantly, but alas, there is only one of me.
What else? No service charge at The Grove box office. If you bought the five-night package, your ticket will be slightly different than a regular ticket, and people at the venue will know this for the meet-and-greet after the Halloween show, the limited poster (by Linas Garsys!), and so on. We're playing with some ridiculously good bands over the various nights – VNV Nation? The Quakes? C'mon!
Preparation for these shows has consumed my life lately, it's the last hurrah on a long path before we go down a new one. I hope OCtoberflame will mean as much to the people who see it as it will for us to play it – we'll see you there!
Tiger Army has made a special announcement regarding the fourth OCtoberflame show that takes place at the Grove of Anaheim on Sunday, October 26th! Adam Carson, drummer of AFI and original drummer of Tiger Army will rejoin the band for one night only to perform a special set comprised exclusively of songs from his time with the band! Don't miss this very special show, you won't see this again anytime soon! October 26th marks the nine-year anniversary of the first album's release!
On Night 4, Tiger Army is supported by UK psychobilly legends the Guana Batz and Creature Feature. Tiger Army drummer James Meza will perform at the other four shows.
Bassist Geoff Kresge posted in his blog last night,
"As you may have read HERE, Adam Carson will be performing with Tiger Army as a special part of the OCtoberFlame 2008 shows in Anaheim, CA later this month. This is something you're not likely to see again any time soon, so needless to say, it's going to be something worth changing your plans for.
We've already begun working out the set for this show with Adam, and I'm very excited to be playing with Adam again, even if it is only for one show. This will be the first time in over ELEVEN YEARS that Adam and I will be playing together and the first time in almost NINE YEARS that Adam has performed with TIGER ARMY!
Make sure to catch this show if you can! It's going to be one for the history books!
Hope to see you there! GK"
Night 4 and the Halloween performance of OCtoberflame
are both nearly sold out! The OCtoberflame event marks the last time
you'll be able to see Tiger Army before the band goes back into the
studio to begin work on both the next Tiger Army album, and Nick 13's
"solo" country-style album next year...
...might just be getting a photo pass at the last minute and being able to catch Viva Hate opening for The Adicts...
They had real stage lighting, not heat lamps disguised as spot lights. I filled four 1GB memory cards. Each card holds approximately 380 images. These are not the best images.
Local Punks Turn Out @ The Showcase Theater 04.04.2008
Mark Unseen gets close to the audience during The Unseen's performance @ Southern California's premiere all-ages punk venue The Showcase Theater in Corona, CA on April 4, 2008.
Hellcat Records The Unseen shared the stage with opening bands Civet, Viva Hate and A Wilhelm Scream, who delivered a sonic assault of punk rock, hardcore and hard rocking psychobilly to a packed house of local diehard punk kids that screamed, moshed and not infrequently flew through the air from the stage and in one case the upper balcony.
The Showcase Theater, host to inumerable punk bands large and small over the past 20 years, including AFI, Tiger Army, Saosin (who played their first live show there), Sick Of It All, The Unseen, and a an endless roster of local and national bands, from the unsigned to the major label, will be closing it's doors for the last time at the end of May, as local development in downtown Corona forces the older stores and strip malls out of it's path.
The Showcase is located in an old movie theater in a small strip mall, across the street from a church... and the newly built upscale Corona Public Library and business bankers. The owners plan to reopen a venue in another OC city (one source mentioned Rancho). It is always sad to see a landmark of local and alternative music have to close it's doors due to "progress", hopefully the new location will as accessible and welcoming to the generations of fans and bands that have considered The Showcase if not a home, a welcome stop on their tour schedule alongside larger mainstream venues.
Mind Your Business: You Will Lose All The Rights to Your Own Art
Mark Simon is mad as hell and, in this month's "Mind Your Business," he tells you why you should be too.
Mark Simon.
As you know, I usually handle the subjects in my articles with a sense
of humor. That is not the case this month. I find nothing funny about
the new Orphan Works legislation that is before Congress.
In fact, it PISSES ME OFF!
As an artist, you have to read this article or you could lose everything you've ever created!
An
Orphaned Work is any creative work of art where the artist or copyright
owner has released their copyright, whether on purpose, by passage of
time, or by lack of proper registration. In the same way that an
orphaned child loses the protection of his or her parents, your
creative work can become an orphan for others to use without your
permission.
If
you don't like to read long articles, you will miss incredibly
important information that will affect the rest of your career as an
artist. You should at least skip to the end to find the link for a
fantastic interview with the Illustrators' Partnership about how you
are about to lose ownership of your own artwork.
Currently,
you don't have to register your artwork to own the copyright. You own a
copyright as soon as you create something. International law also
supports this. Right now, registration allows you to sue for damages,
in addition to fair value.
What
makes me so MAD about this new legislation is that it legalizes THEFT!
The only people who benefit from this are those who want to make use of
our creative works without paying for them and large companies who will
run the new private copyright registries.
These
registries are companies that you would be forced to pay in order to
register every single image, photo, sketch or creative work.
It
is currently against international law to coerce people to register
their work for copyright because there are so many inherent problems
with it. But because big business can push through laws in the United
States, our country is about to break with the rest of the world,
again, and take your rights away.
With
the tens of millions of photos and pieces of artwork created each year,
the bounty for forcing everyone to pay a registration fee would be
enormous. We lose our rights and our creations, and someone else makes
money at our expense.
This
includes every sketch, painting, photo, sculpture, drawing, video, song
and every other type of creative endeavor. All of it is at risk!
If
the Orphan Works legislation passes, you and I and all creatives will
lose virtually all the rights to not only our future work but to
everything we've created over the past 34 years, unless we register it
with the new, untested and privately run (by the friends and cronies of
the U.S. government) registries. Even then, there is no guarantee that
someone wishing to steal your personal creations won't successfully
call your work an orphan work, and then legally use it for free.
In short, if Congress passes this law, YOU WILL LOSE THE RIGHT TO MAKE MONEY FROM YOUR OWN CREATIONS!
Why is this allowed to happen? APATHY and MONEY.
Artists have apathy and corporations have money.
We need to be heard in order to protect our incomes, our creations and our careers. GET OFF YOUR ASS!
That
means writing letters to our congressmen and representatives. That
means voicing your opinion about how we need copyright protection, as
we've had since 1976, that protects everything we create from the
moment we create it. This is the case around the world.
However,
an Orphan Works bill is also in the works in Europe. I was speaking
recently with Roger Dean, the famed artist of the Yes album covers, and
he is greatly concerned with what will happen if Orphan Works bills
become law.
"This
will devastate the livelihood of artists, photographers and designers
in a number of ways," Dean says. "That at the behest of a few hugely
rich corporations who got rich by selling art that they played no part
in the making of, the U.S. and U.K. governments are changing the
copyright laws to protect the infringer instead of the creator. This is
unjust, culturally destructive and commercial lunacy. This will not
just hurt millions of artists around the world.
"On
the other side of the coin, what argument will a U.S. court have with a
Chinese company that insists it did its research in China and found
nothing? If the cost of this is onerous for a U.S.-based artist, what
will it be like for artists and small businesses in emergent
economies?"
If
an artist whose work is as famous as Roger Dean's is concerned with
this legislation, it should be of great concern for all of us.
The people, associations and companies behind the Orphan Works bill
state that orphaned works have no value. If that were true, no one
would want them. However, these same companies DO WANT your work, they
just don't want to pay for it. If someone wants something, IT HAS
VALUE. It's pretty simple.
Some
major art and photography associations, or I should say, the managers
of the associations, support this bill. The reason they support it is
that they will operate some of the registries and stand to make a lot
of money. Some have already been given millions of dollars by the
Library of Congress. Follow the money and you will see why some groups
support this bill of legalized theft of everything you have ever
created.
With the pending Orphan Works legislation, artists might lose rights to works they've created. Courtesy of Jon Hofferman.
Two proponents of this new legislation are Corbis and Getty Images.
They are large stock photo and stock art companies. They sell art and
photos inexpensively and are trying to build giant royalty-free
databases. Do you see how they could benefit from considering most
works of art in the world orphans?
Do
you know who owns Corbis? Bill Gates. He doesn't do anything unless it
can make a huge amount of money. Helping you lose the copyright to your
art is big business for Gates.
For
years we've heard of Hollywood fighting with China to protect
copyrights and stop the pirating of DVDs. Our government has worked
with the studios to protect their investment.
Our government is NOW WORKING AGAINST US by allowing our own fellow citizens TO STEAL OUR CREATIVE WORKS.
It will be easy for them to get away with it unless we make ourselves heard.
Your
calls and letters do work. I've seen many instances in which a single
letter made a difference in public policy. Tens of thousands of calls
and letters help even more.
This
is not empty talk. I have written letters to my congressmen and I will
do so again. I do what I can to let every creator know about terrible
legislation like this... thus you are reading articles like this one
and you can listen to interviews I've posted online.
CONTACT YOUR LEGISLATOR: Go
to http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml to quickly find the phone
number, address and e-mail of every U.S. senator, U.S. representative,
governor and state legislator.
Forward
this article to every creator you know and urge them to take a moment
to protect their very livelihood. I am giving everyone the right to
reprint this article in any form to help spread the word to protect our
creative rights.
Instead of sitting around watching TV tonight, TiVo that show, write a letter and make yourself heard.
Letters
to our government officials don't have to be long, but they should be
heartfelt. A good story helps. Tell them who you are, how this
legislation negatively affects you and that you want them to vote
against the Orphan Works legislation. It's that easy!
If
you don't, you will have only yourself to blame when you see other
people making money from your art and you don't see a dime.
Spider-Man
comic artist Alex Saviuk is also concerned about the loss of copyright
protection. "When I found out all the negative aspects of the new
legislation, it would almost behoove us to want to do something else
for a living," says Saviuk. "If we would have to register with all the
different companies, we would never be able to make a living."
"It would be impossible for me to register all my art," continues Saviuk. "It would put me out of business."
You can listen to my complete interview with Alex online. Think this doesn't apply to you? Maybe you don't license your artwork? How about this?
Photos
on the internet could be orphaned. With tens of millions of photos
shared online with services like Flickr, Shutterfly and Snapfish, there
is a huge opportunity for unauthorized use of your photos... legally.
You
could see photos you take of your family and kids, or of a family
vacation, used in a magazine or newspaper without your permission or
payment to you. You would have to pay to register your photos, all of
them, in every new registry in order to protect them. Say the average
person takes 300 photos per year (I take a lot more than that). If a
registry only charges $5 per image, that is a whopping $1,500 to
protect your photos that are protected automatically under the current
laws. If there are three registries, protecting your images could cost
an amazing $4,500. Not to mention the time it would take to register
every photo you take. Plus, you will also have to place your copyright
sign on every photo.
That's
not including all your art, sketches, paintings, 3D models, animations,
etc. Do you really have all that extra time and money? Plus, even if
you do register, the people stealing your work can still claim it was
orphaned and, unless you fight them, they win. Even if you win, you may
not make back your legal fees.
It
gets even better. Anyone can submit images, including your images. They
would then be excused from any liability for infringement (also known
as THEFT) unless the legitimate rights owner (you) responds within a
certain period of time to grant or deny permission to use your work.
That
means you will also have to look through every image in every registry
all the time to make sure someone is not stealing and registering your
art. You could actually end up illegally using your own artwork if
someone else registers it. DOES ANYONE SEE A PROBLEM WITH THIS?
Do you think the U.S. Copyright Office is here to protect you from this legislation? Think again.
Brad
Holland of the Illustrators' Partnership shares his notes from a recent
meeting with David O. Carson, general counsel of the Copyright Office.
Brad Holland of the Illustrators' Partnership.
Brad Holland:If
a user can't find a registered work at the Copyright Office, hasn't the
Copyright Office facilitated the creation of an orphaned work?
David O. Carson: Copyright owners will have to register their images with private registries.
BH:But what if I exercise my exclusive right of copyright and choose not to register?
DOC: If you want to go ahead and create an orphan work, be my guest!
This
cavalier and disrespectful dialogue should have you seeing red. Who the
hell does he think he is? Carson should be fired and RUN OUT OF
WASHINGTON!
None of this could happen with our current laws. Our current laws work and they protect us and our creations.
The
only people who will benefit from the copyright law change are those
who can't create work on their own or companies who stand to make a lot
of money from using our works of art. They make contributions to
congressmen, which is why they get what they want. We need to stand up
and be heard. Every one of you need to write your senators and
representatives. We have to protect our livelihoods. It's that serious.
Plus,
the technologies being developed for locating visual art don't work
well enough. On March 13, 2008, PicScout, the creators of one of the
software applications used in the registries, stated to the House IP
subcommittee:
"Our technology can match images, or partial information of an image, with 99% success."
A
1% margin of error is huge when you consider the millions of searches
performed for art every day. That means for every million searches,
10,000 images could be orphaned.
Plus,
this only takes into account images registered on their system. If you
have registered all your work on another system, they won't be searched
here and, even though you may have spent thousands of dollars
registering your creations, a new or unused directory could orphan
everything you've ever created.
This
is just one of the many reasons why INTERNATIONAL LAW FORBIDS COERCED
REGISTRATION as a condition of protecting your copyright. The United
States is about to break international law by making us register our
works. The people behind the bill say it's not forced registration, but
you won't have any rights unless you register. THIS IS SEMANTICS! Of
course, this is forced registration and we can't stand for it!
There are many, many other problems with the Orphan Works legislation. As a creator, YOU MUST understand what is going on.
This is not something that is going to go away easily. We need to be vocal NOW!
This
legislation has been beaten or delayed for the past two years and they
will keep trying until it passes. This is no time to be quiet and see
what happens. What will happen depends on you. Send e-mails and call
your congressmen. Ownership of your own creations depends on it.
Roger Dean sums this up well. "Where are the colleges and universities in all this? Has the whole world gone to sleep?"
GET ON ORPHAN WORKS E-MAIL LIST
To be notified of the latest information on the Orphan Works bill and when to contact your legislators, send an e-mail and ask to be added to the Orphan Works list.
AUDIO INTERVIEW LINK
I have recorded a fantastic interview with Brad Holland
of the Illustrators' Partnership regarding this bill and what it means
to us as artists. Please listen and learn more about how you may lose
ownership of all your art and photos. This article and the recorded
interview are available for anyone to use in print or online. Please
forward this information to every person and group you know so that we
can work together and protect our creations and livelihoods.
Mark
Simon is an award-winning animation producer/director and speaker. He
speaks around the world on subjects about art, animation and TV
production. His copyrighted companies may be found online at
www.SellYourTvConceptNow.com and www.Storyboards-East.com. He may be
reached at marksimonbooks@yahoo.com.
Portions of this article use information and phrasing provided by the Illustrators' Partnership.
