Alternative Tentacles
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Alternative Tentacles | |
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File:Alttentacleslogo.jpg | |
Founded | 1979 |
Founder | Jello Biafra East Bay Ray |
Distributor(s) | Revolver USA |
Genre | Punk rock Alternative rock Spoken word Hardcore punk Heavy metal |
Country of origin | U.S. |
Location | Emeryville, California (current) San Francisco, California (historic) |
Official website | www |
Alternative Tentacles is an independent record label established in 1979 in San Francisco, California. It was used by the Dead Kennedys for the self-produced single "California Über Alles". After realizing the potential for an independent label, they released records for other bands as well. Dead Kennedys guitarist East Bay Ray and vocalist Jello Biafra formed Alternative Tentacles, but Biafra became the owner in the mid-1980s.[1] Alternative Tentacles no longer owns the rights to Dead Kennedys recordings after a 2000 lawsuit.
History
Alternative Tentacles subsequently released records of other bands of the alternative/punk scene including releasing records (which were later released by other labels) by bands including The Dicks, 7 Seconds, and the Butthole Surfers. The early compilation titled Let Them Eat Jellybeans!.[2]
Some of the best known bands that have released albums through Alternative Tentacles are Dead Kennedys, NoMeansNo, D.O.A. and Alice Donut.[2]
In addition to musical acts, Alternative Tentacles also publishes spoken word albums, many by Jello Biafra himself. Another common theme of Alternative Tentacles records over the years has been the artwork of Winston Smith, which has appeared on many of their records, catalogs, posters and shirts. Smith also designed the Alternative Tentacles logo.[2]
United Kingdom branch
In the early 1980s Alternative Tentacles opened an office in the UK to release special editions of American punk records that were unavailable in Europe, many of which were licensed from other independent U.S. labels. Among these were releases by SST Records' groups Black Flag and Hüsker Dü, the Dischord Records compilation Flex Your Head, and an EP of tracks from the Bad Brains eponymous 1982 album, as well as U.K. pressings of all American Dead Kennedys releases. The arrangement was short-lived.
Legal trouble
In 1985, Los Angeles prosecutors charged Biafra with "distributing harmful matter to minors" for artwork contained in the Dead Kennedys album Frankenchrist. The artwork was a poster reproduction of the painting "Work 219: Landscape XX", also known as "Penis Landscape" by H.R. Giger. The case ended in a hung jury; charges were not re-filed. A detailed account of the trial is presented by Biafra on his second spoken word album, High Priest of Harmful Matter − Tales from the Trial.
In early 2000, the label and Biafra were named in a lawsuit brought by his former Dead Kennedys bandmates. The suit claimed that Biafra had failed to pay the band's members a decade's worth of royalties on the band's albums, totaling some $76,000.[3] All sides agreed the initial underpayment of royalties was due to an accounting error, but the jury ultimately ruled that Alternative Tentacles and Biafra were "guilty of malice, oppression and fraud" by not promptly informing his former bandmates of the matter and instead withholding the information during subsequent discussions and contractual negotiations; the other Dead Kennedys members only learned of the royalty underpayment from a whistle blower at the record label. A 2003 appeal upheld the verdict and judgment against Biafra and the record label of $200,000 in compensation and punitive damages. The end result of the case saw the rights to the Dead Kennedys albums turned over to the other band members, who licensed them to Manifesto Records in the United States (and to other labels in the rest of the world). Dead Kennedys albums accounted for about half of all sales by Alternative Tentacles, leading to financial uncertainty for the label.[4]
In October 2002, the label moved to Emeryville, California.
Artists
Current artists
- Alice Donut
- Ani Kyd
- ArnoCorps
- Citizen Fish
- Cross Stitched Eyes
- Dash Rip Rock
- Disaster Strikes
- Drunk Injuns
- itchy-O
- Jello Biafra
- Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine
- Jucifer
- Knights of the New Crusade
- Leftöver Crack
- Legendary Shack Shakers
- Metal Urbain
- Mumia Abu-Jamal
- Munly (and the Lee Lewis Harlots)
- Nardwuar the Human Serviette
- Pansy Division
- Pilot Scott Tracy
- Pins of Light
- Report Suspicious Activity
- Skarp
- Subhumans
- Turn Me on Dead Man
- Unsane
- Victim's Family
- Witch Hunt
- The World/Inferno Friendship Society
Former artists
- Akimbo
- Amebix
- Black Kali Ma
- BlöödHag
- Blowfly
- Brujeria
- Brutal Juice
- Burning Image
- Butthole Surfers
- The Causey Way
- Comets on Fire
- Creeps On Candy
- Crucifucks
- Dead Kennedys
- The Dicks
- D.O.A.
- Eat
- The Evaporators
- eX-Girl
- F-Minus
- Facepuller
- False Prophets
- The Fartz
- The Flaming Stars
- Fleshies
- Free Beer
- Galloping Coroners (Vágtázó Halottkémek)
- Michael Gira
- God Bullies
- Grotus
- Half Japanese
- Howard Zinn
- The Hanson Brothers
- Hissanol
- Jarboe
- Lard
- Les Thugs
- Life After Life
- Logical Nonsense
- Ludicra
- Mat Callahan / The Looters
- Melvins
- M.I.A.
- Mischief Brew
- Mojo Nixon
- Nausea
- Neurosis
- Noam Chomsky
- Nomeansno
- No WTO Combo
- Pachinko
- Part Time Christians
- Pitchshifter
- Ratos de Porão
- TARANTELLA
- The Phantom Limbs
- The Skatenigs
- Slim Cessna's Auto Club
- SNFU
- Star Fucking Hipsters
- Stickdog
- Teddy & the Frat Girls[5]
- Thrall
- Toxic Reasons
- Tragic Mulatto
- Triclops!
- Tribe 8
- T.S.O.L.
- Ward Churchill
- Wesley Willis
- The Yuppie Pricks
- Zeni Geva
- Zolar X
See also
References
- ^ “Dead Kennedys v. Jello Biafra” Archived 2007-03-11 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b c A Crash Course in Alternative Tentacles. Alternative Tentacles. 2004. Web.
- ^ Dead Kennedys v. Biafra, 46 F.Supp.2d 1028 (1999)
- ^ JELLO BIAFRA Gets Shot Down By DEAD KENNEDYS Blabbermouth.com, accessed 2017-01-03
- ^ "DeLorean: Sheer Smegma (Teddy and the Frat Girls) - "Clubnite" (1980)". tinymixtapes.com. Retrieved 6 April 2018.