Are Eskimo Joe being tossers?

YES!

SO, in shocking news, it seems to be okay to be arrogant in the music industry.

Perth's Eskimo Joe have recently divided opinion with a bizarre request that it made to its fan base and the public alike. They've partaken in a practise that someone coined as 'crowd-funding'! Forgive me if I'm wrong, and I'm not, but don't the crowd 'fund' the band by purchasing tickets to gigs, t-shirts, stickers, stubby-holders, hats, belt-buckles and if it is good enough, even their bloody music!?

Sorry, I'll insert an excerpt from the site that they have made their plea so you have a bit more background.

Here's the link to the story.

Hi All,

Eskimo Joe here!

We've been in our studio for the last few months writing and planning what will become our 6^th studio album. It's been an amazing journey so far and the songs emerging have got us all pretty fricken excited. We've secured the services of a seriously kick-ass producer (who happens to be an absolute champion - details soon!) and we'll be recording the album throughout March and April 2013.

We’ve been fortunate enough to have had some great support from labels over the years but for now, we’ve made a choice to step out and take a fresh approach to writing and recording our next record.

This Pozible campaign is about creating the right set of circumstances to produce a great record and we're really looking forward to enjoying the creative freedom that goes along with this decision. We hope we can inspire you to get on board!

We see this project as an opportunity to share this album experience with you and there will be many ways to get involved. We'll be on the interwebs regularly updating you all through facebook, twitter and instagram at each step along the way.

Every package on offer here is exclusive to the supporters of the campaign. We’ll be producing two bonus songs during the album sessions that will never be available again and our "supporter only" edition CD's and 12" Records will only be available through Pozible.

We hope there's something on offer here for you and we look forward to creating something kick ass with your help!

Yezza.




Kav, Joel and Stu.

I am at a loss to know where this level of rudeness comes from. What happened to earning your own cash by touring and selling merchandise and albums along the way? The young band starting out, trying to make a name for themselves by gigging and promoting their worth would not even dare to ask such things of the general public, let alone a multi Aria-award-winning, muti platinum-selling established recording artist. Sure, we're not talking about Paul McCartney or Elton John level sales here, but at the very worst, EJ have more than earned their place within the Aussie industry and therefore should be able to fund their OWN recording process. If they can't then I'd suggest they need to get some accounting degrees and start again.

Grinspoon's Phil Jamieson has echoed my sentiments by calling for Ej to "do a fucking tour"......

Simple really.

I've never been a big fan of EJ, but they're decent musicians that write decent melodies. I did buy their last effort, Inshalla and I can tell you that I'll not be saying any more about that monstrosity.

I claim the right to my belief that what they are doing is tantamount to theft. Arrogant and self-righteous and their thread they have worked hard to weave into the fabric of Australian music is fast unravelling.

Surely Phil and I won't be the only ones to know this is wrong?!