Which Tribe is It?

Which Tribe is Slipknot?

I'm an unhappy camper today, to say the least (not my usual postive cheery posting self?). My favorite current band has let me down pretty hard, and I'm hoping that I'm just missing part of something bigger or better or even different, but....

So here's how it goes. Music nowadays is moving away from the record industry and the corporate music dollar. There are waves of band and musicians that I respect, who have turned to a free music concept, with Internet delivery at little to no cost, etc. It's a strange model, but amazingly enough, it can make money for the band (more than the current music industry setup) and save fans a ton. Plus the music becomes more widely distributed and this actually a marketing/selling point. Kind of best of both worlds.

Then, of course, the bands put a CD out with 'hard stuff' (covers, artwork, lyrics, actual discs, etc.) and I, like most fans, go out and buy them. Any pre-release marketing, including giving me all of the tracks to download for free, does not deter me from going to the store and picking up the CD. Again my point, good marketing.

Now let me mention Slipknot. If you don't know this, Slipknot claims to be all about the common man. All against the military-corporate conglomeration that 'rules' the modern Western world. Anti-man, anti-establishment, etc. Nearly every song touches on the subject if it isn't the main point. Great, I love it. I believe it. I feel it.

So Slipknot goes out in their grotesque masks, wearing uniforms of the Slipknot tribe. We are all invited to join the tribe and get a number (they have numbers, shouldn't we?). And again, the marketing them is all about the tribe of the maggots, the power of many common people against the small number of elite opressors and yada yada.

Cool. So why pissed?

Slipknot is in the painfully slow process of releasing a new album. It won't be out until August, but they have been using this year thus far to tease and entice. It started with pictures of the band (we believe) in big ass Mardi Gras masks, at some farm in Iowa. Different photo each week or so, released on their site, to the fans. Good shit, I'm there. Then a pre-release of a first single in June. Only available on their band site for a 24 hour free download. Nice countdown clock to keep all aware, again....good shit. Not as good as Trent and NIN releasing all tracks on the web, but I'll take it.

So yesterday I go to the website to see what is next, and wow. The next single will be released officially next Tuesday, but to hear it one can go to the Hot Topic store and listen. It will be played each hour all day on Sunday, before it is released to fans, etc. This is not cool shit. In fact, it reeks of corporate tribalism and pursuit of the dollar for it's own sake.

I call hypocrytical bullshit on Corey and company. Funny part is, I actually like Hot Topic. It's a cool store. But that is so not the point. I wasn't planning on going there this weekend. What the fuck? If the answer is just that: Hot Topic is a cool store, then what are you telling me? To learn to understand the differences between good and bad corporations and promote good ones? Give me a break. The message has never been about that, and people are not only too ignorant but too overwhelmed to do naught but remain ignorant on the differences between a good and bad corporation. Hell, I have close friends that can't agree on whether or not they think Wal-Mart is a good corporation, and that is just one of a million.

And so I wondering, feeling a piece of my tribal mentality in question again, am I part of the tribe of Slipknot, or part of the Hot Topic tribe? Or maybe the Rockstar Energy Tribe? Or maybe........

Later-E