Recently, Max Bemis, leader of hipster group Say Anything, announced to his fans that he would write songs. Not settled for this great achievement, Bemis promised he would let fans have input on the songs he wrote for a low, low price of $150 a pop. When this Rather than allow the rather innocuous new item and the comments pass, as most artists do, Mr. Bemis chose to issue a "clarifying" statement to punk site Absolutepunk.net. In this statement, Bemis stated that the Punknews commenters were "strange, slow, old people" and that they should "keep listening exclusively to hot water music and shut up." See what he did there? He took the if-you're-not-my-friend-you're-my-enemy approach. That always works. But whatever your thoughts on this songwriter-for-hire program that he has set up, keep the following information in mind.
Say Anything's debut album is titled Baseball (now it comes full circle). It was released in 2001 and there may be as few as 200 copies of this album ever printed. Even the most committed Say Anything fans may have never heard the band play a song off this album live. Why not? Bemis refuses to play those songs and even refuses to reprint the album. So Bemis has an album full of original songs that he could play and his most loyal fans would love; however, he chooses to have his fans contribute inspiration for a price. With all this revealed about the frontman, I'm not sure how anyone can support a person who won't play Baseball.
Image via Colin Smith at distorted perspective. Check out his stuff. It's great
Bemis let's us know where the hurt is and Dr. Ragan provides the remedy.
