The Gourds and Bootlegs

Here's an entirely refreshing view of bootleg taping of concerts, from Kevin Russell of The Gourds:

Well-it's alright with us. There has been alot of
folks recording us for awhile now. And more so than a
money thing, it seems to be like trading cards, you
know. I really doubt that there is a serious boot leg
market over the internet. Ar least not for bands on
our level. And with portable digital gear becoming
cheaper and cheaper and more and more concealed. I
think people who play music in public should just
expect to be taped. Who knows what effect this has.
Any artist that gets upset about somebody making a
personal tape of their performance is either paranoid,
greedy, anal, afraid or all of the above. It's
uncalled for. One has to consider the reasons and
whole picture of why the tape machiners appear. The
music industry is full of blood suckers. And when one
begins thinking that members of their audience are
bloodsuckers as well, then their done. Even worse it
could be a case of simple transference. And the artist
has actually become the bloodsucker while equating
everyone else with this most dreaded of vampiric
menace. Feel free to
tape and trade over this list if'n ya wanna.

Cool. And that's a post from 1998, which is pretty forward looking.

I'm leaning towards seeing these guys Friday night at the Continental Club, although there's also a good show at the Firehouse that night (Django Walker/Speedtrucker).

[Posted at 21:32 CST on 01/15/03] [Link]