The Brains - why are their records OOP?

No thread on this band, so I'm starting one.

It looks like all of their music went out of circulation decades ago - none of it ever made it to CD, not even their great debut for Mercury.

The prize I was hoping for is the original indie version of "Money Changes Everything." It really is the perfect single to close out the decade, or rather a perfect harbinger for the '80s. Everything from the sound to the title itself. Wish there was a good lossless rip out there, but here it is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLWbp3w2eqM

Thanks! Can't find anything, so far, about the Brains on Pylon and other threads where we've talked about this era of Southern bands---here's something from Creative Loafing, a few years ago:

In recent years, Tom Gray has been rocking stages around the world, singing and playing slide guitar with progressive blues outfit Delta Moon. After being sidelined in 2019 to deal with a stage four lung cancer diagnosis, Gray has a little more time on his hands than usual. Since February, he’s been involved in launching a campaign to reissue material that he recorded in the late ’70s and early ’80s with his new wave band the Brains. He’s even talking about offering up some unreleased material as well.

In March, Gray and the Swimming Pool Q’s singer and guitarist Jeff Calder went to Preserve South in Buford, Georgia, to bake the original master tapes for all of the Brains’ recordings to which Gray owns the rights. This includes the group’s 1978 debut 7-inch, featuring the song “Money Changes Everything,” later made famous by pop star Cyndi Lauper with her version as the opening number of her 1983 LP, She’s So Unusual. Gray and Calder are also working on the master tapes containing the Brains’ 1982 EP, Dancing Under Streetlights (Landslide Records), as well as some unreleased material. The group’s 1980 self-titled full-length and 1981’s Electronic Eden LPs were originally released by the now defunct Mercury Records. Those masters are currently owned by the Universal Music Group, but Gray and Calder hope to gain access to them soon.

“Back in the CD era, several reissue labels were interested in the Brains albums, but Mercury was a stone wall,” says Gray. “Today we will be dealing with Universal. The plan, based on the advice of an LA attorney who knows today’s business, is to create enough online interest to show Universal that this would be worth their trouble.”

This reissue campaign will mark the first time these recordings by the Brains have been made available in any format other than the original, long out-of-print vinyl pressings. Stay tuned for more information, including release dates, as it becomes available over the coming weeks.

Or if he left the rights, a share of them anyway, to Calder--?

Good question. He must care, or at least wouldn't mind making some streaming royalties (paltry as they may be). There's even a band from Quebec (formed much, much later) that's taken their name and selling stuff on bandcamp. And what's weird is on Apple Music, some of the Canadian band's info is mashed in with the Atlanta band's info even though the text clearly says they shouldn't be mistaken for one another. Otherwise, you can't download or stream the original Brains' music commercially anywhere.

Like what's going on, why is everything in such disarray?

Or perhaps I should say whoever Gray left ownership of those masters.

The Mercury stuff I imagine it's still an issue with Universal. I've got a bad feeling those masters were lost in the fire...and I doubt those a-holes made digital back-ups.

I suppose that Gray may not have left the rights to anyone, or that the will is tied up in court some way, or he didn't leave one, or whoever he left them to is still negotiating with Universal. As for the Great Fire, who knows what might come to light---for instance

The master tapes for Voivod's MCA-era albums were long thought to have been destroyed in the 2008 Universal Studios fire; this was later disputed by Blacky, who revealed in late 2019 that the master tapes for Nothingface, Angel Rat and The Outer Limits were located in a facility in Pennsylvania, after persistently questioning Universal staff, and claimed that they are now in his possession.[25][26]

Graham Parker's song for their mutual label, "Mercury Poisoning"---there are several versions, but this might be the first, as a Stiff b-side:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYsY1-SmT2o

In recent years I have enjoyed the Rogue Wave cover of “Money Changes Everything.”

i once took myself to the bottom line club to see the necessaries and the brains. seems like a lifetime ago.

It was.