Too My Bees Knees Minneapolis Indie Rock Mini-Plagiarism Scandal

So...there was this local indie rock producer named Tom Smouse who decided to do one of those projects where he wrote all these songs and then got people from a ton of local bands to play instruments on various tracks, got over 100 musicians from local bands to contribue:

http://blogs.citypages.com/gimmenoise/2011/03/to_my_bees_knees.php

Then he did a kickstarter for the album, which was successful, raising over $5000 to press it up and release it:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1045702566/a-glass-of-ocean-14-years-100-artists

So....success?

One problem...it then turned out that he had ripped off all the songs from a band called Burn Disco Burn, from the album Vegas Lit Places, which Smouse who had mixed the album for BDB in 2002!

http://blog.thecurrent.org/post/2012/11/dozens-local-artists-unknowingly-helped-producer-plagiarize-another-bands-songs

anyway, just a weird little small-stakes plagiarism scandal, i find plagiarism scandals so interesting, this one is especially weird just given how much time and effort went into creating an album of stolen songs

so weird!

I live in this town and I've never heard of either of these bands! I guess I know some of the names of the folks who played on it, but the main players I've could no clue about.

“And the bigger question is: why involve 100 other people in it? Why make it as public as possible, especially among active, well-connected musicians, the very people best positioned to smell the lie?”

Yeah, this is the main thing that sticks out for me. Also, he seemed to be in the sort of position in the city scene where surely he could have made a point out of *everything* on the album being collaborative, and basically getting his musician friends to write it for him, no?

i've thought from time to time about how if you hear a lot of great songs by virtually unknown bands, it'd be pretty easy to lift stuff here and there and noone would know, if you changed enough stuff and mixed and match...but then i start thinking about how all that would take a fair amount of creativity and at that point it'd be smarter and/or more fun to just make stuff up or do an all-out tribute record. like the Infinite Jest thing about the kid who puts more effort into plagiarizing papers than any of the kids who actually just do their own homework.

What's this Smouse guy like outside of this incident? Is he considered an otherwise standup guy? Just wondering what someone who has that much nerve would be like on a day to day basis.

10 years ago when I started in the music industry, I had a dream of making my own album. I’ve admired so many artists I’ve worked with over the years. It’s inspired me to want to write, create, and release an album of my own material, although I didn’t play an instrument at the time. Nick Burd, Chris Ellis, Matt Heideman and Kathryn Musilek wrote and recorded an entire album, entitled "Vegas Lit Places" which was handed me to mix. All of the tracks except for the hidden track, “Goodbye’s Never Change”, were taken from this project and re-recorded.

this is just so bizarre. "this experience inspired me to WANT to write an album...but not enough to actually write it, so uh"

the pointlessness of the grift is the hardest thing to get my head around.

weird! almost seems like it'd be some bizarre art project on the part of this dude.

the pointlessness of the grift is the hardest thing to get my head around.

― goole, Monday, November 19, 2012 2:54 PM (26 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^this

la lechera - don't know the dude, know a couple of the ppl on the list of those that played instruments but not many, must be a different orbit of local rock than i am

it's funny because some of the musicians involved did say there was something "weird" about the recording experience and like...i've done stuff w/ other people where i've had to teach them how to play or sing something i've written, and i imagine it'd be pretty hard to fake it if you were actually teaching them something you didn't write or really know how to play yourself.

"How come that's not your vocal on the demo?"

"Oh, that was a friend."

i guess what i wonder is whether nor not he's known as kind of a sleazy dude or if he's a respected character in the scene. it makes a difference, kinda, i think. i'm not sure what to make of something like this without more info.

well i guess he was respected enough by 100 different people!

lotta musicians are pretty chill and are happy to work with whoever asks them to be on their record, no "uh can i see your resume?" shit

guess so

weird! almost seems like it'd be some bizarre art project on the part of this dude.

Maybe his subconscious knew he would get found out but hoped that after the discovery someone would have pity, take an interest and teach him how to play music and write songs - "If this guy wants to create that badly, I will
help him create!" The mind is mysterious.

Did he even realize that he was lucky to be a record producer? It's funny because he probably could have pulled off something similar in a legit way. Somebody should have given him a copy of "The Manual."

yeah he's fucked now, i mean jesus there are tons of really affordable and well regarded indie rock producers in mpls/st.paul...violating the trust someone has put with you to take care of their material is unforgivable.

http://richkidsbrand.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/s.mouse-richkids.png

i wonder if he really loved the record or if he just had some weird logic like "man i went to the trouble of mixing it and they never put it out, i guess i may as well do something with these songs"

Yeah. Or if he funded the project, figuring this would force him to compose something but instead came up dry so kept going back to that same well.

In any case he would have done better to call the thing Ten Burn Disco Burn Songs To Hear Before You Die

/lastweeksmeme

I love Kickstarter con artists.

This would never have happened to The Larry Birds of Terre Haute.

i've done stuff w/ other people where i've had to teach them how to play or sing something i've written, and i imagine it'd be pretty hard to fake it if you were actually teaching them something you didn't write or really know how to play yourself.

yeah! that was the first thing i thought. such a weird con, like, if you wanted to pass off a bunch of material as your own why would you not be wayyyy more discreet?

oh that was already pointed out! well then

Clearly this was a cry for help. Perhaps the poor thing was burning the candle at both ends, as he is wont to do.

how fucking hard is it to write an indie rock album

compared to what?

successfully running a con where you rip of some other band's album note for note

it's harder?

clearly not because i get delivered approximately 100 CDs of "some doughy white weekend warriors and a guitar and a drawing of boat and a song title named after a don delillo line" in padded envelopes every single day of the waking fucking nightmare that is my life

maybe find another line of work?

he's in the wrong bees-knees

but Doughy White Weekend Warriors is my streetpunk band plz give us another chance

clearly not because i get delivered approximately 100 CDs of "some doughy white weekend warriors and a guitar and a drawing of boat and a song title named after a don delillo line" in padded envelopes every single day of the waking fucking nightmare that is my life

Whiney is at Mencken levels of greatness here

That 1st story reminds me of Malcolm McLaren's 'role' in 'writing' the songs for the 1st BowWowWow 'album...

Whiney wins thread.

Well, I know I could knock off (as in write) 10 tracks of indie-rock in an afternoon.

That doesn't mean everybody could.

shudder to delillo

Wasn't Doughy White the guy who replaced Midge Ure in Thin Lizzy?

Thought he led one of the better Western Swing bands after the war.

Whiney, couldn't you just let Algerian Goalkeeper do a weekly poll rollout of your inbox?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQE0pfBAYQ8

Wonder how long it will take the scars to heal.