the rebellyon. the deal with roadrunner records.

hola…..

well, goddammit.
it looks like one person’s innocent belly picture:

has turned into a mass movement of belly love.
i love belly love.

someone started an official “Rebellyon” website.
and there are over 300 bellies up at the thread (that is SEVENTY pages long, holy shit) on the shadowbox:
theshadowbox.net/forum/index.php?topic=6054.0

check this:

dammmmmmmn!!!!!!!!

who’d have thunk it.
this is why i fucking love you guys. i couldn’t have thought this up in a million years. righteous.

a bunch of feminist blogs have posted about this fine phenomenon of belly pride…
http://www.thefword.org.uk/blog/2008/11/female_artists_1
http://www.feministing.com/archives/012421.html
http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2008/12/impossibly-beautiful.html

and the guardian UK just ran a piece on it…holy shit….
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/dec/03/dresden-dolls-roadrunner

….but some of them got the label story wrong.

so let me clarify, on the record, so shit is straight:
i am still on roadrunner records.

some of you may be curious about how this all works, so i will try to simplify.

in 2003, i signed a contract that bound us together to make 3 records with 4 options
(meaning the label could opt to drop me after each release, but i couldn’t leave of my own free will).

the first record was The Dresden Dolls.
the second record was Yes, Virginia.

they didn’t count No, Virginia against our contract (sad long story).

Who Killed Amanda Palmer was the third.

i had put a solid year of my life and $80,000 of my own savings (that will never be paid back by the label – another long sad story) into this record.

right before the european tour i went to the new york offices of roadrunner to say hi and check in.
my a&r guy (my main contact at the label) sat me down in his office and said he wanted to discuss the “leeds united” video.
he told me that there were certain shots that they wanted to either cut completely or digitally alter to “be more flattering”.

my favorite quote from that meeting:
“i’m a guy, amanda. i understand what people like.”

to which i reply: where have you been for the last five years?
do you have any idea who i am, what band i’ve been in, what kind of music i write, who my fans are….who didn’t send you the memo that i’m not britney spears? i’m not TRYING to look hungry. i’m trying to look HOT. there’s a difference.

the big irony here, like i said before, is that i am totally vain about shit like this.
i will be the first one to run screaming from photos where my fat little belly is rolling over my jeans and taking center stage.
i’ve been mistaken for pregnant so many times. it’s always funny. AND embarrassing. i was born with a fat little belly and i love wine. there’s just no changing things,
unless i want to live on salad. and i love salad, but not all the time. i also like pasta. even when the rest of my body is JACKED, RIPPED and SLAMMIN’,
my fat little belly happily stays in place. it’s just so.
i am used to it. and i have learned to Love the Belly.
still, however proud i may be of it in it’s natural state, it’s still not something i go out of my way to flaunt.
but this video….i mean, look at it. there’s just NOTHING there that anybody could really object to, even by MAINSTREAM standards.
so i was really perplexed. and i told the label i wasn’t changing anything. they backed down.

a few weeks later i had a meeting with the owner of the label. he said he thought it was a shame that someone as smart and talented as me could not make a commercial record that they could sell. and he thinks that someday i’ll see the light and write some better songs.

i told him i made exactly the record i wanted to make.

more than exactly.  i think i’ve made an INCREDIBLE FUCKING record.
i really do.

he shook his head and felt sorry for me.

i feel sorry for them. they are trying to sell pieces of plastic in a digital world.
but they’re barking up the wrong tree if they think they can katy perry or avril lavigne me into the walmarts of the world.
not into it.
never was.
sorry.
i never wanted to sell millions of records as my primary goal, nor did i want to be a pop star.
i am very fucking happy with what they sneeringly call my “cottage industry” life.

so i think the relationship is rather doomed, from a creative standpoint.

i asked to be dropped a few weeks ago, so i could move forward in freedom.
they refused.
they have until june to decide whether to drop me or not.

let us pray.