Ke$sha 'Borrows' (aka Rips Off) Iconic Imagery from The Residents

It was a bad idea when Rerun ("What's Happening!!") agreed to bootleg The Doobie Brothers....

This also seems like a bad idea (Ke$ha - Live at Jones Beach 6/1/13).  In an interview with Yahoo! Music, film maker Don Hardy, a filmmaker who's working with The Residents on a documentary, said:"They don't know what to do," adding that there is a consensus that Ke$ha is "interfering with their intellectual property. Her people definitely didn't call in to say, 'Hey, can we use this?' They're debating what to do. One potential way to deal with it is to ask for a cease-and-desist and have attorneys sort it out. I think they'd rather see a different outcome, though. When you're a smaller group, what do you do? If you file suit, people say, 'Oh, it's the small guys trying to get in on something big.' It's a no-win situation."

There could be a kinder, gentler resolution. "It could be a five-minute conversation," Hardy says, "if Ke$ha will acknowledge that the look came from the Residents and that she's giving them a tip of the hat. Telling people, 'If you've been to my show, it's an homage' might encourage some of her fans to check out the Residents, and the bigger win would be that bit of recognition."

In case anyone might think the appropriation was coincidental, Hardy says that "even down to the color of the eyes, it's what the Residents have used all these years. It couldn't have just happened."



Links:
The Residents

The Bleed Play Jones Beach on Aug. 15 and Release New CD on Sept. 25

The Bleed have a new CD, Silent Treatment, due out in late September (on Vagrant Records). The first track from this release, Shadetree Mechanics, is streaming on the band's MySpace page.

Silent Treatment is the band’s third full-length and was recorded earlier this year with producer Brian McTernan. The resulting 11-song set is an explosive document of The Bled’s trademark ability to join unexpected melodies and precision playing with the heaviest of rhythms. To get an early listen, the first track, “Shadetree Mechanics,” is currently airing on AOL’s Projekt Revolution radio channel and is also included on the Vagrant summer sampler being distributed free at the Vagrant Records booth along this summer’s Warped Tour.

The band is touring as part of the Projekt Revolution tour, which includes acts like Linkin Park, My Chemical Romance and Taking Back Sunday. The tour started last week in Washington state and there are a couple stops in the area in the middle to end of August.

Here are the tour dates in the area:

Aug 15 - Wantagh, NY @ Nikon at Jones Beach Theater
Aug 16 - Lancaster, Pennsylvania @ The Chameleon (The Bleed headline a club show)
Aug 25 - Camden, NJ @ Tweeter Center at the Waterfront
Aug 26 - Hartford, CT @ New England Dodge Music Center
Aug 29 - Holmdel, NJ @ PNC Bank Arts Center

Links:
The Bleed's MySpace Page
The Bleed's Main Website