Warner Bros. Won’t Go to Battle for Gwar

The Warner Bros. bunny is hopping cautiously these days.

Just after “corporate concern” over controversial lyrics reportedly canceled a proposed distribution agreement between Warners Bros.-affiliated Giant Records and rap label Rap-a-Lot, Warner Bros. Records has refused to release a song by the theatrical rock band Gwar.

A Warner Bros. spokesman confirmed to Pop Eye that the company would not release the group’s new album--on the Warner-distributed Metal Blade label--because the song “BDF” contains obscene lyrics.

Metal Blade owner Brian Slagel says the move comes at the end of his company’s current contract with Warner Bros., which will not be renewed by “mutual agreement.” Metal Blade will shop for a new distribution deal that includes the completed Gwar album, tentatively titled “This Toilet Earth.”

Warner’s decision not to release the Gwar track underscores the atmosphere at the company and at all Warner Music Group labels (which also includes Atlantic and Elektra and their subsidiaries) since last year’s uproar over the content of Ice-T’s Body Count project. The controversy caused headlines nationwide and ultimately led to Ice-T’s leaving Warner Bros. for the independent Priority label.

“There’s definitely been a change at Warner Bros. since the Ice-T incident,” said Slagel, noting that the company now requires a copy of all lyrics before releasing a record. “They’re just not going to distribute records they think they’re going to have problems with.”

Warner Bros. senior vice president Bob Merlis acknowledged that the label examines all lyrics in order to comply with the industry’s non-binding agreement to place “Parental Advisory” warnings on certain product. Merlis added that it would be “disingenuous” to suggest the Ice-T incident didn’t have an effect on policy at the label.

“We’ve been very sensitized by circumstances,” he said. “We must be aware of what we release and how we release it.”