Hives’ Signing Creates a Hornet’s Nest

There’s been a lot of music business discussion about the Hives’ recent signing of a global deal with Universal Music U.K. They spurned Warner Bros. Records just months after Warner had licensed the Swedish band’s recordings for North America.

The most interesting parts of behind-the-scenes conversations center on what fallout the move will have.

Warner Bros. officials say they got rights to both the Hives’ current album, “Vini Vidi Vicious,” and their as-yet-unrecorded next album in their deal with Los Angeles-based independent Epitaph Records. Epitaph made a deal in 1998 with Burning Heart Records in the Hives’ native Sweden to release the neo-garage band’s music in the U.S.

Word from the Hives camp, though, is that the band believes it has no further obligation to Warner Bros.

Expectations in the music business are that a settlement will be arranged to resolve Warner Bros.’ claim on the band before a new album is made.

That’s been the standard course of action when acts have signed with new companies while still under contract to another--such as when Tom Petty left MCA for Warner Bros. in the early ‘90s and when the Offspring exited Epitaph for Columbia Records in the mid-’90s.

Legal action is likely in the Hives’ case, and it could get unusually complicated because the band’s original contract with Burning Heart is written in Swedish and any disputes may have to be resolved in Swedish courts.

Regardless, it leaves Warner Bros. in a lame-duck situation. Sales for “Vini Vidi Vicious” have slowed since its single-week peak of 20,000 copies in June but are still strong. (The album, originally released by Epitaph nearly two years ago, has sold 176,000 copies in the U.S. since Warner Bros. took the album over in April, and about 200,000 overall, according to Nielsen SoundScan figures.)

Insiders say that Warner Bros., if nothing else, will continue to support the album out of respect for its partnership in the venture with Epitaph. Warner Bros. Chairman Tom Whalley, who had been the driving force behind the Hives deal, has had a long friendship with Epitaph head Brett Gurewitz.

What the band plans as far as continued promotion of the current album is unclear. British music executive Alan McGee, who has been representing the Hives, did not respond to e-mail queries.

The Hives situation also puts a spotlight on recent attempts at creative deal making designed to make independent music work in major-label contexts. The trend has been toward an increasing number of short-term deals or licensing agreements with acts that have established themselves outside of the major-label world.

Other recent deals of note include the White Stripes’ licensing three existing albums and two future albums to V2 Records, and Bay Area punk band AFI’s three-album contract with DreamWorks Records.

If Warner Bros. is left with less to show than it had anticipated for its investment in the band thus far, will even major labels start worrying about being treated as a steppingstone by indie bands on the lookout for better deals somewhere else?

Several music attorneys and label executives say the Hives’ case, in which the band had no input in negotiations that assigned it to Epitaph or Warner Bros., is an anomaly.

“The Hives is not the same situation,” says attorney Ian Montone, who represents the White Stripes and is a proponent of shorter-term deals.

“I just don’t think this will make labels think it hurts to do short-term deals,” Montone says. “Shorter deals would simplify all our lives.”

GRAY STRIPES: Jack White of the White Stripes is set to play a small role as a Confederate Army deserter in the movie “Cold Mountain,” which will be directed by Anthony Minghella (“The English Patient”) from the novel by Charles Frazier.

White’s character will sing several Civil War-era songs, which he recently recorded with soundtrack producer T Bone Burnett in Nashville. Filming will take place in November in Romania, which will double for the story’s North Carolina setting.

Meanwhile, Jack and drummer Meg White have finished their next White Stripes album in England and after a few more U.S. concert dates will take some time off before the record’s release, which is scheduled for February.

BLUES CLUES: Chris Thomas King, who played Delta blues musician Tommy Johnson in “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” and has continued with the role in the related Down From the Mountain concerts, has two more film appearances in the works. He’ll be seen as musician Blind Willie Johnson in director Wim Wenders’ installment of the PBS series “The Blues,” airing in fall 2003.

He’s also signed up for a co-starring role in a movie being developed for Miramax titled “Midnight Hour.” The fictional tale of two musician friends set in the ‘60s will be directed by Charles Burnett.

New Orleans-based King is also putting the focus back on his own music, which incorporates blues traditions and hip-hop elements. “Dirty South Hip Hop Blues” will be released Oct. 8 by his own 21st Century Blues Records, which he established after being on Sire Records and BMG’s Private Music in the ‘90s.

Although the music is a far cry from what he’s been doing in the “O Brother” context, he believes the new and large audience that has seen and heard him now will be receptive.

“With the fans coming to the Down From the Mountain concerts, we’re a long way from the blues and bluegrass roots audience,” he says. “When you sell 8 million records, you’re playing for fans of Celine Dion and Britney Spears, so they won’t be shocked by the hip-hop blues. As far as the blues audience goes, those 5,000 people who are blues purists might have heart attacks.”

SMALL FACES: While Ryan Adams was finishing and releasing last year’s acclaimed album “Gold,” he was also busy recording several dozen other songs in five recording sessions over 10 months. Thirteen of those songs have been assembled on “Demolition,” an album due from Lost Highway Records on Sept. 24. The styles range from country-folk to snarling alt-rock, with guest appearances by Gillian Welch, David Rawlings and Chris Stills. Adams is about to begin recording the official follow-up to “Gold.” ...

With the Distillers starting to get airplay on KROQ-FM (106.7), and MTV and the band’s deal with Epitaph Records up, major labels are starting to show an interest in the trio. Warner Bros., Atlantic, Maverick, DreamWorks and Universal Records are all said to be interested, with representatives of several labels spotted at the band’s two sold-out Roxy shows last weekend.

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Steve Hochman is a frequent contributor to Calendar.