Wilco: Bennett vs. Tweedy

JGriffin · Post by **JGriffin** » Tue May 05, 2009 10:33 am

Jay Bennett's public filing against Jeff Tweedy

John Candy · Post by **John Candy** » Tue May 05, 2009 12:01 pm

whenever a disagreement arises amongst band members in the studio i says to myselfs "heavy metal drummer" and try and put things in perspective.

MoreSpaceEcho · Post by **MoreSpaceEcho** » Tue May 05, 2009 12:55 pm

as far as band disagreements go, the heavy metal drummer one seemed awfully benign, no? i mean it seemed to me like they were both saying the same thing but were so burnt out/tired they were just not communicating/listening well.

dwlby what's your take on this? on the one hand i think bennett probably did make a big contribution to the band and tweedy probably does owe him some loot, on the other hand i kinda feel like it's not worth going to court for 50 grand. does that make me crazy? i mean, i am poor, 50 grand would be a shitton of money to me. but still...

JGriffin · Post by **JGriffin** » Tue May 05, 2009 1:04 pm

MoreSpaceEcho wrote:as far as band disagreements go, the heavy metal drummer one seemed awfully benign, no? i mean it seemed to me like they were both saying the same thing but were so burnt out/tired they were just not communicating/listening well.

That's how I read it as well. The funny thing is I watch that or "Some Kind of Monster" and think, yeah, musicians always argue about the same stupid shit...

But I think, more than what was actually being argued about, the fact that the argument was so heavy for Tweedy that he had to go puke means 1) he's got really thin skin or b) things were much more tense than we realize at that point and there were layers of that argument beyond whether the CRC second had to pull the console automation off-line.

MoreSpaceEcho wrote: dwlby what's your take on this? on the one hand i think bennett probably did make a big contribution to the band and tweedy probably does owe him some loot, on the other hand i kinda feel like it's not worth going to court for 50 grand. does that make me crazy? i mean, i am poor, 50 grand would be a shitton of money to me. but still...

I'm going foot-to-foot about it. If JB's not getting royalties that are legitimately owed him, that's one thing. If he's just going after them five years on because his solo career is not doing what Wilco's career is...that's horse of another color.

MoreSpaceEcho · Post by **MoreSpaceEcho** » Tue May 05, 2009 1:54 pm

i think it's probably a little from column A a little from column B.

the argument metallica should've been having is simply:

LARS: james, why haven't you written anything remotely resembling a decent riff in like the last 15 years? you were once the undisputed king of all rifferama, aren't you embarrassed by yourself now? if you would just write some decent tunes i could spend my energy writing some non-retarded drum parts instead of pretending like i was accomplishing something by spending all damn day making our poor protools lackey snap my kick drum hits to the grid.

JAMES: EET FUK!

LARS: it's always the same thing with you hatefield.

jashwa · Post by **jashwa** » Tue May 05, 2009 3:40 pm

like dw said i dont think they could have possibly split up over a several second intro and the documentary doesn't delve into the fight- but the way the documentary represented bennet made him seem like one of the most annoying people ever to have existed, so it isn't hard to imagine what happened.

drumsound · Post by **drumsound** » Tue May 05, 2009 5:51 pm

Taking the movie, which could have been edited to make anyone look like the bad guy, out of the discussion; If Wilco/Tweedy is not paying Bennet for for money earned on his contributions while a member of the band, Tweedy does seem in the wrong. If there was not a signed legal document at the end of Bennet's time in the band he should still be entitled to payment for sales of the records which he was involved.

valverec · Post by **valverec** » Tue May 05, 2009 5:59 pm

Sad to see it come to this. As others have said, the documentary could have been edited to make anyone look bad, but I can definitely see why Tweedy was done with him. That doesn't make it right to use his work without compensation though, if in fact that is really going on.

sad iron · Post by **sad iron** » Tue May 05, 2009 7:23 pm

OK, so I clicked on the link and couldn't get the page to come up. That said, Jay is a personal friend of mine. I haven't talked to him about this (and I wouldn't presume to), but I don't think he would go through a lawsuit out of sour grapes.

infiniteposse · Post by **infiniteposse** » Tue May 05, 2009 8:17 pm

It seems that having been in the band for so long, there would have had to have been existing, documented parameters for the band to get compensated after each album. Publishing should have been sorted out at the end of each LP and then once publishing is registered with BMI or ASCAP, it's handled by bean counters who issue the checks. I'm unsure if Bennett ever got proper co-writing credits on any of the material?

The legal document linked to makes it sound like the original line-up had a formal agreement in place and he was never a legal part of that agreement. It reads like he abided by the parameters of the agreement and thus, feels he deserves whatever payout is outlined in that contract. It doesn't however mention that there had ever been any suggestion by Tweedy, verbal or written, that that was the case.

I'll be interested to see how all of this pans out. Just another reason to do business with friends in a business-like way. Get it all laid out formally on paper.

JGriffin · Post by **JGriffin** » Tue May 05, 2009 11:11 pm

MoreSpaceEcho wrote:i think it's probably a little from column A a little from column B.

the argument metallica should've been having is simply:

LARS: james, why haven't you written anything remotely resembling a decent riff in like the last 15 years? you were once the undisputed king of all rifferama, aren't you embarrassed by yourself now? if you would just write some decent tunes i could spend my energy writing some non-retarded drum parts instead of pretending like i was accomplishing something by spending all damn day making our poor protools lackey snap my kick drum hits to the grid.

JAMES: EET FUK!

LARS: it's always the same thing with you hatefield.

I think you're extending quite a lot of credit towards Lars in that exchange.

MoreSpaceEcho · Post by **MoreSpaceEcho** » Wed May 06, 2009 7:35 am

probably. BUT! i'm sure i'm in the minority here, but i thought hetfield came off as way more of a jerk than lars in SKOM.

JGriffin · Post by **JGriffin** » Wed May 06, 2009 11:03 am

MoreSpaceEcho wrote:probably. BUT! i'm sure i'm in the minority here, but i thought hetfield came off as way more of a jerk than lars in SKOM.

I'm with you there.

chris harris · Post by **chris harris** » Wed May 06, 2009 12:00 pm

hetfield came off as more of a jerk.
lars came off as more of a twat.

both are just sad metal divas.

MoreSpaceEcho · Post by **MoreSpaceEcho** » Wed May 06, 2009 1:01 pm

and then there's poor kirk hammett.

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Wilco: Bennett vs. Tweedy

Wilco: Bennett vs. Tweedy

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