I understand someone who is thinking from the perspective of a major record label/big business situation but that's the antithesis of T&G. They were a label based and handshakes and kinship based on a mutual appreciation of independent music. If you can't appreciate why this is so important, I doubt it's ever going to dawn on you. Nobody forced the BH Surfers to agree to a deal with T&G but once they did and used tens of thousands of dollars of the label's money, they were morally obligated to follow through with their end of the deal (again, literally the best deal in the business, with most other labels bands see a fraction of the earnings). Instead they not only reneged on their part, they actually sought financial compensation which put the label in a financial bind for some time and jeopardised its continuing existence.
You can't judge T&G by the standards of mainstream record labels, it's not the same thing at all. That's the point. By involving yourself with T&G, especially during this era, you were presumed to understand this.
Frankly, T&G seems to have acted incredibly stupidly by ignoring the requests by the band's manager to renegotiate the contract. If he really thought the manager was acting without the band's knowledge and trying to find a way to get a cut of their back catalogue money then he was screwing the band over by not calling them up and telling them, instead he appears to have ignored the situation and hoped it would go away.
Again, this is big business thinking. Corey Rusk did a deal with the band, whom he had an existing personal relationship with. There was no manager, no lawyers, no contracts because that was the point of Touch & Go. That's the distinction. You could work with T&G, they would give you literally to this day the fairest, most honest deal going and all you had to do was hold up your end of the deal. Nobody forced you into it, there were hundreds of labels which would happily screw you with contracts and legalese. That wasn't what you got which Touch & Go.
The BH Surfer's "manager" who allegedly contacted T&G shouldn't have been a factor. He wasn't involved with the original deal and indeed, by the standards of every other band on T&G, had a job which was the absolute antithesis of the independent ethos. From Corey Rusk's perspective, he had done a deal with some friends and held up his end of the deal, only to have a complete unknown call him out of the blue years later and try to involve himself. Remember that said "manager" wanted to negotiate a deal for these records with a major so he could have a percentage of the deal. A deal which would give the BH Surfers maybe six or seven percent of the sales, rather than the fifty they were getting with T&G.
And why shouldn't they be able to change the agreement? Remember, this is after T&G has recouped its costs on the records so by moving away from T&G they aren't costing them money.
They did cost them money. They forced T&G pay them some pretty extensive "damages" by invoking the law. The label which funded all of their early records and essentially allowed them to continue functioning as a band. The label which paid for their extensive recording sessions and gave them regular tour support for years. The label which held up their side of the deal entirely.
A handshake deal is done on the basis of trust, but if a band decides they don't trust a label to do the right thing anymore do they just have to live with a label that they feel isn't acting in their interests anymore?
Hahaha, "right thing". Hahahah. Butthole Surfers. Hahaha.
Touch & Go were still advertising these records to the independent market same as they always had. The BH Surfers were fine with this until they signed to a major.
Having said that, I don't think T&G were entirely in the wrong. The band should have made more of an effort to sort things out without lawyers, but I think characterising this as the evil money-grubbing Butthole Surfers robbing poor innocent T&G for no reason is going way too far.
Only if you consider the truth to be offensive. That's exactly what happened. Corey Rusk is one of the most trust-worthy, honest and decent human beings involved in music and always has been. He made a deal with some friends which was by industry standards absolutely the best one going and held up his end. The band in question tried and nearly succeeded in screwing him, his label and by association all the bands who worked with T&G for the fuck of it, essentially out of temporary misplaced greed.
