Sunburned Hand weirdness
 

Saw this on their myspace blog thing. Seems Chad Cooper has left the band, is not pleased that the rest of the band are continuing and is selling off his 4 track recordings of the band on ebay:

Saturday, May 26, 2007
Nut
Check out this mo-mo on ebay, this info about current state of the band is not true, this is a funny read....

from chad's ebay listings:"During the 10 Years I played with Sunburned Hand of the Man,I recorded countless hours of never before heard sunburned hand of the man music music,Including the very birth of the project.I have used a tascam 4 track for a lot of it ,but also a vestax 6 track for the early years,.I thought as time went on there would be a day when I could put some love into these tapes but truth be told my sunburned hand of the man days are as over as sunburned hand of the man is,and these tapes still rock.they have never been heard but they should be,if you own a tascam 4 track or a vestax 6 track or a regular tape deck and want to listen to your own never before heard sunburned hand of the man music,here is your chance.

what exactly are you bidding on here,? by bidding on this ad you are guaranteed a never before heard sunburned hand of the man by chad cooper master recording of my choice from my private collection, one at a time until they are all gone , you will also get full descriptions of who is playing what instrument and when.

to me this band at that time was prophetic and truly a wonder to behold to say the very very least and I hope to find a thousand bootlegs from every corner of the globe before the days are done.now dont forget that bootlegs YOU release using my recordings are considered illegal,so make sure you put' the chad cooper tapes' recordings of the music of the sunburned hand of the man within the title and I will never ever bring you to court.
remember these are my personal property and 10 years of my work recording us at that time and I promise here in front of the world that I will never get upset seeing new releases of old recordings and I will never sue for use of my tapes,.and don't forget that sunburned hand of the man does not exist any more so these tapes remain the worlds last hope for ever really understanding what was really going on with that line up of guys.

Sunburned Hand of the Man as you knew it to be ,not to be confused with 'Sunburned' as it is today is in fact ,despite a few familiar faces a completely different line up of cats. so here is your chance to continue the journey into that amazing band that was Sunburned Hand of the Man.

this auction will perpetuate until each and every tape is out there,.as supply runs short there will be a price increase.

I had posted this ad a week ago and got a lot of questions,if you are looking for more than 1 at a time or if you are seeking a specific band line up or for specific year, email me at thewickedit@gmail.com thanks and happy bidding C Cooper"

kinda funny, and definitely weird.

Gee, who could have predicted internal squabbles in a band like this?

yea pretty nutty. i havent ran into to any of the guys recently but sounds like a shitty scenario. i contacted chad the other week when he listed one of my gig posters on ebay just to give him more history. i didnt realize he was going to go as far as selling original recordings and shit... wish i had the cash personally to purchase a bunch of them and hand them back over to john and the others...

It's odd...some of them were listed at about $700 and then some at $70 or so. And it didn't seem like the listing was for specific recordings...I got the impression whichever auction you won, he was going to pick one at random unless you specified what era/line up you wanted.

I am tempted to be fair.

yea his listings have been very random in price. the poster of mine he sold was an edition of 16 and ended up going for $12, but something that the band did in mass quanties at the local print shop would be listed for $50-60 bucks. i think its humorous that his store is called 'sunburned hand of the bling-bling stop' however because its a good stab at those crazies who list the private press lps and such for obnoxious prices... like the dude the other week selling a nnck off-shoot band lp for 200 bucks, when even the typical nnck oop lp barely reaches 100...

Yeah, most nnck lps aren't going to set you back a hell of a lot if you wait. I got the Live at Kens and Ass Run lps reasonably recently for about $25-$35 each or something which isn't that much at all with the exchange rate as it is.

I am really, really tempted to buy a tape...just to see what's on them really. $65 isn't a fortune...

is that ass run one the shitspangled banner?

Weird. I remember reading something last month or so about there supposedly being some sort of split-up between "Sunburned" and "Sunburned Hand of the Man" but I didn't think anything about it because it didn't seem credible to me. A split-up still doesn't look credible, but someone is definitely having some beef.

The Shit Spangled Banner lp was so cool, we need them to release more of those sessions not rerelease the lp... that was a real summer soundtrack back in 96 or so, seems like yesterday

I'm surprised this hasn't happened sooner with all the strong egos in the band.

I don't doubt Mr Cooper has the rights to sell the tapes, but does he have the right to sell the rights to the music? And while I don't think the individual members get compensation from that single transfer, they would be eligible wouldn't they for royalties if the purchaser did decide to release the tape s/he bought (as so slyly mentioned in Mr Cooper's email). (And I guess I'm als wondering if the purchaser would really have the right to release something)

The Shit Spangled Banner lp was so cool, we need them to release more of those sessions not rerelease the lp... that was a real summer soundtrack back in 96 or so, seems like yesterday

I'm surprised this hasn't happened sooner with all the strong egos in the band.

I don't doubt Mr Cooper has the rights to sell the tapes, but does he have the right to sell the rights to the music? And while I don't think the individual members get compensation from that single transfer, they would be eligible wouldn't they for royalties if the purchaser did decide to release the tape s/he bought (as so slyly mentioned in Mr Cooper's email). (And I guess I'm als wondering if the purchaser would really have the right to release something)

i cant speak for anyone in the band, but the revolving door policy is pretty open when it comes to who is a member and who isnt a member. the last few lineups i have seen here in boston have had the core quintet of moloney, taylor richardson, rob thomas, ron scheiderman and michael kay. sometimes sarah jumps in and plays too, but as i have had john say to me many times it depends whos around and who wants to play... i think thats one of the greatest things about sunburned is you never know what your going to expect when you go see them. i wish i was able to head north with them this weekend as michael flower is doing a couple shows with them and they are certain to be barn burners....

The Shit Spangled Banner is an Ass Run lp but I was talking about the NNCK Ass Run lp...that's the only Ass Run one I have. I was going to get the Max Factory one but I totally forgot to bid on it and Whorefrost got it for about £3.50.

I e-mailed Chad about the ebay recordings that he is selling and about what happened with Sunburned. This is what he said to me taken from his e-mail.-

"I cannot go into the depths of sunburned hand of the mans personal history with you, all I can say is when my mother used to tell me there was too many cooks in the kitchen, she meant it. I can not tell you to release this by the way,only that you can use it however you like, chad cooper."

I've always been wary of collective-type groups for that very reason. Huh.

what a damn mess.

which one is chad cooper anyway?

Update from sunburned myspace:

Buying the tapes from Chad is buying stolen property which is illegal. There are no photos for any of these tapes on ebay, mainly we suspect, because they have either my handwriting on them or someone elses in the band. Some of the tapes are his four and six track recordings that would be unplayable without the machines that they were recorded on, the one six track machine is long gone from production which is mostly what he might have. I know for a fact that there are some of my personal tapes in his auction. I gave him a box of tapes to edit about 15 months ago. I just can't prove it at the moment.

Releasing any Sunburned Hand of the Man material in any form without the band's written permission is illegal and not supported by us. Theres some real good shit on those tapes though I'm sure of that.

Chad Cooper has a ponytail but not a beard I think...in pics from the Smallflower Press zine anyways. I think he played at The Spitz show in 2005 and was maybe back of stage on the right. I could be wrong though.

so he's not a core member then?

he was at one point. but personally i havent seen him perform with them during a boston or surrounding area gig since mid-2005 possibly even earlier?

Posting this here in the first time wasn't meant as malicious gossip or anything. I just read it and was surprised...and knowing that others here are into Sunburned I thought people would want to know about it. Hope none of my posts came off as if I was siding with one party or the other because that wasn't my intention. I'm not naive enough not to realise that there are two sides to every story and I'm just sad that this is going on with what is one of my favourite bands.

it's not like you to sit on the fence iain

Yep. Sunburned is playing in Ottawa tonight, and my friend is opening for them, but it's 19+. My friend's pretty lucky, within two days he opens for both AIDS wolf and Sunburned

??????

Sunburned Of The Man - Loose Bugs
Magnetic Expansion Recordings
CD (ltd.999)

This is probably my favourite Sunburned releases so far this year, the insert card must have the wrong date on it ^ recorded Feb 1989, i didn't think this could be right.

what's your verdict on acid-x?

acid-x is very good too imo, sorry i'm not very good at reviewing things but i've been enjoying everything SBHOTM has released lately and it looks like there's plenty more to come this year.

btw blunderbuss you should receive the package today.

Received it yesterday - thanks.

I'm very tempted by acid-x - the descriptions I've read make it sound pretty damn fine. I'm making a pilgrimage to Volcanic Tongue at the end of this month, if they have it in stock I'll almost certainly buy it.

...Maybe I don't want to know.. how many things have they released so far this year? Heh...

I think these are all the new releases i've got so far this year, i may have missed some though.

Sunburned - A Grand Tour of Tunisia - 3-Lobed Records - 2xLP + full-length bonus cd
Sunburned - Idgey Bath - MH98
Sunburned - Drifting Mist - MH 101
Sunburned - Spraycan in Space - MH 102
Sunburned - Acid-X - Tape Drift 08
Sunburned - Loose Bugs - Magnetic Expansion Recordings
Sunburned - The Ox Of Oh - Tarrot & Bananas
__________________

That's seven releases in just over 3 months. Does there come a point with this reportage/ spread-product marketing-niche where no-one actually buys these things? Do you think if they didn't release a record for another 3 yeras they'd be massively popular (as in, to real people, not just the sort of people who're on SYG)?

in responce to the wrong date on the sunburned loose bugs ,you are right it was 1998 and not 1989 .