Monday, February 19, 2024

“Signs Of Life” by Every Move A Picture – A Song Feature

 

    It is appropriate that a song titled “Signs of Life" has a space-age sound to its intro. The futuristic synth reemerges at various points of the single from Every Move A Picture, but in a reduced role and sounding more like a warning siren. The guitar-drive and vocals dictate the direction of the body of “Signs of Life.”
 
      The band explains that this and other releases were “trapped in distribution purgatory” while control over the discography was decided. The full story, which is both interesting and somewhat mournful, is included at the bottom of this post. There was a positive outcome, allowing us to feature the 19-year-old “Signs of “Life” as a recent release.  
 
     The credits for "Signs of Life" identify Brent Messenger (vocals, guitar), Allen Davis (guitar, keys), Joey Fredrick (bass), and Dan Aquino (drums). Davis is from Portland, Oregon, while the other three have direct ties to the San Francisco Bay Area.
 
      “Signs Of Life” by Every Move A Picture

Lyrics of “Signs Of Life” by Every Move A Picture
Come on out
Come on out in this light
Satellites can't see what's inside
 
Unlock the door
It won't save you anymore
Governments can't fight what's inside
 
Show some signs of life
Show some signs of life
Show some signs of life
 
Come on down
Come on down from these heights
Others bled to give you the right
 
Understand the choice
They don't even hear your voice
But governments can't fight what's inside
What's inside?
 
Show some signs of life
Show some signs of life
Show some signs of life
 
And come down
And put your heart in this fight
Ah, come on
And make your stand tonight
 
Show some signs of life
Show some signs of life
Show some signs of life
Show some signs of life
Show some signs of life
Show some signs of life
Show some signs of life
 
And come down
And put your heart in this fight
Ah, come on
And make your stand tonight
 
Pasted from the story of Every Move A Picture:
     If you were a DJ, a record label executive, or an indie clubgoer in San Francisco, LA, New York, or London in the early 2000s—working or frequenting the spots that launched artists like Bloc Party, Arctic Monkeys, LCD Soundsystem, and The Killers—you likely heard Every Move A Picture. And if you believed the buzz swirling around the San Francisco four-piece, you might have even thought they were about to be famous. Such was the world of independent music at the height of the peer-to-peer music-sharing orgy and the resulting record label die-off it helped accelerate. What seemed inevitable could vanish in the blink of an eye, and Every Move A Picture did almost exactly that in late-2006.
 
     Still, few unsigned artists are lucky enough to experience a run like Every Move A Picture had before the crash. Between 2004 - 2005, on the strength of several self-recorded demos and an endless string of sweaty sold-out shows up and down the West Coast, the unsigned post-punk outfit had amassed an army of influential supporters. 
 
      Well before Every Move A Picture signed a contract with V2 Records in late 2005, their demos—and in particular the standout single "Signs Of Life"— had earned airplay on commercial radio stations KROQ in LA and Live105 in San Francisco, KEXP in Seattle, and BBC 6 Music in the UK. Their gritty home recording, full of audio artifacts, angular guitars, and pulsing analog synths, had led to a breakout set at SXSW; scored fawning coverage in the notoriously acerbic UK music mag, NME; yielded a high-visibility slot at the iconic Leeds & Reading Festivals in the UK; and got them invited to perform a live prime-time set in the John Peel Studio at BBC Radio 1 as the guest of another iconic DJ—Steve Lemacq.
 
      Amid the frenzy, a self-released vinyl 7" single of "Signs Of Life" even landed on the UK Independent Singles chart and sold out the same week. It's no wonder the band's eventual contract with V2 Records only granted the label temporary control of the demo recordings, requiring that all rights be returned to the band after five years—a contractual agreement that would be violated repeatedly by numerous record labels over a 14-year period ending last month, in January of 2024.
 
     So how could a band with so much momentum in 2005 all but disappear by the end of 2006? The first clue lies with their label, V2 Records, which was on the brink of a financial collapse even as they signed the band to a multi-record contract.
 
     Every Move Picture was on tour supporting the official release of their debut full-length in June of 2006 when the phones at V2 Records North America headquarters stopped working, leaving the band stuck on the road with no support and mounting tour expenses.
 
     By mid-2006, barely a year after signing Every Move A Picture, V2 Records North America, the largest and most successful independent record label in the United States, was gone. And their catalog—including Every Move A Picture, The White Stripes, Grandaddy, Moby, Bloc Party, and others—was sold to the highest bidder. 
 
      The new owners, essentially a holding company, merged some of the music into their catalog, sold what they didn't want, and seemingly gave away the rest. Miraculously, the ever-powerful Universal Music Group emerged from the morass holding the Every Move A Picture recordings in late 2007. However, UMG quickly sold them to a Belgian company called PIAS, only to reacquire them at a deep discount several years later.
 
     Across the yearslong shell game, Every Move A Picture's recordings were trapped in distribution purgatory, never making their way to the insurgent digital streaming services that were rapidly remaking the industry. The labels and various legal entities controlling the music had no interest in promoting it, and the band could not share, license, or otherwise market their original demos without being subject to takedown orders and threats of legal action—despite their contractual right to the recordings beginning in 2010.
 
      For over a decade, Every Move A Picture's attempts to regain control of their original recordings were stonewalled by record labels and companies who had no knowledge of the contract they bought, no interest in the music they controlled, no curiosity about the band's story, and no consideration for the musicians on the other side— who had been robbed of their intellectual property, saddled with debt from an aborted tour, and virtually erased from the music industry landscape in the process. 

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