Ongoing History Daily: How to get out of a bad record deal

What’s the best way to get out of a bad record deal? Turn in a bad record as part of your contract.

Lou Reed did it back in 1975 with his Metal Machine Music. If you’re unaware of what Lou did, he was so determined to get out a contract with RCA, that he turned in a double album of nothing but feedback. Sixty minutes’ worth of unlistenable squalling. RCA let Lou go but they also released the album anyway to…I don’t know, teach Lou a lesson?

Then there was the New England metalcore band Drowningman. They were upset at how their label bungled the release of their second album, in 2001, they turned in a deliberately awful third record called Best Record Ever. One of the tracks featured someone playing a cover of Aerosmith’s “Sweet Emotion” on one channel and “Stairway to Heaven” on the other. The label got the message and they were dropped.

Unfortunately, though, Best Record Ever was never released. Drowningman broke up a year later.