And THIS is who Indie replaced Dicky with...fuckers

Talk about the DJ's here.

Moderator: Admin

Post Reply
gidgetgoestohell
Posts: 4942
Joined: Mon Mar 14, 2005 7:57 am
Location: Guada La Habra, CA

And THIS is who Indie replaced Dicky with...fuckers

Post by gidgetgoestohell »

COPY & REPOST !!!!!


Vandal Scandal!

<a href="http://imageshack.us"><img src="http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/3660/vslogogd4.jpg" border="0" alt="Image Hosted by ImageShack.us"></a>




How a Poseur-Turned-Lawyer

STOLE a Punk Rock Legacy

for Fun and Profit


by Oskar Mire


A Concise History of The Vandals


1980-1981



Jan and Stevo start the band in Huntington Beach and play several shows at the Cuckoo's Nest among other places.



During this period a number of original songs are written by Jan and Stevo and performed by the original lineup of the
band. Their sets include WANNABE MANOR, URBAN STRUGGLE, THE LEGEND OF PAT BROWN, Elvis Presley's
HEARTBREAK HOTEL (with Stevo's reworked lyrics), and others.



A long list of drummers and bass players join and then leave the band.



Stevo, after dating Joe Escalante's sister and learning that her little brother is a drummer, recruits Joe to join the
Vandals sometime in late 1980 or early 1981.



A few weeks later, Joe recruits Steve 'Human' Pfauter, the former singer for a garage band Joe was in, to be the
Vandals' new bassist. This forms the original recording lineup.



The band plays around town and gets a bit of a following.



The band is approached by Brett Gurewitz of
Epitaph Records (and the band
Bad Religion) with a record deal.




1982



The songs the band decides to record include WANNABE MANOR, URBAN STRUGGLE, THE LEGEND OF PAT
BROWN, HEARTBREAK HOTEL (with Stevo's reworked lyrics), PIRATE'S LIFE, and ANARCHY BURGER. All of
these songs were written before Joe or Human joined the band, with the exception of PIRATE'S LIFE and ANARCHY
BURGER.



The lyrics to PIRATE'S LIFE are written by Joe, and the music is written by Jan, with passages cribbed from
Disneyland.



The authorship of ANARCHY BURGER is somewhat more complicated. The title and chorus of the song are taken
from graffiti ("ANARCHY BURGER -- HOLD THE GOVERNMENT") written by
Todd Barnes of the band TSOL. Todd got the idea from the
Sex Pistols' SOME PRODUCT album, whose sleeve art jokingly commodified the Pistols by making everyday consumer
products of their punk rock attitudes. The fictitious products depicted in the SOME PRODUCT sleeve art included the
'Vicious Burger' and a soft drink called 'Anarkee-Ora'. From this twice-borrowed beginning, Jan and Joe write music for the
new song. Aside from the borrowed graffito as a chorus, there are no lyrics until the band actually enters the studio.
Stevo, by himself in the bathroom of the studio, comes up with the lyrics for the song and writes them on a paper bag. The
rest of the band hears the lyrics for the first time when Stevo sings them in the recording booth.



When the subject of publishing credit and royalties comes up, it is immediately and democratically decided that the
members of the band will all share equally in any profit to be made from their recordings. Jan and Stevo are very generous
in this decision, as the two of them wrote almost all of the material to appear on the album before the others joined
the band.



PEACE THRU VANDALISM is released. The sleeve art lists each musician by name, and
credits them collectively ("All songs copyright 1982 The Vandals except H.B. Hotel by Elvis").



URBAN STRUGGLE, one of the songs from PEACE THRU VANDALISM, becomes a minor hit on KROQ, one of the only
radio stations in Los Angeles to play punk rock. The song is one of those written by Jan and Stevo before Joe and Human
joined the band.




1983



Brett Gurewitz begins to pay The Vandals royalties earned from sales of PEACE THRU VANDALISM. The royalties are
divided according to the band's oral agreement with Brett and his record company, Epitaph: Half the profits go to Epitaph,
and the other half goes to The Vandals. In accordance with their oral agreement with each other, the band's half of the
profits are divided equally between the four of them.



Steve 'Human' Pfauter leaves the band in December, 1983 and is replaced by Chalmer Lumery.



1984-1988



Possibly due to a personal struggle with drug abuse, Brett Gurewitz tells The Vandals that financial problems are
preventing him from handing over the regular royalty payments that are due to them from sales of their album. In spite of
this, PEACE THRU VANDALISM is selling briskly.



WHEN IN ROME DO AS THE VANDALS is released (though not on Epitaph, for obvious reasons). Just as on PEACE
THRU VANDALISM, the sleeve art credits the entire band with collectively writing all the words and music.



In large part due to personality conflicts between Joe Escalante and Stevo, the band has ceased to rehearse or play
together. Stevo and Human are regularly calling Brett Gurewitz to ask when they might be paid. Joe is calling Brett as well.





1989



Presumably sick of the incessant calls and visits from members of the band, Brett Gurewitz decides to make amends and
gives the copyright and masters for PEACE THRU VANDALISM back to them. Unfortunately, he hands the settlement to
Joe Escalante, who promptly gets greedy and decides to pretend that the rights and masters were given to him alone and that
Brett still owes the rest of the band for years of unpaid royalties. This is the first of many thefts Joe commits against
his former friends.



From this point forward all rights to PEACE THRU VANDALISM should have belonged equally to the four members of
the band who played on the recording, as this was Brett's clearly stated intent. When Stevo and Human contact Brett again,
they are told that the masters and rights to the record have already been given back to them. "Talk to Joe," says Brett.
When asked about his meeting with Brett, Joe claims that the masters and rights were given to him alone. In November of
2006, the author of this website contacted Brett Gurewitz and asked him about the settlement made with Joe Escalante.
Gurewitz stated very plainly and clearly that the masters and the rights to PEACE THRU VANDALISM were handed over to
Escalante to be shared equally with the other members of the band, that the settlement was not meant for Joe alone, and that
Joe was aware of this fact at the time of the settlement.



Around this time Joe Escalante decides to publish both PIRATE'S LIFE and ANARCHY BURGER, crediting
himself as the sole author of both songs. This is the second major theft Joe commits against his former friends.
Significantly, Joe does not at this time credit himself as sole author of the other songs on PEACE THRU VANDALISM,
although years later he eventually decides he can get away with that, too.



Jan, Stevo, Chalmer Lumery, and Todd Barnes of TSOL fame play a show as The Vandals. Joe is incensed that the two
founding members of the band would dare to use their own band name and play songs they themselves wrote before Joe was
in the band. First he screams and threatens them that he'll never pay them another dime if they play the show. Then he
starts working on an injunction against them to prevent them from ever using the Vandals' name or music. This concert
becomes, in Joe's mind, a legal license to steal all future royalties and licensing owed to Jan, Stevo and Chalmer.



Stevo attempts to play another show, this time as S.N.I.V. ("Stevo's New Improved Vandals"). Joe has him served
with the injunction at the club. In characteristic fashion, Stevo doesn't take matters too seriously, and makes the best of
it by reading the injunction as lyrics to an impromptu jam.



When the show is over and Joe's injunction is enforced, Stevo doesn't have the money to fight it. Joe wins by
default.




1990s



Steve 'Human' Pfauter is now Joe's only obstacle. As Human did not play at the concert that Joe uses against the rest
of the band, Joe continues to write occasional royalty checks to him throughout the '90s, but often neglects to do so for up
to a year at a time. Later, SoundScan data shows that Joe consistently lied about sales of PEACE THRU VANDALISM, and
was paying Human a tiny fraction of the amounts actually owed. Meanwhile, Jan and Stevo get nothing.



In a blatant bit of gloating during a telephone conversation regarding royalties owed to the rest of the band, Joe
tells Stevo that he is cashing Stevo's royalty checks and spending his money and there's nothing Stevo can do about it
because Joe is a lawyer now.



Joe reissues PEACE THRU VANDALISM and WHEN IN ROME DO AS THE VANDALS as a double record. The sleeve art
now reads "All words and music by Joe Escalante" (the original sleeve art to PEACE THRU VANDALISM, which credits each
of the band's members equally, can be seen here. This is pure plagiarism, which Joe justifies by
claiming that he owns the rights to the Vandals' music, in spite of the fact that Stevo and Jan later testified under oath
that they never transferred or relinquished their rights to the songs they wrote before Joe joined the band (see
here and here). Even if Joe had acquired the rights
to the songs legitimately, his argument makes no sense. If his argument was valid, the Beatles' entire catalog would have
been reissued with "All words and music by Michael Jackson" on the sleeves (Jackson owned the rights to the Beatles'
catalog for many years).




Joe finds out from one of Brett Gurewitz' former employees that Human has gone back to Brett seeking payment for his
back royalties from the 80s. Joe is again incensed that Human would have the nerve to try to get paid, and in the process
make Joe look bad in the eyes of the more successful Gurewitz. Joe claims that Human is extorting money from Brett and that
all the royalties that Joe has paid Human up to that point were extorted from Joe. This is apparently something he's been
working on for a while, as the last few royalty checks that Human has received have had odd notations like "non-union studio
musician" written in the memo area.



Joe swears he'll never give Human another dime, thus completing the theft of all of the band's early works.



2000s



As Human starts looking for a lawyer, other things come to light. Joe has sold the rights to URBAN STRUGGLE, a
song written and performed by Jan and Stevo before they ever met Joe, to Adidas for a commercial. Joe pockets $60,000 on the
deal. Next he sells a line from ANARCHY BURGER to Sony pictures for $20,000. This is a line that Stevo wrote on a
paper bag in the studio bathroom just before the song was recorded. In the credits of the Vin Diesel film 'XXX' the
song is listed as "words and music by Joe Escalante".



Stevo, Jan, and Chalmer join forces with Human and his lawyer, Kevin Anderson. Anderson sends a
letter to Sony Pictures pointing out that the song they're using is not solely Joe's work, and
that his clients expect to be paid their 75% of the fee, and to be properly credited in future releases of the film
'XXX'.



In response to Kevin Anderson's letter to Sony Pictures, Joe files a six million dollar
lawsuit against his former bandmates. Included among the damages listed in the lawsuit is one million dollars for Joe's
pain and suffering. This lawsuit is so full of lies, distortions, and errors in grammar and spelling that legal counsel for
the defendants have trouble understanding how its author could have ever passed the Bar exam in the first place.
Nevertheless, being a contract lawyer and not a litigator, attorney Kevin Anderson is now involved in a struggle that is
clearly outside his area of expertise. Anderson brings in Michael J. Emling of the law firm Porter Emling to handle the
countersuit.



In an attempt to recover their share of the estimated $250,000 that Joe Escalante has pocketed from sales of their
records over the preceding decade, the former Vandals respond with a lawsuit of their own. Their
$250,000 estimate is gleaned from Soundscan, a database which tracks music sales in
the U.S. and Canada, and which is the source of sales data that determine a song or album's standings on the Billboard
music charts.



Joe's six million dollar lawsuit is set aside in favor of the new cross-complaint case.



As the case progresses, it becomes clear that the one thing that Joe has on his side is the length of time that his
former bandmates have allowed his blatant theft to stand uncontested. Joe puts a very meager out-of-court settlement offer
on the table, and as the statute of limitations is a powerful legal argument, attorney Michael J. Emling of the law firm
Porter Emling tells Stevo, Jan, Human, and Chalmer that the case is not worth his firm's while. Emling says that if they do
not accept Joe's settlement, his firm will quit the case and submit a bill to them for over six thousand dollars. Their
only alternative is to pay Porter Emling an estimated $30,000 up front in order to continue the battle. Backs to the wall,
and unable to afford the $30,000 fee, the band reluctantly settles out of court for a fraction of what was stolen from them.
Joe has successfully used their own money to defeat them in court, merely by outspending them.



The band, and especially Stevo, never recover from the blow dealt them by Joe Escalante. Their trust violated, their
music and their royalty money blatantly stolen from them, they drift apart. Friends note that Joe and his treachery have
become a frequent -- even incessant -- topic of conversation with the former Vandals. Stevo in particular seems beaten down
by the experience, and his loss of confidence and happiness is evident to all who know him well.



Having spent the intervening years in a spiritual search to deal with his anger and pain,
Stevo dies in Hawaii. Shortly before his death, he is back in touch with some of his old friends, and tells them
repeatedly of his continuing bad feelings towards Joe, and his fervent desire to see the truth come out. During his last call
to Human a few days before his death, he keeps repeating "Joe's going to get his, he's going to get what he has coming to
him." Some good-hearted people believe that this was simply Stevo invoking the law of karma, but those of us who don't
believe in karma have to wonder if that's really what he meant.



This website goes live, and the word begins to spread. Joe makes various threats against the author of this site, and
files a bogus criminal complaint with the LAPD, claiming that he is the victim of an attempt at
blackmail. This is a familiar tactic from Joe, who since the early 1990s has been known to cry extortion whenever any
mention of his bad behavior is made in public.



Joe sells the rights to yet another old Vandals song, this time for use in the film JACKASS 2. According to the
settlement made in the 1990s-era lawsuit, the surviving members of the band's original recording
lineup are entitled to only a tiny fraction of what was originally an even split. Joe is currently threatening to withhold
even that pittance, on the grounds that he believes this website is written and published by his ex-bandmates. He is now
demanding that this site be taken down.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


This information is copylefted. You may reprint or republish this article without hindrance, provided you do so
in full, unedited, and with the attribution (and this notice) intact. Please note that Joe Escalante is a wealthy and
powerful attorney who wants to keep this information buried as deeply as possible, and he has been known to file false
police reports and institute frivolous legal proceedings against anyone who dares to disseminate the truth about him.
Gidge

~I came for Jonsey. I stayed for the MMS. Now that Dicky is gone, so am I~
User avatar
Glenn
Posts: 2823
Joined: Sun Mar 13, 2005 12:54 pm
Location: Anaheim, Orange County, CA
Contact:

Post by Glenn »

o jeez. here we go again :-)
The Rizen shloemoe
Posts: 2029
Joined: Mon Aug 28, 2006 9:42 am

Post by The Rizen shloemoe »

I dunno...seems I have heard this before....
(maybe from Gidge :D )but it seems consistant
with the type of person who rises to the "top"
they silence all the people they squooshed
on their way up...but then you all seem like a
bunch o meanies from down here where the
Shloe lives....
......ya bunch o Meanies! :evil:
Having abandoned my search for truth,
I am now looking for a good fantasy.
--Anonymous Internet Sage

...Some men...ya just can't reach...
--The Captain from "Cool Hand Luke"
gidgetgoestohell
Posts: 4942
Joined: Mon Mar 14, 2005 7:57 am
Location: Guada La Habra, CA

Post by gidgetgoestohell »

I was just re-posting something from MySpace which I received....I believe I have said some of the things mentioned there....but in a much more concise manner...ya know...like saying...Joe is a mother fucking prick blow job asshole....;)
Gidge

~I came for Jonsey. I stayed for the MMS. Now that Dicky is gone, so am I~
rotter
Posts: 3687
Joined: Sun Feb 19, 2006 1:32 pm
Location: Canada

Post by rotter »

You love him... :lol:
User avatar
obiwankobe
Posts: 2828
Joined: Mon Mar 14, 2005 11:56 am
Location: Newbury Park
Contact:

Post by obiwankobe »

They still have a morning show?
-tom

~"Let there be no conflict in America, if you bother me, I whup yo' ass."~Charles Barkley
gidgetgoestohell
Posts: 4942
Joined: Mon Mar 14, 2005 7:57 am
Location: Guada La Habra, CA

Post by gidgetgoestohell »

So I have heard....not that I listen to it....and no...i do NOT love him...you must have me confused with Miche, Rotter...;)
Gidge

~I came for Jonsey. I stayed for the MMS. Now that Dicky is gone, so am I~
User avatar
Glenn
Posts: 2823
Joined: Sun Mar 13, 2005 12:54 pm
Location: Anaheim, Orange County, CA
Contact:

Post by Glenn »

The Vandals are promoting a show on indie. Kinda sucks to know they play even though they all hate each other.
gidgetgoestohell
Posts: 4942
Joined: Mon Mar 14, 2005 7:57 am
Location: Guada La Habra, CA

Post by gidgetgoestohell »

None of the members of The Vandals that play now are original members.....they are all replacement units.....
Gidge

~I came for Jonsey. I stayed for the MMS. Now that Dicky is gone, so am I~
The Rizen shloemoe
Posts: 2029
Joined: Mon Aug 28, 2006 9:42 am

Post by The Rizen shloemoe »

I like "The Replacements"....you know that band from
the midwest?
Having abandoned my search for truth,
I am now looking for a good fantasy.
--Anonymous Internet Sage

...Some men...ya just can't reach...
--The Captain from "Cool Hand Luke"
gidgetgoestohell
Posts: 4942
Joined: Mon Mar 14, 2005 7:57 am
Location: Guada La Habra, CA

Post by gidgetgoestohell »

The recent information below was written by the early Vandals bass player Steve Pfauter aka Human:



I did not make vandalscandal.com

I did not write it and I don't own it or maintain it.

Since I am interested in being paid for the fact that a song

I recorded long ago is featured in Jackass Number Two,

I am forwarding the following request to that site's owner:



Mr. Beard, I respectfully ask that you take down the vandalscandal site. It is causing

Joe so much grief that he is threatening to withhold payment for the use of

the original Vandals song Urban Struggle in the latest Jackass movie.

I know, I know--Jan and Stevo wrote and performed that song before they

ever even met Joe, but that's the way the music industry works. Joe says he won't

pay anyone a dime until your site comes down. I know Stevo would've loved your

tribute too, and it bothers me to ask you to remove it, but Joe is trying to punish us

for your actions so I hope you stop. Hey, even if you take it down the truth remains.

-Steve Pfauter aka Human
Gidge

~I came for Jonsey. I stayed for the MMS. Now that Dicky is gone, so am I~
User avatar
Glenn
Posts: 2823
Joined: Sun Mar 13, 2005 12:54 pm
Location: Anaheim, Orange County, CA
Contact:

Post by Glenn »

FIGHT THE GOOD FIGHT OSCAR WEINER!!!

The money is not important. The peeps must know the truth!
Gooch
Posts: 2858
Joined: Sat Mar 12, 2005 7:37 am
Location: Claremont, CA
Contact:

Post by Gooch »

Since he's in a Smiths/Morrissey cover band now....I'm waiting for him to try to take all the rights away from the great Moz....
~Gooch

"Librarians are the secret masters of the world. They control information. Don't ever piss one off..."
User avatar
Glenn
Posts: 2823
Joined: Sun Mar 13, 2005 12:54 pm
Location: Anaheim, Orange County, CA
Contact:

Post by Glenn »

It is true. Moz will get ripped.

Keep the site UP I say.
Post Reply