Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli bought the patent to Daraprim (a pill used for HIV and cancer treatment) and jacked the price from around $13 a pill to $750. The internet went crazy in response to the story, and in doing their due diligence, found that Shkreli loved emo and post-hardcore bands like Brand New and On The Might of Princes. Then it turned out that Shkreli was involved with Geoff Rickly’s (of United Nations, Thursday) label Collect Records, an entity that represents the exact opposite of what Shkreli was trying to do, prioritizing artists and the music before capitalizing on it. Rickly spoke to Noisey in a big interview, stating that Shkreli “chose to be a silent partner.”
This led to shoegazey band Nothing (formerly on Relapse Records, and possibly a now-former band on Collect Records) who also expressed shock and discomfort about Shkreli’s involvement with the label via Facebook. Noisey also contacted the band and in the same interview was stated, “Nothing will never be a part of a label that involves Martin (Shkreli),” said Nick Money, “I hope we can separate ways without things getting any uglier than it is now.”
At the time of this post Nothing is no longer on Collect Records’ artists page, and according to this interview in Maxim, Nothing, “have vowed to not release any music on the label so long as Shkreli is involved.” This situation seems to hit home to a lot of people, not just morally but personally as frontman, Dominic Palermo, has stated to have been a victim of the current health system and prohibitively high medical bills and can’t seem to know where to put himself in this mess. On the other hand, Rickly is the one in the middle, responding to all the bands involved with the label as to whether they still want to remain with the already shrinking label or not, while reconciling his feelings about the investor whose career had no bearing in the label until this weekend.
It seems Shkreli has heard the massive public outcry, telling ABC News in an interview, “we’ve agreed to lower the price on Daraprim to a point that is more affordable,” but we’re not so sure that Nothing will have a similar change of heart. The album, now revealed to be titled Tired of Tomorrow, has to go through some legal scrutiny before being released by any other label as they have a contract binding the record to Collect but, considering the heavy heart Rickly must feel with this, we’re sure things will be worked out.
(via ThePRP)
