#2003

[90s-2000s-barbie]

Clifford The Big Red Dog (2000 - 2003) 🦴

[predoom]

pw, december 30, 2003

[thisisrealy2kok]

Nokia 2300 (2003)

[velveys]

Keanu Reeves at Cannes Film Festival (2003)

[sunburnacoustic]

According to his new book, Serj Tankian from System of a Down almost signed Muse to his own record label back in 2003. He'd been a fan of theirs since the OOS days, having shared festival bills with Muse in Europe, and he really loved Absolution when it came out and noticed that Maverick hadn't even released it in the US, and wanted to try and buy Muse out from Maverick's control. Maverick asked for half a million dollars to transfer Muse (which is something I fucking HATE about labels and deals: they refuse to release your work and also won't let you leave, and this is still happening), which Serj couldn't cough up on his own, so he tried to convince Sony, who signed SOAD, to sign Muse instead. Sony hemmed and hawed and said they wanted to wait to hear Muse's next release before squaring up the money, but by the next year, all of Maverick's artist had been bought out by various record labels, including Warner Bros. proper, who picked up Muse and finally released Absolution, a year late in the US (2004, which I realised later is why you see some sources list its release date as 2004. The US release date). Interestingly enough to me, Maverick was a Warner subsidiary to begin with.

Serj regrets losing out on signing Muse, not so much from a financial standpoint, but because they were a cool band he liked, but I wonder how things may have panned out for Muse had they stayed indie for another few years? I imagine Warner worked out quite well for them: they sold out their first US tour in a long time in the autumn of 2004, headlined Glastonbury, were invited to play a Live 8 show, and of course, when Black Holes and Revelations came out in 2006 (Sony's loss), they exploded all over the alternative 'mainstream'. It doesn't seem like they've had much, if any, creative interference from Warner either, except maybe them suggesting the greatest hits thing that instigated Muse writing Will Of The People instead. Overall, fairly harmonious.

Things turned out alright for them!

[theoriginalsupermodels]

Torrente - Fall 2003 Couture

[miamaimania]

Erwin Wurm's Fat House ➤ architecture meets satirer

[ancestral-steppe]

[kojiarakiartworks]

December 2003 PDX Portland Oregon U.S.A. 

© KOJI ARAKI Art Works

Daily life and every small thing is the gate to the universe ：）

[wubbywubwub]

Something About Us key frames

[zegalba]

Helmut Smits: Without Cabinet (2003)

[389]

Britney Spears by Martin Schoeller 2003

[thisisrealy2kok]

Nokia 7250i (2003)

[53v3nfrn5]

National Geographic: ‘When the Frost Lies White’ (Japan, 2003) photography: Tim Laman

[ethnicbrat]

Lil’ Kim on Soul Train, 2003.

[2001hz]

Jean Paul Gaultier autumn/winter 2003