(Flop in 1993 - Sony was clueless)
Another fine example of a band, after years of struggling, gets signed to a major label who releases their album to weak initial sales and then dumps them like a bad habit a few months later.
Sound familiar? It's what major labels do, especially the past twenty or so years when it stopped being about music and artists and cultivating talent in favor of profit-and-loss statements and bottom lines.
Flop were a combination punk/pop/grunge band that came out of the Seattle area in the early 90s. They had a good local following and a few singles and eps put out by indie labels.
Since Seattle became something of a mecca for all things grunge (with the astounding success of Nirvana) in the early 90s, every major label sent A&R people to scour the streets, clubs and rehearsal rooms in search of the next Kurt Cobain.
Sony found Flop and signed them for their 550 imprint and teamed them with Martin Rushent to co-produce. The results became their second album Whenever You're Ready, a turbo-charged package of 17 cuts of which this track Woolworth is one of them.
It's a great album - loud, fast and out of control. Like a lot of albums should be, but sadly aren't.
Unfortunately, after the Sony debacle there was a personnel change and they recorded one more album for another indie label before calling it quits.
It does however beg the question that if Sony/Epic were an actual record company, would they still have gotten the same fate?
One never knows.
