Pitchfork

Kanye West can probably get away with sampling whatever he wants. Not only will he sell enough albums to cover the costs of paying for the licensing fees, but, come on, he's Grammy Award-winner Kanye West! He don't care what lawyers say, he'll speed up those soul samples all day long; that's fine, though, because the guy is a fantastic producer (see: Common's Be).

But when the little guy tries to do it, and the major labels realize they won't be able to make Kanye-like bank off of it, it becomes more of a problem-- particularly in the United States. The Go! Team's debut, Thunder, Lightning, Strike has yet to see a U.S. release partly because of the legal trouble with a number of samples used on the album.

The Go! Team are currently looking for a North American home, but the law is making it difficult. The copyright laws are different in Britain and the album has not had the trouble there that it faces in the U.S. We spoke to band leader Ian Parton while he was in the studio preparing Thunder, Lightning, Strike for its U.S. debut. Parton couldn't discuss the details of signing to a new label, but he did tell us a little bit about what we should expect from this new version. "The album coming out in America will be a slightly different version compared to the import," says Parton. "The tracklisting will be the same apart from one extra track ["Hold Yr Terror Close", a UK B-side]. It's in the early stages. We have been getting some things cleared, but other material [is being] improved upon or just as good as getting it recreated. Hopefully, you won't notice too much of a difference when it's out properly in America.

"We have to change things slightly to make them different in some way; it's quite complicated. It's like working to what a judge in court would think really, and I certainly won't sacrifice the songs for money. I'd say keep it as it is if that was the right thing to do musically. However, if there are things we need to dispose of I'd happily do that as well, such as the 'yeah, yeah, yeah' in 'Ladyflash'. Somebody's going to want a lot of money for that. I might actually be giving away more of the song than I own. If 10 people want 15%, then that is over 100%, and I have to get the money from other songs, which is a ridiculous idea, that you have remake the loss on a song."

Either way, it's difficult for an artist to be forced to alter something that's already been released. "When you've lived with an album for so long," Parton explains, "and it's finished in your head and you actually have to change things no matter how subtle, it's hard. It's either that or not release it at all."

While Parton couldn't reveal specific samples in dispute, he did mention several that don't have sample troubles, including "Get It Together" and "Feelgood By Numbers". As for the samples in dispute, "They vary in obscurity. Some songs I'd play for you and you really couldn't tell where I got them from and things like that. Some songs are sort of charity shots in a thrift store, records that everyone else has long forgotten about."

In the meantime, Parton would much prefer to begin work on a new album and put this one in the past, but laws are laws, and he recognizes that not only are people in the U.S. looking forward to the release, but it's important to the success of the band.

But back to Kanye West. There's a sample at the end of "Go" on the Common album that sounds eerily like the breakdown at the end of "Get It Together". That's all we're sayin'.

For now, the Go! Team are performing live with Basement Jaxx in the UK before hitting some of the European festivals. In July, they'll come to North America for a handful of shows, including Pitchfork's Intonation Festival. After that, it's on to Australia, Japan, and back to the European festival circuit to close out the summer. Dates:

06-17 Glasgow, Scotland - Barrowlands *
06-18 Manchester, England - Apollo *
06-19 Leeds, England - Uni *
06-21 Portsmouth, England - Guildhall *
06-22 Birmingham, England - Academy *
06-25 Pilton, England - Glastonbury
07-03 Roskilde, Denmark - Roskilde Festival
07-05 Kristiansand, Norway - Quart Festival
07-13 Toronto, Ontario - Lee's Palace
07-15 Chicago, IL - Double Door
07-16 Chicago, IL - Intonation Music Festival
07-18 Seattle, WA - Neumo's
07-20 San Francisco, CA - Bimbo's 365 Club
07-21 West Hollywood, CA - The Troubadour
07-26 Sydney, Australia - Metro Theatre
07-27 Brisbane, Australia - The Zoo
07-28 Melbourne, Australia - The Corner
07-29 Melbourne, Australia - The Corner
07-31 Nigata, Japan - Naeba Ski Resort (Fuji Rock Festival)
08-26 Cologne, Germany - Monsters of Spex
08-27 Reading, England - Reading Festival
08-28 Leeds, England - Leeds Festival
09-11 Isle of Wight - Bestival

* with Basement Jaxx