Danger Mouse and EMI Settle "Dark Night of the Soul" Dispute

Nearly nine months after Danger Mouse's Dark Night of the Soul project hit stores with a blank CD, the producer and EMI have reached an agreement to formally issue the album with music on the compact disc, the BBC reports. As Rolling Stone wrote last May, a legal hassle between Danger Mouse, or Brian Burton, and EMI stemming back to The Grey Album — Danger Mouse's mash-up of the Beatles' White Album with Jay-Z's Black Album — held up the release of Dark Night, a collaboration featuring the Shins' James Mercer, David Lynch, Julian Casablancas, Frank Black and more artists.

Because Sparklehorse's Mark Linkous was signed to EMI and featured prominently on Dark Night of the Soul, EMI threatened to sue if the album was released. Danger Mouse combated the threat by including a blank CD, hinting that fans should download and burn the leaked version of the album. However, Danger Mouse now tells the BBC, "The problems of last year are last year, so hopefully it will be out soon in June or something like that." EMI also said that their issues with the producer had been resolved and that they were looking forward to working with him again. Danger Mouse previously produced Gorillaz's Demon Days, released through EMI, and had no problems then with the label.

Broken Bells, Brian Burton's latest project with the Shins' James Mercer, will release their self-titled debut album next week. The pair, who are featured in the new issue of Rolling Stone, first joined forces on the Dark Night of the Soul album.

Related Stories:
• Danger Mouse's Dark Night Of the Soul Album Threatened By Lawsuit
• Behind Danger Mouse's "Dark Night of the Soul" With Linkous and Lynch

• 
  MUSIC 100 Greatest Debut Albums
• 
  MOVIES 'Star Trek' Is Crazy Good
• 
  TV 10 Shows to Watch This Summer
• 
  POLITICS No Price Big Banks Can't Fix

Song Stories

“1999”

Prince | 1982

“I don’t consider myself a great poet,” Prince told Rolling Stone. “I just know I’m here to say what’s on my mind.” In the case of the apocalyptic party anthem “1999,” he was worried about then-president Ronald Reagan’s foreign policies. The song’s melody is based on a riff borrowed from the Mamas and Papas’ “Monday, Monday,” and Prince originally envisioned the first verse with three-part harmony but later split the vocals between himself and members of the Revolution. Because Warner Bros., with whom Prince was locked in a contractual battle, owned the original’s masters, Prince rerecorded the song and appropriately released that version in 1999.

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter