Up There, Down Here
| Up There, Down Here | ||||
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| Studio album by The Badlees | ||||
| Released | August 24, 1999 | |||
| Recorded | Bearsville Recording Studio Bearsville, NY |
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| Length | 39:09 | |||
| Label | Ark 21 | |||
| Producer | Joe Alexander and the Badlees | |||
| The Badlees chronology | ||||
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Up There, Down Here is the fifth full length studio album released by American band The Badlees. It was due to be second released nationally on the Polydor label, but got caught up in constant delays due to the corporate merger of Polygram and Seagram, that formed the new Universal Music Group in 1998. The album was finally released in August, 1999 on the Ark 21 label, after the Badlees were dropped by Universal.
The Badlees recorded their follow-up to the blockbuster River Songs in 1997 and it was originally slated to be released for the Christmas season of that year. But after a few delays by Polydor and then the sale to Seagram's put all projects on hold indefinitely in 1998, the project and the band. Over the final months of 1998 and into 1999, requested, then demanded, then begged the label to either release Up There, Down Here to the public, or release the Badlees from their contract, but got little to no response.
Frustrated, The Badlees went and recorded a whole new album, Amazing Grace, independently, a move that could not possibly be ignored by the folks at the new Universal Music Group, and was bound to cause some movement one way or another. The band members realized that this action would probably mean the death of Up There, Down Here, as Universal owned the rights to that recording. The strategy apparently worked, as The Badlees were dropped from the label on the very day that Amazing Grace was released.
Manager Terry Selders had brought in attorney and agent Larry Mazer to try to get the band picked up by another major label but he was having little success on this front. So Terry contacted John Rotella, who had worked at Polydor when the Badlees were signed and was himself a casualty of the Seagram's sale. Rotella was now at a label called Ark 21, owned by Miles Copeland III, who had previously been phenomenally successful with I.R.S. Records. Through the joint efforts of Selders, Mazer, and Rotella, Ark 21 was able to gain the rights for Up There, Down Here from Universal and by May 1999 a deal was in place. The album was finally be released to the public in August 1999.
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