To kick off his US presidential scrap, Mitt Romney has inadvertently sized up to the music industry in what can only be guessed to be an attempt to be down wit kids. On his tour of the States in a bid to win over hearts and minds, he’s taken to playing Panic Switch by Silversun Pickus, and by the sound of things, they aren’t happy about it.
The main reason for the anger from the Pickup’s camp is that the airplays aren’t legit from their point of view. With no official license arrangement with the band or royalty payment from Mitt and his Republican presidential candidacy team, the Silversun Pickups have issued a cease and desist notice to end the unwanted association.
Apparently playing the song at campaign stops across the country, Romney has added more negative pressure to his chances of unseating Barack Obama. With opinion poles putting the B-dog just out in the lead only a few months away from election day, the news is another blow to the Mittertronstrasse-zugge.
Having been described as an “unhinged” campaign by the Democrat wolf pack working with Obama, Silversun Pickups’ response to the gaff on music copyright must feel like a million tiny hammers raining down on Romney’s noggin like a B&Q migraine.
Having won the Fallopian tube sprint to the ovum that was the Republican presidential candidate race, it’s looking less likely that Mitt and his new-found friend and running mate Ru Paul will get a chance to cast their political seed far and wide from the comfort of the brown leather seat in the White House.
The Pickups have made it perfectly clear that they want no part in this with lead singer and guitarist Brian Aubert commenting, “We don’t like people going behind our backs, using our music without asking, and we don’t like the Romney campaign”. Well said Bri, well said indeed.
