So I created this account just to come here and ask... (or rant)
I keep reading about this Song Devin Townsend's not going to release because he doesn't want to sell out...
http://loudwire.com/devin-townsend-nick ... s-dislike/

Seriously? Come on man, you've done 3 joke albums now with a fake punk band and space aliens, you dub goofy comic dialog over every good song on the album, you've got Grace that sounds like that Pompeii song, and the Nickleback song is the sell out?

Come on, put a couple of deathmetal tracks on the same album and call it a day. You (and I) are way too old to be quibbling over something so silly. If I got the chance to re-record "Somewhere over the rainbow" I'd take the money and run... strait to the studio so I can record some more fun stuff using all that money.

So just shut your face and take a seat
Because after all, you're just talking meat...and music?
Well, it's just entertainment folks.

Right? Or were you starting to think it cured cancer or something?

Anyways, let me know when you wise up and I can buy the song. If it sucks, I'm only out 99 cents. It's not like it'll be your first crappy song right? I write crappy songs every day. Tell you what, fare trade... put the song out, and I'll put one that's definitely far worse on youtube just for you.

He doesn't like it. If you wrote something that you thought sucked, why would you release it? And how could possibly ask anyone to buy it?

^Agreed. And Devin is quite aware of the irony in hating and not willing to release a commercially formulaic pop track after releasing the likes of Epicloud, et al.
But those are albums he was deeply invested in, music he wanted to write and express, not music he was conscripted to be involved with because some studio producer thought it would sell to a mass audience.

And if the sales of a SINGLE song could pay for recording his next 5 albums and keep him touring until retirement? Lemmy helped write "Mamma I'm coming home" for Ozzy and said that work on that single song basically funded his entire carer in Motörhead.

Release the song under the pen name Ziltoid... play with a bucket on your head (Like buckethead) who the heck cares? I wrote right in my post, if I could get paid to record somewhere over the rainbow, I would. I'd take singing lessons to sound as much like Judy Garland as possible, put on a pink dress and heels. Then I'd take the money, and record some stuff I liked I might keep the dress on though. But that's just me.

[swervedriver]

Different strokes man.

Maybe he'll give interviews in 5 years saying that dismissing the release of this song was the dumbest thing he ever did. But right now, I respect that he has the balls to stop and think about what he's involved in and deciding to turn this down now, where others would dive in head-first and eyes closed.

I'm not sure I've ever see anything blown out of proportion as much as this. He tried it, decided it wasn't for him and explained that respectfully.

And if the sales of a SINGLE song could pay for recording his next 5 albums and keep him touring until retirement? Lemmy helped write "Mamma I'm coming home" for Ozzy and said that work on that single song basically funded his entire carer in Motörhead.

Release the song under the pen name Ziltoid... play with a bucket on your head (Like buckethead) who the heck cares? I wrote right in my post, if I could get paid to record somewhere over the rainbow, I would. I'd take singing lessons to sound as much like Judy Garland as possible, put on a pink dress and heels. Then I'd take the money, and record some stuff I liked I might keep the dress on though. But that's just me.

That would be great if the song was a guaranteed hit. It may actually, truly suck. Honestly, I doubt it would sell any more than anything else he's already done. Let's be realistic here; Devin is a follicly challenged soon-to-be 43 year-old metal singer with a fairly small audience. I love and respect the guy, and can only dream of having his talents, but the guy is a tough-sell. He is the anti-product.

[JuZ]

In short, it's not our intellectual property.

We're not entitled to anything.

[Octillus]

And if the sales of a SINGLE song could pay for recording his next 5 albums and keep him touring until retirement? Lemmy helped write "Mamma I'm coming home" for Ozzy and said that work on that single song basically funded his entire carer in Motörhead.

Release the song under the pen name Ziltoid... play with a bucket on your head (Like buckethead) who the heck cares? I wrote right in my post, if I could get paid to record somewhere over the rainbow, I would. I'd take singing lessons to sound as much like Judy Garland as possible, put on a pink dress and heels. Then I'd take the money, and record some stuff I liked I might keep the dress on though. But that's just me.

Everyone else has said it best but I waned to add one more thing - the music industry does not pay like that anymore. This isn't like seeking a lifetime of security for something that can be forgotten about - this was an experiment that to the artist didn't pan out.

I don't think I ever suggested we "Deserved" to hear anything. I'm not making the "I'm a fan and I deserve to hear this!" argument. I'm arguing against Devin's rational that, because it's commercial, that's disgusting. I'm a programmer by trade... I'd rather be coding some fancy AI or the algoryth that will decode cancer, but I've got to feed my family so I write things that move random faceless data from one place to another. Ho-hum.

Take the money, pay your bills, then write 10 more songs that you don't think are sellouts to make up for it. I don't want Devin to ever not release something because he things "some" of his fans might get all pretentious with him about weather it was up to snuff. I always thought he was above that.

[JuZ]

Here's what Devin actually said in the interview, rather than this paraphrasing/misquoting stuff:

Other than playing shows, what have you been doing since you wrapped up Z2?
I went to L.A. two months ago because some people in my world thought, “This [uncertainty] is dangerous for your future, so you need to go write with somebody. So I went to L.A. and I wrote with a team who produced all the Nickelback stuff recently, Daughtry, all the American Idol people who win, and I wrote a song with them. And I hate it in such a way that is hard for me to quantify.
Hate the song or hated the process?
Both. I really like the guys, I think they’re really talented, but I told them yesterday or the day before that I’m not putting it out. There’s no fucking way I’m putting it out. I can’t spend twenty-five years sticking to my guns to try and sell people this. It’s everything I dislike about music, with my voice on it. It’s fucking disgusting. It’s not their fault, but with my voice on it, it’s just not where I’m at.
So I told everybody that I’m not putting it out, and now we have to pay for it, but what are you gonna do? To put that out, all of a sudden you have to pay fifty grand to put it on active rock [radio] and then you have to go and do interview and try and sell something you don’t like. I have honesty Tourette’s, man, and that’s gonna cause me nothing but grief. But I tried it. With that whole scene, you pay to get a Number 1 song. This is how it works: these are the chords you can use in the summer, these are the chords you can use in the winter, here are the topics that sell…
Really?
Oh my god, dude, it’s a formula.
I’m sure it is, I just didn’t realize it was that rigid.
Neither did I. We’re talking about, well, U2 had a chord structure off The Joshua Tree that works every time. You go on active rock radio and you see what’s popular, you get the tempos and the chords, and there’s people who make millions off of that. I don’t begrudge it because I actually think it’s fascinating, and I think a lot of the people who are involved with that… it’s brilliant. But for me, music is about expressing the unexpressable, and as I get older, man, what I feel the need to express becomes less and less poignant to others. It’s a shame. When people are like, “Nothing you’ve done is as good as you did when you were younger.” And I’m like, “You may be right.” But what I’m doing now is exactly what I feel like I should be doing. So what do you do? Do you go write a fucking pop song and cash in and then spend the rest of your life thinking, “I could have stuck to my guns but instead I sucked a cock…”

The last two lines of the interview refer to not wanting to cash in on a pop song written to a formula (aka suck a cock), but nowhere do I see him saying he won't release the track because he's worried about what some fans might think, which you say is your beef.

I would never try to speak for the guy, but my interpretation of the interview and Devin's subsequent tweets is that his music is about self expression first and foremost and HE didn't like what they'd created. Personal integrity and values, not keeping up appearances for fans with absurd ideals.

He tried the process out and hated the end result. And still has to pay for it so he must feel pretty strongly about it. I respect that. I totally relate to your point about feeding your family. I'm a dad and have almost always done jobs that pretty much suck because it pays the bills. But that doesn't mean that I get to misquote the guy or impose my beliefs on him. He didn't say anything that I can see about fans pretentiously judging him. In fact he went on to Twitter after his break and pretty staunchly defended the guys and the process, saying that he admires what they do but it's just not for him.

Bottom line mate... Who are we to tell someone else how to look after their family? Surely that would be the height of pretentiousness for a fan.

I'm hoping the song eventually shows up as a bonus track or on a boxed set at some point in the future. Whether is sucks or not, I just want to hear it so I can form my own opinion.

I'm just really really curious.

Probably worth pointing out that Devin has no particular beef with Nickelback - he thinks they're a decent band.

http://gunshyassassin.com/gun-shy-interview/devin-townsend-the-second-gun-shy-interview-part-2/

“My view on Nickelback has changed dramatically over the years, and I will tell you this: I think Nickelback gets a bad wrap,” Townsend starts.

“I will go on record as saying that. Every time you hear or even mention Nickelback, it’s dealt with such vitriol. I fucking hate that, man,” says Hevy Devy. “And I was definitely in that group too, but for me, it was a little more because I was jealous, because the lawyer that I had ended up leaving us for Nickelback 15 years ago, and we lost a bunch of money. But, I tell you man…I was at this awards show in Canada and Nickelback opened the show, and while they were playing, I was looking at my buddy and I was like, ‘What about this band don’t I like?’”

You read that right — Devin Townsend is not totally opposed to the existence of Nickelback. Does this change my opinion of how awesome Devin is? Fuck no.

“Nickelback were fucking awesome when I saw them; they were totally in tune, the sound was great, and it has a good beat,” Townsend elaborates. “I think if I heard Nickelback when I was a kid, I probably would have really liked it. I’m not a big fan of the ‘Drink booze and look at strippers’-type lyrical content, but shit, the record sounds good. They’re good live…it’s so in vogue to hate that band and I’m just trying to stand back from it a little bit and go, ‘Why does everybody hate that band? Is it just because they’re average?’ I will subscribe to that. But just as an entity, the technical elements of what they did at that show that I saw was really well done."

RVP is friends with their drummer Daniel Adair as well, so I assume Devin has met or at least had the opportunity to meet them.

I never got the hate for Nickelback. I'm not a huge fan either, but they are basically just another former grunge band who decided to go mainstream - but nowhere as bad as Chris Cornells corporate cock-sucking over the years (going classic rock, pop, Timbaland and, after all that failed to make any cash, reuniting his former band). Plus, a band like Halestorm - a Nickelback ripoff if there ever was one - gets away with it because they're not as successful (but just as cheesy).

Back to topic: I think Devin does "pop" pretty effin' well enough for anyone, IMO even much better than those guys, and if there were any way to gain mass exposure (oo 'er!) without losing his integrity, I'm sure he could even land the odd hit single - if he chose to. Hell, even my mother likes "Lucky Animals", "Bend it like Bender" and "Universal Flame"!