Phil Jamieson Slams Eskimo Joe's Crowd Funding

Grinspoon's frontman Phil Jamieson has ridiculed fellow rock stalwarts Eskimo Joe's decision to crowd-fund their next album.

Announced late November, the Perth band enticed fans to invest towards their target of $40,000 by offering incentives, and with 64 days in the campaign still to go the band are enjoying a pledge of $54,700.

Quoted by Channel [V] recently, Jamieson – who will play a solo show show at Lizotte's Kimcumber this Sunday – was blunt about the ARIA Award-winning band's financial strategy. When the interviewer compared Grinspoon to Limp Bizkit the frontman used the opportunity to attack Eskimo Joe.

“Um, Eskimo Joe put out a press release saying they want their fans to give them $40,000!” he said. “I'm like, 'Go and do a fucking tour!' Your records sell triple platinum, fuck, have a tour! That's my ten cents worth, Eskimo Joe.”

Crowd-sourcing has grown in prominence since higher-profile artists such as Amanda Palmer and locally fellow ARIA-winner Ben Lee adopted it, but Jamieson believes that the Perth veterans are a different case.

“Amanda Palmer does what she does, that crowd sourcing, crowd funding thing, that's fine. Ben Lee, fine. Eskimo Joe – multiple Aria Award winners, triple-platinum artists who get a lot of airplay – they're making a lot of money. Well, enough to raise 40 grand for a shit album, in my opinion… their fans have to not only pay for the record, then buy a fuckin' ticket to the show! Shit! Give me a break! That's Phil's thought for the day!”

Eskimo Joe's manager Cath Haridy responded to theMusic.com.au today, saying that, “Crowd-funding has allowed the band to engage with the most important people in [their] career, their supporters, while also embracing a new musical landscape… maybe Phil should do the same.”

Over Twitter, Jamieson posted the following to us:

@themusiccomau My comments, whilst seemingly inflammatory are not meant to be taken completely seriously...

— Phil Jamieson (@philjamieson) December 7, 2012