Okay, big post incoming:
The Gerogerigegege is one of the most important, if not just the most important, bands in my life. I won't try to explain it, because I can't, but I was introduced to them at a very formative and critical time in my life and they have forever altered my worldview and how I think about art. So that's that. I have at least one of every major Gero release (the exception being Senzuri Champion), a couple rarities and alternate covers (Ramones Showa etc.) and a copy of the Piano River tape, which I obtained from the original owner, a friend of mine who was a Gero obsessive in the early 2000's and had a brief mail correspondence with Juntaro before he fell off the face of the planet.
ANYWAY, I too received a Discogs message back in March from the "blackoperations" account regarding the Gero-P, Piano River and TNB split releases. ("blackoperations" is also the YouTube account that uploaded the NSG clip previously linked.) I was immediately kind of suspect, so I followed up with some questions asking to clarify the nature of the releases. Some of you already seem to know who this person is, or otherwise claims to be, and I was told about the same thing. I guess for the sake of privacy I'll just say they told me that they are involved with TNB.
I feel like making Gero bootlegs at this point in time is in
exceedingly poor taste, given that Juntaro has become active again. Regardless of one's intentions, the renewed interest in Gero "Monai Hai"s release has created makes it seem a bit opportunistic. Not only that, but now that we all know that Juntaro is alive and interested in releasing Gero material once again, the ethics of bootlegging what is no longer a 'presumed dead' or 'abandonware' project are much murkier. When I asked blackoperations for info regarding the legitimacy of the reissues, I was told this:
Quotethe piano/river and the gero p are being done by a friend and i am assisting. only very small number being made so they will still remain rare items of course. this is all done with a bigger project in mind which will seek juntaro permission, but these tapes are 'fan club' releases and due to small number have not sought permission.
"they will still remain rare items of course," seems like a really bad attitude to be approaching this with. If you're interested in maintaining the elusiveness of these items you shouldn't be bootlegging them in the first place. It sounds to me almost like a sales pitch. So, that makes me uncomfortable as hell!, as does the recent upload of Piano River onto YouTube. Not because I am worried about my tape becoming devalued (I'm never selling it), nor out of some misplaced sense of elitism at who hears it. Only that such an esoteric, obscure, unheard recording by an
extremely cult/fetish act such as Gero has been disseminated unceremoniously via YouTube.
The whole thing just sketches me out. I guess I'm a child of the internet and have never ordered tapes out of zines or done trades with people I've only ever talked to via post, having to have full faith in them. But canvassing Discogs, asking for sums as high as 75GPB upfront for a release with no release date, no details, no assurance of any kind sends up a bunch of red flags for me. Even if it's not an intentional ripoff, it's in poor taste and bad business. There's nothing stopping anyone from doing the same.
If anyone ever receives any followup information from the guy, or gets the stuff they paid for, please post about it! I'd love to see pics and stuff. I really do hope the whole thing is legit (although the bootlegs still make me extremely uncomfortable) and everything pans out and is wonderful, but I just can't invest in it on good faith alone.
