By Stephanie Bartram, The Parthenon
Marshall U.-area band Attack Flamingo has found itself going head-to-head with award-winning artist Dido in a dispute over the cover art for her upcoming album.
The band's album "No Star Could Be as Large," which was released in August, showcases a NASA photo of astronaut Bruce McCandless II taken from space. The photo was taken from NASA's Web site.
"NASA does not have a problem with the image being used on an album cover," said Connie Moore, spokeswoman for the photo department at NASA.
Dido's album, "Safe Trip Home," which dropped Nov. 4 on Sony BMG, displays the same NASA photo as used for the Attack Flamingo album.
"I was extremely upset when I saw her album cover," said Sean Knisely, lead vocalist for Attack Flamingo. "We need to do something about it, but I'm not sure the best course of action. It is really an unfortunate situation."
"She (released) an album this month and the album cover is the same as ours," said Joseph Spurgeon, Attack Flamingo keyboarder. "When we first heard about it, we thought it was ridiculous. Then we really started thinking about it so we contacted an entertainment lawyer."
A representative from BMG U.S. Label Group could not be reached for comment and Damon Ellis of the business affairs administration department did not return three voicemails left by The Parthenon.
Despite seeking the advice of an entertainment lawyer, the band does not have the resources to fight the issue monetarily.
"(The lawyer) said that it may not be worth the money just to get them to change it," Spurgeon said. "But if we call them we can talk to them and most importantly tell them that we used it first so they don't try to turn around and sue us."
"It's not right," Knisely said. "It's just the principle that the established artist can do whatever she wants and squash us because we don't have $70,000 to go to court. It's just a bad system."
It has not been confirmed who chose the art for Dido's album, but Knisely said it is obvious who used the art first.
"Ours is the one that is original," Knisely said. "You can go to iTunes and see. It is in a tangible form on the same Internet service available to the world. Clearly they are both there and clearly we are the ones who had it first."
One of the bands biggest concerns regarding the issue is what potential fans might think.
"If you go to the store and see the local artist Attack Flamingo you are going to think, if you have never seen it before, 'they are ripping off Dido,' which is totally false," Knisely said. "It totally discredits what we've done, which I think is unfortunate."
Knisely said they are not considering a reprint of the album cover if this issue is not resolved.
"We have had the same idea the whole time," Knisely said. "We spent months thinking about what we were going to use for the album cover. There is nothing else that really works, and I don't see why we should have to change. That is just bullying."
