The Long Arm of Capitalism

Fifty on Their Heels (named after a Max Brand pulp western) recently got a break. With only one small-press CD under their belt, the band landed two songs on the soundtrack to Sony's Playstation 3 game "Cash Guns Chaos." How did it happen?

According to Cat Dirt Records head Scott Pactor, "Sony's PR person Katie Uhlman called Tim Pyles at 94/9 and asked him to list 50 bands from his iPod that fit with a '70s punk theme, and they picked us from his list.... The deal is that we give them a nonexclusive license to use [each] song, i.e., we still own it, in exchange for a one-time fee." Sony paid "low three figures for each song."