Music

Canadian band The Tea Party could sell their domain to politics for $1 million, or might just lend it to Stephen Colbert

by Nicole Villeneuve

Recently reunited Canadian rock band the Tea Party have found themselves in an interesting predicament that could see them richer than being Canadian rock jerks stars ever could.

Since the American Tea Party political movement has gained considerable steam in recent years, the band finds its domain, TeaParty.com, the target of people searching for politics, not music.

“So much damage has been done to our name by the political movement that we’re considering selling,” bassist Stuart Chatwood tells Business Week.

Warren Adelman, president of GoDaddy.com says “If you look at the money being talked about—campaigns raising $1 billion—it’s easy to expect teaparty.com to go for well over $1 million.”

But the band is considering options outside of handsome sums, too. “We’ve considered lending the name to Stephen Colbert or Jon Stewart to have them dispel some of the stuff that the Tea Party says,” says Chatwood. “As Canadians we’re somewhat sensitive to all the criticism of socialized medicine.”

For now though, the band has merely amended their landing page to say “No politics, just rock and roll.” But how about that bottom line? As Chatwood says, “We’ve got families.” [via The Atlantic]