Ben Lashes
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Ben Clark, better known as Ben Lashes, is an American
talent manager A talent manager (also known as an artist manager, band manager, or music manager) is an individual who guides the professional career of Entertainer, artists within the entertainment industry. The responsibility of a talent manager is to ove ...
known for representing various
Internet meme An Internet meme, or meme (, Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''MEEM''), is a cultural item (such as an idea, behavior, or style) that spreads across the Internet, primarily through Social media, social media platforms. Internet memes manif ...
s. He was previously the lead singer for
the Lashes The Lashes were a Seattle-based power pop band that formed in 2000 and became inactive in 2008. In 2004, the Lashes released the ''Stupid Stupid'' EP, produced by John Goodmanson, on Lookout! Records. Goodmanson also produced their debut albu ...
.


Music career

Ben Clark founded
the Lashes The Lashes were a Seattle-based power pop band that formed in 2000 and became inactive in 2008. In 2004, the Lashes released the ''Stupid Stupid'' EP, produced by John Goodmanson, on Lookout! Records. Goodmanson also produced their debut albu ...
, a Seattle-based
power pop Power pop (also typeset as powerpop) is a subgenre of rock music and form of pop rock based on the early music of bands such as the Who, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, and the Byrds. It typically incorporates melodic hooks, vocal harmonies, ...
band, in 2000. The band released ''The Stupid Stupid EP'' through
Lookout Records Lookout Records (stylized as Lookout! Records) was an independent record label, initially based in Laytonville, California, and later in Berkeley, focusing on punk rock. Established in 1987, the label is best known for having released Operatio ...
in 2004 before signing with
Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...
in 2005. Their first album, ''Get It'', was released in 2006.
Kim Warnick Kim Warnick (born April 7, 1959Fastbacks on SubPop Records
Accessed online 2017-03-31.
) i ...
began to call him Ben Lashes to distinguish him from a drummer named Ben in her own band, and the name caught on. The Lashes described themselves as "Seattle's most-hated band". The band's guitarist, Eric Howk, became paralyzed from the waist down in 2007, and the band has been inactive since 2008. Ben Lashes began working in the
artists and repertoire Artists and repertoire (or A&R for short) is the division of a record label or music publishing company that is responsible for scouting, financing, and overseeing the artistic development of recording artists and songwriters. It also acts as a l ...
department of an independent music distributor.


Managerial career

In 2009, Lashes was contacted by a friend of his, Charlie Schmidt, the creator of the viral
Keyboard Cat Keyboard Cat is the first video-based on cats internet meme. Its original form was a video made in 1984 by Charlie Schmidt of his cat Fatso seemingly playing a Electronic keyboard, musical keyboard (though manipulated by Schmidt off-camera) to ...
video. Schmidt wanted advice on how to capitalize on the video, and Lashes had experience in the music distribution industry, so Lashes became a talent manager for Keyboard Cat. After Keyboard Cat, he began to represent other memes. Other memes he represents the licenses for include
Grumpy Cat Tardar Sauce (April 4, 2012 – May 14, 2019), nicknamed Grumpy Cat, was an American internet celebrity cat. She was known for her permanently "grumpy" facial appearance, which was caused by an underbite and feline dwarfism. She came to promi ...
,
Nyan Cat Nyan Cat is a YouTube video uploaded in April 2011, which became an Internet meme. The video merged a Japanese pop song with an animated cartoon cat with a Pop-Tarts, Pop-Tart for a torso flying through space and leaving a rainbow trail behind. Th ...
, Disaster Girl,
Doge Doge, DoGE or DOGE may refer to: Internet culture * Doge (meme), an Internet meme primarily associated with the Shiba Inu dog breed ** Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency named after the meme ** Kabosu (dog), the dog portrayed in the original Doge image ...
,
Harambe Harambe ( ; May 27, 1999 – May 28, 2016) was a western lowland gorilla who lived at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, Cincinnati Zoo. On May 28, 2016, a three-year-old boy visiting the zoo climbed under a fence into an outdoor gorilla ...
, Dancing baby,
Dancing Pallbearers Dancing Pallbearers is the informal name given to a group of pallbearers from Nana Otafrija Pallbearing and Waiting Service who are based in the coastal town of Prampram in the Greater Accra Region of southern Ghana, although they perform acros ...
,
Leeroy Jenkins Leeroy Jenkins is a player character created by Ben Schulz in Blizzard Entertainment's multiplayer online video game ''World of Warcraft''. The character was popularized in a 2005 viral video of game footage. In the video, having been absent ...
,
the dress The dress was a 2015 online viral phenomenon centred on a photograph of a dress. Viewers disagreed on whether the dress was blue and black, or white and gold. The phenomenon revealed differences in human colour perception and became the su ...
, and
Scumbag Steve Blake Boston, commonly known as Scumbag Steve, is the subject of an Internet meme that became popular in 2011. It originated with a 2006 picture taken by Boston's mother, Susan, of then-16-year-old Blake Boston of Millis, Massachusetts, wearing a ...
. Lashes has described himself as "the first meme manager". Lashes licensed the Keyboard Cat video to be used in advertising by
The Wonderful Company The Wonderful Company LLC (also known as Wonderful Co., formerly Roll Global) is a private corporation based in Los Angeles, California. With revenues of over $4 billion, it functions as a holding company for Stewart and Lynda Resnick and as s ...
and
Nokia Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, originally established as a pulp mill in 1 ...
, and other memes he licenses have also appeared in advertisements. Lashes was particularly successful with the licensing of Grumpy Cat. Grumpy Cat appeared in television interviews, a Christmas film, a book, and had commercial deals with the
Friskies Friskies is an American brand of wet and dry cat food and treats owned by Nestlé Purina PetCare Company, a subsidiary of Nestlé global. Friskies was initially introduced by Carnation Company in the 1930s as a dog food brand. When Friskies ca ...
cat food brand and the Grenade iced coffee brand. Lashes received a 20% cut of Grumpy Cat's licensing and merchandise revenue. Lashes described Grumpy Cat as a "seven-figure cat", saying that her branding had generated around $100 million. In 2013, Lashes helped Charlie Schmidt and Christopher Torres file a successful lawsuit against
Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...
for the unlicensed use of Keyboard Cat and Nyan Cat in the video game ''
Scribblenauts Unlimited ''Scribblenauts Unlimited'' is a puzzle sandbox video game developed by 5th Cell and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment for the Nintendo 3DS, Wii U, Microsoft Windows, iOS and Android. It is the fourth title in the ''Scribbl ...
''.


References

{{auth Living people Date of birth missing (living people) Talent managers Power pop musicians Singers from Seattle