Koch Names Scarcello Sales Vp As Toney Exits; Manifesto Resurrects Dead Kennedys' Catalog

SALES SHUFFLE AT KOCH: Koch International in Port Washington, N.Y., has named Rob Scarcello its VP of sales and marketing.

Scarcello will report directly to Koch president Michael Rosenberg. He will be in charge of Koch's regional and national sales directors (including East Coast sales director Gerald Moss and West Coast sales director Vernon McNemar), marketing director Brenda Dunlap, and the firm's sales and marketing staffs.

He most recently was VP of sales and distribution for New York-based TVT Records and previously spent 13 years at Sony Music as director of marketing and information development.

Scarcello took the reins at the indie distributor just in time for Koch's 2001 sales meeting, which convened July 12 at the Harrison Conference Center in Glen Cove, N.Y.

Just before the official announcement of Scarcello's appointment, Koch laid off director of national account sales John Toney. The company has eliminated his position. Toney is seeking other opportunities and can be contacted at 516-674-4423.

Rosenberg says that "no other change [in the sales staff] is expected, foreseen, [or] planned." He adds, "We're very excited about having somebody like Rob. We wanted somebody who had experience working bigger records, because we're getting bigger records. And we wanted somebody who had experience at a major and at the same time had experience at an indie. He'll be able to bring a new perspective to our company."

DEAD KENNEDYS REDUX: After a protracted period out of print—owing to an equally protracted legal tussle among ex-bandmates—most of the Dead Kennedys' back catalog will be brought back into print Sept. 11 through Los Angeles-based Manifesto Records.

The albums in question are Plastic Surgery Disasters, the San Francisco punk unit's 1982 sophomore album (which will be combined on CD with the 1981 EP In God We Trust, Inc.); Frankenchrist, the 1985 album that sparked a high-profile Los Angeles obscenity trial involving its graphic H.R. Giger cover; Bedtime for Democracy, the group's final studio album, from 1986; and the 1987 greatest-hits collection Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death.

Manifesto will also issue a hitherto unreleased DKs set: Mutiny on the Bay, the first-ever authorized live album by the band. The set contains such tart Kennedys concert staples as "Kill the Poor," "Holiday in Cambodia," "California Uber Alles," and "MTV Get Off the Air."

The forthcoming reissue will leave Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables, the band's 1980 IRS Records debut, as the sole DKs title currently out of U.S. release.

The Manifesto program is the end product of a rancorous lawsuit that pitted singer Jello