Okay peepz, here´s a nut to crack for all of you. There´s a German band called MIA. which has come up with a new logo that has a pretty obvious resemblance with the logo Man Recordings uses since 2005.

First, a few explanations. The symbol we use on our records, on the website and some of our T-Shirts – in abstract form – represent the three letters MAN. The logo also symbolizes a waveform, the basic graphic display of a sonic signal. When looking for a logo for our record label, we played around with the letters “MAN” noticing that in pairs, the three letters consist of four triangles which could be displayed in a waveform too – thus the Man logo which until now only few people deciphered as symbolising both MAN as well as the waveform. We use this as our company´s logo from release #1 and IT`S OURS!

MAN REC classic logo, in use since 2005:
MIA.´s new logo, first released in 2008:

MIA.´s old logo:

Now, about MIA. : They do a kind of pretty non-funky, middle-of-the-road electro-rock in German language. German kids love ´em but if you know the music from the Neue Deutsche Welle, which MIA. heavily plunder, MIA. is kind of lame. Plus: People in Germany always confuse them with our favourite UK darling M.I.A. (Maya Arulpragasam). So this band is kind of a big pain in the ass. We don´t need further confusion or desire any association with the band MIA. – and we prefer to be the only label using this logo.

Check the MIA. website and see what I mean:
http://www.miarockt.de/

Man Recorder readers, Man Recordings fans, supporters, haters, what time is love? Is this a coincidence? A matter for the legal department? Should we care? Should we sue? Your comments are warmly welcomed.

P.S. Some additional trivia: There´s even another MIA in Germany, Berlin based Techno DJ MIA (Michaela Grobelny) which spells her name as “M.i.a.” Can you dig it? Total confusion, arrghhh!