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Thursday, November 19, 2009

Legal / Business Are Performance Rights Organizations Harming Live Music?

Posted by Grant Brissey on Thu, Nov 19, 2009 at 1:46 PM

[ASCAP, BMI and SESAC's] aggressiveness in getting just about any small venue to pay up fees [is] killing off open mic nights and other sorts of venues that allowed musicians to play live. Mike points us to the news that many venues are simply giving up on live music. The problem? Well, ASCAP, BMI and SESAC are all demanding huge fees. Even the restaurants that don't bring in cover bands are being told they need to pay up, just in case a musician happens to do a cover in the middle of a wholly original set. The licensing organizations don't seem to care, they just want you to pay, just in case.

It seems unlikely that these outfits could find all that much success with this campaign, but their teams of big, scary lawyers surely wield more resources than those of any given small venue. Also, what of DJs, iPods etc.? Do they not require collections from recorded music. Remember those of ASCAP stickers on jukeboxes? Has anyone experienced increased collections requests or other such hassle in Seattle? Let us know in the comments.

h/t: Techdirt

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Monday, November 16, 2009

Legal / News Re: Trouble in the South: King Khan & Mark Sultan Arrested in Kentucky

Posted by Grant Brissey on Mon, Nov 16, 2009 at 4:32 PM

St. Louis' Riverfront Times, which has been something of an authority on King Khan and Mark Sultan's run-in with the Kentucky State Patrol last Thursday, is reporting that the band has released an official statement:

On November 16, 2009 Kristin Klein entered a guilty plea to 2nd degree possession of a controlled substance in Christian County, Kentucky. Ms Klein was driving a rental vehicle that was randomly stopped at a safety checkpoint. Officers located a controlled substance in the cab of the vehicle. Ms Klein was unaware of the contraband and the validity of her license was indeterminable at time of arrest. Under KY law a driver of a vehicle is responsible for its contents. Therefore, Ms Klein entered a guilty plea and is scheduled to appear on April 2, 2010 to provide proof of her valid license.

King Khan & BBQ Show are driving through the night to make their Los Angeles show at Troubador tomorrow. Tonight's show in Phoenix is cancelled, but all further west coast dates and will to be honored. Kristin Klein is safe with the band and continuing her tenure as tour manager.

So, it turns out that 52 percent of the respondents to the previous poll chose correctly: They got pulled over because the were in Kentucky. It's still unclear whether or not Khan or Sultan were arrested, but some are reporting that Khan was arrested for magic mushrooms. Either way, rejoice, because they'll be here Saturday and it will be fun.

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Friday, November 13, 2009

Legal / Last Night Trouble in the South: King Khan & Mark Sultan Arrested in Kentucky

Posted by Grant Brissey on Fri, Nov 13, 2009 at 2:09 PM

As you may or may not have heard, King Khan and Mark Sultan were arrested last night in Bumfuck, Kentucky. They've made bail, but tour manager/fall girl Kristin Klein is still in custody, charged with driving with a suspended license and possession of a controlled substance.

Why did King Khan and Mark Sultan get pulled over?

UPDATE: Pitchfork is reporting that Khan an Sultan are out on bail, and that their arrest is confirmed, but the Riverfront Times says:

Neither the Christian County Jail nor the Kentucky State Police had any records of Arish Khan or Mark Sultan being arrested or charged with a crime.

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Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Legal The Power Game

Posted by Charles Mudede on Wed, Oct 14, 2009 at 12:14 PM

The law always functions first for capital. The two can not be separated:

STOCKHOLM — More than 40 percent of Swedes engage in illegal file sharing, but recording industry officials have noted a sharp drop since a government crackdown earlier this year, they said Monday.

"Six out of 10 (users of file sharing sites) have stopped completely, or at least significantly lowered their use of illegal file sharing after the new legislation," Ludvig Werner, chairman of IFPI Sweden, told AFP.

A new Swedish law in effect since April 1 gives copyright holders the right to force Internet service providers to reveal details of users sharing files, opening the way for legal action that could see downloaders pay damages and fines.

We can see from this why hiphop is no longer revolutionary. Its moment of greatness was precisely when it (like file sharing today) was outside of the law—meaning, when it was outside of the social system (governmentality) we call capitalism. Paul's Boutique, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, 3 Feet High And Rising —these works were made in a condition of lawlessness. This is why they challenged, dismantled the "state of the situation."

We must be faithful to the original moment of hiphop, the moment when it encouraged "thievery in the form of sampling":

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Thursday, September 10, 2009

Legal / Business / RIP Territorial Pissing (on Kurt's Ashes)

Posted by Eric Grandy on Thu, Sep 10, 2009 at 3:18 PM

The latest words in the controversy over the use of Kurt Cobain's likeness in the most recent iteration of the Guitar Hero video game franchise:

From Activision:

Activision is responding to queries regarding the usage of Kurt Cobain's likeness in Guitar Hero 5 with the following statement "Guitar Hero secured the necessary licensing rights from the Cobain estate in a written agreement signed by Courtney Love to use Kurt Cobain's likeness as a fully playable character in Guitar Hero® 5."

Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl, the two surviving members of Nirvana, have no say whatsoever in the usage of Kurt Cobain's likeness.

From Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic, who mostly just don't want Cobain's ghost lip-synching along to Bon Jovi:

This is a statement regarding Nirvana, Guitar Hero and the likeness of the late Kurt Cobain.

We want people to know that we are dismayed and very disappointed in the way a facsimile of Kurt is used in the Guitar Hero game. The name and likeness of Kurt Cobain are the sole property of his estate - we have no control whatsoever in that area.

While we were aware of Kurt's image being used with two Nirvana songs, we didn't know players have the ability to unlock the character. This feature allows the character to be used with any kind of song the player wants. We urge Activision to do the right thing in "re-locking" Kurt's character so that this won't continue in the future.

It's hard to watch an image of Kurt pantomiming other artists' music alongside cartoon characters. Kurt Cobain wrote songs that hold a lot of meaning to people all over the world. We feel he deserves better.

Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl

And as always, the ever eloquent Love herself:

# nor was going to and my quote on grphl stands, he financed his mothers home and his own with kurts etstae not his "own" money.about 1 hour ago from web

# activision know this aos very very bad press indeed wait til you see what MY lovely lawyer has cooked up, i never ever signed off on thisabout 1 hour ago from web

# all sorts of shit, and even then i had no intention of doing his btw we get NO money for this, travesty, Frances gets NO money for the rape.about 1 hour ago from web

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Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Legal No Love on the Ice

Posted by Charles Mudede on Wed, Aug 12, 2009 at 2:50 PM

Rule number 688: Rappers should not fuck with ice hokey. An example from Examiner.com:

Raleigh’s Tyrone Banks... was slapped with a federal lawsuit by the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes, the very team for which he wrote and recorded a song in 2007.

Banks is accused of misusing trademarks by referring to his song as the “official Carolina Hurricanes song,” and by wearing a ‘Canes jersey in material promoting the song.

“Carolina Hurricanes. That's our team, say the name," repeats the song's chorus.

Rap has its cultural limits. The rapper must know and respect them. Hiphop and ice hockey are like superman and kryptonite.

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Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Legal / Zzzzzzzzzzzzz Richard Marx Issues Verbal Bitch Slap to RIAA!

Posted by Grant Brissey on Wed, Jun 24, 2009 at 5:17 PM

Richard Marx goes for some street cred regarding the $1.92 million playlist:

As a longtime professional songwriter, I have always objected to the practice of illegal downloading of music. I have also always, however, been sympathetic to the average music fan, who has been consistently financially abused by the greedy actions of major labels. These labels, until recently, were responsible for the distribution of the majority of recorded music, and instead of nurturing the industry and doing their best to provide the highest quality of music to the fans, they predominantly chose to ream the consumer and fill their pockets.

So now we have a "judgment" in a case of illegal downloading, and it seems to me, especially in these extremely volatile economic times, that holding Ms. Thomas-Rasset accountable for the continuing daily actions of hundreds of thousands of people is, at best, misguided and at worst, farcical. Her accountability itself is not in question, but this show of force posing as judicial come-uppance is clearly abusive. Ms. Thomas-Rasset, I think you got a raw deal, and I'm ashamed to have my name associated with this issue.

Via Ars Technica

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Legal / News Mad Rad: Not Guilty!

Posted by Eric Grandy on Wed, Jun 24, 2009 at 11:49 AM

Just got off the phone with Mad Rad's Terry Radjaw, who reports that today, following two days in court, Buffalo Madonna and DJ Darwin were both found not guilty of the charges filed against them following last year's scuffle at Neumos.

"The two bouncers' stories didn't add up," says Radjaw. "And then Buffalo took the stand and told the truth, and the jury had his side and knew he was telling the truth."

"It feels good," he continues. "I'm glad we fought it the way we fought it versus just copping a plea."

Does he think this will improve the band's standing with Neumos and other Seattle clubs?

"I don't know. It'd be great if it did. We obviously weren't at fault here in the eyes of the judicial system, and those security guards don't work there anymore, so hopefully. That's why we weren't all like, 'fuck Neumos,' when this happened, because we knew we'd get it ironed out eventually."

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Friday, June 19, 2009

Legal / Politics / Media Two Quick Thoughts About Holy Mountain, House Shows, WSLCB, the Media, Etc...

Posted by Eric Grandy on Fri, Jun 19, 2009 at 3:14 PM

The Liquor Control Board doesn't really have any authority over a show/party at your private residence so long as you're not, you know, illegally serving liquor, right? Just like the DEA has no authority over your Friday night poker game so long as you're not moving kilos of cocaine? Otherwise, don't you only have to worry about noise complaints and the other shit that any other house party deals with?

And/but if you book acts like Black Dice and Wolf Eyes, bands who have released records, respectively, through EMI and Sub Pop (hella DIY, dudes!), it's going to get written about. If you can't take the attention, maybe you should be booking lower-profile shows.

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Thursday, June 18, 2009

Legal / ??!! Today in Excessive Fines

Posted by Grant Brissey on Thu, Jun 18, 2009 at 6:42 PM

When the judge declared a mistrial two years ago, Jammie Thomas-Rasset opted for a new trail instead of settling like the more than 30,000 people the RIAA has sued or threatened. (In her case, settling would have still meant $222,000 in fines.) Today Thomas-Rasset was found to have infringed 24 songs by downloading them with Kazaa. For this, she was fined $1.92 million—or $80,000 a song. Good luck collecting that.

Via wired.com and latimes.com.

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Thursday, May 7, 2009

Legal / Shit Talk / Business Mad Rad, Signs, and Suits

Posted by Eric Grandy on Thu, May 7, 2009 at 10:14 AM

Recently, Seattle's beloved hip hop troublemakers Mad Rad were served with a $500 lawsuit from Amante Pizza for having wheat-pasted posters on the building's wall (you know, that big blank wall on Olive way—see the photo below).

"This has been and ongoing problem for us since October or November of last year," says Mad Rad rapper Gregory Smith (aka Terry Radjaw). "Amante wanted to press charges on the club for Mad Rad posters being wheat pasted on the side of their building. Pete [Greenberg, Chop Suey booker] called me, and I told him we were on tour and when I got back in 3 days I would handle it. The pizza place didn't want to wait a few days. I went there and talked to the manager of Amante, who said he would tell the owner of the building that I stopped by trying to take care of the situation."

"Now, months later, a guy goes to our show [this past Saturday at the Mix]. He got there about 8 o'clock, when nobody was there. We got there at 10:30, and P and Buff' got served for $500. I want to fight this, but with all the other bullshit going on, and us trying to be on good graces, this is the last thing we need. So we will just pay it. It's been something I've been trying to deal with since we came back from tour. It's bullshit, but we are going to deal with it and move on."

So, all good. But the real issue here is this: Legal or not, where does Amante get off complaining about obnoxioius, unwanted signage?

In less litigious Mad Rad related business, this week's Stranger contains a profile of another one of Mad Rad rapper/producer P Smoov's projects, his duo with Rik Rude, Fresh Espresso. Check it out:

Those who think they know who P Smoov is by way of Mad Rad must find and check out the beats he did on this compilation. Listen to them once, and your doubts will melt. And through the storm of alarms and dirty funk, Rik Rude does not miss a beat. He draws from a wide variety of rap styles: Jay-Z, CL Smooth, Big Daddy Kane, and even Butterfly of Digible Planets. Fresh Espresso, his new project with P Smoov, is, however, less volcanic and more focused than Cigar Rock Star.
[...]
Not since hearing Blue Scholars' eponymous debut in 2004 have I been so excited about a local work of hiphop art. It has the potential to complete what was started on Rik's Cigar Rock Star and continued on Mad Rad's White Gold.

photo of the infernal Amante sign by Anthony Hecht; Fresh Espresso photo by Rabid Child Images

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