Traditional house concerts end with a bucket of cash (often mostly singles) which is then handed to the artist to lovingly count and flatten. I was emailed after my Sofar Sounds gig to tell me that as long as I sent in my invoice properly, I would receive payment on PayPal within 14 days. There’s some exchanges technology just can’t improve upon. | | | | Sleater-Kinney's Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker in George, Wash., May 22, 2015. Their album "The Center Won't Hold" is out Friday on Mom + Pop.
(Mat Hayward/FilmMagic/Getty Images) | | | | |  | “Traditional house concerts end with a bucket of cash (often mostly singles) which is then handed to the artist to lovingly count and flatten. I was emailed after my Sofar Sounds gig to tell me that as long as I sent in my invoice properly, I would receive payment on PayPal within 14 days. There’s some exchanges technology just can’t improve upon.”
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| | rantnrave:// There's a single reader comment at the end of JOHN COLPITTS' lengthy reported piece for TALKHOUSE about an apparent disconnect between hot live-music startup SOFAR SOUNDS' creative offering—intimate, secret concerts in nontraditional settings, a kind of high-tech twist on house concerts—and its business identity—a venture-capital-backed company with paid, ticketed shows staffed largely by volunteer "ambassadors." "This remarkably well-funded company," writes Colpitts, better known as the indie-rock drummer KID MILLIONS, "staffs its events almost exclusively with unpaid volunteers." Colpitts is skeptical of the model, and raises the question of whether the use of unpaid staff to host and run nightly for-profit, ticketed shows around the world violates labor laws. He cites relevant regulations at some length and reports that a source at the New York State Department of Labor "indicated plans to investigate" the company's practices. (The company tells him: "We are comfortable we’re doing the right thing in compliance with local regulations and serving the interests of our community members.") Colpitts also interviews several of those unpaid volunteers, who speak highly of the company and how much they love working with it ("If I felt taken advantage of at all, I wouldn’t be doing it"), as well as some Sofar performers, who are paid $100 per show and who are equally high on the experience. For emerging artists, Colpitts says, it's a hell of an opportunity. But, he suggests, it could be a hell of a lot better. Music, meet tech. Creative, meet capital. Let's talk. The lone comment on Colpitts' piece comes from a Sofar ambassador whose user name is INGRAM LEE. He says he's gained experience, friends and connections from working with Sofar and has no interest in getting paid. "The value of these types of moments isn't something I would trade for to be paid NY state minimum wage for 3 hours a show," Lee writes. It's an almost beatific response, and Colpitts answers him in kind. "I believe you," Colpitts tells the volunteer. He validates the concept of Lee's "alternative capital" and then raises the issue of real capital, wondering how Lee will feel if Sofar is sold, making "a lot of money" for its investors and none for "the thousands of unpaid volunteers who have put on these amazing concerts... and have participated deeply in the company's growth. "In time," Colpitts adds, "you might have a different perspective on the engines behind Sofar—which undoubtedly has created something that's very special to so many people." I can't think of softer, more gentle response that does, in fact, act as a response. And, perhaps, as a call to action... A second TALKHOUSE piece, in which ADAM SCHATZ of the indie-rock band LANDLADY recounts the one Sofar Sounds show he played with two other bands ("both great") is harsher, more judgmental. "It isn’t always about the money," Schatz writes, "but somehow it is usually about f***ing over the artist. Even when everyone believes they’re doing a good thing." In fact no one in either of these two pieces doubts that Sofar is, in many ways, doing a good thing. But they do have questions... A$AP ROCKY is guilty of assault, will not have to serve any more time. He is "disappointed"... Everything you need to know about flying with a guitar... AWAL and PRS FOUNDATION offering grants of up to $6,000 to female, trans and non-binary artists and songwriters... Hearts and hugs to PETER MURPHY and JANET WEISS... RIP AL BROOMFIELD and PACO NAVARRO. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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 | Talkhouse |
| The company prides itself as a “global community” bringing artists and fans together; here, John Colpitts takes a look at its practices as a business. | | |
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| Talkhouse |
| A personal essay from Adam Schatz on Sofar Sounds and the creator-creative dichotomy. | | |
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 | The Washington Post |
| On the 10-year anniversary of ‘I’mma let you finish,’ a look back at a definitive moment. | | |
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 | Pitchfork |
| On a tour through his Midwestern hometown, Justin Vernon kicks back and talks about how Bon Iver isn’t just a rock band--it’s a creative sanctuary, a battle against ego, a collective catharsis. | | |
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 | NME |
| Two decades ago, Blur and Oasis released their highly-anticipated new singles on the same day, setting up the biggest showdown in chart history. The Battle Of Britpop gripped the nation, reinvigorated the UK music scene and defined an era. Here, in the words of the main players from both sides, is the definitive story of pop’s biggest bust-up. | | |
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 | Penny Fractions |
| The rather bold accusation that two of the world’s biggest pop stars inflated their own YouTube numbers snuck into a Bloomberg piece without any second thought. The banality of such number manipulation speaks to the question of who is really the audience for these eye-popping numbers: Advertisers. | | |
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 | Variety |
| With everyone from President Donald Trump to the Rev. Al Sharpton weighing in on rapper A$AP Rocky 's detention in Stockholm after his involvement in a street brawl there, this peculiar saga seemed tailor-made for summer's silly season. | | |
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 | The New York Times |
| Swedish pop was dominated by roving bands in garish costumes until Abba changed everything. Benny Andersson now leads one of those groups. | | |
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 | Los Angeles Times |
| When news spread Tuesday that Plácido Domingo had been accused by nine women of sexual harassment over three decades, reactions from the opera world included sadness and anger that were only amplified by Domingo's response to the allegations. | | |
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 | Stereogum |
| A fascinating thing about rap music: It may be the only form of music where personality and digital ephemera matter at least as much as music itself. Within rap music, hit songs make a difference, of course. So do classic albums. But they aren't the only things that matter. Transcendent rap moments can come in all sorts of different forms. | | |
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 | The Concourse |
| My name is Dave, and I'm a guitar hoarder. I quit drinking in 1987 and took up acquiring guitars and complementary rock toys. I budgeted lots of the time and money formerly spent boozing toward guitars, and soon realized I was better at getting deals on instruments than playing them. | | |
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 | Longreads |
| My best friend and the New Kids on the Block, 30 years later. | | |
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| Variety |
| You could be using the world’s greatest headphones, but if the quality of the sound going into them is mediocre, there’s only so much lipstick you can put on that pig. | | |
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 | Vulture |
| "Think of your favorite songs, songs that changed your life, songs that you chose to keep living because of. They probably didn't chart that high but they live forever. Look at Robyn's 'Dancing On My Own.' The most important pop song of this generation never touched radio the way other stuff did. | | |
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| The New York Times |
| Moor Mother, Ben Lamar Gay, Angel Bat Dawid and other jazz-adjacent storytellers are embracing tradition and questions about the nature of performance. | | |
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 | Audiophile Review |
| Paul Wilson explains how making his system sound worse actually made it sound better. | | |
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 | Quartz |
| The simplest way to making long-term decisions, according to Prince, KISS, Queen, Bob Marley, Run DMC, and Billy Joel's former music publicist, Howard Bloom. | | |
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 | Okayplayer |
| From Luther Campbell to Kool Keith to Kanye West, pornography and hip-hop have had a long, complicated, and - -at times -- bizarre relationship. | | |
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| Los Angeles Times |
| On the eve of Woodstock's 50th anniversary, attendee Robert Christgau revisits one of the most galvanizing moments in rock history. | | |
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 | The New Yorker |
| Jim DeRogatis writes about Charles Manson's music career, which included links to Dennis Wilson, of the Beach Boys, and the music producer Terry Melcher, and how it's regarded or ignored in recent takes on the Manson murders, including the films "Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood" and "Charlie Says." | | |
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