On the Road Again...

Examining Live Nation's Tentacles—and rethinking the world with Fugazi and Eazy-E

Hello Everyone, and welcome back to the Money 4 Nothing newsletter!

Over the last month and change, we’ve been toggling back and forth between grim realities and utopian implications, trying to find a middle ground. And we’re pretty sure that we’re not alone in that. Late Covid Energy maybe?

We started off with a long-brewing episode examining the history (and current relevance) of the legendary D.C. band Fugazi. The topic originally came out of what we had planned as a series about music and politics, but which quickly grew into something more. In the episode, we pick apart the political economy of a group famous for its principled stances and defined by a pragmatic refusal to lay down universal maxims. And as we thought through the philosophy that lay behind the band’s $5 all-ages shows and steadfast refusal to sell merch, we started to see the outlines of a community-focused approach with resonance today.

From this angle, Fugazi was less a one-band war against the major labels than the cutting-edge (and maybe last stand) of an entire underground political economy that had developed over the 1980s, one that tried to build an intertwined social and business structure that could support a more humane kind of music. How that approach translates to a moment of big indy and platform ubiquity is tricky, obviously—but the mixture of macro scene ethics and tend-your-garden activism the band pushed remains inspiring. Only stream the union label?

You can listen to that here (Apple), here (Spotify), or here (Podbean)

For another perspective on the band and their meaning, Saxon spoke with award-winning poet Morgan Parker about how Fugazi’s articulate version of DIY offers a model for how to navigate producing art within capitalism—and about why their energy is still needed in the present day.

You can listen to that here (Apple), here (Spotify), or here (Podbean)

Next, we tackled the ‘80s + early ‘90s from another angle, talking with Professor Felicia Viator to explore the complex LA history that lies behind the rise of West Coast gangster rap. Viator contextualizes the rise of NWA within a Black political economy, tracing how Eazy-E, Dr. Dre, and Ice Cube emerged from a world of grey-market entrepreneurialism developed in response to de-industrialization and Reagan-era austerity. Traveling DJ crews spinning to enormous teenage dance-parties and gangs funded by drug-money were key to this social world, and both were constantly threatened by the violent repression of racist law enforcement. Growing in the shadow of NYC, the leaders of LA hip hop were forced to find an aesthetic that could harness—and reflect—these conditions. The results redefined what rap could be, breaking its longstanding connection to the geography of New York, and transforming it into a music that could—within the proper, media-savvy structure of authenticity—speak to local conditions anywhere.

You can listen to that here (Apple), here (Spotify), or here (Podbean). And if you like the episode, definitely check out Viator’s book “To Live And Defy In LA”!

Finally, we switched our attention to the present (at least sort of). Touring is back! And with it, a continued expansion of the inequalities that structure the live music industry. To try and figure out how the system works, we dove into the intertwined histories of Ticketmaster and Live Nation, tracing the companies as they rose to their dominant (and potentially monopolistic) position. As we examined some long-standing critiques of these firms, we found ourselves surprised by the simplicity of much of this anti-corporate moral posturing (lookin’ at you Pearl Jam). By labeling some groups “bad” (companies, greedy promoters) and some “good” (usually artists, a handful of indy venues), critics are able to create a clean moral universe out of the music industry’s typical sludgefest. But if we want a healthy touring ecosystem under capitalism (if such a thing can exist), we need to focus on making it possible for all types of individuals to make a living—or a handful of massive companies will end up running everything into the ground.

You can listen to that here (Apple), here (Spotify), or here (Podbean)

Other Stuff:

Even if some touring has come back, scattered dates aren’t enough to support the crews that make live music possible.

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2021-06-11/roadies-crews-touring-concerts-covid-pandemic

Reports of cops playing copyrighted material when they’re being filmed in order to get videos of misconduct automatically flagged and taken down by Youtube? An intersection between authoritarian violence and music rights you could never have imagined.

https://www.theverge.com/2021/7/1/22558292/police-officer-video-taylor-swift-youtube-copyright

And anti-trust is maybe…gaining some kind of momentum? The courts are stacked against it, but any kind of bipartisan interest is highly interesting—and the implications of this type of action for music are potentially enormous.

Not to get newsletter meta, but Matt Stoller’s BIG has a great rundown.

https://mattstoller.substack.com/p/why-did-congress-just-vote-to-break?r=fe2gj&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email&utm_source=copy

Actual Music

Saxon: Been diving into the very strange Belgian label Stroom which has been releasing and re-releasing music of indeterminate genres at a prolific pace for well over a decade. Illustrative of this is the three compilations they’ve dropped of Pablo’s Eye, a sort of constantly overlooked loosely knit collective of musicians and artists headed by Brussels-based Axel Libeert, the group’s lone constant member. Sometimes they sound like an art film soundtrack, sometimes progo-Balearic chillwave lapping, other times it’s like this track I can’t stop playing “Amp8” and couched as a kinda acid-laced uneasy groove from the late 90s you’d like fine on one of those dollar bin electronic music comps with a terrible photoshop 1.0 cover that actually had some decent tracks on it but the sheer overabundance of the in-the-box music put out back then made you unsure of your own tastes. Turns out it was sick af and you were right all along. Get those servers in rural Utah a twirl and listen:

Sam: I’ve spent most of the last two weeks scrolling through digitized copies of early twentieth century newspapers to find small mentions of the social contexts in which Ragtime was performed. Which can get…boring. To stay focused, I’ve been drawn to music that’s both deeply familiar and consistently interesting. For some reason, I’ve landed on Zepplin bootlegs—gloriously messy, over-the-top, unhinged pomp-parties that rock with infectious intensity and glee. Bonham is one of those players who really does deserve the hype. 3.5 hours at Earl’s Court? A 20 minute piano and drums jam in the middle of No Quarter? Yes.

Also, deeply hyped for the return of the one-and-only Ski Mask The Slump God, who is maybe aggro Busta for the 2020s?

Anyways, That’s all for us this month. Questions? Complaints? Arguments? A desire to hear the episode about RATM that would have been the counterpart to Fugazi? Invitations to grab a beer in Brooklyn or Atlanta? Email us at Money4nothingpodcast@gmail.com. Otherwise, we’ll catch you on the lawn.

LUV,

Saxon & Sam