| This is a trust fall. |
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 | | Joni, get out your cane: Joni Mitchell and Brandi Carlile at the Newport Folk Festival, Newport, R.I., July 24, 2022. | | (Carlin Stiehl/Boston Globe/Getty Images) | | |
| quote of the day |
| "This is a trust fall." | | - Brandi Carlile, on Joni Mitchell's electric guitar solo Sunday at the Newport Folk Festival | |
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| rantnrave:// |
In Newport They Jam on Main Stage
While you were still deciding whether to spend $99 or $262 or $5,000 on BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN tickets, BRANDI CARLILE was bringing JONI MITCHELL onstage at the NEWPORT FOLK FESTIVAL ($108 for the day or $257 for three days through digital ticketing platform DICE) for what may have been the most astonishing, moving and almost literally unbelievable set any classic rock or pop artist, or anyone really, will perform in 2022. The sheer wonder and impossibility of it all has been well covered. Here's ANN POWERS on a singing voice that had already undergone a watershed change once before in the 21st century, and now, "Here was another revelatory voice, showing the marks of her recent health struggles and her determination to recover, stunning in its honesty." Here's MARY MCNAMARA on a reimagined version of the 53-year-old "BOTH SIDES NOW" that "has never sounded so powerful, so genuine a description of the constant human tension between reality and hope, desire and downfall." And here's Joni herself suggesting to CBS' ANTHONY MASON that "I didn't sound too bad tonight"—which may be the biggest rave of all, coming as it does from someone who knows exactly what she had to do to get there. Relearning how to stand up and get out of a chair. Relearning, by watching old videos of herself, how to play guitar. (If you're going to learn again, why not learn from the best? Mitchell's virtuosity on guitar and other stringed instruments should be talked about more often.) And then having the courage and grit to get up out of her throne-like chair on the Newport stage, strap on an electric guitar and play a sizzling version of "JUST LIKE THIS TRAIN" in front of a live festival crowd and a worldwide YouTube crowd that she knew would be tuning in before the day was done. "This is a trust fall," Carlile said, introducing that guitar solo. No one, it turned out, was needed to catch Joni Mitchell. Except for every single soul who was there, onstage, in the Newport crowd and at homes around the world.
Both Sides Now
Seemingly every side of the Bruce Springsteen ticket fiasco that TICKETMASTER swears wasn't a fiasco has been aired out at this point. Here are revered rock promoter HARVEY GOLDSMITH and LIVE NATION CEO MICHAEL RAPINO having at each other in the letters section of BOB LEFSETZ's newsletter. Here's Springsteen fanzine Backstreets wondering "if it's not raining, why are we getting soaked?" But some questions still linger as additional shows for Springsteen and the E STREET BAND's 2023 tour go on sale over the next several days.
Ticketmaster says only 11 percent of tickets sold last week were so-called platinum tickets, subject to the variable, algorithm-driven pricing that saw some seats literally shoot up to $4,000 or $5,000. But is that only because buyers shied away from those seats? What percentage of tickets initially made available were platinum seats? What percentage were held back from public sale (and did some of those become the "verified resale tickets" that were prevalent on Ticketmaster's site last week)? What does the prevalence of those resale tickets say about the stated goal of variable pricing—to bring prices in line with market values to discourage reselling in the first place? ("One might cite inflation, market value, or any number of factors" for the eyebrow-raising prices of some tickets, Backstreets editorialized; "we'd argue that it can't be 'market forces' when supply is purposefully obfuscated, then manipulated by the platform of distribution.") And if Ticketmaster can "verify" resales, why can't it regulate them by, say, not allowing resellers to offer tickets at a markup for a certain window of time, if ever?
Etc Etc Etc
KOBALT MUSIC PUBLISHING—which says its songwriters are represented on 40 percent of the top 100 tracks and albums in the US and UK at any given time—is pulling its catalog of 700,000 songs from FACEBOOK and INSTAGRAM after failing to come to terms on a new deal with their parent company, META... Meta, meanwhile, is introducing a revenue-share model to pay publishers and labels for certain user-generated videos, a change the industry has been asking for. "Whether the music industry is united in being happy with the *size* of that revenue share," quips Music Business Worldwide, "is yet to be seen"... Joni Mitchell and NEIL YOUNG were seen in some corners as out-of-touch, out-of-date old rockers when they deleted their music from SPOTIFY earlier this year to protest Spotify podcaster JOE ROGAN. But who's out of touch now? If you felt the perfectly understandable urge to listen to Joni Mitchell anytime in the last couple days, Spotify could offer no help... Coming to Las Vegas: ADELE (finally) and U2... The emo dictionary.
Rest in Peace
Rapper-turned-politician PHYO ZEYA THAW, one of four pro-democracy activists executed by Myanmar's ruling military junta. He first came to national prominence as leader of the group Acid, whose politically charged 2000 album "SATIN GYIN" (which translates to "Beginning") is considered Myanmar's first hip-hop album; it was an unexpected hit in a country not known for its tolerance of protest music. Phyo Zeya Thaw turned to activism as part of Myanmar's Generation Wave movement and in 2012 he was elected to parliament, where he became a close ally of now-deposed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi. He had left politics to return to music—"He wanted to write songs and perform onstage again," his girlfriend told BBC News—but the junta, which considered him a terrorist, arrested him in November 2021 and convicted him in a closed trial in January. Human rights officials condemned the trial and executions... Celebrated indie film director BOB RAFELSON, who co-created the TV show "The Monkees" and made his big-screen debut with the subversive Monkees feature "Head," which he co-wrote and co-produced with Jack Nicholson. Rafelson and partner Bert Schneider "encouraged us to be ourselves," the Monkees' Micky Dolenz said. "They did not want to hire four actors to play parts they made up. They wanted four different people with different energies and spirit." Rafelson went on to direct Nicholson in several films including "Five Easy Pieces," "The King of Marvin Gardens" and "The Postman Always Rings Twice."... Veteran Austrian conductor STEFAN SOLTESZ, who collapsed Friday while conducting the Richard Strauss opera "The Silent Woman" at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, Germany. He died shorty afterward... PHILIP DRUCKER, multi-instrumentalist and founding member of experimental punk bands Savage Republic and 17 Pygmies; he had a second career as an intellectual property lawyer, professor and writer... One-time Suicidal Tendencies bassist BOB HEATHCOTE.
| | - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator | |
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 | | CBS News |
| | Joni Mitchell performs in public for first time in nine years | | By Anthony Mason | | Joni Mitchell surprised the Newport Folk Festival crowd when she joined Brandi Carlile onstage. Anthony Mason spoke with Mitchell about recovering from a near-fatal brain aneurysm, teaching herself to play the guitar again and returning to the stage. | | |
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 | | Slate |
| | Hip Hop, Crime, and Free Speech | | By Jason Johnson and Stephanie Willis | | Many American entertainers make art about violence, but rappers are largely alone in facing prosecution over their art. | | |
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 | | Backstreets |
| | Freeze-Out | | It's four in the morning and raining. We're feeling old, listening to the outcries of fans feeling similarly betrayed by last week's ticket sales, and remembering that things were different a decade ago. | | |
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| what we're into |
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| Music | Media | | | | | | Suggest a link  | | "REDEF is dedicated to my mother, who nurtured and encouraged my interest in everything and slightly regrets the day she taught me to always ask 'why?'" |
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