Props to Guerilla Union

These guys have been keepin shit together with their Rock The Bells festivals over the years, and this summer is no exception. Anyone into hip hop has by now heard of the monumental festival featuring the Wu Tang Clan, Nas, MF Doom, Pharoahe Monch, the Roots, Public Enemy (!), and a shitton more, but how many people are really paying attention to the business that's going on around the scene?

When Goldenvoice puts on festivals (ahem, Coachella) they make the performing artists sign a contract saying that they can't play their own show in neighboring cities (Los Angeles) for like, a month before AND a month after the festival. Now, some will try to tell you that they are covering their asses to make sure that people who just want to see, say, The Arcade Fire, will come to that one day of Coachella, and to a certain extent, that's spot on. But, to another extent, it's completely fucked up. The artist is basically prohibited from making any money from shows leading up to and in the aftermath of the big event.

I've seen a lot of awesome shows popping up on the west coast recently that indicate that Guerilla Union doesn't have this policy with the artists performing at Rock The Bells. For that, I give them mad props. Yeah, I coughed up the dough for one of those overpriced VIP packages for McCovey Cove parking lot, and I'm gonna have a great time. But, I'm also gonna have an incredible time seeing MF Doom at the Independent on the Thursday before that shit goes down, and if I'm feeling particularly frisky (see: not broke or too hungover), I'll probably catch Public Enemy back here in Santa Cruz at the Catalyst on Sunday.

This makes sense for a tour that is going across the country at a slow pace (LA->SF in a week? that's a long time!), but I'm pretty convinced that if it was another company handling things, it would not be allowed, and then MF, Chuck D, whoever, wouldn't be getting as much money as they otherwise could be, and many fans who didn't hop on to the sold out show soon enough can still get a little fill of what they like.

Now if only you guys dropped Ticketmaster as your ticketing company...