While Cary Clarke takes a much-deserved vacation traversing the
globe, I’ll be filling in for him here at the local music news
desk.
—Ezra Ace Caraeff
For a city that pops its collar and boasts about its support for the
arts community, Portland sure hasn’t been too friendly to the local
music community as of late. First there is the still ongoing drama with
the Oregon Liquor Control Commission and their minor postings
rulings. Then the city cracked down on all-ages arts collective
Rererato (forcing them to close their doors for good). Now
Mississippi Studios has lost its appeal over back employment
taxes levied by the Oregon Employment Department (OED). The
taxes stemmed from an audit that utilized a 1983 amendment that states
all musicians are employees of the venues they perform in.
But wait, aren’t musicians independent contractors? And how
could any one venue pay the employment taxes on every single musician
that performs within their walls? All of these are great points, but
the OED doesn’t seem to share this opinion. In fact, nearly every
music venue in Portland could be affected by this ruling, and
future audits can go as far back as 2005. If they are audited, the
venues will be expect to pony up taxes for approximately four percent
of their total pay to all performing musicians for the time frame in
the audit.
After settling with the city for the back employment taxes, a
motivated Jim Brunberg (owner of Mississippi Studios) lets
us know by email his plans to fight future misuse of this provision.
His plan? To “bond together and change the law, or repeal it
altogether.” He continues, “The law was put in place by the restaurant
industry, which has very little (if any) connection to concert
venues.”
In other news, and in direct contradiction to the three previous
paragraphs of dire news and warnings, there is a new venue in
town! And not only that, ist’s the rarest of the rare, an
all-ages venue. Dubbed Exit Only and located in North
Portland, the space is dedicated to all-ages shows and, according to
the venue’s Zach Barnes, the room “is meant to be one of several
alternatives in this city to the more traditional venues.” The amount
of shows at Exit Only will fluctuate—anywhere from five to 15 a
month—and as Barnes puts it, “There’s no shortage of places to
play a show in Portland, and this is not a bar. That probably does more
to limit the amount of shows at this space than anything else.” He
adds, “For us, it’s a matter of wanting to contribute to the local art
community in any way possible, and this space seems like a good
start.”
Exit Only is located at 1121 N Loring, and online at myspace.com/pdxexitonly.