Real Music & Real Estate . . .

Yiddishe Cup’s bandleader, Bert Stratton, is Klezmer Guy.
 

He knows about the band biz and – check this out – the real estate biz, too.
 

You may not care about the real estate biz. Hey, you may not care about the band biz. (See you.)
 

This is a blog with a gamy twist. It features tenants with snakes and skunks, and musicians with smoked fish in their pockets.
 

Stratton has written op-eds for the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Washington Post.


 
 

MUSHROOMHEAD HEAD

by Bert Stratton

 
I give musician-tenants a little slack. One musician — he specialized in electronic music, and when he moved out didn’t leave a forwarding address. I wrote “please forward” on his security-deposit refund envelope. I sent it about two months after he moved. Some tenants plain forget to claim their deposits. (About 1 tenant in 200.) I never got a thank you from the guy. He should have sent a thank-you.

I once rented to a blues guy who didn’t pay a couple months’ rent. He should have known that a 12-month lease means 12 months, not six months. Youngsters (22-to-30 year olds) — they don’t know what 12 months means, but the blues guy was over 30. Young people — they try to weasel out of their leases. They say they need to move back home to help Grandpa, who broke his hip. They need to help Grandpa drink his beer and watch The Three Stooges! That’s the real story.

Musicians are sensitive to noise; I get that. If they want to move out, I sometimes let them out early. (I once lived in an apartment building and barely survived.) Several years ago I rented to a musician in the heavy-metal band Mushroomhead. I thought he might wreck the place. No, he was clean, stayed a couple years, and was never a problem. He left behind some band merch or band paraphernalia (not sure which) for the next tenant, who was a Mushroomhead head. That worked out well. The Mushroomhead head is still a tenant.

Mushroomhead

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3 comments

1 Mark Schilling { 03.27.24 at 10:39 am }

I wonder how the electronics music guy, the blues guy and the heavy metal guy would sound if they jammed together? Typo alert: “…they don’t what…” needs a “know.”

2 Bert Stratton { 03.27.24 at 6:32 pm }

Thanks for correcting the typo, Mark. [Off subject. I hear Vulfmon is releasing a tune called “Tokyo Night” tomorrow. Maybe you’re in it! Who can forget your classic guidebook Tokyo After Dark?]

3 Mark Schilling { 03.29.24 at 5:30 am }

Just about everyone in the world but you and me have forgotten that book. Thanks for the “Tokyo Nights”heads up. Does it mean the band is heading this way soon?

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