DIY — do it yourself — was another way of saying “us against them” in the 1980s, the golden age of independent rock. The corporate-rock culture of the ’70s gave countless bands who rose in the wake of the Sex Pistols and the Ramones a wall to push against, and the music often benefited from it. Husker Du, Big Black, the Minutemen, the Feelies, Sonic Youth, Minor Threat, Black Flag, Naked Raygun: They were an explicit “no” to business as usual. It wasn’t just a sound but a value system around which a community of record labels, fanzines and clubs coalesced.
That era may be long gone, but its work ethic remains in place, the foundation on which Chicago’s music scene continues to thrive. SFX-sponsored tours with corporate tie-ins pass through this city daily, but the local community remains remarkably unaffected; in many ways it is more diverse and healthier than ever. Last week, the Flower 10 festival at the Metro and Empty Bottle paid homage to that scene, as the independent Flower Booking agency played host to 30 bands, most with a local pedigree but a national profile, such as Tortoise and the Sea & Cake.
And this weekend, another festival even more explicitly acknowledges what it means to be a part of that community. The Independent Arts Festival, which plays Friday and Sunday at Centrum Hall, 1309 N. Ashland Ave., will not only mark Shellac’s first local appearances since the release of the trio’s third album, “1000 Hurts” (Touch & Go), it will also serve as an unofficial music mart for dozens of the area’s indie labels, record stores, clubs and fanzines (Friday lineup: Shellac, High Dependency Unit, Loraxx; Sunday: Shellac, Robbie Fulks, the Oxes). Tickets ($12) are available at Reckless Records; Guitar Works, Evanston; Threshold Music, Tinley Park; Crows Nest Music, Joliet; Discs & Dats, St. Charles; TD’s CD’s & LP’s, Bloomington, Ind.; and Atomic Records, Milwaukee.
Heather Catherine Whinna, who organized a similar festival in 1998 at the Congress Theater with Fugazi headlining, says this weekend’s event is just her way of reminding everyone that the indie-rock “family” is still accepting new members.
How is indie rock different now from when you first became interested in this music in the ’80s?
Music changed my life, and all through high school it also made me a pariah. In many cases, the people I found that like this music became my friends. When Nirvana became popular, the fence between this kind of music and the mainstream got broken down. It changed everything. Small businesses, people putting on independent shows — a lot of people stopped doing it, and started doing things in a more mainstream way. We’ve lost that community; now a label like Bloodshot doesn’t necessarily think of itself as being part of the same group as Touch & Go, even though they are. The idea of putting the show on is just to remind people of what that community is. That it still exists.
After Nirvana, every underground band at least in theory has a shot at mainstream recognition and all the perks that go with it.
I went to see one of my favorite bands, Silkworm, play at a club and the glasses all had advertisements on them, and there was a giant Wesley Snipes poster that was permanently framed on the bar, and I wondered what this ugly thing was doing on the wall. I am trying to connect people that don’t want to have Wesley Snipes up on their wall, a poster of some bad movie that nobody likes, that people in the club don’t like, but they’re doing it because they’re getting paid 50 bucks a month to have it up on the wall. These indie labels, it’s not that difficult anymore to find people with money to champion you, but they have no interest in it. They do it because they genuinely love doing it without some big corporation getting involved.
Is Chicago more conducive to this sort of indie scene than other cities?
I think every city is like this in that there is always an underground anywhere you go, for people that do things in a certain way. It’s about getting the word out. I had this dream that Pearl Jam would pay someone to tour the country and find every independent venue in the country, unrelated to any corporate promoter or ticket agency. They exist, they’re out there. It hasn’t been difficult for me to find a venue every time to do one of these shows. If people communicated more and understood more that they’re all part of a family, things could be done in the way they want it to be done. That circle was broken 10 years ago, when it became about money and mainstream recognition for a lot of people that were underground. Henry Rollins talked a big game, but now he plays a cop in Hollywood movies and he’s on “Politically Incorrect.” That was a rude awakening. We’ve seen the Jesus Lizard play Lollapalooza, and we’ve seen that the mainstream world is open to anyone who really wants to be a part of it. This event is a way of reminding people dedicated to doing it a differently that they are not alone.
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Hear Greg Kot on “Sound Opinions” at 10 p.m. every Tuesday on WXRT (93.1 FM)
