Cometbus 47

Cometbus #47

DIY House Shows and Music Venues in the US

DIY House Shows and Music Venues in the US is an interdisciplinary study of house concerts and other types of DIY ("do- it- yourself") music venues and events in the United States, such as warehouses, all- ages clubs, and guerrilla shows, with its primary focus on West Coast American DIY locales. It approaches the subject not only through a cultural analysis of sound and discourse, as it is common in popular music studies, but primarily through an ethnographic examination of place, space, and community. Focusing on DIY houses, music venues, social spaces, and local and translocal cultural geographies, the author examines how American DIY communities constitute themselves in relation to their social and spatial environment. The ethnographic approach shows the inner workings of American DIY culture, and how the particular people within particular places strive to achieve a social ideal of an "intimate" community. This research contributes to the sparse range of Western popular music studies (especially regarding rock, punk, and experimental music) that approach their subject matter through a participatory ethnographic research.

What Punk Taught Me

From personal anecdotes to philosophical inquiries, ‘What Punk Taught Me’ gathers essays from fifteen different contributors whose lives have all been touched upon by punk culture in some meaningful way. Many years after hearing their first blast of distorted punk guitar as a youth or teenagers, these individuals (like so many others) have come to realize later in life that their experience of punk has provided them with an incredibly valuable tutelage in becoming an artist, writer, educator, or overall human being. For these contributors, the experience of punk has been the source of community and ethics, philosophy and aesthetics, or even an attitude and identity. This anthology explores how various individuals have connected with punk in a variety of distinctive ways—through music, venues, fashion, art, writing, activism, collecting culture, rebellion, subversion, or DIY projects. These essays document the lessons of punk, bringing together people from a wide array of backgrounds. Each of them shares their own unique story of what punk has taught them – how those experiences have been formative in their lives and how punk has supported their personal and professional development. These narratives serve as a reflection on the myriad influences of punk – as a methodology, a philosophy, an ontology, an aesthetic, a strategy, a cultural phenomenon, or a worldview. The culmination of this collection provides a deeper understanding of the individualized and personal influences of punk but also the wider arch and overall legacy of punk culture. Through this analysis, an explicit correlation is drawn between the world of punk, the educations it provides, and the ripples of its wider socio-cultural impact.