Underground and DIY Art Spaces are the Only Vitality Left in this Rotting Empire

Joey Steel

The horrible tragedy of the fire at Ghost Ship in Oakland astonished the nation. The DIY scene across the country, and the world really, is close knit and I think I speak for most of us when I say our hearts and deepest sympathies go out all the communities, families, and friends who have suffered from this painful loss. In the wake of the loss of these vibrant young lives it may seem callous to talk about anything other than the torturous sadness being felt by those involved, but I do think there is a danger looming that needs to be addressed.

We see the powers that be in this country constantly using our grief as a cry for war or if not outright war, for destruction of cherished and beloved institutions. I'm not going to wait for a new front of demonization to smack the underground scene. Before the offensive against our spaces gets momentum, we need to get get super clear on why underground and DIY music scene and arts spaces are so precious. I feel obligated to write this in the face of what is no doubt impending attacks against the DIY/underground scene in the fallout of Oakland.

Gray Days, Blue Lines, and Green Paper

We can't talk about the underground scene unless we talk about the bullshit lives we are encouraged to live in the mainstream. It puzzles me how the gray, green, blue monotony satiates anyones hunger for life. Some befuddled eyes are soaking up CNN's dribble and genuinely wondering why we would risk our lives going into some seedy, potentially hazardous situation. Its like some weird, a-sexual circle jerk of confusion. I'm confused staring at the people who are confused staring at the CNN host who is confused staring at me. Jaws are dropped all around. Obviously, I am sick to death of the boring, half hearted lies I've been bred to live. I don't know how others swallow it every day. Sure we have problems, but most of the problems we have to deal with are ones that follow us from dropping out of the mainstream. They follow us down into our hole. Occasionally they are of our own devices, but more commonly they are made from a system we are trying to escape imposing itself on us.

Capitalism and it's brilliantly bureaucratic death claws insure that no one without the requisite familial endowment, or status quo investment is able to initiate any cultural experiment. We don't have the permits or licenses to operate in a legitimate way.If a musician or artist of other sorts comes from humble beginnings they have no chance of ever making a dent on the ivory cultural tower that is touted in our faces on television or like mainstream media. Poverty prevents not only classical training, but also access to materials needed to produce comparable quality art as the standard bearers use. It prevents us from renting halls and advertising our crafts, and publishing new material, and even even practicing in our "amateur" way as much as we want and need because we must sacrifice that time complete menial tasks capitalists deem profitable. And of course because of all these realities the omnipresent threat of little blue goose-steppers constantly plagues most DIY spaces on any given day. This suffocating fear guides many of the bad decisions we make, and could entirely be avoided.

The status quo crushes artists, and leaves art as a mirage for the majority of us; something only really doable for the upper class. This is not even mentioning the other elements intended on dissuading the masses from engaging in culture. Experimental art is left in the hands of bourgeois-assed, rich kids whose parents forgot to insist they become ruthless capitalists like themselves. These kids are all too often mirror images of the main stream dribble their square assed parents perpetuate and are unable to muster any real understanding of what countercultural and experimental art has the power to accomplish.

We see this crushing reality every day in the mainstream. We have trudged through countless hours of American Idol strangling us into becoming some hollowed out shell of a vapid pop star. Sure Tupacs, and Jay Zs, and Beyonces, and Gagas, and Adelles are dangled in front of us as exceptions (no offense to any of them, they are freaky talented) but there is so much more rebellion and passion and culture seething in the streets, and under the surface that just gets stifled by the daunting impossibility of expressing that voice in a meaningful way.

Rebel Culture and a City's Soul

So here we are in these megalopolises surrounded by roided out blue-brained bullies and Facebook ads hoping we have a chance to inspire others with our rebel music and art, but knowing we have almost no chance of ever even creating our tunes let alone sharing them with ears that our singularly trained to mainstream flavors and directed to pay attention to the next lotto number instead of inspiring music. So we say fuck it, and we DO IT OURSELVES. We find people around us who like this and who value being free from the constraints of capitalist traditions. However the only space we are able to occupy to do this is so far below the radar we eternally suffocate. We are deep down in the underground. Yet we don't mind. No one is complaining, we choose to live this way. Just as long as we don't have to become them, we are happy. But now everyone has their eyes fixed on us, and they think we live unsafe lives and endanger their fragile illusion of a perfect society.

These pulsing megalopolises have thrived off our rebel culture. They use us as battering rams of gentrification when they neglect communities and leave us in a position to only be able to afford places they have willfully dilapidated. They have co-opted our sounds and styles and sapped the heart from so many of our beats. All this is FINE, we get it. Our underground lives are eternally better than the ridgid, stainless-steel cookie cutter lives into which so many have allowed themselves to be poured. We get it. When they get a taste of our style and freedom, and our refreshing honesty and heart, they feel uplifted. Frankly, I personally want to uplift everyone out of that capitalist doldrums. But they can't envy our style and art while at the same time attacking the conditions in which these were cultivated.

We can't make our art in their world with their cold, capitalist calculations. Their rules and regulations are insufferable and stifling. It is precisely because we rejected those notions that we are able to make our art. So now they come and tell us our world is dangerous? NO SHIT! No one has made our world more dangerous than the neglectful hands that have passed us over with nothing but contempt and disdain for our world views. We have been forced to choose between producing our art and living a safe "sustainable" life. It has never been a choice, really. We are compelled to live this life, now stay out of our way.

Cultural Harm Reduction in Moldy Castles

We can expect that our homes and our spaces will be raided by police, and scoured by officials whose standards we are unable to accommodate, fiscally in some instances and ideologically in others. They will in turn shut us down, disrupting our communities for years and pushing us to either abandon our lives altogether or move them into even darker more dangerous spaces to play our music and make our art.

I don't drink alcohol or do drugs, but the idea of prohibition and the likes have shown themselves to be utterly failed policies. It seems to me the best model any city can hope to adopt is a harm reduction strategy for DIY spaces. Our communities will continue to exists, and we will continue to move other's mainstream-bullshit-lives with our heart filled culture. We will continue to be the world so many unconsciously strive for, the vanguard of the future, and their empty lives will continue to be nourished by our blood and sweet. Sending the police to us helps no one, in fact it seems more and more clear that the police don't help a lot of people in general, someone may want to rethink that whole social institution. After this tragedy if cities want to figure out how to foster underground culture at the same time they keep it safe, they need to admit their need for willful neglect on this front, and we need to come up with some harm reduction plan that can allow our communities to develop safely and independently.

Underground art spaces will no doubt be vilified, and the "wretched conditions" and "squalor" we inhabit demonized. But down here, we are the bedrock of any vibrant and growing culture and city. Without us, very quickly, the boring, busy life in the chilly, fading castle just seems dull and depressing. But capitalism can't fully make the space for us in any legit way. We get it. They have profit margins to watch out for, and our contributions don't quite seem like non sequiturs in their calculations. The reality is this: They need us. And we will always find a way around them if we must. Culture cannot develop in the condition capitalists necessitate. Its like growing a flower in the place you have hordes of mold growing, They take different conditions. Mainstream culture is stifling and incestuous. Rent is too damn high. Alcohol prices at bars are insane. Asinine drug laws drowned those just treading water. Out of control concert and venue prices continue to climb. Racists, homophobes and misogynists all bro- down at the bar. And still all these moldy folks want flower. . . . The conditions make real life impossible, creativity and new communities unlikely, and the underground necessary. No one is gonna stay in that boring-ass castle if they can't develop their communities and culture. We make that possible.

As folks start to pile on the attack of DIY spaces and underground, sub/counter culture, remind them how much we are needed and that the conditions that push us to live dangerous lives are principally not of our own making. No one is gonna stand up and look beyond the simple conditions of a warehouse and past some hazards and why folks were forced to inhabit that space. There is very little money being made by ANYONE at any of the underground spaces. It offers something we need far more than money, and so many of the critics of these spaces can't understand. While all these critics are lofting their attacks at us, I hope the DIY and underground communities can find heart in knowing that we are un-regulatable. That they can never govern us out of existence, and while they may attack us now, they will admire our heart and art in the future. And eventually, as their concrete crumbles and their green paper rots, they will turn to us to inspire them to build again.

A Reminder to Our Underground Family

A side note and message to some DIY spaces that don't take care of their own. I helped operate a DIY space in Brooklyn. It was never "my" space, but I always considered it ours. I know all of us who considered that our home or second home took care to make sure we respected our community. We had firm lines and roles and standards. I am sure others would scoff at our lines and standards, but we believed in them and maintained them. Things would get out of control at times, but we always thought about the well being, safety, and prosperity of our community above all else. Everything else came second, including profit. I have been to a lot of DIY spaces around the country and I think the vast majority operate this way. They always sacrifice everything for their community and for the well being of the folks attending their events. I have been to a few spaces where this is not a priority and those spaces usually are not open very long.

As a friendly reminder to those doing DIY shows and spaces, our communities are everything. Never forget to set standards and hold yourselves accountable to maintain those. We need to think about our communities and their well being because WE KNOW no one else cares for us. That is why we are all together. Take care of your spaces, take care of each other, and check in with each other constantly. Just because something has been working for a long time does not mean if is not time for a change. We are the changes we want to see in the world, that comes easy for us. We don't need a bumper sticker or t-shirt to remind us of that. But sometimes we forget that we too should actually develop and change. That can be difficult. Hold each other heads and fists up, and DO IT TOGETHER!!!!