HomeUploadUpload DirectHotlinkRandomAbouttheme toggle
Expand

Your Band Sucks: Jon Fine on How the Indie Cultural Revolution Changed America

Views:933
@ReasonVids

"We're now in distribution abundance," says Jon Fine, "so if you're telling me that Amazon is bad for culture, like seriously, fuck you."

Fine is the executive editor of Inc. and the author of the acclaimed new memoir, Your Band Sucks: What I Saw at Indie Rock's Failed Revolution (But Can No Longer Here), a rollicking tour of his days in the alternative music scene of the late 1980s and '90s.

"Somewhere in the latter half of the eighties, it became much easier for weird bands to do band things: play shows, make records, go on tour. The hows and whys that had been so elusive just a few years earlier were now shared through surprisingly effective samizdat and word-of-mouth networks," writes Fine, a member of "resolutely non-famous bands" such as Bitch Magnet and Coptic Light.

Your Band Sucks is at once a remembrance of things past and a polemic against the generic, mainstream culture and political correctness that Fine found deadening while growing up in New Jersey and attending college at Oberlin. It's a book that is by turns angry, funny, and infuriating. Throughout, it perfectly captures the adolescent anger and inchoate longing that has always fueled rock music and provided the soundtrack to DIY forms of cultural production and consumption.

"If there's anything that will turn you into a foaming-at-the-mouth Tea Partyer and get you throwing stones at every liberal shibboleth you can get your hands on, it's going to Oberlin," Fine says. At the same time, his urge to create radically different music far beyond anything that was being played on MTV or commercial radio. "I felt like there was a lot not being said" in the mainstream, he explains. "Howard Jones had a song called 'Things Can Only Get Better,' really bouncy, annoying optimistic. I was like, 'You're actually wrong! Things suck and they are getting worse!'...I actually got mad about it: 'How dare you say that!' You couldn't find music easily that was talking about the other stuff....There was so much shading I wanted to get at."

"Any time you're identifying strongly with a subculture that's a minority in America, whether it's weird underground music or libertarianism, you've gotta know that you're gonna be kind of despised," says Fine, drawing an analogy between outre art and politics. "You've got to be a little bit pugilistic about it and furthermore, you understand yourself not just by the people around you but the people who are not around you and are doing the things you think are weak and inept."

Nick Gillespie talked to Fine about how alternative and independent culture has flourished over the past 30 years and whether—Howard Jones be praised!—things may actually be getting better.

About 7.30 minutes. Produced by Joshua Swain, with camera by Swain and Todd Krainin.

Go to http://reason.com/reasontv/2015/08/17/your-band-sucks-jon-fine for downloadable versions, more links, and to download a special MP3 of the full, 44-minute conversation between Gillespie and Fine.

jon fine
,
your band sucks
,
indie rock (musical genre)
,
united states of america (country)
,
bitch magnet
,
coptic light
,
alternative rock (musical genre)
,
alternative press (magazine)
,
alternative metal (musical genre)
,
nick gillespie (author)
,
reason (magazine)
,
amazon.com (venture funded company)
    Thumbnail for Bitcoin: Great Libertarian Hope or Co-opted By Wall Street?23:41
    Bitcoin: Great Libertarian Hope or Co-opted By Wall Street?
    ReasonVids
    816 views
    Thumbnail for Fox Business: IJ's Scott Bullock discusses "policing for profit" with David Asman4:51
    Fox Business: IJ's Scott Bullock discusses "policing for profit" with David Asman
    IJvids
    1038 views
    Thumbnail for Goddess of the Market Author Jennifer Burns on Ayn Rand9:44
    Goddess of the Market Author Jennifer Burns on Ayn Rand
    ReasonVids
    888 views
    Thumbnail for Overcrowded: The Messy Politics of CA's Prison Crisis9:43
    Overcrowded: The Messy Politics of CA's Prison Crisis
    ReasonVids
    940 views
    Thumbnail for False Flags: The Secret History of Al Qaeda | Corbett Report1:16:18
    False Flags: The Secret History of Al Qaeda | Corbett Report
    bestofsaidit
    911 views
    Thumbnail for Balaji Srinivasan: Coronavirus Will Shape This Decade Like 9/11 Shaped the 2000s52:19
    Balaji Srinivasan: Coronavirus Will Shape This Decade Like 9/11 Shaped the 2000s
    ReasonVids
    941 views
    Thumbnail for Peter Schiff at Occupy Wall Street: Full Version, Almost 2 Hours Long!1:48:29
    Peter Schiff at Occupy Wall Street: Full Version, Almost 2 Hours Long!
    ReasonVids
    712 views
    Thumbnail for Trackmania 2020 RPG - Riverside Summer 2021 Remix - World Record by Micm0 (3:27.841) | blackpulse4:18
    Trackmania 2020 RPG - Riverside Summer 2021 Remix - World Record by Micm0 (3:27.841) | blackpulse
    invidious
    436 views
    Thumbnail for A False Flag Reading List - Questions For Corbett #09349:40
    A False Flag Reading List - Questions For Corbett #093
    corbettreport_uo
    717 views
    Thumbnail for Don't Vote (Rational Ignorance Remix)0:58
    Don't Vote (Rational Ignorance Remix)
    ReasonVids
    912 views
    Thumbnail for It's hot out there, so don't forget to water your bear!0:14
    It's hot out there, so don't forget to water your bear!
    bestofupgoat
    276 views
    Thumbnail for Apostle Suleman LIVE:🔥A THOUSAND TIMES MORE || WWN #Day8- JANUARY Edition | 10TH JAN 20251:20:20
    Apostle Suleman LIVE:🔥A THOUSAND TIMES MORE || WWN #Day8- JANUARY Edition | 10TH JAN 2025
    invidious
    125 views
    Thumbnail for Shakespeare in the Park returns after five-year hiatus with A Midsummer Night's Dream | CNA8:00
    Shakespeare in the Park returns after five-year hiatus with A Midsummer Night's Dream | CNA
    invidious
    451 views
    Thumbnail for Random white guy roasts blacks and jews trying to claim Cleopatra was a black and not Greek2:46
    Random white guy roasts blacks and jews trying to claim Cleopatra was a black and not Greek
    AOUisgay
    561 views
    Thumbnail for Residential & Commercial LED Track Lighting Australia & New Zealand | LED World1:36
    Residential & Commercial LED Track Lighting Australia & New Zealand | LED World
    invidious
    258 views
    Thumbnail for Hannah and Linda0:29
    Hannah and Linda
    MerkinMuffly
    1143 views
    Thumbnail for Koch LA Times Buyout Enrages Protesters: What We Saw at the "Save Our News" Rally4:29
    Koch LA Times Buyout Enrages Protesters: What We Saw at the "Save Our News" Rally
    ReasonVids
    845 views
    Thumbnail for Christopher Langan Discusses The Kalergi Plan8:39
    Christopher Langan Discusses The Kalergi Plan
    bestofvoatxyz
    484 views
    Thumbnail for India vs England, 3rd Test | India vs England Live | IND vs ENG Live Score & Commentary, Session 3 | Iqbal Sports3:03:21
    India vs England, 3rd Test | India vs England Live | IND vs ENG Live Score & Commentary, Session 3 | Iqbal Sports
    invidious
    352 views
    Thumbnail for ENDING THE DEBATE - BECAUSE NONE OF YOU FAGGOTS HAVE NEVER USED A POWER TOOL BEFORE 😡0:36
    ENDING THE DEBATE - BECAUSE NONE OF YOU FAGGOTS HAVE NEVER USED A POWER TOOL BEFORE 😡
    bestofupgoat
    97 views
    Thumbnail for Dangus being bullied0:10
    Dangus being bullied
    bestofupgoat
    92 views
    Thumbnail for Safe and effective - Performers dying, falling ill and collapsing on stage ~ 53 in 3 months to 19 Oct 20228:14
    Safe and effective - Performers dying, falling ill and collapsing on stage ~ 53 in 3 months to 19 Oct 2022
    bestofsaidit
    650 views
    Thumbnail for LIVE: MeidasTouch RESPONDS to MAJOR Breaking News - 3/27/25 | MeidasTouch1:14:41
    LIVE: MeidasTouch RESPONDS to MAJOR Breaking News - 3/27/25 | MeidasTouch
    invidious
    98 views
    Thumbnail for Porker of The Month for October 2010: Debbie Wasserman Schultz!1:40
    Porker of The Month for October 2010: Debbie Wasserman Schultz!
    ReasonVids
    903 views
    Thumbnail for IRL internet fight0:24
    IRL internet fight
    bestofupgoat
    262 views

points

Permalink
Reply
jon fine
,
your band sucks
,
indie rock (musical genre)
,
united states of america (country)
,
bitch magnet
,
coptic light
,
alternative rock (musical genre)
,
alternative press (magazine)
,
alternative metal (musical genre)
,
nick gillespie (author)
,
reason (magazine)
,
amazon.com (venture funded company)
TOS  •  Add Keywords  •  Donate  •   Analytics  •   DMCA  •   Puzzle