The lengthy talk, Reynolds talked to Marcus during the course an entire afternoon about his entire career, has now been made available as a transcript on The Los Angeles Review of Books. Greil talks about his childhood and his father, about how & when he started as a music writer and that his wife has ‘an absolute bullshit detector’. An interesting part about his book Mystery Train: “[The book] grew out of my dropping out of graduate school in 1973 and realizing that I wasn’t going to write my dissertation and deciding, “Well, I’ll write a book about rock ‘n’ roll.” I wrote a book proposal and it wasn’t a whole lot more than “I will answer all your questions about rock ‘n’ roll.” It was totally incoherent! But at the end of the book proposal it said that — after I had gone all over the map, and got totally lost probably — there would be a chapter consisting of five- to ten-page essays on a few performers, as a demonstration of how you could write in depth about specific performers. And of course that became the whole book, once I got the rest of the garbage out of my system. Mystery Train is a group of essays on a few performers who seemed to me linked, to be struggling with the same kind of storytelling challenge.”

The full interview will be posted in four parts on the website of the LA Review of Books. Find Part 1 can be found here, part 2 is here.

The Incubate DIY Conference 2012 will take place on Friday September 14 at De NWE Vorst in Tilburg. Besides providing a lot of kicks during the festival, Incubate also offers contemplation with our DIY Conference. Do It Yourself mentality, ethics and esthetics will be discussed as well as the value of culture within our current society and other topics surrounding this. Like the festival, the conference is multidisciplinary. Here are the first confirmations:

Keynote: Simon Reynolds on DIY in pop culture
Simon Reynolds is a music critic and author of Rip It Up and Start Again: Post Punk 1978-1984 and Energy Flash: A Journey Through Rave Music and Dance Culture . In 2011, he published the much-discussed book Retromania, about pop culture’s addiction to its own past. He has contributed to magazines such as The New York Times, The Guardian, The Wire and Mojo. Reynolds will kick off the DIY Conference with a keynote on the context and background of Do It Yourself in pop culture. He will not look at the origins in history alone, but also to the present and beyond.

The Guerilla Filmmakers Guide with Chris Jones
Chris Jones is a British filmmaker and co-author of The Guerilla Filmmakers Handbook, a bestselling low-budget filmmaker bible. The book present different case studies of international low-budget successes like The Blair Witch Project, Shaun of the Dead and Saw. Chris Jones recently directed the Oscars shortlisted film Gone Fishing. At the DIY Conference, he will give an outline for DIY and Guerilla filmmaking. He’ll share tips, best practices as well as inspiring examples from the book.

Q&A with Damo Suzuki (ex-Can)
Damo Suzuki is the former singer of one of the most influential bands of the last century: Can. In 1983, the krautrockpioneer started the Damo Suzuki Network, later to become the biggest band on earth. The DSN settles in Tilburg to play 3 shows in 3 days in 3 unique formations. Everyone can join, from visitors to international musicians. At the DIY Conference, Suzuki will be interviewed about the origins of and thoughts behind this project. Of course, you’re welcome to come and ask him some questions yourself.

British Sea Power, bird watching and fell walking: an interview with Roy Wilkinson
Hosted by Louder Than War. How uncool is bird watching or fell walking? Well, British Sea Power have carved a career – over a decade long now – on doing things that are uncool, or odd. Roy Wilkinson, manager of the band, will be interviewed by Incendiary Magazine and Louder than War’s Richard Foster about his book Do It For Your Mum; a non-fiction tale of family and rock music set against the life and times of the group. “Exciting, life-affirming stuff… As heart-warming as it is hilarious”, like Record Collector said.

Panel: How To Run Your Record Label
Always had the dream to start your own record label? Or just curious how some of your favorite labels are staying on top of their game? This panel’s where you need to be. Record labels Sacred Bones, Holy Roar and others will discuss the ins and outs of setting up and running a label, plus the decisions they made along the way to keep ahead of the pack. More panel members to be announced soon.

Expect more confirmations soon, as well as presale info for the event. Read some more on the first speakers here. See you in September!

At the Incubate DIY conference 2011, English punk legend Steve Ignorant was interviewed by writer and BBC commentator John Robb. John Robb writes for The Observer, The Guardian and The Independent and will interview Ignorant about DIY, Crass’ and Ignorant’s aesthetic and his autobiography The Rest is Propaganda.

In 1977 Ignorant co-founded, together with Penny Rimbaud, the anarcho-punk band Crass. With Crass, Steve Ignorant was one of the driving forces of the Do-it-yourself movement, and therefore a major influence on the punk movement. Crass was one of the first bands to arrange their own concerts and record sales without interference from the music industry and asked fans to make their own merchandise.

The third videoof the DIY conference can be seen and it’s a presentation from Slava Rubin. He is the CEO and co-founder of IndieGoGo, a funding platform, which provides anyone with passion the opportunity to fulfill their dreams and fund creative, entrepreneurial, or cause campaigns. Their services has been used for over 35,000 campaigns and distributed millions of dollars in 200 countries, even millions of dollars every month! 2011 was a great year for IndieGoGo because they were named one of the partner companies for Startup America, President Obama’s initiative to stimulate entrepreneurship in America.

Slava Rubin discussed topics like ‘Crowdfunding as Market Validation’, ‘The tips and tricks of raising money on the internet’ and ‘how to fund your business, project, or cause’ in his presentation. An interesting presentation filled with tips, tricks and full of DIY stimulance!

Slava Rubin also gave a masterclass at the BKKC, Tilburg. You can watch it here.

The DIY conference had the Dutch premiere of the PressPausePlay documentary, a film about hope, fear and digital culture. A while back we posted that the documentary was downloadable at their website in two versions, the normal one and the interactive version. It has interviews with Moby, Seth Godin, Andrew Keen and Bill Drummond (who also gave a lecture and performance at the DIY conference).

During the DIY conference we first showed the documentary and afterwards there was a panel. The members of the panel were Philip Marthinsen (producer of PressPausePlay), Dwight Witherspoon of Ericsson Sweden, who made the film possible, hip-hop and electronica producer Daedelus (a.o. Ninja Tune, Stones Throw, Brainfeeder and Warp) and Arnold de Boer, since long the guy behind Zea and since two and a half years singer and guitarist in The Ex. The panel was moderated by Erwin Blom.

The discussion involves the digital revolution of the last decade, which has unleashed unlimited creative opportunities. Main questions of this panel are: Does democratized culture mean better art, film, music and literature? Is it cultural democracy or medicrity? Watch the panel below and give us your opinion about it!

(NB: We apologize for the small audio hiccup between 8:00 and 10:30 minutes)

Michael Azerrad is an American music journalist and author of the books Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana and Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground 1981-1991. He also was a contributing editor of Rolling Stone and a writer for a.o. The New Yorker, Mojo and Spin.

Azerrad thought someone should tell that story about the influential community called punkrock. In true DIY spirit, he decided to write the book himself, coming up with Our Band Could Be Your Life. The book was issued ten years ago, and was named one of the 50 best music books by The Guardian.

In the book, Azerrad writes about thirteen American underground bands that, while finding relatively little mainstream success, did have an establishing role in American alternative and indie rock. He describes the story of (amongst others) bands like Black Flag, Minutemen, Mission of Burma, Minor Threat, Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr.

At the Incubate DIY Conference, Michael shared the insights he gained while interviewing the bands and writing the book. The Incubate DIY Conference took place at Midi Theater Tilburg, September 16, 2011. For more info check: incubate.org

There will be Pay What You Want-tickets available at the door of Midi Theatre on Friday 16 for the conference, but as always: first come, first serve. If you want to make sure to get in for the conference, please buy a ticket before Sunday night.

By the way: not able to make it to the conference? We’ll stream the full program of the main room (except for Bill Drummond’s lecture and performance, which we are not permitted to record in any way) at http://incubate.org. So for the full experience, make sure you’re attending.

We’ll see you next week!

Dan Deacon

Michael Azerrad‘s Our Band Could Be Your Life was issued ten years ago, and it’s an account of American indie- and underground bands mainly during the eighties. The bands described in the book (the likes of Black Flag, Minor Threat, Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr.) never really found mainstream success, but did have a very important role in the foundations of American indie rock.

Next week, Michael Azerrad will share the insights he gained while writing the book in his keynote at the Incubate DIY Conference. We’ll also have (amongst others) the Dutch premiere of the documentary PressPausePlay, a film on hope, fear and digital culture, an interview with DIY- and punk legend Steve Ignorant and a lecture and performance by artist Bill Drummond. Check out the full program here. Tickets are Pay What You Want and are available here.

The Village Voice has a great article on young, contemporary bands and the influence the book had on them. In the article, Dan Deacon (who did an amazing show at Incubate last year), Ted Leo and Wye Oak’s Jenn Wasner describe when they read the book and the effect it had on them. Here’s a great account Dan Deacon told The Village Voice:

“I had $450 to my name and I used it to buy a 30 day bus ticket to finish the last 25 shows of the tour. That book kept me going through some really rough times and helped to keep me grounded. Every time I started to freak out about being alone in a part of the country I had never been–with no cell phone, no email, no credit card, no money and no ID–reading that book helped to remind me of pioneers of the scene and the shit they went through.”

“I had pre-bought all my food for the tour to save money–one can or corn, one can of beans, two rice cakes and two servings of peanut butter for each day–and that’s what I lived on. I had to carry that shit on my back while lugging my 150 pounds of gear with me from bus station to bus station, and I did it with a smile on my face thinking about the rotten and moldy apples Black Flag, a band I had never even knowingly heard, ate while they were on tour. The book means a lot to me. I think if I hadn’t been reading that book when the car broke down I would of just taken a bus straight home and might not of toured again.”

Read the full story here. We’ll see you next week at the DIY Conference!

In advance to the interview between Ignorant and Robb, Dutch punk rockband Antillectual (who played Incubate last year) put down some questions for John Robb on paper about… Well, DIY and punk rock of course, but also on the digital revolution, the traditional music industry, The Ramones (so, punk rock again), the social contents of new bands, piracy and the corporate world, cutbacks on art and music funding and the legacy of Crass.

Check out the first part of the interview at the Eerste Hulp Bij Plaatopnamen website. The introduction is in Dutch, but the interview is in English. The second part will appear online tomorrow. Interested in hearing more? Join us next week, September 16 at the DIY Conference. Be sure to get a ticket in advance here.

Here’s a short piece of the interview:

“There is still lots of young people thinking and feeling things: the student demonstrations, the anti-globalization movement, it may not be in the charts but who gives a fuck about the charts? I think the gains made by the counter culture are so much part of the mainstream now that no-one notices them any more, they seem normal.”

Precies twintig jaar geleden kwam het album Nevermind van Nirvana uit, volgens zowel de makers van OOR als de lezers het beste album van de afgelopen veertig jaar. Daarom besteedt het blad de komende editie (14 september in de winkel) uitgebreide aandacht aan het album met een tien pagina’s tellende special.

Daarin is ook een interview met Michael Azerrad, de keynote spreker op de Incubate DIY Conference te vinden. Azerrad schreef onder andere Come As You Are, door velen gezien als de officiële biografie van de band en waarvoor de schrijver maandenlang optrok met de bandleden en andere betrokkenen. Daarnaast produceerde hij de film Kurt Cobain: About A Son om zijn beeld van de band en Kurt Cobain weer te geven.

Op vrijdag 16 september spreekt Michael Azerrad over zijn boek Our Band Could Be Your Life, over de opkomst van de Amerikaanse punk- en indierock in de jaren ’80. Het boek beschrijft de verhalen van bands als Black Flag, Sonic Youth, Minor Threat en Hüsker Dü. Tickets voor de conferentie zijn Pay What You Want en hier te verkrijgen. Het hele programma van de conferentie vind je hier.

Het interview met Michael Azerrad is alvast online verschenen op de site van OOR, als voorproefje voor de special en DIY Conference. Het hele interview lees je hier. Hieronder een onderdeel ervan:

‘Ik werkte bij MTV News in New York en een collega draaide ‘m continu in z’n kantoor, loei- en loeihard, over and over. Het was ver voordat het album of Smells Like Teen Spirit werden uitgebracht, dus ik had geen idee wat het was. Ik kende Bleach wel, al had ik er weinig naar geluisterd. Maar dit klonk geweldig, dus ik ben eens gaan vragen wie dit eigenlijk waren. Bleek het dat Sub Pop bandje te zijn waar de hele zomer al een soort buzz rond was in muziekkringen. Ik weet nog dat ik stond te kijken van hoe goed het was opgenomen – eigenlijk was het heel slick – en dacht: wat zou het grappig zijn als deze plaat een grote hit zou worden.’

‘Kurt sprak graag over zijn muziek. Hij hield meer van muziek dan van wat dan ook, behalve misschien z’n familie. Ik geloof niet dat ik een andere aanpak had dan andere interviewers om hem te laten praten, alleen wilde ik van begin af aan z’n vertrouwen winnen. Dat lukte, er was een klik, en het gesprek verliep als vanzelf.’