Hi there, all ready for the Incubate festival and our DIY Conference next week? We sure are! Just to let you know: we will close online ticket sales for the conference this Sunday, September 11 at 23:59.

Otherwise, we might not receive the payments for the conference on time.

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!

Like we told you last week, we’ll have the Dutch premiere of the PressPausePlay documentary at

the Incubate DIY Conference on September 16. PressPausePlay is a film about

hope, fear and digital culture. Does democratized culture mean better art, film, music and literature? Is it cultural democracy or mediocrity? This is the question addressed by the film, through interviews with some of the world’s most influential creators of the digital era like Seth Godin, Moby, Robyn, Andrew Keen, Sean Parker and Bill Drummond.

Our Swedish friends have now released a second trailer for your viewing pleasure online. Watch it above. And again: everything is put to tape beautifully.

After the screening of the film, there will be a panel with 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. Zea is self made and the way of doing may be best described as grass-roots, as is The Ex. The panel will be moderated by Erwin Blom.

Catch the full program for the DIY Conference on this page. There are still some Pay What You Want-tickets available right here.

With less than three weeks to go till the Incubate DIY Conference, we now have the time schedule for the day complete. Before we start the program on September 16th, you’re welcome to come and enjoy a free breakfast with us from 09:30 till 10:30. After that, Michael Azerrad will kick off the event with his keynote. We’ll end the day at 16:15 with Bill Drummond‘s lecture and performance (where you as an audience member will participate in!). In between of course, there are lots of panels, film, interviews and stands. Afterwards, we’ll celebrate 20 years of Gonzo (circus) and we welcome you to come have a drink with us.

Check out the full program description here and watch the time schedule below (click to enlarge or download here as a .pdf file).

But wait, there’s more! Are you a coffee

addict, just like us? Then there’s good news for you: we have Flat Fee Coffee available! You can buy you own Incubate mug at the entrance of the Midi Theater on September 16, personalize it by writing your name on it and get as much coffee as you want during the day. What this will cost, you ask? Just a meager 5 euros. Plus: you can take the mug home with you!

Are you excited yet? Let us know on Twitter, using the hashtag #diy11. At the DIY Conference, we’ll also have a nice backchannel (made by our good friends of Freshheads) where you can react to what’s happening on the stage.

If you’re attending the DIY Conference, please buy a Pay What You Want ticket in pre sale, because we’re expecting quite some people for the event. See you September 16!

“All recorded music has run its course.
It has all been consumed, traded, downloaded,
Understood, heard before, sampled, learned,
Revived, judged and found wanting.
Dispense with all previous forms of music and
Music-making and start again.
Year zero now.”

We’re extremely honored to have Bill Drummond taking part in the DIY Conference program. On September 16, Drummond will give a lecture as well as perform his latest work The17. Titled ‘The Incubate 17’ for the occasion, Bill Drummond will perform the piece at the conference with all the visitors attending his speech. It’s a unique possibility to become part of one of his works.

The17 is a reaction to pre-recorded music, where an ad hoc choir performs one of Drummond’s works. The Independent has some more background on the project and tells about its origins based on extracts from Drummond’s book called ‘17’:

“That evening while doing my emails, the dread began to grip

me again. I began to feel that every piece of recorded music that had ever existed was behind the screen of the iMac taunting me. Each with the face of an evil little sprite. “Bill, Bill, we are here, don’t you want us? We will make you happy. Just click your mouse a few times and I’ll be on your hard drive in no time at all, enriching your life in so many ways.”

“But somehow it was the fact that – in theory at least – I could be listening to any piece of music that has ever been recorded within 60 seconds with just a few clicks of the mouse, that is any piece of music from the entire 110 years of recorded music history, left me with an empty feeling.“

“If I ever tried to nail the sound that The17 made in my imagination, it was a sprawling kind of thing. There were big loud bits and long soft quiet bits. And there didn’t seem to be any words, or at least not words that I could hear. No nice melodies or fancy chords and definitely no instruments. There was something uncontrollable about it. With the music of The17, nothing would ever get resolved. There’d be lots of overtones and strange harmonics at times almost bordering on the out of tune. They would make a sound that came right from the heart of the collective human subconscious. I got that pretentious. But I didn’t care.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Besides different lectures and

speeches at the DIY Conference, we’ll also have the Dutch premiere of the PressPausePlay documentary, a film about hope, fear and digital culture. The question that PressPausePlay addresses: does democratized culture mean better art, film, music and literature? Is it cultural democracy or mediocrity? The film contains interviews with some of the world’s most influential creators of the digital era like Seth Godin, Moby, Andrew Keen, Sean Parker and Bill Drummond.

After the screening of the film, we’ll do a panel with the makers of the film (Philip Marthinsen, producer of PressPausePlay and Dwight Witherspoon of Ericsson Sweden, who made the film possible). Also Arnold de Boer, since long the guy behind Zea and since two and a half years singer and guitarist in The Ex will take seat in the panel. Zea is self made and the way of doing may be best described as grass-roots, as is The Ex. The panel will be moderated by Erwin Blom.

The last addition to the panel is hip-hop and electronica producer Daedelus (a.o. Ninja Tune, Stones Throw, Brainfeeder and Warp). At the panel, Daedelus will share his

insights in the topics addressed by the film. During the Incubate festival, he will work with students from the Fontys Rock Academy and the Conservatory in Tilburg as well as do a DJ set on Friday evening.

We’re really pleased to have Daedelus participate in the conference. Catch the whole program of the conference here. Pay What You Want-tickets for the conference are still available. Get them right here. Watch a live DJ set by Daedelus at KEXP Radio after the break:

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On Friday September 16, Incubate will organize the DIY Conference. The conference displays the development and ethics of DIY culture with lectures, interviews, film, panels and stands. Renowned speakers and artists within DIY culture, such as Michael Azerrad, Bill Drummond and Steve Ignorant will participate in the program. Through the Pay What You Want-principle, visitors can determine the value of the conference for levitra online pharmacy themselves.

The Incubate DIY Conference will take place on September 16 at the Midi Theatre in Tilburg. It is part of the main theme of the festival this year: We Are Incubate, about the artistic practice, DIY ethics and audience participation in independent culture. The conference offers reflection on the extensive program of the festival.

The keynote speech will be given by Michael Azerrad, author of Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana (for which he is seen as the definitive Nirvana biographer) and Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground. He was a contributing editor for Rolling Stone and he has written features for amongst others New York Times and Mojo. Our Band Could Be Your Life describes American underground bands such as Black Flag, Sonic Youth and Hüsker Dü who, while finding relatively little mainstream success, did have an establishing role in American alternative and indie rock. The book was named one of the 50 best music books even written by The Guardian. At the Incubate DIY Conference, Michael will share the insights he gained while interviewing the bands and writing the book. (Photo: Getty)

Bill Drummond is best known as co-founder of late 1980s hit group The KLF and its 1990s “avant-art” media-manipulating successor, the K Foundation. With The KLF, Drummond scored multiple Number 1 hits and wrote “The Manual”, a book on how to write a Number 1 hit. The K Foundation is notorious for burning a million pounds in 1994. At the conference, Bill Drummond will give a lecture as well as perform his latest work The17. It is a reaction to pre-recorded music, where an ad hoc choir, consisting of the visitors of the conference, will sing one of Drummond’s works. The performance will take place just once at the conference. (Photo: Lucy Johnston)

English punk legend Steve Ignorant will be interviewed by writer and BBC commentator John Robb. With his band Crass, Ignorant was one of the driving forces of the DIY movement. Crass was one of the first bands to arrange their record sales and concerts without interference from the music industry and asked fans to make their own merchandise. John Robb writes for The Observer, The Guardian and The Independent and will interview Ignorant about DIY, Crass’ and Ignorant’s ethics and his autobiography The Rest is Propaganda.

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The digital revolution of the last decade has unleashed creativity and talent of people in an unprecedented way, unleashing unlimited creative opportunities. But does democratized culture mean better art, film, music and literature or is true talent instead flooded and drowned in the vast digital ocean of mass culture? Is it cultural democracy or mediocrity?

This is the question addressed by PressPausePlay, a documentary film containing interviews with some of the world’s most influential creators of the digital era.

“This changes everything. The industry is dead. There has never been a better time to be an artist.” – Seth Godin, author, entrepreneur and public speaker
“We are on the verge of a new dark age. The creative world is destroyed. All we have is cacophony and self opinion.” – Andrew Keen, author, The Cult of the Amateur

At the Incubate DIY Conference on September 16, we’ll have the Dutch premiere of the PressPausePlay documentary, a film about hope, fear and digital culture. The film was previously screened at Sonar Barcelona and SXSW in Texas. The documentary contains interviews with amongst

others Seth Godin, Moby, Robyn, Andrew Keen, Olafur Arnalds, Sean Parker, Bill Drummond (who will also give a lecture and performance at the conference), Hank Shocklee and Christopher Weingarten. Watch the trailer for the film above. You can watch more short interviews on the website of the film.

After the screening of the film, there will be a panel with o.a. 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. Zea is self made and the way of doing may be best described as grass-roots, as is The Ex. The panel will be moderated by Erwin Blom.

Catch the full program for the DIY Conference here. There are still some Pay What You Want-tickets available via this website.

We just posted the results of our Pay What You Want (PWYW) Pirate Conference on our Social Festival Model. Since aplying the PWYW

principle, we’ve also been getting some questions about how we did this, so we decided to put up a faq as well. Read the full post right here. If you have any questions, or if you’re interested in some

additional info, please leave a comment on the post at the Social Festival Model.

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