Mount Rockmore: The Essential Figures of DIY Underground Rock
Whose heads are getting cobbled tonight?
Every niche has its collection of founding fathers. Harry Coover invented Super Glue, Lonnie Johnson birthed the Super Soaker. So on and so forth.
WHO can we credit as the players in elevating DIY rock culture? That is players plural, because we know it’s a team effort.
The criteria for this will be impact on DIY rock recording, songwriting, ambassadorship, and culture at large.
From left to right, here’s what our Mount Rockmore looks like…
Steve Albini
Despite his infamous curmudgeonry, Albini’s aversion and contempt for the record industry in addition to his simplistic philosophy on recording has to earn him a spot in here. Even though he wound up running his own studio empire Electrical Audio, they are renowned for their ethos that is largely rooted in DIY.
Ian Mackaye
Between his decades long fronting of Minor Threat and Fugazi, Ian Mackaye became synonymous with DIY culture by way of those bands’ self-propelled, workhorse touring and organizational approaches. Not to mention, he is now 40+ years into managing the legendary underground label Dischord Records out of the Washington D.C. suburbs.
Kathleen Hanna
Perhaps a bit of an under the radar pick, but Kathleen’s influence on the feminist tinge to the DIY underground in American rock music over the past 40 years is undeniable. From zine-maker to activist to radical head of Bikini Kill and Le Tigre, Kathleen has done it all.
Robert Pollard
Anybody who has spent five seconds on this blog knows its affinity for Guided By Voices, so it’s no surprise that Mr. Pollard, the fourth grade teacher from Dayton, Ohio, earns a spot here. GBV’s approach to basement recording and Pollard’s prolific song output showed that through sheer imagination, in the underground all of your wildest dreams will come true.
“Echos Myron” climax voice
. . . Or something like thaa-aaa-aat.
There you have it. Mount Rockmore. God Bless America and All Its Guitar Centers.