Park for a huge blowout
the UNDERGROUND SURFACES
By Manuel Mendoza Pop Music Critic of The Dallas
Morning News THE
Published August 6, 1992
Even as the major record companies swoop down to
snag every promising independent-label band in the
land, a rock underground remains out of their grasp.
This underground music is recorded cheaply and
released on small independent labels run by
hobbyists with day jobs. The format of choice is the
7-inch vinyl single -- a dinosaur to the major labels.
But with hand-drawn covers and hand-scrawled lyric
sheets, they're a personalized art form connecting the
musicians with their fiercely loyal fans.
The bands are supported through word of mouth and
by articles and reviews in fanzines and underground
magazines such as Forced Exposure, Chemical
Imbalance, Puncture and Option.
Some of the bands tour, playing all-ages shows at tiny
clubs or in the living rooms of friends who also put
them up for the night.
Once in a great while, a group of underground bands
gather in one place to make their clamorous noise, as
they did at the Underground Pop Festival in Olympia,
Wash., last August.
Three Dallas-area independent record labels -- Direct
Hit, Staple- w36p34s30v35.6}You won't usually hear
this music on the radio Continued from Page 5C. gun
and Scratched -- are putting on the latest of these
affairs this weekend at the Fair Park Band Shell.
Outdoing Lollapalooza and Edgefest combined (at
least in sheer numbers), the Independent Music
Festival will bring together 30 bands from nine states
plus the District of Columbia. Most of the bands play
loud, guitar-based music that isn't heard on the radio
or sold at most record stores.
"Basically, it's just a very thorough flavoring of what
is out there and what most of the general public and
the corporations are missing -- are not even looking
at,' says Gerard LeBlanc, a Richardson installer of
shutters and shades who runs Scratched Records
out of a Dallas post office box.
Mr. LeBlanc, 35, and Kris McLauchlan, a 20-year-old
college student who operates Staplegun Records in
Plano, joined with 29-year-old Kelly Keys, who came
up with the idea for the festival.
Ms. Keys is the owner of Direct Hit Records, a record
store and independent label that exclusively issues
7-inch singles by local acts.
"We're trying to break every cliche of what a rock
concert is: how you're trapped in there, how you're
forced to spend your money, how you have to buy
their products,' she says.
Festivalgoers will be able to come and go as they
wish (wristbands will be issued), and no band
merchandise will be sold on the grounds (because
the city of Dallas would have to be paid a percentage).
Instead, T-shirts and other memorabilia will be
available on the sidewalk in front of a group of small
shops -- including Direct Hit -- at Parry and
Exposition, a short walk from the band shell. A free
concert program containing information about other
small, independently owned businesses will be
distributed at the show.
Everyone from the sound engineer to the security
coordinator and the food vendor is an independent, in
keeping with the spirit of the festival. (No alcohol will
be served, so all ages are welcome.) And no band
with even the slightest connection to a major label or
distributor was invited.
"We got pretty anal-retentive about it,' Mr. McLauchlan
says. For example, bands on the independent labels
Triple X and SubPop were considered and rejected
because their records are distributed by companies
partially owned by major labels.
The festival organizers say they aren't purists about
independent music, but they wanted the festival to
reflect the subculture that supports the rock
underground, including the labels that put out the
records: "We're all freaks,' Ms. Keys says.
spoon-fed.
"We're flexing our muscle. We want recognition. We're
tired of having the doors slammed in our face. We're
tired of people saying, "Who?' We're tired of our
bands not getting reviewed.'
The band shell is also different from the typical
concert venue. A cross between the formal seating of
a Starplex Amphitheatre and the open space of a club,
it can hold up to 4,500 people: 700 standing near the
stage and 3,800 seated behind them.
Ms. Keys, Mr. McLauchlan and Mr. LeBlanc expect
about 1,000 people per day, many from out of state.
The festival has been advertised nationally in an
attempt to draw fans from across the country because
Dallas, like many other cities, has a relatively small
number of underground music lovers. So far,
inquiries have come from Canada, Los Angeles, the
Midwest and the South.
To keep costs down, lodging for all 30 bands has
been arranged in fans' houses and apartments. About
half the groups are from Texas, including Houston,
Austin, Denton, Plano and Dallas; many are on the
labels of the organizers. The other bands, who record
for a host of independents, are from Tulsa;
Minneapolis; Chicago; Albuquerque; San Francisco;
Washington, D.C.; New York City; San Diego;
Lansing, Mich.; Athens, Ohio; Iowa City, Iowa; and
Yonkers, N.Y., home of Unholy Swill, whose members
are taking the bus to the festival.
While many of the bands feature dissonance and take
melody for granted, there will be a variety of styles.
"You've got Daniel (Johnston) -- this crazy little
minimalist pop guy singing these sick, twisted,
innocent songs,' Mr. McLauchlan says. "Then you
have this heavy, insane band right after him, Steel
Pole Bath Tub from California, that'll make your ears
bleed by the end of the night. You have Lithium
X-Mas, one of Kelly's bands, who are total
psychedelia. The diversity is so amazing. That's what
makes it fun.'
