Does DIY in music exist?

Jandek?

ani difranco?

mmm everybody on Underground Resistance for a start? or do you mean just pop music? remember "own terms" can = "yay i sold 2 records"

Superchunk seems like a reasonable answer to me, as does Fugazi. But success is such a loaded term.

Not quite sure what you're asking here... Could be:

A) Is there anyone who has "made it" and taken advantage of a major label?

I think Royal Trux benefitted greatly from their relationship with Virgin (they got a house, a studio AND fur coats).

or B) Does DIY still exist?

Perhaps you've heard of a few of these:

greg ginn (ex-black flag) still runs SST Records

ian mackaye (ex-minor threat, fugazi) still runs Dischord Records

jandek/corwood industries of course

calvin johnson and candace peterson (beat happening/dub narcotic) still run K records

mac maccaughan/laura ballance (portastatic/superchunk) still run Merge Records

mark robinson (unrest/flin flon) still runs Tean Beat (?)

jenny toomey (tsunami/liquorice) still runs Simple Machines (?)

slim moon (dead moon) still runs kill rock stars

thurston moore (sonic youth) releases records of his own and others on ecstatic peace! and sonic youth released an EP series on drummer Steve Shelley's Smells Like sublabel SYR.

will oldham releases his own records under his own imprint Palace Records which are distributed by Drag City, the same can be said for David Grubbs/Jim O'Rourke re: Blue Chopsticks/Molokai.

Ramon Bauer and Andi Pieper release records as general magic on their MEGO label.

Not to mention thousands of other indie labels in operation worldwide...

whoops, i meant witchy poo not dead moon for slim moon...

doesn't someone from lookout! write on this board sometimes? doesn't molly from bratmobile and chris from the pee-chees own lookout?

Umm, I think real DIY never actually made it- obviously there are people with ethics who got big, but the way I always understood DIY was pretty much the same thing that goes on now, ie small bands and small labels releasing their own stuff which sells to the people who like that kind of thing, and/or are bothered enough to find out about it. It's not complicated.

As for *cough cough* underground artists who work with *le splutter* big business, yeah, there are some still around, but I the vast majority of them are not guitar bands.

That would be 'I think', then. Oh yes.

tigerbeat 6

Elevator (formerly Eric's Trip) started off selling tapes made in the basements/bedrooms, signed to Subpop, got dropped 8 or so years later, then released an album on TeenageUSA, now are releasing their own CD-Rs to indie record stores and online through their first offical website (other then Subpop ones). Elevator, so things seem to be working for them, going from DIY to major to indie back to DIY. Not including various releases on Sappy, Astronavigation and other various labels.

Lookout! is still an independent, but the distributor (RED) is partially owned by Sony; in my mind, that's different, because they're buying the records from us and reselling them, and I wouldn't even care Pol Pot bought a record. Touch & Go is a great example of the true DIY thing being successful.

Bill Rieflin (from Ministry, KMDFDM, etc.) runs First World Music and seems to be doing pretty well for himself (still does lots of sessions though).

Lots of jazzers have their own labels and put stuff out on a support network of other indie labels (William Parker and Ken Vandermark come to mind).

Cowboy Junkies recently reactivated their own Latent label after a horrible experience with Geffen, and though they've got a distribution deal now with Universal in Canada, Rounder in the US, they still released a few of their records by themselves along the way.

i thought someone had typed greg kihn, but i was mistaken.

mariah Carey did pretty well

Simple Machines is dead; SST is comatose (not much new product, but they'll fill your order for the classics).

Nobody can triumph in the face of the record companies. Fear the future.

well, phaps the armed proletariat...