The Poster Children are perhaps the most well-known indie rock band from Champaign-Urbana, IL (the mediageek homestead), and they very much embody the DIY spirit, writing, recording and producing their own music in their own home studio, while also producing all their own artwork and even videos. They also do a one-hour weekly talk-radio program for their website called “Radio Zero.” Local journalist Holly Rushakoff profiled that effort in this week’s edition of our local alt. weekly.
It’s easy to forget that the do-it-yourself ethic underlying the IndyMedia movement really got its footing and took off in the punk rock, indie rock and ‘zine scenes during the 1970s and 1980s. A band recording it’s own music in a basement or garage and getting it pressed onto 7″ vinyl all by themselves is the same in spirit as citizen journalism and community radio. Locally, the Urbana-Champaign Indymedia Center plays host to all sorts of indy musicians who are local or on tour.
Still, these scenes are all sort of disparate, though not by any means hostile to one another. Decentralization is doubtlessly an asset to DIY and Indymedia, but it stands to wonder how strong a more coordinated, or at least connected, movement might be.
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