Guerrilla Rock
Encyclopedia
Guerrilla punk is not as much a sub-genre of punk rock
as it is a movement or mentality. More appropriately it could be considered a hyper, or extreme DIY punk ethic. It derives its name from bands who participate in "guerrilla gigging", a practice used either because of its novelty or sheer lack of places to play. Guerrilla Punk is highly influenced by festivals such as Geekfest
and the business practices of independent record labels such as Dischord Records
, K Records
, and Plan-It-X. Guerrilla Punk has taken the DIY approaches of these influential upstarts and enhanced them with a 21st century twist. With the emergence of the digital/information age, many beginning artists find it hard or unnecessary to make a living following the old music industry models. Instead they often opt for giving away their music online and at shows for free/donation in the form of CD-R/tapes/mp3/torrent downloads, and making their money at shows. Good examples of this are the 001 Collective Family, Riot Folk Collective, Bomb the Music Industry, and Guerrilla Folk Punx which expect nothing in return but their fan's listening pleasure and their mutual aid.
Things that could be considered "guerrilla punk" are:
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
as it is a movement or mentality. More appropriately it could be considered a hyper, or extreme DIY punk ethic. It derives its name from bands who participate in "guerrilla gigging", a practice used either because of its novelty or sheer lack of places to play. Guerrilla Punk is highly influenced by festivals such as Geekfest
Geekfest
Geekfest is the name of a series of free, all-ages concerts organized by California indie label S.P.A.M. Records during the 1990s. The first Geekfest was held in June 1996 on the shoreline at Point Molate in Richmond, California...
and the business practices of independent record labels such as Dischord Records
Dischord Records
Dischord Records is a Washington, D.C.-based independent record label specializing in the independent punk music of the D.C.-area music scene. The label is co-owned by Ian MacKaye and Jeff Nelson, who founded Dischord in 1980 to release Minor Disturbance by The Teen Idles...
, K Records
K Records
K Records is an independent record label in Olympia, Washington, co-founded, owned, and operated by Calvin Johnson, formerly of the bands Cool Rays, Beat Happening, The Go Team, The Halo Benders and presently in the bands Dub Narcotic Sound System and The Hive Dwellers...
, and Plan-It-X. Guerrilla Punk has taken the DIY approaches of these influential upstarts and enhanced them with a 21st century twist. With the emergence of the digital/information age, many beginning artists find it hard or unnecessary to make a living following the old music industry models. Instead they often opt for giving away their music online and at shows for free/donation in the form of CD-R/tapes/mp3/torrent downloads, and making their money at shows. Good examples of this are the 001 Collective Family, Riot Folk Collective, Bomb the Music Industry, and Guerrilla Folk Punx which expect nothing in return but their fan's listening pleasure and their mutual aid.
Things that could be considered "guerrilla punk" are:
- Guerrilla gigs
- Basement showBasement showA basement show is a musical performance, often of the punk rock or hardcore punk variety, that is held in the basement of a residential home, rather than at a traditional venue. These are also sometimes referred to as "house shows" as they can happen anywhere in a residential house, not just in...
s - House showHouse showA house show is a professional wrestling show run by a major promotion that is not televised, though they can be recorded. Promotions use house shows mainly to cash in on the exposure that they and their wrestlers receive during televised events, as well as test reactions to matches, wrestlers, and...
s - BuskingBuskingStreet performance or busking is the practice of performing in public places, for gratuities, which are generally in the form of money and edibles...
- Fairly or appropriately priced merchandise
- Free cultureFree Culture movementThe free culture movement is a social movement that promotes the freedom to distribute and modify creative works in the form of free content by using the Internet and other forms of media....
(giveaways, internet radio, free/donation gigs) - CDR record labels
- Tape LabelTape labelTape labels are identifiers given to volumes of magnetic tape.There are two kinds of tape labels. The first is a label applied to the exterior of tape cartridge or reel. The second is data recorded on the tape itself.-Visual labels:...
s - Net labels
- Cassette CultureCassette cultureCassette culture, or the cassette underground , refers to the practices surrounding amateur production and distribution of recorded music that emerged in the late 1970s via home-made audio cassettes...
- Free MP3MP3MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
or open sourceOpen sourceThe term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
labels - Homemade Merch (Zines, Silkscreened T-Shirts, Buttons, Patches)
See also
- Guerrilla gigs
- DIY ethicDIY ethicThe DIY ethic refers to the ethic of self-sufficiency through completing tasks oneself as opposed to having others who are more experienced or able complete them for one's behalf. It promotes the idea that an ordinary person can learn to do more than he or she thought was possible...
- Anarcho-punkAnarcho-punkAnarcho-punk is punk rock that promotes anarchism. The term anarcho-punk is sometimes applied exclusively to bands that were part of the original anarcho-punk movement in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s and early 1980s...
- Noise musicNoise musicNoise music is a term used to describe varieties of avant-garde music and sound art that may use elements such as cacophony, dissonance, atonality, noise, indeterminacy, and repetition in their realization. Noise music can feature distortion, various types of acoustically or electronically...
- Indie rockIndie rockIndie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...
- Folk PunkFolk punkFolk punk , is a fusion of folk music and punk rock. It was pioneered in the late 1970s and early 1980s by The Pogues in Britain and Violent Femmes in America. Folk punk achieved some mainstream success in that decade...