MRR #278
I've written a lot in this space about the logistics of touring, releasing and distributing records. This month I want to talk about the continued rise in oil and gas prices and how it affects DIY hardcore.

There is a growing awareness that the world has struck a faustian bargain with our planet regarding fossil fuels. Global warming, environmental destruction and resource depletion are some of the negative affects of our two hundred year experiment with industrialization. Some would also argue that cancer, depression and modern neurosis and anomie are other negative affects of the same process on the human body as well. Global warming and fossil fuel depletion (commonly referred too as "peak oil") have finally entered or re entered the public consciousness in the fringes of the mainstream media. A Quick trip to a well stocked bookstore will reveal a shelf of books on the subject of fossil fuel depletion such as The Party's Over, The Long Emergency, Powerdown, High Noon for Natural Gas, Out of Gas, The End of Oil and so on. Finally thousands of people are waking up to the fact that oil and other fossil fuels are finite resources and human civilization has been burning through them far faster than most people realise. The fundamentals of our civilization, and especially of American industrial society are based entirely on fossil fuels. The design of our cities, our transit systems, our industrial and service based economy, infrastructure, and food production all rely heavily on massive inputs of cheap fossil fuels. But don't take my word for it, go to a bookstore or libaray and check out some of the books mentioned above. Do some research and you will come to many sobering conclusions about the future of our world.

As I write this Oil is at about 70$ a barrel. A price unthinkable just a few years ago. I have little doubt that in the near future it will be at 150$ a barrel or more. The bottom line here is that the age of cheap oil is coming to an end. While we may see some short term flucuations in price over the next few years, I think we've reached the point where most of the easy to get oil has been used up and production has or is peaking. From now on all the oil that remains will be harder and more expensive to extract and prices will continue to rise. Gas is already 7$ a gallon in many European countries and will probalby hit 5$ a gallon in the US sooner than we think. The recent rise in oil prices has sent a shock wave through the economy. A shock wave that I think we are only beginning to feel. The rise in oil and natural gas prices is going to have a ripple effect throughout the world economy. Prices for goods and of personal transportation and home heating will go up, but wages and incomes most likely will not. Some economists are already talking about a return to 1970's style stagflation. A period where there was no economic growth, coupled with rising prices. These coming hard economic times will probably spell the beginning of the end for the long period of growth and prosperity that the world economy has been experienced. (or at leat the rich and big business have been experiencing as little of the growth has trickled down to the working class).

What does this have to do with hardcore? Well, as we all share the planet, things like global warming and peak oil affect us all regardless of if we listen to vegan hardline or Icelandic D Beat. But more immediately it means that the cost to tour, release and distribute records will increase dramatically. As I said above, our whole society depends on cheap oil. And the DIY hardcore scene for all it's laudable striving for indpendence is still 100% dependent on cheap fossil fuels to power vans and amplifiers and make and ship records and CDs.

I wanted to write this column a few months ago, but I waited until after the Victims US tour to see if the DIY hardcore scene had made much progress in the way of adapting to the realities of 3$ a gallon gas. Although there is a general awareness that high gas prices are cutting into touring, there has been little adjustment made to the reality beyond a certain fatalism. I set out a few years ago to redress what I then percieved as an imbalance in the world of DIY touring. When I went to Europe in 1999 with Code 13 I saw that dozens of US bands were touring Europe on a regular basis. Including many bands that never even toured in the US. My involvment with bands like DS 13 and Vitamin X prompted me to establish a DIY touring infrastructure that I have continued to improve on (with the help of course of countless other bookers, bands and shitworkers). I was inspired primarily by Neil Robinsons pioneering tours for overseas bands in the 90s. And in the past few years many others have arrived at the same point I'm at with bringing over overseas bands to tour the US. However, since the DS 13 tour in 2001 one glaring point is clear THE PRICE OF GAS HAS DOUBLED AND THE PRICE OF GIGS IS EXACTLY THE SAME. In fact the price of gigs hasn't changed since I was going to see bands like Black Flag, Void and Reagan Youth in the early 1980s. Average door price is still about 6$. However, fuel expense it over two times what it was five years ago and air fare will predictably rise to cover the rising costs of fuel as well.

Where is the difference made up? Well, fewer and fewer bands these days expect to cover their costs or break even. While this might be an option for some bands it raises a troubling precedent. If all bands were expected to lose money touring, only financially well off bands would be able to tour. I already feel like the innate egalitarianism of the DIY hardcore scene is not ruthless enough in weeding out hacks and advancing merit, but this will surely tip the scales further in the wrong direction. Good bands without money will stay home and hacks with trust funds will be able to tour indefinately. The second area the difference is made up is of course "merch". I have been critical over the years of the increasing commercialization of hardcore. Albeit I am one of the agents of of that commercialization because I can no longer conceive of paying for air fare, van rental, and gas without some arsenal of limited edition records, t shirts, pins and posters to sell at gigs. In some parts of the hardcore scene the merch almost seems to be a bigger focus than the music. For instance, many speculate that Bane has sold more hooded sweatshirts than records. However, the foucs on merch, and consumerism is quite a departure from the lean and aggressive days of hardcore past, where the focus was just on the music since there was no "market" for merch or much more than small pressings of 7"s. And if commericalism is all hardcore is about, then why bother to have an underground hardcore scene at all?

Another factor that I've brought up before in tandem with the rise in commericialism is the spectre of coroporate or major label sponsorship. That is to say with major labels taking a larger interest in the underground it might be plausible for such labels to subsidize tours for bands in their orbit. The idea of a label buying a van or paying for gas for bands to tour in an era when other bands are cutting back on touring seems fairly plausible. Also, one of the most troubling observations I've made that is rarely touched upon in the punk scene is the Pabst Blue Ribbon marketing campaign. I urge readers to check out some online articles about this campaign and it's "innovative" techniques. In short some young ad execs at PBR decided to break from the traditional strategies of sport sponsorship, billboards etc. and just give away PBR "merch" at shows and give hip bars free or super cheap PBR to sell at gigs. In short order PBR has become the beer of choice in the punk, rockabilly and bike messenger sub cultures. For a fraction of the cost of a few seconds TV air time on Monday Night Football, Pabst has seen it's sales rise 10% a year for several years straight. The PBR "buzz" marketing campaign, is itself the latest buzz in marketing schools. I think this is another dangerous precedent being set. Pabst is currently marketing itself as a "sponsor of live and local music". It's a pretty short jump from this sort of thing to corporations sponsoring bands to tour even in the underground. A few thousand dollars is nothing in an ad campaign, but it's gas money for a whole tour and in return the band just has to wear Pabst shirts on stage or a similar arrangement. I think this is the kind of thing we should all be alert for the future.

I would like to suggest some possible solutions to rising costs of gas on touring bands. One of the most obvious solutions is to get a more fuel efficient or alternate fuel vehicle. RAMBO and several other US bands have diesel vans converted to run off vegetable oil. And the Biodiesel revolution is sweeping the country. (more on this in a future column) In Japan where gas and car ownership have been expensive forever, most clubs have a full backline of high quality set up for the bands to use. Bands show up by train or car with just guitars and use the club backline. In Europe it's quite common for all the bands at a gig to share a backline as well. Europeans have commented on how inneficient it seems to see 4 different bands each pull up to a gig and load in and unlaod four complete back lines, when only one would do. Granted, this would depend on a larger degree of co operation and co cordination than currently in place in the DIY hardcore scene, but given the European and Japanese examples it's not impossible. I think rising gas prices will also foster more regional scenes. Probably the densely populated East Coast will fare the best as far as having many bands able to do short tours on a budget. Places like Denver, Miami or Winnipeg that are already off the touring circuit will probably be even further from it. The end result might be a rise in more local/regional bands. This could have some very positive benefits as the first wave of hardcore was so great for it's diversity and regional variations.

Another factor that troubles me the most is that record costs will coninue to rise. The plastic resins that vinyl records are made of are of course fossil fuel based. And since most of us live at some distance from a pressing plant shipping costs will continue to increase. Likewise, postage costs will no doubt be increased repeatedly to cover rising fuel costs in the coming years. There seems to be big resistance to pay much higher prices for records, as prices have gone up a lot just in the past few years. While I think it's some times easier to rationalize a higher record price than a higher door price at a gig, I am concerned that rise in price will just mean fewer people bother to buy records at all. Which brings me to the digital music craze. I must admit that I've warmed up to digital music quite a bit over the past few years. While I am 100% a vinyl record collector, I can see the efficacy of trading digital music files. From an environmental perspective I think the world would be vastly better off without most of the CD and vinyl in circulation today and just go straight to digital format. That said, hardcore belongs on 7" vinyl, the most crucial format.

I think the world economy is in for some tough times, and industrialized society as we know it faces some critical challenges in the very near future regarding both fossil fuels and global warming. So far those in power have shown very little interest in adressing these issues. I think it behooves anyone who has made it through this column to read up on these issues and think a little more about both the impact of our "scene" on these factors and their impact on our scene.

It dawned on me as I typed this that I've been an MRR columnist now for over 100 issues. I still remember Tim Yo calling me up and inviting me to write for MRR. At the time I was quite critical of MRR for not covering enough thrash and crust and focusing too much on pop punk and garage rock. MRR was the establishment and I was still something of a young upstart at the time. I guess Tim figured I had a perspective that would add a new or different point of view to the magazine. Whether or not he made the right choice, you be the judge, but I'm still stoked to be here.

Publication Date:
January 1, 2006

Previous | All articles in this category | Next