The Mechanized Resistance Chronicles

So! Now that I have addressed the outside in, let's move on to the inside out. It has been years since I was a regular at events, and it has absolutely nothing to do with the pandemic, or my age. To get to a deeper issue, I will use a small personal example that is aimed at a much bigger point. When someone who proved to have serious emotional / mental issues who has actually abused someone in front of others made accusations that I was doing all these horrid things to them, I can count the amount of people who spoke up publicly in my defense on one hand, although there was solid support behind the scenes. Because I have been so active in supporting and developing people, and have remained steadfast in being "in aid of the movement," I thought my decades of lived behavior counted for something. That was an assumption that would prove to be incorrect. [National Association of Attorneys General report on doxxing]

As I said in the beginning, I simply wanted to give a personal example that got on to a bigger point. I am honestly surprised that so many people tell me about so many things in a scene that was once a source of energetic emotional support in a world gone mad. Many people leave because of the gossip and the drama involved with being perceived as part of a cliche. I hated that when I was a teenager, and to have to deal with that now in my 60s is really unthinkable. I know there are many people that would love to be able to engage the culture IRL in an environment that isn't swirling with drama of any sort. A reboot is needed that empowers people where they are to stop the dominance of having ceded the power to decide how industrial is engaged IRL to a few people who produce shows in formal venues.

One of the things I believe hasn't been discussed is the fact that perceiving clubs as "youth culture" is antiquated. [A BBC report on the evolution of clubbing over the decades] It was originally considered youth culture because when the "discotheque" came into being in the 1960s, it was aimed at youth culture, and was at a time that had huge chronological mandates that steered people away from clubbing and other joyful activities far before their interests had actually waned. Those mandates remained until Generation X grew the fuck up. LOL!! We were not going to be staying home waiting to die, living vicariously through children and the damn TV or the Internet. This is important to the original point because there were very few elders in the scene when I arrived in the early-1970s. Now there are a ton of us that are above the age of 50 and 60 that remain very active in the scene, and more engaged in life in general. But, after the pandemic, more people are staying home than ever, with movies and clubs suffering from trying to retain pre-pandemic levels of attendees. [Report on the pandemic's impact on travel patterns]

Here is why all of that matters. A lot of the behavior that is being excused as youth culture or club culture is actually just fucked up behavior, no matter the age of the offender[s] or the offended, and location is irrelevant. So, when people decide to remove themselves from a place [or places] they love, often leaving many people they have deeply cared for over decades, one should think about what that says about the scene they are extricating themselves from. [Some Gen Zers are nostalgic for an era of clubbing they didn't get to experience] In addition, because I am blessed to function in many cultures and artforms, I have plenty of quality drama-free IRL time. Who I really feel for are those who find themselves seeing the choice of being isolated away from everyone is the only way to remove the chance of any drama being connected to them. [article on the benefits of IRL life] In fact, up to about 3-years ago, I still had not discovered, and the technology didn't exist, to create an applicable portable sound / video system to do industrial pop-ups anywhere that I can create a 20' x 20' groovespace. [a groovespace is different from a dancefloor because people are only encouraged to engage the vibe, and there's no mandate to dance, while people are certainly prompted to do.] Had that technology and battery life expansion not happened, I would have had to create a completely different strategy for removing myself and s6k from "the scene."

Ask yourself about all the things you know about the scene that is fucked up and yet everyone goes on like those things don't matter? [Pew study on social media] This is the reason why all this needs to be addressed from the bottom up, and top down. From the top down to me means that those who know shit should say shit. Drag everything out into the open for scrutiny and discussion. There's so much hiding behind the scenes, often without the people knowing they are the target. That is fucked as well. If someone is actually doing anything messed up and someone believes they can clearly prove it, throw the cards on the table. I am certainly not talking about deep issues like molestation or rape, but there is a ton of lingering accused fuckery that needs verification, one way or another. Another fun fact, after dealing with a 2.5 year attempted character assassination against me, before I work with anyone, I have a cadre of people that are my filter before I will work with them. I have walled myself off from anyone that can bring any drama or fuckery into my life, and will immediately remove anyone who does so. The difference is merely in my active positive response instead of remaining with some degree of accepted resignation.

Why does any of this matter? We can all think of times when just the energy of getting dressed to go out was something that was pure love of life energy. Being someone who has been an event producer since the early 1980s, suffered from deep depression due to my mother's death and father's illness, and have always been a person who loved dancing, club culture has had an outsized impact on my life. Even as people increasingly spend far too much time standing around on the dancefloor [we need a return of "NO PARKING ON THE DANCEFLOOR" signs], making dancing much less fun, I still make sure I find time to be free in movement and sonics. [Article on how dance patterns have shited] Despite all the industry shit that I have become aware of, I remain dedicated to not becoming negative nor bitter-minded. It is life-force to get out among like-minded people. That should never be something that is seen as special, because it's something our species needs. I make an effort to get out regularly, which is sometimes emotionally harder than others, but I make the effort. I say emotionally because I spend so much time creating at home, I am a very productive shut in, and thrive on being a nester. It may seem as if I am talking to and for a bunch of older people sitting at home, but please know that I am not. The fact that more people between the ages of approximately 16 to 24 say they are lonely makes that point. [World Health Organization report on social isolation and loneliness] If one were to simply think about how many people go to the big shows and festivals in their region, and then compare that to the amount of people who attend the weekly or monthly events, one would fully see that only a small portion of the enthusiasts of an artform are attending weekly or monthly events of that genre, no matter the genre. This has always been easily demonstrable. My focus is not for myself or even my generation. It is for someone who is 14 that has their own ideas like I had in 1978, and I want them to have the same performative freedom I had. Before this active movement, the aforementioned 14 year old industrialist only had elders telling them to make the smallest rigs possible to get shows, and to put a slew of mainstream entertainment industry mandates in their heads as gospel to be followed. I also pride myself in being the type of elder for them that others were for me back then. The elders around me had vision and really empowered me to run headlong in my own direction, something that I am eternally thankful for. That is why microscenes are so important… human connection around common creative interests, especially for eclectic people who often are / feel socially isolated in some way. Some say that punk / industrial culture was / is about not giving a fuck and following nothing. I am simply stunned and astonished at the arrogance of someone who didn't live through a time, telling someone who did live through that time what it was really like. "Youthsplaining" is as blatantly rude, ignorant, and annoying as mansplaining. Just a heads up.

All of that poses the question, why are there so many enthusiasts of this scene who have never felt drawn to clubdome? [Interesting article on how cameras and social media has impacted the club experience] People have often told me that they don't feel like they fit in. Hell, I even had a guest-listed friend get stopped at the door because he had on black pants and a white shirt, ignoring the crazy baby image on it that fits with his own art. That person had more background in the eclectic music movement than nearly anyone else in the room… going back to the 1980s when he worked at an epic alternative record store, providing the foundational component of a music scene… the music. Even that person had to deal with about 10 minutes of me arguing to get him in. Imagine if you were someone who didn't know anyone, were trying to get out of your shell, and were engaged like that? I know a number of people who have been chastised for attending an event directly from work and didn't change their clothes. [The sin of wearing corporate garb or basic streetwear. It's not like they showed up after working 13 hours on a construction worksite. LOL!!] Making sure everyone has the same fashion sense has nothing to do with guaranteeing that the "correct" people are attending, and that is often an overall deterrent to someone who would love to go beyond their own four walls and meet the people who currently inhabit those spaces. I am of the belief that there are a ton of amazing people in "mostly" every scene. The amazingly dope people I have met in "the scene" were the primary thing that had kept me there for over the last 20 years. I remember when I was in my early 20s and went through the depression of my father dying, making me an adult orphan, it was the energy that came from attending, producing, and performing at shows that sometimes made the difference in wanting to see the next day. Club events were a predictable buffer from the stressors of life. If I could make it to the next week at The Peppermint Lounge, Danceteria, The Fastlane, The Brighton Bar, The Green Parrot, City Gardens, Aldo's Hideaway, or The Melody Lounge, I could power up and possibly gain a bit more energy for the following week. This was especially true in the case of The Deck House in Asbury Park, NJ, which was the place that I got together with some folks and we made a club series that didn't exist prior. All of you have a list of places that were your locations of solace. [Brown University study on loneliness] Some may have more than others, but EVERYONE has somewhere. [Why We Need to Bring Back House Parties]

Now is the time to really look at those we have surrounded ourselves with to be part of a large scene. The way to empower your own microscene is to simply look at the people around you. If you have people within a radius of 15 to 20 minutes from where you live that you share music with and attend shows with, you already have a microscene. The only difference is empowering it to have its own vibe by having your own gatherings. Get together to check out newly released media [videos, audio, literature], to check out something you all dug and haven't heard in a while, to turn someone onto something you like, assess what you have in your environment that you can make industrial music with, having a gathering where each person brings something they hope is new to the group, ect. The point is to devise a way to have your IRL industrial experiences not be dominated by "official" or large scene productions in formal / traditional venues. Formal scene events should be an accent, not the entirety. For those who find themselves feeling less than connected to the world, microscenes often provide a stronger support system than a large scene can. I often like to quote the legendary activist Fannie Lou Hamer, "There is one thing you have got to learn about our movement. Three people are better than no people." If she only knew that she and many others in that movement were espousing a social philosophy that would become the foundation of the punk rock / industrial ethos.

Although it may seem that so much talk about emotions has nothing to do with a music scene, to me, our emotional state has everything to do with it. Industrial music, by design, is a passionate artform, and its lyrical content often speaks to deep emotions of isolation. This artform is uniquely situated for creating small-scale productions due to its varied forms of execution… and that the point of the artform is to actively create anything with anything. Its creative structure empowers wherever you're at. On a farm, there are tons of cool sounding things there, and there often is enough space to do some type of performance, gathering, or whatever. If you live in a small apt, find a public place to use during the warm months… if you have warm periods where you live. Simply put, make an effort to do whatever possible to create sonic solace wherever you may be.

There are some who have responded to this refocused industrial movement by stating there is no need for a reboot, refocus, or anything. "Industrial music is fine." The latter statement is true. Industrial music and culture are fine. The club scene component is industrial's weak link. [The Fading Underground: The Decline of Subculture in the 21st Century — The Culture Crypt] Recharging this movement by the empowerment of people that are enthusiasts of industrial culture to do whatever with whatever also assists people in developing personal agency, especially fledgling artists, no matter their age. There has been nothing more empowering in my life than the fact of having had 100% control over my creative career, feeling more empowered than ever, well over 50 years since I produced my first DJ mix cassette, launching a life in and of music / creativity. I have also been told that I am seeking to create some idea of a "utopia." The sadness in that thought process is that they have not been around long enough to understand that I am only fervently creating / seeking that which has already existed before the "pop" people showed up, not pining for something from a "politically correct" idyllic dreamstate. [Subcultural Theory: The Groups That Resist the Mainstream | by Cherifa Bochra Soltani | Medium] The goal is to actively propagate industrial culture as an artform focused on experimentation outside of mainstream "pop culture" ideas and ideals, where "celebrity" is an antithetical concept, and fuckery is seen in its true light as an unacceptable component in society in general, and industrial culture in particular.

Let's do this.

Peaceness and Sledgehammers,

dh