Alternative culture in previous decades was fuelled by printed fanzines. Making one required effort.
Websites and music blogs don’t carry that same feeling of uniqueness. Why would they? You’re only ever one click away from another site. But just as it’s easier to ignore an email than a handwritten letter, printed zines can still serve a purpose beyond novelty value in 2013.
That’s partly what The Rusty Hip Collective in Dundee is about.
Behind Rusty Hip there is an ideology. In their own words…
The Rusty Hip Collective aims to strengthen the overall music scene through the following means:
- We will put on and promote local shows, not along genre lines, to develop a sense of community.
- We will produce a bi-monthly zine which will give you a taste of what’s going on in local music (and how you can get involved for yourself).
- We will also form a point of contact which will involve not just creative practitioners but everyone. We need the audience; if no one comes to the gigs, then it’s a fruitless endeavour: We need people to come and support bands.
When I first heard this collective was happening, I was delighted. Dundee in particular lacks the infrastructure that exists in other Scottish cities like Glasgow and Edinburgh. It’s a double edged sword. There’s isn’t the oxygen for many bullshit bands to exist in Dundee so you have to really possess a creative desire that must be fulfilled to make music.
Compare that to say, Glasgow where the brilliance of Chemikal Underground and others like them is offset by careerist indie bedwetters that can get their ‘buy three records a year’ mates along to well known small venues across the city.
There’s plenty of bands in Glasgow that dream of “making it”. In Dundee, the music usually comes first whether it’s the pop cleverness of The Hazey Janes, ‘metal in denial’ weirdness of Fat Goth, or experimental twinkle-core sounds of Esperi. Personally I’m excited to hear a full release by The Won Over. Rarely has a Dundee band sounded so promising after their first few gigs.
If Rusty Hip can achieve even part of what Glasgow DIY collective ‘This is our battlefield‘ have done over the years, it’ll be worth all the thankless hard work and effort.
If you download their compilation, you’ll find a copy of issue #1 of the zine included.
