RTP-area local music and culture

[grady <grady AT ibiblio.org>]

Umm, I think so many groups are self-identifying as Durham bands because 
their members live in Durham. Root cause: for some folks, it's the most 
affordable place to live, and for a lot of folks, it's the most 
desireable place to live. I stopped counting a long time ago the number 
of my friends who'd moved to Durham from the other points in the Triangle.

So if you're trendspotting, the trend started at least a half-dozen 
years ago, and it's called "musicians like cheap housing."

As for the question about t-shirts, well, I guess you just haven't seen 
the Carrboro t-shirts, or the OCSC t-shirts. Given the longstanding 
basketball/rock connection in Chapel Hill, I'd say any UNC 
basketball-related t-shirt would probably count for Chapel Hill.

Are you asking "why does Durham have such uncanny self-esteem-boosting 
T-shirts?" Because the answer to that is pretty much "James & Michelle 
Lee," and if you start asking "why James & Michelle Lee," I'm not sure 
that there's an answer for that. Other than, getting back to point A, 
musicians like cheap housing. Where else could they afford to operate 
such a sprawling enterprise as 305 South?

There are other folks whose outsized level of involvement/boosterism 
sort of singlehandedly makes Durham seem more "together" or "organized" 
or "scene-like" [than it actually is]: Melissa Thomas at 307 Knox, and 
certainly Chaz. Shannon Morrow moved back to Durham from Chicago (though 
before she moved to Chicago, she was living in Carrboro, so there ya go) 
& started the Scene of the Crime Rovers.

What do all *these* people have in common? Maybe that they like the idea 
of being able to get something done more or less singlehandedly, or with 
a small group of co-conspirators. Durham seems like a tabula rasa, 
culture-wise, at least to youngish white-ish indie-rockers. Check out 
that article in the Indy from a couple of weeks ago about the NCCU jazz 
program & you'll see that Durham isn't really such a clean slate, but 
when it comes to youth culture, all it takes is a fallow period of a 
couple of years to wipe everything pretty clean.

Maybe another thing they have in common is the good old fashioned 
punkrock ideal that community is a good thing, and that building 
community is an end unto itself. Obviously there are some folks who have 
slightly different ideas (i.e. the Troika folks who like to salt the 
festival lineup with a few out-of-towners), but even they do what they 
do by and large for the sake of the community, rather than out of some 
quest for larger fame/fortune.

But then I think you'd have to go all the way to Charlotte to really 
find anybody who was desperately seeking fame via indie-rock. Oh, well, 
I guess there are those guys from Raleigh who bought a tour bus to live 
in while they wait for their ship to come in, Airiel Down, but they're 
an aberration even for Raleigh.

The thing about people who like the idea of a close-knit community, is 
that they tend to seek out other people who also like that idea. Couple 
that with real estate that's cheap enough for peeps to be able to afford 
to open something like BCHQ . . .

I hope you don't have some thesis in mind regarding sharp distinctions 
between the various towns, or anything like adversarial relationships 
between the towns, the clubs, or the bands. Periodically people try to 
advance some notion that there is some level of competition or 
something, but if there is, it's isolated almost entirely to the annual 
WXDU/WXYC kickball game. There may be the occasional crackpot who sees 
things as a zero-sum game where somebody's gotta lose, but I would 
strongly caution you against extrapolating from them to anything bigger.

Or before you do, talk to Chaz & ask him how many Raleigh bands have 
played his store and/or Bull City HQ. Or talk to DJ Stevo at WKNC & ask 
him how he feels about bands from Durham & Chapel Hill. That dude loves 
*everybody* & he works his butt off to prove it.

Anyway. The more I think about it, the more I come back to point A: 
cheap real estate makes for countercultural magic. This is not a new 
concept.

Nor, for that matter, is the converse, which is that expensive real 
estate can kill the countercultural magic. Just look at Raleigh. Goodbye 
Kings, goodbye Bickett Gallery.

Ross

betsyshane AT gmail.com wrote:
> Hey Alt.music.CH
>
> I'm a student at Duke and am writing a paper about the indie rock
> scene in the Triangle, with a particular focus on Durham identity.  I
> was hoping I could maybe spark a little conversation or a little
> interest to email back and forth about what it means to be a member of
> the community, either as a fan, a band member, an info center,
> whatever the case may be.
>
> I'm interested in exploring what exactly it means to be a "Durham
> band" since the proliferation of so many groups claiming this lately,
> as well as what it means to be part of the Durham scene, and how (or
> if) this differs from say, being part of the Raleigh scene or the
> Chapel Hill scene (and being a Raleigh band or CH band).  I wonder
> what *you* think of when you think of Durham (and be completely
> honest) or if you ever think of it at all.  Why does Durham have tee
> shirts and no other town does?  What's the pride all about?
>
> I'll keep an eye out and hope I get some replies.
> Thanks
> Betsy-Shane
>
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