Hello to all of you. Hope you’re doing well during this dreadfully hot summer.I’ve got some things I’d like to talk about in this journal that might seem inflammatory. That’s because they aren’t easy topics to approach, but it’s my hopes that someone, somewhere will read this and be affected enough by it to change some of their viewpoints. I’m gonna do my best not to point specific fingers at anyone, because today’s topic is something that we’ll never truly perfect. What’s weighing so heavily on my mind, you ask? The state of the music industry today.

Let me preface this rant by telling you upfront that this will not be your average “the RIAA sucks” spiel. I’ve always been a pretty staunch believer in the notion of thinking locally while acting globally, and I frankly couldn’t care less about the hardships of today’s big dollar artists having food yanked out of their mouths by file-sharing services and fans that aren’t willing to pay twenty dollars per CD at big box stores. The days of wiping your rock star anus with hundred-dollar bills are limited, and it’s about god damned time. Thanks to the old guards way of doing business, fly-by-night acts without any real creativity, artistry or dedication to any vision beyond being rich and famous were allowed the sort of amenities normally reserved for kings, queens and higher-ups in the medical health field. We’re all guilty of making silly groups like Ratt rich, and thankfully, that won’t be happening as often. Can’t wait to see MTV’s “Cribs” in a few years when My Chemical Romance is showing off the bitchin’ duplex they all share because their record sales tanked.

No, no. What I’m a bit more concerned with is the issue of being “independent.” Some people like to shorten the term to “indie.” Whatever.

Now many of you are probably aware that “indie” didn’t use to be all about your style of music, but more so the ethos behind why you’re making that racket in the first place. It’s true that not every band one would consider indie was great or even good. In fact, some of them were downright hard to listen to, but that didn’t really matter so much. These were people who were so dedicated to toying with the conventions of their preferred medium of expression that they’d jump over any hurdles to get heard. Many of them wanted to tour in places where there weren’t any venues. What’s a band to do in that case? Easy! Play at someones house, a grocery store after hours, in a flippin’ alley. Didn’t matter. If people wanted to see them do a show, the groups would figure something out. And while I wasn’t old enough to be a part of that trailblazing era, I can’t imagine that it was easy for a band like the Meat Puppets to set up a show in, say, Montana in the era of new wave and Greg Kihn. Thank your lucky savior that they did it, too. If it hadn’t gone down that way, there probably wouldn’t be any small venues for your favorite unknown band to play at in your American town. It’s hard to fathom now, but there was a time when you had to do about 95% covers in your set for people to even consider booking your band.

My, how things have changed! Now all you gotta do is form a band, get some money for a manager and a booking agency, and you can go play a show in Newark to four bartenders for a guarantee. It’s pretty amazing. Every band in the freaking world thinks they are independent now. Unfortunately, I’ve got some bad news for you sunshine. Not only is Pink unwell and back at the hotel… but you are probably not in an indie band by definition.

Let me state it again for clarification: You. Are. Not. Independent.

It could be debated for hours, but musicians have completely lost sight of what it means to be truly independent. Bands like Interpol with lighting designers, stock in everyday merchandise companies, a major label covering all costs, and tour support out the wazoo have *a lot* of fucking nerve to call themselves “indie.”

I’m not the most original artist in the world, but the fact that I play a form of rock and roll oughta make some type of statement that I don’t exactly enjoy being told what to do. I don’t mean to say that I go over stage-time limits just to be a prick, nor do I turn down requests just because I feel like being mean to the people that took an entire night out of their lives to come see me. (No, that one is much simpler – I’m a human being and sometimes I’m sick of my own songs. Sue me.) What I’m trying to say is that I got into music to do what I want artistically, and I was pretty sure that I didn’t want anyone who disagreed with my viewpoints within reaching distance of my writing pad.

If you want to be “independent,” it’s easy. Make your records yourself. If you rely on anyone that’s not in the musical family of what you’re creating to do *anything*, be it cover design, management, etc… you are not independent. You’re just a band that not everyone has heard yet. There’s nothing wrong with being one of those bands either. I’m just tired of seeing the tired old “I’m so indie because my jeans don’t look like the ones on the people that like mainstream music” attitude. I have news for you folks: The Postal Service? Not independent. They have a pretty successful and well-known label doing all of their work for them. All those emo-punk groups you kids go to see that are sponsored by Vans? Yeah, not even close.

However, those kids that you saw at the coffee shop/record store/parking lot selling handmade CD-R’s after doing a set on beat-up equipment that their parents didn’t buy for them are quite independent. If anyone does any work for your band that has slightly more power in your field than you do… that’s a pretty sure sign that you aren’t independent in the least. That goes for nearly every touring band on the circuit today, but sadly, it even goes for most of the groups in my own backyard here in Orlando that claim total independence while relying on an all-too-close relationship between their label and local venues to give them better billing slots than other upstart bands. It’s pretty sad. Even in the most D.I.Y. venues in this mecca of tourism, you’ll find more people pulling behind-the-scenes political strings than on all of Bush’s limbs combined.

Now, that’s all fine and dandy if you want to put your craft out into the world like that. It’s worked for a ton of bands, you know? Heck, I *like* a lot of those acts! Just stop calling yourself what you aren’t: independent. All you’re doing when using that term is hoping to be affiliated with a hip audience and nothing more. You don’t care about building anything from the ground up… and you know damn good and well that if Joe Cigarpuffer from Satan’s Money Records knocked on your door offering you a kajillion dollars to sell your songs/soul/publishing in exchange for a few magazine interviews and tour bus blowjobs, you’d be signing contracts you hadn’t read before the guy finished introducing himself. Then you’d pull a Corgan and laugh at all of the “lesser” bands that do not aspire to the same self-congratulatory snobbery that your expense account offers you for making the same music as everyone else.

Be whatever you want musically. I don’t care at all. Be skatanic polkabilly, refined washboard metal, zydeco rock… anything. Just call yourself what you are and stop pulling the wool over your – and your crowd’s – eyes.

I play in venues because there aren’t many other options out there that will still bring people out to shows. Some I enjoy playing in, some aren’t much fun at all. My main goal is to go and play music for those who want to witness it. If that means I’m playing to small, specialized crowds for the rest of my musical life, that’s totally fine with me. I don’t enjoy touring, so I simply don’t do it. Tried it once on a small scale and it wasn’t for me. That doesn’t mean that I won’t make a special trip somewhere else to play for people that really want me to be there. In fact, that’s something that I’d like to do both as Marc With a C and Lo-Fi Is Sci-Fi in the future. And that’s one thing that can be done to change this growing “indie” problem. We as musicians shouldn’t be so concerned about how cool the venue we’re playing in is or isn’t, just that the place is nice and accommodating to our audiences. And we really oughta stop worrying about who else is on the bill. We’re all there to play music, and all of the billing/financial nonsense should be left by the wayside. When you’re big enough to call those shots – if you want to be that big, that is – then that’s a good time to worry about it. In the meantime, please shy away from calling yourself D.I.Y., because you’re only making artists like myself look bad. You already stole the “alternative” tag. Best Buy has run off with the “indie” nomenclature when prominently displaying Mates Of State albums on their shelves. Don’t take D.I.Y. away from the people that live and breathe that lifestyle, like myself.

My next album, Normal Bias, will be released in August in a handmade case that will resemble miniature early 80’s indie 7-inch records. It costs one-sixth as much to do it this way ourselves as it does to have some pressing plant do the same job with clunky, shrink wrapped jewel cases that most people don’t even bother to organize anymore. Our new way of doing things serves our ideals, and leaves very little time for waiting around for the record to be delivered to you by UPS from the guys that you paid to do all of your work for you. It’s actually slightly quicker as well.

To be clear, no one involved with the Marc With a C act thinks that they are any better or worse than all of the other struggling musicians in the world today. We do think that there might be other ways of doing things, though. In the interest of integrity and practicing what we preach, we’d like to go and do some oddball shows. If you can get some people to come over, we’d love to come to your house and play songs until the noise ordinance kicks in. There’s a few parameters and rules we’re going to abide by, but if you’d truly like to help us make this a reality, you can contact me at anytime through either the Marc With a C MySpace page, or marc at marcwithac.com / retrolowfi at gmail.com.

Yes, we’re totally serious. Don’t be ashamed of what you are, but don’t shy away from calling a spade a spade.

Love on ya,

Marc