DIY House Shows and Music Venues in the US Ethnographic Explorations of Place and Community SOAS Studies in Music Series

DIY House Shows and Music Venues in the US is an interdisciplinary study of house concerts and other types of DIY ("do- it- yourself") music venues and events in the United States, such as warehouses, all- ages clubs, and guerrilla shows, with its primary focus on West Coast American DIY locales. It approaches the subject not only through a cultural analysis of sound and discourse, as it is common in popular music studies, but primarily through an ethnographic examination of place, space, and community. Focusing on DIY houses, music venues, social spaces, and local and translocal cultural geographies, the author examines how American DIY communities constitute themselves in relation to their social and spatial environment. The ethnographic approach shows the inner workings of American DIY culture, and how the particular people within particular places strive to achieve a social ideal of an "intimate" community. This research contributes to the sparse range of Western popular music studies (especially regarding rock, punk, and experimental music) that approach their subject matter through a participatory ethnographic research.

Introduction. Material and spatial constitution of DIY communities in the US.
PART ONE: Physical place and social space of DIY music venues in the US
Chapter One. Physical place and DIY house shows in the US
Chapter Two. Social space and DIY venues in the US
Chapter Three. Private and public aspects of DIY spaces and shows
PART TWO: Geographic place and DIY venues and scenes in the US
Chapter Four. Small college town DIY scenes: Davis and Olympia
Chapter Five. Two Urban DIY Scenes: Portland, and Oakland
Chapter Six. Sprawling metropolis: Los Angeles, and its fragmented DIY scenes
PART THREE: Spatial constitution of DIY scenes and communities in the US
Chapter Seven. DIY individuals, music groups, houses, and shows: assembling the local DIY community
Chapter Eight. DIY touring practices: assembling the translocal DIY community
Bibliography
Audio and video sources

David Verbuč is Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Humanities, Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic.