2B — Thursday, December 1, 2016
the b-side
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

I grew up in suburbia. I went 

to Catholic school until I was 18. 
I wore a uniform, and I kept my 
hair short. Aesthetically, I could 
not have been a more accurate 
cookie cutter of a middle-
class teenager, and I was fully 
uninspired artistically — at 
least until I found do-it-yourself 
music on the internet.

My first semester at the 

University of Michigan, word 
got to me that Pinegrove, an 
incredible indie rock outfit I 
had found on Twitter a year 
prior, would be playing a space 
known as Lincoln House within 
a 10-minute walk of campus. 
In a feeble attempt to blend in 
with the local scene the night 
of the show, I put on a shirt 
that read “Pity Sex Is a Band,” 
representing one of my favorite 
groups that hailed from Ann 
Arbor, and began my walk to the 
space.

I walked quickly up the 

driveway toward the group 
of people smoking cigarettes 
out back, hurrying to escape 
the 
blustery 
fall 
night. 
I 

entered the door, paid whoever 
was 
collecting 
money 
$5 

while stealing glances at the 
blindingly lit kitchen behind 
them, and walked down the 
concrete steps splattered with 
chipping white paint. 

Surprisingly, the basement 

was 
fully 
finished. 
I 
was 

greeted 
by 
a 
cacophonous 

crowd atop a white linoleum 
floor, a bar topped with all the 
bands’ merch and flood lights 
attached to sconces on the wall 
that lit up a drum kit in the 
middle of a small space at the 
back of the room. I approached 
the bar to check out the T-shirts 
and settled on purchasing a 
simple design that spelled out 
“Pinegrove” in rotating colors 
for each letter.

The 
opening 
bands 
were 

skilled 
musicians 
and 

entertaining performers, none 
afraid to hold back during their 
time at the front of the floor. If 
I hadn’t been so excited to see 
Pinegrove perform literally two 
feet in front of my face I might’ve 
even been able to pay more 
attention to the opening sets. 
Sooner than I had expected, it 
was time for Pinegrove to play 
some songs for the enigmatic 
crowd.

Before their rise with the 2016 

release of Cardinal — landing 
them a spot on Lollapalooza’s 
line-up mere months after the 
basement show in Ann Arbor 
— Pinegrove performed songs 
off an album I had first listened 
to 
on 
Bandcamp 
entitled 

Everything So Far to a crowd 
of less than 100 people in a 
dimly lit basement. This is DIY 
music, its practitioners and its 
followers at their finest.

DIY music refers to almost 

anything uploaded to Bandcamp 
or 
SoundCloud 
by 
artists 

independent of a record label. 
It comes from every genre you 
can think of, and centers around 
music made by those looking for 
discovery or with the simple 
desire to share their work with 
the internet. In today’s world, 
artists are starting to depend 
less and less on record labels. 
Just look at Chance the Rapper 
— he’s doing it flawlessly.

Yet, beneath the glamor and 

fame of arena shows and highly 
produced tunes, there’s a whole 
other world of music being 
made by dreamers, hopefuls 
and 
imaginative 
creatives, 

performing and making music 
for the sake of art itself. It’s 
a world with important parts 
both big and small between the 
people who not only make the 
art, but also those who manage 
the spaces to present it. It’s a 
tight-knit niche of friends and 
fans alike.

What 
exactly 
were 
your 

favorite bands doing before 
playing shows at The Palace, 
Saint 
Andrews 
or 
other 

hometown venues? Most likely 
blowing up some basement for 
the price of gas in front of the 
passionate 
individuals 
that 

help these artists get their first 
major footing in popularity. 
Without 
these 
spaces 
and 

this community, many bands 
wouldn’t have the chance to 
even begin making a living 
through their art.

First and foremost, these 

artists need the basements, 
old churches and other homely 
spaces to perform their art. Sara 

Johnson, club manager of the 
Flint Local 432, a space where 
I’ve seen innumerable up-and-
coming artists perform, wrote 
in an email interview that, “I do 
this because kids deserve a safe 
environment in which to enjoy 
live music, the beautiful thing 
that it is. I’m never happier than 
when I’m at work, and not many 
people get to say that, which 
makes me appreciate it even 
more.”

The Local is a substance-

free venue — a true blessing for 
anyone who is as sick as I am 
of getting hit in the head with 
beer cans at shows — providing 
a stage for artists of all genres 
and a space for all ages to safely 
consume art and performance. 
It’s a universal notion among 
those who book DIY shows 
that they do it for the love of 
performance itself and their 
first priority is making the 
space as welcoming as possible 
to newcomers and veterans 
alike.

“It was really incredible to 

be able to host Empire! Empire! 
(I Was A Lonely Estate)’s last 
show,” wrote Johnson. “We 
love Keith and Cathy so much, 
and the rest of the lineup was 
amazing — all of the bands were 
ones I’d had on my ‘book @ 432’ 
list, especially Joie de Vivre 
and The Island of Misfit Toys. 
We sold out the show, the room 
was full to bursting with love 
(and sadness and grief), and it’s 
a night that will have a special 
place in all of our hearts forever, 
I’m sure.”

Now I highly doubt you 

recognize any of these band 
names, and that is absolutely 
OK. This is an introduction to 
DIY, one for those unfamiliar 
with this world of music. No, 
those involved in DIY aren’t 
“hipsters” or “music snobs” 
(all right, you caught me, they 
actually might be). Truthfully, 
their 
biggest 
concern 
is 

satisfying their hunger for new 
music and performances; it’s 
comparable to a book worm or a 
movie buff getting a fix on their 
art of choice.

The fact that Johnson has 

a “book @ 432” list is perhaps 
one of the strongest testaments 
to their passion for music. Not 
to mention the show they are 
referring to was one of the most 
emotional I have ever attended 
at the Local. To say the room 
was bursting with love is an 
understatement, as the typically 
strict line between fans and 
artists at mainstream venues 
was blurred into oblivion. Bands 
were 
constantly 
dispersed 

throughout the crowd, speaking 
with other artists, fans and 
friends. 
It 
was 
a 
glowing 

atmosphere 
of 
camaraderie 

truly unique to the DIY scene.

DIY music is also just as 

concerned 
with 
diversifying 

genres as it is with representing 
the unique identities within 
those genres.

“Punk 
as 
a 
subculture 

is 
known 
for 
being 

overwhelmingly 
white, 
cis, 

and male — and while the 
Local certainly doesn’t mind 
booking acts that fall into those 
categories, we’re disappointed 
every time we fail to represent 
women, people of color, and 
LGBTQIA+ folks on our stage,” 
Johnson wrote.

Both 
these 
efforts 
and 

popular 
bands 
within 
the 

scene, like Girls Living Outside 
Society’s Shit and PWR BTTM, 
show that any and all identities 
have a place within DIY music 
where they can thrive and 
have their voice heard. It’s an 
environment 
that 
embodies 

inclusivity.

In addition to getting details 

on booking shows, I had the 
opportunity to speak with LSA 
senior John Sciortino, whose 
band Bonzo often plays at local 
spaces in Ann Arbor and is a 
strong staple in the DIY scene.

When 
I 
asked 
what 
his 

favorite part about playing DIY 
shows is, Sciortino said, “The 
fact that you can go to shows 
and listen to music for free.” 
Taking a full shift away from his 
own work, he also added that 

“Some of my favorite albums 
and EPs have been stuff I’ve 
been able to download for free 
off Bandcamp.”

Obviously, music taste is one 

of the most subjective facets of 
the human consumption of art, 
but knowing that your favorite 
bands don’t care for your money 
only makes the listening all the 
sweeter. The lack of focus on 
capitalistic venture creates an 
evident lack of pressure on the 
artist.

Sciortino 
expanded 
upon 

removing a ticket price from 
the equation, saying they create 
inclusivity.

“Especially with donation-

based shows, and pay-what-
you-want shows, you’re not 
keeping kids out of clubs and 
they’re usually all ages,” he 
said. There’s a valiant focus on 
the fans in the DIY scene among 
both the artists and the people 
who manage spaces.

“I’ve always been bad at 

pushing my music,” Sciortino 
said 
about 
popularity 
and 

promotion. There’s a lack of 
desire in DIY to draw nameless 
fans, and a larger focus on 
meeting 
others 
with 
the 

same ideals while forming a 
community.

“Our experience in DIY is 

that it’s a slow increase over a 
long time to get to know people,” 
he continued.

But 
what 
does 
happen 

when your DIY music takes 
off? Should I even dare to use 
the 
word 
“popular?” 
Enter 

Jeff Rosenstock, a reigning 
forefather of DIY music and a 
musician whose newest album 
WORRY. has already appeared 
on multiple “Best of 2016” 
charts just this past week.

Rosenstock has been around 

DIY punk music for years. 
He’s been involved in multiple 
bands 
before 
finding 
more 

mainstream 
success 
under 

his given name. Yet, one of his 
most important contributions 
to music was being one of the 
first artists to put his work on 
the internet in a pay-what-you-
want format, and implementing 
the same model under his own 
label, Quote Unquote Records.

The 
beginning 
of 
DIY 

involvement 
wasn’t 
always 

glamorous for Rosenstock, who 
wrote in an email that “The 
first shows we played were not 
great. We played my backyard. 
We played a coffee shop up the 
street. We played a place called 
the C-Note Cafe. We were 
horrible and people didn’t like 
us.”

But 
this 
didn’t 
deter 

Rosenstock’s 
passion 
for 

performance, and he continued 
to play shows for the hell of it 
or for charity, another common 
theme in the DIY scene.

“I specifically remember our 

friend Dan putting together 
a benefit show called Cancer 
Sucks out in Babylon, where 
around ten bands played and 
all the money went to cancer 
research,” Rosenstock wrote. 
“We were kids and we weren’t 
even thinking about money we 
just wanted to play shows, so 
there were always benefit shows 
happening.” 

Rosenstock also wrote about 

now being on SideOneDummy 
Records, noting that even while 
working with a label, he hasn’t 
let go of his DIY roots.

“Thankfully when we were 

talking and I had mentioned 
that I needed total creative 
control, I needed to still put my 
records out for free on Quote 
Unquote and a handful of other 
things, they were down,” he 
wrote.

Despite 
working 
with 
a 

label, Rosenstock refuses to 
let go of his DIY ethos that has 
motivated him since his earliest 
shows.

And DIY’s ethos is certainly 

its most important facet. Hold 
onto your passions and do what 
you want to do. Give a middle 
finger 
to 
expectations 
and 

responsibilities. Let an artist, or 
even just a song, consume you. 
Let your emotions take hold and 
do something you love for the 
sake of loving it. If you’re afraid 
of taking the leap, Rosenstock 
even included advice:

“There are going to be a lot of 

people telling you that you can’t 
do it,” he wrote. “That you need 
an agent, a manager, a record 
label, that you can’t record 
yourself. A lot of the time these 
people are saying stuff out of 
love, so it’s hard to ignore them. 
But they’re wrong. You can do 
anything.” 

 The xx’s 
newest music 
video, based 
on their 
upcoming 
album’s first 
single, “On 
Hold,” begins 
with an intro-
duction to the 
small town of 
Marfa, Texas. 
The first 20 
seconds of the 
video features 
no music, only 
a brief succes-
sion of images: 
a lone, flashy 
tassel waving forlornly in 
the wind as it droops from a 
telephone pole, a typical sub-
urban home made complete 
with its pristine white front 
porch, a boy wearing a cow-
boy hat leaning idly against 
the hood of a retro car.
 Suburban, desolate and 
unobtrusive, you imme-
diately get the sense that 
Marfa, Texas is the type of 
town that seems to exist in 
its own isolated bubble; time 
is warped, and days pass by 
in a haze of hot blue sky and 
bad decisions made by bored 
teenagers.
 The video is simple in 
essence. It briefly follows 
the lives of a group of high 
school students, showing 
glimpses into their private 
lives. It’s a video made up 
of a progression of fleeting 
moments in time; after-
school cheer practices, hot 
& heavy shower hookups 
and lounging at local diners 

all culminate to form what 
could almost be a glossy 
American Apparel ad.
 It could almost be, but for-
tunately, “On Hold” is care-
ful to never reach that level 
of artificiality. It avoids the 
minefield through intertwin-
ing moments of humanity 
with the more heavily styl-
ized aspects. For example, 
the dreaded cliché of the per-
fect cheerleader waving her 
pom-poms around on a foot-
ball field is lessened through 
the addition of messy, yet 
wonderfully natural, black 
and white shots of a party 
teeming with beautifully 
imperfect kids. The majority 
of the rest of the video passes 
in a similar manner: a cha-
otic back-and-forth between 
the overly synthetic and the 
humanely natural. 
 Overall, the music video for 
“On Hold” is choppy, hectic 
and a little confusing (much 
like the lives of most high 

school teenagers), but it’s 
never overwhelming. A feat 
that has to do in part with 
the simplicity of the actual 
song: the combined sooth-
ing vocals of Romy Madley 
Croft and Oliver Sim add a 
gossamer layer of tranquility 
to what is already a relatively 
minimal background beat. 
The xx strip their songs 
down to bare bones, invoking 
a clean sophistication that, in 
the case of “On Hold,” works 
in their favor, allowing the 
corresponding music video to 
not become obstructive in its 
clutter and disarray.
 Although at times pushing 
the boundaries of superfi-
ciality, the exclamations of 
endearing, emotive sincer-
ity found in The xx’s novel 
music video portrays that 
an infinite charm can some-
times be found in the classic 
tale of naive youth living in 
suburban paradise. 

- SHIMA SADAGHIYANI

MUSIC VIDEO REVIEW

DIY MUSIC
From Page 1B

DIY music is just 
as concerned with 
diversifying genres 
as representation.

With the crisp fall leaves 

beginning to wither under the 
the winter’s first snow and 
Thanksgiving already a distant 
memory, we usher in a new 
season: squash season. That’s 
right, the time has come for us 
to revel in winter’s gift to the 
produce section. 

What’s 
so 
special 
about 

this particularly protuberant 
variety of seasonal produce? 
Though winter squash are 
actually 
harvested 
in 
the 

fall, they last through the 
cold 
winter 
months, 
thus 

warranting their name. The 
winter squash family packs 
an abundance of nutrients, 
including 
magnesium 
and 

potassium as well as vitamins 
A, C and B6, and they’re 
delicious.

Aside from their nutritional 

benefits, winter squash are 
incredibly versatile and easy 
to incorporate into a variety of 
dishes. Their sweet, mild flavor 
makes them a hearty addition 
to salads, grains, soups and 
so forth — or you can prepare 
them as a satisfying, healthy 
meal on their own.

Though 
the 
tough 
skin, 

daunting size and firm texture 
of this squash variety may 
appear intimidating to some, 
they’re incredibly simple to 
prepare. First, when buying 
squash, look for those without 
bruises or marks with the 
stems still intact and that have 
quite a bit of weight to them 
to ensure the best quality. 
Popular varieties (and some of 
my favorite) include butternut, 
acorn and spaghetti. These 
varieties can be commonly 
found at your local grocery 
store or farmers market and are 
fairly inexpensive. I’ve often 
bought mine for under a dollar. 
 

The fastest way to prepare 

them for cooking is to slice 
them in half and scoop the 
seeds out. For easier handling, 
cut off the tops and bottoms so 
that they stand up flat. Then 
lay them flesh-side down on a 
baking sheet greased with olive 
oil or in a pan filled about an 

inch deep with water and roast 
at 375º- 400º for approximately 
40 minutes (the cooking time 
may depend on their size, and 
larger ones can take longer to 
cook). Once baked, they can be 
eaten straight out of the skin, 
or sliced or scooped out to add 
to a dish. For spaghetti squash, 
use a fork to pull the flesh out.

When roasted, the natural 

sugars that give winter squash 
their slight sweetness help 
caramelize the squash, giving 
them a delicious texture and 
deep flavor. To get the most 
of this flavor, you can simply 
season 
cubes 
or 
slices 
of 

squash with salt and olive oil 
or take a more daring route, 
coating them in curry paste or 
sprinkling them with brown 
sugar.

But don’t take my word for it. 

Try these recipes on your own 
for a variety of delicious, easy 
weeknight meals.

Easy 
butternut 
squash 

soup

In the cold winter months, 

there’s 
nothing 
more 

comforting or soul-warming 
than a bowl of soup. And a 
thick, velvety butternut squash 
soup is exactly the ticket. Not 
only is it unbelievably simple to 
make, but it’s a smooth base for 
an array of flavors if you feel 
like customizing yours with 
spices such as curry or ginger.

To make the soup:
Roast 
the 
squash 
as 

instructed before, scoop out 
the 
flesh 
and 
blend 
with 

chicken or vegetable stock 
to the desired consistency. 
Return the mixture to a pot and 
bring to a simmer. Add salt and 
pepper and a bit of heavy cream 
to taste. Top with a drizzle of 
cream or roasted pumpkin 
seeds for added texture. Easy, 
right?

Baked lasagna spaghetti 

squash boats

Spaghetti squash serves as a 

wonderful base for sauces, or 
can be delicious all on its own 
cooked in a pan with olive oil, 
garlic and parmesan. For an 
incredibly filling meal, make 
these spaghetti squash boats, 
packed with savory italian 
sausage, creamy tomato sauce 
and tons of gooey melted 

cheese.

To make the lasagna boats:
Begin by roasting the squash 

as instructed above. While 
the squash is baking, heat up 
a spoonful of olive oil in a pan 
and sautée some crushed garlic. 
Add the Italian sausage (either 
ground or 2-3 links removed 
from the casings and broken 
apart with a spatula or spoon in 
the pan) and cook until lightly 
brown. Add a handful or two of 
chopped kale and sautée until 
wilted. Next (you can skip this 
step and opt for just plain meat 
and greens with your squash) 
add a can of tomato sauce, 
a pinch of oregano and salt 
and pepper to taste. Simmer 
of 
several 
minutes 
before 

removing from the heat and 
adding a splash of heavy cream.

When the spaghetti squash 

is done, remove from the oven 
and let cool for ten minutes. 
Scrape out the flesh and mix 
into sauce. Add half a cup 
of shredded mozzarella and 
some parmesan and combine 
well. Spoon the mixture back 
into the halved exteriors of 
the squash, top with more 
mozzarella and bake until the 
cheese is melted and slightly 
browned on top.

Not only are these insanely 

delicious, but they take comfort 
food to a whole new level on a 
cold winter evening. 

Roasted acorn squash
Acorn squash has recently 

become my favorite of the 
category. Their smaller size 
makes them easier to handle 
and they pair well with almost 
any variety of dishes. My 
preferred method of cooking 
them is to slice them in half, 
scoop the seeds out and cut 
them into about half an inch 
thick slices, then coat them in 
olive oil and salt and roast them 
for about a half an hour.

They come out of the oven 

tender with crisp, caramelized 
edges and a subtle sweet flavor 
— perfect for tossing in a salad 
with kale, farro and dried 
cranberries or pomegranate 
seeds. Or, just eat the slices on 
their own. They’re that good. 

SHIR AVINADAV

Daily Arts Writer

An ode to squash: The perfect 

winter vegetable 

Try these recipes for a variety of delicious, easy squash-based meals

FOOD COLUMN

YOUNG TURKS

