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Opinion & Editorials
Opinion and essays, longform stories, editorials, and coverage from the DIY punk underground.
Hark! It’s a Crawling Tar-Tar: 20 Years of Dorr Darr Gelap Communiqué
Hardcore punk had already taken root in Indonesia by the early 1990s. The final years of Suharto’s New Order regime were marked by widening economic inequality, political repression, and…
Instigators: From Dewsbury and Huddersfield to the World and Back Again
Instigators formed in 1980 in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire. The original line-up featured schoolmates Mooney (guitar), Hammy (drums), Tab (bass), and Semi (vocals). Between 1983 and 1984, the…
Abergaz & The Troubled State of Punk in the Balkans
About a week ago, I woke up to a flood of headlines on social media. All I could make out were a few jagged words: Sonja Hranjec. Abergaz. Arrested. Medika. Murder. I sat in silence, glued…
TRUE GRIT: Malmö Noise Rockers Release Two Digital Demos
TRUE GRIT is a brand new project hailing from Malmö, Sweden. Since January 2025 the band has dropped two digital releases totaling four tracks. We packed them both in this article to…
Bonjour Tristesse, Trespasser, and the Leftist Rejection of Modernity in Black Metal
Since its inception as a genre, black metal has associated itself with extremism. Extremism in sound, first and foremost. Blast beats, blurry riffs, throat shredding vocals, raw…
Track by Track: Massa Nera Explain the Songs & Meanings Behind ‘Derramar | Querer |…
Representing the late screamo revival, New Jersey's Massa Nera are one of our favorite current bands in the genre. Massa Nera's latest album, Derramar | Querer | Borrar, consists of 12…
Keepin’ It Real in Indonesia: A Tribute to Manusia Buatan
With reformasi in 1998, Indonesia experienced political change towards a more democratic future after 32 years under authoritarian regime. The new times were also reflected in youth culture.…
Stop Mucking About: Catechisms, Straight Edge, and Why It’s Not as Bad as It Sounds
There are things in one’s past that one doesn’t necessarily make a point of telling everyone about, even if (or, perhaps, because) they say a lot about your personality. What would fall into…
Punk Veganism as a Culture of Resistance
DIY Conspiracy celebrates the World Vegan Day 2022 with this new essay by Len Tilbürger, in which the author explores the intersection between the anarchist strains of punk-rock and the…
Outplaying the Jocks: Punk and Sports
It would seem that punk and sports don’t really go together. Wasn’t jock culture pretty much the antipode to punk? There are plenty of stories about jocks and punks battling it out, quite…
Break Down The Walls: Youth of Today in Yugoslavia 1989
In the former Yugoslavia, during the ‘80s, some really interesting things were happening in the underground punk scene. The major labels (more or less all of them, state-owned record…
Under the Radar? The Changing Face of Repression Against Anarchism and Punk in Indonesia
Anarchism in contemporary Indonesia shares numerous connections with punk counter-culture. Repression against punks and anarchists has long been a problem for the movement there, but the…