ALTERNATIVE OR INDEPENDENT: DO YOU KNOW THE DIFFERENCE?

  The newspaper you are holding in your hand is an independently 
published and produced publication. That means that we (Sonny, 
Chris and myself) own the paper and that we are not backed or 
distributed by any other company. This means that we get by on less. 
This means that Sonny sits in his apartment and tries to sell enough 
ads to publish the paper. No office, no secretary, no support staff, 
not even a xerox machine. Just a desk and a one line phone with 
Call Waiting. Chris shoots most of the photos and does most of the 
interviews. He does this on his own time and his own dime. No per 
diems, no expense vouchers and no airline tickets. Just Chris and his 
(t)rusty Subaru. I do the layout for the paper on an old Mac II 
borrowed from my work. I sneak onto the computer when it's not 
being used for business and do the layout. Our Patron Saint, Hal 
Hammond, of Hal Hammond Graphics ,lets us sneak into his shop 
after hours to do scanning and proofing. No Power PC, drum scanners, 
or video grab boards for us. Just old computers and borrowed time. 
Rodrigo Gomez does our distribution and he does it from his beat up 
old pick up truck, driving all over Nor Cal dropping off copies of 
Heckler. Where he can't drive, he ships to people all over the US and 
Canada who help us out with distribution in their areas. These are 
people who help us out cause they like the mag and they are gracious 
enough to help us get the word out. I could ramble on for several 
more paragraphs and tell you how hard Matt Kennedy & Sean 
Schroeder, our two main contributors, work and how little they get 
paid (Not to mention all the other people who write and contribute 
photos), but I think you get the point.
     We are also an alternative  magazine in that snowboarding and 
skateboarding are considered alternative activities. This means that 
not as many people snowboard as people who ski, play golf, baseball, 
ride bikes or rollerblade. I suppose that we are even an alternative 
to the more mainstream alternative mags like TW 
Snow/Skateboarding, Warp, Snowboarder or Thrasher. I think that 
this will be the last year that snowboarding can be called an 
alternative activity, if it's not too late already. If you haven't 
noticed, snowboarding is going big and it's getting there fast. Every 
self respecting CEO of every big corporation selling anything to 
anybody ages 10-40 is trying to jump on the snowboarding 
bandwagon. This will be the year that snowboarding goes huge, and I 
don't mean off a cliff into powder.
   "Alternative"  and "Indie"  are buzzwords for 1994 that every consumer 
and salesman spit out on a daily basis, but what do they really 
mean? 
   I recently saw an ad for Bud Dry proclaiming their sponsorship of 
the Reading Music Festival in England, an Alternative music festival. 
In the ad, Anheuser Busch claims that Bud Dry is "The Alternative  
Beer" by virture of the fact, I suppose, that they can afford to take 
out full color 2 page ads sponsoring a big bucks alternative  music 
festival. This is so ludicrous, that if you can't see it I'm wasting my 
breath. Anheuser Busch is the biggest brewery in the world. In the 
entire fucking world! They are an alternative to nothing, except 
maybe water or milk; in that yes, beer is an alternative choice to 
other beverages. If you want an alternative beer, drink a Pale Ale or 
any other decent micro brewed beer that is produced independently 
and with care. Boycott Anheuser Busch and their shitty tastless 
dreck. My point is that the word alternative as it is used by big 
corporations has been entirely stripped of its meaning and is nothing 
more than an overused marketing cliché. 
   Does this mean that I think all big companies are bad and that you 
should never buy anything unless you can trace it's origins to a small 
communally owned factory in a small city in remote Montana? No, 
sometimes you have to buy things from big corporations and 
sometimes they do things better than a small company can. Because 
it's easy, and because that's where my background is, lets look at 
music:
   Much hype has been generated this past year about alternative and 
indpendent music. Big record labels are scrambling to sign small 
alternative bands for their hipness quotient. Big labels are starting 
to start new "small" labels with a more alternative appearance. 
Little record labels struggle to survive but do so any way by 
promoting and supporting bands that they deeply care about. I 
suppose that that's the difference between a big record label and a 
small record label. Big labels care only about making a profit and 
little labels care only about getting their bands heard. This is of 
course a gross oversimplification and arguments can go on in both 
directions for days. For an excellent argument against major labels 
check out the latest issue of Maximum Rock And Roll titled Some Of 
Your Friends May Already Be This Fucked. On the other hand, major 
labels do do an excellent job of getting records into out of the way 
stores and helping bands tour to out of the way towns. The fact is, 
although it may have helped to eventually kill him, Kurt Cobain's 
music was heard by a lot of people who might not have otherwise 
heard it thanks to Geffen Records. This is probably a good thing. Big 
record labels do help to expose a lot of music to a lot of people. I 
think that this has a lot to do however with the true independent 
labels keeping the majors on their collective toes. Most big bands, 
like Green Day for instance, got their start on an independent label. 
   The bottom line for any big company is profit, and there is more 
profit in selling lots of one product (and that's what bands are called 
in music biz speak: Product) than an equal number of five products. 
This works great for dishwashing soap, but would not work so well 
for music. So how does this all relate to you and Heckler Magazine? 
Simple. We are a magazine about snowboarding, skateboarding and 
music and since you are reading this, you are probably a consumer 
and practioner of at least one of these activitites. It's about taking a 
role in how your activity evolves rather than letting big faceless 
corporations shape it's future.
   Snowboarding, (despite it's bigness) in terms of both people involved 
and dollars spent, is still largely an independently owned business. 
Even the biggest companies in snowboarding are  still owned by 
people who snowboard every day, people like Jake Burton, Rob 
Morrow, Tom Sims and Bert Lamar. This is good, let's hope it stays 
that way. I for one would much rather ride a board designed by say, 
Neil Rankin of Solid rather than a board designed by someone 
working for the Yamaha corporation. 
   Skateboarding is and will probably always be a primarily 
independently owned business even if the skater look is bought and 
sold on a regular basis. The reason for this is that there's not much 
money to be made in skating (compared to snowboarding or 
rollerblading) so no big corporations are trying to muscle in. Besides 
that, skating's a lot harder to learn than snowboarding and it hurts 
more when you fall. This will keep people from skating in huge 
droves. And lastly, it's hard to be a poser on a skate board 'cause 
eventually you have to get on and ride.
   Music is almost beyond salvation. Bands with dubious talent and 
almost no ideas in their heads musically or otherwise consistently 
make hit records that sell millions. There is hope though, because 
there is a strong underground. Lollapalooza and Woodstock II (you can 
get a free Woodstock concert guide with every 12 pack of Pepsi. I 
guess this makes Pepsi the Alternative Soft Drink) were the big 
concerts this summer. In this issue of Heckler, you can read about a 
true independent and  alternative music festival that took place in 
Olympia, WA called Yo Yo A Go Go. It's harder to find out about 
independent bands, but they're out there if you look. Check out 
publications like the aforementioned Maximum Rock and Roll and 
seek out small record stores that carry independent releases. We'll 
try to point out some bands and sources in this and future issues of 
Heckler. 
   Also in this issue, we've got an interview with Propaghandi, a band 
committed to staying independent. Then we've got and interview 
with Jawbox a band that was on Fugazi's Dischord label talking about 
why they're glad they signed to Atlantic. We've got an article by 
snowboarder/punk rocker Arlie John Carstens on why MTV sucks and 
why you should do one thing well rather than several things half-
assed just to go big. We've got an article from engineer Steve Albini 
on why major labels suck, and he makes me look like a corporate 
rock sellout. He should know, he's been there and back and lived to 
tell about it. 
   So you're probably asking what's the point? 
Just this: See past the hype and marketing. Refuse to be part of a demographic.
Snowboard and skateboard for fun, because you like it, not because it's hip.
Seek out some independent records, and go see some new bands in some 
dive clubs instead of only going to big shows in arenas. I think you'll 
be glad you did. That's it, nothing more.
   Well, one more thing. There's this thing called the Internet and 
it's a big, beautiful thing that nobody really owns. But, as I write 
this, the big media giants are trying to figure out how to make a 
buck off it. If you are into knowledge, then check out the Internet. 
It's probably one of the more amazing social phenomena of this 
century. We are trying to put Hecker onto the Internet and if we have 
any luck you'll be able to read Heckler in alt.zines. We'll also post 
something under alt.skate-board and rec.skiing.snowboard. We want 
to set up a free subscription network for Heckler via SASE's and the 
Internet. We're new to this so bear with us if it doesn't happen fast 
enough or, if you're an experienced net surfer let us know what to do. 
Our E-mail address is HecklerMag@aol.com
See ya on the snow or on the street,
John Baccigaluppi