Sunday, 11th May 2008: Dung & Marjinal at the Eastern Promise, Kemang, Jakarta

The final venue in a whistle-stop tour of Java, the band are keen to reunite with some old friends from Indonesia and check out some new Jakarta bands.

“We have heard a lot about what’s going on with the (Jakarta) punk rock scene, that it’s very healthy; that a lot of bands are not just going through the motions, some of them really mean what they say,” says the Dung’s guitarist and songwriter Joe Kidd.

A rock writer, music collector and web-designer, Kidd owns a music store in and helps run an arts collective in his hometown of Kuala Lumpur. Involved in political activism, he and the group are also long-term supporters of the DIY, or do-it-yourself music scene, a grassroots movement that is becoming increasingly popular across the globe.

Rather than waiting to be “discovered” by talent scouts and traveling down the commercial route, DIY musicians organize their own gigs and use a large network of contacts to move between different cities and — increasingly — between countries.

“The DIY scene is really a reaction against the extreme consumerism in so much music these days — the way it is promoted, packaged and delivered,” says Kidd. “The important thing with DIY is that you have your own network that does everything itself, and controls everything itself. It’s also a great way to travel and meet new people, which is as important as the music, really.”

One thing spurring on DIY music is the internet, with bands using websites like Myspace to distribute their albums electronically and promote concerts. In more recent years, the number of groups traveling physically in Southeast Asia has also increased, something that Kidd puts down to the “AirAsia revolution”.

“Budget airlines are really making a difference for bands in the region, especially those with limited resources. Cheap tickets mean that in Malaysia we are now seeing a lot more groups from Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand. Of course, there are still not as many groups coming from Indonesia, mainly because of the ‘fiscal’ tax, I think.”

Starting at around 7 p.m. in Eastern Promise’s back bar, the gig will showcase the talents of some of Jakarta’s newest underground bands. With group Tantrum described as “Burt Bacharach meets the Beach Boys”, there should also be a few sweet tunes among the raw rock.

There will be a small cover charge. All proceeds for the gig will be donated to Institut Sosial Jakarta — a charitable group which advocates for the city’s urban poor.

The band list is as follows.

Carburetor Dung (spicy Malaysian punk rock)

The Tantrum (Burt Bacharach meets the Beach Boys)

Children of the Band (our parents were hippies but we turned out OK)

Damascus (“shoe gaze” music for straight-edgers)