Marcel Thee

Daily Whatnot, a satirical but a completely fun read, includes interviews with interesting local celebrities and artists.

The Inside Scoop On the Jakarta Scenester Sites

"This is horrible, horrible music. Avoid at all cost.”

This is how Deathrockstar, one of the country’s premier Webzines, chooses to describe the second record of Jakarta grunge band Toilet Sounds.

In today’s increasingly critical music scene, attitude-heavy and often cocky Webzines have become the media of choice for young music fans.

Webzine culture has slowly taken hold in the local scene and is now emerging as a media presence to be reckoned with.

For the younger generation of music and art lovers, the habit of leafing through magazines or a photocopied Webzine seems rather archaic.

With the increasing prominence of American Webzines like pitchfork.com and stereogum.com in Indonesia, it was only a matter of time before local scenesters realized they could produce their own versions.

One of the first local Webzines — short for Web magazine — is the misleadingly named deathrockstar.info, which very rarely features ominous death-rock bands or actual rock stars.

This music-oriented Webzine was created by well-known toy artist Eric Wiryanata. It traces its roots to a cheaply produced photocopied and stapled magazine called Confusion, which first appeared in early 2000.

The zine — the term for such a photocopied magazine — had 10 pages at the most and was given away for free at indie gigs and dimly-lit rehearsal studios, as well as being passed among music aficionados.

It included local and international music news and reviews that were translated and gathered from international Web sites and magazines and summarized to fit into the few pages it had.

“We never ran into any trouble publishing the zine, simply because we just didn’t care about anything, including if people liked it or how it looked,” Eric said, adding that he used to draw all of Confusion’s covers — mostly monsters and robots — by hand. “We did it simply for our pleasure.”

Jay Hartanto’s Surabaya-based Mellon Zine (www.mellonzine.com) and Dede’s Wasted Rockers (wastedrockers.wordpress.com) also started as labors of love.

Jay said “Mellon Zine was a completely limited xeroxed fanzine, which I funded with my own money.”

He did, however, have some help from his bandmates in putting together the zine.

“We felt that there was not enough coverage of the fantastic but underexposed bands and art scene in Surabaya,” Jay said, explaining the reason for his zine turned Webzine in 2008.

Dede, on the other hand, started his zine by himself.

“We started off as a xeroxed zine turned newsletter turned Webzine,” he said. “And in the beginning it was essentially just me. Alone. I ran into the expected troubles: distribution and trying to do it while also working a regular job.”

Confusion, Eric’s zine turned Webzine, was the one of the first ones to catch on. In 2001, Confusion was reborn as the Webzine Deathrockstar. The name is taken from the song “Elegy to all the Dead Rock Stars” by Thurston Moore, leader of New York noise band Sonic Youth.

Eric realized that there was a hole in the local music scene that needed to be filled, and this concerned the critically harsh task of reviewing albums.

His venture caught the attention of cutting-edge music fans during a time when the Internet was just starting to take hold in the country.

Deathrockstar began with what Eric described as “a horrible looking Web site, with horrible graphics. If the photocopied zine could have an Internet equivalent, it was our early Web site.”

Along with some friends, he wrote numerous flattering and scathing reviews of local independent bands, giving scores ranging from 0 to 10, but mostly handing out scores below five. Most of the writers used pseudonyms, perhaps to avoid the wrath of the bands they criticized. Today, the bespectacled Eric is ironically known as The Deathrockstar.

By the mid-2000s, the success of Deathrockstar had different Webzines following in its footsteps. Each has its own niche. Total Feedback focuses on the local grunge scene, Mellon Zine mostly tackles the independent music scene in Surabaya, while Wasted Rockers mostly deals with tattooed heavy rockers and noise experimentalists.

Then there are also the less music-oriented Webzines, such as framesmagazine.com, which focuses on local artists, sculptors and painters, and whatzups.com, which revolves around celebrity gossip, event listings and even health tips.

Inspiration for the sites come from various sources. “We took [the infamously critical] Pitchforkmedia Webzine as a template and created a localized version of it,” Eric said.

“I wanted to create something that was a labor of love instead of yet another teen market rag written by old guys.”

Egy, the long-haired, flannel-wearing grunge fanatic who runs Total Feedback, said: “I was inspired after visiting a lot of Webzines about Seattle [grunge] bands, as well as British and American punk bands.”

Dede from Wasted Rockers said that for a Webzine to be good, “you essentially need to have a wide range of references, as well as good taste.”

He added that it was crucial for local Webzines to focus on homegrown talent instead of rehashing news about international acts.

Jay of Mellon Zine said, “The most important thing is to give your Webzine strong character. You could focus on one style of music, or maybe have a certain signature tone in the articles and reviews there. But most importantly, avoid our copy-paste culture.”

With more Webzines now entering the scene, most are finding it difficult to retain regular visitors. While Deathrockstar has 65,000 unique visitors monthly, Mellon Zine and Total Feedback only gets about 1,000 unique hits per month. “It really depends on how you optimize your Web site’s search engine presence,” Jay said. “And also, a Web site that already has a dedicated following is more likely to retain its position over the newer ones. We don’t really get any financial benefits from the Web site. It’s definitely more about personal pleasure. I just see it like a hobby.”

Fendy Susanto, who helps run the Webzine Frames Magazine, said an “[art-oriented] Webzine like Frames is not a financially profitable business for the Indonesian market, although it is not impossible to gain some sort of financial profit.”

“However, there are other kinds of benefits you will gain, like getting to know a lot of inspirational and important people in this particular field,” Fendy said. “And of course, it’s also about personal satisfaction.”

To promote Frames, Fendy and his twin brother, Fandy, who helps him run the site, said that they used to drop free CD versions of the Webzine at coffee shops and bookstores.

Most of these Webzines provide space for advertisers. But some, like Mellon Zine and Total Feedback, charge nothing for their ad space. The banner ads that do exist mostly feature their friends’ bands or a media partner with whom they have made a barter deal. Even Deathrockstar’s paid ads only generate about $40 per year, just enough to run the site.

It is certainly clear that the people behind these Webzines are not in it for the money. The pleasure of having people read their articles seems to be their sole reward.

“I don’t have any grandiose hopes for the Webzine,” Dede said. “I just think of it as means of information about the local scene. If we do end up being influential, well-known and appreciated, I’ll think of it as a bonus. It’s about educating the readers.”

Egy said, “Maybe one day [Total Feedback] could be a brand, perhaps for a clothing line.”

For his part, The Deathrockstar offered his own take on the future of the industry. “I think the mediocre Webzines will fall and the good ones will prevail,” Eric said. “The difference is in the content. If someone has a real passion for what they are writing about, they’ll last for a while. But if you’re a poser, it won’t last long.”

deathrockstar.info 

The most popular of all the local Webzines, Deathrockstar has expanded to become a brand that sells merchandise such as T-Shirts, which “sell pretty well, actually,” according to founder Eric Wiryanata. Its mailing list, groups.yahoo.com/group.drs, is also one of the liveliest forums on local music. 

www.mellonzine.com 

This Web site has a nice-looking design, but has not been updated in recent months. That is a shame since it’s one of the best-managed sites in terms of content and graphics.   

totalfeedback.com 

A very zine-esque looking Web site that seems to fit its punk/grunge-oriented audience. The graphics are rough and so is the writing. Total Feedback is noteworthy for its constant updates.   

wastedrockers.wordpress.com 

Constantly updated and full of information on upcoming gigs, as well as obscure releases. Geared toward the weirdest of the weird, with a barrage of information on experimental bands. 

framesmagazine.com 

A beautifully designed Web site. It is art-heavy in terms of content, with a focus on local painters, sculptors and illustrators, as well as lifestyle information that includes skateboarders and graffiti art. Its main attraction is samples of great works by local artists. Spearheaded by graphic designers Fendy and Fandy Susanto, who are twin brothers. 

dailywhatnot.com 

A little satirical but a completely fun read. Includes interviews with interesting local celebrities and artists. Great design, photos and a constantly updated news blog section make this one of the best local Webzines out there. 

whatzups.com 

Focused on the mainstream, this is one of the most professionally maintained sites. Includes celebrity gossip, music and film updates, an event directory and even a health section. Rully Annash, a journalist with the site, said Whatzups and other Webzines provide an alternative source of information. “Jurnallica [a metal-oriented Webzine] and Deathrockstar are good for musical references, and our Web site is good for entertainment news,” he said. “Dailywhatnot is a good read for all the cool hipster kids.”

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