I started utahunderground.net as an attempt to unite and help the "underground" scenes of Utah. As a longtime member of the gothic subculture (since 1985) but with many other "underground" interests, I have grown a little disillusioned and bored with the stifling nature of being ingrained in only one part of a larger underground scene, but with little or no contact with the others.

My tastes in music and style have run the gamut from punk to psychobilly to industrial to goth -- sometimes within the same day! And I know I'm not the only person like that. I think we need a place where the underground can cross-pollinate and learn from each other, rather than get pigeonholed and sedentary in each little sub-sub-culture.

Unfortunately, I haven't seen a lot of this happening or supported in the scene. A lot of people talk the talk, but when it comes to actually walking the walk, they're too busy doing their own dance. (Bad metaphor? Uh, yeah... sorry.)

For instance, Salt Lake's 'zine have consistently ignored or insulted goths. Rivetheads and industrial fans deride synthpop fans, and some hippies and ravers love everyone but each other, it seems. Queers and straights hardly have any interaction. Within the scenes, infighting, backbiting and political bullshit reigns supreme. These are overstatements, I'm sure, but when I observe the crowds in coffee shops, clubs, festivals, and shows, I'm struck by how segmented we all are.

Print zines and newspapers are great, but they're not interactive enough. Getting information listed in the print publications around Utah can be a pain, especially for anyone without the money for an ad or enough advance notice.

When I asked the question, "How can I learn more about punk / rockabilly / synth / industrial / rave shows or dances?," I couldn't find a single answer; I had to look all over the place. Hence this site.

Another reason for the domain and site: In my midst of disillusionment, I started setting up sites for a couple of worthy projects: The now-defunct Perfect Cut and the still-going-strong UGGLIES. At first, I put their sites on utahgoth.net, the domain I owned and ran with my partner, Nizzt. Unfortunately, both groups got negative feedback about the URL having the word "Goth" in it, as if the word itself negated any good or positive thing about their non-gothic sites. This was puzzling and painful to me -- UtahGoth (in the guise of me) was doing free web development for them, offering them free space and bandwidth, and it seemed like all anyone could say was, "Oh, it's gothic, gross."

I hadn't realized how derided Goths are by other freaks until I stepped out into the rest of the subculture. Nor are Goths the only ones disliked or laughed at by other subcultures. I hope that, with this site, we can change the misperceptions or prejudices we carry around about each other -- so if something says "hippy" or "rave" or "cyber" or "industrial" or any other word that carries positive connotations to some, and negative overtones to others, we can all learn to see past that, to realize that, as an underculture, we need each other and can use all the help we can get.

Trust me, we won't be getting help or support from anywhere else.

I hope this site will grow and change. I plan to change the look and feel around a bit, over time, and your feedback on that is welcome. I choose the art deco look because I liked it and because there's no one look that's going to appeal to us all. Feedback on that, as well as on any other part of this site, is welcome.

Above all, this site cannot and will not grow without input from you, the denizens of the Utah underground. I will never be able to find all the information that needs to be here. If I could have found it all easily, this site never would have occurred. So you need to help me and all your fellow freaks. Send in information about shows and events for the Events Calendar. Post information about websites, stores, clubs, restaurants, anything you come across that would be of interest to other freaky types. Get involved by becoming a section editor; just email me if you have a lot of knowledge or interest in one of the sections.

If you run a group, organization, band, or have an idea that you think could benefit by being part of the UtahUnderground.Network, please let me know. There are a few totally free or very cheap options available, such as setting up a URL that can redirect to a site you run or a frameset that opens your site transparently. For site development or hosting, our provider DigitalFlex LLC has low-priced options; check them out.

I only ask that you keep submissions and ideas "underground." It can be hard to know, for sure, what's underground. In this case, I mean: local, small, not corporate or even anti corporate, gritty, open-minded, about art not money, about us as a scene, or of interest to us as freaks. We won't always agree on everything posted here, and that's okay, too. If you don't like something, ignore it. This site is not and will never be about grinding a personal ax (there are things listed here I don't like or care about, and things run by people who hate me, and that doesn't matter -- it's not about me or them, it's about all of us) and it will never be about making money.

-- Madelyn