Back in the day, in '91 or so, I tried to interview Fugazi for Rolling Stone, which the band felt stood for everything they detested about corporate infiltration of music. They said, 'We'll do the interview if you give us a million dollars of cash in a suitcase.' Which was their way of saying no.

Naturally, no one knows more about music than musicians. They talk about their own work all the time, but they rarely get to talk about other people's music.

People didn't get to see how other towns interpreted the underground ethos, and so they developed their own unique versions of it.

The American indie underground made music for like-minded people who thought for themselves. Thinking for yourself is intrinsically subversive.

Nine Inch Nails' sound is dominated by clanging synths and sardonic, shrieking vocals.

I'm not sure I ever try to make a case for the music. I mean, sometimes the music isn't even that good. I just tell the band's stories; if I describe the music, it's to explain how it moved the overall story along.

There's a whole apparatus for indie bands now, but back in the eighties it was just getting built. The early people really took it on the chin.