GaragePunk Hideout

History

GaragePunk.com was founded on June 16, 2001, by St. Louis (MO) disk jockey and promoter Jeff “Kopper” Kopp originally as the Web home for his now-defunct KDHX-FM 88.1 radio show, The Wayback Machine, and a discussion forum for fans of both the radio show and the music featured on it. The site soon became an important resource for a worldwide community of garage rock, rock and roll, garage punk and surf music when an extensive phpBB message board forum was launched on it in August 2002. In 2005 the decision was made to begin experimenting with podcasting, which was originally the idea of Bill Streeter, and soon after that, GaragePunk Pirate Radio was born.

In May 2015, Kopp sold the GaragePunk Hideout, including the associated GaragePunk Hideout Compilation Series, to Damos Kalaitzidis. Not included in the sale was the GaragePunk Pirate Radio podcast network, which now has a new home on a separate website.

“First and foremost, we wanted to try to do more to promote the sorts of filthy rock'n'roll that we liked (as well as featured on my old radio show) but that most people have never heard simply because they don’t seek it out, have never been exposed to it before, or can't hear my show for one reason or another. And having one central website where people could gather, discuss, share, and promote this music was essential. Secondly, we wanted to encourage each and every one of you to support your local independently owned record stores, mailorder sites, and especially the indie labels that produce the vast majority of music featured on GaragePunk Pirate Radio.” Jeff “Kopper” Kopp

The original GaragePunk.com Forums were closed on January 18, 2008 due to declining activity (a direct result of the rising popularity of social networking sites like MySpace), and the majority of the site’s activities were transferred to The GaragePunk Hideout social networking site (a Ning network) which Kopper had launched in June 2007. The GaragePunk.com URL now redirects visitors to the Hideout, but the site also serves as an archive of the podcasts that were posted prior to January 1, 2010.

The GaragePunk Hideout

The GaragePunk Hideout was launched in the summer of 2007 as a social networking element for fans of GaragePunk Pirate Radio (then known as the GaragePunk Podcast Network), and as a replacement for the antiquated GaragePunk.com Forums, a phpBB message board. Hosted on the Ning platform, The GaragePunk Hideout allows music fans, bands, musicians, record labels, DJs and promoters to network with like-minded folks from around the world by creating personalized profile pages, sharing music, photos and videos, and posting discussion topics, events and blogs.

The Hideout also features a number of separate discussion groups which members may subscribe to individually. Separate groups are dedicated to a range of global geographical areas, various rock-and-roll subgenres, and a range of other topics associated with the garage-punk scene such as B-movies, photography, alcoholic beverages, 'zines and radio shows, and rock-and-roll graphic design. Other features include an events section for the promotion of club nights, concerts, garage fests and other related events, areas for the pooling of member's photographs and videos, and an online chat room.

GaragePunk Pirate Radio

In mid-2005, Kopper, with the help and encouragement of Lo-Fi Saint Louis videoblog founder Bill Streeter, launched "GaragePunk.com Pirate Radio," recruiting show hosts from the GaragePunk Forums message board to produce radio station-style podcasts for the network. Within six months, the network had enough separate programs to begin posting new episodes on an almost-daily basis. This network of podcasts has been producing regular episodes since August 2005 and presently features twenty-eight independently produced programs. Mostly produced at home by individual music fans (a small number are offshoots of local radio and college radio broadcasts), the network mostly focuses on obscure garage rock, primitive rock and roll and garage punk but also extends to psychedelic rock, frat rock, protopunk, surf, rhythm and blues, rockabilly, swamp rock, broken blues, power pop, punk rock, new wave/no wave amongst other related genres. This ever-changing network of podcasts was integrated into the GaragePunk Hideout in January 2010, bringing everything together under one virtual roof.

The overall aim of the Hideout is to be the world’s premier destination for fans of garage rock music online — old, new, underground or independent. One way they do this is by using GaragePunk Pirate Radio to broadcast this music to a large audience through the podcast medium, one that builds upon the traditional radio format which typically attracts a smaller local following.

The GaragePunk Pirate Radio podcasts may be subscribed to as a whole, or each program individually, with new episodes arriving most weekdays. Many individual programs now have over 50 episodes.

The list of current active programs is as follows [as of April 2012]:

Some former podcast programs:

GRGPNK Records

GRGPNK Records is a "netlabel" and an extension of the GaragePunk Hideout with the core purpose to release digital compilations featuring bands and music created by members of the aforementioned social network. Currently seven volumes of "The Best of the GaragePunk Hideout" have been digitally released, as follows (as of April 2012):