fliers for obscure local rock band performances adorn telephone poles. The sounds of a practicing rock band blast out of someone’s garage. Who are these bands? Who supports them? Where did they come from? Where are they going? Who are the band musicians? And what exactly is the connection, if any, between these bands and the bands we see on MTV and hear on the radio, and whose CDs we see in the music stores? This study examines bands and their musicians in a local underground scene. The material I have accumulated over a two-year period of fieldwork on local rock bands in Hawaii is restricted to original bands: bands that create and play their own music. Cover bands that play renditions of pop hits from the big charts in bars and clubs are excluded from the study. The term “underground” means that these bands are hidden and inaccessible to people who are not “hooked into” the scene. Without good venues for playing before an audience and commercial promotion, they reach their audience mainly by fliers on telephone poles or by word of mouth. The study emphasizes the connections that form both among members within the scene, and between scene members and outsiders. One way of looking at such connections is to view them as elements of an underground social movement. The scene is not an organized group with a clear goal that dictates its actions, as is the case with many other social movements. It is also not an aggressive group of individuals who have a grievance against established institutions, although some aspects of the lives and attitudes of those in the scene are anti-establishment. Gusfield (64–66) argues that even though a movement may not necessarily be geared towards changing the institutionalized rules and procedures of an organization, social movement action can be going on at a more micro, less public level of everyday interaction. A movement can be oriented toward establishing alternative lifestyles or norms rather than engaging in direct conflict with established institutions. Gusfield notes that each member of such a movement feels that he is not an isolated individual, but that the ideas behind the movement are socially shared. The interaction among band members and among bands reflects their involvement in an alternative lifestyle. Besides the interaction within the local scene, bands also have ties to other bands on the mainland. CDs and tapes, radio, music