Even though this is only All Tomorrow’s Parties’
second year in the United States, there are plenty of reasons to be
scared for its quality.
In the recent “Best of 2002″ issue, the Daily Bruin
named last spring’s All Tomorrow’s Parties festival the
top arts event of the year. This wasn’t surprising, given
that its competition included such tremendous cultural landmarks as
an Adam Sandler appearance, but nevertheless the music event richly
deserved the accolade “biggest and best U.S. music festival
of 2002.”
The festival, which started in the United Kingdom in 2000, has
from the beginning shown a refreshingly original approach to
massive music festivals, consistently attracting cutting edge,
relevant and diverse artists. By avoiding corporate sponsorship and
leaving the content strictly in the hands of the artists, the
festival has avoided the mainstream commercialism that ultimately
ruined the once-hip Lollapalooza and created the worthless
homogeneity of mainstream festivals that headline stale acts such
as the Red Hot Chili Peppers year after year.
Last year’s festival, the first in Los Angeles, was no
exception. Curators Sonic Youth drew together a compelling group of
artists which included both up-and-coming innovators and classic
bands. While there were one or two shockingly low moments, the
worst of all being a be-mohawked Eddie Vedder slaughtering a
ukulele, for the most part great performances were the rule. There
was hip-hop, electronica and rock, and no one could believe how
lucky we were to have this right here on campus.
So why am I so worried about this year’s ATP? Well, there
are a few differences from previous editions. To start with,
instead of a band or musician acting as curator, the festival
organizers have chosen the creator of “The Simpsons,”
“Futurama,” and “Life in Hell,” the author
of our common cultural history, Matt Groening. This is not
necessarily a bad thing. Groening has notoriously hip taste in
music and before creating “The Simpsons” spent some
time working as a rock writer. (Note to self: stop being rock
writer; create hit TV show instead.)
Anyway, one would expect Groening to bring a sharp musical
sensibility with an irreverent slant to his selection of the bill,
but the groups that have been confirmed thus far lack much of the
clout of last year’s lineup. There are still a number of
major acts such as And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead and
Blonde Redhead, but where are the interesting crossover projects
like last year’s fantastic collaboration between Kim Gordon
of Sonic Youth and Jim O’Rourke? And where is the
hip-hop?
Groening also seems to have not attracted the truly big names
the way Sonic Youth did last year. As of now there is no one of the
order of magnitude of Wilco or Aphex Twin on this year’s
list. It’s nice that The Magic Band has gotten back together,
albeit sans Captain Beefhart, but that can’t quite match up
with last year’s appearance of the recently reunited rock
legend Television.
Nevertheless, the lineup has a few great additions, particularly
alt-country chanteuse Neko Case and historic punk band Wire. More
troublesome is the change in venue and ticket format. Last year
tickets bought access to entire days of the festival. A Saturday
ticket got you in to every show on Saturday, all of which were on
campus.
While there were some problems with major acts playing in the
same time slot, for the most part it was a fantastic format that
allowed everyone to hear most of the music. This year the
organizers have decided to expand into the general Los Angeles area
and to sell tickets not to entire days but to individual
concerts.
It remains unclear how this will affect the cost of attendance,
but one thing is certain: de-centralizing the event will cost it
the sense of community that embodied last year’s festival.
The original conception was to bring together music fans of many
different genres to spend a few days experiencing new ideas in
music together. The problem is that by selling tickets to
individual events, people are encouraged to simply attend shows of
bands they are already familiar with. There will be less musical
discovery and shared experience. Suffice to say this is not in the
spirit of the event.
Lollapalooza lost its credibility when it slipped away from the
ideas with which it was conceived. Those of us who have cherished
such high hopes for All Tomorrow’s Parties can only hope that
if indeed this year’s festival is a step backwards, that its
only a temporary slip, not the first step down the road to
irrelevance.
Crossen’s top three Simpsons episodes are:
3. Homer in Space
2. The Beer Baron One
1. Lisa the Vegetarian
E-mail him at dcrossen@media.ucla.edu.