If you see writers at a 2,000-person music festival, chances are
they’re there to cover the performances. If you see Jay
Babcock, editor of Arthur Magazine, he’ll be running the
show. Arthur is sponsoring Arthurfest, a two-day festival to be
held Sept. 4-5 at Barnsdall Art Park.
The three-year-old music and counterculture publication also
runs a mail-order label called Bastet, giving it a history of
direct involvement with the music industry.
“It’s a weird moment in culture,” said
Babcock, a UCLA alumnus who graduated in 1992 with a
bachelor’s in political science. “It’s very hard
for bands to get on the radio, to get in festivals. … (The groups
performing) are a lot of our favorite bands. I want to see them
play. … No one else is making a festival where they all get to
play at the same time.”
Curated by the magazine’s editors, the festival spans a
fair variety of genres and generations, ranging from Yoko Ono and
85-year-old bluesman T-Model Ford to contemporary rock acts such as
Sleater-Kinney and Spoon.
Several of the performers have direct ties to the magazine
““ T-Model Ford writes a column, as does Thurston Moore of
headlining band Sonic Youth. Many of the Bastet artists will be
performing, including Six Organs of Admittance and Josephine
Foster, who were featured on a compilation released by the label in
2004 titled “Golden Apples of the Sun.” Rather than
take on the critic’s traditional role as an observer, Arthur
regards its mission as one of advocacy.
“One of the secrets of American underground culture or
counterculture is that it cannot survive on its own,” Babcock
said.
“There simply isn’t enough money for it to sustain
itself, for the artists to be able to do their artwork and for the
critics to be able to have the time to be critics. I see Arthur as
an incubator. To a degree that’s not cheerleading or
coddling, but trying to find the artists who are delivering or who
have some potential, and to bring them forward and give them
encouragement.”
The seeds of Arthurfest were planted at the annual
South-By-Southwest industry conference, where Arthur sponsored a
showcase featuring Dead Meadow and Wolf Mother, which will be
returning this weekend to perform at the festival. Along with the
help of Mitchell Frank from Spaceland Productions, the idea for an
“Arthur night” in the magazine’s Los Angeles home
base sprang to life around a tour by editor favorites Sunburned
Hand of Man and the Magik Markers.
Soon they were going down their wish lists, bringing in
traditional folk groups, edgy punk rockers and psychedelic
ensembles alike to share the two stages.
One major pick was the recently reformed Olivia Tremor Control,
an integral part of the Athens, Ga., “Elephant 6″
collective that also included Neutral Milk Hotel and the Apples in
Stereo. The musical community that the members of Olivia Tremor
Control grew up with is part of what drew them to Arthurfest.
“I saw that Josephine Foster was playing, and she’s
great. Jason Ajemian, her upright bass player is one of my good
friends. He sat in with Circulatory System here in Athens and we
played shows with his jazz groups and stuff,” said John
Fernandes, a multi-instrumentalist in Olivia Tremor Control and his
current band, Circulatory System.
“When I saw she was playing, I got really excited.
We’re coming in the day before so we can see all the other
bands.”
Arthurfest is an attempt by the magazine to create a friendlier
festival, one where the focus is on a community enjoying itself
rather than what Babcock calls “the flash and the buzz”
of a mega-festival such as this spring’s Coachella.
Babcock hopes that the two-day event will help round up the
magazine’s readership, which is spread across the country.
Beyond the magazine’s musical bent, gathering the community
may be an opportunity for dialogue on other subjects.
“It’s not just music ““ they have a lot of
political discussion (in the magazine), and I was pretty turned on
by that, to be involved with them, because they have a lot of the
same ideas we support,” Fernandes said.
Whatever Arthur is able to accomplish this weekend, Babcock
hopes the magazine’s work on Arthurfest can help make a
difference for the artists and fans involved.
“What we’re doing, it’s like talking to poets
and doing poetry reviews and saying “˜How can you review poets
and also sell them?'” Babcock said. “This world
is so small that you need to do everything you can to keep this
poetry going.”