"Arthur combines the good/old countculch with the good/new same more smoothly than any periodical I know about."
Peter Stampfel (Holy Modal Rounders)
"Arthur re-awakens the vigilante in me."
Miranda July
"There is no other periodical I look more forward to arriving than the new Arthur."
Rick Rubin
"Arthur is really something singular and much-needed."
Dave Eggers
"Arthur bears the blazing light of the psychedelic sun through the nightlands of the early 21st century. Great regular columns by Dave Reeves and Doug Rushkoff, new music, old dissent and cold, clear sanity. Although I don't get to see them often enough, these people are among my dearest friends and they make life worth living on the Planet of the Damned."
Grant Morrison
"[Arthur has] its finger on America's eccentric and softly anarchic countercultural pulse."
The Sunday Times, 2007
"The central voice of the new scene"
The New York Times, 2006
"Arthur is oversized, free, colorful, patchouli-scented but whip-smart, unapologetically political, sometimes silly, often anarchist and always willing to listen to voices way, way outside the mainstream. Above all, it is prophetic, usually about two years ahead of the rest of the country in its loves and obsessions."
The Village Voice, 2007
"[Arthur has] an allure unlike any other magazine I have seen in my lifetime. [L]ike picking up a true document of a time and place in American culture, yet also removed from the present, harkening back to the utopian visions championed by the hippie free press... In any given issue, you can read about music, drugs, protest, meditation, metaphysics, sex, herbs, nature, communes, art, socialism, siphoning gasoline from SUVs, and hypnotizing cops by eating doughnuts in front of them... Arthur seems to attract a readership numbed by the glut of too-slick music and culture mags, just waiting for something truly unique to emerge."
Brian J. Barr, Seattle Weekly, 2007
"Arthur [is] the most eclectic, thoughtfully designed periodical I have encountered. Arthur [is] clearly drawn to psychedelic music and [is] always a good place to look for fresh acts but to say it [is] a music magazine would be a misnomer. This free publication presents contemporary artwork, photography, political essays and literary reviews with admirable disregard for categorisation. I [have] never picked up a copy of Arthur without finding something intriguing and informative and I believe that magazines of which this can be said are all too few and far between.... In drawing attention to what is being produced under the radar and discussing its merits, magazines like Arthur have a nurturing effect on great music and art. They connect artists with audiences and provide an outlet for intelligent discussion and detailed criticism. It would be great to see the example taken up [in Britain]."
Alan McGee
"One of the best music magazines on the terrasphere is back... Now in full-color, Arthur remains all about...saving the parts of the planet worth saving. And: free. Life is short, art is long, Arthur isn't done."
RJ Smith, Los Angeles Magazine, 2007
"(F)orceful and singular in its vision..."
SFWeekly, 2007
"The American counterculture's answer to the New Yorker"
The Guardian
Arthur: The Little Magazine That Could by KEVIN MCCARTHY
[posted on The Nation's website on July 11, 2007]
In 2002 a free counterculture music magazine, Arthur, came onto the underground scene and won readers in just about every city where young people (and some older ones) still flouted local noise ordinances. Edited by LA-based music journalist Jay Babcock and published by Philadelphia-based independent media veteran Laris Kreslins, it was distributed by volunteers across the nation who delivered issues to coffee shops, record stores and bookstores. With contributors like Thurston Moore of the legendary punk/noise band Sonic Youth; T-Model Ford, the elder blues statesman and Arthur advice columnist; and writer Trinie Dalton, the magazine specialized in long stories and interviews on wide-ranging subjects, from '60s "White Panther" leader and MC5 manager John Sinclair, to ambient music pioneer Brian Eno, to novelist J.G. Ballard, to contemporary folk musician Devendra Banhart--each representing a segment of the counterculture.
Arthur's music coverage has been among the most influential of its era, but the magazine was never just about music--it was from the beginning fiercely political. Babcock, who studied political science at UCLA, had at one time worked for Congressman Henry Waxman and drafted Waxman's anti-NAFTA position paper. As the magazine was launching, the war in Iraq was being sold, and Arthur defined itself as a virulently antiwar publication; the magazine dedicated its fifth issue to a critique of the war. (The cover of that issue depicted comedian David Cross as a soccer mom cheerleading the war surrounded by the words "Hooray for Empire" and "USA #1 with a Bullet.") The editors never stopped questioning the war and military recruitment. In 2004 Arthur teamed with the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) to run a PSA for antirecruitment campaigns in its pages. Then in May 2006, in an issue of Arthur, Babcock challenged Sully Erna of the rock band Godsmack for licensing his music to the military for use in recruitment ads and for using military images at concerts. The magazine's pages were a regular space for artists and writers like Talking Heads frontman David Byrne and Kyp Malone, of the indie band TV on the Radio, to speak out against the war and President Bush...
