The Aquabear Legion making waves with County Fair
By Jen Kessler, Entertainment Staff Writer
March 1, 2008 | 6 a.m.
The potency of any music scene is heavily dependent on the strength of its network of support systems. The Aquabear Legion, a collective of brilliant musicians hailing from Ohio, is hard at work fortifying the state’s musical backbone.
“Based in Appalachian Ohio, The Aquabear Legion provides a community network for creative people,” reads the collective’s mission statement. “We are dedicated to supporting and enhancing independent music and art in our community and elsewhere. We focus on collaborative relationships to create opportunities for independent musicians and artists.” With this Saturday’s second annual Aquabear County Fair fast approaching and multiple projects in the works, this Ohio musician’s collective is truly beginning to flourish.
2004 marked the dawn of Aquabear Legion when co-founders Brian Koscho and Todd Jacops arrived at the realization that they knew a plethora of talented musicians from both Athens and Cleveland, their hometown, and could unite said bands and musicians in a collective that provided network and support.
“I think Ohio is starting to have a little bit more of a presence,” Koscho said. “The Cleveland connection has always been easy for me because that’s where I grew up, and then I came down here and that’s how Aquabear started -- I realized that there are people there that are awesome and people here that are awesome, and together we could be more awesome people doing things!”
At the outset, the primary goals of Aquabear Legion were to create a Web site where all the music could be centralized and to offer free mp3 compilations of the bands. Four years later, Aquabear has succeeded in putting out four compilations that encompass the wide range of talent that associates itself with the collective.
The first is the Aquabear Legion Compilation Volume One, a two disc set that features songs from Aquabear bands such as We March, The Dragline Bros., and Bram Riddlebarger. The second is the Aquabear Legion Hip-Hopilation Compilation, boasting 17 hip hop tracks from Ohio artists, and the third is the Aquabear Legion White Album compilation, on which Aquabear bands cover the legendary Beatles album. These first three are mp3 compilations, available for free download on the Aquabear Web site. The fourth, the Aquabear Legion Compilation Volume Two, is a physical CD filled with the likes of Aquabear bands such as Southeast Engine, Adam Torres and the Arch Villains, 17 tracks that go for the quite moderate price of six dollars. The album is available for purchase on the Aquabear MySpace.
2008 finds the Legion in the midst of exciting growth. With over 40 bands listed as members on the Aquabear MySpace, Koscho admits that it has “turned into something much bigger than we anticipated.” Success, it seems, has stimulated Koscho and Jacops to plunge deeper into the rich waters of the Ohio music scene with unparalleled zeal. Aquabear is currently working on becoming a non profit organization (“Which is a bit of a process,” said Koscho), in order to qualify for grants and tax exempt status. Simultaneously, Aquabear is working on creating a live recording studio at ARTS/West. “It would provide live audio services as opposed to a tracking studio,” Koscho said. “We would be able to record bands as well as any other events happening at ARTS/West.”
The Legion is also currently anticipating the first issue of their quarterly zine, The Aquabear Reader, which will be available March 1st at the County Fair. The zine provides creative coverage of local music and art with features such as venue spotlights, interviews, album reviews, short stories, columns, comics and more.
The second annual Aquabear County Fair, which takes place this Saturday, March 1, at ARTS/West and Casa Cantina, promises to be a spectacular display of the Ohio talents amassed by the collective. The affair kicks off at 3:30 p.m. at ARTS/West (132 W State St) with a showcase of films by Brian Wiebe, followed by performances by Woody Pines and the Lonesome Two, Weedghost, Sun God, Nostra Nova, Casual Future, Machine Go Boom, Silo Circuit and Kid Panda Hands. The festivities will then skip down the street to Casa Cantina (4 W State St) at 10:30 in the evening for a rollicking aftershow featuring Southeast Engine, Men of Gentle Birth and The X Bolex. Admission to each venue is five dollars, and all proceeds go the bands and to support The Aquabear Legion. A full day schedule can be found here.
The Aquabear Legion is doing magnificent work for the creative scenes in Ohio by uniting like-minded artists and therefore providing them with an inherent support system. The money raised by the Legion is fed back into the scene by way of events, compilations and various projects that truly give back to the arts with unprecedented selflessness. “I love doing this kind of work,” said Koscho. “So it makes all the effort worth it.”
“It helps to feel like you’re a part of something bigger. It helps keep the band going, it helps keep things from just sort of popping up and dying,” said Scott Spice, vocalist for Aquabear band Casual Future. “More than anything we just want to be a part of something that gets remembered. I think it’s an interesting thing, the idea that maybe one day somebody will remember that there was this collective of musicians trying to unite Ohio.”
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Be sure to check out the Second Annual Aquabear County Fair this Saturday, and to keep an eye on The Aquabear Legion’s MySpace and Web site for future compilations and events.