Free Music! New Reasons to be Neurotic!

My Mood: Somewhere between upset, jaded and scared.

In two weeks my magazine, Relix, is throwing a festival right here in New York City. Being good hippies, it fits squarely between 4/20 and Earth Day and celebrates the wonders of living greenly---or so I am told. If all goes somewhat according to plan its going to be pretty cool and I’d love it if you all joined in some of the weekend festivities.

The craziness all begins at the sixth annual Jammy Awards which is going to be held on April 20 (I know, heady). The Jammys is kind of like one of my old-school Excelsior parties only it is held at the Theater at Madison Square Garden and doesn’t get busted at 12:30 PM. Ok, so its nothing like one of my old school Excelsior parties, but, if you're lucky, you'll get to watch my head explore in the same endearing way halfway through the night.

The Jammys is our annual award ceremony/indoor festival in which we pair “real bands” with “jambands” for onetime only collaborations. Some of the notable bands performing this year include moe., Blues Traveler, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, The Dead’s Mickey Hart and Billy Kreutzmann, Dweezil Zappa, Phish’s Mike Gordon, Peter Frampton, Joe Satriani, Stephen Marley, Ky-Mani Marley, Guster, Savion Glover, Richie Havens, Angelique Kidjo, Steve Kimock, Jane Addiction’s Stephen Perkins, Bettye LaVette, Little Feat, DJ Logic, Mad Professor, Baaba Maal, Martin Sexton, Grace Potter, Chick Corea, Charlie Musselwhite and McCoy Tyner, yada yada yada. It costs about $30 and runs from about 8 PM to 1 AM, give or take a few technical difficulties.

If that’s not enough, we’ve also co-opted pretty much every venue in the greater New York-arena from April 21-23---from Carnegie Hall to CODA---for the weekend long Green Apple Music Festival. Each venue is going to “go green” and we’re putting on a bunch of hip shows, including the New York Philharmonic! I am running three shows myself: Friday, a Strangefolk/Grateful Dead party at the Lion’s Den Friday, Saturday a performance by the Slip at CODA and Sunday a boat cruise around New York with the Zen Tricksters and Max Creek. If you are wandering about town stop by and say hi!

Since concerts cost money, we’re also providing entertainment for the post-college improvised. On April 21 and 22, we’re closing down 42^nd street in front of Grand Central Station all day Friday and Saturday for an EarthFair of sorts. For all intensive purposes its going to be an urban Bands on the Skidmore Green with music, vendors, drum circles and, I’m told, at some point flamethrowers. A few of the choice acts performing include the Grateful Dead’s Mickey Hart, Martin Sexton, Umphrey’s McGee and Ben Taylor.

Ok, so my stomach is starting to cringe just thinking about all I have to do before then (including sending off my taxes and surrendering my beloved spaghetti marinara for eight days), so I am going to go. But, I hope to see you bouncing around New York!

Love,

Mikey

PS We will return with daily Greenhaus Effect updates on April 24, with enough post-festival
cynicism to keep you coming back for months to come!