Industrial Hemp’s Impending Growth Spurt
Industrial hemp may see federal legalization soon. States including North Dakota and Montana have been testing its use since the mid-’90s and North Dakota is suing the United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) for the right to grow hemp. Farmers in North Dakota and Vermont, along with David Bronner (of Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps) and…
Dave Matthews, Other HeadCount Bands Meet Their (Big) Numbers
HeadCount supporters the Dave Matthews Band topped the Associated Press’s list of the decade’s 50 biggest concert tours, selling 11.6 million tickets for $529.1 million (“based on data provided to the trade publication Pollstar by concert promoters and venue managers”). Other top moneymakers include Celine Dion, Kenny Chesney, Bruce Springsteen, and the Rolling Stones. Phish…
Give Your Ears Some Love In The New Year
I love hearing but I hate earplugs. It’s a predicament I’m sure is shared by most of the live-music community. I’ve tried to wear those fluorescent pieces of foam that constantly fall out, prevent you from talking to friends, and make it seem like you’re listening underwater. I usually decide that Jake Cinninger’s guitar solo…
Animal Collective’s Deacon Raising Funds For Desert Adventure
Animal Collective’s Joshua Dibb, AKA Deacon, hopes fans will kick in funds – and soon! – for his early-January trip to an amazing African festival. Dibb has been invited to Mali’s annual Festival in the Desert, which takes place smack in the middle of the Sahara, in Essakane. It’s a heavy trip combining local economics,…
Drink Up, America, It’s The Holidays
As Christmas, New Year’s Eve, and a host of other wintery holidays invade our homes with annoying music, pine needles, Grandma’s perfume, and loving yet judgmental relatives you see only a few times a year, one substance in particular helps most of us get through December relatively unscathed: alcohol. While seeing a typically shy co-worker…
Phish Back ‘Your Three Words’ On ‘Good Morning America’
There’s a strange phenomenon any true Phish fan is familiar with: When you hear a Phish song outside the usual context, on television or at a stadium or in a store, it stops you in your tracks and sometimes puts a lump in your throat. I’ve gotten up and danced to “Guyute” on The Weather…
Interview: STS9’s David Phipps On The Conspiratorial Nature Of Giving
They may be one of the spacier, more experimental, and more mystically inclined bands on the improv-rock circuit, but Santa Cruz instrumental quintet STS9 also have their feet planted firmly in consensual reality. On their tenth album, Ad Explorata, released earlier this month on the group’s own 1320 label, STS9 blends vintage analog electronics with…
Chase Bank Rejects Marijuana And Pro-Life Charities
I was excited that Chase Bank was going to do something positive with some of their post-“crises” windfall profits. The financial giant organized Chase Community Giving, a Facebook contest to give away $5 million to charities. An application allowed nonprofit organizations to compete for votes in two rounds; the top 100 vote getters win $25,000…
Chewing On Copenhagen
What was achieved, or not, in Copenhagen? The Copenhagen Accord‘s goal is laid out in Article 2: 2. We agree that deep cuts in global emissions are required according to science, and as documented by the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report with a view to reduce global emissions so as to hold the increase in global…
HeadCount Is Hiring
HeadCount will add a full-time, salaried position early next year to work in our New York City office. Candidates must be passionate about both music and grassroots organizing, dedicated, self-motivated, creative and ready for a true adventure. Most importantly, he or she must bring a unique set of skills and demonstrate a clear ability to…