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May 2017




  

Memorial Day
Max's Kansas City
Festival 2017
Article By: Jimi LaLumia


The expanded edition of "Max's Kansas City 1976" on double red vinyl, CD and digital download, is now making it's way into everyone's home, and to celebrate this event, a survivors party takes place at Bowery Electric in downtown Manhattan Thursday, May 25th through Saturday May 27th, organized by Peter Crowley and emceed by me; it will be great to see long time friends and fellow travelers from that epic era, when NYC sent shock waves around the world, planting seeds and giving birth to numerous pop culture movements and events that continue to influence how we look, think and act: Max's was the godhead of 'hipness as a lifelong lifestyle',and this year it is being recognized as such, worldwide.

For me, in addition to emceeing the 3 nights (this will be the 8th Max's related event in which I will handle the master of ceremonies duties), the new wrinkle is that Peter Crowley has asked me about a Jimi LaLumia & The Psychotic Frogs set, which involves me remembering lyrics, and enlisting some of Long Island's finest, Sean Sanders, Jay Bennz and Gino Thomas Scalmato, to serve as the latest Frogs lineup for this gig; all three play in established Long island bands quite successfully: .It's been just about a decade since I last attempted anything of this nature, but this time around, it feels more important than any other.

I'm anxious to see how this turns out, and equally buzzed to bring out NY's legends one more time to celebrate the historic re-issue of the first studio compilation of the emergent underground scene.It's great that everyone is so excited about the Jungle Records release and the 'summer starting' Max's weekend, and the only thing that could top it would be bringing a version to the West Coast sometime in 2017; can't make any promises, but as we've seen in recent times, these days, anything can and does happen,so stay tuned.