Running the Music Marathon

	Music History in the Making

If you've noticed that the streets of Manhattan have been packed with an abundance of young, skinny, pale youths the last couple days, you have the annual CMJ Music Marathon to thank.

However, there's more to this prestigious industry festival besides tight jeans, ironic T-shirts and bad haircuts.

The CMJ Music Marathon, which began Halloween night and runs through Nov. 4, has been showcasing emerging artists in clubs all over New York City for the past 25 years.

Each autumn, thousands of artists worldwide pack up the tour van and converge on the Big Apple with the hope of getting noticed for their music talent and explosive live performances.

Included on the Marathon's long list of successful alumni are Johnny Cash, the Beastie Boys, Radiohead, REM, David Bowie, Willie Nelson, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, LL Cool J, Patti Smith, Rage Against the Machine, Annie Lennox, Brian Wilson and Cheap Trick.

The Marathon is indeed a great chance to see established music superstars flex their muscles on intimate stages throughout the city: The 2006 festival features funk icon George Clinton performing at Crash Mansion, a tiny venue on the Lower East Side.

However, the CMJ Music Marathon revolves more around the smaller acts about to break out, such as this year's performers Forget Cassettes (Nashville, Tenn.), O'Death (New York City, N.Y.) and Snowden (Atlanta, Ga.). (Full disclosure: my band, Morning Theft, has its own CMJ showcase this year, so I'll be in the trenches with the rest of them.) ...