Industry | Media |
---|---|
Founder | Steve Bernstein |
Headquarters | , United States |
Zenbu Media is a media company located in New York City, United States and founded by Steve Bernstein [1] that is focused on the music industry, sporting the slogan "we live for music."
Zenbu Media formerly published Relix magazine, Global Rhythm magazine, Metal Edge Magazine, and Metal Maniacs magazine.
Relix Magazine was founded in 1974 by Les Kippel as a newsletter focusing on The Grateful Dead. Originally the publication was called Dead Relix and was less than twenty pages thick with a hand-drawn black and white cover. By 1978 Dead Relix had dropped the word "Dead" from its title and expanded to include articles about the entire Bay Area psychedelic scene. From here the scope of Relix expanded to encompass a vast array of musical genres such as reggae and heavy metal. This caused the magazine to lose direction until it rallied behind its original focus on The Grateful Dead. However, Relix did not revert entirely to its old ways and managed to also cover various genres of music and even some non-music related issues. Soon after this transformation Relix became known as a magazine that broke acts, with many emerging bands making their debut in Relix columns such as "Independents Daze" and "On the Edge."
After the passing of Jerry Garcia in 1995 Relix was forced to move away from its coverage of The Grateful Dead. Embracing change, it began to report on jambands and other genres of music not considered as mainstream. In 2000 the magazine was purchased by Steve Bernstein and in 2007 it entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Today, Relix covers a variety of jambands, indie rockers, singer-songwriters, and the live music scene in general. Also, each issue comes with a free CD sampling various up and coming bands. Bernstein sold "Relix" to Relix Media Group in 2009. [2] [3]
Global Rhythm was founded in 2000 by Publisher, Alecia Cohen. In November 2005 Global Rhythm was acquired by Steve Bernstein who subsequently became publisher. Alecia Cohen remained on staff as associate publisher. Global Rhythm is a music and lifestyle magazine featuring coverage of world music, film, cuisine and travel. Published monthly and circulated across North America, Europe and hundreds of other locations worldwide, New York-based Global Rhythm is a vital source of music and arts news and reviews for a worldly and sophisticated consumer niche. Each issue of Global Rhythm includes a 15-track compilation CD.
Metal Edge was the longest-running metal magazine in America. It was first published by Sterling Publishing in 1985 and was closed in 2009. Its founding editor was Gerri Miller.
Metal Maniacs covered heavy metal music and was founded in 1989 by Mike Greenhaus and Kathrine Ludwig. The magazine was focused on covering the underground metal with an emphasis on the black and death metal genres. It was published by Sterling until Zenbu Media purchased it. Metal Maniacs was published ten times annually. It was closed in 2009.
Zenbu Media is in charge of two major events: The Jammys and the Green Apple Music & Arts Festival.
The Jammys is an award show geared towards jam bands but also including other live improvisational genres of music.
The Green Apple Music & Arts Festival (GAMAF) is America's largest Earth Day celebration. Founded by music producer and former Wetlands Preserve club owner Peter Shapiro and Relix Magazine, the annual event features an eclectic array of musical performances in venues and rock clubs, as well as large-scale free public outdoor concerts. The Festival's mission is to raise environmental awareness by combining live musical performances from diverse genres with educational outreach and cultural events suitable for all audiences. The festival is held around Earth Day, April 22, the world's largest secular holiday observed by over a billion people each year.
In 2006, the event's first year, the Green Apple Music & Arts Festival took place in New York City. A year later, the celebration had spread across the United States to over 60 live music venues featuring over 200 performances in New York, Chicago and San Francisco.
In 2008, continuing its partnership with Earth Day Network, Green Apple Music & Arts Festival will expand to additional U.S. cities including Miami, Washington D.C., Dallas and Denver.
"By featuring a diverse group of musicians and uniting these venues under one cause, we are able to coordinate an exciting, and unprecedented event. We hope the national footprint of the Festival will help inform as many people as possible on these important issues. And, we hope to keep expanding in future years. I think everyone would agree that Earth Day should be recognized in a big way every year." -Peter Shapiro, Executive Producer
Relix Records is a boutique record label established to help artists create, market and distribute their music in the US and internationally. Current releases include: Jonah Smith, John Popper Project featuring DJ Logic and Phil Lesh & Friends.
Additionally, Relix Classics, and imprint of Relix Records digitally release the works of heritage artists such as Jorma Kaukonen, Hot Tuna, Flying Burrito Brothers and the New Riders of the Purple Sage. These are distributed digitally by Egami Media.
As the owner of these recordings, Zenbu filed lawsuits in January 2015 against streaming-music companies such as Apple's Beats, Sony, Google, Rdio, Songza, and Slacker for streaming pre-1972 recordings without having licensed them. All of the lawsuits were quickly dismissed, except for the lawsuit against Sony. [4] [5]
"Wear Your Music" is a charitable project sponsored by Zenbu, in which artists donate guitar strings which are made into collectable bracelets and sold, with the profits going to a charity of the artist's choice.
Zenbu Media is in charge of many websites. Each magazine the company publishes has its own web page complete with a free online subscription. The record label, the Jammy Awards, the Green Apple Music & Arts Festival, and Wear Your Music also have their own websites.
In addition to these websites, Zenbu Media runs jambands.com and zendition.com.
Jambands.com is a website that is designed to meet all possible jam band needs. It has jam band news, products, forums, classifieds, and probably much more. Bernstein sold Jambands.com to Relix Media Group in 2009.
Zenbu Media and Techistry, the founders of Zendition, possess over 6o years of combined print media and software development experience. Zendition is a way to transform a magazine or any other similar kind of printed product into an electronic edition that maintains the true-to-print look and feel.
Phish is an American rock band that formed in Burlington, Vermont, in 1983. The band is known for musical improvisation, extended jams, blending of genres, and a dedicated fan base. The band consists of guitarist Trey Anastasio, bassist Mike Gordon, drummer Jon Fishman, and keyboardist Page McConnell, all of whom perform vocals, with Anastasio being the primary lead vocalist.
A Deadhead or Dead Head is a fan of the American rock band the Grateful Dead. In the 1970s, a number of fans began travelling to see the band in as many shows or festival venues as they could. With large numbers of people thus attending strings of shows, a community developed. Deadheads developed their own idioms and slang.
William Kreutzmann Jr. is an American drummer and founding member of the Grateful Dead rock band. He played with the Grateful Dead for its entire thirty-year career, usually alongside fellow drummer Mickey Hart, and has continued to perform with former members of the Grateful Dead in various lineups, and with his own bands BK3, 7 Walkers and Billy & the Kids.
The Disco Biscuits are a jam band from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The band consists of Allen Aucoin (drums), Marc "Brownie" Brownstein, Jon "The Barber" Gutwillig, and Aron Magner. The band incorporates elements from a variety of musical genres with a base of electronic and rock. Their style has been described as trance fusion.
Metal Maniacs was a heavy metal music magazine founded in 1989 by Mike 'G' Greenblatt and Katherine Ludwig of Metal Shop. It was focused largely on covering extreme metal, with emphasis on the black and death metal genres. Originally a Sterling publication, it was acquired by Zenbu Media in February 2007. The magazine's editorial board was based in Manhattan, New York City, and published ten issues per year with covers on bands like Dimmu Borgir, Amon Amarth and Entombed.
Relix, originally and occasionally later Dead Relix, is a magazine that focuses on live and improvisational music. The magazine was launched in 1974 as a handmade newsletter devoted to connecting people who recorded Grateful Dead concerts. It rapidly expanded into a music magazine covering a wide number of artists. It is the second-longest continuously published music magazine in the United States after Rolling Stone. The magazine is published eight times a year. The magazine has a circulation of 102,000. Peter Shapiro currently serves as the magazine's publisher and Dean Budnick and Mike Greenhaus currently serve as Editor-in-Chief.
The Jammy Award are an awards show for bands typically called jam bands and other artists associated with live, improvisational music, created by Dean Budnick and Peter Shapiro. The Jammys are sponsored by Relix magazine, Jambands.com, and Shapiro. The Jammy Awards returned in 2008 to the WAMU Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City, after taking a one year break.
Joe Russo is an American drummer and half of the Benevento/Russo Duo. He has toured, performed and recorded with a number of other bands, including Cass McCombs, A Big Yes and a Small No, Fat Mama, Robert Walter's 20th Congress, Bustle In Your Hedgerow, Younger Brother, Shpongle, Tom Hamilton's American Babies, the Trey Anastasio/ Mike Gordon duo, the Gene Ween Band, and Furthur. He also plays with the Shpongle Live Band. In 2013 he formed a Grateful Dead tribute band called Joe Russo's Almost Dead.
Global Rhythm was a former New York-based monthly music and lifestyle magazine featuring coverage of world music, film, cuisine and travel. It was published monthly and circulated across North America, Europe and hundreds of other locations worldwide for over fifteen years.
The Green Apple Festival is America's largest Earth Day Celebration, raising local and environmental awareness, educating individuals on environmental issues, hosting cultural events.
The Zen Tricksters are an American Grateful Dead cover band.
Lotus is an instrumental electronic jam band formed in Indiana in 1999 now based in Philadelphia, PA and Denver, CO.
Furthur was a rock band founded in 2009 by former Grateful Dead members Bob Weir and Phil Lesh. The original lineup also included John Kadlecik of the Dark Star Orchestra on lead guitar, RatDog's Jeff Chimenti on keyboards and Jay Lane on percussion, and Joe Russo of the Benevento/Russo Duo on drums. Named after the famous touring bus used by Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters in the 1960s, Furthur was an improvisational jam band that performed music primarily from the extensive Grateful Dead songbook, as well as their own original music and that of several other well-known artists. In addition to the original members, the band's lineup included backup vocalists Sunshine Becker of the a cappella ensemble SoVoSó and Jeff Pehrson of the folk rock bands Box Set and the Fall Risk.
A jam band is a musical group whose live albums and concerts relate to a fan culture that began in the 1960s with the Grateful Dead, who held lengthy improvisational "jams" during their concerts. These include extended musical improvisation over rhythmic grooves and chord patterns, and long sets of music which often cross genre boundaries.
Dean Budnick is an American writer, filmmaker, college professor, podcast creator and radio host who focuses on music, film and popular culture. Budnick, who is editor-in-chief of Relix, grew up in East Greenwich, Rhode Island.
Dave's Picks Volume 1 is a three-CD live album by the band the Grateful Dead. It was recorded on May 25, 1977, at the Mosque in Richmond, Virginia, and contains the complete concert from that date. It was released on February 1, 2012.
Peter Shapiro is an American club owner, concert promoter, filmmaker, magazine publisher and entrepreneur from New York City. He is widely known as the promoter for Fare Thee Well: Celebrating 50 Years of the Grateful Dead, the Grateful Dead's 50th anniversary "final shows". Shapiro first gained renown through two films that screened at the Sundance Film Festival: Tie-Died: Rock ‘n Roll’s Most Deadicated Fans (1995) and American Road (1997). He has gone on to produce numerous other projects including U2 3D (2007) and All Access: Front Row. Backstage. Live! (2001). The Producers Guild of America identified him as one of “The Digital 25: Visionaries, Innovators and Producers of 2009.” On June 8, 2016, Shapiro was honored at the annual gala of the BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival.
Twiddle is an American folk band. They are a jam band, and utilize instrumental improvisation in their live performances. They incorporate influences from a variety of music genres, including rock, jazz, bluegrass, reggae, and funk.
Ghost Light is a five-piece American jam band formed in 2017 by Tom Hamilton, Raina Mullen, Holly Bowling, Scotty Zwang and Dan Africano. Ghost Light's debut album, "Best Kept Secret," was named one of Glide's top 20 albums of 2019. Ghost Light has performed on major festival stages and in historic venues including Lockn' Festival, Jam Cruise, Electric Forest Festival, Mission Ballroom, Brooklyn Bowl, The Peach Music Festival and Terrapin Crossroads. Ghost Light toured as an opening act for Greensky Bluegrass in the winter of 2020.