THREE DAYS OF VOTING REMAINS >>>

With news of the Warehouse in downtown Tacoma closing down, all-ages music fans might want to take note of the follow press release from the Pepsi Refresh Project.

SOS! Mayday! Calling all supporters of all-ages music in every town!  We need your help NOW!

With only three days left in the Pepsi Refresh Project online voting competition to win $50,000, and after three weeks of sitting comfortably in the top ten spots, the All-Ages Movement Project (AMP) has fallen to the dreaded, and possibly fatal, 11^th position.  It is not too late, however, for AMP to surge late in the game and finish in the winning top 10.  All we need is for everyone who believes in the importance of all-ages music to vote once a day through the end of voting at 9pm EST on Sunday, February 28. AMP is asking music lovers everywhere to vote daily and deploy tweets, status updates, email blasts, blog posts, smoke signals and carrier pigeons to get word out to their friends to vote as well.  Pearl Jam and Blitzen Trapper leant their support to AMP's cause yesterday - now lend yours! 

Vote at www.allages.net/vote

As part of their newly launched Refresh Project, Pepsi is offering a $50,000 grant to each of the top 10 ideas as voted on by the public online at www.refresheverything.com throughout the month of February. Out of over 700 organizations, The All-Ages Movement Project (AMP) is hanging tough in the precarious 10th spot thanks to the broad-based support of people who love music and know how important it is for young people, from the smallest town to the biggest city, to have places to hear and play it live. 

AMP is non-profit organization founded in 2006 to support people across the country who are bringing all-ages music to their communities by providing them with resources, knowledge, and a network of mutual aid.  If AMP finishes in the top 10 and wins the $50,000 Pepsi Refresh Project donation, they will be able to publish a book they have written called "In Every Town: An All-Ages Music Manualfesto" full of information about how to start, run and maintain an all-ages space and histories of how others have done it.  What's more, AMP will be able to put on a series of six regional conferences and workshops around the Unites States to bring together  all-ages music organizers and fans to learn from one other and train others looking to open up a venue or art space in their own town.

Musicians ranging from The Beastie Boys to the Thermals, YACHT to Kimya Dawson, Kathleen Hanna to Harry and the Potters have been publicly voicing their support for AMP and encouraging their fans online to vote everyday.  Likewise, record labels including Sub Pop, Kill Rock Stars, Alternative Tentacles, Thrill Jockey, K, Barsuk and Asian Man have also been working to get word out about the campaign and mobilizing their audiences to vote for AMP each day until voting closes at 9pm PST on Sunday, February 28, 2010.  Add your voice to this DIY choir of support for all-ages music in every town by voting online at www.allages.net/vote and help build the all-ages venues of today that will give your favorite young band of tomorrow a place to play.

Punk purists and those generally suspicious of corporate money should take comfort in knowing that AMP will not be obligated to change its logo to the Pepsi "swoosh" or whatever the hell it's called, nor will voters receive Pepsi spam unless they specifically, and bizarrely, choose to.

You can also bypass Pepsi and support the AMP directly here.