Obviously, people go to the CMJ Music Marathon for the music, but today (and for the next three days) people went to the Puck Building as much to pick up their CMJ badges as for the giftbags (which turned out to be heavy on the promo materials, and light on the actual gifts).

Now, of course indie music is at the core of the CMJ festival, but everyone knows that hippies don't know how to raise money for a major event, which is where the corporate sponsors come in. Thus it is that the ground floor of the Puck Building was lined with dozens of promotional booths--everything from Mountain Dew to Sunsilk to SanDisk.

At the Sunsilk booth, one of the lovely employees politely suggested that I might enjoy trying on one of their display wigs. Um, I think I'll pass. (And instead of hairapy, now I'm in need of some actual therapy ...)

Anyway, next up was a visit to the SanDisk counter, where I got a sneak preview of the newest model of the Sansa MP3 player, to be released in a few weeks. The tiny little player (which will be available in 1 or 2-gigabyte storage sizes) comes in a variety of colors and is designed to compete with Apple's iPod Shuffle. 

And compete it does--with a full LCD screen so you can actually browse through your music library, a click wheel, a built-in radio and most importantly, a much lower price point, at $39 (1-gig) to $59 (2-gig).

Tonight, I'll be checking out the CMJ Showcase at Crash Mansion, featuring a performance by Care Bears on Fire, the trio of 12-year-old kids-turned-rockers whose debut album, "I Stole Your Animal," has generated a lot of buzz in the music and media worlds. I'm hoping to meet them personally just to find out precisely how much cooler than me a couple of kiddy-musicians can actually be. I'll be honest, I fear the worst.

But if you're not in the mood to be shamed by America's ultra-kick-ass youth, other events going down tonight include the Freshpress Hip-Hop showcase (featuring Pete Rock), Q-Tip (with support from Eldar and Blue Scholars), the Damn! showcase at Cake Shop, and LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy at Hiro Ballroom.

For our complete selections of the best of CMJ '07, check the Hot List.