If you’re a frequent reader of this site and/or heavily invested in the summer festival scene, then obviously the major story of the last few weeks was that of Coachella’s 2010 lineup announcement. The unfortunate reality of this is that some of the more important news, such as the concerts and compilations being put together in benefit of the relief efforts in Haiti, haven’t gotten their fair due. So, we’d like to once again turn the spotlight on that more important news.
First and foremost, there are a series of Haiti benefit concerts that have been put together. Perhaps the biggest of them is the telethon scheduled for this Friday, which will feature the likes of Bono, Sting, Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera, and Alicia Keys. Equally cool was The Red Hot Organization’s recent decision to send an emergency grant of $150,000 to Partners in Health to support the ongoing relief effort. Much of the money of the money that was donated came from the proceeds of last year’s indie-tastic Dark Was The Night compilation.
What’s more, a number of musicians are putting their talents to record for Haiti. As we told you earlier this morning, Jay-Z and U2 appear to be teaming up for collaborative affair. And then, there are two new compilation efforts, both which will offer unreleased material from some of music’s bigger names in exchange for charitable donations.
First and foremost, Dave Matthews Band, Slash, Lupe Fiasco, and Peter Gabriel are among the artists who have contributed to the Download to Donate to Haiti compilation, Rolling Stone reports. The album is part of Linkin Park’s Music for Relief, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing aid to victims of natural disasters and the prevention of such disasters. Since its inception in 2005, Music for Relief has raised over $3 million for victims of multiple disasters across four continents and planted over 810,000 trees to help reduce global warming. Fans can pick up the album for free via musicforrelief.org, but are encouraged to leave donation.
Also worth nothing is Paste Magazine‘s Songs For Haiti charity drive. Individuals who donate to Haiti relief efforts will be given access to unreleased songs from the likes of Of Montreal, Ludacris, Cee-Lo Green, Avett Brothers, Hanson, Andrew Bird, Umprhey’s McGee, The Low Anthem, and some 200 others.
“Whether people donate through Paste or through another charity (just have to say where); all will have access to the vault of ‘Songs For Haiti’ MP3s. One hundred percent of the money contributed through the site will be spread equally among three charities active in Haiti relief: Doctors Without Borders, The Red Cross, and Wyclef Jean’s Yele Haiti Earthquake Fund,” Paste explains.
Head to songsforhaiti.org for more information and to download the songs. Seriously, new music for a tremendous cause? It doesn’t get much better than that.
