Daily Engagement is a new, brief, daily feature on Flavorwire. It’s aimed at helping people feel somewhat less helpless and hopeless (or at least in control of their helplessness and hopelessness) in the midst of a political news cycle that’s been doling out daily affronts to human decency.
Every day, we’ll post one easy thing that people can do to continue to resist the current state of politics under the Trump administration, focusing on the creative ways (we are a culture website after all) that citizens are finding to resist.
Here is some good news: if you hadn’t heard, our friends at Bandcamp are donating 100% of their proceeds from sales today to the ACLU, so if you want to buy some music, today is a good day to do it. Even better, some 400+ artists and labels are going above and beyond by donating their proceeds to the ACLU and/or other charities, too. This equates to an overwhelming amount of music to choose from, so we thought we’d round up a selection of the artists from that list whose work we think our readers will enjoy. Strike a blow against Trumpist fascism and score some great tunes? Everybody wins!
Advance Base / Casiotone for the Painfully Alone
The artist formerly known as Casiotone for the Painfully Alone has long been one of Flavorwire’s favorite lyricists and songwriters. His Bandcamp catalogue is full of rarities, b-sides, live recordings, 7″s, etc, so if you enjoy his work, go crazy; if you’re not familiar with it, then we suggest you start with A Shut-In’s Prayer, his debut album as Advance Base, which was released in 2012 and is still wonderful, five years later. AND, even better, his CFTPA work is also all on Bandcamp, and participating in the donation scheme; our favorite albums are Twinkle Echo and Casiotone for the Painfully Alone Vs. Children, but they’re all good.
Hyperdub
Pioneering London dubstep/electronic label Hyperdub is participating in the donation program with its entire catalog, which means that you can score all sorts of wonderfully forward-thinking electronic music, from the work of the genre-destroying Fatima Al-Qadiri through the late footwork icon DJ Rashad to to the cerebral electronica of label founder Kode9 and the spectral dubstep of Burial.
DFA Records
Similarly, everyone currently on DFA is donating their proceeds to the ACLU today. That means: The Juan Maclean, Black Dice, Holy Ghost!, Factory Floor, and various others. If you really want some bang for your buck, you could also invest of one of the label’s compilations, which include DFA bands past and present. (Compilation #1, released back in 2003, is particularly good.)
Four Tet
Over the last decade or so, Kieran Hebden has created one of the most consistently interesting and satisfying bodies of work in electronic music. A good amount of that body of work is available on Bandcamp; if you’re looking for a place to start, we suggest 2009 album There Is Love in You, along with the beautiful Morning/Evening two-track LP from a couple of years back.
Kill Rock Stars
Elliott Smith! And a bunch of other great stuff, like Marnie Stern and Corin Tucker Band and The Thermals and Deerhoof! But in particular, Elliott Smith! (And in particular, the deluxe reissue of Either/Or that was released earlier this year, which is entirely remastered and comes with a bunch of live tracks plus an alternate version of XO album track “Bottle Up and Explode.”)
Xiu Xiu
Xiu Xiu are signed to Kill Rock Stars, but we feel like Jamie Stewart needs a special shout out, because not only is he donating the proceeds of today’s Bandcamp sales to the ACLU, he’s doing the same for the next four years. His page is here, so if you’ve ever wanted to score a copy of Dear God, I Hate Myself, now is the time to do so.
Future of the Left
And finally, the mighty Future of the Left are featured on the list of participants, but sadly their page seemed to be blank at the time of publication. This could be a glitch, because Bandcamp’s servers are getting hammered today; perhaps check back later? (We’ll update this if we get any clarification, too.)
Edit: OK, so, you can get Future of the Left’s The Peace and Truce of Future of the Left here, and also a bunch of music by Andy “Falco” Falkous’ one-man project Christian Fitness here. Get into it!