Last year, label HATETOQUIT and Brooklyn band Hiding Places organized a compilation album Merciless Accelerating Rhythms - Artists United For A Free Palestine, which featured Mount Eerie, Little Wings, Fust, hemlock, and Family Vision. All proceeds went directly to the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF) and Palestine Legal. A year later, the unfathomable genocide pursued by Israel is still going on, and so today, there's another compilation Merciless Accelerating Rhythms: Artists United for a Free Palestine Vol 2 where all proceeds will go to the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF).
The new comp has 63 contributions from artists across the US and UK, spanning a variety of genres. Artists include Andy Boay (Tonstartssbandht), Colin Miller (MJ Lenderman), Landon George (MJ Lenderman), Prith/The Coke Dares (members of Magnolia Electric Co.), villagerrr, Hiding Places, Andy Loebs, Renny Conti, and more.
Tonstartssbandht's Andy Boay shared a statement:
I grew up in the USA in the 90s and 00s, subject to as much American imperial and Zionist propaganda as anyone else from that time and place. I feel like all of my earliest encounters with a perspective that was in any way oppositional to the 'this is just the way things are and anti-zionism = anti-semitism' canard came in the form of activist musicians, people that I related to and found myself listening to them clearly. Some of them were Jews, some of them were Arabs, but all of them artists, refusing to say 'This is just the way things are.' If there’s anything that we can humbly contribute to hasten the end of this nightmare that my country’s government enables and openly applauds, then we should do it.
There is this stereotype about indie rockers, that they are apolitical. Music and art are inherently political, however, so anyone who thinks they can skirt by without taking a stance is wylin,” explains Landon George, who contributed to the compilation and plays in MJ Lenderman’s live band. “I'm honored to be featured on Merciless Accelerating Rhythms Vol. 2because it reassures me that there are indeed weirdo-indie-artists, like me, who give a damn. If we all gave a damn about the lives of innocent children, the health of the environment, and one another, I think we'd be a lot better off.
You can preview the comp, but more importantly buy it, below.
