Chris Knox benefit show, Jeff Mangum, Yo La Tengo etc

Last year, New Zealand musi­cian Chris Knox (of Tall Dwarfs fame) suf­fered a series of debil­i­tating strokes. You have doubt­less heard about the ben­efit album, which fea­tures an wide cat­a­logue of artists like Will Oldham, Jay Reatard, and Girl­pants favorites the Moun­tain Goats, all cov­ering songs from Knox’s impres­sive back cat­a­logue. When Pitch­fork announced there would be a ben­efit show on May 6^th at Manhattan’s strangest-named venue (Le) Poisson Rouge, it included one par­tic­u­larly thrilling bit of news. The elu­sive Jeff Mangum will do an acoustic set along­side Yo La Tengo, The Clean, Por­tastatic, Kyp Malone, John Mulaney, Claudia Gonson, Dimmer, and Sharon Van Etten to help ben­efit his friend Knox.

Mangum’s pub­li­cist com­mented that the show did not signal the begin­ning of a come­back, but was rather a move to aid an old friend in a time of crisis. No matter what the reason is, though, Mangum’s pres­ence on the bill no doubt but fueled the furious phil­an­thropy that sold the show out in twenty min­utes flat on Kick­starter (I know this because I too was there, obses­sively refreshing the page, to bring Ghast­ly­pants the scoop) (and to buy myself a ticket) (yes I am going) (OMG). At last glance, the show brought in over forty grand, all of which will go to ben­efit Knox and help him in his recovery. To ensure this, the orga­nizers are taking a firm stance against scalpers, electing to revoke ticket priv­i­leges from those who attempt pub­licly to sell their slots.

Finn Family — “It’s Love”

The track above is off the com­pi­la­tion. Even though it has nothing to do with most of what I said above, I am posting it because it made me smile. You can (and should) buy the album here. And, although the show is sold out now, you can still track the dona­tions and con­tribute here at Kick­starter.