More details about the show, including special VIP ticket packages, right here.

I had a blast helping pull this benefit compilation together.

It’s a bit of an epic, but well worth listening to all the way through. To make that easy, you can play the whole damn thing for free, right here.

While every track has something to offer, I direct your particular attention to the live tunes with Bonerama. They back the various musicians at every one of the artist activism retreats that inspired this album, writing genius horn arrangements for those artists’ songs, and the shows are always mind-blowing.

You can get a sense of just how much fun the musicians have as you listen to Mike Mills screaming his way through “Ohio,” or Wayne Kramer encouraging all the motherfuckers to kick out the jams.

When you’re done listening, click that “Learn More” button and go buy the damn thing, so you can repeat the experience endlessly.

Oh, and if you just want to hear/share that Wonderlick tune and bask in the glory of trombones, here it is by its lonesome:

So, today only you can snag all 31 tracks for the insanely low price of $2.99. And you needn’t even feel guilty, as when you do so, the charities earn even more than that.

As of 7:30 AM California time, the album is #11 overall at Amazon. Let’s push it into the top 10, folks…

The album’s being released to mark the 5th anniversary of the flooding caused by the breaking of the levees after Katrina hit, and proceeds will go to the community organizations still helping to rebuild the city and preserve the wider Gulf area.

I’m biased, of course, but I think the album rocks pretty hard. The full line-up will be announced next week, but for now I can tell you that A) it includes several of my personal heroes, B) all the participating artists are alumni of the artist-activism retreats ATC and the Future of Music Coalition have been hosting in New Orleans for the last few years and which I blogged about last March, C) it comes with a booklet featuring artwork by the Mekons’ Jon Langford and some liner notes by yours truly, and D) Wonderlick has a new track on the album.

That track is a new version of “The American Way,” complete with a brass band — multiple trombone parts were arranged by Mark Mullins from NOLA’s own Bonerama, and the Bonerama horns recorded their parts in New Orleans just a couple weeks ago.

More details will be coming over the next week, including news about how to snag the triple album for the price of a 7″ single (really) the day before it comes out.

We started this one in SF with Chris Brague on drums, and finished it in LA over Memorial Day weekend with some vocal help from Gretchen Giselle, plus Leo, Lucy and Corrina.

If you would like a free download of this tune, details on how to obtain one after the jump.

Alex shared January’s free song widgets on Facebook and MySpace, and also emailed them to over three dozen folks.

So, he will appear in one of the next Lick tunes we record. Anyone have a rhyme for Poehlman? Does “out of control fan” work?

Some info about Alex: he’s an award winning promotions writer, producer, and editor at the local ABC news station in Grand Rapids (WZZM 13).  He’s married and has a 2 1/2 year old son Maximilian, named after the red robot from the film The Black Hole.  In his spare time he works on an animated sketch comedy show titled This Is Futile.

Many thanks to Alex. Please have some more kids, though, as we need more fans like you. That goes for everyone reading this: please spawn.

This week’s tune is “Never Let You Go,” from Wonderlick’s self-titled debut. Dig Tim’s high vocal, and Jay’s gigantic guitars on the chorus, and the nifty house bit in the bridge. This is one of Tim’s favorite Wonderlick songs.

It can be yours, free: just follow the steps below. We have a winner for January’s sharing contest, by the way: we’ll be announcing his name and explaining just what he won in the coming days.

It’s about the heroine of Topless, an office worker who yanks off her shirt at an AC/DC concert. It also represents Wonderlick in its “Let’s write a super catchy three minute pop song” mode. When we get that way, we can’t help ourselves.

Jenny was named that, by the way, because the Clash’s “Janie Jones” sounded like it was about her. But that’s a story for another week’s free download.

We said we’d give away a free download every week in 2010, and we are honoring our resolution. This week, it’s a cut called “Your Majesty” from our second LP, Topless at the Arco Arena.

This one indulges one of our favorite studio games: going ape-shit at the end. I can’t even remember what all is in there, but I know there’s a flugelhorn, and that’s Daphne Carr bowing the cello, and I’m pretty sure both Jay and I are playing a bunch of different guitars.

Moments like that lead to a recurring conversation between us and Johannes, our engineer and co-producer, that always goes like this:

Johannes: “There’s too much going on.”

Tim and Jay (in unison): “That’s the point.”

Free Download!