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.

So when we were trying to figure out which of the two dozen songs we’d recorded for Topless at the Arco Arena should go on the record and which should be left off, I nobly sacrificed my personal favorite, “Nobody Loves You Enough.”

This one finds Jenny, Topless’s heroine, listening to her favorite band in her headphones while she does the dishes and feels lonely, even though her stoned boyfriend is passed out right there on the couch.

The cello part kills me. I can’t remember what the hell made that boinging sound that kicks off the tune.

Anyway, we’ve kind of fallen off the free-download-a-week schedule recently. Sorry about that. But this one is yours for the taking — just click the button below.

Download Nobody Free

Here’s his take. It’s a bit tougher than the original, we think. Let us know which you prefer.

Free Download

Time for another free download. This one’s “All Boys Want.”

The title’s self-explanatory, except that it’s not, really. It’s not the only thing boys want, even though all boys do want it. But we are deeper than that.

Sometimes, anyway.

Or so the song insists.

Since I spent last week in Austin for the mega-fest that is SXSW, it seemed appropriate to make “Devil Horns” this week’s free download, as it’s all about the transcendent, demonic power of live rock and roll.

This was one of the first songs written for Topless at the Arco Arena, while Jay and I were touring on Wonderlick’s debut (well, “touring” is a bit strong — we were playing one of 7 shows we’d booked on the west coast). The lyrics should be self-explanatory: even at its most ridiculous, a good rock show can make you forget who and where you are.

That happened to me several times last week. This band did it. So did this one, in a way they never did back in the ’90s. But these are the guys I enjoyed the most. No one looks like they’re having more fun so consistently onstage.

Download “I Disappear” Free

It’s a pretty song, but a sad one, and remains one of my favorite Lick tunes. Though the lyrics weren’t intentionally written this way,  I realized during one of the uncountable playbacks while mixing that in each of the three verses the narrator is motionless when he wants to be getting somewhere. First he’s stuck in line at the DMV, then he’s stuck in traffic, and finally he’s in his garage and can’t bring himself to get out of his car, even though the garage door has closed and the engine’s still running.

Uh oh!

Free Download!

While the song was written as a confession (the singer wants to do all kinds of things to the listener that propriety will not allow), today I hear it a little differently. As in, I want to love you, but you make it impossible, every other person in the world.

Well, maybe not every other person in the world. But enough of them. You feel this way too, sometimes, yes?