MJ Lenderman and Animal Collective are among the artists who have contributed to a new benefit album for victims of Hurricane Helene in Asheville, North Carolina.
- READ MORE: MJ Lenderman – ‘Manning Fireworks’ review: literary magic from Americana’s golden boy
In September, Hurricane Helene hit the Southeastern states of the US, laying waste to areas of Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina and many more. The hurricane resulted in an estimate of 221 deaths and $78.7 billion in damages.
Now, a new compilation album ‘We Love It Here’ has been released to raise funds for Lamplight AVL – a nonprofit that supports those in Asheville’s arts community impacted by the disaster. You can buy it digitally here or pre-order a limited-edition vinyl copy – which includes the additional Animal Collective track ‘Better Things to Come’ – here.
Alongside the aforementioned artists are Horse Jumper of Love, Reggie Watts, Squirrel Flower, Hello Mary, Nightlands, Fust, Green-House and Floating Action, as well as a collaborative track by Yellowjackets and Heretic actress Sophie Thatcher.
The project was organised by Asheville-based recording studio Drop of Sun, who were inspired to help the local arts community after watching them struggle to recover from damage from the hurricane.
“The remarkable breadth of these previously unreleased tracks reflect Drop of Sun’s core principle of fostering an environment for artists to freely and boundlessly create,” explained Drop of Sun founder Adam McDaniel, per Pitchfork. “Being a resource to the Asheville arts community has yielded wonderful, long-lasting relationships, amazing songs like these, and a platform to communicate and cope during hard times. We are thrilled to share these exclusive songs with you.”
Hurricane Helene impacted various shows and festivals which were set to take place in the southeast of the US, including various dates on Lenderman’s US tour.
Alabama’s South Star Festival was cancelled while some sets of Kentucky’s Louder than Life Festival were cut due to the inclement weather. Bands such as Quarters of Change, Mannequin Pussy and the likes of Billy Joel and Sting all had to cancel or postpone their gigs in states such as North Carolina and Florida due to the intense weatherstorm.
In other MJ Lenderman news, last month he revealed that he would no longer be touring with Wednesday due to his own intense schedule.
Lenderman’s fourth solo LP ‘Manning Fireworks’ was released in September and landed a spot on NME’s 50 best albums of 2024 list. The track ‘She’s Leaving You’ was also included in NME’s 50 best songs of 2024.
“Breakup songs can contain multitudes: despair, uncertainty, full-throated resentment. MJ Lenderman’s writing on ‘She’s Leaving You’, on the other hand, is characterised by a shrugging, clear-eyed sadness, leaning into the abject silence of heartbreak in its refrain: “It gets dark, we all got work to do,” NME wrote. “Slacker rock melancholia at its most enlightened.”
