And The Beat Goes On...

The beat of musicians straying into left wing political causes that is:

MoveOn.org is co-sponsoring an album featuring powerful and political songs -- most of them unreleased until now -- from some of the best artists around. It's called the "Future Soundtrack for America."

For a donation to MoveOn PAC of $25 or more, we'll make sure you get the album before it hits the record stores. These donations will make a real impact, allowing the PAC to run ads that counter the Bush campaign's negative attacks on Kerry and present a vision for how our country ought to be.

The album features a pretty amazing line up of artists: Blink-182, Bright Eyes, David Byrne, Laura Cantrell, Clem Snide, Death Cab for Cutie, Mike Doughty, The Flaming Lips, Fountains of Wayne, Jimmy Eat World, Ben Kweller, The Long Winters, Nada Surf, OK Go, Old 97's, R.E.M., Sleater-Kinney, They Might Be Giants, Tom Waits, will.i.am of The Black Eyed Peas, and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are all featured. In addition, the family of Elliott Smith contributed a mix of "A Distorted Reality Is Now A Necessity To Be Free," a song from Smith's as-yet-unreleased last record, and the first release of new material since his death in late 2003.

Together, the songs present a passionate rallying cry for all of us to take our country back. Mike Doughty's song "Move On" hones in on the passion that drives all of our activism, singing "I love my country so much, like an exasperating friend." Tom Waits' contribution is a heartbreaking song about a letter home from a soldier in Iraq. R.E.M. takes on Bush and the war in Iraq, and They Might Be Giants (whose John Flansburgh pulled the project together) revisit a campaign song from the Presidential campaign of 1840.

The album is a joint project between MoveOn.org and the good folks at Music for America and Barsuk Records. MoveOn PAC has purchased a large quantity of CDs from Barsuk Records to give away to PAC contributors.

Country music's starting to sound better and better...