This past June Chris Knox (Tall Dwarfs, Toy Love, etc) suffered a life-changing stroke at his home in New Zealand. Thankfully since then he has been on the road to recovery. To give him a little boost of energy (and a little cash to help out) some big names of today and yesterday's indie rock scene are paying tribute to the man responsible for influencing and creating the punk/indie New Zealand scene by covering one of their favorite Chris Knox songs. One of the most interesting contibutions to this compilation is a track from Jeff Mangum (Neutral Milk Hotel) who has come out of a long hibernation period to pay tribute to Knox by covering Tall Dwarfs' "Sign the Dotted Line." Among the other contributors are Yo La Tengo, Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Lambchop, Mountain Goats, Lou Barlow, Bill Callahan, and Jay Reatard, as well as a bunch of Knox's old New Zealand associates: The Bats, David Kilgour (The Clean), The Chills, and The Verlaines.
The double-disc Stroke: Songs for Chris Knox is available for download from the Merge store] and will be available in real-world stores on February 23. If you pre-order the album now, you'll get a free digital download anyway so you don't have to wait for it. All proceeds will go to help Knox with his recovery. For more information and updates on Chris Knox, check out the Stroke website where you can also preview many of the tracks off the record.
Check out the Mangum cover here, via Stereogum.
Stroke: Songs for Chris Knox tracklisting:
Disc 1:
1. Jay Reatard – Pull Down the Shades
2. The Checks – Rebel
3. The Bleeding Allstars – Ain’t It Nice
4. Peter Gutteridge – Don’t Catch Fire
5. The Chills – Luck or Loveliness
6. David Kilgour – Nothing’s Going to Happen
7. The Crying Wolfs – All My Hollowness to You
8. Stephin Merritt – Beauty
9. Portastatic – Nostalgia’s No Excuse
10. The Mint Chicks – Crush
11. Jay & Sam Clarkson – I’ve Left Memories Behind
12. The Skygreen Leopards – Burning Blue
13. Shayne Carter – The Slide
14. Pumice – Grand Mal
15. Hamish Kilgour – Knoxed Out
Disc 2:
1. Boh Runga – Not Given Lightly
2. Red & Zeke (Feat. Bill Doss and Neil Cleary) – Bodies
3. Jeff Mangum – Sign the Dotted Line
4. Bill Callahan – Lapse
5. Genghis Smith – Growth Spurt
6. Yo La Tengo – Coloured
7. A.C. Newman – Dunno Much About Life But I Know How to Breathe
8. Alec Bathgate – Glide
9. Don McGlashan – Inside Story
10. Sean Donnelly – The Outer Skin
11. Lambchop – What Goes Up
12. The Mountain Goats – Brave
13. The Tokey Tones (and friends) – Round These Walls
14. The Bats – Just Do It
15. Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – My Only Friend
16. The Finn Family – It’s Love
17. Jordan Luck – Becoming Something Other
18. The Verlaines – Driftwood
19. Lou Barlow – Song of the Tall Poppy
20. The Nothing – Napping in Lapland
21. Tall Dwarfs – Sunday Son
