F***ed Up have found a good cause on which to spend the $20,000 Polaris Music Prize. The Toronto punk band is producing a cover of the classic “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” for charity, and an impressive list of artists has already signed on to perform on the track.
"David Cross, members of Vampire Weekend, TV on the Radio, Broken Social Scene, the GZA, Bob Mould, No Age, and Yo La Tengo are all confirmed," vocalist Damian "Pink Eyes" Abraham tells Vulture. "I’m still waiting on confirmation from Feist, Jarvis Cocker, and M.I.A. We wanted the biggest people we could get. If we could get a Jonas Brother on this, I would get a Jonas Brother."
"We’re doing it for a few different organizations, like Justice for the Missing, that are affiliated with the 500 missing and murdered aboriginal women in Canada," Pink Eyes says. "That number is an old official statistic that the government uses, but the number is probably closer to 3,000. It’s not like cancer or AIDS. Those are worthy causes but they have big fund-raising machines. This is an undocumented, underreported crime that’s been going on for years."
As for why they chose this particular song to cover, the vocalist explains, "There’s a kind of cavalier colonialism to the original, like the West has to go in and help this poor Third World country. But the charities that we’re trying to help are exactly a product of this colonial history. People who have been subjugated and oppressed for so many years are going missing. So there’s an irony to using the song."
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Hopefully this move will result in the band continuing to receive some well-deserved attention and recognition.
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