Twin Cities musicians have been turning out in droves to sing, blow or drum on the streets in protest of ICE’s Operation Metro Surge. Now, they’re also lining up on record.
Two bulky compilation albums are being released this weekend featuring more than 130 different Minnesota artists between them, each doubling as charitable fundraisers. There’s also a national compilation record on the way called “Contra-ICE, Vol. 1,” featuring members of the Beastie Boys, Bikini Kill, Black Pumas, Fishbone and Rage Against the Machine.
The first and biggest of the all-local collections, titled “Melt ICE,” is releasing Feb. 12 to the artist-friendly retail/streaming site Bandcamp.com. Among its 109 tracks are songs by She’s Green, Kiss the Tiger, Yam Haus, Ber, Laamar, Durry, Lazerbeak, Bad Bad Hats, Papa Mbye, Colin Bracewell, Raffaella, Molly Brandt and Chutes.
“This is a testament to the connectedness of the Minnesota music community, as well as Minnesotans’ eagerness to contribute to the cause,” said Chutes frontman Ryan Kemp, who co-organized “Melt ICE” with fellow song contributors Anna Devine and Jonny Fuller (aka Jonny Darko).
The other compilation from the Twin Cities music scene, “Thaw,” features 30 mostly young acts who flooded one of two Minneapolis recording studios offering free session time to capture new songs related to the ICE surge. Its roster includes 26 Bats!, Bathtub Cig, Finick, Zola, the Homie Front, Careful Caroline and Scramble the Jets.
CD copies of “Thaw” are being hurriedly manufactured to sell at the Feb. 15 I.C.E. Out! protest concert at First Avenue with Hippo Campus, Durry and Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon. There also will be digital-order options via Bandcamp and itsthemess.com, the website for one of the studios/labels behind it, the Mess Records. (The musicians nonprofit Twin Cities United Performers will funnel the ticket funds from the Feb. 15 concert into the local immigrant community.)
Unlike the “Melt ICE” collection — mostly featuring recordings the musicians already had on hand — all of the songs on “Thaw” were written in the last month, including several inspired by the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents.
“Some of these people wrote the song on a Monday and were in recording on a Thursday,” said Caroline Litteken, proprietor of the Mess Records, who co-helmed the project with Drifter Music Group’s Adam Schaberg.
