Death Cab, Flaming Lips, Bright Eyes, Elliott Smith Grace Barsuk Fundraising Comp
Label is no longer to be snarkily referred to as "Bar-suck"

Barsuk Records is getting friendly with two vote-encouraging organizations, MoveOn.org and Music for America, and come August 17th, these upstanding establishments will unite to release a glorious fund-raising compilation the likes of which even God has never seen. Entitled Future Soundtrack for America, the disc features rare and/or unreleased tracks from a dizzying (and somewhat confusing) array of Barsuk and non-Barsuk acts, including Death Cab for Cutie, They Might Be Giants, The Flaming Lips, Elliott Smith, Bright Eyes, Sleater-Kinney and Tom Waits, as well as OK Go, Jimmy Eat World and Ben Kweller. Fortunately, nothing says "Vote Kerry" quite like a healthy smattering of bands that don't rightly belong together on the same CD.

While you may be salivating to hear that James Guthrie mix of Blink-182's "I Miss You", let's try to keep in mind that this is all for charity-- with 100% of the profits to be donated to various non-profit charitable organizations, such as environmental mainstays The Sierra Club, Common Assets (a new organization dedicated to "protecting the commons"), and Music for America. Tracklist:

01 OK Go: "This Will Be Our Year"
02 David Byrne: "Ain't Got So Far to Go"
03 Jimmy Eat World: "Game of Pricks"
04 Death Cab for Cutie: "This Temporary Life"
05 Blink-182: "I Miss You (James Guthrie mix)"
06 Mike Doughty: "Move On"
07 Ben Kweller: "Jerry Falwell Destroyed Earth"
08 Sleater-Kinney: "Off With Your Head"
09 R.E.M.: "Final Straw (MoveOn Mix)"
10 Bright Eyes: "Going for the Gold (live)"
11 The Long Winters: "The Commander Thinks Aloud (Future Mix)"
12 will.i.am: "Money"
13 They Might Be Giants: "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too"
14 Clem Snide: "The Ballad of David Icke"
15 Yeah Yeah Yeahs: "Date with the Night (live)"
16 Fountains of Wayne: "Everything's Ruined (acoustic)"
17 Nada Surf: "Your Legs Grow"
18 The Flaming Lips: "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots (live on the BBC)"
19 Old 97s: "Northern Line"
20 Laura Cantrell: "Sam Stone"
21 Tom Waits: "Day After Tomorrow"
22 Elliot Smith: "A Distorted Reality is Now a Necessity to be Free"

As a sort of reading companion to the compilation, McSweeney's Publishing will be releasing Future Dictionary of America, a book featuring contributions from a mind-boggling 150+ writers, including Kurt Vonnegut, Joyce Carol Oates, Stephen King, Wendy Wasserstein, Michael Chabon, and many, many more. Reportedly, the book was conceived as a dictionary from the future, a time when the world's major problems have been solved and W. is naught but a fading memory. The mood shifts from humorous to morose, but is, at its heart, meant to inspire progressive thoughts among the electorate towards the upcoming election. Well, at least among the indie rock-listening, McSweeney-reading electorate. But weren't they already voting for Kerry?

Both CD and book arrive mid-August, with the CD available from Barsuk on the 17th. And if you can't decide which one to buy, be aware that the book includes the CD, but not the other way around.