Kenyan Extra Golden Members Need Your Help

While Barack Obama's recent successes are well known, the plight of Extra Golden, the Thrill Jockey band he once helped secure travel visas, has stayed low-profile until the arrival of a recent MySpace bulletin and website post.

The bulletin/post is a letter from American Extra Golden members Alex Minoff and Ian Eagleson asking for financial help for their Kenyan counterparts, Opiyo Bilongo, Onyango Wuod Omari, and Onyango Jagwasi.

Since these men are Nairobi residents, they need assistance because of the volatile political situation that has emerged in Kenya since the country's general election on December 27.

As Minoff and Eagleson write, "Violence has spread throughout the country, with hundreds already murdered. Businesses that haven't been destroyed are shut." The livelihoods of Bilongo, Omari, and Jagwasi and their "large extended families"-- which depend upon the musicians playing out nightly-- are now in jeopardy because of the "dusk-to-dawn curfews in place."

Thus, Minoff and Eagleson have set up a PayPal account to help their bandmates, giving the following instructions to those who wish to donate:

"We are asking for donations of $5. Of course we will accept any amount you can muster, but we believe that with enough contributions of $5 we can make a huge difference in our friends' lives.

"To make a donation, please go to www.paypal.com and choose 'send money'. When asked for the email address of the recipient, enter 'service(at)kanyokanyo.com'. Please feel free to forward this message. We thank you in advance for your compassion and we hope that your help will enable us to compose a song of thanks for our next album."