Guided By Voices, Yo La Tengo, Real Estate Donate Rare Tracks to Benefit for Surfer Blood's Thomas Fekete

BY Alex HudsonPublished Nov 11, 2015

This spring, Surfer Blood guitarist Thomas Fekete sadly had to leave the band after being diagnosed with a rare and aggressive cancer. After the group were robbed of donations to the musician, they're now raising money by selling unreleased tracks from some high-profile indie stars.

In an online auction, Surfer Blood are selling unreleased recordings (including demos, live cuts, B-sides and new material) from Guided By Voices, Real Estate, Yo La Tengo, the Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Lou Barlow, Nick Diamonds (of Islands), Cults, Juliana Barwick, …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, the Drums, the Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger and Alex Somers. Throw in a song from Surfer Blood themselves, and there are 13 tracks in all.

These are being sold individually through eBay, with just one lathe-cut copy of each single being made available. Alternately, those who donate $10 or more will get an MP3 download for all the songs. The music is coming through Joyful Noise Recordings; that's the Guided by Voices single above.

What's more, other artists have donated signed items to the auction. There's a 7-inch from Yoko Ono and the Flaming Lips, a poster from Interpol and Shepard Fairey, an LP and poster from Sharon Van Etten, a guitar from Sleigh Bells, a pedalboard from Surfer Blood, and a handful of discs from Angel Olsen.

It's also possible to donate small sums of money to the cause without any reward. See the list of exclusive songs below, and get links to all of the aforementioned auctions here.

An announcement says of Fekete's situation, "Though he has health insurance, which has covered more than six months of chemotherapy, he's been undergoing an alternative treatment plan that unfortunately is not covered by insurance."

Guided By Voices - "Motor Away" (live)
Yo La Tengo - "Can't Forget" (live)
Cults - "Hurting" 
Real Estate - "Talking Backwards" (demo)
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - "Between These Boys" (demo) 
Lou Barlow - "Sunshine / Money / Thirsty" 
The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger - "Rainbows In Gasoline" (unreleased version)
Nick Diamonds - "Be a Comedian"
Julianna Barwick - "Promise" 
Alex Somers - "Well"
The Drums - "Help Him"
...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead - "F Train"
Surfer Blood - "Tidal Wave" (demo)

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