Last week, Northampton rock band Speedy Ortiz decided to rally against Black Friday consumerism by putting their first two releases, debut LP The Death Of Speedy Ortiz and EP Cop Kicker, both released in 2011, up for free download via Bandcamp.
But a funny thing happened on the way to free music: People started paying for it, chipping in donations back to the band.
By Saturday, a few hundred dollars had rolled in, so Speedy Ortiz decided that that money, and any other coin raised over the weekend, would be donated to the Ferguson Public Library in Missouri.
Shortly after the announcement, the figure doubled.
“we’ve received almost $1k in donations for the death of speedy ortiz and cop kicker, and it’s all going to Ferguson Municipal Public Library,” the band wrote on Facebook yesterday. “today’s the last day we’ll have these albums available online and it’d be pretty cool to send over a solid thousand bucks, so, y’know, tell yr friends!”
As promised, both albums have been since pulled from Bandcamp, but Speedy Ortiz are urging anyone who wants to donate additional funds to the Ferguson Public Library to go here.
Meanwhile, this Friday kicks off Speedy Ortiz’s December residency at Great Scott in Allston, a three-week rock and roll powwow that brings the likes of Bent Shapes, Sneeze, Krill and others to the illustrious corner of Harvard and Comm.
Below are the full lineups, with Speedy’s Facebook posts chronicling the Ferguson donations after the jump.
12/5: w/ Chandos, idiot genes, Bent Shapes, [super secret guest]
12/12: w/ The Shills, Shark?, Sneeze, [super secret guest]
12/19: w/ Krilll, Two Inch Astronaut, [super secret guest], Lemuria