It is highly recommended that you clear some time Wednesday night to attend the annual Rock for Kids Music Mixer at Smart Bar, where you can bid on mix CDs made by a ton of local musicians, DJs, writers (including me), industry folks, and whatever term you’d use for what Cynthia Plaster Caster is. Music education in a lot of Chicago schools is so incredibly screwed that an organization that’s partially funded by selling mix CDs offers many kids their only chance to learn an instrument. So by heading down there and bidding on a disc you can do a little good and walk away with some swag to boot.
The action runs from 7 till 11 PM. There’s a $5 suggested donation (which is why it says “free” on the Metro calendar), and messiah impersonator and man-about-town DJ LA Jesus will be on hand to rock the party.
In the meantime, there’s a bunch of stuff autographed by the likes of the Walkmen, Vampire Weekend, Mission of Burma, and other big-name indie rockers at Rock for Kids’ eBay store.
(For the record, my contribution is a double disc with cover art by Headache City’s David R. Head Jr. and like the best jams ever.)
The very lengthy list of contributors is here (over to the left!), but a few highlights include Sanford Parker, Bundy K. Brown, Alla, Sybris, Jon Langford, Bloodshot Records, Yakuza, the 1900s, Office, Headache City, and Johnny Marr.