“We’ve been talking a lot about resilience since the pandemic. Ukraine is now showing us what resilience really is and we need to support that.”
So says Janis Chakars of the hardcore bands Citizens Arrest and Grey C.E.L.L. as well as a professor at Neumann University who does research on the former Soviet Union.
If the name sounds familiar, you may recall we did a piece a couple years back on his benefit comp for Philadelphia Community Bail Fund, Amistad Law Project, and Black Trans Femmes in the Arts.
Now, he, along with Derik Moore, is back with an absolutely stellar benefit comp, Band Together: A Benefit for Ukraine, which includes an unreleased remastered version of “Cracked Up” from legendary noise-pummelers Unsane, The World/Inferno Friendship Society, Ted Leo, Fright, Cross Control. And that’s just stateside contributions: Ukrainian hardcore and metal is represented by bands such as Death Pill, The Raw, Pusca, Terrorscum, KAT and Morwan.
“This is about more than just raising money — although that is important and necessary,” Chakars says. “It is also about showing solidarity and giving Ukrainians a voice. What voices too! The singing, the streaming, the gut wrenching, the record makes you feel something and right now we need to feel and act…There is stuff on this comp that you cannot get anywhere else. It is not a mixtape.
“We put this comp together, from idea to reality, in just three weeks. People understand the urgency of the matter. People are dying, getting massacred, people are fleeing, people are hurt, homes are destroyed. Ukraine is putting up an inspiring resistance, but it is not over yet, and even when it is there will be a lot of work to be done to rebuild. Russia’s war is not justified. It is based on lies, megalomania, and malice. Ukraine was not a threat to Russia and should not be forced to be anyone’s buffer zone. Ukrainians are a free people, who are now paying the price for another country’s expansionist ambition. It has to stop. We need to do what we can to help.”
All proceeds from Band Together will go to Razom, which means together in Ukrainian.
