Anti-Trump campaign includes new, unreleased R.E.M., Death Cab songs

30 Days 30 Songs

As Election Day approaches Nov. 8, an independent website will issue new and unreleased music from Death Cab for Cutie, R.E.M., Aimee Mann and more as part of a “30 Days, 30 Songs” campaign.

The website’s aim is to derail Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump, who came off one of the most challenging weekends of his bid after the release of a behind-the-scenes Access Hollywood video clip showed him making hurtful statements about women and boasting about sexually assaulting them without retribution because of his social status.

The campaign kicked off Oct. 10 with Death Cab’s “Million Dollar Loan,” which included a lyric video directed by Simian Design.

“Lyrically, ‘Million Dollar Loan’ deals with a particularly tone deaf moment in Donald Trump’s ascent to the Republican nomination,” said Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie in a press release. “While campaigning in New Hampshire last year, he attempted to cast himself as a self-made man by claiming he built his fortune with just a ‘small loan of a million dollars’ from his father. Not only has this statement been proven to be wildly untrue, he was so flippant about it. It truly disgusted me. Donald Trump has repeatedly demonstrated that he is unworthy of the honor and responsibility of being President of the United States of America, and in no way, shape or form represents what this country truly stands for. He is beneath us.”

30Days30Songs.com will issue new material daily from now until the election from performers including My Morning Jacket’s Jim James, Oakland’s clipping. — which includes Daveed Diggs from the Broadway musical “Hamilton” — and San Francisco-based musicians Thao Nguyen as well as Bhi Bhiman and more.

Part of the inspiration for the campaign came when writer Dave Eggers covered a campaign rally for Trump in June in Sacramento, California.

“While the audience was waiting for Trump to appear, I was pretty surprised to hear music by Bruce Springsteen, Elton John and Queen,” Eggers said. “None of these musicians support Trump, of course, so it occurred to me that this election would benefit from the timely resurrection of the political protest song. From Woody Guthrie to Public Enemy, we know that songs can change minds, and particularly now, we need to motivate voters to stand against bigotry, sexism, hatred and ignorance.”

30 Days, 30 Songs’ proceeds will be donated to the Center for Popular Democracy and their efforts to achieve universal voter registration for all Americans.

The site will feature one new track per day until Nov. 8. For more information, visit 30days30songs.com. The campaign also is available here as a Spotify playlist:

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