V/A Stroke

• Jay Reatard – Pull Down the Shades
• The Checks – Rebel
• The Bleeding Allstars – Ain’t It Nice
• Peter Gutteridge – Don’t Catch Fire
• The Chills – Luck or Loveliness
• David Kilgour – Nothing’s Going to Happen
• The Crying Wolfs – All My Hollowness to You
• Stephin Merritt – Beauty
• Portastatic – Nostalgia’s No Excuse
• The Mint Chicks – Crush
• Jay & Sam Clarkson – I’ve Left Memories Behind
• The Skygreen Leopards – Burning Blue
• Shayne Carter – The Slide
• Pumice – Grand Mal
• Hamish Kilgour – Knoxed Out
• Boh Runga – Not Given Lightly
• Red & Zeke (Feat. Bill Doss and Neil Cleary) – Bodies
• Jeff Mangum – Sign the Dotted Line
• Bill Callahan – Lapse
• Genghis Smith – Growth Spurt
• Yo La Tengo – Coloured
• A.C. Newman – Dunno Much About Life But I Know How to Breathe
• Alec Bathgate – Glide
• Don McGlashan – Inside Story
• Sean Donnelly – The Outer Skin
• Lambchop – What Goes Up
• The Mountain Goats – Brave
• The Tokey Tones (and friends) – Round These Walls
• The Bats – Just Do It
• Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – My Only Friend
• The Finn Family – It’s Love
• Jordan Luck – Becoming Something Other
• The Verlaines – Driftwood
• Lou Barlow – Song of the Tall Poppy
• The Nothing – Napping in Lapland
• Tall Dwarfs – Sunday Son

When New Zealand punk rocker Chris Knox suffered a stroke late last year, Merge Records put together two-disk compilation to support his recovery. The album consists of cover songs from Knox’s catalogue; contributors include Mountain Goats, Bill Callahan, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Yo La Tengo,  Stephin Merritt (the Magnetic Fields), Jeff Mangum (Neutral Milk Hotel), Lou Barlow (Dinosaur Jr., Sebadoh) and the late Jay Reatard. Knox has been in several influential punk bands: Enemy, Toy Love, and Tall Dwarfs, the latter of which celebrated its 25^th anniversary in 2006. Some of his New Zealand cohorts, including the Bats and the Chills, also recorded songs for the compilation.

Abstract by Jenna Humphrey