Labels And Artists Lending A Hand To Those Affected By Natural Disasters

In late August, Hurricane Harvey dropped nearly fifty inches of rain on Houston and a broad swath of Texas. Between then and now, two more hurricanes have hit Florida, Puerto Rico and the Caribbean islands.

A week after Harvey made landfall, Hurricane Irma swept through the Caribbean before making landfall in Florida as a Category 4 storm, flooding parts of Florida, South Carolina and Georgia, and destroying 25 percent of homes in the Florida Keys.

As Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands were still recovering from Irma, Hurricane Maria, a category four hurricane, made landfall in Puerto Rico on Sept. 20, leaving the entire island without electricity and 70 percent of the island without water. Entire villages have been destroyed, and a majority of homes on the island have lost their roofs.

In addition, Mexico has been hit by three separate and devastating earthquakes this month — on Sept. 8, 19, and the 23. The quakes have left over 200 dead and many more stranded. Video footage captured by cellphones in Mexico City, Oaxaca and surrounding areas shows buildings crumbling to the ground.

To help with relief efforts in these affected areas, artists and music labels have been announcing donations, releasing music to raise funds, and participating in benefit shows. We've compiled a list of the ways musicians and record labels have been pledging their support and how you can help out, below.

Labels and artists donating proceeds

• Mondragón, a band from Mexico City, will gift a vinyl copy of their album, Presentimiento, to those who donate a minimum of 500 pesos to a relief organization.
• Umor Rex, a label based in Mexico City, is pledging to donate 100 percent of their back catalog Bandcamp sales to the Mexican Red Cross from now until Oct 15.
• Bruce Springsteen released a special edition live recording album, with all proceeds benefiting MusiCares Hurricane Relief fund, which will aid those affected by the hurricanes in Houston and Florida.
• Dead Sea Records, an indie record label, is releasing Music 4 Mexico Earthquake Relief Compilation albums, which you can purchase for $15 or more. Three volumes have already been released, with a fourth one coming.
• Residuels, a punk band from Philadelphia, released "Hurricane" on Bandcamp. All proceeds from the track downloads will go directly toward the Red Cross.
• U2's The Edge announced that he'll be raising money to help musicians that have lost their instruments from Hurricane Harvey. He created Music Rising, a site where you can donate to help replace the instruments lost from musicians and schools.

Benefit concerts

• RISE! NY/MX Benefit Concert is taking place at Le Poisson Rouge in New York City, Sept. 25, to support earthquake recovery in Mexico. Celebrate Mexico Now Festival, which is sponsoring the event, will donate all money raised to Los Topos Mexico, a nonprofit rescue brigade that was created after the massive 1985 Mexico City earthquake. The festival will include over 20 international acts including, Ani Cordero, Antonio Sanchez, and Magos Herrera.
• Fuerza CDMX #Guadalajara is a benefit concert taking place in Guadalajara on Sept. 27. Local artists like Caloncho, Porter and Technicolor Fabrics will be headlining. Proceeds from food and drink sales will go towards those affected by the earthquakes.
• Fuerza Mexico, a benefit festival, will take place in Monterrey, Mexico on Oct. 3. Proceeds from the Celso Pina and La Sonora Dinamita headlining show will go towards the Mexican Red Cross.
• New York music label, Fania, will be hosting Armada Fania, a benefit event that will go towards the victims of Hurricane Maria and the earthquakes in central Mexico. The event will take place on Oct. 12 in Brooklyn.

Finally, musicians have also been making direct donations to help relief efforts. Jennifer Lopez donated $1 million to aid Puerto Rico; Maná, a rock band from Guadalajara, donated $3.5 million pesos (about $200,000) to benefit the victims of Mexico's earthquakes; Lin-Manuel Miranda has been raising funds for the Hispanic Federation through Twitter, and other acts, Lila Downs, Natalia Lafourcade, Ximena Sariñana, Los Tigres Del Norte, Alondra de la Parra, and ¡Aparato! have also given to earthquake relief in Mexico; Carpark Records, the label representing Toro Y Moi and Beach House, donated all of their Bandcamp proceeds on Aug. 31 to the Red Cross to assist those affected by Hurricane Harvey.

If you would like to donate to relief efforts, here's how you can help those affected by: Harvey and Irma, and those in Puerto Rico, the Caribbean and Mexico.

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