Listen: Spirit Award “Mountain“
Originally published by Alt Citizen
Rock musicians have a history of leveraging their art for the general betterment of society. Sometimes it’s targeted protest songs, sometimes it’s star-studded concert fundraisers, and sometimes it’s subtle, thoughtful, and community based. Seattle psych-rockers Spirit Award’s upcoming partnership with Share It Music falls into the latter category; a 7” record featuring two unreleased tracks with a portion of the proceeds going to Mary’s Place, a charity that provides women and families with the resources and support to escape the desperation of homelessness.
The tracks on the 7” are beautiful and vast, conjuring images of the still untamed American west. Open plains with snow capped mountains rising on the horizon, the southwestern desert electric with the anticipation of an impending thunderstorm, towering redwoods poking through a thick blanket of mist on the edges of the Pacific Ocean. These are common scenes for modern psych artists but where bands like All Them Witches lean heavily on a sense of primal and spiritual foreboding and Moon Duo coolly observe from an orbital space station, Spirit Award populates their songs with real people and relatable struggles adding a compelling sense of tangibility to the compositions. The inherent humanity is what makes the band such a great fit for this partnership.
Share It Music is a unique entity. Part record label, part community action group, and in their own words “purposefully nonprofit,” Share It Music was devised by former Sub Pop intern Cayle Sharratt as a way to enable musicians to give back to the communities that have supported them by releasing their music with a portion of the proceeds benefiting a charity of the artists’ choosing. By partnering with Mary’s Place, Spirit Award are helping elevate the people in their own community by enabling the organization to continue their valuable work operating shelters, providing employment placement services, and critical medical care to those that otherwise couldn’t afford it. A fine cause, indeed.
The digital release of "Mountain" (Side A) is available today, while Side B will be included on the physical release this May. Give the 7” a home so you can help those without one strive toward a place to call their own.
Follow Spirit Award on Instagram and learn more about Share It Music on their website