Wilco gives away free concert MP3s, asks for Haiti donations

The generous dudes of Wilco are giving away full recordings of two shows they played last year for free download on their website (h/t Pitchfork). In return, they’re encouraging (though not requiring) fans to donate $15 or more for Haiti relief to either Oxfam or Doctors Without Borders.

One of the shows Wilco is offering just so happens to be their July 13, 2009 gig at Brooklyn’s Keyspan Park, which I attended and reviewed for the Music Mix. It was an amazing show, with the band in the tightest live form I’ve ever seen them, plus cool on-stage drop-ins from Feist, Ed Droste of Grizzly Bear, and Yo La Tengo. I’m listening to the 26-track set again right now; it’s just as awesome as I remembered. Thanks are in order to Wilco for letting fans re-live these shows or hear them for the first time — and using those free downloads to help motivate fans to give more to such a deserving humanitarian cause as Haiti strikes me as a way to make a good idea even better.

So what are you waiting for? Download the show(s) at Wilco’s website, donate to one of those Haiti relief organizations if you can, and let us know your favorite parts of the MP3 sets.

(Follow the Music Mix on Twitter: @EWMusicMix.)

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Lady Gaga at Radio City: Best. Concert. Ever.

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Ke$ha tells us all kinds of awesome, crazy stuff: ‘Have I made out with chicks? Hell yeah.’

Simon Cowell plans all-star Haiti benefit single

Photo credit: Scott D. Smith/Retna Ltd