Fuel the Fight II brings more artists together to help essential workers

Last month, confronted with the grim news of the COVID-19 pandemic, local musician Madalean Gauze began reaching out to fellow Philly artists to create a compilation album of songs to help essential workers. The first Fuel The Fight compilation grew to include 61 artists — each contributing a new song, old recording, or a demo recorded during quarantine — but after it was released on May 1, Gauze found that there were still more artists eager to participate.

Fuel The Fight II, a second compilation album, sees 37 more local musicians joining the effort. All proceeds from both the first and second compilations will be donated to the Fuel the Fight campaign, which partners with local restaurants to provide meals to healthcare workers at area hospitals.

“I am really obsessed with this second album,” Madalean Gauze tells us over email. “I was nervous when I started working on it that I wasn’t going to love it as much as the first one, but this album is really special the songs are so unique. A lot are demos and a good amount of the songs have a fun upbeat summer vibe. There is something so on point about a fun upbeat rough demo, I feel like it represents what this summer will most likely be, somewhat hopefully but with a little bit of an edge to it.”

For the new compilation, The Districts member Rob Grote contribute an unreleased demo from his side project, Goat Mumbles, Pine Barons shared their new single, “Colette,” and Sheena & Thee Nosebleeds submitted a recording from a live performance at Johnny Brenda’s. Andrew Lipke, who has been doing a ton of songwriting during quarantine, contributed one of his new tunes. Andy Molholt of Speedy Ortiz shared a demo from his Laser Background project, and Palberta’s Nina Ryser shared a brand new song from her side project Data. Other artists featured include Grace Vonderkuhn, Tombo Crush, 2nd Grade, and The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die.

Fuel The Fight II comes out Friday, June 5th, to coincide with Bandcamp’s next fee-free Friday. Find it at fuelthefight.bandcamp.com. You can also donate to Fuel The Fight directly via its GoFundMe campaign.