I got an email at work today about contributing songs to the “X-Independent-Weekly-Paper-Where-I-Work Mix” for the annual Rock For Kids charity auction here in Chicago. RFK is an organization dedicated to providing opportunities for homeless or otherwise disadvantaged kids around here by tapping into the love that they optimistically believe exists in the cold, black hearts of those of us working in the music industry. Funny thing is, they were right.

The annual event sees the RFK heads inviting Chicago-area music celebs and tastemakers to make a mystery mix CD, complete with artwork, and offer it for sale in a silent auction. I attended last year and bid $75 for Andrew Bird’s mix CD, which eventually went for well into the triple digits. Everyone from talent buyers at clubs around town to musicians to scribes at local/national music rags contribute mixes, and the result is a pretty cool event with some serious buzz. Pretty savvy on the part of the organizers to offer a bunch of tight ass industry snobs a little piece of their musical heroes in exchange for support dollars, and the media exposure generated by the bidding war on, say, Jeff Tweedy’s mix sheds much-needed light on the fact that there are bigger deals than having all-access at the Pitchfork Festival or hobnobbing with Fall Out Boy at Schubas.

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