Photo: Daniel Arnold

Jack Dolgen, bassist for Brooklyn buzz band Sam Champion (whose new album Heavenly Bender just dropped), has launched BarackRock.org, a website devoted to providing exclusive free songs in exchange for grassroots support for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. Dolgen credits the candidate with inspiring not only his political fervor but also his music: he realized his writing and recording process had mirrored Obama’s campaign schedule. But it wasn’t until he met the candidate that the idea of BarackRock.org really kicked into gear. “I was there at the stadium in Denver,” says Dolgen. “The word inspiring gets overused, but what else is there?”

Dolgen wrote the song “Daytime” for his other project Maricopa (which is available for download below) and wanted to use it to try to drum up support for Obama. When he told this idea to designer and college friend Andrew Ackermann, he suggested to expand the idea. “Rather than just do it with this one song, why not make it bigger?” Ackermann says. Ackermann designed the website and began recruiting other designers to donate art while Dolgen contacted friends and pitched bands for submissions. “The response has been really amazing,” says Dolgen. “We’re in talks with some really big bands.” The currently debuts one new song per day, but in the run-up to election day, Dolgen hopes to have multiple songs a day. “The goal is three-fold: to raise money, build excitement and encourage participation,” says Dolgen. “What’s exciting about this campaign is that it has proven that getting involved isn’t as hard as it may seem. We’re just trying to do our part to get a guy we feel really passionate about elected.”

• Barack Rock!

• Maricopa – “Daytime” [right click and select "save as"]

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