Charities: Merge Records charity projects, exclusive EP, signed posters

Merge has announced two charity initiatives to celebrate the holidays.

First, is a series of auctions designed to benefit Oxfam and the North Carolina Food Bank.
The label will be auctioning off silk-screened posters from artists all over the country signed by many Merge bands including Arcade Fire, Destroyer, Spoon, American Music Club, M. Ward, Portastatic, Lou Barlow, Crooked Fingers. The auctions can be found here.

The label has also released three exclusive downloads from a collaboration between The Arcade Fire and David Bowie. Bowie worked together on new versions of "Wake Up" from Funeral as well as "Five Years" from Ziggy Stardust. A third track is a solo version of "Life On Mars" from Honky Dory. The songs can be found here.

Oxfam fights poverty, responds to global emergencies, and addresses world issues such as trade, conflict and HIV/AIDS. They also organize worldwide campaigns to control arms, make trade fair, make poverty history, and to develop international goals to halve poverty by 2015.

The North Carolina Food Bank was established in 1980 to provide food to people at risk of hunger in North Carolina. Almost half of the over 400,000 people served by the Food Bank's network are children, and another 11 percent are elderly. Nearly half the families served are the "working poor" - people who work hard and still have to choose between eating and other basic necessities.