December is a bummer for music lovers, between noxious Christmas music pouring out of every speaker, the onslaught of year-end best-of lists that try to make you think it's your duty to listen to the same records as everyone else, and the fact that the weather makes leaving the house an even more dreadful proposition than usual.

And, it's also benefit show season. But as we all get older, it's worth remembering that these shows provide a necessary mechanism for people to show up for one another—and to remember the inherent value of showing up—as well as raising money to support our ailing friends and the organizations that exist to help them.

Plus, as we all secretly understand, every time that strange little pain lingers just a liiiittle longer, any one of us could be next.

One such organization is MusiCares, which funds healthcare expenses for musicians, many of whom, as you may have heard, are uninsured. (I have personally benefitted from the largesse of this organization, at a time when I reeeeeeally needed it—unemployed, emergency back surgery, NBD—and so have a lot of my friends, as well as countless strangers, so I am only too happy to extol its virtues at any opportunity.)

As with all organizations, however, what MusiCares needs even more than virtue extollification is money. A good opportunity to give them some of yours happens tonight, at Neumos, at a show called Every Little Counts, where a gaggle of stellar Seattle musicians will be playing the music of New Order. Here's what my esteemed colleague Dave Segal has to say about the event:

Tonight several local musical luminaries gather to play the upliftingly melancholy dance rock of New Order, with the goal of raising funds for MusiCares, a foundation that provides financial assistance to musicians dealing with medical emergencies. (Insert rant about America’s awful healthcare system here.) Those doing good sonic deeds include propulsvie space rockers Lazer Kitty, FM Collective, featuring Posies' power-pop magus Ken Stringfellow, R&B smoothies Fly Moon Royalty, party-starting funk rockers the Fame Riot, Daniel Blue of majestic psych-rockers Motopony, and the immaculately tasteful DJ Erik Blood (Shabazz Palaces, studio wizard at large). Let's hope that “Everything's Gone Green” becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. DAVE SEGAL

And HERE is a short local radio interview with longtime Seattle DJ Marco Collins (who booked, or rather, curated the show) and MusiCares Senior Director Erica Krusen talking about the night and the organization.

As long as we're all thinking about the fact that a person can literally be murdered for visiting a healthcare facilities and rock shows, it's worth remembering the words I kept seeing all day yesterday: We all need to take care of each other. Every Little Counts is an excellent way to do just that. Plus with booze and sex if you're lucky.

PS
It may be worth mentioning that the New Order song this show takes its name from is a statement of conflicted devotion—it includes the tender lines: "Every second counts/ When I am with you/ I think you are a pig/
You should be in a zoo"—so, you know... It's okay if you feel weird. Just go.