Pitchfork

Arthur Lee, the heart and soul of Love, is pretty well connected. You don't release an album like Forever Changes and not make a few famous friends. And what are famous friends for if not to raise money for your hospital bills when you get leukemia? How about to talk about you in interviews for a documentary about your band?

Arthur Lee's friends are doing both. As previously reported, benefit concerts are planned to raise money for the treatment Lee is unable to pay for because he has no health insurance. Two shows are scheduled for June 23 and 28 in New York City and Los Angeles respectively, and there are rumors on the Arthur Lee Love fan site of "talk of a show in Liverpool organized by Shack singer Mick Head."

According to Billboard.com, the confirmed artists for the June 23 concert at New York City's Beacon Theater are Robert Plant, New York Dolls frontman David Johansen, the Ian Hunter Band, Johnny Echols (former Love guitarist), Yo La Tengo, and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah's Alec Ounsworth, who is putting together an "indie-rock supergroup." No word yet on what, exactly, that means, but we're excited to find out.

The L.A. lineup is less ironed out, but the Arthur Lee Love fan site reports it will include Vince Flaherty and his band the Invincebles (not a typo, just cheesy) and other former members of Love, including Johnny Echols (again), Michael Stuart-Ware, and Baby Lemonade, who supported Lee on record and on tour from 1992-1996 and 2002-2005. There is no word of confirmation from Cake, X, or Calexico, who were previously contacted about participation in the benefit.

The fan site also claims that the documentary, Love Story, "should be finished late summer/autumn 2006." A release date has yet to be set, but it does include interviews with plenty of former members of Love (including Lee himself) as well as members of Primal Scream, Shack, and the Doors.

In related news, Ounsworth will perform a solo set at the Housing Works Used Book Café in New York City on May 19. It's a benefit show for Housing Works, an organization devoted to housing for homeless people with HIV/AIDS. Also on the bill are singer/songwriter Richard Julian and Lou Reed's bassist Fernando Saunders.

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