Early last week brought news that the bus carrying The Coup and Mr. Lif through their North American tour had crashed and caught fire outside of San Diego. The only details known at the time were that all had survived but several sustained injuries.

Boots Riley, co-founder of The Coup, presents a more detailed version of the events as he explains how the bus tipped to the left and fell over while the band was watching a movie. “Carter’s (the road manager) and Wiz’s face were covered in blood, and everybody seemed to be laying around hurt,” Riley said in a statement released late Friday. “We lost everything in that crash and fire… The band doesn’t have the tools that they make a living with. Not only did we lose cash and material things on the bus, but we also were depending on this tour for money to make it through. It may take a year for us to see any money from the insurance company.”

Riley and his band have set up a Paypal account for people to make donations and help The Coup get back on its musical feet. Mr. Lif plans to set up a similar plan on his own website.

Make a donation at the band’s MySpace page or at [email protected], for those who have a Paypal account.

thecoupmusic.net