The Portland Cello Project will hit the road - with your help.
Attention, modern Medicis – the Portland Cello Project wants to trade you some great music for a little bit of extra scratch.
This “indie cello orchestra” has emerged from the great American Northwest as a new type of chamber pop group, one that performs epic 2+ hour shows that attract symphony hall doyens, hipsters and children. Since forming in late 2007, PCP has shared stages with a mixed bag of Portland musicians like Laura Gibson, The Dandy Warhols, and Mirah, and has a wide-ranging repetoire that includes original compositions as well as covers of Metallica, Bon Jovi and Bach, among many others.
The group has released two full-length albums - a self-titled debut and this year’s “The Thao and Justin Power Sessions” (on the beloved indie label, Kill Rock Stars), featuring vocals from singer/songwriters Justin Power and Thao Nguyen. Nguyen and Powers each contributed four songs to the CD; the other four include a Pantera cover and a religious work by John Tavener.
Earlier this month, the group announced an ambitious fall tour, begining in October and criss-crossing the U.S. with Thao (she goes by the single name) and her band, the Get Down Stay Down, whose 2008 release, “We Brave Bee Stings and All,” was one of last year's most delightful debuts. (For a complete list of scheduled dates, click here.)
Taking the Portland Cello Project on the road is a major undertaking. After all, these classically trained cellists carry fairly large, delicate instruments into punk clubs and other venues that normally don’t host elaborate string sections. And the touring economy for rock bands isn’t designed to support such a large troupe of performers. The PCP is hoping to raise $5,000 by October 1st and purchase a new van, to (as its web site tells it) “ensure we have something that’s safe and reliable on this tour and many more to come.”
So, what’s a self-respecting Cello Project to do? According to the band's site, "The Portland Cello Project earns every penny we have from ticket sales and sales of our CD’s and Tee-Shirts. We’ve been pinching our pennies and barely paying ourselves to perform for this labor of love over the past year to ensure that this tour can happen… but we need a little more help…”
The band was eager to come up with a way fans could help, “that’s NOT simply donating money to us or giving us a handout.” One inspiration came from the fact that Douglas Jenkins, the leader of the amorphous collective, often writes more than a dozen new scores for each performance. On the site, he explains, “I realized we have this massive library of unreleased recordings (since we play a completely new show for almost every big concert, and we record most of our shows), and we should start mastering those and making them available to the public, along with a bunch of other perks we’ve dreamed up.”
And thus was born the Portland Cello Project Subscription Package. More than a mere fan club, you can become “a subscribing member of the Portland Cello Project” by paying an annual fee, which starts at $25. At that entry-level tier, you get a free download of an unreleased recording every month for the next year. As of this week (September 20), the site added two extra free downloads as a September bonus. These songs will disappear from the subscriber-only site on October 1st and be replaced with the next download in the series, so subscribe soon to get these exclusive tracks, one of which is “If Moon Was Cookie” (yes, originally sung by The Cookie Monster!).
At higher subscription levels, the group is offering a limited-edition DVD, shirts, a “box of (good) chocolate,” the chance to ride around in the new van, or (for any $1,000 “Executive Benefactor Angel Humanitarian” subscribers) a private performance for your wedding or other special occasion.
Subscription information and details on the different tiers can be found here. And check out the band's tongue-in-cheek video plea for your help…
For more info: portlandcelloproject.com
Comments