Portland Cello Project - CD Release + shows


These guys are reinventing the cello. There will be over 20 cellos on stage doing everything from classical/jazz/rock and pop. It could be one of the best shows of the year at the Aladdin. If you are near the Portland or Seattle area I would highly recommend going to a show. If not, then pick up a CD from their web site. I bought the limited edition CD with 4 songs and it is great. Their shows have been selling out, so get your tickets early.

http://portlandcelloproject.com/

PCP e-mail:

The day we've been waiting for since last January when we finished up this record is finally happening! Our CD of mostly collaborations with Portland musicians is finally going to be released! And if you're in Portland on Friday, 08/08/08, you'll be able to get a copy 4 days before it's out nationally *and* get to see what will be our largest show ever (by far) at the Aladdin Theater. The show will feature a bunch of our old friends who played with us on the record, many of whom will be doing brand new songs with us: Laura Gibson, Weinland, Loch Lomond, Hurtbird, Heather Broderick, Musee Mecanique, 3 Leg Torso -- and for those of you who saw us at the PDX Pop Now! Festival, John Brophy will be performing what future scholars will one day call "The Brophy 'Toxic'" with us and what Ritchie Young yesterday called "one of the most important songs of our time."

We've been rehearsing for this show 6 times/week to make sure we can pull it off. And this show is likely to be our last large-format show in Portland until December.
We are also playing 8/10 in Seattle at The Triple Door, which I will send an email about later in the week (it will be a different program and feature some collaboration with Seattle and well as Portland musicians). If anyone is planning on going to both shows, I'll totally give you a Tee-Shirt and buy you a drink. (PCP cellists, Adam Shearer, John Brophy and Ritchie Young, this doesn't include you...)

These are special "Preview for the Northwest" performances, since at each, we'll be selling copies of our CD (at a reduced cost!) a few days before the album appears in national (or local) record stores.

You might want to get advance tickets for this show. If you go in person to the Aladdin Theater Ticket office, the service charge is only $1. And while there, you can go for a walk in Ladd's Addition! The roses are gorgeous right now! (You can also buy tickets online, but no fragrant roses or confusing vortex-y streets that way.)

8/8 will be our last large-format headlining performance in Portland until winter. Our shows in October will be awesome, but will consist of: one show shared with a bunch of other extremely talented cello acts from around the country; and one show that is entirely collaborative with only one band. (Both will be amazing, but definitely different -- more to come on that later.) Our next big show will be in December... and will have a slightly different format that what we've become used to... (we're movin' forward...!) So, come celebrate this birth of a CD and end of an era with us!
Thanks again for your support of this project. This record, and everything we do, would not happen without every one of you.
--
August 8, Aladdin Theater (CD Release) with... everyone.
August 10, Triple Door, Seattle with The Friday Mile, Loch Lomond, Weinland and John Brophy
August 16, Cozmic Pizza, Eugene with Loch Lomond and Y La Bamba
August 23, Livewire! Radio
--
"To say that this is not your father's cello ensemble is a vast understatement" -Barbara Mitchell, The Portland Tribune.

"Highly talented, highly collaborative and highly experimental, the Portland Cello Project is a dream team of instrumentalists." Anika Sabin, Willamette Week, Portland.
128x128steuspeed
Another chance to see the PCP. Yeah the Laura Gibson song Hands in Pockets is going somewhere. Haven't heard the Dandy Warhol tracks. I know Courtney from way back. Used to play in his band. Could have been a rock star, but went to college instead. So much for parental advice. Anyway, from PCP:

Greetings Friends!

We're writing you from Cello Central in Portland, bundled up, enjoying a cup of tea and enjoying the autumn onset of the infamous Portland rain...

We were lucky enough to have a really wonderful month more-or-less off in September. Our Weinland collaboration was featured on NPR's All Songs Considered, and our Laura Gibson collaboration was Song of the Day on NPR a few weeks ago. Our distributor emailed me to say we were number 1 on Amazon.com's classical sales list for a day or half a day or something. (? That perplexes me.) Last Friday we played on two songs with The Dandy Warhols on a performance on KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic down in Santa Monica -- the podcast is on their site. And we were warmly welcomed as we spent a wonderful day down in Eugene for a festival for a performance that ended up being like our last summertime hurrah.

But we're looking forward to getting back to live performances up here in Portland!

For those of you in the NW who are celebrating the return of this noble weather (or... already fighting Seasonal Affective Disorder), we have a special show this Thursday, October 9th at The Doug Fir Lounge. Doors open at 8pm, show starts at 9, so come early and grab a couch and order your favorite autumn drink of choice. (Mine is a Brandy Hot Toddy, and the Doug Fir makes excellent ones.) Because of the cancellation of the Mondo Cello Fest, this will be our only major show in PDX this fall.

By popular request, we'll be playing a lot of straight-up cello music in our first set. We'll start the night off with some intimate classical music that you don't see performed very often: Pieces by Arvo Paert and John Tavener, one of which we've recorded but never performed before. We'll then mix it up with some pieces by our members, as well as... some unique stuff that I'll let be a surprise... And Ritchie Young and John Brophy are likely to run on stage in the middle of one of the songs and... whisper into the microphone some... words of... uhm... romance.

After our intermission we'll join our friends Blue Giant, which is basically a super-group containing Kevin and Anita from Viva Voce, Chris Funk of the Decemberists, Evan from The Swords Project and Seth from Golden Bears. Corinna Repp will also be on stage for this set, and so we'll do some of her solo work and a Tu Fawning piece... and some other stuff thrown in for good measure. They're all pretty much the nicest and most talented people in the world -- we've really enjoyed working with them. We'll be doing 11 songs with them, which is part of our new attempt to really let artists and cellists relax on stage together and spend some time truly collaborating. Our philosophy in putting this show together has been quality as opposed to bombast... let us know what you think of the result!

The cheapest way to get tickets is to go to Jackpot Records because they have the lowest convenience charge. Otherwise you can get them at www.dougfirlounge.com and probably Ticketswest. The ticket office on the day of the show opens at 7pm at the venue.

Thanks again for all of your support! We hope to see you on Thursday!

Your friends in,
The PCP