The Portland Cello Project

The Portland Cello Project will be playing on Livewire! Radio, which is being taped at the Gerding Theater in the PCS Armory next Saturday 8/23. We were invited to play two songs with The Dandy Warhols.

We had the rehearsal today and their songs ROCK. Not to geek out or anything, but the sound of cellos layered over many VOX AC30 amplifiers is just beautiful. And they were quite specific with their artistic vision for the cellos, which is always a pleasure. This should be a really fun collaboration. Their new record comes out next Tuesday and it’s quite a refreshing listen.

For absolute contrast, we’ll also be on the show doing a Heather Broderick piece (”Finding Comforts”) and, at the program’s request, John Brophy will join us to sing Toxic.

We couldn’t dream up a more fun last summer hurrah!

Tickets are on sale now through the PCS Armory’s Website.

At long last, the Portland Cello Project debut CD is out nationally! Look for it in your local record stores! And you can now purchase it on our website: http://portlandcelloproject.com/shop and also on Amazon dot com.

You have two purchasing options on our site: you can order the CD to be shipped at the regular $13.99 price, or you can purchase the CD as the download-only option, which is only $9 for a big zip file of all the songs in a higher-quality-than-iTunes format.

And for all the residents of the Northwest on this email list, the regional CD Release festivities continue with a FREE performance (Tuesday, August 12, 7pm) of a 4tet of PCP cellists playing with Adam Shearer (Weinland) and Ritchie Young (Loch Lomond) at Music Millennium on Burnside street at 7pm. I tried to make this an ice cream social, but it didn’t really come together that way, so it will just be a little party with some great music by a fine cello 4tet with some wonderful guests.

On Saturday 8/16 we are performing a $5 show at Cozmic pizza in Eugene, where we’ll be joined by Y La Bamba, Loch Lomond and Hurtbird.

And on 8/23 we’ll be at the PCS Gerding Theater in Portland where we’ll be playing with The Dandy Warhols for the Livewire! radio program’s anniversary show. All of those tickets are on sale now.

Thanks so much for your love and support! And thanks to all in Seattle who came out to our sold out Seattle debut on Sunday!

Thanks to everyone who came to our sold out debut in Seattle at The Triple Door last night!

We had an absolute blast! (Don’t tell Portland, but we’re thinking of changing our name to “The Seattle Triple Door Cello Project”)

Our set list last night was:

1) Manuel De Falla - Danza del Fuego (10 cellos)
2) Loch Lomond - Volcano
3) Loch Lomond - Bird and a Bear
4) Loch Lomond - Nelson
5) Loch Lomond - Tic
6) Toxic with John Brophy

Intermission

7) Gabriel Faure’e Elegie with Erin Winemiller as soloist
8) Hurtbird - Livin’ on the side of the why?
9) Hurtbird - I Like My Bike
10) Por Una Cabeza
11) Weinland - With You, Without You
12) Weinland - La God Here I Come
13) Weinland - La Lamentor
14) Gideon Freudmann - Robin Hood Changes His Oil
15) The Friday Mile - Where the People Waited
16) The Friday Mile - Islands Abound
17) The Friday Mile - Distance = Danger

The CD Release Festivities continue!

August 9 @ The Bite of Oregon Main Stage with Loch Lomond and 3 Leg Torso — 4pm-4:45.

August 10 @ The Triple Door in Seattle, WA with Weinland, The Friday Mile, Loch Lomond and Hurtbird! 7:30pm! Tickets on sale via the link above!

August 12 @ Music Millennium with Loch Lomond — 7pm! FREE!

August 16 @ Cozmic Pizza in Eugene with Y La Bamba and Loch Lomond — only $5!

August 23 @ the PCS Armory Gerding Theater for Livewire Radio! With The Dandy Warhols. Tickets available through the PCS website or by calling (503) 445-3700. $15, with a limited number of special front row-y seats for $25.

Thanks so much to everyone who shared the evening with us last night. It was, I think, the tightest, most musical and interesting show we’ve done.

And double thanks to everyone who followed us over to the Doug Fir for Weinland’s 11:30 set! I had to play with them or I would have crashed!

Our Set List last night at the Aladdin was as follows:

1. Manuel De Falla. Danza Del Fuego from El Amor Brujo
2. WEINLAND
3. Anna Fritz
4. 3 Leg Torso
5. Hurtbird

Intermission

6. Heather Broderick
7. Gideon Freudmann
8. Laura Gibson
9. Musée Mécanique
10. Toxic
11. Loch Lomond

Thanks Willamette Week and Mercury for the wonderful coverage this week.

We’re speechless that [CELLOS!] is at long last an acceptable genre in Portland all by itself!

And we’re grateful for Alison Hallet’s really wonderful, unique article in the Mercury. That’s good reporting — you won’t find info like that on the future of the PCP anywhere else at the moment. And… I had no idea that we make Ritchie Young’s “business tingle.” … hmm….

And thanks to Stephen Marc Beaudoin at Just Out for the kind words as well!

And some rumor about a full-page article in the Seattle Sound? I have to find this… I’m sure we have Paige Richmond and Mark Baumgarten to thank for that, though I may not see it until we get to Seattle on Sunday.

I wasn’t sure how many of those words to capitalize, so I just cut the sentence in half. (And capitalized Cello because it’s important.)

Greetings Friends!

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.)

Click here for ticket info.

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
–

A quartet from the Portland Cello Project will be playing at the great, free, all-ages celebration of Portland music that is the PDX-Pop Now! festival at Rotture Saturday July 26 at 10pm. (The 4tet will be Allegra M, Douglas Jenkins, Skip Von Kuske and Justin Kagan.)

The group will be collaborate on a song or two with Loch Lomond (whose set will immediately follow theirs) and Weinland, and they have a few other tricks up their sleeves, one of which will involve John Brophy singing Toxic, and whatever else they can jam into their 30 minute set.

There are still a few copies of the Limited Edition EP which will be available for sale at the festival.

We hope to see you there!

This very comprehensive blog published a nice and complete review of our show last Saturday, with some cool photos to boot. Thanks! Mel.opho.be!

Doug Fir Portland Cello Project 7/12