You might know Toronto musician Friendly Rich from his eight-year weekly residency at the Cameron House, or maybe you’ve seen him and his band The Lollipop People at various jazz festivals playing their delighfully bent cabaret-style tunes, or maybe you’ve just heard his distinctive caterwauling yelp haunting your weirdo dreams.
He’s currently launched a crowdfunding campaign to accompany his new album Re Need a New F-Word – he’s looking to raise $4,000 to fund an interactive micro-site that will host ten videos to accompany ten songs from the album. The site/launch performance will be streamed live from a fish n’ chips shop in Orangeville, Ontario over Easter weekend (because why not?) and Rich will be working to produce the content with local Orangeville art collective Falcons and Oysters.
The cash will be used to pay the collective for their work, and will be shared amongst the Lollipop People and also used to offset traveling costs. The perks are good and a mite twisted: $25 gets you a website credit, while $100 gets you a name credit as well as ” mystery mail, including old recordings, buttons, artwork, poems, stories…and possibly a slice of velveeta cheese.” $500 gets you a perogie dinner, and for $1,000 Rich will write you a song.
This is a cool promotional idea that benefits local tunes and local creators. We like when bands do something different. Check out Friendly Rich’s campaign page and toss him a few bucks to help him celebrate the new album’s release in a clever, tech-y and innovative way (and as always you can watch the video below.)