Amanda Palmer Has Enough Money: Here’s 5 Music Kickstarters to Support Now

Everyone loves a big success story, and I’m included. Look, we’re huge fans of Amanda Palmer here at Spinning Platters, and we’re all very happy that she’s made over a million dollars on her Kickstarter page. That’s fantastic; I hope she spends it wisely.

But enough is enough. There are many other artists looking for money to help with their musical aspirations, and they’re not going to get there without a little boost. So please, stop giving your money to Amanda Palmer, and start giving it to these talented folks. 

1. Save the Frenchies, Make the Record

Let’s start local, with the Manteca generated, San Francisco based French Cassettes, who are raising money to record their newest record. They’re asking for a modest $6,000 and as of this writing have raised $1250.

Sample pledge reward: For $150, you get a free pass to ALL of their shows for FIVE years. That’s a phenomenal deal, especially because they’re good enough to be on some big-time bills during that time period.

2. Help DeLeon Release Their New Album

Here’s a band that’s really good at making music, but their Kickstarter campaign comes across as a little sloppy. No matter, because you want to be hearing this music. The promo video is in Spanish with English subtitles, and I know people hate reading things, so I’ll sum up. It’s Sephardic folk music, sung in Spanish, and it’s awesome.

Sample pledge reward: For $60, you get a recipe book made up of Jewish, Italian, Jewish-Italian and American recipes from the singer’s nonna.

3. Assaz Crocante! Banjo & Synthesizer Little LP

From their own description:

For many decades, man has wondered: “What if a clawhammer banjo virtuoso and an eccentric German-American synthesizer professor decided to record a record of banjo-synth-afrobeat music?”

I don’t think I need to say much more. They’ve raised about $1400 of a goal of $2400, and time is almost up. They’re lacking in big, expensive pledge rewards, which may be why they’re having trouble getting to the goal, because if you hear this, you’re going to support them. Listen now, and pledge!

Sample pledge reward: For $300, you get a drum sequencing lesson with Vulfmon over brunch. It’s limited to 7644 for reasons you should click through to see.

4. THE GREAT CALIFORNIA SHAKEDOWN

For some reason, the promo video for this is in Italian Polish. [Editor’s note: the band corrected me on Twitter. Thanks for reading!] Why would they do that? This band lives in San Diego and records in English, and being overly silly in a Kickstarter promo video works for fans, but what about random visitors just looking for someone to support?

Criticism of their promotional approach aside, I like The New Kinetics. And they’ve got recording time booked at Tiny Telephone here in San Francisco to record with producer John Vanderslice, and we support this sort of behavior. They’ve raised $2000 or so out of their $5000 goal, so it’s time to get going on this one.

Sample pledge reward: For $250, you receive a session at Adapt Tattoo Studio in San Diego at the same time as the bass player. I suppose you could even get matching ink!

5. Save SchoolTree’s Debut Album, Save the World

You like Amanda Palmer because she’s a woman living in Boston playing piano and singing? I’ll give you a woman in Boston playing piano and signing. Her name is Lainey Schooltree, and she’s an admitted prog nerd, as am I. This particular pitch knows how to appeal to me. It name drops Yes, King Crimson, Kate Bush, The Mines of Moria, and Star Trek. So yeah, of course I like it.

Plus, all the pledge levels are puns. There’s a lot of humor here for progressive rockers. More Wakeman than Fripp, if you know what I mean. (If you know what I mean, you’re my new best friend.)

Sample pledge reward: For $35, you get a 15-minute Skype concert which can take on any format you like, including talking Star Trek action figures, apparently.

BONUS: Jenny & Ross – To Sing in Germany

I know very little about opera. I’ve only been to one opera in my entire life, and I can’t tell you if it was good or not, just that the theater was beautiful and the sets fairly sparse. So I have no idea if Jenny & Ross are good opera singers or not; they sound it to me. And I just love their promo video, It’s shot with a cheap camcorder while Jenny holds their baby on her lap and asks people for money so that they can audition throughout Germany. They say it will cost $25,000 for a family of four to travel around Germany for 90 days. Sounds about right; hostels aren’t really appropriate for babies. I so want them to be able to do this!

Sample pledge award: For $100, you get an invitation to a private farewell party in Manhattan, where hopefully they’ll sing for all of you.