Indie cello orchestra Portland Cello Project have announced summer tour dates to celebrate the release of The Thao and Justin Power Sessions, the ensemble's first release on a record label (Kill Rock Stars). Between June and August, PCP will be bringing their all-cello covers of songs ranging from Britney Spears "Toxic" to "Robin Hood Changes His Oil" by Gideon Freudmann to more expected classical pieces by composers like Bach to venues ranging from local parks to pizza places to "dirty punk clubs." The non-traditional orchestra venues are appropriate for PCP considering they recorded The Thao and Justin Power Sessions "all over PDX, from some of the main indie studios (Jackpot and Typefoundry), to this crazy haunted house we rented out in NE Portland," says Douglas Jenkins, the PCP cellist who does about 80-90 percent of the groups arrangements. Joining them on this latest tour will be guest artists Thao (from Thao with the Get Down Stay Down) and Justin Power, both of whom collaborated with PCP for their album, as well as Run on Sentence, Emily Wells and fellow-Oregonian Rachel Blumberg (drummer for Bright Eyes, the Decemberists, and Norfolk and Western). Jenkins tells CMJ that guest artists are influential in creating the score for the night they perform, joining the ensemble on stage for, "songs they've either written for us or that we're all adapting together. When working with out of town people we can [usually] get something together just during soundcheck and it works." Shows consistently last two to three hours and are different every night, so the group needs to have their preparation method down to a science. "Every show or series is made up of almost entirely newly written [or] arranged music. So we're learning two-to-three hours of new music for each show," Jenkins tells CMJ. "I'll be writing sometimes 10-15 arrangements from scratch, but most of us are pros and all of us are classically trained so things come together pretty quickly... Practicing four-to-eight hours a day was par for the course for most of us at some point in our lives, though I practice like four-to-eight hours [a] week right now when 'not' in PCP rehearsal cycles!" The concerts are purposely suitable for all demographics: boogie-ing grannies, head nodding hipsters, budding middle-school musicians and everyone in between because bringing everyone together in a spirit of collaboration only adds to the philosophy of diversity that PCP proudly upholds. Tour Dates For Portland Cello Project: 06/11 - Seattle, WA - Triple Door 06/12 - Portland, OR - Aladdin Theater 06/13 - Eugene, OR - Cozmic Pizza 08/19 - Sandy, OR - Meinig Park 08/23 - Lake Oswego, OR - Millennium Plaza Park portlandcelloproject.com
