Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?

Last week, I wrote an article for the paper about Portlanders using crowdfunding website Kickstarter to help finance a variety of weird and wonderful creative projects. Due to word limits—every journo's mortal enemy—I was only able to feature one music project: Blue Crane's tour by train idea, which I chose because it was recent, original and because they did such a good job of crafting unique rewards for their fans and supporters.

But there are plenty of other local bands and musicians out there still looking for a leg-up. If you've got some spare cash lying around (and hey, who doesn't in these bountiful economic times?), consider tossing a few coins to these hometown hopefuls:

- Folk favourite Nick Jaina wants to release an album of his songs performed by local female artists, including Laura Gibson, Jolie Holland, Tu Fawning's Corrina Repp and Y La Bamba's Luzelena Mendoza. $10 will get you a free download of the album, while for $100, Nick will record a personal CD of three cover songs of your choice. And for $500, he'll write an original song just for you (or someone you love).

Nick Jaina kickstarter page

- New hip-hop duo Jellyfish Brigade needs $1000 to pay for album art and printing for its debut EP. $10 will score you a signed copy, $25 for an original, handwritten poem, and $200 for your very own Jellyfish Brigade song.

Jellyfish Brigade kickstarter page

- Retro rockers Monarques is looking for $1500 to help pay for its new album. You can get a copy of the band's excellent debut EP for a fiver, or for $200, the group will take you out to dinner then watch the sunset together. Sounds romantic (if your idea of romance involves seven other people, and mine does).

Monarques kickstarter page

- Solo composer Damon Law http://damonlaw.wordpress.com/ is ambitiously trying to release six albums of his original music—that's over 100 songs to be professionally mastered. For just $1 you can download the whole thing once it's done, $100 will buy you the title of Executive Producer, and $500 will get you your own song, and an original piece of signed artwork.

Damon Law kickstarter page

Screen cap taken from the Nick Jaina kickstarter video