The Doubleclicks
Portland nerd-pop act The Doubleclicks, a group that sings about all things geeky.
(Jessie Kirk)
When I was researching my feature on Typhoon, the Portland folk-rock mini-orchestra, one detail that stood out was their Kickstarter project: the group raised $63,480 on the fundraising site in 2013 to buy a new tour van. It was the most successful Portland music Kickstarter of that year by a large margin, with most local acts raising a few thousand dollars for studio time or a vinyl pressing.
Well, we've got a new music champ: the Doubleclicks, a Portland comedy-pop duo devoted to all things geeky. Their song "Nothing to Prove," which took on misogynist critiques of so-called "fake geek girls," went viral last year, drawing over a million YouTube views and attention from nerd outposts including Gizmodo and Wil Wheaton's blog. It appears the group's made the most of it. They hit $80,923 on Tuesday as their project -- with an initial goal of only $18,000 -- wrapped up, with nearly 2,000 people chipping in.
While artists such as Amanda Palmer have turned the crowd-sourcing conversation into an often music-centric debate, the reality is that tech and games far outpace the funding of music projects: "Double Fine Adventure," a computer and mobile game, was the first Kickstarter project to reach $2 million in 2012, and a glance at successful recent Portland-based projects include the fantasy board game "Lagoon: Land of Druids" and a designer dice collection. So it makes sense that Doubleclicks, who cover subjects including Dungeons and Dragons and Internet trolls, would be a Kickstarter hit, but the group was very grateful on Tuesday anyway.
What next? The group will work on a new album, "Dimetrodon," as well as focus on their many stretch goals, added as their tally kept climbing: an animated music video, an EP of kids' songs for 2015, a "Freebird" cover and much more.
Are you excited to hear what the Doubleclicks come up with next?
-- David Greenwald