PANDEMIC & PITTONKATONK & JUAN DIEGO PRESENT
Catch them in Pittsburgh for the first show on their first US tour.
DONATE TO THIS CAMPAIGN AND CONSIDER IT YOUR TICKET. What do we mean? Donate $15 for basic ticket but contribute more because this show will cost more than $7000 to put together. Every dollar helps. I'm not a large scale concert promoter but i thought i'd would attempt to make this show happen and would ask you to help step up and make it happen. Thank you!
WHY? No cultural institution stepped up to make this happen so we decided to ask you to help make it happen. This indiegogo is to raise funds to pay for the first show of their first ever US tour. Los Wemblers are a group of brothers who have been playing their own style of psychedelic cumbia together since 1968.
This campaign is an experiment to see if given all the costs associated people would donate more.
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WHO ARE LOS WEMBLERS? Cumbia amazonicá pioneers from Peru for the first show of their first-ever world tour.
WHY WE NEED DECIDED TO USE INDIEGOGO?
- To keep ticket prices reasonable
- Cover band expenses
- Hope that those that can afford to contribute to the cause will step up and make this happen.
Short Summary
We are huge fans of Los Wemblers de Iquitos and it probably would have been easier for us to just go to another city to see them play, but we decided to see if the great people of Pittsburgh would want to step up and help make this happen.
- Los Wemblers have never toured the states
- Los Wemblers are 5 brothers who have been playing together since 1968
- Los Wemblers are from a the largest isolated city in the world in the amazon only accessible by boat or plane.
- Los Wemblers have only ever played in the amazon
- They created their own pure amazonian psychedelic sound.
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ABOUT LOS WEMBLERS
Formed in 1968 in Iquitos, Peru, Los Wembler’s pioneered a unique style of music that combined cumbia rhythms, electric guitars, and psychedelic sounds. Their 1971 LP, Al Ritmo de Los Wembler’s, pushed the regional sound of chicha (cumbia rhythms combined with Andean folk melodies) to new levels. This new sound took the name cumbia amazonicá, after the first track on Al Ritmos, and it shaped andean popular music for decades. Even at their height of popularity, Los Wembler’s performed only in their hometown of Iquitos and neighboring areas, with rare performances in neighboring Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, and Ecuador.
By the early 1980s, Los Wembler’s faded into the background as the popularity cumbia amazonicá gave way to newer electronic cumbia sounds. Los Wemblers never stopped playing, but stayed in Iquitos playing the occasional party, wedding, or community events. In the early 2000s, cumbia amazonicá was rediscovered as a missing link between traditional cumbia and a new generation of musicians in Argentina, Mexico and Colombia. In 2007, Barbès Records released Roots of Chicha: Psychedelic Cumbias from Peru and Los Wembler’s were rediscovered. In 2011, they performed in Lima for the first time in twenty-five years. A new generation of tropical electronic musicians looked to them for inspiration and the Peruvian group Dengue Dengue Dengue collaborated with them. In 2015, the Smithsonian invited Los Wembler’s to perform at the Folklife Festival in Washington DC.
Los Wembler’s haven’t lost any of their creative edge. Watching them perform or record is to witness musicians at the height of their powers. Their happy first experiments with cumbia and indigenous rhythms were not the product of chance. These are accomplished musicians in tune with their environment but also infinitely curious about the world. They may have a fondness for 1970’s production values, but after all, so do Jack White and Daptone. The style Los Wembler’s created more than forty years ago has finally found an audience around the world, and Los Wembler’s intend to keep it relevant by finding new ways to experiment.
Catch them in Pittsburgh for the first show on their first US tour.
Budget:
$5000 - band fees
$500 hotels
$500 sound/lighting
$500 room rental
$200 promotion
$150 food for band
$400 backline (instrument and equipment rental)
ABOUT PANDEMIC
- Pandemic and Pittonkatonk have been producing DIY global music events in the Pittsburgh area since 2005. We take risks on artists that bigger institutions usually will not.
- To put this show together the costs are totaling more than $6500 and include band fees, venue rental, hospitality, sound, and promotion.
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