A couple of weeks ago I blogged about a DVD of the last show at notorious Logan Square DIY space the Mopery, shot by local filmmaker Victor Spatafora and released by music-scene documentarian John Yingling, who works and blogs under the name Gonzo Chicago. Emboldened by the attention the Mopery DVD brought his way and finally fed up with the limitations of his production setup—based on a beat-to-hell Canon point-and-shoot that looks like it’s been run over by a whole fleet of trucks—Yingling has taken to crowdsourced fund-raising site Indiegogo to raise money for some new gear. There’s more about his campaign in this week’s Gossip Wolf.
I’m generally a little wary of people going online to beg for money, but having seen Yingling at a genuinely impressive number of shows over the past year or so, filming and generally just going completely buck, I feel all right vouching for the guy.
So far he’s raised a little more than half of his $3,500 goal, with 24 days to go. There are a few perks for donors—for $500 you’ll get an autographed Walkmen album that David Letterman used to clean up smashed fruit on his desk when the band appeared on his show, and for $1,000 Yingling will do an almost-anything-goes video shoot for you. More affordable, and more potentially useful to local bands, is a concert shoot for donations of $100 or $200, which could actually be a really good deal for any acts looking to bolster their digital presence.
Yingling is also throwing a fund-raiser headlined by Pisspisspissmoanmoanmoan and Lechuguillas this Saturday at Record Breakers, upstairs from Reggie’s Rock Club; then he’s leaving town for a week to document a Tyler Jon Tyler tour. You can find details on this Facebook page.
Hit the jump to watch Yingling’s pitch video: