Poltergeist, an instrumental trio that reunites Echo & the Bunnymen’s guitarist Will Sergeant and bassist Les Pattison, is streaming its new song “Cathedral” over at SoundCloud via Slicing Up Eyeballs. The collaboration is underway via Pledge Music. I can’t help but be turned off by all these Kickstarter-type fundraisers. It comes off as begging to me. Isn’t it about supply and demand? If you don’t fit into the music business paradigm, do it yourself. Put out your own records. Play shows and raise money. If you suck, people will let you know, either by telling you or by not coming out to shows. I understand bands not wanting to – or not being able to – put up the funds to make the records to their standards or even at all, but doesn’t that mean maybe they shouldn’t be made, especially if no one else is knocking down the door to do it for them? Promising autographs and liner credits and all sorts of other zany things just to get a record made seems sad and desperate to me. A lot of “career” musicians whose careers have admittedly waned have been resorting to this sort of behavior simply out of survival because music is the only thing they know how to do. And maybe a Kickstarter is the only way for them to get a record made. So be it. But I much prefer the not begging way.  More importantly, though, how much does Les Pattison hate Ian McCulloch not to be involved in any of Echo & the Bunnymen’s current activities?