EVENT PREVIEW: Harvesting The FAM presents "Through The Eyes & Voice of Women"

Harvesting The FAM Festival presents
Through Women's Eyes & Voices featuring
Two For The Cascade and This Is Me As A Woman
Milk Coffee Bar, 68 University Ave. West
Friday April 17, Doors at 9pm
Tickets are $5 at the door, All-Ages

Harvesting The FAM is Windsor's largest independent arts, music and film festival, a multi-date, multi-venue love affair with the best of the local independent music scene, local film makers, and local artists. Held each fall over a series of clubs, galleries and halls, Harvesting The FAM has been growing in size and stature each year, with last year's (the third) bringing in out-of-town bands to join the festivities. With the right promotion and support, it would be nice to see the FAM Festival reach the heights of such festivals as SCENE from St. Catharines. SCENE started off as a local showcase of the Niagara's regions best live music and has since gone on to be one of the destination festivals on the summer circuit.

For the month of April, the organizers of Harvesting The FAM has been doing a special showcase at Milk Coffee Bar (68 University Ave. West) entitled Through Women's Eyes & Voices, a 30-day exhibition of local women's photography, with some sporadic live music events featuring some of the area's finest female performers.

This Friday, April 17th features the sultry sounds of Two For The Cascade and This Is Me As A Woman.

Two For The Cascade (Photo: Kevin Buckridan)

Two For The Cascade is an electro-acoustic quartet built around the hauntingly romantic vocal duet of Stefanie Zaccagnini (who also handles the Moog and percussion) and Kevin Buckridan (who also plays guitar and various electronic gadgets - such as his iPhone). Drawing on inspirations such as My Morning Jacket, Cat Power and M. Ward, they originally began as a duo (who played the previous two FAM Festivals) until adding two more members late last year - drummer/vocalist George Manuray (Roy Mahal, ex-itzjunk, ex-Ten Indians) and Theramin player Holly Brush (who also tackles the e-bow, percussion and backing vocals as well). The additional members has added some gorgeous layers to their beautifully atmospheric songwriting and the four have recently finished recording their debut CD. Hopefully it should be ready to go by the end of spring.

This Is Me As A Woman (photo: Cristina Naccarato)

This Is Me As A Woman is the nom-de-tune for local singer/songwriter Kimberly Ann Kukoraitis. Over the past few years, Kimberly Ann has developed a rabid following, playing both the Harvesting The FAM and Smash The Glass festivals in successive years. Reminiscent at times of singers like Martha Wainwright and Ani Di Franco, she's recently entered the realm of the rock band, as the Moog playing vocalist/dancing machine for Vultures!

On the photography side, the exhibit features the works of many local female photographers: Roxi D-Lite, Alishia Fox, Bree Gaudette, Anna Frenette, Tara Watts, Julia Hall, Corrina Keeling, Cristina Naccarato, Juliana Schewe and Melissa-Rae W.

EVENT PREVIEW: New Indie Showcase debuts at The Whiskey this Thursday with Perilelle, Vultures! and Two For The Cascade

Starting this Thursday night, I will be booking a monthly showcase at The Whiskey, located in downtown Windsor at 300 Ouellette Ave. (on the corner of Ouellette and University, below A-Channel).

What I hope to accomplish with this new showcase is simply this: expose new Windsorites to music they've probably never experienced and to help give some of Windsor's stalwart music supporters a change of scenery for one night.

We all know that Windsor has a few venues that have adamantly supported Windsor's original music makers the past several years, such as The Chubby Pickle, The Coach & Horses and CBC Radio 3's Best Live Venue in Canada, Phog Lounge. Add in recent additions such as The FM Lounge, The Room, Taloola Cafe, and more, and we're definitely getting some variety in our locales.

The Whiskey is a smaller venue and these intimate showcases will feature three bands from Windsor's vibrant music scene. Due to the size and intimacy, these acts will generally be from the indie rock to singer/songwriter crowd, not out of prejudice, simply out of the fact that it may be a bit unbearably loud in there if I go much louder. But who knows? We'll see where the road leads us!

The first night is this Thursday March 5th and it features three bands that I am not only friends with, but fans of. Coinciding with this month's edition of WAMM Magazine, I am further exploring the ideas set in motion in the article "Electro Surge" by Stephen Hargreaves, by having three bands from our own music scene who are vastly different in musical style but use electronics differently than the others. Please note, it's an early start, with the first band going on at 10pm sharp. We have a small noise ordnance from A-Channel, so we have to put the bands on earlier. Please make a note of that and be there for 9:30pm to get a good seat!

10:00pm - 10:45pm - TWO FOR THE CASCADE
A darkly romantic electro-acoustic quartet, since adding two members, Two For The Cascade has blossomed into a gorgeous soundscape of love lost and triumphantly regained. They combined the traditional singer/songwriter approach by layering it with electronic sounds from a Theramin, a Moog and...an iPhone? You can check out an interview with the members of Two For The Cascade in this month's WAMM Magazine.

10:55 - 11:35 - no music due to bleed through into A-Channel news

11:45 - 12:30 - VULTURES!
Kick ass rock and roll with a hint of electronique! Three of the four (Anderson, Scott and Andy) used to be known collectively as Bombast until one of them (Anderson) ventured off to The Golden Hands Before God. The other two formed Lone Locust in Bombast's wake. Anderson left the Golden Hands and has reunited with his ex-Bombast mates, adding a fourth component in Kimberly Ann, better known to the public for her own project, This Is Me As A Woman. But instead of her usual place behind a guitar, she's swapped the six-strings in for a Moog. Think Queens of the Stone Age meets Metric and you're half way there...

12:45 - 1:30 - PERILELLE
What can be said about Perilelle's Steph Copeland that hasn't already been said? One of Windsor's most captivating and beautiful voices, she builds a sea of layered beats and electronic sounds to create a mesmerizing tapestry of songs. But it's her voice that's the star of her show and it will pull you in and leave you wanting more.

Cover for this night is only $3 and it's a great mix of music to take in on a Thursday evening.