Many More Girls On A Stage

A new music series kicks off in a big way with the first "One More Girl On A Stage" multi-artist concert at the Southgate House this Saturday. The show is the brainchild of local musician Kelly Thomas, who is being assisted in the planning by several other volunteers and organizers (including many of the musicians performing). Thomas is the founder of the Rivertown Music Club, an ongoing series of local music events that benefit a variety of charities (check myspace.com/therivertownmusicclub for details). Saturday's "One More Girl" (the name is taken from a Patty Griffin song) features bands with female members (as well as women solo performers) and the proceeds benefit the Pink Ribbon Girls (pinkribbongirls.org), an online support network for young women diagnosed with breast cancer. A new, monthly female-centric showcase in the Southgate House's Junie's Lounge, featuring four or five acts, will take place the first Friday of each month and also raise funds for different charities related to women.

The lineup is spectacular, with a wide array of local acts on the bill. Artists performing at the 8 p.m. show include Tupelo Honey, The Fairmount Girls, Thomas and her Fabulous Pickups, Wussy, Kristen Key, Viva La Foxx, Lauren Houston, Holly Spears, The Reverend Mother, Kinsey Rose, My Wife The Tiger, The Tammy WhyNots, Twisted Wood, Jesse Thomas, Foxfire, Whitney Barricklow and Frontier Folk Nebraska. New York City's Shanna Zell also performs.

Thomas says she has always shied away from focusing on gender when booking shows, but she began developing close friendships with many female musicians in the past few years, and, realizing that many of them had some connection to breast cancer, she says the idea for "One More Girl" evolved naturally. Dawn Burman from Wussy is a breast cancer survivor, while the mothers of Tupelo Honey's Heather Turner, Wussy's Lisa Walker and Viva La Foxx's Amy Jo have also battled the disease.

Thomas says interest from local acts wanting to play the event was especially strong; for the first time in her benefit-organizing career, she says she had a waiting list of artists who wanted to play "One More Girl."

"Women, in particular, are always good at building support systems," Thomas says of the response. "I think that's a big reason why this has taken off the way it has, and add the fact that the charity has personal meaning to so many on the bill, it's just very powerful. Working with these women on this project, literally, has been one of the most meaningful things I have ever been a part of." (myspace.com/onemoregirlonastage)

Hello, Sayonara
Local rockers Sayonara Tiger celebrate the release of their self-titled debut EP with a performance this Friday at downtown's Poison Room. The group is joined by Vanity Theft, All The Day Holiday, Jonuh and Aaron Stigler for the all-ages show.

The four-piece has been together for a couple of years, touring the country and, as their debut clearly shows, sharpening their Pop/Rock performance and songwriting chops to a lacerating point. Perfect for fans of some of the poppier Rock acts on the label The Militia Group (Lovedrug, Copeland, etc.), Sayonara Tiger writes impossibly memorable hooks, and they don't just save them all for choruses, as each song on the EP is laden with hard-to-forget melodies. For such a young group (most members are early-twentysomethings), the songwriting is remarkably mature. While melody reigns supreme, the band avoids some of the cookie-cutterness of Pop by throwing in plenty of songwriting shifts, building the songs like adventurous architects who understand that, while the structure has to be sturdy, it doesn't mean there's no room for a few unexpected flourishes. Stand-out track "Heart Attack" is a near perfect Pop song, unspooling with chiming piano, imaginative drum parts, warm, winding guitars and layered, ear-tugging vocals. Elsewhere, "Bacharach Bites Back" is a grand, driving slab of soaring AltPop, laced with wiggly, Moog-y synth runs, while "Nice Meeting You" is an impressively dynamic mini-epic (in four minutes, the song shifts moods more often than someone trying to quit smoking) that recalls an updated version of Sunny Day Real Estate.

Making some of the finest modern Pop/Rock being crafted in the Cincinnati area today, Sayonara Tiger should be signed to a label deal now. Any song on this EP stands miles above the majority of "Rock" being played on the radio nowadays. (myspace.com/sayonaratiger)