The Cool Cat Gallery in Midtown has a cool all-ages show lined up for Thursday February 28th. They’re at 918 24th Street and the lineup is:
7:pm TIPPY CANOE & THE PADDLEMEN
8:pm THIMBLE WIT with guest cellist TIGERLILY and SLUG’S REVENGE
9:pm THE ALKALI FLATS
Early show 7:pm / $5-10 sliding scale + $3 gallery membership
More about the bands after the jump
BIOGRAPHIES (supplied by the promoter)
Tippy Canoe & the Paddlemen…. play popular music or what the kids call pop. Now their sound may not exactly be the popular music of today, but it encapsulates what has made people smile, laugh and talk about over the last nine decades. Your ears will perk up when you hear their potent toe-tappers or you’ll gladly wrap yourself in the melancholy they cast when performing a dreamy ballad.
Songbird and uke-slinger, Tippy Canoe, aka Michele Kappel (from Sympathy For the Record Industry’s The Kirby Grips) is on a mission to bring sincere uplift in a severely down-slanted era. Her voice is a mixture of the 60′s girl group sound and classic country with its own quirky nature shining through. Her song writing bears the stamp of a person who has absorbed a variety of influences. These range from 20′s and 30′s acts like The Boswell Sisters and Jack Teagarden to 50′s and 60′s performers like Brenda Lee and The Chiffons and catchy post-punk bands such as Squeeze and Blondie.
The San Francisco Chronicle decided to slap her picture on the cover of their publication in 2007. The San Francisco Museum of Craft and Folk Art included her in an exhibition on the uke and Spark TV, the bay area’s artshowcase, saw fit to zero in on the band’s brand of old-timey pop for a recent segment. Other adventures have included tours of the east and west coasts, the first annual San Francisco Ukulele Festival at Yerba Buena Gardens and one very long, hot evening in a strange tattoo parlour in Mexico.
The Paddlemen use their skill with harmonies/bass (Sandra Mello- The Bellyachers) and harmonies/guitar (Mikie Lee Prasad-Heavy Petting Zoo, Maria Muldaur) to conjure up a tight-knit mesh of rhythm to compliment her old-timey pop melodies.
 You can call it old-timey, you can call it retro, you can even make up a word and call it 20sjazzcountrydoowoppop, but whatever the moniker just let yourself go and enjoy it.
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THE TOOTH ROT TOUR ‘08 featuring Thimble Wit with guest cellist Tigerlily and Slug’s Revenge
Thimble Wit is a fleet-fingered gypsy song maker and guitarist roaming the country in a vegetable oil powered bus meeting those with open hearts and eager minds to create instant one-of-a-kind collaborations and extraordinary performances. Originally from Baltimore, he culls inspiration from the music of Django Reinhardt, the poetry in song form of Leonard Cohen and the call to action creed of Crass. Years as part of The Stolen Heart Cabaret have honed his storytelling, writing and acting skills, while his time in the melodic punk band Chaotix heightened his live show energy. Street performing combined all of these attributes and taught him how to grab that passer-by’s attention and make a connection.
Soaring melodies and vocals carve out an inner depository for emotion, thought and at times unease. In some songs, history’s lessons are recreated as a personal narrative to illustrate present day issues and the timelessness of human nature. His music can be found on a split cd with Slug’s Revenge released by Saw Jaw Records and on his DIY gold recording “I Want To Play.†“This a confusing world and I’m not convinced of anything, but that I love to play music. Jazz interests me because it is free form and all is possible, folk gets my heart beating because it’s anything but the music institutions commissioned by the church and state (or kings) to fulfill their banal realms. I’m looking for you.†Thimble Wit
Slug’s Revenge:
“My name is Kevin and I play anarchist folk music under the name Slug’s Revenge. I’ve been playing music of this nature for a while now and I have a few main goals with my music……..
-To educate people on social issues that I consider important and to open a space for me to learn more about issues I talk about from friends and listeners at shows.
-To play in areas where radical politics don’t generally circulate.
-To use shows and touring as means to network.
-To practice and learn new musical skills and push myself as far as I can with my song writing and musical ability.
-To have a good time.
I’m part of a collective of musicians called the Rusty Strings Collective and help out with Saw Jaw Records. If anybody wants anything, music wise, you can get it at… 545 East Harris Street Savannah, GA 31401 SawJawRecords@hotmail.comâ€
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The Alkali Flats
“Putting the harm in harmony.†Sacramento’s own honky-tonk dance-floor frenzy instigators!
