 Music: The Chick Can't Help It
Dedicated booker Jenny George reconfigures her femme-friendly music showcase
Unpretentious, irreverent and opinionated, the "Chick" behind Chicks Rockfest (a music showcase featuring Rock bands with a female presence), takes her seat across from me at Rock club Dirty Jack's in Elmwood Place, illuminated appropriately by moody dive bar lighting. Jenny "Jem" George, 31, is a self-described "local music geek." Her feisty attitude is apparent before you even enter the bar. A handmade sign on the door warns you that the bar does not own any of the parking lots you are asking about; once inside, another sign on a shrouded piano warns that touching it will result in a $100 fine. She looks at me, curious and slightly bemused, while I unpack all of my writer's paraphernalia. There's a feeling of potential camaraderie and mutual respect. We're both "two chicks doing our thing." Before I even have a chance to turn the recorder on, George launches into a description of her duties at what she calls "The Bar" (Dirty Jack's) and her music production companies (Chicks Rockfest and Outrageous Productions). She talks fast, and somehow manages to cover three conversations at a time by bouncing back and forth among various digressions that remain relevant and weave together into one story. The story at hand: Chicks Rockfest.  Stephanie's Id from North Carolina is one of the featured bands Saturday at Chicks Rockfest. The festival, which started out as a three-band showcase in 2001, grew to a full four nights on two stages with 40-50 bands last year. Now it is morphing into a project with national reach and continues to grow. Despite its feminist-sounding name, George says she didn't begin the project out of any feminist tendencies. Like many worthwhile things, Chicks Rockfest grew out of necessity. "I started it exclusively to pretty much help promote my band," she says. "It was a three-band deal and it was kind of a joke almost to call it the first annual Chicks Rockfest. It was a regular run-of-the-mill show. It was my old band, Tornado Green, The Fairmount Girls and Ruby Vileos ... this was when Ruby Vileos was very, very new. The first year was at Mad Frog." This seed of a show took root and grew into a full-fledged festival over the course of the next several years. Following the opening year, Chicks Rockfest took over Top Cats for another three-band night (it turned out to be Tornado Green's last show). The year after that, George filled two stages at the Southgate House with 11 bands in one night. Following that, the festival expanded to encompass 30 bands in two nights, three stages and two venues (The Cavern and Barrelhouse). The festival kept expanding until 2007, when the Poison Room hosted nearly 50 bands on two stages over the course of four days. Because of online applications, George was reviewing applicants from all over the country. Chicks Rockfest was quickly growing in size and reputation. Then, just as the festival was reaching its pinnacle, George received an offer she couldn't refuse -- the opportunity to drop her office job and instead run a bar and the bookings there. George had never managed a bar before, but she hadn't ever organized a large annual festival, either. In typical George fashion, she soon took over the establishment. "I run Dirty Jack's. I am the bar manager, the talent buyer, everything else with the bar," she says. "I'm like the one-stop shop." When George began working full time at Dirty Jack's, she found it difficult to maintain the festival at the same level that she had. She decided to scale down and simplify things, morphing the festival into artist showcases. The idea is to create groups of five or six bands that tour a small circuit, essentially creating portable "mini-festivals." Her original version of these tours was ambitious; in 2005, she organized the Chicks on the Road series, which occurred simultaneously in seven regions nationwide. This involved seven touring groups of five to six bands playing in multiple cities all over the country during one weekend. The results were varied; some shows went well while others were poorly attended. George winces at the retelling. "I was trying to hit the country all at once and I kind of got in over my head," she says. "The problem was, I couldn't be at every show." Now, she is truly scaling down, but in a way that still leaves room to expand. Her new approach is to continue to tour groups of bands, but one region at a time. In a way, it will seem smaller (only six or so bands will play each show), but it will also be more frequent, with concerts occurring quarterly rather than annually. Locally, there is an "artist series" showcase planned for Saturday at Dirty Jack's with acts from all over the country: Carrie Sample, Chakras, Stephanie's Id, Sugar Glyder, Vertigo and Lunapollo. Two weeks later, there will be a Chicksrock show in Nashville and a month after that it will be in Pittsburgh. George says she hopes to do at least three other cities by the end of the year. While George still intends to grow and develop the festival, she says she is comfortable with where it is right now. "I try not to get too ahead of myself anymore," she says. "The more ahead of myself I get the more I try to take too much on." CHICKS ROCKFEST (chicksrockfest.net) takes place Saturday at Dirty Jack's. |
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  Chicks Rockfest 'You couldn't play a gig without her' By Rick Bird Post staff reporter The Seventh Annual Chicks Rockfest is Thursday-Sunday at the Poison Room, 301 W. Fifth St., downtown. Cover, $8 per night; $20 for a four-night pass. Newcomers to the four-night Chicks Rockfest starting tonight at the Poison Room, downtown, may be surprised to discover there are a lot of guys on the stages, even plenty of bands fronted by men. What's up with that? Isn't this chicks rock? Jennifer "Jem" Schmidt, founder and promoter of the event, says her seven-year-old festival has never really been totally female-centric. Yes, she says, it has been a celebration of women in music, but not to the point it's only about women. The requirement is a band must have at least one female member. "We are focused on good music," Schmidt said. "We don't really focus on what musical position the girl is in the band. What we do say is, 'You couldn't play a gig without her.' You couldn't go and do a show without, say, your (female) drummer." What festival-goers will find at the event is one of the most diverse music festivals in these parts, with styles ranging from Goth and punk rock to the lilting female voice and the angsty singer-songwriter woman. "The term 'rock' can be used in so many ways," Schmidt said, "as long as you are great at what you do. You can rock just as hard playing an acoustic guitar by yourself as you can with four other band members." This year, Chicks Rockfest has expanded from two nights to four, from 30 bands to nearly 50 acts. Next to September's Midpoint Music Festival, it has become the second largest indie-band fest for the area. Schmidt said the event has been well supported and she wanted to add more bands, but acknowledged it grew almost by accident. With the festival moving this year from the Southgate House to the Poison Room, Schmidt went from three stages to two. So, she added a third night to accommodate the bands. Then the Poison Room management suggested she add a Sunday night that would be an all-ages show. So, Schmidt increased the lineup by another dozen acts. Bands must submit samples of their music to be selected to play. "Sunday is all-ages, but it's not like the bands are rated 'G.' I did try to find things that are a little bit more accessible and well rounded," Schmidt said. Those scanning the schedule will note there are more bands this year from out of town. Cities like Chicago, Boston, New York and Washington, D.C., are well represented with two or three bands each. If Schmidt were handing out awards for the artist coming the farthest, it would be Freyja from London, England, coming just to play the event. London-based lead singer Kat Page, a New York state native, who has previously lived in Los Angeles, said that, for musicians, traveling 4,000 miles is what making music is all about. "I guess people on the outside thinking logically would say no, it can't be worth it," Page said. "But the whole point of doing this for a living for me is to spread the music. Plus, festivals are fun because it's a weekend of meeting other musicians." Page said she applied for the Chicks Rockfest attracted by its female friendly angle. "I was really excited because there really aren't enough girls in rock," she said. "When I first started playing (violin and piano), I really wanted to start an all-girl band. But it was hard with the selection. There really aren't enough playing. And there is a lot of pressure for every girl who picks up an instrument to be really good. I hope that's something that goes away just by the addition of more women musicians." |
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 2005, October 7, 2005 Cincinnati Enquirer, "Chicks Rock" by Gil Kaufman 2005, April 8 Cincinnati Enquirer, "Chicks Make Their Picks", by Cynthia Hanifin 2005, April 7 Cincy Post, "The Girls Take Over the Music Scene", by Rick Bird 2005, April 7 Cincy Post, "Jayne Sachs Returns with New Albums 'Sutures'", by Rick Bird 2005, April City Beat, "Under the Influence, The Album that Changed my Life", by Jenny Schmidt 2005, April Cin Weekly Article, "Waterproof Blonde at Chicks Rockfest" 2005, April Cin Weekly Article, "Allison Tartalia at Chicks Rockfest" Selected "Best Empowerment Festival" by City Beat's Best of Cincinnati award committee Bust Magazine "Hot Date" selection in the 2005 April/May edition. Order back copies from their site. Wednesday, December 24, 2003 It's a girl thing JEZKAH FLORES | CIN WEEKLY CONTRIBUTOR CHICKS ROCK Chicks Rock Fest organizer Jenny Schmidt is bringing attention to a different aspect of Cincinnati's music scene. In ratio to population, Cincinnati is home to enough local bands to make other cities seem boring. On any given night, even during the week, you can chance upon the next big thing. While the Chicks Rock Fest puts the spotlight on female musicians, Cincinnati has a healthy serving of talented ladies here year-round. They write their own music, play their own instruments and deliver stellar performances without a drop of pretension. This isn't manufactured pop: This is homegrown rock 'n' roll. DANA HAMBLEN Dana Hamblen Dana Hamblen (Photo by David Sorcher/CiN Weekly Contributor) Dana Hamblen is the everywhere-everything girl of Cincinnati music. She plays with two popular bands, the Fairmount Girls and Culture Queer, in which she both sings and plays drums. Hamblen also has her own fashion project, Daughter Judy, and is a well-known creative force in film and video. In her off time, she has been known to DJ at local clubs under the pseudonym Cuddly-D. In every aspect of her multiple creative outlets, Hamblen has demonstrated her love of pop culture, eclectic taste in music and irrefutable sense of humor. Hamblen first took the stage as a bassist in 1989, and she had only been playing for about a year prior to that. The improvisational noise-rock band called Devilnutmotherhole was invited to open for national touring acts, including Butthole Surfers at Bogart's. Though her initial band was short lived, the young bass player made her mark soon enough. With Ditchweed, Hamblen became more involved with the tight knit local indie-rock scene. The band, well known in its day, was a staple at landmark venues such as Sudsy Malone's on Short Vine in Clifton. It was not until the mid-'90s that Hamblen traded in her four-string for drums and joined the Fairmount Girls. She still plays bass when writing and recording songs on four-track, but she has found her niche as the city's premier drummer/vocalist. Hamblen says that singing and playing drums at the same time is much easier than one would think. "I think that playing with Culture Queer has made me a better drummer, and playing in the Fairmount Girls has made me a better singer," Hamblen says. Not surprisingly, it is the harmonized vocal styling of the Fairmount Girls that has become one of the band's trademarks. Founded by keyboardist Melissa Fairmount and Jane McBrain, the band takes its name from the Cincinnati neighborhood where Dana and Melissa still reside. Though many band members have come and gone since the band's start, it has maintained a cohesive style and energetic quality, no doubt in part thanks to Hamblen's own creative energy. Culture Queer, by no means a side project, is also a fixture in local music. Unlike the Fairmount Girls, which is mainly female with a "rotating" gentleman in the line up, Culture Queer is a three-piece with Hamblen as the only female. Started by Sam Womelsdorf and Scott Fredette, both creative artists in their own right, the trio has been playing for nearly three years. Hamblen says that Cincinnati has always been very supportive of local music, regardless of the gender of the musicians creating it. Festivals provide a chance to meet other musicians, to network and to check out other bands, and it is for these very simple reasons that the Fairmount Girls will be playing the Chicks Rock Fest at midnight Friday, Jan. 19 at the BarrelHouse. Of course, when speaking of the very active Hamblen, there are many opportunities to check her out. ALI EDWARDS Ali Edwards Ali Edwards (Photo by David Sorcher/CiN Weekly Contributor) Ali Edwards has been capturing the attention of local audiences with her unique vocals for more than a decade. A songwriter since the age of 10, she stumbled into her first musical endeavor because of an argument with friend Chris Lee about female-fronted bands. That discussion landed her the spot as singer for Lee's band, Snaggletooth, in the early '90s. Edwards says that the experience gave her a sense of possibility, and after Snaggletooth disbanded, she spent three years with an all-improvisational band called Mystery Mary. It was during this period that she says she "really learned how to listen," as well as play guitar. In her current band, Ruby Vileos, she has fully developed into both skilled musician and front woman. Her girlish coos swiftly turn to growls and evoke emotions that are reinforced by her deceptively simple guitar work. Edwards says that the music classes in the Forest Park school system and the heavily gospel influenced chorus at her high school helped to make her a confident vocalist. She also feels that her experience in local music has been very positive because of the numerous good mentors in the scene. Even within the band, talent surrounds Edwards. William Alletzhauser, formerly of the Ass Ponys, Victor Strunk and Todd Drake knew her long before forming Ruby Vileos. Their 2001 debut, The King is Dead, was met with radio play and accolades including a spot on the 97x best of 2001 countdown, but gender is not an issue within the band. "We know each other very well, and we all work together to create something we're proud of, and gender is never part of that equation." KARI MURPHY * Kari Murphy (Photo by Leigh Patton/CiN Weekly) Kari Murphy of Shesus is one example of how local female indie-rockers can influence and teach one another. Raised in Columbus, she picked up her first bass in 1994 and learned from watching Sue Harche of Scrawl play live. Now in a band that boasts Ohio's finest pedigree of female, and one male, musicians, Murphy finds comparisons to Olympia, Washington's riot grrl bands "a total compliment." "I've never felt slighted or left out because I'm a woman, yet I always gravitate toward other women to play with in bands," Murphy says. "It's not political, I just personally draw creative strength from playing with other women." Strong creativity is something Murphy never needs to worry about. She has served as bass player in Columbus-based Miss May '66 and as guitarist in Cincinnati's much talked about Hemline while attending graduate school for visual arts. She also joined Lazy in late '95 but parted ways with the group three years later. When Heather Newkirk, vocalist for Shesus, offered her a dream position as bassist for the Ohio power group, Murphy was about to move away from the Tri-state. She was unable to say no to the band, with former members of the Breeders, Guided by Voices, and Brainiac. She has now toured Europe and recorded a Peel Session with legendary producer John Peel. Shesus, signed to Narnack Records, is currently taking some time off to write, which for Murphy marks the beginning of her creative input with the band and an opportunity for greater influence. "When I saw Scrawl in 1994, I was impressed," Murphy says. "It made me want to write and play and perform. I look forward to being an influence on other kids wanting to pursue music, boy or girl." CHAZ HOWARD Chaz Howard Chaz Howard (Photo by Leigh Patton/CiN Weekly) Recently signed to Cincinnati label Shake It Records, The Not is one of the most talked about underground bands in local music. Its stripped down sound is a slick and simple combo of garage, punk and mod. Chaz Howard, drummer of the male-fronted four-piece, might fool you if you meet her before the show. Charismatically brilliant and completely down-to-earth, you feel at ease in her presence until she starts to play. After that all bets are off, as she demonstrates just how talented she is, effortlessly rocking a beat that will leave you in awe. Chaz started playing drums when she was 11 years old, but she had been begging her parents to buy her a drum set for years. She taught herself to play by listening to her favorite bands on her headphones. At age 16 she started drumming with other musicians in her father's Celtic-bluegrass band. The experience served her well as the outdoor shows were improvisational, a key learning opportunity for any musician. In high school, Chaz joined forces with Jack Lawrence, now of the Greenhornes, and Joe Alig of Philosopher's Stone. This high school band performed at battle of the bands showcases. Back in the early '90s, being a female musician still carried with it the occasional joking remark of "chick drummer," but Chaz was never offended. In 1999, she joined the already established, all-female band Hemline, which also featured Kari Murphy, Norah Salmon and Cindy Latham. While gender is not important when listening to music, the camaraderie and encouragement from other female musicians is a rewarding feeling for the 29-year-old drummer. "If I like a band, I like them regardless of gender; it's not an issue. But when I see a cool female guitar player doing an amazing job, it does give me that warm fuzzy feeling inside." The Not is on the way to inspiring many other girls, and with a 7" and EP already released, warm fuzzy feelings abound. There may still be a way to go before it is completely irrelevant whether a musician is male or female. Perhaps the best test of this is when we do away with categories such as "best female guitarist" and just have "best guitarist." But for these women, being the best or being a female is refreshingly unimportant. Women in rock is something interesting, which always seems new, even though the union is as old as rock and roll itself. Showcases such as the Chicks Rock Fest bring attention to women's involvement in rock and roll not because of political agendas, but because women's contributions have been so unique and important. Ohio in general, and Cincinnati in particular, have always been a sort of secret powerhouse in indie-rock. It should come to no surprise then that women are an integral part of it all, and sometimes it's nice to have just the girls.
2004 Cin Weekly "Cin Scene" Gallery, Pictures by David Sorcher 2004 Cincy Post Article, "No Denyin' Chicks Who Rock" by Rick Bird 2004 City Beat Article on Women in Rock, "Catch 22" by Dale Johnson 2004 Go Girls Music Interview, "Catching up with Jenny Schmidt of Chicks Rockfest" by Madalyn Sklar 2004 City Beat Interview, "Not Mama's Lilith Fair" by Dale Johnson 2004 Cin Weekly Chicks on the Road Article, "Chicks on the Road" by Kari Wethington 2003 Cincy Post Article, "Chicks to Rock Saturday" by Rick Bird2003 City Beat Mention, "Spill It" by Mike Breen |
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