by Michael Donley
Streaming Cafe has a lot cool things on the horizon. Before I explain where we’re going, it could be helpful to say where we’ve been...
In the Spring of 2009, a quaint downtown brick building found new life in the birth of an idea to merge the love of good coffee with the love of art and good, live, indie music. Over the last 3 years we are proud to have served the local downtown businesses & organizations on a daily basis and featured a number of local artist’s works on our walls. Our live music shows have continued to grow and because of the great local support , the cafe has been established as a destination for touring musicians. We’ve live streamed over 250 indie artists and showcased those shows in over 400 YouTube videos.
Artist Rendering
All this info (and maybe a bit of bragging), comes from my excitement of continuing to move forward in our vision to create a great space for amazing coffee (have you tried a Pour Over?) art, music and helping to sustain downtown Kelowna as a place to be.
Starting this month Streaming Cafe will break ground in what is to be a three story adjacent office space that will take us out of our mobile van into a new production room. Scheduled for mid this summer we will be boasting a new patio, allowing our patrons to mix some good food and drinks with our warm Okanagan sun. Along with some small renos inside the cafe, this will allow us to host more people to our events and eager listeners for our weekend listening room.
Artist Rendering
The entire project is scheduled to take around 10 months, but we are planning on being open for business as usual (fingers are crossed).
Whether you come for the cafe your lunch meeting or make it down to for a show, we sincerely appreciate your support and look forward to what’s ahead for us at the Streaming Cafe.
We held our One Night Music Fest on April 28th and it was a very memorable night. Jordan Klassen, James Lamb, Cara Luft and Andy Shauf each gave us amazing sets that seemed to cover the full "folk" spectrum.
Thanks to everyone that came out to cafe, watched online and sent questions to the artists during the show.
Here's a few pics incase you couldn't make it to the sold out show. Video highlights will be post in the next couple weeks.
by Malcolm Petch Few things present one to the world like one’s name. It represents you when you’re not around, it marks your place in the phone book or on the concert poster, and, despite what we might want to think, it leaves an impression of who we are.
JP Hoe has a quick, no-nonsense working name, with elements of down-to-earth and star quality mixed together.
Music – their music – is the next thing that presents a musical artist to the world. And JP Hoe’s music jumps right out at you. Quickly and easily accessible, it doesn’t demand deep pondering and multiple listens to become familiar: I clicked on the link that Michael sent me, and right off the bat I found myself thinking, “Hey, this guy is good”. Then I read further in Michael’s descriptive paragraph and saw his take on JP: “He is really good”.
You’ve got to check JP’s music out for yourself; there’s no way I’ll be able to do it justice with words. Catchy, melodic, engaging; some of the terms we’ve used for years serve very well to describe the tunes of JP Hoe.
JP Hoe will be in Kelowna at Streaming Café on May 26, fresh from stops in Victoria and Vancouver on the two preceding nights, and hot on the heals of the release of his new album Mannequin in Winnipeg on May 10.
According to his website, JP started playing guitar in high school because he figured it was the best way for a shy kid to meet girls.
It musta done the trick, because he opened for Jann Arden on her 2007 Canadian tour. And she’s a girl. JP also sold 2,500 copies of his EP, The Live Beta Project, through that show-opening gig. Some indie artists struggle to ever sell that many copies of any one particular album, so it certainly seems like Hoe struck a chord with the Arden audiences.
When JP built on the success of that EP and released his debut full-length project The Dear John Letters, the Western Canadian Music awards applauded his efforts in 2008 with nominations in the top pop recordings and top songwriting categories.
Besides the catchiness and accessibility of his music, JP’s sense of humour comes through, too, in things like the title of his annual Christmas show (The JP Hoe Hoe Hoe Holiday Show) and in comments like this one on his website’s ‘news’ section: “...the record is done. It's called Mannequin, and as you can tell from the album cover, even my pecs are bursting with excitement” (this said because the album cover shows his shirt stretched across his chest right at the pec level). JP Hoe obviously enjoys what he does, and he seems pretty relaxed in the skin of who he is. And his website is one of the cleanest (and actually up-to-date) sites I’ve seen for someone who does music for a living as an indie artist.
JP reportedly spent the first half of 2011 recording Mannequin, and it’s only this spring that the album is finding release. It’ll be interesting to watch/read reaction to the project, looking back at all the positive reviews Hoe received for his first EPs and album:
-“His blend of melodies and lyrics make for solid and intelligent pop music.” (chartattack)
-“When he burst onto the scene in 2003 with his debut EP, The Here In Review, JP Hoe fast became a critical darling; and his 2007 live album The Live Beta Project only bolstered his next-big-thing status.” (Uptown)
-“…JP Hoe’s original pop songs are like musical heroin; once you get a taste of that sweet, sweet smack, you’ll be itching to come back for more.” (stylus magazine)
So visit his website, or follow these links to some of his videos; I’m pretty sure you’ll agree that this is music worth listening to. We can offer you something even better: catch JP Hoe live in concert at Streaming Café on May 26 at 7pm Pacific – either in person at 596 Leon Ave, or online at streamingcafe.net; either way you’ll be able to see and hear JP live, and you’ll be able to ask him questions directly, one-on-one.
Check out the guy with the short name and the great music. Live on May 26.
Vinyl lovers celebrate being alive and well on Saturday, April 21st for Record Store Day 2012. The original idea for Record Store Day was a celebration of the unique culture surrounding over 700 independently owned record stores in the USA, and hundreds of similar stores internationally.
This is the one day that all of the independently owned record stores come together with artists to celebrate the art of music. Special vinyl and CD releases and various promotional products are made exclusively for the day and hundreds of artists in the United States and in various countries across the globe make special appearances and performances. Festivities include performances, cook-outs, body painting, meet & greets with artists, parades, djs spinning records and on and on. Metallica officially kicked off Record Store Day at Rasputin Music in San Francisco on April 19, 2008 and Record Store Day is now celebrated the third Saturday every April.
DIVERSABILITY ~ Recent works by Cool Arts
Streaming Cafe is very happy to be displaying art from Cool Arts on our cafe walls for the month of April. The works will be on display from April 5th-30th and there will be an opening on Wednesday, Aprill 11th at the Streaming Cafe (596 Leon Ave.) from 5 - 8 p.m.
Cool Arts is a non-profit society that is dedicated to providing art opportunities for adults with developmental disabilities
or diversabilities.
This show is called "DIVERSABILITY" ; recent works based on a campaign by local self-advocate Shelly Decoste who is campaigning to have the word "disability" changed to "diversability"
More about Cool Arts...
Cool Arts is dedicated to providing fine arts opportunities for adults with developmental disabilities living in the Central Okanagan.
We believe everyone should have the opportunity to express themselves through the arts.
We believe that disabilities should not interfere with this choice.
Our vision is... to create opportunities, to make art, to take classes and learn, to be in a supportive fine arts environment, to exhibit or perform, to be part of the larger arts community.
Please visit...http://www.coolarts.ca/
