Kari K. and The Stonewall Riot – I’m Not The One

From: KariKMusic

Kari K and The Stonewall Riot:
Indie all-female pop trio from Texas releases first music video, ”I’m Not The One”

DOMA is dead. Gay rights are alive and well. And celebrities and musicians are coming out left and right.

This band, aptly named after the start of the Gay Civil Rights Movement, is not from New York as one might expect (although one member lived there briefly). This all-girl, unsigned trio is from Texas, a state unfortunately known as one of the most unfriendly places for LGBTQ persons. They admit nonetheless they are all ”somewhere along that spectrum”, and play infectious pop/rock at music venues and gay bars all over the state. The band was invited to play two shows during the 2013 SXSW music festival in Austin, including the Outlander music festival affiliated with LOGO TV, and will be playing two shows during Las Vegas Pride 2013 in September. The event brings visitors from around the globe. Olivia Newton John, Kathy Griffin, and Margaret Cho are scheduled to appear.

The band asks its followers to ”join the Riot” at their shows where they perform a healthy mix of pop covers and original radio-ready music, including their first single, ”I’m Not The One” which has been played on public radio stations’ LGBTQ shows, and featured on several online LGBTQ sites and music hubs.

How can an infectiously good pop band still be underground? And only known by the LGBTQ community? Their music is mainstream quality, and gay or not, sounds like what you’d want to hear on your local pop station on a Sunday drive.

Band members are Kari Kuwamura (vocals, guitar), Selina Maldonado (drums), and Naomi Toledo (bass). Kari and Selina currently reside in Austin, and Naomi lives in Houston, which makes for an interesting rehearsal routine.

All three members had a rich musical background before coming together as a power pop trio.

Kari built a dedicated fan base on her own as a hard-working solo performer. As a high school student, she sang for Hilary Clinton in Washington DC. She won Austin’s vocalist competition ”The Showcase” in 2008, and toured the East coast with The Aftershock in 2010. Kari attended the Media Tech Institute where she is a graduate of the Audio Engineering department and lent her talents as Assistant Engineer at Hideout Studios. Her resume as a gigging musician can be mapped all over the United States, but she built her live reputation in San Antonio, then her foundation as a powerful performer in Austin, where she became a beloved darling of the city’s infamous and diverse live music scene.

Naomi also started off as a solo singer/songwriter while studying English at Rice University, opening for The Butchies and Eric Himan. She then fronted Decision Theory, an indie band that gigged relentlessly in Houston from 2003-2009. She is a contributing vocalist for industrial/electronica band Leatherbal, which has tracks featured in several independent films, and played drums for a punk band. She picked up the bass with the Houston indie-pop group Elect Trick City, voted Best Local Band by Houston’s OutSmart magazine in 2012.

Born and raised in South Texas, Selina started playing music at 5 years old. After teaching herself how to play guitar, she began taking piano and voice lessons at a local community center. By the end of high school, Selina had already played for audiences in New York and California as an alto saxophonist, played rhythm guitar for an award-winning Rio Grande Valley Mariachi band, and performed in singer-songwriter showcases in Puerto Rico and in California. She has lent her writing talents to local artists in Houston and Austin. In 2012, Selina received a certificate in Music Performance from the Austin Live Music Academy at the University of Texas in Austin, and caught the bug for drums and percussion.

Kari and Naomi met in Houston in 2011 after Kari played a solo acoustic gig at a local venue, and Selina met Kari at a 2012 gig in Austin through a mutual friend. Kari asked Naomi to play bass for her, and Selina was invited to join soon after. They played their first show as Kari K and The Stonewall Riot to a packed room at Avant Garden in Houston after only two rehearsals together.