Local songwriter
When Eli Cook released Electric Holy Fire Water in 2006, he was 20 years old and had already figured out how to put a clever new spin on an old musical form. Although his earlier acoustic album had been relatively traditional, working with a band prompted him to reach out into the ’90s alt-rock canon to grab whatever bits of Alice In Chains and Soundgarden weren’t already being reconstituted elsewhere. It was a rock record by a blues musican, in other words, and one that stubbornly refuses to this day to draw lines between its two primary sources of inspiration.
Cook says he’s already found a new direction for the project, though, and it involves the ass you’re probably sitting on at this very moment. “People can move to it. It’s a little funkier than we’ve been in the past year,” he says, “still heavy, but with a little more 1970’s heavy rock influence, like Sly Stone or Funkadelic.”
Without all the fixins, at least– “The overall presentation is still very much three-piece grungey power trio,” says Cook. “We don’t have the means to present a Curtis Mayfield full-band thing.”
So don’t expect an enormous horn section, in other words. You will, however, get bassist Eric Yates and drummer Jordan Marchini, the latter the drummer from local Goth-rock success story Bella Morte. Cook doesn’t claim to be rolling that into the mix– yet– but at this rate, he’ll have a few other musical traditions whipped into his stew by the time we talk to him next time around.
“In my car, I have Sly Stone and Alice In Chains and the latest Metallica album and Black Sabbath and Curtis Mayfield and CSNY,” says Cook. “I try to make sure I don’t listen to too much of one thing. It’s important to try to incorporate everything you can, or else how are you going to be original today, when so many things have been done?”
Well, at least we can name one guy who doesn’t have that problem.
Eli Cook performs at Fridays After Five at 5:30pm on May 2.
Ryan Adams may be the reigning prince of that hippest of folky sects marketed as “alt-country,” but even he must realize that he owes a hefty debt to the Jayhawks. As one-half of that group’s core compositional duo, Mark Olson helped create country-rock that appealed to traditionalists as readily as to youth audiences before such projects came with a trendy genre label. And with successful efforts like 1992’s Tomorrow The Green Grass he managed to elevate himself to father-of-a-genre status to the point that he now shares mantle with the likes of Weezer and Lil’ Jon.
His departure from the group in 1995 was nearly a decade before its eventual dissolution, during which time musical other-half Gary Louris steered the ship solo while Olson eloped with a group called the Original Harmony Ridge Creekdippers with wife Victoria Williams. Olson and Louris reunited for an acoustic tour in 2006, however, and Louris appeared last year on Olson’s latest solo album, which is spearheaded by “Clifton Bridge,” a song that Olson now says he considers the best he’s ever written. Even if he’s no longer creating entire musical worlds for others to explore, at least he’s still writing.
The Hook: I understand you were traveling a lot when this album came together.
Mark Olson: I wasn’t really planning to do a record, but I ended up in Europe visiting people I’d met while touring. They introduced me to an engineer, and I came up with “My Carol” and “Clifton Bridge.” I worked about eight months on 23 songs and got it down to the ones on the album. We really didn’t spend a lot of time on the album– it was three days of recording, a couple of days of overdubs, and that was it.
The Hook: You’ve repeatedly pointed out that travel is a major theme of the album. To what degree is it important to have gone abroad in order to connect with it?
Mark Olson: I don’t think that to connect with the album as a listener, it’s important at all. Most of the things I write about are conflicts that come from inside and how they resolve. But at that time in my life, with the things that were going down, it really helped. I was able to imagine things because I didn’t have anyone to talk to. For a long time my life has been pretty full, and all of a sudden it emptied out.
The Hook: So given that you were so tied to collaborative partners in the past, is solitude a major theme as well?
Mark Olson: That was a big deal, because I had worked all those years and put everything I had into the Jayhawks and the Creekdippers. It was sort of a survival issue– for me to make a living, I needed to have a record with my own name on it. I tend to be kind of a recluse, and I tend to stay home if I’m left to my own devices.
The Hook: Not many people would consider releasing a record a viable path to stability at this point.
Mark Olson: Oh, of course not. There’s no guarantee. But I had to take a shot. I couldn’t get shows without having a record.
The Hook: Did it feel more like a gamble?
Mark Olson: I was plenty nervous the day I went in to first start recording because I had no idea how everyone was going to play on it. For many years, I just recorded on my own, so this was a whole new thing. There was a certain amount of pressure with the record company spending the money for those three days.
The Hook: You’ve used the term “gonzo music” in an attempt to liken your creative process to Hunter S. Thompson’s. Is that what happened during the sessions?
Mark Olson: I think that was more with the Creekdippers. With the Jayhawks, it was very organized. When I worked with the Creekdippers, we would do more gonzo recordings where we would just playe 20 songs two times apiece, and that would be the album. We did one album where I wrote it in two days and recorded it in two days. I did the whole record in five days. But I reached the point where that had to stop. It goes for my writing. Once I start working on something, I pretty much get it stuck in my brain until I feel like it’s done. When I’m not writing, I don’t pick up the guitar, because once I start doing it, it’s hard to put it down.
The Hook: The CD has some of the coolest packaging I’ve seen in a while. Why did you put so much effort into dressing it up to look like a library book?
Mark Olson: Before even the Jayhawks, I thought of the lyrics first– or the theme first, or that one line that you can develop. Once you get one line, you can get a lot of other lines if there’s something good about it. The words are important to me, and I never heard a lot of people talk about that with the Jayhawks, so I figured that if I put it in a book form, people would be drawn to it.
The Hook: Did it work?
Mark Olson: No, it didn’t work out. In non-English speaking countries, they love the words.
The Hook: Why do you think that is?
Mark Olson: I don’t know. Maybe it’s because it’s difficult for them, so they have to read it, they have to listen to it, and they have to put the effort in, so it means more to them.
Mark Olso- National Express
Mark Olson - The Salvation Blues
Mark Olson - Clifton Bridge
Mark Olson performs at Gravity Lounge on May 6. $10-$15, 7pm.
In most cases, appointing yourself as monarch of anything is probably cruisin’ for a bruisin’, but given that there aren’t too many rock bands rehearsing on Meridian Street, the Kings of Belmont are probably okay for the time being.
This may be a rags-to-riches story in the making, though– the kings have certainly come a long way since their humble beginnings down at the late Atomic Burrito. Guitarist Ross van Brocklin and keyboard player Aaron Ahlbrandt had known each other since their middle school days and started performing together as a duo with a drum machine near the end of 2006. Hard as it is to believe, their other gig as members of the local Ween tribute band apparently wasn’t artistically fulfilling.
As a Serious Band, though, they were off to a rocky start. “It was definitely just as much comedic as it was musical,” says van Brocklin. With a few months and a little buzz under their belt, however, they were able to pick up several other musicians and began crafting something more compelling starting in early 2007.
Guitarist Max Collins still remembers what it was like when van Brocklin and Ahlbrandt first attracted his attention. “I knew there were some seeds,” he says, “and even though some of it was lighthearted, there was something really deep there.”
It seems to have been enough to motivate all of them. “The key to our local success over the course of the last eight months has been the fact that we’re practicing three or four nights a week and being ready for our shows,” says Collins. “Seeing Kings of Belmont a year and a half ago, it’s a completely transformed version.”
“I haven’t heard one person complain about showing up to practice, which is really helping us out,” he adds.
Despite all that rehearsal time, they haven’t yet entirely figured out how exactly they fit into the Fridays After Five schema of family-friendly afternoon entertainment, given that their late night shows still don’t stray too far from the risque humor of their Atomic roots.
“We’re going to have some people get the wrong impression, maybe, but if they get the CD they’ll put it together,” says Collins.
“We just got Parental Advisory stickers for them,” he adds with a laugh.
“If we talk too much, we’ll get in trouble,” van Brocklin says.
Still, Fridays After Five has always been a landmark gig for any Charlottesville band with big dreams. “A lot of people are going to be seeing us for the first time. I feel like we have something to prove,” Collins says.
van Brocklin is also starting to find new fans for the taking elsewhere, including at one particularly fruitful recent show at R2. “There were a bunch of people there before we started, and I didn’t recognize any of them,” he says.
“That’s a great feeling, having people you don’t recognize in the front row singing the words,” Collins says.
In time, they may live up to the name. But Collins doesn’t seem to be in a hurry: “We’ll always play at least one Ween tune per show,” he says.
The Kings Of Belmont perform with 6 Day Bender at Fridays After Five this week at the Charlottesville Pavilion starting at 5:30p
Jazz, folk, and light rock from Sons Of Bill’s lead guitarist. Also featuring Brian Caputo on drums.
The Olivarez Trio plays gypsy jazz in what once was Charlottesville’s favorite old-school music venue.
Olivarez Trio - Adieu, Bienville
Olivarez Trio - Double Whiskey
The infamous guitarist and bassist keeps jamming out with the locals.
Barling and Collins skewer everybody within reach with their twangy and comical rock.
Barling and Collins - (That’s Right) I’m Looking At Your Girlfriend
Philadelphia’s Hoots and Hellmouth plays Americana as if descended from CSN-and-sometimes-Y with a little Gospel upbringing along the way.
Hoots and Hellmouth - Home In A Boxcar
Richmond’s Prabir and the Substitutes open.
buy tickets onlineThe Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band plays lotsa damn blues, but 7:30 might be a little too early for Barling and Collins…
buy tickets onlinePiano-driven pop from a precocious UVA student
buy tickets onlineThe local folk singer plays a special show for kids
buy tickets onlineIndecision is a jam-oriented rock band with deep Charlottesville ties.
buy tickets onlineIn Technicolor and Tim Be Told both play lovable pop-rock.
buy tickets onlineBassist Lindsey Horner leads a trio through a set of Dylan covers. Their last record featured Bill Frisell as a guest; what better vote of confidence could you possibly ask for?
buy tickets onlineBeleza Brasil leads a slew of local performers in a Cinco de Mayo celebration. Also featuring Rick Oliverez, Jeff Cheers, Steve Riggs, and Art Wheeler
Beleza Brasil - Water To Drink
Beleza Brasil - Fever
Olivarez Trio - Adieu, Bienville
Olivarez Trio - Double Whiskey
The local jazz figurehead departs from Miller’s for once.
The Chickenheads are a legendary local blues band and are constantly picking up new guest musicians.
The local piano wizard gives up his multi-keyboard “group sound” format and the legendary B3 organ to instead play it straight and simple with Fellini’s piano.
These local high school rockers are fronted by John Anderson, the younger brother of breaking major label pop-rockers Sparky’s Flaw.
Also featuring pop from Lynchburg by way of The Kase Project and local pop-rock pianist Joseph Mills.
buy tickets onlineBirdlips is a rocking local indie-folk duo defined by 12-string guitar, keys, and intertwined vocal harmonies. Richmond family folk act The Mason Brothers open.
Birdlips - Tire Chains
Birdlips - Some Kind Of Death
Goth musicians are nothing new for the Outback Lodge, but Voltaire is a 41-year-old college professor from New York in his makeup-free life. The fact that it’s his real name is probably the spookiest thing about it.
Trip-hop turned dance duo Ego Likeness opens. Both acts are playing at the Knitting Factory next, but you can take them home without dealing with the hassle of New York. We have cooler cabs here anyway.
buy tickets onlineIf you loved the Kings of Belmont last week at Fridays After Five, you can catch another dose of Elliott Avenue rock with a short drive to Crozet.
Pop-folk
After a 10-year run, Plan 9 Music stores owner Jim Bland confirmed today that his store location on The Corner in the Anderson Building, which is also home to the Satellite Ballroom, coffee shop Higher Grounds, and the restaurant Just Curry, will close at the end of May, as property owner Terry Vassalos has declined to renew the store’s lease. Since Satellite, Higher Grounds, and Just Curry all sub-lease from Plan 9, it means that those venues will be homeless on May 31 as well.
“We tried to work on a lease extension,” says Bland, indicating that Vassalos may have wanted much more than Bland was comfortable with. “But nobody got an extension.”
For months now, rumors that Vassalos has been courting pharmacy giant CVS as a possible tenant have been in circulation. In a Hook story on Corner moves last September, Vassalos denied that any big chains stores were sniffing around, but Vassalos told the Hook in March that the company had “studied the location.”
However, neither Vasslos or CVS will confirm which company will lease the space, and Bland says he still doesn’t know who the new tenant might be, despite (more)
With each passing year, ex-Charlottesville guitarist Tim Reynolds is known less for being a footnote in the Dave Matthews Band’s history and more for making his own dark, moody improvisational music. After an extended absence, Reynolds started turning up in town again pretty regularly starting around 2006. He sometimes plays quieter acoustic shows, but at this one he’s planning to play an aggressive rock set with his new North Carolina-based rhythm section.
Former Reynolds partner-in-crime Greg Howard opens with spacey improvisations on more strings than you’ll be able to count through your drunken stupor.
buy tickets onlineAsheville-based African fusion crew Toubab Krewe merges music from Mali and the States, all with a kick in the pants from electric bass and guitars. They’re all white, but don’t let that fool you — they’ve spent plenty of time studying the music of West Africa during trips to places like Guinea and the Ivory Coast.
Toubab Krewe - Buncombe to Badala [live]
buy tickets onlineTwo of the three members of Dispatch at the same show? We almost have a full fledged reunion on our hands!
buy tickets onlineJim Waive leads his lovely ladies through another set of cool alt-country. Local songwriter Shannon Worrell opens with secret weapon Sam Wilson on hand for backup.
Jim Waive and the Young Divorcees - Strike A Match
buy tickets onlineNick Lowe wrote “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding” for British pub-rock band Brinsley Schwarz in 1974, and by ‘76 he had enough artistic confidence as a soloist to respond to David Bowie’s Low with an album called — you guessed it — Bowi.
Canuck songwriter Ron Sexsmith opens.
buy tickets onlineFor those of you who caught Steve Earle’s performance at the Paramount and are hungry for more, Nashville’s near-clone Stephen Simmons will team up with local pop-rock acts like Sam Wilson, Sweetbriar, and Tim Be Told for a fund-raiser to benefit an orphanage in Honduras.
buy tickets onlineDanny Schmidt is a formerly local songwriter who split for Austin a few years ago but still turns up every once in a while for another low-key homecoming show of sorts. His latest album dropped earlier this year; “Little Grey Sheep” is an album of leftover flotsam and forgotten jetsam, a collection where the defining characteristic is that the songs didn’t seem to want to fit into a collection.
Danny Schmidt - Leaves Are Burning
Danny Schmidt - Dark Eyed Prince
Danny Schmidt - This Too Shall Pass
Doug and Telisha Williams open.
buy tickets onlineFour of Charlottesville’s leading songwriter ladies — Joia Wood, Robin Wynn, Helen Horal and Mariana Bell — join forces for an intimate night at Gravity.
buy tickets onlineEastern European and Cajun music
buy tickets onlineCarlos’ son plays keyboards and does the same sort of Latin-flavored pop as you’ll find on his daddy’s last few albums. Bobby Lee Rodgers and the Codetalkers channel ghosts from the early days of rock and then teach them jazz licks.
buy tickets onlineFolk singer Paul Curreri is certainly among Charlottesville’s most celebrated local talent, in large part because of the tremendous dynamic range of his vocals and guitar work. The catch, however, is that he’ll often hit both extremes in the same song.
Paul Curreri - Long Gone Again
buy tickets onlineIn some circles, Paddy Keenan is known as the “the Jimi Hendrix of the uilleann pipes.” OK, so that may be the least likely instrument ever to have a Jimi Hendrix analogue, but the point is just that he’s pretty freaking good. Also featuring Charlottesville’s own Debbie Hunter, arguably the Aretha Franklin of madrigals.
buy tickets onlineThe local drummer leads a drum and dance extravaganza with Whit Witten and Lillie Williams.
buy tickets onlineWait, are we celebrating Cinco de Mayo or mourning the loss of Mono Loco’s patio concerts due to that stupid noise ordinance? Oh well. Guess we gotta drink twice as hard…
This local trumpet player sounds bigger than he looks.
The local songwriter hits the Charlottesville Music Showcase. Space Cadet opens. (Or is that just referring to Travis again?)
UVA alt-rock quartet. The Clarence Thomas Action-Adventure Unit (yes, really) opens.
Digital Frontier plays techno jamband tunes all the way from the year 2006. The show kicks off with 4D Rock!, who always force their enthusiasm upon us with that darned exclamation point.
buy tickets onlineHarwell Grice learned to play bluegrass and Americana in the real South — that means Franklin County, cream puff — and will probably beat you senseless if you walk into Miller’s with your collar sticking up like that.
The Mammals and the Points do mildly messy punk rock. Coffinbound plays self-avowed “degenerate southern rock.” Um… yee-haw?
A Bombadil performance usually involves electric guitar, acoustic guitars, bass, piano, drums, harmonica, xylophone, organ, synthesizers, saxophone, trumpet, viola, charango, glockenspiel, accordion, recorder and zampona. (We have no idea what that last one is either.)
Bombadil - Johnny
Bombadil - A Buzz, A Buzz
Bombadil - Get To Getting On
Also featuring We Will Eat Rats To Survive and Pornado!
Babyfaced blues guitarist Eli Cook rocks this week’s Fridays. We’re actually hoping it’ll rain, since that’ll give everyone else the blues as well.
The Fairline Parkway is a cross-coastal indie-pop collaboration loaded with traces of Elliott Smith and Belle and Sebastian.
The Fairline Parkway - Westward Bound
New York jazz guitarist Paul Bollenback has toured with Jimmy Bruno and Sandip Burman, but here he’ll be performing with vocalist Chris McNulty. This one comes highly recommended by local jazz guitar maestro Peter Richardson.
Hello Tokyo is a power pop quartet from Brooklyn.
Blues wunderkind Eli Cook does it solo with his acoustic guitar and possibly a distortion pedal or two.
Brian Patrick bangs out country-tinged rock on his trusty acoustic guitar.
Do you like rock music? Then you have no business missing this performance by British Sea Power, the English rock quartet that splits the difference between Joy Division and the Arcade Fire.
Raleigh indie-pop duo the Rosebuds and comic artist turned anti-folk troubadour Jeffrey Lewis open.
buy tickets onlineRapunzel’s finally managed to put Accordion Death Squad and the UVA Klezmer Ensemble on the same bill. As anybody who has seen either band can tell you, this is a match made in heaven!
Accordion Death Squad - Di, Margule, Di
Local songwriter lasses Erin James and Lindsey Osborne team up for an acoustic double-header at Lovingston’s favorite coffee shop.
The local folk duo performs at a fundraiser for the String Project, an elementary school music education program run by the Scottsville Center for Arts and Nature. Shows at 7pm and 9pm.
This annual concert features students performing coursework from classes related to the Virginia Center for Computer Music, the cutting-edge media program housed beneath Old Cabell.
The UVA Concert Band performs Sousa for all the students marching over to Rugby Road
The UVA Early Music Ensemble performs Handel and Telemann, among others
The Kings of Belmont are a driving new local rock quintet, and if you miss their set, you’ll also be able to catch the guitarists at Maya later in the evening. 6 Day Bender is a bluegrass-infused local rock quartet riding high after last week’s CD release show.
Acoustic blues and jazz duo
Barbara Martin and Mac Walter - Existential Blues
Email for reservations for this solo performance by the Canadian singer-songwriter.
All day Mothers Day music festival featuring Trees On Fire, the Greg Ward Project, Pixy Led, and more.
Trees On Fire - In The Middle [via WXJM Live!]
