180 tries to bring infectious energy to its reenactment of modern dance hits. PUBLICITY PHOTO
Experimental Latin folk sanctioned by Sufjan’s Asthmatic Kitty. With local folk duo Birdlips and avant-garde Chicago composer Jason Ajemian.
Merging the Caribbean flavors Outback loves to present via their reggae nights with the jazz flavors they generally stay away from, Jonathan Scales plays complex fusion on the iconic pitched percussion steelpans you have thus far probably heard only in calypso and “Jane Says.” His “Fourchestra” quartet bears a heavy Flecktones influence, which is why his last album featured one of the Wooten brothers and DMB stand-in saxophonist Jeff Coffin.
Jonathan Scales - Do Not Panic
Jonathan Scales - Room Of Maps
The Hacks are, of course, the local bluegrass figureheads who also harbor fringe relationships with acts like Mister Baby, now-solo former frontman David Sickmen, and even Modest Mouse. Alt-country songwriter Jim Waive opens.
The Hackensaw Boys - Too Much Time
The Hackensaw Boys - Oh Girl
Jim Waive and the Young Divorcees - Strike A Match
This 69-year-old Mississippi bluesman currently resides in New Orleans and plays minimalist old-school twelve-bar tunes with his power trio and a healthy R.L. Burnside influence. It doesn’t get much more authentic than this. The Chickenheads open.
The Chickenhead Blues Band - Talk To Me, Baby
The Chickenhead Blues Band - Glamour Girl
The Chickenhead Blues Band - Hunky Dorey
The Chickenhead Blues Band - Marvin’s Water
Piano wizard George Melvin plays several keyboards at once.
Folky and funky acoustic sextet from Richmond who draw inspiration from jambands as readily as from bluegrass acts.
The first annual Brew Ridge Trail Music Festival was held Saturday, August 22 at Devil’s Backbone Brewery in Nelson County. A morning of pouring rain was eventually replaced by the pouring of Central Virginia-brewed beer from all five local breweries— Blue Mountain, Starr Hill, Devil’s Backbone, South Street, and Albemarle Ciderworks. The afternoon sunshine (more)
Jim Waive & the Young Divorcees– not so young, not so divorced. PUBLICITY PHOTO
It’s been over a decade sinceLucinda Williams established her poignant potency on 1998’s Car Wheels On A Gravel Road and fifteen since she won her first Grammy for “Passionate Kisses.” Is it too early to proclaim her a modern country legend?
Gypsy and old-time fiddler Alex Caton celebrates the release of her latest album, The Sinners and the Saved, which was recorded at Levon Helm’s studio in Woodstock, New York. Backing musicians include drummer Stuart Gunter and multi-instrumentalist Matty Metcalfe.
Portland singer-songwriter Shelley Short kicks things off, after which her guitar player Alexis Gideon will deliver a set of the loops and laptop-tweaking oddities that landed him opening slots with Dan Deacon. Local dance-rockers Bear War round out the night.
Shelley Short - Time Machine Submarine
Monthly choral Evensong performances directed by UVA professor Paul Walker
The New Up would probably like us to tell you they sound like Radiohead, but that’s a pretty lofty comparison, and equal time is also given to other mid-90’s alt-rock bands like Bush, the similarly female-fronted Garbage, and early No Doubt.
The New Up - Bitch
The New Up - Dear Life
Rootsy tropical jams
The DOWNbeat Project - I Want You [live at Is Venue]
The DOWNbeat Project - Heaven
The DOWNbeat Project - He Lost Faith
Sweatpants has the classic rock greats on the brain but too much testosterone in their veins for faithful reproductions, while Mostly Dimes plays pop tunes with folky instrumentation. Also featuring local indie-poppers Straight Punch To The Crotch. Donations collected will go to support local “farm-therapy” non-profit A Fertile Foundation.
Straight Punch To The Crotch - Robot Baby
Straight Punch To The Crotch - When Animals Attack
Straight Punch To The Crotch - Summer Sun and Firecrackers
The C-villemulti-instrumentalist plays tunes from his native New Orleans as well as their ragtime and classical precursors.
Click for a groovy slideshow. PHOTO BY TOM DALY
Local rockers The Will Thomas Band channels the rock of Tom Petty. PUBLICITY PHOTO
Owl City opener-to-be Brooke Waggoner is one of the up-and-coming artists to watch, if you ask Entertainment Weekly — but even more impressive is the fact that the notoriously snobby NME agrees, calling Waggoner “a farrago of Southern gothic charm with Cat Power-meets-Rachmaninov explosions of power on her piano.” Also featuring singer-songwriter Denison Witmer.
Brooke Waggoner - Hush If You Must
Brooke Waggoner - Wonder-Dummied
Synth-driven electro-pop duo who dance about at the point where disco meets twee-pop, a combo which probably has even less mopey emotional weight than you’re imagining right now.
Rhythm Bandit and local dance-rockers Bear War open.
Self-proclaimed “dad rock” from local legend Tyler Magill and piano-driven indie pop from Ocean Versus Daughter (who apparently had a pretty crappy dad).
Indie folk brought to you by Conor Oberst’s Team Love Records. With Lux Perpetua and Erik Peterson.
Says Brooklyn indie-rock mag The Deli regarding Philly quintet Conversations With Enemies: “Feel good indie pop for the hipster who might tend to be unlucky in love.” Oh, and they also have a zombie fetish.
Richmond country-rock and Americana band
Local rock band. The Gaslight Street opens.
Raw Dawg - Alibi
Raw Dawg - Dig
Raw Dawg - HOI
Leading North Carolina retro-rocker Dexter Romweber plays proto-rock tunes that are displaced by at least fifty years, except for the points where sister Sara rockets them forward about halfway with her propulsive drumming.
DC cowboy Justin Jones, local songwriter Sarah White, and White’s duo project The (All New) Acorn Sisters all play various forms of alt-country and Americana. (Which is, it seems, not all that far from “both kinds: country AND western,” but go check ‘em out all the same.)
Justin Jones and the Driving Rain - Seminole Town
Justin Jones and the Driving Rain - Long Way Down
Justin Jones - All Our Noise [live]
Sarah White - Apple In B Major
Sarah White - Half A Smile
Sarah White - Ply Me
Sarah White - Sweetheart
Sarah White - Where You’re Going
Andy Waldeck’s all-star improvisational funk troupe boogies down. Social Viscosity opens.
This acclaimed retro singer-songwriter sings a sort of hybrid indie-country-folk that seems to spring naturally from her split roots in California and Texas and her recent career-buoying partnerships with other new-school folk masters like M. Ward and Bonnie “Prince” Billy. (The latter has even been caught singing backup at other southern stops on the current tour.)
Jolie Holland - Back Hand Blues
Jolie Holland - Black Stars
Jolie Holland - Crazy Dreams
Jolie Holland - I Wanna Die
Jolie Holland - Old Fashion Morphine
Jolie Holland - Springtime Can Kill You
The local songwriter performs on the patio with longtime comrade Emily Gary and a few other friends.
Tom and Emily - Icons Of Faith
Indie-folk singer John Ashley and concert series organizer Keith Morris also take to the stage to round out the night.
Keith Morris - Live Candy EP
Snowday [live]
Billy Weir’s Dress [live]
Baby Saves World [live]
Waltzing [live]
Candy Apples [March Rosetta remix]
Swing tunes and big band. The Dreamland Barbershop Quartet opens.
Harrisonburg trio Blue Stone Sky weaves together delicate three-way harmonies for their folk-rock and Americana.
Award-winning fledgling local folk duo. Your $20 (or $35 per couple) also gets you food.
The Honey Dewdrops - Nowhere To Stand
The Honey Dewdrops - Fly Away Free
Classical, electronic, experimental, and improvisational musicians combine flutes, cellos, keyboards, and computer programs.
Local country singer-songwriter and her mandolin-playing hubby
When Trust Company first showed up to the alt-rock party just as the keg started to dry up in 2002, there was something unsettlingly corporate about them. They sounded a bit like Linkin Park might if they swapped out the rapper for a sludgier bassist from the likes of Alice In Chains or Tool, and fer chrissakes, their name even had the word “company” in it (they had changed it from “41 Down” to avoid confusion with pop-punk boy band Sum 41, who had broken out the year before). But that, in a way, is also their strength: the EMI-approved hooks were stronger than any real metal band’s should ever be, which is probably why the All Music Guide praised their debut, not unreasonably, as “one of the most infectious alternative metal albums” of the year.
They hung it all up in about 2005, and curiously enough are only reuniting now even though their niche is dramatically out of vogue. That doesn’t make a whole lot of sense on paper, but we’re clearly not talking about a band that doesn’t know when to quit and keeps holding out for the comeback album. When it comes to reviving deceased alt-metal bands, we could do a whole lot worse.
buy tickets onlineThe local singer-songwriter plays his last show before moving to California.
Though it’s hard to imagine why playing in a Sublime tribute band could ever be artistically unfulfilling (cough cough, sorry, something in my throat), that’s what happened to the Badfish guys, who have been inciting riots among evergreen college stoner audiences with “April 26th” ever since 2001 — which, it should be noted, was only four years after Brad Nowell died; is there a minimum waiting period for this sort of thing?
Thus, from about 2006 onward, Scotty Don’t, whose reggae-rock original tunes are inspired by, but no longer carbon-copy mimicry of, one of the most influential rock bands of the 90’s.
Decide for yourself — you’ll get sets from both here.
Local punk rockers. Recently revived decade-old pop-punk trio The Abducted and hardcore act Supreme Commander make the drive down from DC.
The Abducted - She’s Heroin
The Abducted - I Don’t Know About You Anymore
The Abducted - Don’t Want You
Schubert, Bartòk, and Beethoven
Telemann, Bach, Brahms, and more
Mendelssohn, Beethoven, and contemporary Chinese composer Chen Yi.
Top notch performers from Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble and the New York Philharmonic as well as festival founders Timothy Summers and Raphael Bell play pieces by Paganini and Mozart, including the latter’s Piano Concerto in D minor arranged for piano, string quartet, and flute.
buy tickets onlineMendelssohn, Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 5, and more.
Teenage power trio with classic rock on the brain.
The Wave - My Robot
The Wave - Sometimes
The Wave - Little People
The Wave - Sometimes
This Prefuse 73-approved experimental duo borrows liberally from electronic music, rock, and folk underneath the glow of on-stage video projections. Their latest album, “Lost And Safe,” features appearances by a cello, a mandolin, a banjo, a set of tuned plastic drain pipes, and found sounds sourced from the unmarked audio tapes they purchased at thrift stores all over the East Coast.
Similarly experimental instrumental rock bros Lymbyc Systym opyn. Way to make yt Google-fryndly, guys!
buy tickets online
Jackson Browne— famous for such hits as “The Pretender,” “Running on Empty,” and “Stay”– played for a large and appreciative crowd Tuesday, August 4 at the Charlottesivlle Pavilion, an event captured by photographer Tom Daly.
In talking to Beleza Brasil about their new songs and their enthusiasm for stylistic fusion, the most surprising thing is that there’s a conversation at all. Their last album had, by a substantial margin, one of the highest cover song quotients of any (more)
Pop and rock covers from a solo multi-instrumentalist
Mike Seeger
Contemporary folk-rock heroine Dar Williams, who you might remember from shows at Gravity and Starr Hill over the past couple years, will be performing at Is this Saturday. You should go because:
1) Is will knock five bucks off for Hook readers; just buy tickets as usual and use the promo code promisedland when checking out.
2) She wrote “Spring Street.”
Sleeping In The Aviary started out playing punk-minded fuzz-pop, but then added an accordion/saw player and promptly slipped down a folky slope toward Neutral Milk Hotel and Bright Eyes with their latest album, Expensive Vomit In A Cheap Hotel (still a little punk rock in that album title, obviously). St. God’s Hospital opens.
Sleeping In The Aviary - Write On
Sleeping In The Aviary - Gloworm
Sleeping In The Aviary - Gas Mask Blues
Sleeping In The Aviary - Everybody’s Different, Everybody Dies
Sleeping In The Aviary - Another Girl
Sleeping In The Aviary - Lanugo
Brainy and zany and totally a steal at just five bucks.
Trees On Fire - In The Middle [via WXJM Live!]
Straight Punch To The Crotch - Robot Baby
Straight Punch To The Crotch - When Animals Attack
Straight Punch To The Crotch - Summer Sun and Firecrackers
Doors tribute band. Sweetbriar opens.
Sweetbriar - Long Time Since
Sweetbriar - Line ‘Em Up
Sweetbriar - Baby, Don’t Say Goodnight
Classic blues descended from Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, and R.L. Burnside.
The Biscuit Rollers - France Blues
The Biscuit Rollers - Kokomo/Write Me A Few More Lines
Nicolay is frequently called the eccentric character in the rock band The Hold Steady. PUBLICITY PHOTO BY KONSTANTIN SERGEYEV
Eli Cook with a guitar signed by blues legend BB King. PUBLICITY PHOTO
Local folk songwriter Keith Morris plays a set with his band, and Rick Olivarez’s eponymous trio whips out some Django-style gypsy jazz.
Olivarez Trio - Choti
Olivarez Trio - Adieu, Bienville
Olivarez Trio - Chez Drennon
Keith Morris - Snowday [live]
Keith Morris - Billy Weir’s Dress [live]
Keith Morris - Baby Saves World [live]
Keith Morris - Waltzing [live]
Keith Morris - Candy Apples [March Rosetta remix]
Indie rock. Also featuring Lux Perpetua, the solo project from Extraordinaires guitarist Justin Wolf.
Adam Smith and the Invisible Hand - There’s Room In My Will
Swans drummer Jonathan Kane may have to play all the parts himself when it comes to his solo project, but the tradeoff is that it means he can let his experimental tendencies run even wilder than usual.
Young-at-heart local folk songwriter Keith Morris continues his burst of local shows with another hand-picked co-performer: Lance Smith, lead songwriter for Roanoke rockers Sinking Creek, who he’ll be bringing with him when he returns for another round next month.
Keith Morris - Candy Apples
Sinking Creek - Little Ethan
Sinking Creek - Kelling Heath
Sinking Creek - Cinderella’s Bible
Smith is solo for the time being, but Morris will have his backing band on hand, just as he did at the Gravity Lounge CD release show for his last album, a recording of which has just been released as a digital E.P. by blog label Clinical Archives.
Keith Morris - Snowday [live]
Keith Morris - Billy Weir’s Dress [live]
Keith Morris - Baby Saves World [live]
Keith Morris - Waltzing [live]
Keith Morris - Candy Apples [March Rosetta remix]
The thinking man’s hip hop crusader. With Diabolic, Poison Pen, and J. Arch.
Progressive reggae from Boston with a futuristic edge and elements of dancehall, hip hop, and drum and bass. Passafire opens.
John Brown’s Body - Give Yourself Over
John Brown’s Body - The Gold [Dubmatic Runnin' remix]
A music and beer festival is hard to argue with under any circumstances, which is why we usually try them on a somewhat smaller scale three or four nights a week, but this one, put together by the guys behind All Good, looks particularly compelling.
From behind the bar, a serious sampling of the local talent, including beers from Starr Hill, Blue Mountain, and South Street. And on stage… well, pretty much the same: driving guitar-rockers Earl Knox, FloydFest faves William Walter and Tucker Rogers, Old School Freight Train guitarist Jesse Harper, bluegrass ensemble The Infinite Stringdusters, headlining, can’t-miss country-rockers Sons Of Bill.</>
Earl Knox - Pretty Little Thief
Earl Knox - Accounting
The Infamous Stringdusters - You Can’t Handle The Truth
The Infamous Stringdusters - Won’t Be Coming Back
Damn it, Colin, was it really necessary to end the Pavilion’s description of this show with the word “apotheosis?” Yes, we know you made fifty gazillion dollars from The Crane Wife, and yes, that breaks down to about $25 gazillion per narrative cycle. Still, it had finally started to seem as though the public had finally grown past all the gleefully manic verbal quirks, at least enough for music writers to stop relying so heavily on the word “literate” (oops!) and pay attention to the other cool aspects of the record — structural humor in “The Perfect Crime,” regal tom rolls in the title track, etc. But then out comes “The Hazards Of Love,” a concept album filled with “lithesome maidens” and “irascible blackguards” and other things that prompted Slate to write an honest-to-God cheat sheet. There’s no arguing with tunes like “A Bower Scene” and “The Wanting Comes In Waves,” of course, but you’re still digging your own grave here.
Laura Viers will be around to give the last rites.
—>The Hook’s Stephanie Marie Garcia interviews guitarist Chris Funk
