Classical string quartet performs Haydn, Beethoven, and a piece by the Austrian composer they are named for.
German baroque pieces by Bach, Handel, and Telemann performed by the German early music ensemble
Mass-mailing band publicists quite often mix up Charlottesville and Charlotte, North Carolina, which usually is just needlessly inbox-inflating and a little annoying. Today, however, that’s the only reason we learned that grown-up former high school chick metal band Kittie is currently touring with waywardly-dreadlocked 90’s rapper Coolio (recently immortalized in a cookbook) and facepainted rap-metal shock rock lunatics Insane Clown Posse (recently honored both by Law & Order, with a villainous appearance in a recent episode, and by GQ’s introduction of a new fake Juggalo correspondent). So who looks craziest here?
If, beyond all explanation, this is actually your kinda thing, start making plans to head down to the Music Factory in Charlotte on May 17. No Charlottesville stops planned yet, sadly, but one can always hope — remember, we’re still waiting on this year’s Fridays After Five schedule. In the meantime, .
Related: Coolio makes a mean Caprese salad.
Scuzzy freakouts tempered by simple Afrobeat-style cyclical minimalism gives you this modern funk band, very loosely defined, led by formidably bearded guitarist Colin Langenus, formerly the leader of revered Brooklyn DIY rockers USAISAMONSTER, and rhythmically propelled by C-ville expat Matthew Clark, former drummer for instrumental rock trio Ostinato and songwriter Sarah White’s backing band The Pearls. If Langenus’ pulverizing riffs are anything like they were in his last band, this should be killer.
Former Black Flag guitarist Greg Ginn’s new considerably lighter Taylor Texas Corrugators project opens with more psychedelic country-tinged jamband material than you’d ever have expected from the 80’s hardcore punk legend — who, to be fair, is now in his mid 50’s.
buy tickets onlineThe season-long “musical postcards” theme concludes here with a trip to the Americas, featuring pieces by Antonin Dvorák, Samuel Barber, and UVA’s own Judith Shatin.
The season-long “musical postcards” theme concludes here with a trip to the Americas, featuring pieces by Antonin Dvorák, Samuel Barber, and UVA’s own Judith Shatin.
Featuring VCU professor Peter Martin on marimba and an abstract all-percussion piece by Greek composer Iannis Xenakis
Chamber music by Beethoven, Haydn, Schubert, and more.
The “Tapestry Of Sounds” program is 35th anniversary celebration featuring Schubert, Mendelssohn and Vivaldi alongside jazz and pop arrangements and folk music from Haiti, augmented in the second half by fifty or so of the group’s alums. Guest performers include a cappella group The Virginia Belles and a group called Noteworthy performing “Hide and Seek”, the awesomely twisted contrapuntal Imogen Heap solo vocal piece which was regrettably more successfully introduced to the world via Andy Samberg’s SNL mockery and Jason DeRulo’s sample-jacking than through more appropriate presentations like this one.
The Virginia Women’s Chorus - Adam Lay Ibounden
The Virginia Women’s Chorus - Las Amarillas
The Virginia Women’s Chorus - Simple Gifts
Tradtional Jewish music. With special guest Canadian rapper Socalled, who is like a hip hop version of Matisyahu, and local jazz trumpet player John D’earth, who is not.
Renaissance and Baroque works from Spain, England, Italy, and Germany
Acoustic and electric pop and rock originals from a pair of local teenage guitarists.
Two Kings - In Your Heart
Two Kings - Janey Omph
Two Kings - Pieces
Country-rock band from former Bloodkin drummer Bentley Rhodes, Sometime Favorite Adam Long, and UVA brainiac Michael Rasbury. Brian Martin opens.
Formerly known as “Special Ed and the Short Bus,” this string band named after our recurring Q&A feature plays so-called “contemporary old time” with a pointedly absurdist comic edge, which all in all sounds like a temporal paradox that’s roughly in the same spirit as the award-winning new documentary Hot Tub Time Machine.
The Hot Seats - Price Of Gas Blues
The Hot Seats - Perugia
Piano-pop singer-songwriter who is known as “Shannon Curtis The Great” in Korea (seriously — it’s the name of a best-of compilation album recently released by a Korean label). Genna Matthew opens.
Shannon Curtis - Lay Me Down
Shannon Curtis - I’m Ruined
Shannon Curtis - Don’t Call Me
Adult contemporary, soul and R&B songwriter
Singer-songwriter plays acoustic rock and popular covers
Achingly spartan alt-folk monuments to solitude, sometimes gently ornamented by simple melodies on distant electric guitars and fiddles or boy-girl vocal harmonies. Rob Cheatham of Nice Jenkins and Gunchux opens.
Mandolin Orange - Wee Bird
Mandolin Orange - Night Owl
Mandolin Orange - Another Seed
John Cage, Steve Reich, and a grad student laptop piece promisingly titled “Autopoetics II.”
Folk duo
The Honey Dewdrops - Nowhere To Stand
The Honey Dewdrops - Fly Away Free
Former King Wilkie guitarist with his new band. Also featuring songwriter Carl Anderson and Pitney collaborative pal Sarah White.
Sarah White and Ted Pitney - Apple In B Major
Sarah White and Ted Pitney - Half A Smile
Sarah White and Ted Pitney - Ply Me
Sarah White and Ted Pitney - Sweetheart
Sarah White and Ted Pitney - Where You’re Going
Psychedelic lo-fi rock. Also featuring Manorlady and Nectar Bats.
CAVES - Arp
CAVES - Face The Wall
CAVES - Harm In Here
CAVES - Points Of Light
“Gospel-garage-glam”; also featuring folkier and considerably less alliterative bands like Tyger And The Lamb and Polite Sleeper, the latter of whom might be worth comparisons to the Mountain Goats or The National aside from the homemade drum kit.
Preacher - I Luv You My Friends
Preacher - How Can I Keep From Singing
Preacher - He Is A Rock
Songwriter Megan Birdsall’s third album Over The Bones documents her recovery from the major facial reconstructive surgery she underwent to correct a rare degenerative arthritic disorder which was slowly fusing her jaw to her skull and would have eventually made it impossible for her to sing and, you know, breathe. Kanye’s “Through The Wire” doesn’t seem all that impressive now, does it?
Gritty Welch/Rawlings-style alt-folk and Americana multi-instrumentalist duo, heavy on both the electric slide guitar and the vocal harmonies.
Screen Door Porch - Zemurray
Screen Door Porch - Wrong The Right
Also featuring The Don’t Tell Darlings.
Perhaps an excessive response to the ongoing saga of the new noise ordinance, but awesome all the same: attendees of this dance party can only enjoy the tunes spun by DJ Motion Potion via the provided wireless headphones, so the whole affair will be totally silent otherwise. This will theoretically also allow you to remove the headphones and hear all the various noises made by drunken young adults while engaged in such behavior sans Gaga soundtrack, which in turn could probably make for a great field recording thesis project for one of UVA’s geeky musicology graduate students.
Try to say that ten times fast. Preferably screaming, as these crunchy metal youngsters will be doing for most of the night, obviously. We are tempted to go ahead and hand out the 2010 trophy for Most Hilarious Juxtaposition Of Band Names now, but we’ll probably end up waiting. Don’t make us regret that decision, Charlottesville. With After Colony and Our Blind Society.
Two signs that flamenco guitarist Marija Temo is a force to be reckoned with: 1) she has her own signature guitar and 2) Beleza Brasil says so. With dance accompaniment by Ulrika Frank and Peter Richardson’s Toma Que Toma.
Also known as the Funky Urban Southern Ensemble, a jazz group which includes pianist Jim Wray and percussionist Darrell Rose.
Local indie-pop quartet with various 60’s and 80’s fetishes.
The Hilarious Posters - The Fists The Fighting
The Hilarious Posters - Crossed Over The Ocean
The Hilarious Posters - That Thing You Don’t
The Hilarious Posters - Sugarbread Falls
Also featuring Mss. and songwriter Travis Kokas.
Rurally-minded indie-folk from Baltimore.
Folk-rock and swing quartet, alternately Gypsy and Carnie, which is built around a husband-and-wife acoustic guitar duo, all sans percussion but with a hyperactive bouncing bass (no relation) which more than makes up for it. Django jazz madman Rick Olivarez opens.
Caravan Of Thieves - Rattlesnake
Olivarez Trio - Choti
Olivarez Trio - Adieu, Bienville
Olivarez Trio - Chez Drennon
Blues duo focusing on relics from the 20’s and 30’s.
Lorie Strother - Wild Women Don’t Have The Blues
Dr. Levine and the Dreaded Blues Lady - Shake It Daddy
Solo acoustic set from the tail end of folk rockers HoboJac
It’s been scarcely six months since Sharon Jones christened the Jefferson with their last blowout, but this will almost certainly sell out nonetheless, and given that they’ll have their new album I Learned The Hard Way in tow, you can certainly count on some new tunes on the set list. The killer house band of Daptone Records, pretty much the most important funk/soul record label in the world at this point, typically puts out meticulously crafted songs which seem proudly dated, members of an aesthetic school that faded long ago to everybody’s detriment. So although iron-lunged matriarch Jones is the flashy centerpiece, usually bouncing around the stage with entirely too much energy for a 54 year old, you should also make sure you tune into the precision jangle of guitarist Binky Griptite’s supporting chords, producer and bassist Gabe “Bosco Mann” Roth’s impeccably solid low end, and the tightly intertwined right hooks occasionally thrown by the horn section. And thank your lucky stars for the six-month turnaround on this — last time, it took about fifty years.
Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings - 100 Days, 100 Nights
Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings - I Learned The Hard Way
Motown throwback act Fitz and the Tantrums opens.
buy tickets onlineThis is certainly the biggest ticket thus far in C-ville Coffee’s upstart new concert series — mandolin player and all-around funnyman Ron Homason started this Rounder Records approved quasi-bluegrass outfit in the 70’s after wrapping up his tenure as one of Ralph Stanley’s Clinch Mountain Boys, and picked up a gospel twist along the way that carries through to their 2009 revival, Echoes Of The Mountains.
Baritone folk singer-songwriter who also likes to whistle
Bluesy rock from the Petersburg sextet and rocking blues from the Nelson county guitarist
Independent country-rock sensation (and, as a result, self-made multimillionaire) Corey Smith has a calling card song called “Twenty One” which is an ode to youth, thus making its striking popularity among high school students a bit ironic. Raleigh rockers American Aquarium open with alt-country and roots-rock in the vague outline of Whiskeytown and Ryan Adams.
American Aquarium - Katherine Belle
American Aquarium - Mary, Mary
American Aquarium - PBR Promenade
American Aquarium - Good Fight
American Aquarium - Tennessee
American Aquarium - Ain’t Going To The Bar Tonight
It seems that referring to yourself as “yacht-rock” basically means it isn’t so, but all the same, that’s where you’ll find the friendly soul and R&B heart for this new project from Jason Caddell, formerly the guitarist for revered D.C. experimental punk-rockers The Dismemberment Plan and also featuring members of Travis Morrison’s post-Dismemberment band the Hellfighters. With hot C-ville indie rockers Drunk Tigers.
Poor But Sexy - The Only Good Thing
Poor But Sexy - Big Chief
Poor But Sexy - Fool Runnin’
Poor But Sexy - Confession
Drunk Tigers - Small Town
Drunk Tigers - Lessons Hurricane
Harmonica-centric blues and roots rock, now also featuring local guitarist Ian Lawler
South Indian “Carnatic” classical ragas played with a slide on a guitar-like 21-stringed folk instrument called the chitravina
N. Ravikiran - pallaviin Raaga Lathangi
Alt-country and bluegrass band led by Brooklyn singer-songwriter Blake Christiana. Charleston rock-band-with-horns Sol Driven Train opens.
Yarn - Bad Bad Man
Yarn - Don’t Break My Heart
Yarn - I’m Down
Yarn - Ain’t That A Sin
Yarn - Empty Pockets
Yarn - Alone On The Weekend
Acclaimed Italian ensemble performing baroque opera with a specific focus on Vivaldi arias.
The Venice Baroque Orchestra - Vivaldi Violin Concerto in E Flat, III
The Venice Baroque Orchestra - Vivaldi Concerto in C Major, III
The Venice Baroque Orchestra - Tartini Violin Concerto in A Major, IV
The Venice Baroque Orchestra - Atenaide
The Venice Baroque Orchestra - Locatelli Concerto No. 1 in D Major, IV
The Venice Baroque Orchestra - Tolomeo
Acoustic rock and alt-country
Blue Line Highway - Almost Reel
Blue Line Highway - You’ll Get Yours
Blue Line Highway - Morning Glory
Blue Line Highway - Goin’ On Here
Blue Line Highway - Cry
The 48-year-old pop-rocker wants to help ease the pain of uninsured families. PUBLICITY PHOTO
I admit I didn’t ask him after the show last night, but Merton is just a little too mysterious and improvisationally talented not to be Ben Folds, who played at the Jefferson Theater March 23 and included an Ode to Merton. (We’re not the first to notice the extreme similarity.)
Former Hook art director H. Mitchell Jarrett took some pictures at the March 20 Taylor Swift concert at John Paul Jones Arena, and here they are.
First of all, let’s all grumble together in disgust that the foul-mouthed hooligans in this guitar/cello duo are doing that sleazy thing where they have multiple CD release parties and expect broke-ass economic detritus like yourself to buy them celebratory drinks more than once. Shame on them.
Moving on then: you’d still do well to check out both shows, if only to verify the theory we posited for Thursday’s set at the Blue Moon Diner, namely that they must be progressively getting wussier, being that 66% is an entirely unacceptable ratio of wholesome lyrics for a Barling and Collins album. (We are doing everything in our power to ensure that we are commemorated in a filthy song next time around. C’mon, guys, there are tons of things that rhyme with “Hawes.”)
Barling and Collins - (That’s Right) I’m Looking At Your Girlfriend
Wait, so are C-ville’s foulest-mouthed goofballs going soft? The lyrics on this here new album are reportedly 2/3 clean. (The ruling could go either way on the title, “New World Odor,” which is of course superb.) But either way, at least guitarist Stephen Barling is promising “general stupidity” here (which, rather astonishingly, is the first time anybody has ever tried to get us to print that phrase in our calendar. Step it up, people.) You probably think that’s just the ticket for tonight, because you are yourself a giant idiot. We know this because you’re going to a Barling and Collins show.
Barling and Collins - (That’s Right) I’m Looking At Your Girlfriend
Well, it was fun while it lasted, folks. Easily C-ville’s most brazenly-named band in eons, Straight Punch To The Crotch gears up for the release of their upcoming record, the City Saints EP due in the next few months, by adopting the title of the previous one as their new name and throwing in the towel on the gloriously obnoxious moniker. Someone go try to talk them out of it. Maybe throw a few key punches if they don’t want to listen at first? At least this is a release party for the new single, though, so that’s something. With Marionette and Astronomers.
We Are Star Children - City Saints
Straight Punch To The Crotch - Robot Baby
Straight Punch To The Crotch - When Animals Attack
Straight Punch To The Crotch - Summer Sun and Firecrackers
Astronomers - Or Maybe It’s Nothing
Astronomers - Perpetual Emotion
Astronomers - Stratagem
Astronomers - The Singularity
Astronomers - Shoes
Astronomers - My Hologram
Astronomers - Fermata
The acoustic singer-songwriter performs at a special show open only to WNRN donors.
buy tickets onlineThe acclaimed but short-lived local folk-rock band reconvenes as a sextet. With DBB Plays Cups, Old Calf, and a late set of raging Americana from Pantherburn.
The Hill And Wood - I Can Say What You Want
Pantherburn - The Octopus
Pantherburn - Mister Baby [demo]
Singer-songwriter plays blues, folk, and rock. Also featuring indie pop singer John Zedd.
Americana from two former members of the now-defunct delta blues trio The Biscuit Rollers. Folk rockers HoboJac open.
HoboJac - Uncle Joe
HoboJac - Ramblings Of A Sinner
HoboJac - Crossroads
