PHOTO BY MIKE EVANS/FLICKR
Grammy-winning singer-songwriter and Batesville resident Mary Chapin Carpenter can now add “newspaper columnist” to her resumé. On Friday November 21, the Washington Times debuted a new bi-weekly music column from Carpenter. Her inaugural installment centers on the band Hem, and how insurance company Liberty Mutual’s use of the band’s song “Better Days” in a TV commercial of theirs represents “a rare example of art and commerce providing a public service message for the soul.”
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Paul McCartney, seen here at a 2005 concert in London, joins fellow U.K. rockers Radiohead on the label founded by Dave Matthews and manager Coran Capshaw in Charlottesville.
PHOTO BY ANDY MACLARTY/FLICKR

Just when you thought Dave Matthews and Coran Capshaw couldn’t get any bigger than they are in the music industry, they went and signed the man whose face and voice might be the most recognizable among all living rock musicians. Next Tuesday, November 25, Matthews and Capshaw’s Charlottesville-based ATO Records will release Electric Arguments, the latest album from none other than Sir Paul McCartney.

But don’t go searching for this album from the former Beatle under “M” in your local record store. McCartney is releasing the album under the pseudonym “The Fireman,” a name he’s used twice before in the ’90s for two LPs McCartney deemed too experimental for release under his own name: 1993’s Strawberries Oceans Ships Forests and and 1998’s Rushes. But while those two albums were instrumental forays into electronica and sound collage, Electric Arguments features 13 new songs written and performed by McCartney. The album was completed in 13 days, with McCartney starting a new song from scratch each day in the studio.

Already, the album is receiving rave reviews. Rolling Stone gave it four stars, calling it “good ol’ psychedelic rock for the ex-Beatle’s headiest music in years.”

This is the second coup for ATO in a little more than a year. Last October, Capshaw and company signed U.K. rockers Radiohead and earned the rights to sell their 2007 album In Rainbows in stores after the band had made the album available online for whatever fans wished to pay for it (including $0). The album would go on to sell 3 million copies in stores.

No word yet on whether this means McCartney will be releasing any albums under his real name via ATO, but the last McCartney album, 2007’s Memory Almost Full, came out on Starbucks’ Hear Music label, which folded this year.

Between the two of them, Rascal Flatts and Jessica Simpson have sold more than 21 million records.
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Four of country music’s prettiest faces will soon grace the Jumbotrons of John Paul Jones Arena. Grammy-winning trio Rascal Flatts will headline at the JPJ on Thursday, January 29, at 8pm, and opening the festivities will be none other than former MTV reality star and current paparazzi quarry Jessica Simpson. Tickets for the double-bill go on sale at 10am next Saturday, November 15.

Vocalist Gary LeVox (né Gary Wayne Vernon), bassist Jay DeMarcus, and guitarist Joe Don Rooney formed the group in Nashville in 1999, and it didn’t take long for their polished harmonies and power-pop sound to catch that town’s ear. Only a year after forming, their debut single “Prayin’ for Daylight” reached #3 on the Billboard country charts. The buzz of that radio hit, as well as subsequent top 10 hits “This Everyday Love,” “While You Loved Me,” and “I’m Movin’ On,” moved 2 million copies of their debut album. Their 2002 follow-up Melt capitalized on that success with incredible staying power. They had their first #1 hit, “These Days,” and scored three more singles that reached #3 or higher over the course of the next two years.

None of this, however, could have anticipated the avalanche that was Feels Like Today. It sold 5 million copies (still their bestseller to date), reached #1 on the Billboard albums chart, spawned the platinum-selling #1 ballad “Bless the Broken Road,” a second #1 hit with “Fast Cars and Freedom,” and earned the group its first Grammy award for Best Country Song for “Bless the Broken Road.” Since then, they’ve scored four more #1 country singles, two more albums that hit #1 on the Billboard albums chart, and have become one of country music’s most consistently popular bands.

Jessica Simpson, while better known for her celebrity than her singing, has had no shortage of chart success. When she burst onto the scene in 1999, Simpson initially (more)

The couple that plays together…
PUBLICITY PHOTO

For the ever-transforming indie-pop duo Mates of State, otherwise known as Kori Gardner and Jason Hammel, the status quo is not an option. When they tired of playing clubs, they turned to larger concerts, including Lollapalooza earlier this year. When they tired of their signature electrical organ sound, they cut it out of their latest record, Re-arrange Us. And with the growth of their fledgling family, they now bring their two daughters, Magnolia and June, along for the ride rather than leaving them home.

The adventurous San Francisco-based husband-and-wife duo (who had never heard of Charlottesville– “Where’s that?” Hammel says he asked unabashedly) claim they jumped at the prospect of entering Central Virginia’s evolving music scene and are looking forward to trying out some new musical tricks when they take the stage at Gravity Lounge this week.

The Hook: How have you grown over the past 11 years, both musically and as a couple?

Jason Hammel: It took awhile, to be honest with you. The first record was a piece of cake because we had just started dating and writing songs together so we didn’t care– a honeymoon period, I guess you could say. But after that we started to realize that we’re in this committed relationship and we’re individual artists, so we had to find a common ground. On the second and third record, we fought a lot on song decisions and aesthetics. That’s not fun, so we worked through the process and discovered where the other person needed to live to make music.The last few albums were delightful to make.

The Hook: You’ve drawn on your relationship extensively throughout your music– what do you turn to now?

JH: The thing that’s sort of weird but cool about our relationship is that we spend a stupid amount of time together, and we still like each other.

The Hook: Re-arrange Us has been noted for being an evolution in your musical identity– what does this say about the band’s progress?

JH: We play music, that’s what we do, so if we want to continue doing it, you have to evolve, otherwise somebody younger will come in and say, “Step aside old man.”

The Hook: What will we see from you at Gravity?

JH: With the way we view music, you can either copy your idols, or you can take the things you like about your idols and make them you’re own. Unless you take a risk, you’ll never touch upon anything new and exciting. We’ve been talking about this tour, doing some new things onstage. Sometimes you have ideas and they’re great, and sometimes they’re ridiculous. Hopefully it won’t be, “Oh my gosh, this band is terrible, they’ve never been to Charlottesville, and this is what they’re bringing.”

Mates of State performs at Gravity Lounge on 11/12. Show starts at 8pm.

Acoustic and electric pop and rock originals from a pair of local teenage guitarists.

Two Kings - Pieces
Two Kings - In Your Heart
Two Kings - Janey Omph

Willie DE of The Wave opens.

Acoustic and electric pop and rock originals from a pair of local teenage guitarists.

Two Kings - Pieces
Two Kings - In Your Heart
Two Kings - Janey Omph

Willie DE of The Wave opens.

Willie DE - Hard Times Are Rolling

Just in time for Halloween, the John Paul Jones Arena and 106.1 The Corner have teamed up to bring you one of rock’s scariest creatures for cheap. Corner programming director Brad Savage announced on the air this morning that starting at 10am and running through the weekend, tickets for Nine Inch Nails‘ show at the JPJ on Wednesday, November 5 are available for $10.61.

May the jig be with him.
PHOTO COURTESY IRWIN

Late last month, 31-year-old musician and contractor Zach Snider headed to Texas for an event at which he might have heard screams of “drill, baby, drill” and might even meet someone named Carl the Carpenter. But despite the timing just days before the election, this event was no political rally: it’s the Irwin Ultimate Tradesman Challenge, a contest with a million-dollar-plus prize that Snider nearly won last year.

“He beat the time of the eventual winner last year,” says Irwin spokesperson Adam Colborne. “But his jig wouldn’t properly fit in the holes he drilled.”

Wha?

“When $1.26 million is on the line,” Colborne explains, “it can be pretty nerve-racking.”

Indeed, Snider— who plays in the band Straight Punch to the Crotch— admitted he was out for revenge as he went to the competition, which was held Sunday at the Texas Motor Speedway during the Dickies 500. While was wielding a bass guitar the night before departure at a local Straight Punch gig, the weekend in Texas was (more)

Former member of bluegrass legends the Country Gentlemen and Scottsville native Eddie Adcock has become an overnight Internet sensation for a YouTube video of his recent brain surgery, during which a conscious Adcock played his banjo the entire time! Doctors at Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville were trying to correct a tremor in Adcock’s right hand, and they figured the best way to test their work was for Adcock to keep picking as they poked around his grey matter. Already, the video has logged over 140,000 views.

Elton John as seen from upper deck.
PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER

Holden Caulfield, the protagonist in The Catcher in the Rye, reserved some of his strongest opprobrium for a pianist who added extra flourishes. But when the piano man is Elton John and the songs are America’s soundtrack, sometimes less isn’t more.

The haunting “Levon,” the song about about a boy-man born a pauper to a pawn, got an interesting bit of reverb about halfway through, as John R&Bed the end of it Friday night at John Paul Jones Arena. And consider what he did to “Rocket Man.”

Seen upon its 1972 release as a mere response to David Bowie’s haunting “Space Oddity,” John’s song about a Mars traveller was originally four minutes, forty-one seconds of quiet loneliness counterposed against synthesized, overdubbed harmonies.

But inside Virginia’s biggest concert venue, “Rocket Man” grew into something closer to a rock opera. As colorful, almost Yellow Submarine, images danced behind him, the 61-year-old pianist showed (more)

If you still haven’t bought tickets for Jay-Z’s show at the John Paul Jones Arena on Saturday, and you’ve registered to vote, you’re in luck. A limited supply of tickets to the big gig go on sale tomorrow 10am to 10pm for $19.50 apiece– if you present your voter registration card. You can make your purchase at Plan 9 Records in Albemarle Square, at the Visitor’s Center on the Downtown Mall, or at either Crossroads Music & Movies store in Waynesboro or Staunton. The cheapest seats available through the box office cost $49.75.

Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds announced yesterday that they would put on a free concert at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Alltel Pavilion on Sunday, October 26 in support of Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-IL) presidential bid, and one of the only places to claim tickets is right here in Charlottesville. Starting at 10am tomorrow, you can pick them up at the Obama campaign office on Wertland Street, near the Corner.

U.K. rockers and ATO Records artist Radiohead finally revealed today that they sold 3 million copies of its album In Rainbows since its official release on January 1. That’s not counting the millions of times the album was legally downloaded through the band’s website since the band made it available for a purchase price of each individual’s choosing (including $0). ATO Records, founded by Dave Matthews and his manager Coran Capshaw in Charlottesville, became the American distributor for Radiohead in November, a month after the band began its “pay what you will” experiment.

The first cut of the Beetnix‘ “Citizen Kane” music video shot August 29 on the Downtown Mall is now available online. Warning: heinously large download.

Tad Abbey and Jeff Sweatman, deejays from 106.1 The Corner, implore listeners to come to the Downtown Mall last time back in May.
FILE PHOTO BY BOB

The strolling public gets its first chance to grab a free copy of the latest 106.1 Corner New Music Sampler tomorrow (Wednesday, October 15) outside the Hook office on the Downtown Mall. The fourth such mix disc from the “different is good” radio station, the CD includes non-mainstream musical stylings by The Kooks, Dido, Amos Lee, and 14 other artists.

Co-sponsored by the Hook and Freestyle sports shop, the disc includes several songs now in rotation on the Corner.

The giveaway takes place tomorrow between 1 and 2pm on the Second Street auto crossing in front of the Regal Cinema.

The Garage, Charlottesville’s most off-beat art and performance space, presents “Multi-Media Sandwich,” featuring local artist James Ford’s films at the beginning and end of a musical performance by noisy local bedroom circuit-bending band Mondo, which Ford says will contrast nicely with his neurotically hyper-structured editing style. Charlottesville music fans will know James either as the blogger behind Nailgun Media or as the guy responsible for much of the cool artwork used on flyers for the Tea House. The audience is invited to sit at the mouth of The Garage or on the hill across the street in Lee Park. N. First St. (next to the funeral home parking lot and across from Lee Park). Call 985-630-1466 for more information.

Jay-Z’s set will be the first time a non-student promoter has ever brought a hip hop show to John Paul Jones Arena. In 2007, UVA’s student-run University Programs Council booked rapper Common to play an April 11 show at the JPJ.
PHOTO BY NRK P3/FLICKR

For Charlottesville’s hip-hop fans, life just got a little less hard knock. For the first time ever, a non-student promoter has booked the John Paul Jones Arena for a hip-hop show, and the christening will come from none other than the best-selling rapper of all-time, Jay-Z. Opening will be Atlanta MC T.I., who has sold 6.65 million albums of his own. The show will take place Saturday, October 25 at 8pm. Tickets go on sale this Friday, October 3 at noon. No word yet on how much cheese fans will have to spend to see the show.

Since making his debut in 1996, the man born as Shawn Carter but otherwise known as Jigga, Hova, the CEO of Hip Hop, or just plain Jay has sold more than 26 million copies of his albums in the United States alone— more than Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Buffett, Nirvana, or Frank Sinatra. That’s not counting the other 24 million records he’s sold worldwide.

Jay-Z’s beginnings in life may not have been auspicious (born into Brooklyn’s Marcy projects, abandoned by his father, shot his brother at age 12, dropped out of high school) but (more)

Neil Diamond, seen here at June’s Glastonbury Festival in England, will play John Paul Jones Arena on Monday, December 8.
PHOTO BY NEIL WHITEHOUSE PIPER/FLICKR

In the 1991 movie What About Bob?, Bill Murray’s title character famously declared, “There are two types of people in this world: Those who like Neil Diamond, and those who don’t.” Charlottesville is about to find out who’s who.

The “Solitary Man” himself announced today that he will be coming to John Paul Jones Arena on Monday, December 8. The arena has yet to announce when tickets go on sale or how much they will cost.

Though Diamond has sold 120 million copies of his albums worldwide to date, back in the ’60s it didn’t seem as though he would make a living as a performer. Rather, Diamond worked as a songwriter in New York’s legendary Brill Building alongside the likes of Carole King, Burt Bacharach, and Neil Sedaka. The music world took notice of Diamond in a big way when the Monkees’ version of his “I’m A Believer” sold 2 million copies in its first two days of release, and would go on to be the best-selling single of 1967.

It wasn’t long before Diamond (more)

As reported on the Hook music blog this morning, Charlottesville songwriter Devon Sproule made an appearance on the BBC program(me) Later…with Jools Holland back in February during her European tour. To give you an idea of what a coup this was for Sproule, recent guests on this late night institution hosted by the former keyboardist from Squeeze have included such platinum-sellers as James Taylor, Radiohead, Mary J. Blige, Joe Cocker, Patti Smith, Wilco, the White Stripes, and some guy named Paul McCartney. Accompanied by husband Paul Curreri on guitar, Sproule performed two originals: “Old Virginia Block,” and “Stop By Anytime.”

Terry Martin was on the verge of losing the Outback Lodge, when Lady Luck– or something– stepped in.
PHOTO BY LISA PROVENCE

Preston Avenue nightclub owner Terry Martin figures he was about a week from losing everything he’d worked for. The phone had been cut off. He couldn’t pay to renew his liquor license, and the $15,000 he’d recently spent renovating the Outback Lodge appeared wasted, as he was drowning in debt. That is, until fate intervened. He won the lottery— $100,000 worth.

The timing of his August 13 win and the $71,000 after-taxes giant check couldn’t have been better for Martin.

“I was the brokest I’ve ever been,” says Martin, who was also reeling from bad publicity and a whole lot of police attention stemming from a November shooting in his parking lot after a hip-hop event at his new downstairs dance hall, Club OBL.

But the threat hanging over his head was the imminent loss of his liquor license.

“I never lost it,” explains Martin. “But it was so bad (more)

Sir Elton John in concert in Alaska in May.
PHOTO BY R. ROSENBERGER

Sir Elton John, the child piano prodigy turned international superstar, is coming to Charlottesville. Officials with the John Paul Jones arena made the announcement 40 minutes ago via email that the musician will perform in concert on Friday, October 17.

John, who divides his time between homes in Britain and Atlanta, shot to fame in 1970 with a self-titled album that contained the poignant single, “Your Song.”

During the 1970s, he became one of the world’s top recording artists with hits that became and remain familiar to generations of AM— and now FM— radio listeners. From elegiac softies like “Daniel,” “Tiny Dancer,” and “Rocket Man” to lush rockers like “Benny and the Jets,” “Crocodile Rock,” and “Honky Cat,” John owned the airwaves.

After the untimely death of his friend, Diana, the Princess of Wales in 1997, John reworked his 1973 homage to Marilyn Monroe, “Candle in the Wind,” into an elegy for the departed princess, “Goodbye England’s Rose.”

Tickets go on sale this Saturday.

Trent Reznor has been quite the busy man in 2008. As Nine Inch Nails, he put out the Internet-only instrumental project Ghosts I-IV in March and the eighth proper NIN studio album The Slip in May.
PUBLICITY PHOTO

Though its lights may be presently turned off, John Paul Jones Arena is about to get a lot darker. Industrial rocker Trent Reznor, a.k.a. Nine Inch Nails, will be coming to JPJ on Wednesday, November 5 at 7pm. Tickets for the show go on sale this morning 10am.

One of the most influential musicians of the ’90s, Reznor started out as a 23-year-old burgeoning songwriter and keyboardist in Cleveland, frustrated that he couldn’t put together a band that played his music the way he imagined it in his head. So, in 1988, he took a cue from Prince, and decided to start playing all the instruments except drums on his songs, and began recording and performing under the name Nine Inch Nails.

It didn’t take long for the rest of the music world to take notice. Despite the fact that Reznor had (more)

Beside the under-construction Landmark Hotel, Damani Harrison of the locally-based hip-hop group Beetnix prepares to shoot a video tonight on the Downtown Mall. Shortly before 7pm, using a none-too-loud boom box to keep time, the band— “one for the money, two for the brain, three for the pain”— walked the Mall rapping “Citizen Kane.”

Hootie and the Blowfish’s major-label debut Cracked Rear View outsold Dave Matthews Band’s Under the Table and Dreaming by 7 million copies.
PUBLICITY PHOTOS

When both Dave Matthews Band and Hootie and the Blowfish burst onto the national scene with their major label debuts in 1994, it seemed there wouldn’t be room for the two of them on the charts. Both came from southern college towns (Charlottesville and Columbia, South Carolina), both played a folk-infused brand of feel-good music, and both had captured the attention of mainstream radio listeners with an infectious debut single.

DMB’s “What Would You Say” didn’t crack the top 10, while Hootie’s “Hold My Hand” went all the way to #2 on the Billboard singles chart. Three more top 10 singles propelled Hootie’s Cracked Rear View to sales of 11 million copies in the U.S. alone, tied with Boston’s self-titled album for the best-selling debut release of all time. DMB’s Under the Table and Dreaming sold an impressive– but not as earth-shattering– 4 million copies.

Indeed, there wasn’t room for both.

Hootie’s follow-up, Fairweather Johnson, sold (more)

Bandmate Carter Beauford arrives at the church on Park Street.
PHOTO BY WILL WALKER

As a soft but steady rain– the first in more than a month– fell on his hometown yesterday morning, friends and family of LeRoi Moore filed into Charlottesville’s biggest church to remember the late Dave Matthews Band saxophonist, who died August 19 from injuries suffered June 30 in an all-terrain vehicle accident on his farm outside town.

Eulogizing Moore was the Rev. Dr. William Guthrie, the former rector of Moore’s family church, Trinity Episcopal. Guthrie revealed that the accident had put Moore into a coma, but that he occsionally awakened to greet well-wishers, both in Charlottesville and in Los Angeles where he had a second home and was to begin a long rehabilitation program.

“In Los Angeles,” said Guthrie, “he suffered a fatal embolism that would eventually take his life.”

Though nearly 1,000 people turned out to say goodbye to Moore, only the four men seated (more)

LeRoi Moore: 1961-2008
PHOTO COURTESY OF DAVE MATTHEWS BAND

One song into his band’s set at the Los Angeles Staples Center on Tuesday, August 19, Dave Matthews managed to silence the nearly 20,000 fans.

“We got some bad news today,” he told the crowd. “LeRoi gave up his ghost.”

Hours before Matthews had uttered the words, Dave Matthews Band saxophonist and founding member LeRoi Moore passed away in a hospital bed at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, just six miles from the Staples Center, from complications from an accident. In June, Moore suffered broken ribs and a collapsed lung in an all-terrain vehicle accident on his farm outside Charlottesville. He was 46 years old.

The news hit his native Charlottesville hard, especially those who knew Moore well.
“It’s been an incredibly difficult couple of days,” says Peter Griesar, keyboardist and original bandmate of Moore’s in DMB. “He was (more)

Six days after going on with the show the night of LeRoi Moore’s death, Dave Matthews Band announced today that they are postponing tonight’s scheduled show in Sacramento and Wednesday night’s show outside Salt Lake City. In LeRoi Moore’s Daily Progress obituary today, Moore’s family announced there would be a public visitation tomorrow at First Baptist Chuch on Park Street from noon to 5pm and a funeral there at 11am Wednesday. The band will resume its tour with a three-night stand at the Gorge Amphitheater in Washington State beginning Friday.
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Less than two months after an ATV accident on his Charlottesville area farm, Dave Matthews Band saxophonist LeRoi Moore has died from unexpected complications stemming from his injuries, according to numerous internet reports. On June 30, Moore was seriously injured while riding his all terrain vehicle on his farm outside Charlottesville. Initially listed in critical condition, Moore was released from the hospital several weeks later, only to return to UVA medical center on July 21, reportedly with complications from a collapsed lung.

According to a release from the Dave Matthews Band publicist on TMZ.com, Moore died unexpectedly today in Los Angeles at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, where he had recently returned “to begin an intensive physical rehabilitation program.”

The Dave Matthews Band was scheduled to play a concert at the Staples Center in L.A. tonight. At posting time, the status of that concert is unknown.

At the conclusion of his three-hour set last night at the sold out Richmond Coliseum, Bruce Springsteen announced he’d like to bring an old friend on for one more song. Right on cue, out walked Robbin Thompson, composer of unofficial Virginia anthem “Sweet Virginia Breeze,” and as the Hook reported in April before the Boss’ JPJ set, a former bandmate of Springsteen’s in the Richmond-New Jersey collective Steel Mill. Along with the rest of the E Street Band, they played a cover of the Isley Brothers’ “Twist and Shout.”
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A peek inside the new burger joint, scheduled to open early fall.
PHOTO BY MARISSA D’ORAZIO

The chic-but-unnamed new burger-joint/music-venue replacing Orbit Billiards on the Corner proudly touts a Fast Times at Ridgemont High still painting. Owners Andrew Watson, JR Hadley, and John Adamson (of Toad’s Place in Richmond) let the Hook know that the bottom floor will be a non-smoking restaurant, and the top floor will have a bar and proudly showcase musicians with room for up to 200 audience members. Maybe our CVS-induced Charlottesville music void is about to get filled.

The economy may be flagging, gas and food prices might be rising, and the Paramount Theater might have recently upped the ante in the grab for the baby-boomer concert dollar with their new fall lineup, but music fans are still plunking down the big bucks to go to the Charlottesville Pavilion. In his weekly playlist e-mail, 106.1 The Corner’s Brad Savage reports that Willie Nelson’s gig tonight (cheapest ticket: $31.50) and Crosby Stills Nash’s show Thursday night (cheapest ticket: $44) are sold out.
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