BFD 2010 :: Street Portraits (Best Friends Day Edition)

These photos were taken during and after the Andrew W.K./Municipal Waste show in a shallow puddle of mud under a bridge. I wasn’t one of the lucky thousand to get a ticket, so I set up a white background outside the show and experienced the music vicariously. Not all of the photos are of people who were at the show, but who cares? A Friday night portrait is a Friday night portrait right? To everyone who was nice enough to be nice -thank you! and if you are reading this Randy, hit me up. I know you need a new tour photographer!

by Bobby Bruderle
www.IsntABlog.com
P.S.: Thanks so much to Chris Hughes, Travis Pruit, and Anne Sturgeon for doing some party assisting.

READ MORE

DAILY FIX : NOAH-O - "I GOT IT" Ft. Streetz Deep & J-Nero

Shot at The Camel, rising Richmond hip hop stars Noah-O and Company bring straight fire with this new video for "I Got It". Check out the track, scope the myspace and be sure to let them know.

READ MORE

BRAIN DRAIN is Baaaaack !!!

BRAIN DRAIN is back this Saturday. To understand what this means, I gotta take you back a few years in my hot tub time machine. The Richmond party scene always raged but there wasn't a go-to that you knew was going to rip every time and be filled to the brim with attractive people. There were a number of quality parties but nothing steady to save the army of college kids from the weekly Tiki Bob's and Have A Nice Day Cafe "meat-market" club nights. If you wanted to dance, Richmond was lame.

Then the masterminds behind the now defunct (and sorely missed) Henry Gallery changed that by uniting a group of talented djs under the banner of HENROCK. There was much rejoicing and debauchery as the thing everyone was looking for was happening at CLUB 534 every month and through strong branding and great music, built a strong following.

But all things come to an end and as Henry fell off (and eventually closed its doors) out of the ashes rose the Audio Ammo crew in their second reincarnation. They tagged the monthly BRAIN DRAIN, added a new signature design sense and sound, and kept the ball rolling.

READ MORE

RVA NO.2 : Heavy Metal Robot Cannibals, An Interview with Illustrator Will Towles

In meeting Will Towles, I was introduced to his wife and son as they stepped out for errands. In that immediate moment of everyday conversation, I could tell how much Towles’ life had changed from late night metal shows and all-nighters hanging out with musicians to something far more focused. Showing off his young son’s room, he talked of its former glory as his drawing studio. Stepping into his new, much smaller, more cramped studio space, we connected on our shared love of heavy metal album cover art, the process and inspiration of creating it, and his mountain of sketchbooks.

TODD: How did you get started with album covers, where does that go back to?

WILL: Being at parties, going to shows, being in art school, and one day i just got up the nerve and was like, “Hey I can draw that.” I did a bunch of garage band stuff in high school and early college. I can’t even remember some of the names of the bands. I got fairly lucky early on, and one of the first people I started to talk to was Ryan from Municipal Waste. I did a couple of things for them when they were first starting up, and that was pretty much everywhere all of sudden.

TODD: When did you meet them? Was that through school?

WILL: [laughs] Um.. no, I was working in a call center, and his girlfriend worked there, and I was hitting on his girlfriend. She thought we would hit it off really well. We had lunch, and we did. I would hang out, drink, and listen to records with him. He even pulled me outside when we were getting to be close. He told me, “You were so scamming on my girlfriend.” We got a big laugh out of that. It was really sad though, we were really tight for about 6 months and then I moved to Baltimore, and did the same thing in Baltimore. I mean, the reason I knew that this was going to be something that was going to propel my artwork was because it was a smaller local band at the time and their record was in the record store in Baltimore. That told me that I could do these drawings and show them everywhere. I wouldn’t have to deal with the pressure of putting on an art show.

READ MORE

DAILY RECORDS: Colour Revolt, Crucified, Shinobi Ninja

Colour Revolt - The Cradle (New Fear/Dualtone)
Confessional bluesy/boozy blurts, sonically somewhere between the indie/alt-rock status quo and a more angular post-hardcore sound. Storytelling lyrical rambles resemble Cursive without the melodrama, Dismemberment Plan without the silliness, and Hold Steady without the Springsteen. Awesome at points, but bland at others. Worth further evaluation.

Crucified - Coldest Winter; Darkest Reaches Of The Mind (Double Or Nothing)
Standard hardcore riffs and song structures that seem at first like they should get boring are given a new lease on life by the unhinged delivery of vocalist Nick Rockwell. He sounds like he's frothing at the mouth, and it takes this album from stale to invigorating. Get into it.

Shinobi Ninja - The Baby G EP (Sound Machine Media)
A bizarre, unpredictable combination of sounds. Musically, think Rage Against The Machine, plus Velvet Revolver's awkward mix of glam and nu-metal. Vocally, Ke$ha's bratty faux-rapping is the primary reference. All of these songs sound different enough that liking one is no guarantee of liking the others. WTF is this?

READ MORE

The Migration Of The Diamond Center

The Diamond Center are a band that discover themselves more and more through their travels. Since their inception in Athens, Georgia, their sound has matured to incorporate lush reverb, unforgettable vocals and tribal drumming that dictate their approach to psychedelic folk. They took their time to arrive to the city of Richmond. Now, The Diamond Center can easily be considered one of the best exports to land on our front porch in the past year.

The Diamond Center was a reaction to a defining moment in the lives of musical partners Kyle Harris and Brandi Price. Their musical history as bass players helped fuel a desire to become confident songwriters on guitar. The aftermaths of divorces led them to seek comfort in one another as counterparts. This was when the first recordings from the group began to emerge. While sifting through these ideas, Price was offered an employment opportunity that brought the band to her former home of Lubbock, Texas.

The Diamond Center has always featured a rotating cast of musical characters. The contributions of these characters helped Harris and Price develop an understanding of what they hoped to accomplish with the band. One of their many integral collaborators was Price’s sister, Jana Price. With this new addition, The Diamond Center found their quintessential drum sound.

READ MORE

DAILY RECORD: Double Negative

Double Negative - Daydream Nation (Sorry State)

The members of Double Negative had to realize that naming their newest album after Sonic Youth’s 1988 opus would turn a few heads, and that the name would be a considerable sticking point in a good number of reviews. Perhaps the choice of name was simply an attention-grabbing move, but it is appropriate in many ways. The Sonic Youth album from which Double Negative borrowed the name, the band’s last before signing to a major label and moving on to the canonization of rock history and a million Rolling Stone best-of lists, was a fierce tribute to dissonance, and one of their most sweeping catalogues of subversive influences. These two facets are certainly mirrored by Double Negative’s most recent effort, a gnarled clash of sounds which, while retaining certain recognizable reference points, pulls the rug out from underneath punk rock clichés and offers a bracing, frenetic batch of songs--a breath of fresh air in a genre so muddled with stilted rehashes.

READ MORE

RVA NO.2 : The Pharrell Williams Interview

It is around 3:30PM and we’re in South Beach Studios in Miami Beach, Florida, shooting a music video with Pharrell Williams. Alex Germanotta, the DP of the video and I began talks with VA natives Clipse a little while ago. We wanted to shoot a video off of their album Till the Casket Drops, which features Pharrell, and fellow Virginia native Kenna. To say we were excited would be the biggest understatement ever. Pharrell Williams of the Neptunes, media mogul, fashion icon, soundtrack composer. 

We had shown up a couple of hours earlier to set up and were doing test shots when we got a call from Pharrell’s personal assistant, Mick. Mick could arguably have the greatest job in the world, seeing as he stays with Pharrell everywhere he goes, whether it be South Beach or the French Rivera. Mick’s call is simple and short, he notifies us that Chad Hugo will be coming by the studio, so if we want we can shoot with him as well. A pleasant surprise, Alex and I began to look for shots to incorporate him, and ended up on the roof getting these photos of Chad messing around. It’s a weird flashback to a middle school band room, as Williams and Hugo have known each other since they were 12 years-old, and their relationship has evolved from competitive to collaborative. They formed the producing group ‘The Neptunes’ sometime after high school, and the rest is history. They both grew up in Virginia Beach, and Pharrell will tell you it was not the easiest of times, but a blessing in disguise.

“The thing in Virginia is we did not have a musical outlet in the sense of a music industry, in the same way that people today get, so i guess it trickled down in a different kind of way. We approached making music by changing the feeling and, you know, almost having the part that is psychological, and thinking that [you’ll] never have the opportunity, so when you get the opportunity it’s all coming from a place of inspiration and nothing else. Now depending on the area, they want you to be an athlete or a rapper. During that time when we started out everyone wanted to be athletes or hustlers, and then you had the kids that were into education. That seemed a little bit more hopeful and promising because we had seen it happen before. As far as music we didn’t think that it was going to be that way. So I feel like if I had known (about music) I would have taken a very different approach and it would not have lasted as long as it has.”

It has lasted now for more than 15 years and is possibly as strong as ever. Recently Billboard Music named The Neptunes Producers of the Decade, beating out fellow Virginia native Timbaland. Aside from being one half of the Neptunes, Pharrell is a lead member of N*E*R*D, which have made who have made put their stamp on today’s music with profound clarity. On the eve of the 4th album installment for N*E*R*D entitled Nothing, with the latest single ‘Hot n Fun’ featuring Nelly Furtado, Pharrell expresses that this album can best be described as a conversation about society between N*E*R*D and women. 

“This is just a sign of the times man, the world is changing, and I just wanted to make an album that reflected that, thats all. The world is changing, life is changing, life as we know it is changing, you know what I mean?” 

And what Virginia meant to him?  “When I think about VA, I think about home, its the place that raised me and made me what I am, a huge influence. But at the same my heart always goes out to the effort of just making sure that education is much more readily available and accessible to the kids, because for whatever reason, everything in the world is based on perspective, and if your perspective is off, then probably most of your endeavors and your life will be too. So I think that there is a big disconnect there, in your education and how much it means to your future. I would like to make education the coolest thing there is, because it is the very means to your success, at least the way I have learned it.” 

READ MORE

Richmond Playlist : Is Alley Katz Reopening?

I was randomly checking the Alley Katz website (which is still active) and it looks like the venue might be reopened for business.

If it is in fact reopened, it’s only a good thing.

Read more local music coverage from Richmond Playlist at www.rvaplaylist.wordpress.com

READ MORE

DAILY RECORDS: Antagonist, Capsule, The Other

Antagonist - World In Decline (Prosthetic)
Antagonist have good energy and excellent production, but this brand of metalcore has been done often, and without an extra spark of creativity and originality, it's hard to find something to latch onto. This album slides in one ear and out the other without leaving behind anything memorable. Oh well.

Capsule - Capsule (Tape + Demo + Tour + More) (Robotic Empire)
Capsule play minute-long blasts of complex, chaotic noise, occasionally interspersing them with longer, simpler, more melodic tracks. The chaos is impressive, if sometimes confusing, but the haunting melodies are what stick with you. This album collects everything they released prior to their 2008 LP Blue. You need it.

The Other - New Blood (Steamhammer)
Blazing metal a la Mercyful Fate. Sounds awesome, right? But in a post-irony age it's hard not to feel like you're being tricked somehow. More problematic is the super-clean production--all the cheesy elements of this record need some grit to balance them out. Too goofy to endorse.

READ MORE