I know you’re itching to get back outside as much as I am, but while the rain clears up we’ll have to wait just a little while longer. We’re almost in festival season where outside concerts seemingly never end, with sunshine and tunes galore. Until then, we’ve got an another couple weeks of shows happening on this inside of your favorite venues all around town.
On this week’s SOUND CHECK I’ll take a look at the Broadberry where two amusingly named groups, The Motet and Yam Yam, are bringing their well practiced funky jams, while on the same night on the other side of town Low Phase come down from Michigan with their indie tunes back up by a plethora of local talent. Erin & The Wildfire drop an exciting new track and I review a release of a 60 year old record by legendary saxophones Yusuf Lateef.
Are you a band with new music, a listener with suggestions, or just want to say hi? Send an email to Bones@rvamag.com
out of town acts to see
THE MOTET & YAM YAM
Friday, April 12th @ The Broadberry
Doors: 7:00 pm
Listen, not everyone likes mostly instrumental funk music, I get it. However, if you do, then this is the show for you. The Motet, an outfit out of Denver, Colorado are bring their locked in jams to the Broadberry this Friday night for an evening of head bobbing and grooving. The group have been hustling for over 20 years and have carved out a niche for themselves among groups like Snarky Puppy and Lettuce to be something of an everyman’s version of the technical funk/jazz music that has persisted for decades. While band’s like the Weather Report often verging on the avant-garde and Snarky Puppy being furiously technical and fast paced, The Motet offer a more chilled out version of this ethos.
Joining them are Yam Yam, an equally quirky group that blend funk music with the roots of jazz, offering a focused yet easy to understand opening to this show of memorable tracks and dynamic sounds.
LOW PHASE, MAD ABBEY, KY STEPHENS & MIDNITE TAXI
Friday, April 12th @ Gallery 5
Doors: 7:00 pm
Low Phase is a indie rock group out of Michigan. The ensemble have been releasing a stream of singles and an EP over the course of the last two years, and their reaching out for further shows indicates that this group is ready for the next phase of their growth. The music is catchy, competently produced, well rounded, and even a few musical surprises that offer up more than the standard verse chorus presentation of maudlin lyrics that often plague the worst of the genre. I’d recommend starting with their EP Star Dog as an introduction to this quirky band making its way to Richmond.
Backing up Low Phase are two hot local groups in the form Midnite Taxi and Mad Abbey. Mad Abbey’s high energy psychedelia influenced rock and roll continues to excite me no matter how many times I go back and check out their tracks. Full of contrapuntal sounds and mature song writing that refuses to follow norms and easy categorization, they are a wonderful band that you would do well to get acquainted with.
Next up with Midnite Taxi listeners will find the most delightful music to gaze at their shoes with. Unobtrusive and relatable the music of Midnite Taxi is perfect to accompany this night of indie adjacent tunes and good vibes.
local & regional releases
ERIN & THE WILDFIRE – LIGHTNING SO BLUE (single)
They’ve done it again. Erin & The Wildfire’s newest track serves as another excellent addition to their lexicon of increasingly varied and eclectic musical sound. While traditionally steeped in the sounds of funk and indie music in their earlier records, the group seem to be leaning increasingly into the realm of 80s pop and synth pop as they develop. With the release of their amusing cover late last year of “i2i” by the fictional artist Powerline (really Tevin Campbell and Rosie Gaines) from A Goofy Movie, what at first seemed like a one of joke now seems to be a trend, and with just one more thus it becomes a pattern. A truly exceptional group Richmond is proud to claim as our own, I am excited to see where this group continues to go, and my eyes will be on what they do next.
what I’ve been listening to
YUSUF LATEEF – EASTERN SOUNDS (album)
Alright so technically this album was recorded in the early 60s, however, this remaster is from 2023 and I consider a re-release a release (also I really wanna talk about this record). Born in 1920 jazz saxophone legend Yusuf Lateef died in 1920 at the age of 93. On this record he plays just about every woodwind you can imagine from various flutes, to oboe, and of course his trusty saxophone. From the two chord jams on songs like “Plum Blossom” to the the delicate oboe playing on “Love Theme From Spartacus” I simply can’t get enough of this album. Eastern Sounds never reaches the atonal realm of some of Lateef’s other works — and which can be off putting to even the most season jazz enthusiasts. Lateef seems to hit on the perfect mix of the avant-garde artyness of players like Pharaoh Sanders and the relative digestibility for a more massive audience that is the sensibility of someone like John Coltrane. An excellent record that can serve as the background for anything from an afternoon drive to a poker game, I highly recommend Eastern Sounds next time you’re doing just about anything.
Top photo courtesy of The Motet
