MUSIC




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Fly Anakin Lands at No. 3 on Pitchfork’s Best Rap Songs of 2025.

Was giving DJ Harrison’s new album a listen preparing the interview. I’m sitting with the tracks, getting a feel for the album’s pulse, when “Seek God” comes on. Fly Anakin steps into the beat with that effortless Richmond control that comes from years of sharpening...

‘Trashed Panda’ Now Fronts Ads and Supports Local Wildlife

Only in Virginia could a raccoon get day-drunk in an ABC store and wake up a statewide celebrity by Monday. After a masked intruder broke into the Ashland ABC on Nov. 30, tore through shelves, smashed bottles, and ultimately passed out facedown in the bathroom, the...

CONEX and the Strange New Gravity of Carver

The Carver neighborhood sits tucked between the highway and the downtown sprawl, close enough to reach everything and overlooked long enough to feel like its own island. So when CONEX appeared there a few weeks ago, rising out of a sunken concrete pit built from cargo...

Sound Check | Nabeel, Sundials, Kinda Evil, DJ Harrison & More!

One of the best parts of the Richmond scene is that there is always a good cause to support at a gig, you’re already paying the $15 for the ticket, go make it worth someone's while. Got a show coming up? New single? Simply want someone to talk music? Hit me up...

Sound Check | White Beast, Chemical X, Eyewash & More!

Instead of some quirky intro, all I would like to do today is point you toward the canned food drive happening at The Camel right now. The drive is intended to ease the burden placed on those suffering from the lack of SNAP benefits, so please donate if you can. Got a...

Halloweek 2025 is Here! Our Halloween Guide To Richmond

Twenty years of Halloweek. Twenty years of fake blood, fog machines, and people insisting “Halloween’s their personality now.” And you know what? We respect it. For one glorious week, Richmond drops the pretense and remembers who it really is, a city that loves costumes, chaos, and a good excuse to cut loose. Halloween isn’t for just kids...

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Richmond Halloween Parade 2024 by Michael Simon

Sound Check! Sunami, Deathcat, John Paycheck & More!

Get the costume on, go dance around while dressed as the Lorax. Halloween always gets the city breathing, so go get lost in it. Got a show coming up? New single? Simply want someone to talk music? I am your guy at griffin@rvamag.com. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dXP2XIPUEc&list=RD5dXP2XIPUEc&start_radio=1 Sunami, Scowl, Nuovo...

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Sunami_photo by Trippy_RVA Magazine 2025

Haram: A Forbidden Punk Paradox

"When you say something is Haram it is 100 percent forbidden. You will burn in hellfire." - Nader Haram   NYC’s Haram might be the most exciting thing in punk rock right now. Or art in general. Blistering, fast, and dangerous, they’re an antidote for the pervasive mediocrity that can pass for music these days. Started in 2015, their music...

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Small Town RVA! Richmond’s First Video Game Is Here

It’s 1996, and young Richmond native Joseph Cannella is playing Pokémon Red on his grimy, well-loved Game Boy. Enchanted by the world-building, he wishes he could explore Richmond the same way he explores Pallet Town, the first area of the game. The simple overworld design and the chunky black-and-white pixels leave a lot to the imagination but...

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Review | A Theater of the Mind, David Byrne Live in Richmond

It’s 1983 at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and I didn’t go to class much. I took Theater 101 as an elective because I thought it would be easy (it wasn’t). One Tuesday in October, the professor ditched the day’s syllabus and spent the next 75 minutes dissecting the Talking Heads concert held in the campus basketball arena the...

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David Byrne_Richmond VA_Altria Theater_photos Rich Tarbell_RVA Magazine 2025

Trump Pardoned J6er Convicted of Burglary in Henrico

Last Thursday in the Henrico County Courthouse, Zachary Alam was found guilty of grand larceny and burglary. Alam was one of about 1,600 people pardoned on President Donald Trump’s first day of his second term. He had previously been convicted for his role on January 6, including assaulting law enforcement officers. Nicknamed “Helmet Boy,” Alam...

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Zachary Alam_J6er convicted by Goad Gatsby_RVA Magazine 2025