Richmond Appalachian folk band Dharma Bombs don’t quite look exactly the way they sound.
Richmond Appalachian folk band Dharma Bombs don’t quite look exactly the way they sound.
Listen to their new EP, Bird Dog Basement Tapes, and you might imagine a group of old string and horn players with dusty instruments and unruly facial hair. Watching them set up for a live show, you’d be forgiven for wondering if you were in the wrong place.
Instead, what you get is a group of twenty-somethings (some with facial hair, yes) led by recent VCU graduate Trey Hall playing a fusion of genres — folk, blues, swing and more — that predate them by generations, what Hall calls Appalachian-Dixieland.
The five-track EP, recorded with Justin Black of Crystal Pistol Records, captures the band’s evolution from a loose — even raucous — college band to something more practiced and sophisticated, though Hall said he wants to keep the group’s emphasis on its live shows, using any recordings to capture the live feel.
“[Black] creates the most organic environment in Richmond,” Hall said. “Recording for me is inorganic. I want to play live, not in a box. If people aren’t dancing how can we play dance music?”
And for Hall, it’s not about doing a million takes and getting it perfect.
“If we don’t get it in two or three takes we’re gonna lose our energy,” he said. “And us as a band, live is all about the energy and all about being over the top and charismatic and ridiculous.”
Bird Dog Basement Tapes was released May 14 at The Camel. The band recorded the EP in a day at Black’s basement studio, using reel-to-reel tape and condenser microphones to capture an older feel. Black’s bird dog, Birdie, inspired the name along with Bob Dylan and The Band.
“Dogs, friends, liquor, dancing, it was just this carnival of us in a basement,” Hall said. “The goal was capturing us having fun and then hopefully people will listen to it and they’ll have fun. And then they’ll want to have fun at our shows.”
With two of the band’s original members preparing to leave Richmond and Hall about to graduate from VCU, the band decided they needed something on record to commemorate what Dharma Bombs had been before its transition, a band with wild and fun live shows that you might see play drunk and nearly naked at the right house party.
Now, with six members (typically split between string and wind instruments), the group is attempting to tighten up to an extent.
Watching them at an outdoor show last week, you could tell Dharma Bombs, which is a reference to Jack Kerouac’s novel “The Dharma Bums”, has gotten comfortable letting the music speak for itself, moderating its energy to the laid-back setting for a concise and sharp performance.
“We’re channeling this unharnessed energy that in the past was debauchery…,” Hall said. “Now, thanks to the horn section, we have charts and orchestration and plans. Before when we played live, I would just look at someone and they would step up and solo. Now we plan it out.”
Some things, though, will never change. The band wants to become something of a Richmond staple in the mold of No BS! Brass Band and The Southern Belles. Hall came to Richmond from Botetourt County after he decided to attend VCU almost on a whim.
Since then, he has become passionate about the city’s community of musicians and wants to see the group support that community. They have a residency at The Camel, where they’ll be playing with fellow Virginia band Griff’s Room Band.
Catch Dharma Bombs next Thursday, June 9th at The Camel at 9 pm. Tickets are $5.
