Well, the rainy summer has given way to an even rainier autumn, yet RVA music is still going strong. The Richmond Folk Festival from this past weekend still gathered $70-k in donations, and the sold-out Neutral Milk Hotel at The National brought out the most dedicated of fans. Most likely, the rain will return for Saturday, our beloved monthly band showcase.
Well, the rainy summer has given way to an even rainier autumn, yet RVA music is still going strong. The Richmond Folk Festival from this past weekend still gathered $70-k in donations, and the sold-out Neutral Milk Hotel at The National brought out the most dedicated of fans. Most likely, the rain will return for Saturday, our beloved monthly band showcase.
This coming Saturday marks Sounds of RVA’s last showcase over at Bogart’s. Bogart’s is still booking sweet bands left and right, but I’m taking my hat out of the ring. It’s dangerous out there for bookers, y’all, and booking isn’t for everyone.
This week we will have “grammar-wave” (thanks for the description, Tumblr user ourgreypalms) bands Parentheses and Superlative, as well as one-man band Inland Ocean, starting out the evening with some introspective folk tunes. Post-punk Parentheses released two EPs this year, and the latest one, Pinhole Camera, is just below. “See Green” has some jangly guitars and layered vocals and mathy shifts in pace.
Superlative is a little heavier with punkcore vocals, and band members are also in Freaky J and the Bears. Check out The Golden Gander, the band’s most recent album. “Why won’t you come when I call you,” vocalist Jordan Fust posits in “To and With Most Dogs.” The frenzied guitars pause for a moment before crashing back into the scene.
photo courtesy of The Horn RVA
Inland Ocean is the solo project of singer/songwriter Chris Tait. His M.Ward-esque Americana ballads show off great composition, arrangement, and engineering. Inland Ocean has released three EPs this year alone, so keep your eyes open for what’s next. Here is the most recent EP, World at Night. Get sucked into the heady, alt-country vibes of “Mantra.”
TO RECAP: Sounds of RVA Showcase VI @ Bogart’s, 10/19, featuring Parentheses, Superlative, and Inland Ocean. 9 pm, $5.
photo by Peter McElhinney
Mekong Xpress is a jazz fusion/funk band which plays every Monday night at the national award-winning beer haven, Mekong Restaurant. Made up of a who’s who in Richmond jazz and jam rock (Todd Herrington from Dj Williams Projekt, Matt Walton from Former Champions, Kelli Strawbridge from The Big Payback, et al.), the Express just had a few live recordings surface via Pure Tone Recording. This track really gets the funk flowing with Herrington’s bass slapping and wahhed-out guitar. Horns come into the picture with a smooth array of keys. You can practically smell the good Belgian beer and dank Vietnamese food.
Photo by Andrew Necci
Sinister Haze is a 3-piece doom band who dropped a 3-song demo this week. Sludgey, creeping and hypnotic, the tracks extend themselves from six to ten minutes in length, stuck in a k-hole of the grim. “Black Shapeless Demon” summons evil entities with its slow-burn of a jammer. Heavy low-end takes the forefront, and it’s beyond brutal. Catch Sinister Haze at Baltimore’s Autumn Screams Doom on 10/28-29; also they play on 11/5 @ Strange Matter w/ Orange Goblin, Holy Grail, and Lazer/Wulf AND 11/13 @ Kingdom w/ Church of Misery.
photo by Monica Hernandez
DJ Harrison (aka Devonne Harris) is one of the most productive dudes in the business, and he’s back again with a group of tracks chosen at random from lost beats never released. The songs are only listed by numbers but are some of the illest sounds we’ve heard this month. These are unfinished beats with a lot of potential. He calls the project Tape Machine Fiend Pt. 1: Rarities, Throwbacks and Mishaps. Check out “R14,” a cosmic disco funk explosion. Roll one up and let your neck do all the vibin:
Goldin aka Goldin Harrison has a few new tracks out for your ears. He just released “Fuk’n Art” produced by Handbook, which combines a sweet soul sample and reminds us of some chill 90s R&B, a la Arrested Development.
Check out “Serenades of Saigon,” a laid-back pro-ganja beat with a flute and wild animals in the background to take your ears on location.
Goldin also appears on a video by Richmond-by-way-of-Harlem rapper Bigal Harrison called “Iron Mic” (prod. by Young Wonder). Follow the tale of a boxer, from training montage to clips of Mike Tyson, and get hip to the anthemic/chilling lines like “You’re in the presence of a king, bitch…” The high-pitched trap-beat maintains the seriousness for some reason. Make sure you see the last part of the video, featuring a soundbyte from Tyson against images of Bigal Harrison performing live, and draw your own conclusions.
Various Eggs is a four-piece psych rock band that is about to release a new EP, Don’t Expect Much From Others. The band just released the first single, “I Wish the Best for You,” featuring Julie Bosak on vocals. The sweet melody gets stuck in your head while the break up track dabs tissues on your swollen break-up eyes.
NASA scientist soundbytes and fusion grooves greet your ears in Energy 2000‘s newest release The Gemini Transmissions. The brother duo plays low-key dreamy grooves with NASA’s The Gemini Project Tapes playing in bits and pieces overtop. Dr. Mixdown, aka Ian Robinson, plays guitar and sings while Groovemaster, aka Taylor Robinson, holds down the synth, sings, and engineers the audio. The pair was influenced by long-pan reverb, tremolo, delay, vintage amplification, and much more for this album. The synth and guitar in “Contrails” create this spacey feeling while astronomers say things like, “Great accomplishments can be wrought by cooperating together in these new realms of infinity.” This synthwave psych rock is more than just background music.
By Sarah Moore Lindsey (soundsofrva.org)
