James Wallace has been making music, both here in Richmond and in his more recent home of Nashville, for over a decade now. When I first encountered him, he was playing drums and doing the occasional vocal soliloquy in Ved Llama, a jam band that also featured Vindication guitarist Jack Raney. Over the intervening years, he’s played with such widely varied musical projects as The Tallest Trees and Heypenny, as well as numerous other ensembles that don’t quite spring to mind at this point. Starting a few years ago, he began playing with a rotating cast of backing musicians under the name James Wallace And The Naked Light, and it’s the latest incarnation of that group that will perform at Balliceaux tomorrow night. James is backed by some formidable Richmond talents in the current lineup of The Naked Light, including Matt White and Pinson Chanselle of Fight The Big Bull. The music they’re going to be playing will come mostly from the newest James Wallace And The Naked Light release, a cassette entitled More Strange News From Another Star. The tape is full of laid-back, acoustically-oriented pop music, which mixes old-time country sounds into a quirky pop sensibility that at times brushes up against the sound of the Elephant 6 collective–though The Naked Light are always more mellow than Neutral Milk Hotel. It’s the kind of music that sounds best on a long, lazy summer afternoon, when there’s nothing to do but soak up some sun and enjoy the lack of more pressing responsibilities, at least for a while. You can score the digital version of More Strange News From Another Star at James Wallace And The Naked Light’s Bandcamp page, but if you’re cool enough to still own a beat-up cassette player jambox you can stick on the corner of your porch this summer, then you know you’ll need to own this album on tape. And to get that, your best option is to head out to Balliceaux tomorrow night and catch James Wallace And The Naked Light live.
WHAT: James Wallace And The Naked Light Bring Their Live Sound To Balliceaux!
WHO: James Wallace, Matt White, Pinson Chanselle, Scott Clark, Nate Mathews, John Lilley, Aaron Williams… perhaps more?
WHERE: Balliceaux (203 N. Lombardy St.)
WHEN: Saturday, April 2, 10 PM
ADMISSION: $5
Check out the video for “He’d Like To Hear It Once Again,” from More Strange News From Another Star, after the jump!
James Wallace has been making music, both here in Richmond and in his more recent home of Nashville, for over a decade now. When I first encountered him, he was playing drums and doing the occasional vocal soliloquy in Ved Llama, a jam band that also featured Vindication guitarist Jack Raney. Over the intervening years, he’s played with such widely varied musical projects as The Tallest Trees and Heypenny, as well as numerous other ensembles that don’t quite spring to mind at this point. Starting a few years ago, he began playing with a rotating cast of backing musicians under the name James Wallace And The Naked Light, and it’s the latest incarnation of that group that will perform at Balliceaux tomorrow night. James is backed by some formidable Richmond talents in the current lineup of The Naked Light, including Matt White and Pinson Chanselle of Fight The Big Bull. The music they’re going to be playing will come mostly from the newest James Wallace And The Naked Light release, a cassette entitled More Strange News From Another Star. The tape is full of laid-back, acoustically-oriented pop music, which mixes old-time country sounds into a quirky pop sensibility that at times brushes up against the sound of the Elephant 6 collective–though The Naked Light are always more mellow than Neutral Milk Hotel. It’s the kind of music that sounds best on a long, lazy summer afternoon, when there’s nothing to do but soak up some sun and enjoy the lack of more pressing responsibilities, at least for a while. You can score the digital version of More Strange News From Another Star at James Wallace And The Naked Light’s Bandcamp page, but if you’re cool enough to still own a beat-up cassette player jambox you can stick on the corner of your porch this summer, then you know you’ll need to own this album on tape. And to get that, your best option is to head out to Balliceaux tomorrow night and catch James Wallace And The Naked Light live.
WHAT: James Wallace And The Naked Light Bring Their Live Sound To Balliceaux!
WHO: James Wallace, Matt White, Pinson Chanselle, Scott Clark, Nate Mathews, John Lilley, Aaron Williams… perhaps more?
WHERE: Balliceaux (203 N. Lombardy St.)
WHEN: Saturday, April 2, 10 PM
ADMISSION: $5
Check out the video for “He’d Like To Hear It Once Again,” from More Strange News From Another Star, after the jump!
