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VA Shows You Must See This Week: January 15 – January 22

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FEATURED SHOW
Sunday, January 20, 1:30 PM
Dave Watkins @ The Pump House (1708 Pump House Dr) – $30 (order tickets HERE)
Our city has a long and fascinating history, going back hundreds of years, and one result of this fact is that there are random neglected corners of Richmond that hold fascinating treasures mostly undiscovered by the city’s population at large. A great example of this is the old Richmond Pump House, which can be found at the end of a little-used road just up the hill from the toll booths at the nickel bridge (aka the Boulevard Bridge). Long ago, it pumped the city’s water out of the Kanawha Canal and uphill to the Byrd Park reservoir, from which it made its way to the taps and spigots of the city.

The Pump House is a big old stone castle of the building, and its gothic spires are irresistible when you come around the curve and see them standing tall. It’s been almost a century since it supplied the city with water, and almost as long since the huge dance hall on the balcony was open for events. When I first discovered it in the mid-90s, my friends and I enjoyed wandering around its dusty depths, but these days it is not open to the public due to safety issues. However, the non-profit Friends Of Pump House have some grand wishes for it, and are currently working with Enrichmond and the city’s Parks and Recreation Department to restore it to its former glory and gain it an occupancy permit, so it can host events and dazzle visitors once again.

To that end, they’re holding a pretty excellent and unique music-related event this Sunday afternoon, and while tickets are extremely limited, there were still a dozen or so left when I checked this morning, so you absolutely still have a chance to be part of it. The event will begin at 1:30 with a full tour of the Pump House, and if you aren’t old enough to have had the chance to explore it years ago, it’s definitely worth getting a full tour (especially since you’ll have knowledgeable people there to tell you what you’re looking at and what its purpose was). Then at 2 PM, Richmond mainstay Dave Watkins will break out his homemade dulcitar and grace all in attendance with a beautiful set of avant-garde music incorporating his fascinations with old-time folk music and electric-guitar ambience. I talk a lot about great shows in this column, but full-on experiences that incorporate this city’s rich history are rare indeed. Make it your business to be part of this one.

Wednesday, January 16, 8 PM
The Spliffs @ Vagabond – Free!
When I hear a name like the Spliffs, my mind goes in one of two directions — either irreverent punk or marijuana-scented jam-band. However, the Spliffs coming to Vagabond tonight to play a free show for us all occupy neither of those genres. Instead, they’re a vehicle for the amazing soulful vocalizations of Brittany O’Neill, a lady who has been lighting up stages and recordings around the Richmond scene for years — I first saw her take a guest vocal for The Big Payback at The Republic, so you know that was a while back.

She’s been back and forth between RVA and LA for the past couple of years, but she’s home now, and she’ll be fronting the Spliffs for a set of soulful jazz fusion at Vagabond tonight. And she’s got some powerful friends backing her up — the group also consists of People’s Blues of Richmond drummer Neko Williams, jazz pianist Macon Mann (probably better known to RVA Mag readers as “Mc Chicken,” the rapper responsible for the viral “Richmond River Rat” video of a few years ago), and brothers Paul and Dmitri Yeonas of the Twin Brothers Band (and they are indeed identical twins). This quintet’s sure to be responsible for some deep grooves down in the Vagabond’s downstairs space, known as “The Rabbit Hole.” So head down the stairs and enjoy the underground sounds.

Thursday, January 17, 7 PM
Jackie Cohen, Angelica Garcia, Strawberry Moon @ Gallery 5 – $10 (order tickets HERE)
Spacebomb Records isn’t always right in your face with what they’re up to, but one thing’s for sure — they never sleep. This past year saw them release music from a variety of artists, and one particularly striking voice on their roster came from Jackie Cohen. She released two EPs on Spacebomb in 2018, known as the Tacoma Night Terror EPs, parts one and two. The nine songs in total presented by these two dispatches from Cohen’s personal emotional landscape that might have started out as quirky indie-folk tunes, but bear the unmistakable stamp of Spacebomb in their final form, harking back to the funky smoothness of the 70s Laurel Canyon music scene just as easily as they evoke post-y2k oddball indie singer-songwriter vibes.

It’ll be fascinating to see what form this sound takes in a live environment, and we’ll have just that opportunity on Thursday night, as Jackie Cohen takes the Gallery 5 stage and presents us with her unique tunes, including such hits as “Make U Sick,” “Ladies’ Man,” and the memorably-titled “I Hate My Body.” She’s joined in this endeavor by Richmond singing sensation Angelica Garcia, who’s currently hard at work on the follow-up to her attention-grabbing 2016 debut, Medicine For Birds. Recent Bandcamp uploads indicate promising results being achieved in the studio, and Ms. Garcia always brings her A game to the live environment, so you’re sure to enjoy this one. Strawberry Moon opens up with their entrancing ambient indie-pop — get there on time, and stay all night. Not a minute of this evening will be missable.

Friday, January 18, 7 PM
Gabby’s World, Yowler, Missangelbird @ Capital Ale House Music Hall – $10 in advance/$12 day of show (order tickets HERE)
This is one for all you young indie kids. Gabrielle Smith hasn’t been performing under the name Gabby’s World for very long; previously, she was known as Eskimeaux, a name that undoubtedly got the boot due to dodgy cultural implications. However, both under that name and at the head of her new quartet, she’s produced some undeniably memorable music. Beast On Beast, the album Gabby’s World released a couple of months ago, show that her delicate vocals and assured songwriting touch are both very much intact; indeed, this just might be her best work yet.

You’re not going to want to miss out on what Gabby’s World conjure up in a live environment. Equally, you’re going to want to catch every second of the set from Yowler, a solo vehicle for Maryn Jones, who previously grabbed attention as the leader of All Dogs. On Yowler’s second full-length, Black Dog In My Path, Jones brings us a set of hushed, mournful songs that center on her softly plucked acoustic guitar and vocals delivered at a near whisper. The room will have to get quiet for this performance, but it will certainly be worth it to hear the dark, delicate beauty of Yowler’s music. Richmonders Missangelbird will get this one started off right, and it’ll only get better from there.

Saturday, January 19, 8 PM
Louis York, Calvin Presents, Weekend Plans @ Capital Ale House Music Hall – $15 in advance/$18 day of show (order tickets HERE)
Louis York is a group whose name you may not know as yet. They’ve been recording for a few years now, and have released three installments in their Masterpiece Theater series of EPs. But what really makes the duo of singer Claude Kelly and pianist/multi-instrumentalist Chuck Harmony so distinctive is their background in the behind-the-scenes world of the pop music industry. Both have some heavyweight songwriting credits to their name — Kelly for Miley Cyrus’s “Party In The USA,” Harmony for Rihanna’s “Russian Roulette, among many others of course — and both made quite a name for themselves in that world separately.

The combination of their talents into the duo known as Louis York has only produced more gold in a variety of genres, from the dance-club bounce of “Don’t Play” and the cocktail jazz of “I Enjoy You” to the orchestral R&B-pop of “Clair Huxtable” and the Queen/MCR power balladry of “Nerds.” This isn’t a group with limited ambitions, by any means, and they certainly don’t seem to have any limit to their talent, so when they hit the stage, there’s no telling what sort of amazing flights of musical fancy you’ll be privy to. What we can tell you, though, is that you’re sure to enjoy every moment of it.

Sunday, January 20, 7 PM
Brower, Nightcreature, Weird Tears, Brain Drain @ Gallery 5 – $7 in advance/$10 day of show (order tickets HERE)
I love it when a band I’ve never heard of shows up in town and blows my mind. Well, Brower aren’t here yet, but considering it’s my job to write this column every week, I always get a little bit of advance warning — which is my cue to alert all you Richmond music fans. And this week, it falls to me to ensure that all of you are aware of Brower, the New York power-pop group who’ll be taking the Gallery 5 stage this Sunday night. A fuzzy garage-rock edge is certainly present in Brower’s music, but what really makes this group stand out is their flawless sense of pop-rock songcraft.

Led by Nat Brower, a singer-songwriter with credits from garage rockers Nancy, Brower does quite a bit to evoke the best sounds of 70s rock radio, from David Bowie to T. Rex, on their new album, Buzzsaws. The result is a recipe for nonstop dancefloor action, of the sort that’ll have you smiling all night. We all could use a bit of that, especially since we’ll all have to head back to work the next morning. Excellent local support from garage-punk up-and-comers Nightcreature, post-Cherry Pits rockers Weird Tears, and bubbling-under punk group Brain Drain will only make this evening even sweeter.

Monday, January 21, 6:30 PM
Cracker, Camper Van Beethoven @ The Broadberry – $25 in advance/$30 day of show (order tickets HERE)
It’s always nice when post-punk bon vivant and one-time Richmond hero David Lowery brings his music back to a stage in RVA, and this particular event promises an overview of Lowery’s entire career in one enchanted evening. It all got started back in the early 80s with the formation of Camper Van Beethoven, who both ascended from the California punk scene of that era and tweaked its incipient orthodoxy by breaking all sorts of unwritten rules: using acoustic instruments and violins, incorporating country and folk sounds into their punk-tinged melodies, and Lowery’s iconoclastic lyrics, always delivered with biting wit.

But it was Cracker that really made David Lowery a star. Brought together in the Oregon Hill neighborhood, long before it was gentrified beyond all recognition, Cracker grew to international stardom with early-90s heartland-rock hits like “Low” and “Get Off This.” Today, David Lowery plays and records regularly with both of his bands, and double-billed shows like this one have been an outstanding result of that synergy. We’ll all get an amazing overview of David Lowery’s entire four-decade career, from “When I Win The Lottery” to “Euro Trash Girl” to “Waited My Whole Life.” And every moment of it is going to be excellent. We don’t get a treat like this every day here in Richmond — I’m counting on you not to miss out on this one.

Tuesday, January 22, 8 PM
Brunswick @ The Hof – Free!
One way you can tell that Richmond is a great town for music is by taking a look at the caliber of mid-week free shows we get around here. For a great example, look no further than this jazz performance taking place in The Hof’s “Darkroom” performance space on Tuesday night. Brunswick is a name that might not grab as much attention in discussions of local jazz groups as more prominent leading lights like No BS! Brass and Butcher Brown.

Nonetheless, this 13-piece ensemble is a local mainstay, and features members who’ve done time in all sorts of other noteworthy jazz groups around town. Last summer, they released Five Years, their debut LP, which celebrated the amount of time leader John Hulley and his talented bandmates had been working toward this milestone. Live, they’ll intersperse original tunes from the album with brilliantly unorthodox covers of artists like Frank Ocean and Daft Punk, giving you an up-close experience of jazz in the 21st century. And you get all this for free on a Tuesday night — how awesome is this town?

Bonus Hampton Roads Picks:

Saturday, January 19, 7 PM
Ghouli, dad, Bato, Nervous System, Single Use Plastic @ Charlie’s American Cafe – $5
Both of the picks for the Hampton Roads area this week are on Saturday night, which is something I usually try not to do. However, with the way everything stacked up this week, unless you want to catch up on what Jimmie’s Chicken Shack are up to in 2019, or see a solo show by one of the ICP guys, you’re gonna have to try and double up on Saturday night. So it goes. The question you must answer, in order to know which of these is more up your alley, is: are you more of a punk rocker, or a hardcore kid?

If you picked the former, you’re going to want to head to Charlie’s American Cafe, where two RVA groups head up a bill of punk rock excellence. Ghouli keep it raging and ranting with their straight-ahead punk riffs, while dad’s pensively furious queercore summons up memories of pre-Sleater-Kinney group Heavens To Betsy. A fierce trio of Tidewater punk rock crews are also on the bill, with the hyperspeed punk rage of Bato being a standout. Nervous System has a creative D-beat sound, mixing that genre’s expected UK punk gnarl with a surprising talent for multi-layered guitar harmonies. Local newcomers Single Use Plastic get things started off right. This one will rule.

Saturday, January 19, 7 PM
Faded, Circle Back, Beggar’s Row, Down To This, Violent Life Violent Death @ West Beach Tavern – Free!
But don’t get us wrong, this one will be a ton of fun too, and if you answered “hardcore kid” to our question above, it will appeal to you in particular. This one will offer chances aplenty for serious mosh pit action, as a quintet of hardcore bands from Tidewater and the Carolinas come together to lay the brutality on ya. VB rippers Faded have shown a serious talent for metallic hardcore of the breakdown-laden variety; they’ll get the spin-kicks flowing for sure. And of course, fellow Virginia Beachers Beggar’s Row take things in a thrashier direction, picking up the speed without dropping an ounce of the metal.

These groups are joined by a trio of powerhouses from the Carolinas, bringing their riffs northward to devastate the Tidewater region. Circle Back in particular has a powerful sound with an outright death-metal undercurrent, but rest assured, these guys keep it core all the way. This Charleston SC band comes to us in the company of Charlotte, NC’s Violent Life Violent Death, who have the most direct appeal for those who want their hardcore to bear at least a passing resemblance to Swedish thrash (I’m definitely one of those people). And of course, Down To This, who hail from the oceanside military town of Jacksonville, NC (not FL), have some serious thick-necked beatdowns to deliver. This one’s gonna be heavy as fuck, so come prepared to move.

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Top photo via Friends Of Pump House

Email me if you’ve got any tips for me about upcoming shows (that take place after the week this column covers -– this week’s column has obviously already been written): [email protected] [and yeah, there’s plenty more of my writing to read over at GayRVA — come say hey.]

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

Chiquita Boom: Weekend Playlist By Angelica Garcia

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Every Friday night, RVA Mag drops one scorcher of a playlist curated by influential artists, musicians, and institutions.

This week, we close out a year of fine music with a playlist from local singer-songwriter extraordinaire Angelica Garcia. She received a lot of attention from her excellent solo debut, Medicine For Birds, released in 2016 by Warner Bros. Since then, she’s made a decided pivot toward the DIY spirit of the Richmond music underground. These days, even as she continues to tour the world as a solo artist, she’s become a force on the local scene; her new group, Jr Wolf, pairs her with Virginia Moonwalker majordomo Russell Lacy. On this mix, she explores sounds from all over the world, but makes sure to represent the heck out of RVA in the process.

Dance your way into the new year with this one, Virginia.

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

No BS! Brass Band with Peoples Blues of Richmond, Spooky Cool, Prabir Mehta, and 5 more… at The Broadberry

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RVA All Day Block Party, feat. No BS! Brass Band, Angelica Garcia, Spooky Cool, Night Idea, Dharma Bombs, Prabir, Yoga w/The Shack Band, Brunswick, Thorp Jenson, DJ Ghozt, plus after party feat. People’s Blues Of Richmond, South Hill Banks @ The Broadberry – $25-30 (order tickets HERE)

RVA Shows You Must See This Week: April 25 – May 1

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FEATURED SHOW
Saturday, April 28, 1 PM
RVA All Day Block Party, feat. No BS! Brass Band, Angelica Garcia, Spooky Cool, Night Idea, Dharma Bombs, Prabir, Yoga w/The Shack Band, Brunswick, Thorp Jenson, DJ Ghozt, plus after party feat. People’s Blues Of Richmond, South Hill Banks @ The Broadberry – $25-30 (order tickets HERE)
Spring seems finally to have arrived — if all this rain and pollen is any indication — and it’s the perfect time to give full vent to your spring fever with an all-day indoor/outdoor block party! And of course, what better RVA band could there be to throw such an event than No BS! Brass Band? I first saw these guys playing outside on a sidewalk during a street fair, and that sort of environment still seems like their most natural home. And of course, having been responsible for the city’s unofficial anthem, “RVA All Day,” they’re an excellent group to get us all up and moving, celebrating the wonderful city we live in!

So of course, it’s no surprise that No BS! Brass Band are the stars of this shindig, being thrown at The Broadberry on Saturday from the early afternoon until late at night. What might surprise you a little more is the sheer jam-packed nature of this lineup. Even the early acts are essential — up-and-coming local country-rocker Thorp Jenson will be kicking off the live music at 2 PM, and the lineup just stays awesome from there, with excellent outdoor-stage sets from local rulers like Angelica Garcia, Night Idea, Spooky Cool, and more! During the early afternoon, the inside of the venue will play host to a record fair, face painting, and other vendors inside, as well as a beer class from Hardywood in mid-afternoon. The Shack Band will be on hand as well; not to perform, but to lead a yoga class!

And of course, No BS! Brass will rock us all at the conclusion of the outdoor festivities, before things move inside for a kickass after-party featuring grungy blues-rockers People’s Blues Of Richmond and goodtime bluegrass strummers South Hill Banks. The after-party has some kind of complicated RSVP system in place, but when you order your ticket, you’ll get an email explaining the whole thing, so no worries! And by the way, you should order your tickets right now — you know you want to be there, and when they sell through the tier 3 tickets (tier 1 and tier 2 are long gone), the price will go up five bucks. Don’t sleep!

Wednesday, April 25, 10 PM
Trampoline Team, Enoch Ramone & The Ebola Boys Jr Esq III, USA Big Dogs, Jonny Drinks @ Flora – Donations encouraged
At some point it seemed like En Su Boca was becoming the new local home for wild garage-punk parties, but with them cutting back on hosting live music in recent months, it now appears that Flora, of all places, is poised to take their crown. Not necessarily a predictable outcome, but certainly a welcome one, as it means we all benefit from regular arrivals in town of beer-soaked rowdy garage ensembles from all over the country and beyond! This time around, we’ve got NOLA maniacs Trampoline Team topping the bill with some quick-hitting rippers sure to get you out of your seat and starting the pit before you’ve even finished your first glass of liquid courage. Get ready to rumble!

They’re joined by Atlanta’s Enoch Ramone & The Ebola Boys, who got seriously grotty on their debut EP last year. The muddy sound, blown-out vocals, and song titles like “My Kinda Scum,” “Get Fucked Up,” and “Bath Salts” should let you know where things stand for this band. Trampoline Team may have the tunes to induce movement, but Enoch Ramone & co. are the types to pick you up out of your chair, overturn your beer onto your head, and throw you across the room. In the best possible way, of course. They’re joined on this bill by a couple of new local rippers — USA Big Dogs, who’ve got a vaguely old-school HC sound mixed with that classic garage-punk snottiness, and Jonny Drinks, about whom I know literally nothing. But their name is promising, at least for certain values of the term. Get ready to tear it up on Lombardy St. tonight.

Thursday, April 26, 8 PM
The Lillingtons, Makewar, Park Sparrows, Talk Me Off @ Strange Matter – $12 in advance/$15 day of show (order tickets HERE)
Here’s a real blast from the past. The Lillingtons came along in the mid-90s with an excellent no-frills punk sound that did a good job of evoking the Ramones without seeming like a straight-up ripoff — a balancing act a lot of bands of similar inclination weren’t really able to pull off. Their classic 1999 album, Death By Television, gave us some killer tunes with lots of references to gloriously crappy sci-fi B-movies, delivered atop a thick, powerful guitar sound. After a few more albums, though, the Lillingtons disappeared for over a decade, with singer/guitarist Kody Templeman becoming an essential member of killer pop-punkers Teenage Bottlerocket. However, these leather-jacketed Wyoming guitar-slingers are back, having signed to Fat Wreck Chords and released a brand new album, Stella Sapiente, last fall.

The new album shows an expanded range, with some intriguing postpunk guitar textures sneaking into the mix even as Templeman and co. continue to dish out the killer melodies and propulsive rhythms. This isn’t quite the Lillingtons you knew back at the turn of the millennium, but would you really want them to sound exactly the same nearly 20 years later? Progression is essential, and it looks really good on them, so come out to Strange Matter Thursday night and find out exactly what these guys have been cooking up over the past several years. They’re coming through in the company of Makewar, who have a sorta aggressive-sounding name and presentation, but are actually pretty melodic and emotionally-oriented, so those of you who dig bands like Hot Water Music and Dillinger Four will probably find a lot to enjoy here. Local emotional-punkers Park Sparrows will connect pretty well with these guys from their opening slot, while Talk Me Off will give us a great dose of snotty punk gnarliness to kick the evening off.

Friday, April 27, 7 PM
Hawthorne Heights, Listener, Hotel Books, Sienna Skies, Heavy Things @ Capital Ale House Music Hall – $20 in advance/$25 day of show (order tickets HERE)
Is it time once again to cut our wrists, black our eyes, and get emotional with Hawthorne Heights? It sure seems to be, at least metaphorically speaking (definitely not advocating self-harm here — if you’re seriously feeling that way, skip the show and call someone, OK?). It’s fair to say that these guys are true survivors of that post-Y2k emo scene — after all, they’ve survived the death of an essential member, staying strong and continuing to make great music year after year with no real diminishment in quality. I never would have predicted back in 2004 that this band would have a more consistent career than Fall Out Boy, but sometimes it’s nice to be surprised.

This year sees the release of the sixth Hawthorne Heights LP, Bad Frequencies, which follows up on the trilogy of EPs, Hope, Hate, and Hurt, that were released over the past few years. Lead single “Pink Hearts” concentrates on the melody and gives us a juicy taste of pop-punk greatness, but they’re sure to turn up the intensity at other points on the album — and certainly in the live setting, which is what you really don’t want to miss. They’re joined by an amazing lineup of touring acts, most notably the almost-indescribable post-rock sound of Listener, which pairs intriguing musical soundscapes with the spoken poetics of Dan Smith. These guys are secretly just as good a reason to show up on Friday night as your actual headliners, and when you add in performances from Australians Sienna Skies, Californians Hotel Books, and Ohio’s Heavy Things, you’ve got a jam-packed lineup that’s cheap at twice the price.

Saturday, April 28, 8 PM
Cannabis Corpse, Salvaticus, Perpetuated, Eldritch Horror @ Strange Matter – $10 (order tickets HERE)
Decriminalization is definitely still a goal, but as we Virginians bemoan our continued inability to attain it, we can at least console ourselves that we will always have Cannabis Corpse. This veteran project, which has been through a variety of lineups but has always been led by brothers Landphil (Municipal Waste/Iron Reagan) and Hallhammer (Cruelsifix), just keeps on ripping it up with amazing death metal albums channeling the Floridian mid-90s heyday of Morrisound… but if all those songs about gore and Satan were really all about WEED. Their latest record, Left Hand Pass, pays homage to Swedish killers Entombed with its title, but the music contained within is pure original and hits every bit as hard as… I dunno, I don’t smoke the stuff, insert your own “really good strain of bud” joke here.

I may not be willing to do 10 minutes of googling to make a good marijuana joke, but I sure am willing to bang my head at whatever sounds Cannabis Corpse choose to dish out to us at Strange Matter Saturday night, whether they be brand new heavies from their latest album, classics from debut LP Tube Of The Resinated, or anything inbetween. It’s all killer, no filler — which can’t be said of that sack of oregano your best friend bought at the last Bonnaroo, am I right? Cannabis Corpse are joined on this bill by a trio of excellent thrashers from around the extended region: Charlottesville’s Salvaticus, who have managed to carry on after losing an essential member and will be bringing us a new album soon; DC’s Perpetuated, an old-school raw death onslaught; and brand new Lovecraftian Raleigh rippers Eldritch Horror. It’s a festival for the senses, and the THC in the air is sure to soothe the pains in your neck from all the headbanging. You know what to do.

Sunday, April 29, 10 PM
KINGS, RVA Entertainers Club @ Bandito’s – Free!
The Jellowstone crew doesn’t keep quite as high a profile around Richmond as they once did, but if anything, they’re getting even more done than ever before. This is particularly true of KINGS, which brings together soulful singer-songwriter Kelli Strawbridge (who you might know from his many appearances around town with his James Brown tribute act, The Big Payback, as well as quite a few other projects) with producer/drummer/keyboardist DJ Harrison (aka Devonne Harris, of Butcher Brown, Tennison, and many other projects including the latest Jack White album!). What with everything else Kelli, DJ Harrison and the rest of the crew have been up to, KINGS themselves haven’t been hitting the live stages all that much lately — but that’s about to change, this Sunday night at Bandito’s.

As always, the lineup KINGS hits the stage with is somewhat subject to change. However, once you know you’ll get participation from the two main creative figures in this project, what more do you need? And if in fact you do need more, the infrequently appearing but always-incredible RVA Entertainers Club is sure to bring it to you. This locally-focused jazz-funk supergroup is likely to feature Marcus Tenney, Reggie Pace, DJ Harrison, Andrew Randazzo, and quite a few more of the best players this town’s musical underground has to offer. Plus, all of this is available to you for free! Can you beat that? You most assuredly cannot! And you know what they say — if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em at Bandito’s for some great food and killer music. That’s how the saying goes, right?

Monday, April 30, 8 PM
Benefit For Carver Promise, feat. Well$pnt, Sundream, Lennon Does Loops, Soul Burst @ Strange Matter – $5
This random Monday evening show may not feature any of the biggest names in RVA music (or at least, no one who’s achieved that status YET), but it’s certainly worth your time regardless. Part of this is because the groups you’ll be checking out — new Charlottesville alt-rockers Sundream, spacy cloud-hopping rapper Well$pnt, chiptune-tinged instrumental beatmaker Lennon Does Loops — have a lot of widely varying but always intriguing sounds to offer. But another big part of this is the charity this event will benefit: Carver Promise.

This group helps provide aid for students attending George Washington Carver Elementary, one of the many underfunded public schools in our area, pairing college student mentors with younger kids who benefit from one on one help with basic academic skills as well as more artistic and creative pursuits. There’s a lot of talk around town these days about the crisis in our local public school districts, and how more funding needs to be found to help bring these schools up to passable levels. While we wait for the city to find solutions, it never hurts to help out the organizations who are stepping in to make sure something is being done in the meantime. Plus, you’ll get to hear some cool tunes while you’re at it.

Tuesday, May 1, 7 PM
Boy Named Banjo, Ghost Of Paul Revere @ The Broadberry – $12 in advance/$15 day of show (order tickets HERE)
That whole roots-Americana thing started to seem overdone for a little bit there, back around a decade ago. However, now that the trends have moved on, it seems that the younger people who’ve stuck with it are sincerely in it for the long haul. That might just explain why the bands that rise to the top these days have high-quality instrumental talent and plenty of memorable tunes. That’s definitely something that can be said for the bands on this show at The Broadberry, both of which are sure to put a smile on your face.

Boy Named Banjo is a quintet that’s been integrating the high-lonesome twang of old-time bluegrass with some catchy emotionally-driven melodies for a good while now, most recently on their 2016 EP Lost On Main. If you’ve been following this scene for a while, chances are you’ve caught them — they’ve been through Richmond a few times now — but if, like me, they’re just hitting your radar, this Tuesday-night shindig is the perfect opportunity to get more familiar. Meanwhile, The Ghost of Paul Revere has been getting a little bit of shine lately from such venues as the Conan O’Brien Show, where they appeared back in January promoting their new third LP, Monarch. That album sees them integrating an alt-country influence — a little My Morning Jacket, a little Drive-By Truckers — into their rootsy, passionate vibe, and boy does it work. Don’t miss either of the bands on this excellent gig.

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Email me if you’ve got any tips for me about upcoming shows (that take place after the week this column covers–this week’s column has obviously already been written): [email protected] [and yeah, in case you’re wondering, more awesomeness from my cracked and bleeding fingertips is available at GayRVA — come say hey.]

 

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

RVA Block Party Brings No BS! Brass Band, PBR, Angelica Garcia, & More to The Broadberry This Month

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The Broadberry is kicking off spring right this month with an all-day indoor and outdoor music festival filled with some of Richmond’s finest acts, along with beer, food trucks, yoga, a record fair, an outdoor bar, and more.

RVA (All Day) Block Party will feature performances from 10 musicians and bands including crowd pleasers and headlining outdoor act, No BS! Brass Band, along with indoor headliners People’s Blues of Richmond, and sets by fellow Richmond bands and musicians Thorp Jenson, Brunswick, Prabir, Dharma Bombs, Spooky Cool, Night Idea, Angelica Garcia, and South Hill Banks.

For Lucas Fritz, co-owner of The Broadberry, the festival was an idea that he’d been cooking up for quite awhile, and to help bring it to life, he recruited his longtime friends from No BS! Brass Band.

“I’ve always wanted to do a big event around NO BS!, they’re my friends from back in the day, I went on tour with them down in Alabama back in 2009 or 2010, and this is the first time it really made sense to put something together,” Fritz said of the block party.

A big stage will be set up in The Broadberry’s parking lot on the west side of the building until 10 pm, at which point the venue will take the party inside for the rest of the performances.

As for the lineup, RVA Block Party is stacked with an eclectic mix of Richmond bands and musicians from the rowdy Appalachian bluesy-folk from the Dharma Bombs, to the wild psychedelic rock of PBR, to the indie prog rock sounds of Night Idea.

Fritz said he and No BS! co-founder and trombonist Reggie Pace aimed to showcase Richmond talent while offering a little something for everyone with this group.

“We wanted it to be pretty diverse and reflect the local bands that No BS! is super interested in at this time, and also people that are good friends of The Broadberry and The Camel and Richmond music scene,” he said. “We figured the more diverse of a lineup the more fun of an event it would be.”

Jenson, who is kicking off the event, is the alter ego of Chris Ryan, a local guitar player and songwriter, who’s been making waves recently with his Americana sound, playing regular gigs around town, and even getting a mention in Rolling Stone. The Chester native dropped his debut album, Odessa, last fall which you can check out below.

Night Idea also released their new record, Riverless, last fall, and unlike the quartet’s previous darker album, Breathing Cold, this LP shows off the band’s ability to expand into a wide range of sounds, defying one genre so hopefully, we get to hear some of that the day of the festival.

The ever unique music coming from the members of Spooky Cool never disappoints and for those who have been sleeping on Warner Bros signee Angelica Garcia, you better brush up before coming to the festival. The songstress caught RVA Mag’s eye after she dropped her debut album, Medicine For Birds in 2016, captivating us and audiences with her bluesy root songs, which were created in a parish house in her father’s church.

But live music isn’t the only entertainment the RVA Block Party is touting. Fritz said the festival will feature yoga by Jessica Scalin on the outdoor patio, with The Shack Band providing live music. And to appeal to you craft beer enthusiasts, Hardywood Park Craft Brewery, who will be pouring beers at the outdoor bar, will also host a ticketed “beer school” inside The Broadberry for those interested in getting a little history lesson in brewing and what goes into some of your favorite beers.

“With that ticket, you get five different tastes and their brewers are going to be here and they’ll talk through the brewing process, you get to smell some hops and look at some malts.”

A caricature artist, and a small record fair will also be set up inside for festival attendees to check out if they want to take a break inside. “A couple local record labels and record shops will be setting up pop up shops,” Fritz said.

Tickets for the festival on Sat., April 28 are $25. As long as it’s not sold out, you can still snag yours at the door, but Fritz said at the rate they’re going, make sure you scoop yours in advance so you don’t miss out. People will be able to go from inside to outside and reentry will be allowed up until 7 pm.

If all goes well, Fritz is hoping to make the block party an annual event, and perhaps grow it out of the parking lot. “We’ll see what happens and make plans from there,” he added.

You can find the entire schedule for the day below:

1:00 – Doors
1:00 – 4:00 – Record Fair, Face Painting, caricatures, and other vendors inside
1:00 – 2:00 – DJ Ghozt *and in between sets
2:00 – 2:30 – Thorp Jenson
2:40 – 3:20 – Brunswick
3:00 – 3:45 – Yoga w/ Josh and Hunter of THE SHACK BAND
3:40 – 4:10 – Prabir Mehta
4:00 – 4:30 – Beer Class hosted by Hardywood Park Craft Brewery
4:30 – 5:00 – Dharma Bombs
5:20 – 5:50 – Night Idea
6:10 – 6:40 – Spooky Cool
7:00 – 7:45 – Angelica Garcia
8:15 – 9:45 – NO BS! Brass Band

AFTER-PARTY (Requires FREE RSVP)
10:00 – 11:30 – South Hill Banks
11:45 – 1:15 – People’s Blues of Richmond

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

RVA Shows You Must See This Week: 2/14-2/20

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FEATURED SHOW
Friday, February 16, 8 PM
Kenneka Cook, The Flavor Project, Keilan Creech @ The Camel – $8 in advance/$10 day of show (order tickets HERE)
Sometimes a wave is happening that you just can’t deny or ignore. Kenneka Cook is riding one of those waves to total dominance over the RVA music scene right now, and we’re lucky enough to get swept away in the tide. Her debut album, Moonchild, will be dropping this Friday, and she’ll be celebrating that release with a big ol’ party over at The Camel. Join the fun — it’ll be THE live music event of the season, guaranteed!

Moonchild comes from American Paradox Records, and the collaboration between Ms. Cook and American Paradox head Scott Lane (The Congress) has borne fruit in a big way with this release. Cook’s initial rise to dominance in the local scene was driven by the unusual, unforgettable combo of her soulful jazz vocals and her multilayered programmed loops, but Lane got her into working with a full band, and brought in an all-star ensemble featuring members of Butcher Brown, KINGS, No BS! Brass Band, and more to give her gorgeous songs a fuller, more traditional backing. The resulting album encompasses both sounds, bringing powerful jazzy blues vibes on full-band tracks like excellent single “My Universe,” while Cook’s playful cover of Vampire Weekend’s “The Kids Don’t Stand A Chance” showcases the full range of her looping abilities.

Friday night’s live performance will aim to split the difference between these two sounds, as Cook is joined onstage by a stripped-down combo featuring Lane, who not only released but also produced Moonchild, on bass, along with pianist Calvin Brown and drummer Josh McCormick. One can imagine that Cook’s looping equipment will get its time in the spotlight too, though the full extent of the wonders on display won’t be realized until she takes the stage. Regardless, you’re going to want to be there. Bring a couple extra bucks to pick up a brand new copy of Moonchild for yourself, and arrive on time so you can catch opening jams from Gabriel Santamaria and Armando Munoz’s ever-growing funk ensemble, The Flavor Project, as well as from introspective singer-songwriter Keilan Creech. Don’t miss it.

Wednesday, February 14, 7:30 PM
Sweethearts at The Camel, feat. Angelica Garcia, Erin And The Wildfire, Deau Eyes @ The Camel – $8 (order tickets HERE)
The night before Valentine’s Day was the night for the single-and-lonely folks to get their time in the spotlight over at The Camel. But now, it’s Valentine’s Day, and The Camel has turned this night over to the lovers with an evening of sweet music from some of the most talented musicians this town has to offer! Is it really any surprise that all of them happen to be female? I guess that depends on who you ask, but if you’re asking me, I’d say it’s just about the least surprising element of all this.

After all, Angelica Garcia is guaranteed to open your eyes wide with her spunky, energetic rock n’ soul, which mixes melodic mastery with wry lyrics that’ll draw a chuckle of recognition from us all. She’s gotten a lot of press, and released an album on a major label, but RVA still seems to be sleeping on her a bit. This is a great time to change that. C-ville ensemble Erin And The Wildfire rocked a lot of asses around town with their latest album, Thirst, which brings a lot of funk for a group I’d previously written off as a folky jam band. Oops! Don’t make that same mistake, y’all — come find out what this band has to offer. The bill is rounded out by Deau Eyes, who’s gone from not being on my radar at all to seemingly being everywhere within the past few months; I’ve got to figure that’s due to the sheer strength of her alt-rock songcraft, which really is bulletproof. Be a sweetheart, reader — go to the Camel tonight and delight in all these wonderful sounds. Bring a date! This time you won’t get charged extra.

Thursday, February 15, 9 PM
Mistaker, On The Cinder, Smoke Break @ Wonderland – $5
Wonderland is still Shockoe Bottom’s home for punk rock, and if you can keep your ear to the ground consistently enough to keep up with what sort of musical entertainment they’re offering to the city, you’re going to catch a lot of incredible shows. This Thursday night sees yet another one rolling down to the Bottom, and just because it’s not the weekend quite yet is no reason to stay closer to home. Mistaker is the latest band from the crew of Southside boys that brought you Top Heavy and Before Falling in the past. They’re older, they’re wiser, and they’re developing a surprisingly mature and introspective side that leavens their party-punk crunch with melody and emotion. They’ll strike a chord with you whether you’re a punk rock rookie or a jaded lifer.

On The Cinder is our touring band for this night, and they come to us from Buffalo, NY, with a sound that’s both speedy and catchy. Debut LP The Fight Against Ourselves came out back in 2016, and the band’s planning on releasing another one this year, so they’re sure to be chock-full of killer riffs when they hit town! It’ll be a real treat — their melodic hardcore sound kicks more butt than anything out of Buffalo since the second Goo Goo Dolls album. (If you think that’s a joke, go google the second Goo Goo Dolls album. I’ll wait.) Smoke Break kicks things off, with members of Hold Tight, Close Talker, and Springtime getting down with some of that old-school speedy pop-punk for fans of Crimpshrine and J Church (google them too). This one is gonna be a ton of fun, so deal with the strenuous bike ride home afterward — it’ll be worth it.

Friday, February 16, 7 PM
Perpetuated, Crucial Rip, Faded, World Peace, Under Broken Skies @ Lakeside Tavern – $8
Oh look, the Lakeside Tavern survived their first metal show! And not only that, but they weathered it well enough to host another one! Maybe some local headbangers have really found a good thing here. Either way, let’s enjoy it while it lasts, shall we? This Friday night throwdown sees DC’s Perpetuated coming to town with some gloomy, doomy death metal that’ll slowly (and sometimes speedily) rip all our heads off. Who doesn’t love that? They’re joined by fellow District of Columbians World Peace, who are coming at things from more of a crossover approach, mixing chunky metal riffs and the occasional blastbeat with some raw d-beat hardcore stylings to create a storming sound that’s sure to please all the black-denim-vested among you.

That’s not the entirety of the out-of-town bands on this lineup either, as VA Beach’s Faded are also on board for this extravaganza. Their sound is a welcome return to that early 90s metallic hardcore style that brought us other great Hampton Roads hardcore bands like Mayday and Jesuit. Squeals and chugs everywhere, I love it — and the headbangers will too! All you headbangers will want to be here, too, as local gore-metallers Crucial Rip are on the scene with guttural, gurgling vocals and double bass rumble aplenty. Newcomers Under Broken Skies round things out with some brutality that splits the difference between the more metallic bands on this bill and the more hardcore-derived. These genres have a lot more in common than you may think, y’all, so whichever you swear allegiance to, you should definitely be in Lakeside Friday night banging your head.

Saturday, February 17, 7 PM
Superchunk, Bat Fangs @ The Broadberry – $20 in advance/$25 day of show (order tickets HERE)
Sure is great to see Superchunk still going strong after nearly 30 years. I myself got really into them when I was in high school, and they were the first band I ever saw live. 26 years after that fateful show, I’m still going to shows, and they’re still playing them. And unlike a lot of other bands one could say similar things about, Superchunk are still really good! This year sees the release of What A Time To Be Alive, the third Superchunk LP since the band returned to action earlier this decade and their 12th overall.

The band members are solidly into their 40s these days, with different concerns and frustrations than animated them back at the dawn of the 90s when they were barely out of college, but between the political clusterfuck dominating this country and the depressing realities that accompany getting older and realizing that life doesn’t get any easier, they’ve still got plenty to rage about. Planned Parenthood-benefiting single “I Got Cut” is a particularly solid slice of killer melodic punk, with plenty of vitriol lying just beneath the surface. They’re not as young as they once were (and god knows neither am I), so they may not bounce around the stage quite as frenetically as they once did, but they’ll still rock your socks off. Missing Superchunk in 2018 is just as bad a life decision as missing Superchunk in 1992 would have been; don’t do it.

Sunday, February 18, 6 PM
I Set My Friends On Fire, Kissing Candice, Awaken I Am, .gif From God, Smoke Signals @ The Camel – $13 in advance/$15 at the door (order tickets HERE)
Haha oh my goodness. I kinda can’t believe this is happening, but apparently I Set My Friends On Fire are on tour celebrating the 10th anniversary of their full-length debut, You Can’t Spell Slaughter Without Laughter. This goofy, critically reviled slab of bizarreness took the whole Genghis Tron/Horse The Band Nintendo-core formula in a direction that mixed in emo melodies and random shots of death metal to create a genre-fucked mess that seemed to make everyone over 18 at the time want to retch. That said, all those teenage MySpace metalcore kids are in their mid-20s now, and I suppose it only makes sense that even bands like this will have their moment of trimphant resurgence.

So is it worth reassessing I Set My Friends On Fire? Absolutely! Honestly, in a world that has seen bands like Brokencyde and Attila come to the fore, it’s clear that we just had no idea what we were in for back in those halcyon days of 2008. Had we but known, we might have celebrated the honestly catchy choruses on tracks like “Things That Rhyme With Orange,” and tried to understand why the heck sudden Cookie-Monster-style growls seemed appropriate to throw right into the middle of those, rather than just writing it all off as an adolescent mess. Chances are it’ll really connect in a live setting, especially since those chunky riffs are bound to be the loudest and hit the hardest. Maybe it’ll even help the adolescent humor and mawkish sincerity that seem to equally co-exist against all odds within I Set My Friends On Fire’s music to finally make sense to everyone who’d safely exited their teen years by the time MySpace was a thing. If nothing else, it’ll be entertaining, and will certainly be less predictable and comforting than anything else you could be doing on a Sunday night.

Monday, February 19, 8 PM
Mirrors For Psychic Warfare, Coteries, Dark Hollow Falls @ Strange Matter – $10 in advance/$12 day of show (order tickets HERE)
If you’ve been following the career of Neurosis for a while, you know that despite ostensibly existing in the world as a metal band with punk roots, they are prone to some serious weirdness. The same is true of Sanford Parker, the sludge-metal musician and producer who first came across my personal radar due to his involvement with Nachtmystium. Parker and Neurosis’s Scott Kelly first joined together for the Corrections House project, which also involves members of Eyehategod and Yakuza. However, a few years ago, they started Mirrors For Psychic Warfare, another collaborative project featuring just the two of them, in order to explore the landscape of sleepless nights.

Both on their debut EP and on their self-titled full-length album, released in 2016, Mirrors For Psychic Warfare do an excellent job of musically representing insomnia-fueled terror and the misery of lying awake in bed during the wee hours of the morning. Foreboding ambient hums, atmospheric soundscapes, and dark, downtuned guitar riffs work together to creep you the heck out in the same deliciously frightening manner that the best horror movies operate. How this will work in a darkened club full of contemplative metalheads remains to be seen, but we anticipate a Sunn 0)))-like vibe, though perhaps with less fog (and maybe a touch less volume… but only a touch). As live music goes, this one will be an experience, and it’s one you should look forward to having, assuming you know the terrifying joy of a watching a really great horror movie alone in the dark.

Tuesday, February 20, 8 PM
Dog Lagoon, Rare Colors, Nightcreature, Weird Tears @ Strange Matter – $5
It feels like almost every week I am writing about Strange Matter’s ongoing Locals Only series, and if that doesn’t tell you they are doing something right over there, I don’t know what will. The presence of Dog Lagoon at the top of this bill might help, though — this relatively new RVA band certainly has turned some heads with their recent EP, Moneyball. The absolutely killer A-side, “I Don’t Smoke,” resembles the long-gone and fondly remembered VA emo-punk trio Algebra One (or we can just say Jawbreaker, for you young-uns), and is an excellent anthem for the awkward post-teens of the new millennium.

There’s plenty more where that came from, too, so if you show up to this show just to see Dog Lagoon, we’d kinda understand. However, there’s a lot more for you to get down with on this bill, starting with Rare Colors. This synth-fueled band sees former members of Flechette and White Laces embracing the synth-tronic ambient pop that fellow ex-White Laces group Opin has also moved towards, but with a stronger emotional edge and an early 80s haze that lands on that fuzzy dividing line between New Wave and goth. It’s hypnotic, it’s ethereal, it’s absolutely worth your time. The bill is rounded out by a couple of newer projects, including Nightcreature, which emerges from the ashes of the You Go Girls, and Weird Tears, which sees members of the Cherry Pits returning to action with what one can only imagine will be another heaping helping of garage-pop greatness. Let’s find out together.

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Email me if you’ve got any tips for me about upcoming shows (that take place after the week this column covers–this week’s column has obviously already been written): [email protected] [yes, my email is through GayRVA, don’t get weird about it]

Top image by Vivienne Lee