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RVA Shows You Must See This Week: March 30 – April 5

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FEATURED SHOW
Saturday, April 2, 2 PM
WRIR‘s Party For the Rest Of Us, feat. Colin Phils, Ant The Symbol, Gritty City Records, Prabir Trio, Cassidy Snider & The Wranglers, The Wimps, Holy River @ Hardywood Park Craft Brewery – Free!
Y’all, it’s been 17 years since WRIR, the community-run, non-profit, low power station at 97.3 on your FM dial, started broadcasting from its studio up above The Camel on Broad St. And for those of us of a Certain Age, the obvious reaction is “Wow, time flies.” Meanwhile, I assume pretty much everyone in the local music scene under 30 feels like WRIR’s just kinda always been there. It’s an understandable reaction, considering how young y’all were when it started broadcasting. On a radio dial that is more than ever full of the same songs you’ve heard a million times before inbetween what feels like 45 minutes of advertising per hour, WRIR is a breath of fresh air, bringing us all community info, a finger on the pulse of the local culture, and music you’ve generally never heard before — often from right here in Virginia.

However! It’s important that none of us here in Richmond ever start to take WRIR for granted. This non-commercial station survives and thrives only through the valiant efforts of many volunteers, as well as all the donations they can scare up. That’s what WRIR’s Party For the Rest Of Us is about: bringing the Richmond community a really great event, full of music and fun, in return for all of our support to keep them going for another year. In previous years, this annual event has generally been coupled with a request for donations. This year, they’re advertising it as free, but you should still bring a few bucks to help them out — or drop those buckaroos into the virtual tip jar you can find over at wrir.org.

In exchange for your contribution (or even for your lack of one — which is OK, because between high heating bills and gas pump sticker shock, lord knows a lot of us don’t have a dime to spare right now), you get an amazing afternoon at Hardywood, full of outstanding musical talents from the Central Virginia area. There are too many to get to even if I hadn’t spent most of my space talking about how great WRIR is, but let’s go for a lightning round: Colin Phils bring delectable post-rock goodness, Ant The Symbol and Gritty City Records represent the finest in RVA hip hop, Prabir Trio and The Wimps show us all how great indie rock can be even in 2022, Cassidy Snider & The Wranglers dish out yet another helping of their buzzworthy Americana, and last but not least, there is the uncategorizable psychedelic folk atmospherics of Holy River. A truly formidable lineup that’ll be the perfect soundtrack as you while away your afternoon hanging out with the fine folks at Hardywood. What more could you ask for? Another great year of wonderfully unpredictable non-commercial community-run radio, you say? Well, you know what to do.

Wednesday, March 30, 6:30 PM
Drug Church, One Step Closer, Soul Blind, Lurk @ The Broadberry – $16 in advance, $18 day of show (order tickets HERE)
This one’s exciting. Drug Church, who hail from upstate New York, play an incredibly catchy brand of post-hardcore, and feature as frontman one of the current hardcore scene’s most colorful and fascinating veterans, just released their fourth album, Hygiene. Even if you, like me, already loved this band, you’re bound to be impressed with the quantum leap they’ve taken with this brand new release. In particular, the aforementioned frontman, Patrick Kindlon, has stepped up his game. His unique vocal style might not have been for everyone in the past, but he’s managed to bring significantly more melody to his approach on this album without losing an ounce of the frenetic urgency that’s always made him such a riveting frontman.

So yeah, what I’m saying is this: if you don’t have plans tonight, you gotta get over to the Broadberry and catch Drug Church. And if you do have plans, you probably should just break them and bring whoever it is you were gonna chill with to the show with you. The newest Drug Church material is so much fun, even your grandma will probably dig it. And it certainly doesn’t hurt that Drug Church are coming through accompanied by One Step Closer, whose intense, powerful, yet always subtly melodic take on hardcore will excite fans of Turning Point, Fiddlehead, Praise, and a whole ton of other classic bands. The lineup is rounded out by the grungified post-hardcore of Soul Blind and the chunky alt-rock of Lurk. This one’s gonna be a solid gold banger from beginning to end. Get there.

Thursday, March 31, 7 PM
The Warhawks, The Octavias, Sincerely Iris, Wallpaper @ Garden Grove Brewing – Free!
Do you like to rock? Who doesn’t, am I right? Those of us who do are certainly delighted to see the return of the semi-regular free rock shows at Garden Grove Brewing, a place that became a good under-the-radar spot to see some killer bands in the year or so before the pandemic destroyed live music as we knew it. Not every venue that used to be a solid bet for good music in the pre-pandemic days has made it back, but it’s good to see a few lately that I wasn’t hearing from back when I first restarted the column — especially this one.

Thursday night at Garden Grove will be a real rock n’ roll ripper, so get stoked! New Jersey’s The Warhawks are the out-of-town guest on this bill, and they’re touring right now in support of This Ain’t Art, a new six-song EP that brings us all plenty of loud guitars and moody vocals in the classic tradition of everything from Jesus And Mary Chain to the Black Keys before they jumped the shark. They’ll get the room rocking when they take the stage and crank up their amps, as will local garage-rock duo The Octavias, who more than make up in noise and fury what they lack in low-end amplification. Todd Murray’s prolific solo project, Sincerely Iris, who play what Murray calls “road trip music,” will add a more emotional flavor to the evening while keeping toes tapping. Meanwhile, slowcore newcomers Wallpaper will enrapture us all by evoking Mark Kozelek before he jumped the shark. Show up for this one — you won’t regret it. And hey… the price is right.

Friday, April 1, 7 PM
Flight Club, Keep Flying, Nancy Raygun, Shotclock, Plastic Flamingos @ Richmond Music Hall at Capital Ale House – $15 (order tickets HERE)
Pop-punk is supposed to be fun, and this show is definitely going to live up to that billing. I know, I know, local guitar-slingers Flight Club want everyone to stop thinking of them as pop-punk; they even released a single called “High Roller” a while back that did its best to convince us all that they went post-Killers disco-hipster rock. Thankfully, the rest of their new album, Until The Sun Drowns, shows that this RVA quintet has retained their flawless melodic sense and driving punk energy, and it’s a very safe bet that all of this will carry over to this Richmond Music Hall double bill.

Sharing headlining duties is New Jersey quintet Keep Flying, who somehow manage to be an upbeat poppy punk band with a horn player without turning into a ska band. Instead, said horn player adds saxophone melodies that do a great job augmenting the skate-punk leads, then contributes to the band’s multi-vocalist round robin. It sounds like a crazy idea, but it ends up totally working. If you can get into Knuckle Puck, Four Year Strong, or State Champs, you’re sure to enjoy what Keep Flying brings to the table for this show. This stacked bill also features a variety of openers, including North Carolina pop-punk goofballs Plastic Flamingos, Richmond alt-rockers Nancy Raygun, and local newcomers Shotclock. Be there.

Saturday, April 2, 7 PM
Spoken To: An Evening Of Spoken Word and Poetry, feat. Ryan Kent, Black Liquid, Denise Walters, Summer Storms, S. Preston Duncan @ Gallery 5 – Free?
Poetic and musical forms have always been closely linked, from Jim Morrison and Bob Dylan’s lyrics getting published as poetry to Jack Kerouac legendarily setting his writings to jazz accompaniment. And don’t even get me started on hip hop. For that reason, I have no qualms recommending that all of you spend your Saturday night at Gallery 5 taking in the non-musical sounds of Spoken To, an evening of spoken word and poetry. After all, the label up there at the top says “shows you must see,” right? It doesn’t say a damn thing about music.

Regardless, there’s music running through the words of Ryan Kent, a local poet who has also spent years singing in several different Richmond-based metal bands. However, he’s also published multiple poetry collections, and is currently preparing a spoken word LP for release. So yeah — where spoken word is concerned, Ryan knows what he’s doing. The same can be said of Richmond rapper Black Liquid, who has certainly written plenty of poetry set to hip hop beats over the years. Seeing what he comes up with when he doesn’t have a backing track will be fascinating. Story quilter Denise Walters, who is a member of the Nottoway Tribe, will bring us tales told through cloth as well as words. The lineup is rounded out by witch poet Summer Storms and poet/pyrography practitioner S. Preston Duncan. All have plenty to offer. Be there to appreciate their gifts.

Sunday, April 3, 7 PM
Daisychain, The Background Action, Death Plumes @ The Camel – $10 in advance, $12 day of show (order tickets HERE)
Sunday nights can be tough. Everyone’s gotten their ya-ya’s out on Friday and Saturday, and the weekend is coming to an end, so for many people, Sunday night is a night to head home early. However, true rock n’ roll heads know that some of the best underground sounds can be found on nights when there’s not all that much going on — because touring bands have always got a hole in their schedule to fill. Luckily, The Camel is there to take them in, and those of us who are truly dedicated to music as life get to be there and hear great new bands before everyone else has necessarily caught on.

All of this is a long way of getting to the point, which is that Chicago’s Daisychain are truly essential listening. This band of relatively young people pull from multiple prior generations of Windy City guitar legends, mixing everything from the classic electric blues of Muddy Waters and Buddy Guy to the 70s-influenced grunge-rock of 90s legends Urge Overkill. There’s even a little bit of Janis Joplin and Heart mixed in here, coming out through the angelic voices of singers Sophia Williams and Nickole Regala. I know you might be tempted to head home early Sunday night, but take a disco nap and head back out to catch Daisychain at The Camel instead. I promise you won’t regret it.

Monday, April 4, 7 PM
Soft Kill, Alien Boy, Topographies, True Body @ The Camel – $15 (order tickets HERE)
All Richmond live music heads need to give thanks to whatever deity they do or don’t believe in for The Camel. The only venue in this city who truly seems to share our belief that music doesn’t need a night off, we can always count on the Camel to have a show queued up for us on Monday night, when we’re in desperate need of some solid sounds to blow away the mental residue of another depressing Monday back at work. And it’s almost always a really good show, too — witness this excellent bill that brings us two killer touring bands for the price of one.

Soft Kill is the first; their 2020 LP, Dead Kids, RIP City, does a great job of mixing sharply ringing postpunk guitars with driving dance beats and synth textures, all in a decidedly noir-ish mode that leads one to imagine the Cure with the energy of first-LP Bauhaus. Whether you’re into dark, driving rock n’ roll or moody, gloomy goth, these guys have something you’ll like. As for co-headliners Alien Boy, this Portland quartet were already on my radar due to their excellent 2021 LP, Don’t Know What I Am, which is still growing on me six months later. Driving, melodic punk with a moody gothic undertone is what they bring to the table, in a manner that lands somewhere between Wax Idols and Veruca Salt. That’s enough to win me over right there. San Francisco gothic industrial group Topographies and Virginia’s own postpunk veterans True Body round this one out with aplomb. Shake off the Mondays with this one.

Tuesday, April 5, 7 PM
Escape From The Zoo, Crazy And The Brains, Chupaskabra @ Richmond Music Hall At Capital Ale House – $15 in advance, $20 day of show (Order tickets HERE)
I have a confession to make, y’all: I wasn’t necessarily all that on-board for the whole ska-punk thing back in the 90s. And if I’m even more honest, I really think I missed something by skipping out on all that stuff at the time. Today, I look back at stuff like Operation Ivy and Voodoo Glow Skulls, and I think: dang, those kids sure seem like they were having a lot of fun. Luckily for all of us who missed out — and for everyone who got it when it was originally going on — the whole ska-punk thing is experiencing a major revival right now. And Fat Wreck Chords signees Escape From The Zoo are at the forefront of all that.

Led by Jesse Sendejas of Houston folk-punk group Days N’ Daze and his mandolin-strumming wife Veronica, Escape From The Zoo take all that catchy, upbeat strumming that was the best part of the whole folk-punk thing and mix it with the electrified punk energy of the good bands of the 90s ska-punk revival: the ones that realized you have to lead with the punk and the speed, and just let everything else work itself out. That’s what Escape From The Zoo does on their brand new LP, Countin’ Cards, and that’s what’s gonna win you over when they take the stage Tuesday night at Capital Ale House. Xylophone-driven dance-punk veterans Crazy And The Brains and local ska-punk up-and-comers Chupaskabra round out this bill, and will do more than their fair share to increase the fun quotient and bring your Tuesday night to bright, glorious life. Get ready.

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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]

Everyone’s Got A Price

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On Time Is The Price, Blackliq’s first release for Sage Francis’s Strange Famous Records, the veteran Richmond MC lays out his dark history, his bright future, and his methods for hacking life — all overtop of the best production he’s received in his career thus far.

I’ve always enjoyed the work Blackliq, aka Black Liquid, does as an MC. I’ve been following his work since he was dropping 16 albums in the space of three or four years — and he’s made some incredible music over that time. I loved Anti and Title in particular. But listen: I have never heard Blackliq sound this good on any of his previous releases. Time Is The Price is the dawn of a new era for Richmond’s hardest-working MC, and all it takes is one listen to know that.

The production is pretty clearly part of that. Time Is The Price is a collaborative release between Blackliq and Mopes, both of whom signed to Sage Francis’s label, Strange Famous, during 2021. Mopes was previously known as Prolyphic, and under that name he was part of a duo called Stick Figures and made records with Sage Francis, as well as producers Buddy Peace and Reanimator, among others. So like Blackliq, Mopes is a veteran of the hip hop grind, and he’s picked up a few tricks of the trade, which show through not just in his beats but also in how good Blackliq’s voice sounds here. He’s always had a harsh, throaty edge to his sound, and some productions in the past haven’t exactly showcased it in its ideal light. Here on Time Is the Price, though, Liq sounds better than he ever has before, and the edge in his voice is a scalpel, slicing through the layers of scratchy soul samples Mopes layers over it to drop lyrics that cut your throat.

Case in point: this record starts with “Endtro,” and the very first thing you hear Blackliq say is “I write rhymes for the reasons that you don’t, you fuck. I did shows with major artists and realized that they suck.” Overtop of an ominous beat featuring wah-wah guitar samples reminiscent of classic Blaxploitation film soundtracks, Liq drops other gems like “I know a whole lot of bitches, and ain’t none of them women” and “God don’t make mistakes — but I do, and I wouldn’t have it no other way,” before finishing the track with a spoken passage that sounds like it was lifted from a live performance, in which he declares that all of the adversity he’s faced in the past just gives him more strength to keep moving forward.

You hear both sides of that statement — the adversity and the strength — over the next seven songs. On “Don’t Ask Me,” Liq talks about how in order to survive, he has to look out for himself. “There’s a long list of people I knew and outgrew… and that might be you. If it is, what it is, if it ain’t, what it ain’t. If it was what it was, then it may need to change. You don’t even know my name… so fuck ‘back in the day’.” At other points in the album, he shows vulnerability. At the beginning of “I’m Not Right,” Liq tells a story of his drunken father cooking dinner for him when he was a child, and pouring beer into the sauce — followed by another story from a few years later of his dad being arrested on his front porch while he watched.

Indeed, dark stories of Liq’s past proliferate on this album, and the soundtrack Mopes sets to them are perfect, keeping the hard-hitting, soul-inflected boom-bap sound of classic New York hip hop while updating it for the 21st century with wavering drones that at times border on wavy — but instead of sounding high and blissed-out, these tracks sound spooky. They’re clearly intended to be the sound of shit going down, and BlackLiq delivers on that possibility in his lyrics, especially on “Guilty.” It’s the tale of his father’s jail sentence, what it was like to see that happen, and the effect it’s had on him throughout his adult life. “The hardest part was looking into his eyes knowing that, where he sat, we didn’t stand no chance,” he raps. “He said, ‘I’m not guilty’… but why am I?”

“Take Your Time” ends the entire records with a lyrical summation that acts as a manifesto for the next phase of Blackliq’s career. He talks about a woman confronting him, asking if the reason he’s still putting all his time into being a hip hop MC and generally creative person means he has a Peter Pan complex. Over Mopes’ most uplifting, vibed-out beat on the whole album, he gives his answer. “First off, I’m not broke, I’m not unemployed. I work hard to afford the things that I enjoy,” he explains. “I quit the drugs, quit the drinks — I’m on my shit. And most of my friends wish they could live like this.”

Photo via Blackliq/Facebook

Your answer in this life might be the same as Blackliq’s — putting everything you’ve got into defeating your demons and creating a better future for yourself through art. Or it might be something completely different. What’s inspirational, in the end, about this album full of dark beats and hard stories, is the way Blackliq lives his truth. He’s a writer, an MC, and a storyteller, and we’re all able to benefit from the way he tells his stories. All you’ve got to do is listen.

Time Is The Price is out now and available on all streaming services, and as an mp3 download and merch package from Strange Famous Records.

Something To Paint With: A Conversation With BlackLiq

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My stepfather had been good at taking photos. As a kid, I often saw zippered leather bags with the names Nikon and Canon on his dresser. Sometimes, there were rolls of film in the refrigerator. Sometimes, a loose camera on the kitchen counter. I knew not to touch these loose cameras because they were heavy, which meant expensive. Coincidentally, my father had also been good at taking photos, but this was before I was born. His old Minoltas were stacked in their leather bags behind an iron and a ceramic statue of Santa Claus in his office closet.

I’ve never been a photographer. The best photo I can take is with whatever Android phone I have that year. Basically, I know how to frame a shot, which doesn’t make me good at photography. I learned that fast.

Back in November, RVA Magazine sent me with BlackLiq, DJ Bando, and a Nikon COOLPIX P900, to document his performance opening for rapper and author Dessa (her book, My Own Devices, is available at Chop Suey) at the Black Cat in Washington, D.C. I was to conduct an interview and take photos for this article.

The first time I caught up with BlackLiq, I got more of an intellectual conversation than what I’d expected from a typical cup of coffee. Spend 60 minutes with Black and you’ll listen. You won’t be made to listen but compelled to. He is a direct (no bullshit) dude. I was in class and didn’t even know the bell had rung.    

Photo by Ryan Kent (not taken with the Nikon)

Using the Nikon is another story. It was a lesson in humility. Black would probably call this a blessing. 

I saw it once, maybe it was a scene in a movie [It’s in Beavis & Butthead Do America. No bullshit. –ed]. Some desperate man tried to hit the ground running out of the trunk of a speeding vehicle. You can guess how that ended. I was this man.

After a while, I just used my phone to take the photos.

People naturally gifted in the arts have this effect on others. They make what they do seem easy. Maybe it convinces someone sitting in a beanbag chair that they can do it better. Most of the time this has diminished results. BlackLiq disguises 16 bars as iPhone photography when he’s really working with a Leica Q2 Monochrom. At different times, he implements each of the fixed Summilux 28mm f/1.7 ASPH lens’ 11 elements to make that $6,200 camera worth every cent. So good, he makes you think you can reach out and touch those 16 bars. It may be black and white, but the detail is impeccable. You don’t become this good by accident. 

“I write rhymes for the reasons you don’t, you fuck,” Black spits on the first verse of “Endtro.” It’s the opening track from his Mopes-produced Strange Famous debut (the hip-hop label run by Sage Francis), Time Is The Price — an 18-minute masterclass on why naysayers should just keep hating in their beanbag chairs.

BlackLiq has been rapping in Richmond for years and years, and was once known for carrying self-released, handwritten CD-Rs in his pockets wherever he went. Sometimes superficial locals rejected those burned discs in paper sleeves as he handed them out. Then, BlackLiq started appearing on the bills with high-profile, national acts. His gloves-off lyrical content, coupled with a confrontational stage presence, maybe felt like a punch in the mouth to some. Audience members have even turned their backs on BlackLiq while he was on stage. I watched this happen once at the Broadberry when he opened for Styles P six years ago. All that performative shit just fueled the man. 

They had missed the message. 

BlackLiq was authentic. And he was coming from a hungry, desperate place.

If you’ve followed his story at all, BlackLiq’s past was grim for a number of reasons. A tough upbringing was only made tougher after his father was sentenced to life in prison. This would rock the foundation of any family. Yet, the emotional support from his parents didn’t stop. Even now, his father (who also goes by Black) calls weekly from prison, sharing the deep wisdom gained from being a man incarcerated. Always expressing pride in his son. 

BlackLiq’s mother, Heed, is his ride-or-die. Her health and well-being a top priority. Heed is a warm and lovely woman, who is an instantly fascinating conversationalist. She’s as likely to hold your arm walking down the sidewalk as she is to talk about the 1960’s in her kitchen. I know this because both happened to me.

Social media followers are kept current with how each is doing.

You could write a book about his parents alone.

BlackLiq pounds coffee before the set. Photo by Ryan Kent (again, not on the Nikon)

I took a few candid shots with my stupid phone. DJ Bando was relaxed in a chair before their set, while BlackLiq paced the floor of their dressing room, slugging coffee like he needed to stay up for a year. An intimidating, prowling presence – and wide awake.

I pressed record.

“I’ll fucking get up and I’ll do whatever,” Black began, “and I’ll connect with them. And they’ll see me as a thing. And that’s cool. That’s what I’m doing. That’s my fucking life. Some of the things, I mean. It’s not glorious. And it’s not… like, it’s not fun all the time.”

“Do you do it out of desperation?” I asked.

“Yeah, that’s the stuff that makes it real. A surgeon performing surgery is nothing compared to the surgeon washing his hands before the surgery. He’s gonna have to do it. Then the post-op. Those are the things that are part of the process. It would be impossible for the process to be authentic without it.” 

“It’s like going into another place,” I said. “The surgeon washing his hands. Sitting there, full of anxiety, thinking about it. People get stage fright, then they’re in it. It’s like, ‘Well, I have to do it. I’ve got no other choice.’ ”

If you’ve seen BlackLiq perform live over the years, you’d imagine stage fright isn’t something he knows a lot about. Backstage, he’s got the poker face of a neurosurgeon just prior to digging into the crowd. Someone who’s done this before with peers looking over his shoulder. If you were to make a Marvel thing out of it, you could get away with calling him Doctor Strange.

Nulla bubulum stercus (no bullshit) being the active ingredient here, and it could be the very antidote to all of our worldly problems.

“I go there every time,” he said. “It got to a point where I no longer had stage fright. And it sucked. I like to be nervous. I like to feel uncomfortable on stage. I’ll say stuff to people and connect with them in a genuine way. I [might] come out, like, ‘Yeah, bitch, I’m BlackLiq, fuck you.’ I might say that. But if I come out there and I’m like, ‘Yeah, I’m accomplished,’ that shit ain’t gonna be worth nothing, man. It’s gonna be performative instead of a performance. I get it, you’re numb and you don’t feel anything. And I got to that point. I opened for Fabolous, and it was like that. Except, a lot of things went wrong. My third show with DMX was like that.” 

“I forgot you opened for DMX,” I said. 

“Yeah, man,” Black continued. “Three motherfucking times, bro.”

“Did you meet him?” I asked.

 “Yeah, like, briefly. He was whoever he was at that time. Because he was whoever he was, 100% at that moment.” 

Impulsively, I interrupted, saying, “Damn, I remember where I was when It’s Dark and Hell Is Hot came out.”

He nodded, saying, “[At first] I didn’t like DMX. And I didn’t like ‘Get At Me Dog.’ I was like, meh. Then, my brother had left [It’s Dark and Hell Is Hot] in the crib. I decided to do my Algebra homework to that album, and I was like, ‘Oh my god. This is so incredible.’ This had nothing to do with, fuckin’ ‘Get At Me Dog’ and ‘Ruff Ryders’ Anthem.’ It’s like, everything else around that. That’s the shit nobody talked about. Like, ‘Let Me Fly.’ Nobody talked about songs like ‘Crime Story’ and ‘In The Air Tonight.’ The things he did were just so artistic, and so unique, and beautiful. It was always just like, ‘Yeah, he’s a blunt instrument.’”

BlackLiq with Armagideon Time. Photo by Ryan Kent.

Listen to Time Is The Price and you can hear what artistic, unique, and beautiful sounds like. A blunt instrument will simply bash a thing into no thing. Lack the proper technique and you’ll just rip everything apart. However, add some half-inch spikes to that blunt instrument and now you’ve got something to paint with. Something with teeth. BlackLiq is the same way on stage. He is precise and he will hurt you. His shows are calculated paintings of the dirty walls in this grimy town. 

Maybe that’s why he was asked to open for DMX, 1-2-3 times? 

People were desperate for that (no bullshit) approach. The antidote. Nulla bubulum stercus or whatever.

“I don’t like to meet my heroes but so much,” he said. “I made a decision a long time ago to say this is my peer. Like, I’ve been around artists who’ve played themselves as soon as they built up the respect. Blew it all on, ‘Can we get a picture, real quick?’ 200 likes isn’t more important than one friend, or maybe even just a meaningful moment hanging out with somebody and talking about life. That’ll last forever, because that’s between you and them. That’s all you need. You don’t need none of that other shit. Everybody wants so much icing. All you see in the game is icing. Then you find out icing belongs on a cake. Then, you find out the cake of this game is not so sweet.”

Back in August of 2021, I interviewed BlackLiq at WDCE 90.1 FM for an RVA Magazine (paid for by a grant from the VAABC) video series called My Sober Story. That September, I watched Black speak in front of a packed audience at Vagabond for part of the Richmond International Film Festival. In October, I saw him debut on lead vocals with his metal band, Armagideon Time, at a generator show under an overpass. 

“You’re certainly not a one-trick pony,” I said. 

He grinned at the comment. It was the same grin I saw him give to the audience at Vagabond. Someone seemingly in control of who they are as an artist and glad we’ve shown up to appreciate it. Pleased.

“You put yourself in a situation where you are the thing that you want to have for yourself. I wanted to be on the radio, so I became the DJ. I wanted to get shows, so I threw the shows,” he said.

You can sit that mentality right in the backseat next to the intro to the Busta Rhymes track “Gimme Some More.” Specifically, the lines: Knowing as a shorty / I was always told / If I ain’t gon’ be part of the greatest / Then I gotta be the greatest myself.

We talked for roughly half an hour. Two-thirds of that conversation didn’t make it into this article. It’s difficult to select a handful of BlackLiq’s comments to print when all of it is worth reading.  However, if I just published a transcript of the entire conversation, I would’ve lost the job to my Android for a second time.

Preparing to head to the stage, almost as an afterthought, Black brought up carrying around burned CD’s to gigs.

“I went to see Project Pat [of Three 6 Mafia] perform at the Q Club,” he said. “I would test my enemies. If you’re not helping me, you’re an enemy. It doesn’t mean we have a personal beef, but if you’re not on my side, then you’re in the way. I gave him a CD and wanted to see if he’d do what I knew he’d do. Sure enough, I checked social media. He was like, ‘Some rapper gave me a CD tonight in a paper case with Sharpie written on it. Man, y’all rappers gotta come more professional than that.’ You want to shit on our entire community? Make [people] think paying somebody to burn their CD with a print label is going to make them better and means that they’re working hard? Like, I get the whole, ‘It’s all in how he presents his shit.’ But at the same time, I just felt bad he missed the opportunity.”

When BlackLiq walked on stage with DJ Bando to knock everyone’s teeth out, he was wearing his Richmond Is For Haters shirt. Hadn’t even opened his mouth yet and was already making it loud and clear. The truth stings. Maybe that’s the real reason people turned around at that Broadberry show way back when.

Nobody at the Black Cat turned their backs on November 21st, and I don’t foresee that type of thing making any kind of comeback. BlackLiq and DJ Bando turned the packed D.C. crowd into ground beef with old tracks like “RVA” and new dark magic from Time Is The Price. The entire room connected. Everybody needing dentures.

BlackLiq made it all look like a piece of cake. No icing.

I did the best I could with the Nikon COOLPIX P900. Anything worth keeping happened completely by accident. Like I said, it was a lesson in humility. This time I heard the bell ring.

Nulla bubulum stercus

(no bullshit)

Top Photo by Ryan Kent

Sons Of Ichibei: Bringing A Better Tomorrow For Charlottesville Hip Hop

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Charlottesville’s Sons Of Ichibei, a duo made up of Fellowman and Remy St. Clair, has been working hard to boost Charlottesville hip hop for years, from founding the annual 9 Pillars Hip Hop Culture Fest to booking diverse, equitable shows in a variety of venues. Now, in the aftermath of a difficult year, they’re working to make things better than ever.

To me, Charlottesville is like being in a conversation that I hate about yoga with someone’s mom — because it’s easier than listening to her well-meant but annoying commentary on my very slightly alternative lifestyle. And, at the same time, I’m inside of a J. Crew catalog. It’s inoffensive in this way that is suffocating, but also makes me feel guilty for disliking it solely on the grounds that it is ignorant to its own innocently dorky, cargo shorts-wearing identity. So having said that, it probably seems unlikely that I’m about to tell you that this little town has somehow created a compelling rap group — one that is asserting itself as one of the most powerful hip-hop forces in the region — and that they’re scheming on claiming themselves a chunk of our own city of Richmond. And yet, that’s exactly what I’m about to tell you.

Charlottesville’s own Sons of Ichibei is a group comprised of Fellowman and Remy St. Clair. Remy St. Clair was the face of Pride in the duo’s hometown for three years, and tells me he has rapped in gay bars his whole life. Fellowman is an equally interesting MC who dropped a classic rock-influenced album in late 2020. If you’re trying to look them up, you should know that they’ve released most of their music separately, each putting things out under their own moniker, but perform together live doing songs they both appear on from their respective projects. They’re next performing in Richmond at The Camel on Tuesday, July 20 [that’s tomorrow! -ed], and are planning on plenty of other shows up here soon. But how, simply by rolling around their own unlikely little home of Charlottesville, have they snowballed up the power to become an entity that should command respect throughout Virginia?

It’s actually not the weirdest idea that these two Charlottesville guys are starting to gain hold over our ecosystem. For one thing, their music is solid. No one can say they don’t know how to rap. But there is also a certain kinship that exists between our two very different cities that likely informs how easily they fit in here. Understanding how a rap thing could coagulate in our indie rock-obsessed, art-walking, beard-wearing, IPA-drinking, GWAR-barring, not-quite-metropolitan city does inform how another hip-hop force could also come to be in the aforementioned goofy little town just a few miles down the highway. It seems a little laughable at first to hear Charlottesville rappers talking about “the Charlottesville hip-hop sound” or saying “that’s how we do it in Cville!” as if they didn’t know they live in Pleasantville. But consider all the equally laughable things we do. As far as the attempts at grandeur, it’s pretty much one to one. For example, having the name of our mid-sized city in front of literally every institution in town probably looks just as goofy from the outside, right? And local songwriters put Richmond landmarks in their lyrics so much that I’m confident there’s even a song about that exit where 64 merges with 95 [Here’s one for you -ed]. We’ve definitely got the same comically self-important attitude.

There are other ways our two cities are alike too. Charlottesville currently faces a potential rap drought not unlike those that plague our own city every few years. 

“A lot of our venues have closed during COVID. We only have one venue left that will book rap,” Fellowman told me. “Even as far as DIY venues. Magnolia House is boarded up. The person who was booking it moved away.”

But unlike our city, which has a kind of an ebb and flow when it comes to the health of the rap scene, the situation feels a lot more urgent in Charlottesville. Because there is just a lot less city. And there are few I’ve spoken to who can even say much about the presence of any kind of rap scene there before 2015. It seems alarmingly plausible that it could fizzle out in Charlottesville.

Luckily for Remy and Fellowman, they have pull across the entire state, thanks in no small part to 9 Pillars, the weeklong hip-hop festival they throw once a year in Charlottesville. I know, it sounds wildly unlikely. But this thing is actually very, very lit. Yes, in Charlottesville, the aforementioned painfully vanilla town of Stepford (minus the secret scary part), there has been an annual weeklong series of rap events for years now that we should’ve been taking our Richmond hip-hop heads to by the busload. They’ve even had performances by artists of national renown, such as Wordsworth and Cesar Comanche. There’s really no reason anyone who loves rap in our city shouldn’t be taking the short drive to this every year.

And the variety of events featured as part of 9 Pillars takes it far beyond the realm of just a music festival to being a whole experience. As Fellowman told me, “It’s not just music. We had a b-boy battle one year, we always have a graffiti gallery show and live demonstration. Food and fashion has been a part of it. We had the Heart Soul runway fashion show. The DJ battles as well. The merchants and food trucks as well.”

“Don’t forget the award ceremony,” Remy St Clair added. “We honor all those persons that came before us, that mentored us, that taught us, that tutored us, brought us up in this culture and this art form and genre. We take time out to give them their flowers and show those people in our community that we appreciate them. That’s been a major thing that everyone has been looking forward to every year.”

“Because if you’re a kid coming out of Charlottesville, wanting to be a rapper, obviously you’re going to look up to rappers who you see doing it in your community,” Fellowman continued, picking up the thread. “And these may not be names that will ever make it into the various hall of fames or whatever, but they’re just as important to the people growing up in this area.”

While 9 Pillars Hip-Hop Fest and its parent organization, Rugged Arts, are solely the baby of Remy and Fellowman, there are ties to Richmond even in the origins on these projects. 

“Facemelt actually was the inspiration for Rugged Arts, which was the showcase that we brought forth here in Charlottesvile” Remy says, referring to the Facemelt Friday series of rap shows thrown by Richmond’s own promoter and organizer BlackLiq. “We call BlackLiq the godfather, or the grandfather, or Rugged Arts.”

BlackLiq also told me about meeting with Sons of Ichibei when they were just getting started with setting up shows, thinking they might need advice on logistics. “They’ve never asked me to help them, they had already realized that by inspiring them, I already did,” he said. “That also meant that they did the hard part, which is seeing that they are capable of the things that they have done.” He praised their seemingly inherent savvy for throwing music events and remarked, “They succeed because they actually care about people, the multiple facets of this culture, and that’s the message and integrity within everything they do.”

9 Pillars not only draws in bigger acts, like the aforementioned Wordsworth, but also a wide variety of independent artists from across the state. And this is one of the keys to the power of Sons of Ichibei in Richmond. For one thing, they’re owed a lot of favors from numerous rappers they’ve put on from our city. But they’ve also won over a lot of our city’s important figures with their abilities on the mic. 

Millz and Chuck Nasty of the Richmond rap group GRYSCL shared a few bills with Sons of Ichibei. Before his passing last year, Millz chatted with me about Sons of Ichibei, praising the prowess of Fellowman in particular. “Whenever I see a white dude rap, it’s kinda like ‘Come on, man,’” Millz said. “But Fellowman, he can rap. I mean, he can really rap.” 

Chuck Nasty also spoke to me about the opportunities Remy and Fellowman gave to GRYSCL by including them in several events, starting with a tag team battle rap competition that was part the 9 Pillars festival. “They’ve always looked out for us. They were the first people to pay us for performing. They supported us very well, from the beginning. They saw us, from Richmond, and put us on, gave us the Immortal Tag Team belts forever.” 

Sneeze, another Richmond rapper with an impressive resume, credits his development as a performer in part to the title competitions and the slots he was given as part of events like the 9 Pillars Festival. “Shouts out to Remy and all them,” he told me earlier this year. Talking about the title belts he won, he said, “That really helped me get my legs, man. I learned how to perform.”

Their strong relationships with Richmond rap are also thanks in part to the model they use to run their shows, which is the most ethical model I’ve ever heard of in rap. Our city is littered with event promoters who exploit rappers using versions of a pay-to-play system, where stage time costs money for aspiring artists. Since these promoters are almost always getting paid by venues for the audience that comes out to see this live music, it makes sense that they should be paying rappers to perform, not the other way around. 

“All of our 9 Pillars events are free admission,” Fellowman told me, in sharp contrast. “And all of the artists are paid to perform.” The last part, fairly compensating artists, is something many Richmond acts have never experienced. Rappers from Richmond who’ve performed on Sons of Ichibei’s Rugged Arts events are often surprised by the way these guys are even willing to speak on the problem. “Whether it’s straight up just pay-to-play, whether they disguise it as investing in yourself, whether it’s the ticket-selling scheme where they give you a certain number of tickets to sell and how many you sell determines where you are in the lineup, or if you don’t sell enough then you can’t play. There is the head counting where they ask everyone at the door who they came to see and if enough people don’t say your name then you don’t get paid. Facility rental fees, paying more off of your cut after the bar takes the cut and the door takes the cut, being shook down the day of the show by the sound guy. Everybody gets paid except for the performers.”

Fellowman knows from performing in rock bands that there’s really no reason it has to work this way. He encouraged rappers to gain some perspective on their exploitation. “Ask your friends who play other genres of music, especially if they are white, or white-coded, genres of music. Compare notes with them about the hoops you have to jump through to get booked and get paid for a live performance. It’s shameful. And these club owners and promoters have convinced a whole generation of hip-hop artists that it’s normal.”

Taking care of not only artists but also the community around the art is also something I heard a lot about when talking to people about Sons of Ichibei. Their guiding hand has helped keep the rap community in Charlottesville together through a tumultuous time. The new resurgence of a more dangerous brand of racism has acutely affected both our city and Charlottesville. The products of this radicalized racism are varied; one is that it continues to be more difficult to book rap shows. This only adds to the previously mentioned challenge of venues closing.

Mike Bizarro, a rapper from the area, shared with me, “Charlottesville has been a difficult environment to keep the hip-hop scene alive in. Elitism, racism, and the rapid gentrification make it a constant battleground. Remy and Fellowman have been at the forefront of that battleground. The scene will always be in good hands as long as they are around.” Like everyone else I spoke to about the group, he also praised their music. “Plus, they can really rap their asses off.”

Remy St. Clair has been using hip-hop as a medium to build community for a long time. He also created and hosted radio programming for years with this goal. “It was a show called The Throne Room. It was an opportunity for local/independent artists to have their music played on the radio in a prime time hour,” he explains. “It was giving them exposure and the opportunity to come in and voice their opinion on the musical, various topics in the world in a nonjudgmental environment.”

Sons of Ichibei further demonstrate their commitment to community and their wildly progressive attitude through their intentionally inclusive practices. They’ve held all-female rap shows, all-LGBTQ rap shows (a first for the state of Virginia, I believe), and even shows in gay bars that saw rappers performing alongside drag queens. I should note that I have personally tried to make all three of these things happen in Richmond. I have only achieved two out of those three, and Fellowman and Remy St. Clair beat me to each one. The fact that a smaller town beat us to the punch on this stuff can be credited solely to Sons of Ichibei.

“I think the people getting left out of the conversation often have the most interesting things to say,” Fellowman says about these events.

“I feel I have made a safe space for myself and others.” Remy adds, speaking specifically to building a better community for himself and other queer artists. “Reason being: I’ve been one of the front runners to try to bridge the gap. I’ve hosted several Prides and I’ve included straight artists, allies, in those Prides, when Pride didn’t even want them there, because they didn’t understand. One thing that we all tend to forget is that hip-hop is not dominated by straight or gay. It’s dominated by life experiences and being able to put that into words in a way that persons can understand you and relate. I love the position that I’m in to give persons like me an opportunity, trans persons, all queer persons an opportunity to shine and showcase their talent. So, I’m trying to be a good leader and a good example of that. I have done serious work and I plan on doing a lot more.”

A lot of this forward-thinking attitude and community-oriented approach is just what our city needs. Richmond’s rap scene should be on high alert, because these guys are bringing us a lot more than some very good music. Sons of Ichibei’s July 20 performance at The Camel marks the beginning of their grip around our city tightening, and their inevitable influence taking hold. It spells bad news for anyone running an unethical model of booking music, or trying to stand in the way of progress. And if their work in Charlottesville is any indication, it bodes very well for things to come in our own city’s rap scene and the culture around it.

Rap Is Back: A Secret Bonus Level Show, featuring Sons Of Ichibei, will take place at The Camel on Tuesday, July 20. Doors open at 7 PM; tickets are $8 and can be purchased at The Camel’s website.

VA Shows You Must See This Week: November 20 – November 26

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FEATURED SHOW
Friday, November 22 & Saturday November 23
Raw Mom Weekend, Night 1: Alfred, Trapcry, Archangel, F.R.E.E.
Night 2: Gumming, True Body, VV, Lance Bangs, Sofia Lakis
@ Gallery 5 – single night: $8 in advance/$10 at the door. Weekend pass: $15 in advance (order tickets HERE)
Hope everyone’s getting their wallets limbered up, their psyches strengthened, and their cars fit for traveling, because it’s that time again! Yes indeed, folks, the holidays are coming sooner than you think — Thanksgiving is a mere eight days away, and Christmas, Hannukah, and Kwanzaa are only a month past that. It’s coming time to see the fam, with all the happiness and terror that entails. But before the holiday season officially kicks in, let’s celebrate our river city fam with the first ever Raw Mom Weekend at Gallery 5.

My old pal Rivanna Youngpool has really outdone herself with this one, bringing two nights of incredible local talent together on the Gallery 5 stage to celebrate the ever-renewing wellspring of talent that is the Richmond music scene. Night one is the night on which we will all dance, featuring hip hop, ambient electro, and psychedelic dance grooves from several different politically-informed artists of color. Rapper Alfred will headline and bring his lysergic beats and tongue-twisting rhymes to keep your ears burning and your feet moving. Trapcry, meanwhile, brings powerful electric funk with a strong social conscience, as Archangel explores spaced-out anime-inspired breakbeats.

That’s Friday night, and on Saturday, night two brings us a whole different approach that’s sure to be equally invigorating. The noisy, quirky, brilliant, powerful punk rock of Gumming tops the bill and promises to trip you out and rip your head off all at the same time. Things will get more gothic at points with sets from True Body and VV, while Lance Bangs will bring you an always-pleasing dose of slack indie rockin’. Sofia Lakis will kick things off with some beats to ensure that there’s plenty of dancing on this night as well. What better way do we have to celebrate the last weekend before the holidays spread their ambivalent malaise across the next six weeks? I can’t think of one.

Wednesday, November 20, 9 PM
Ant The Symbol, GIANT, Johnny Ciggs, Reppa Ton, Rah Scrilla, Jarv, C Shreve @ The Richmonder – Free!
Over here at RVA Mag, we’ve been following the work of Ant The Symbol for a solid decade now, since back when he was still Just Plain Ant of the Just Plain Sounds crew. He’s been growing and maturing as a producer and musician ever since, and over the past few years, his massive collaborative albums have become event listening for the entire RVA hip hop scene whenever he releases one. THE WHAT?! is the latest in a string of Ant The Symbol releases on his post-JPS home of Gritty City Records, and it shows that as time goes on, the man just gets better at making incredible music for the city’s best to spit rhymes over.

That doesn’t mean he’s getting predictable — even his latest crew of collaborators can acknowledge that. The first thing Kels says on his THE WHAT?! track, “My Way,” is, “I love you, Ant, but this beat’s weird.” Speaking personally, that’s why I look forward to each new Ant The Symbol project — where others get predictable, he gets creative. He’s put out so many records I’ve honestly lost count, and he still hasn’t come anywhere near repeating himself. That’s why you should make a point to show up tonight at Gritty City’s longtime live home, which is called The Richmonder instead of Emilio’s now but is still the same dope spot. Ant The Symbol’s gonna join with his Gritty City crew and a whole bunch of other talented rappers from Richmond and beyond to bring you the freshest new sounds this city has to offer, in the form of his new album. Don’t be left asking, “the what?” Show up tonight so you know the answer.

Thursday, November 21, 7 PM
Wild Pink, Addy, Recluse Raccoon, Beeline @ Poor Boys – $5
If you’ve been seeing the phrase “Prsmcat Presents” on a bunch of good shows lately, you’re not the only one — this new booking project from members of Majjin Boo has brought a cornucopia of excellent live music to the city over the past couple months, and established themselves as a name to look out for. This visit from Brooklyn’s own Wild Pink is just the latest positive result of Prsmcat’s efforts around town, many of which have involved the return of rad live sounds to the backroom stage at Poor Boys, the venue formerly known as Flora and, before that, Balliceaux. I can’t imagine anyone having any complaints about that.

Wild Pink are definitely worth spending a Thursday night in the aforementioned back room. On last year’s Yolk In The Fur, it’s clear why this trio dedicated their latest album to the memory of Tom Petty — that recently-departed heartland rocker is an obvious influence for Wild Pink, one they feed through a 21st century sensibility that evokes the best work by The War On Drugs. It’s smooth, comfortable, and ever-so-slightly melancholy, in a manner sure to evoke a sad smile of recognition. Wild Pink will be joined on this weekend-preview night at Poor Boys by some excellent local indie groups as well, foremost among them Recluse Raccoon. The results are sure to charm you.

Friday, November 22, 7:30 PM
Bonsai Trees, Dropping Ugly, Linden Row @ Garden Grove Brewing – Free!
Damn, y’all, I love it when this happens — when I’m poking through a list of bands, all of which I’m unfamiliar with, trying to find the makings of a killer show. I always find something good — this is Richmond, after all; we do live music RIGHT. But it’s rare that I am totally blown away by a band whose name I’ve never even heard before. However, Connecticut’s Bonsai Trees are that rare band.

This talented quartet’s recently-released Learn To Grow LP came out of nowhere to blindside me with its incredible collection of melodic, emotional alt-rock tunes. The more I listen to it, the more stoked I get. At this rate, I’ll be bouncing all over the room by the time they even take the Garden Grove stage Friday night. And whether you’ve heard them before or not, I pretty much guarantee that once they start playing, you’ll be just as over the moon as I am. The fact that their show is free and also features talented RVA combos Dropping Ugly and Linden Row merely sweetens the already-delicious pot. Is that how that particular cliche works? Oh, who cares. All I care about is you going to see Bonsai Trees Friday night. Seriously, do it.

Saturday, November 23, 8 PM
David Shultz, Nick Woods, Jonathan Vassar, Trey Burnart Hall @ Capital Ale House Music Hall – $8 (order tickets HERE)
By now, you’re probably used to seeing “singer-songwriter night” tagged onto certain performances that take place around this city, and you’ve come to expect certain things — talented solo performers who are for the most part just getting started with their musical careers, playing a selection of tunes you probably won’t have heard before but you just might love. This Saturday night show at Capital Ale House’s Richmond Music Hall could accurately be termed a singer-songwriter night as well, but if it were, it’d be a particularly stacked one, featuring as it does multiple Richmond musicians who’ve built decade-plus careers here in the river city.

Take David Shultz, for example. From his days fronting alt-country combo The Skyline to more recent solo acoustic outings and now some brand new tunes created with the assistance of multiple Spacebomb-affiliated creators (perhaps a harbinger of positive things to come?), Shultz has quite the track record going for him — and he’s clearly far from done as a creative musical force. His old pal Nick Woods is similar — once the Richmond-based frontman of indie-folk group Orioles, these days he’s making country-style acoustic music down in Nashville. And of course, Jonathan Vassar’s heartfelt folk-Americana sounds have been a constant here in Richmond for over 15 years now. Trey Burnart Hall is a relative newcomer by comparison, but he’s an incredibly talented one. If it’s a showcase for some of the most talented singer-songwriters this city’s ever produced that you crave, you’re in for a major treat at Capital Ale House this Saturday night.

Sunday, November 24, 6 PM
RVA Rap Elite Season Finale, feat. Team Radio (Radio B, Michael Millions, Cole Hicks, Cane, Intalek) vs Team Petey (Nickelus F, Big Sty, Easalio, Illa Styles, Fan Ran), Bravo vs. Chance Fischer, Big Sty, BlackLiq @ The Dark Room – $10
Battle rap is a strong tradition that dates back to the very dawn of hip hop, but it’s had its ups and downs over the decades. Freestyle battles between talented rappers are definitely on the upswing here in Richmond, though, and have been for the past few years, from the work of the Southpaw Battle Coalition to the star-studded presentations by RVA Rap Elite. This particular event constitutes the 2019 Season Finale for these events, which have relocated with the closing of Champion RVA to The Hofheimer Building’s Dark Room.

RVA Rap Elite majordomo Radio B is really pulling out all the stops for this last event of 2019, too — he and his AGM partner Nickelus F have each formed five-MC teams that will battle it out in a cypher sure to have faces melting and heads exploding all over the Hof. Between Radio B’s enlistment of heavy hitters Michael Millions, Cole Hicks, and more; and Nickelus F’s recruitment of Illa Styles, Fan Ran, and other world-class talents, it’s hard to predict who could prevail in this clash of the hip hop titans. Meanwhile, Bravo and Chance Fischer will strut their own stuff in a battle that’s guaranteed to showcase some devastating rhymes from these two top-level rhyme spitters. And of course, BlackLiq and Big Sty will each bring the fire with sets of their own. If you care at all about hip hop in RVA, you have got to make it out to this one — it really doesn’t get better.

Monday, November 25, 7 PM
Jimbo Mathus @ The Canal Club – $15 (order tickets HERE)
It’s entirely possible that right now, you’re thinking what I was thinking when I first saw this listing: “Jimbo Mathus… do I know who he is?” You almost certainly do, but chances are you know him better as the co-founder and leader of the Squirrel Nut Zippers than you do as a solo performer. Everyone remembers the Zippers from their late 90s hit, “Hell,” but that quick taste of success did them a disservice, as their old-time Dixieland jazz approach got them swept into the “swing revival” dustbin with the Cherry Poppin’ Daddies and old VHS copies of Swingers when the turn of the millennium rolled around.

Meanwhile, Jimbo Mathus was and remains a world-class talent with a wide-ranging creative sensibility that finds him dipping into the worlds of folk, blues, and Southern soul, as he’s proven with his 2019 solo album Incinerator — his fourth under his own name. The album sees him collaborate with former Zippers bandmate Andrew Bird, as well as Lily Hiatt and members of the Drive-By Truckers. The result isn’t that much like your memories of the Squirrel Nut Zippers, but it’s sure to be a hit with anyone who loves heartfelt American music created by truly unique characters that haven’t been homogenized by our country’s creeping suburban wasteland. That’s what you’ll get from Jimbo Mathus, and you’re going to love it.

Tuesday, November 26, 8 PM
La Dispute, Touche Amore, Empath @ The Broadberry – $25 (order tickets HERE)
One of the first articles I wrote for RVA Mag, nearly a decade ago, was about Touche Amore and Pianos Become The Teeth coming to town to perform. While La Dispute wasn’t part of that gig, they were, along with those other two bands, part of the loosely-aligned group known as The Wave. This was a cadre of half a dozen or so bands who formed an affiliation based on their mutual status as groups attempting to thread the needle between emo and hardcore at the dawn of the 2010s. Those groups have gone in a variety of musical directions since then — Pianos Become The Teeth have dropped the screaming and found a deep well of melodic emotion to draw from, Touche Amore have remained closely musically aligned to hardcore even as their exploration of deeply fraught lyrical content has cut ever closer to the bone.

As for La Dispute, 2019 has seen them sign to Epitaph Records and release their first LP in five years, Panorama. On it, vocalist Jordan Dreyer — always the most literarily inclined of The Wave’s songwriters — has gone deeper than ever into his novelistic inclinations, exploring his own emotional responses to trauma and tragedy in the lives of those he cares about over the course of the album’s 10 songs, even as the rest of the band generates dynamic compositions that move from quiet introspection to overwhelming crescendos in a matter of minutes. The result is an incredible musical journey that will have a powerful impact on all who witness it — especially in the live environment La Dispute will create at The Broadberry this Tuesday night. Let it impact you. Be there.

Elsewhere Around The State:

Friday, November 22, 6 PM
Femme Funk, feat. Shagwuf, Ships In The Night, Harli & The House of Jupiter, Dropping Julia, Marti @ The Southern Cafe (Charlottesville) – $15 (order tickets HERE)
This Friday night in Charlottesville, The Southern Cafe will bring us the third annual celebration of C-ville’s showcase of femme musicians, Femme Funk. This year’s event is set to benefit Planned Parenthood of Charlottesville, and with the kind of peril reproductive rights and women’s health care face in Trump’s America, you’d be hard pressed to find a better cause than this one. Plus, you’ll get to hear a highly diverse set of sounds from Central Virginia performers of a feminine persuasion, and that’s always a joy.

It’s especially a joy when the evening is headlined by the unrestrained rock n’ roll passion of Shagwuf, whose blues-inflected alt-rock has been blowing minds around VA and beyond for quite a few years now. The evening will also feature as wide a variety of sounds as is possible to find in one room on one evening, from Harli & the House Of Jupiter’s powerful soul-punk fusion to Ships In The Night’s dark, ambient electronic sounds to the rootsy pop of Dropping Julia and the indie rocking of Marti. See how much femme artists have to offer the world of Virginia music and take a drive up 64 this Friday night for Femme Funk — you won’t be sorry.

Tuesday, November 26, 7:30 PM
Immortal Technique, GOOGZ @ Elevation27 (Virginia Beach) – $20-$25 (order tickets HERE)
If you’ve just been following the lists of new releases over the past eight years or so, you could be forgiven for thinking that Immortal Technique had retired from the hip hop game. We haven’t gotten any new music out of the most radical rapper in the game since his 2011 collection, The Martyr, and while he swears he’s still working on long-promised fifth album The Middle Passage, there’s no release date as yet. That’s all the more reason to head to Virginia Beach this Tuesday and see Immortal Technique murder the mic, live and in person.

While these days he’s probably better known for his radical left-wing politics due to multiple appearances on the shows of Joe Rogan and (uh) Alex Jones, Technique’s hip hop mixes those politics with some incredibly harsh lyrical content, leaving him somewhere between political rap and outright horrorcore — a dichotomy clearly visible in songs like “Point Of No Return” and “Dance With The Devil.” Regardless of whether you agree with everything Immortal Technique raps about (personally, I’ve never been a fan of his casual use of homophobic slurs), he’s an incredibly talented and provocative MC of the sort who doesn’t come around very often at all. So go see him, because there’s no telling when you’ll get the chance again.

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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]

Top Photo: Gumming, by Joey Wharton, via Twitter

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

BlackLiq’s ‘Madness’: A Career Highlight For One Of Richmond’s Most Prolific Hop Hop Veterans

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BlackLiq’s new video, “Madness,” combines some of his strongest lyrics yet with an powerful animated visual sure to burn itself into your memory.

In a city full of great hip hop, BlackLiq‘s name has been at or near the top of the list throughout the past decade. He’s charted the transition the river city’s been through over that time, from “Richmond” to “RVA,” and documented his own growth during that time through intensely personal lyrics that are at times uncomfortably revealing but always highly relatable.

This is a lot of what’s given BlackLiq such longevity in a scene that sees so many rise and fall over relatively brief periods. But it’s not just his talent — it’s his continued productivity. As host of WRIR’s Hip Hop For The Rest Of Us, BlackLiq has been bringing the city’s rhymers together to fill the late-night airwaves with razor-sharp freestyles on a weekly basis for quite a few years now, and this year he’s been charting his own evolution as a freestyle rhyme-spitter by releasing one new compilation per month of freestyles he’s laid down on air. The series, called NOW, is up to Volume 10 so far, with two more left to go before we ring in 2020.

But that’s not all BlackLiq has going on musically; he’s also in the process of putting together his next studio album, The Lie. Whether this new single, “Madness,” will be on it is an open question, but based on its sheer musical quality, I would be happy to hear an answer in the affirmative.

On a strictly musical level, this track is one of the best BlackLiq’s ever given us — and might reach a new level in dark personal revelation when he tells us in the first few lines that “My mom sleeps on my couch every single night, and when I come home late, I check if she’s alive.” Pairing these lines with an ominously powerful backing track, produced by the late, great Honorable Sleaze, makes for an incredibly hard-hitting track that stays with you long past its running time.

The video for “Madness” takes things to another level entirely. Its stark black and white animation, created and animated by Derek Stewart with visual effects and editing by Ason Intrigue, pairs scenes from BlackLiq’s daily life with harrowing moments of hallucinatory terror, in which he is chased through his own mind by monsters and horrific visions of his own end. Anyone who’s struggled with depression and fears of inadequacy and failure will understand where Liq is coming from on this track. Listen to it, watch the video, and keep an eye out for The Lie, coming soon.