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RVA Shows You Must See This Week: May 25 – May 31

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FEATURED SHOW
Sunday, May 29, 7 PM
Rikki Rakki Prom Night, feat. Rikki Rakki, Angels Cant See, Frames, Cassidy Snider And The Wranglers @ Gallery 5 – $10 in advance, $12 at the door (order tickets HERE)
Returning to my ongoing coverage of the Richmond music scene in the post-pandemic era (by which I mean the era after the pandemic started. When we get to the era after the pandemic ends, I’ll let you know) has been a big learning process, from figuring out that show info is more often on Instagram than Facebook these days (what accounts should I be following? Drop me an email with tips) to learning the names of new bands who’ve become a big deal around town during the era in which none of us couldn’t go to any shows at all.

Rikki Rakki are a new Richmond band who’ve impressed me with their hustle over the past six months, going from a band whose name I’d barely heard to a band I see on flyers at least once every week or two. Now they’re taking the next step, and they’re doing so in style, with the release of their new EP, Quarantine Sessions (we all know how it got that name). It’s a five-song collection that gives the first glimpse of Rikki Rakki as a fully formed band rather than a series of demos uploaded to Bandcamp, showing that the band does a great job of foregrounding frontwoman Erika Blatnik’s excellent vocal melodies while laying down a musical foundation that mixes jangly psychedelic vibes with a little of that early 90s alt-rock vibe that we all know and love. Things stay relatively understated on the EP, but are sure to get loud when the band breaks these tunes out on the Gallery 5 stage Sunday night.

What adds the style to Rikki Rakki’s coming out party for their new EP is the themed event they’ve planned for this release show. The entire evening will be laid out as a “retro prom night,” featuring decorations and a Polaroid photo booth. While there’s no set-in-stone dress code, the band is encouraging swanky attire, and will (I would think) be busting out their own cupcake dresses and out-of-date suits for the occasion. What better way to wrap up a late-spring weekend than to relive what we were all doing on May weekends five or ten (or, in my case, um, thirty) years ago? One thing’s for sure — the music will be better at this prom night than it was at the one your school held in the gym your junior year. Don’t worry about finding a date, either — just show up and dance! You’ll be glad you did.

Wednesday, May 25, 8 PM
Multicult, Vincas, Hex Machine, Bermuda Triangles, R-Complex @ 4 Cyber Cafe – $12
Here’s a treat for all you noise-rockers to liven up your dreary mid-week blues. Tonight, 4 Cyber Cafe hosts top-notch noise rockers from multiple states, and you’re gonna wanna be there to experience every minute of it. Baltimore’s Multicult and their Athens, GA-based touring partners, Vincas, top the bill, hitting the road with the goal of appearing at Caterwaul Fest, a four-day event in Minneapolis that was originally scheduled to take place in late spring 2020, before… well, you know what happened. It’s always nice when these sorts of tours bring bands headed to fests through Richmond on the way, and even if Caterwaul isn’t generating quite the spillover that Maryland Death Fest used to bring to the city, we’ll take what we can get, especially when it hits this hard.

Multicult’s 2019 LP, Simultaneity Now, has been in the world for three years, but still sounds just as heavy and powerful as it did back when it dropped. They’ve got that same lurching stomp feel as Richmond noise vets Hex Machine — who, not-so-coincidentally, are also on this bill. As for Vincas, they bring a dark industrial feel to their brand of noise-rock, incorporating both drums and programmed beats in a manner that evokes everything from Suicide to Godflesh to the Birthday Party. If you like your noise at least vaguely gothic, these guys are for you. Local experimental-music mainstays Bermuda Triangles and R-Complex are also on this bill, making it a veritable embarrassment of riches for the listener who derives a distinct pleasure from music that is at least 25% noise. Which is to say, sign me up.

Thursday, May 26, 8 PM
FullScreen, Wizard Purple, Captcha, So Badly @ The Camel – $6 in advance, $10 day of show (order tickets HERE)
One thing I’m not sure every reader of this column fully appreciates is how much detective work sometimes goes into figuring out what the heck is going on with one show or another that I find myself writing about. This one’s a great example; a Citrus City production, I knew it would feature plenty of good music. But locating that music? Ah, that was another matter. Wizard Purple, who were listed as headliners on some of the information I found about this show, were extremely difficult to track down. All I really learned at first was that the band name was also used as an artistic moniker by a painter named Cameron Gray. The big breakthrough in the case for me was learning that Gray was previously in a King George-based band called Lake Alden, who released a lovely LP of twinkly alt-rock tunes in 2020 called The Mess.

Now, does Wizard Purple sound like Lake Alden, or incorporate any of that band’s members besides Gray? I still haven’t resolved that question. I suggest you do so for yourself by hitting up this show Thursday evening. After all, FullScreen are also on the bill, and I know for a fact that this RVA/Philly trio have some great indie tunes to bring to us all. After a two-year delay (we all know why that happened…), they released the third in a series of self-produced singles they put together while working on a full-length LP that, as far as I know, has still not materialized. That’s OK; the two songs on this single are lovely, guaranteed to stick in your head all day, and will surely brighten up the entire Camel when FullScreen performs them live during this show. Therefore we know for sure that, even if Wizard Purple turns out to be a live painting exhibition, this show will sound outstanding.

Friday, May 27, 6 PM
Friday Cheers’ RVA Music Night, feat. Matthew E. White, Benet, The Last Real Circus @ Brown’s Island – $10 in advance, $15 at the door (order tickets HERE)
Folks, as much as I envy the expensive dresses many of them wear on the local news, the fact is that I am not a meteorologist. Therefore, when I look at my phone this morning and see that the sunny, warm day my weather app originally predicted for Friday has now turned into a festival of storm clouds, I have no idea how actually likely that makes this Friday Cheers show to get cancelled. In absence of clear-cut evidence, though, I try to be an optimist, and I’m going to encourage optimism for you too, because if this show does manage to take place, it’s without a doubt the coolest musical event occurring in Richmond this Friday evening.

After all, look at the evidence we’re presented with: Matthew E. White, Richmond’s favorite soul-rockin’ son, is still riding high on the success of last year’s K Bay, his first solo joint since back in 2015 and proof positive that he’s still got all the chops we remember from the glory days of Fight The Big Bull — and then some. He’ll be bringing a live band full of RVA all-stars to the stage to get everyone moving with upbeat boogie jams like “Electric” and “Nested,” among many other hits. He’ll be joined by heart-on-sleeve RVA dance-pop wunderkind Benet, and The Last Real Circus will get things rolling on a high note, with a healthy dose of their electrified Americana. The positive vibes will rise high enough that they just might be able to chase away the storm clouds. Let’s all cross our fingers!

[p.s. — if rain forces this show to go the way of the Japanese Breakfast show earlier this month, you could do a lot worse than to head over to Richmond Music Hall at Capital Ale House and check out energetic young locals Baby Bugs and Saint Samuel. Just sayin.]

Saturday, May 28, 7 PM
Portrayal Of Guilt, Yautja, Ostraca @ Richmond Music Hall at Capital Ale House – $16 in advance, $18 day of show (order tickets HERE)
Despite the pandemic, Portrayal Of Guilt had one heck of a 2021. Not only did they release a killer slab of metallic screamo, We Are Always Alone, in the beginning of the year, they had another entire LP ready for us by fall. And if it wasn’t clear by the title alone, the sound the band delved into on that second 2021 LP, Christfucker, proved that they had largely moved across the nebulous border that lies somewhere between the emotional heavyosity of screamo and outright black metal. Elements of Neurosis-style noise horror and doom-sludge bleakness were also highly present on their latest and, in more than a few opinions, greatest LP.

So I guess the question now is: can Portrayal Of Guilt bring the same kind of heat onstage that they spent 2021 bringing in the studio? I think anyone who caught them when they came through Richmond in the pre-pandemic days knows the answer, but just in case you weren’t one of the lucky ones: the answer is yes. When these Texas maniacs hit the Richmond Music Hall stage Saturday night, they are gonna rip your face off, and you’re gonna love every minute of it. Better yet, they’ve got Nashville’s Yautja along with them. This fearsome metal trio only managed one album, The Lurch, in 2021, but they’ve built such a formidable legacy over their past decade of excellent records to more than prove their bona fides. The same can be said for homegrown Richmond metallic screamo trio Ostraca, who are finally back in action after giving us three incredible LPs in four years, and nothing since 2018. At least we get to see them live again, right? This whole night is gonna rule.

Sunday, May 29, 7 PM
Noah-O Album Release/Birthday Party, feat. Noah-O, Shawn Gray, Karmah, Cadillac Cat, Tone Redd, One Forever, Saaint, Prime N9N23, Mara Mara Takeoff, Lord Seelife, Calvin LaFleur, Vibes by Melodic, Hosted by DJ Jazzy Beatz @ The Broadberry – $15 in advance, $20 day of show (order tickets HERE)
Noah-O’s story is one of ups and downs. His name on the Richmond hip hop scene has been made for over a decade now, since he broke through and actually got one of his videos played on MTV. He followed that up with a series of excellent albums collaborating with pretty much every great producer to come out of this city, from Cadillac Cat and Fan Ran to the legendary Kleph Dollaz. He spent the pandemic releasing the Deadstock series of albums, showing that even his outtakes add up to multiple albums worth of straight fire. Somehow, though, the world outside the river city still hasn’t quite caught on. It’s the struggle he’s endured when he’s not on the mic, the day to day realities of a working class guy from Richmond who still has to feed his family, that he raps about on his latest single, “Trillipino,” the title of which simultaneously references his Filipino heritage and the fact that he keeps it real, 24/7, 365 days a year.

If Noah-O deserves anything from the world, it’s to give him a really great birthday party, and that’s what the Richmond hip hop scene is trying to do with this Sunday night pre-Memorial Day party at The Broadberry. It’s a party to commemorate the release of the aforementioned “Trillipino,” for sure, but it’s also a celebration of a talented, prolific MC and straight-up nice guy who’s been bringing excellent music to the river city for over a decade now. It’s past time for the world to give Noah-O his flowers, and if the entire world can’t fit inside the Broadberry for this show, it can at least pack out with the many appreciative Richmonders who know what an incredible talent lives in our midst. So yeah, come join Noah-O and over a dozen talented members of the Richmond hip hop community at the Broadberry this Sunday to pay tribute to a brilliant artist who’s still at the top of his game.

Monday, May 30, 7 PM
Tiny Dinosaur, Radiance, Whitney & The Saying Goes @ The Camel – $10 (order tickets HERE)
If you find yourself thinking, as I did, “Tiny Dinosaur? That’s a random name for a band,” you may be just as surprised as I was to learn that the band coming to the Camel this Monday night are not even the only band called Tiny Dinosaur! To be clear, this is not the Madison, Wisconsin indie-rock combo but the New Orleans acoustic ensemble who refers to the style of music they play as “fantasy folk.” They’re on tour in support of their latest album, Songs For the Mass Extinction Event, which is an apt title for an album released at a time when it feels like everything from civil society to the very climate in which we live is just about to collapse.

Thankfully, the sound this band is bringing to us at a time like this is upbeat and joyful, even if they do at least sometimes sing about the ceaseless march of time and the way everything we care about will eventually fall away. For every song on the new album like the challenging and forthright “You Might Be Wrong,” there’s a purely fun jam like “Who Put The Wu-Tang Next To Sgt. Pepper?” And no matter how serious the particular lyrics they’re singing at any point, they’ve always got an upbeat sound that should appeal to any among you who appreciate that whole Gogol Bordello/World-Inferno Friendship Society approach to making music. Spending your Memorial Day dancing around the Camel to these tunes is a good way to sing an elegy for the world all around us, passing away even as we speak. But it’s also just a good way to banish your cares and find a smile at the difficult beginning of a long week. And sometimes that’s all we really need.

Tuesday, May 31, 7 PM
Whoresnation, Grishka, Warfuck, MSD @ Hot For Pizza – $5
It’s not every week that the most brutal show of the week turns out to be happening on Tuesday night in a pizza shop, but when you love truly scathing grindcore, you’ll take it whenever and wherever it wants to show up, won’t you? That’s why you’ll be at Hot For Pizza, Richmond’s favorite Van Halen-referencing slice joint, on Tuesday night as one incredibly formidable tour rolls into town.

That formidable tour is headlined by two French groups, Whoresnation and Warfuck — both of whose names might not exactly be welcome if “family oriented” is something you aim for in your evening’s entertainment. Since when has grindcore been family oriented, though? Whoresnation’s brand new LP, Dearth, is a lightning-fast slab of guttural grind with strong death metal appeal. If you dig stuff like Cephalic Carnage and Last Days Of Humanity, you’ll find something to love here. As for Warfuck, they’re a bassless grind duo who channel some of the chaotic energy of early Pig Destroyer, back when they went fast most of the time. Their most recent LP, 2018’s This Was Supposed To Be Fun, is (title to the contrary) a total blast to listen to, especially if you like really, really fast stuff. DC’s Grishka and RVA’s own MSD round out this bill with a heaping helping of their own mid-Atlantic brand of grind, and all of it’s gonna be a ton of fun that will certainly liven up your Tuesday night. Just don’t eat too much pizza beforehand — headbanging on a full stomach is never as much fun as it seems like it should be.

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 by Andrew Williams, via Rikki Rakki/Facebook

Both Kinds Of Crazy

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A lot of smart people are nuts.

This can go either way. On one hand you’ve got Vladimir Putin, and on the other hand you’ve got Kanye West. Push too far in one direction and you can witness some real rotten stuff. But those are the ones you hear the most about these days. Stride into a chain bookstore and you’ll see the bargain-priced coffee table books of Frank Lloyd Wright or Ansel Adams or Frida Kahlo or Michael Jordan… After a while, maybe all the names start to bleed together, and your vision becomes fuzzy to anything on the fringe. 

It’s popular to float the theory that these people must be crazy in order to create what they’ve created. Most people don’t make this type of precise art. Jordan might’ve hogged the ball, but he still made art with it, regardless. 

There are also the Hedy Lamarrs, Percy Julians, Nikola Teslas, and other wackos who lingered in the past largely forgotten. Only recently have their scientific achievements been acknowledged by specific pockets of the mainstream. There’s plenty of reasons for this, and you can list them all out loud, but I’m not going to. 

Watching Hex Machine play live at the Camel on March 17th, it’d be hard not to think of Trevor Thomas howling into the microphone as a free-from-shell looney-toon. This is on the good side of being crazy. 

If you listen to 2009’s Omen Mas, especially on tracks like “Pink Whisky,” you can pick up the frenetic sound of a madman who’s just broken out. 2012’s Fixator has the bratty arrogance of a madman who still hasn’t gotten caught. 2019’s Cave Painting has the sophisticated sound of a madman who knows he’s never going to get caught. 

This isn’t music made by calm people. 

T.T. is a smart dude. He’s probably got a stopwatch, an abacus, and a thesaurus sitting on top of his amp. He’s a fan of double entendre and wordplay; it’s written all-over Hex Machine’s three records. Each was recorded with a different lineup, each musically and lyrically puzzling and punishing in a different way. Each like a separate, candid interview with a maniac on the run, written in a dry, witty cipher over the span of 13 years. This is not simple rock and roll.

These days, pulling the low-end for Hex Machine is Alex Ricart, and any team for which Erik Josephson is hitting-for-distance behind the kit is better off. Watching the rhythm section alone is worth the price of admission. Yet the prize in this box of Cracker Jacks is Trevor. 

Two thirds of the band live in Richmond, but Hex Machine’s live performance picks you up and throws you into the Pacific Northwest somewhere in the late 80’s/early 90’s. At least that’s what it felt like to me, even though I never physically experienced the Pacific Northwest in the late 80’s/early 90’s. Conjecture is allowed here, and I’d imagine Hex Machine would’ve fit in fine walking around Belltown with Mudhoney before opening for Soundgarden at the Crocodile Cafe. It’s a goddamn shame the band isn’t all over the place and everywhere. You can’t blame that on the smart people.

Photo by Susan Whelihan

Hex Machine fried through a slowed-down version of “Starlet” by the Jesus Lizard to open their set, and it was a grease fire from then on, slinging three slabs of Cave Painting at the audience like hot meat. The new specials on the chalkboard for the night were “We Got The Beast” and “Simon Ferocious” — solid evidence the dudes pulling tickets have been inhaling kitchen gas for a while. Omitted was anything from Fixator. Hex Machine topped it off with “Lunatic Sun” from Omen Mas. All of us were hockey pucks by then.

Also from Richmond was the instrumental flying elephant: Dumb Waiter. They opened the evening by playing their ridiculous 2020 album Tsk in its entirety. The album title features zero vowels, and none of the song titles have any either. Under another tent, it’d be Tusk by Fleetwood Mac. But it isn’t. Dumb Waiter is a self-proclaimed “math/avant-garde/pop/noise 4-piece” and that’s not an embellished trapeze act. They’re every bit of whatever that is. Their newest album, Gauche Gists, is due out June 24th.

You can’t really describe Dumb Waiter without sounding like an idiot, or like someone who’s trying not to sound like an idiot, or just a run-of-the-mill music nerd. I could start rattling off a list of subgenres, maybe a Mr. Bungle reference, something about time signatures and Jaco Pastorious, and try to sound like I know what I’m talking about, but I won’t know what I’m talking about. And you’ll know. The cheap way out of this situation is to then put it on you. Say something like, “You should listen to Dumb Waiter and decide what they sound like for yourself.” This would absolve me of anything further on the matter. But that just sucks.

So.

At times, Tsk sounds like an elephant in a modern dance class. An elephant serenading another elephant. An elephant doing cocaine. An elephant bartending. An elephant bringing other elephants to beat the shit out of some other elephants. An elephant writing a letter home. An elephant arguing with his girlfriend. An elephant sneaker shopping. An elephant walking the dog. An elephant at Benihana. An elephant playing videogames. An elephant at Summer Slam. An elephant smoking weed. An elephant watching Babar. 

All of those sounds are made by mammoth drums, bass, guitar, and saxophone.  

Seeing them live is unreal. I wonder if there were other people in the audience wishing they could sing with the band. This probably happens to instrumental outfits more often than it doesn’t. It’s not like Dumb Waiter needs a singer. The music Nathaniel Roseberry, Nicholas Crider, Keith Paul, and Tristan Brennis make is already gold. In a godless world, Dumb Waiter is Ganesh.

If you’re marginally familiar with Zombi, then you’re in the same boat as me, and there’s no captain aboard. The Pittsburgh, PA-based Relapse Records instrumental space rock band has been getting comparisons to Italy’s Goblin (famous for scoring the European version of George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead) since their 2004 album Cosmos. They closed out the evening, and the hype wasn’t lip service.

Songs like “Chant” from 2021’s Liquid Crystal could be played along with recent BBC footage of the war in Ukraine, while the album’s title track sounds like death and the ascension into heaven, splashed with the holy water of David Gilmour. You could spend a day doing this with their discography. Or a long drive alone, allowing your ADHD to speed down the highway. Zombi could make the soundtrack to anything.

Maybe that’s what this article is really about. Seems like everything these days has become a goddamn circus, and the peanuts are orange. 

In America, you can choose what you want to put into your head. There’s a lot of stuff out there and some of it might even seem safe to eat. However, we shouldn’t just close our eyes and suck it through a straw because the sticker on the front says it’s all right. Teachers told us in elementary school not to eat berries in the forest or take candy from strangers. That logic also works here. It’s your unalienable right to inhale FOXNews and McDonald’s for six months if you want to. Just don’t be surprised if that nonsense has crept around your midsection or across the front of your new hat.   

This is crazy-making behavior. Not the good kind of crazy. Not the kind at the Camel on St. Patrick’s Day. 

You are smart people. If it looks and tastes like bubblegum, it shouldn’t be the only thing you’re chewing on. Definitely shouldn’t go to sleep with it in your mouth. It’ll be a bitch to get out of your hair in the morning. Then you’ll have a shaved head the next day just like everybody else. There’s something to be said for a person who follows out of principle, not simply because the people around them started to move. 

I don’t know what else to tell you.

Photos by Randy J. Byrd, except where noted.

RVA Shows You Must See This Week: March 16 – March 22

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FEATURED SHOW
Saturday, March 19, 7:30 PM
Michael Formanek Drome Trio, Brian Jones Quintet @ Spacebomb Studios – $20 (order tickets HERE)
There’s a lot of perspective you can call upon when you’re 46 years old and you’ve been doing music journalism since you were 15 (no, you don’t wanna see the zines I made in high school. Or at least, I don’t want you to see them). A good example is this: when I got started, rock music had such a hold over the world of music in general that people used the word “rock” almost as a synonym for “music.” Nobody was a “music journalist” or a “music critic” back then; without fail, you were a “rock journalist” or a “rock critic.” I was around for the big change in the early 00s, too, when a movement against “rockism” gained steam and, within a few years, changed the world of music journalism entirely. But I must admit, I often think the way we all just ended up writing about the profundity to be found in million-selling pop records constitutes somewhat of a missed opportunity.

After all, if you’re able to free your mind from the cultural paradigm of seeing “rock” as the most valid form of music, and you can then do the same with “pop,” there’s a whole ton of other music still to be discovered out there. This week, we’re going to push the boundaries a little. It starts with this show, taking place at Spacebomb Studios on Saturday night, and featuring the Michael Formanek Drome Trio. Michael Formanek is a veteran of the jazz world, a double bass player and composer who has played with heavyweights like Tony Williams and has led a variety of different bands over the years. This time around, he’s joined by tenor sax player Chet Doxas and drummer Vinnie Sperrazza, both of whom have a decent amount of jazz credentials in their own right.

The trio are currently on tour to celebrate the impending release of Were We Where We Were, an album inspired by the uncertainty of pandemic quarantine times and based on a series of what Formanek calls “musical palindromes.” These are reflected in the titles of both the album and songs like “Is It What It Is,” and result in some Sketches Of Spain-style post-bop experimentation that gets pretty far out at times but always retains a melodic, emotional foundation. It’s a long way from Top 40 pop or 90s alternative music, but if you can open your mind to its charms, you’ll find a lot to love here. Local jazz drummer extraordinaire Brian Jones will be opening the evening with a five-piece combo that also includes local leading lights JC Kuhl (Modern Groove Syndicate), Cameron Ralston (Spacebomb House Band), Devonne Harris, and Marcus Tenney (both of Butcher Brown). Whatever they have in store, it’s sure to be enlightening.

Wednesday, March 16, 7 PM
Adam Hopkins’ School Work (Photo by Peter McElhinney) @ Artspace Gallery – $10
Let’s stay in the jazz bag for a few more minutes here, folks, because tonight at Artspace Gallery will bring you another evening of fine music that’s decidedly outside the norm. If you’re aware of jazz bassist Adam Hopkins, it just might be as the co-owner of Out Of Your Head Records; a label best known in Richmond for their release of local jazz drumming genius Scott Clark’s 2021 album, This Darkness. They’ve also released more than one record by Michael Formanek — so you see, it all ties together.

Hopkins started School Work as a way to pay tribute to the legends of mid-20th century free and experimental jazz; they perform tunes by jazz legends like Ornette Coleman, Charles Mingus, Albert Ayler, Eric Dolphy, and more. To accomplish this, he drafted some of the best jazz players Richmond has to offer, including the aforementioned Scott Clark on drums, as well as JC Kuhl (who you’ll remember from the previous blurb) on tenor sax, John Lilley (Afro-Zen All Stars) on alto sax, and Bob Miller (Bio Ritmo) on trumpet. So yeah, some really heavy hitters. If you can understand the beauty of the peak hard bop and free jazz era, you’re certainly going to want to hear what these formidable talents bring to it. And if you don’t get it yet, this is the perfect way to increase your understanding. Be a cool jazz cat and bop down to Artspace on Forest Hill Ave tonight. It’s the right thing to do.

Thursday, March 17, 7 PM
Zombi, Hex Machine @ The Camel – $15 (order tickets HERE)
OK, OK, I hear what you’re saying out there. “This jazz shit is fine and all, but do you have anything weirder?” Yeah, I just might. Because Thursday night at The Camel, our city will be graced by the presence of Pittsburgh duo Zombi. Consisting of synthesizer wizard Steve Moore and drummer A.C. Paterra, this group has been on the scene and blowing minds for quite a while, layering loops of synth, bass, and other sounds overtop of Neu-influenced motorik rhythms to generate a (Tangerine) Dream-scape worthy of a really great early-80s sci-fi movie. Their most recent release, 2021’s Liquid Crystal, uses psychedelic soundscapes to create a fantastical narrative landscape in your mind, one that allows you to fly through the mental stratosphere even as your feet remain planted on terra firma.

Not exactly your typical rock show, huh? Well, on the off chance you’re feeling some form of withdrawal from loud guitars and the inimitable sound of the human voice, this Zombi performance will be opened by local noise-rockers Hex Machine, who last graced our ears with new music back in the pre-pandemic times of 2019, when they released their LP Cave Painting. As weird as it is to say out loud, that was four entire years ago. So does Hex Machine leader Trevor Thomas, never the sort of fellow to keep a steady lineup together for years at a time, have a new crew of backing musicians? Do they perhaps have some new material to drop on us all? I don’t know the answer to either of those questions, but I do know that all the previous incarnations of Hex Machine have delivered Barkmarket/Jesus Lizard-style noise-core grooves with equal aplomb. So whatever you get from this set, it’s definitely gonna be good.

Friday, March 18, 6:30 PM
Rosette presents: Kenji Bunch Is… So Hot Right Now, feat. Danielle Wiebe Burke @ Candela Books + Gallery – Free!
And now for something completely different. Rosette is a local string quartet that features members you could potentially recognize from a variety of other local musical endeavors: chamber music collective Classical Revolution, the Richmond Symphony, indie rockers Goldrush, the liner notes of many different Spacebomb-affiliated releases, and more. As Rosette, they have collaborated with Latin soul group Miramar and Indian classical vocalist Saili Oak, among others. Their current project, So Hot Right Now, sees them dedicating a series of concerts to a particular classical composer. This month, joined by guest violist Danielle Wiebe Burke of the Williamsburg Symphony, they’re focusing on Kenji Bunch, a composer based in Portland, Oregon who is known for integrating elements of bluegrass, funk, hip hop, and other genres into his works for chamber ensemble, ballet, and orchestra.

Seems like the perfect pairing, really: a genre-hopping classical composer having his work brought to life by four stringed-instrument players who are themselves comfortable in a variety of genre settings. At this show, as with all of the Rosette “So Hot Right Now” performances during the month of March, the program will begin with Wiebe Burke playing a version of Bunch’s “The 3 G’s” as a solo piece, followed by Rosette doing “Apochryphal Dances,” which brings Bunch’s modern, genre-bending aesthetic to Baroque-era music. Finally, the five musicians will all come together to play “String Circle,” which incorporates everything from Appalachian old-time music to modern funk, all within a classical string-quintet format. It’s not only a unique musical prospect, but sure to broaden your horizons. And hey, unlike some of the other performances Rosette and Wiebe Burke will be doing over the course of March, this one is free. I think you know what to do.

Saturday, March 19, 7 PM
Sean Barna, Abby Huston @ Gallery 5 – $10 in advance, $12 at the door (order tickets HERE)
And now, since not even I can stay totally weird over the course of an entire week, let’s talk about a recognizably conventional indie show, which takes place this Saturday night at Gallery 5. I don’t know about you, but I miss the days when Gallery 5’s mission was able to include multiple rock shows per week, and while I know they’ve gone in a somewhat different direction, I’m always going to celebrate the moments when an indie artist takes their stage once again. Seán Barna’s the artist in question this time, and I am more than good with it.

Hailing from New York and heralded by a strong endorsement from Counting Crows frontman Adam Duritz (who is a genius, don’t @ me), Barna backs up all the advance praise he’s received with 2020’s Margaret Thatcher Of The Lower East Side, a release that somehow manages to combine the Springsteen-isms and the punk swag of Titus Andronicus with the dramatic heights of the best David Bowie and Queen material. Barna’s sure to light up the former fire station with his incandescent stage presence, even as talented local singer-songwriter Abby Huston, who shares the bill, brings a quieter yet just as intense vibe through her own subtly hypnotic songcraft. These two great musical tastes will taste great together, and the fact that they’re playing together at Gallery 5 only makes this occasion that much sweeter. Get there and see for yourself.

Sunday, March 20, 7 PM
Jon Tyler Wiley & His Virginia Choir, Amity, The Judy Chops Duo @ The Camel – $10 (order tickets HERE)
After several days of unusual, dramatic sound shifts, Sunday night’s a good time to re-center your mind and mentally prepare for another week of work by taking in something soothing and uplifting. And rest assured, this gig by Jon Tyler Wiley & His Virginia Choir will be just what you need. Calling themselves “a country band that doesn’t play country music,” Wiley and co. bring together Mellencamp-ish heartland vibes and an undeniably southern feel. On their new album, The Longing, the group tells tales of doomed dreamers and heartbroken everymen, and manages to repeatedly hit you right in the feels.

So yeah, expect this one to be moving and to touch your heart — and not just due to your headliners, either. Minimalist folk duo Amity create a memorable wall of sound with only two voices and one acoustic guitar. And of course, while you may know the Judy Chops from around town as a sextet, you’re sure to get just as much of their excellent Americana sound from this stripped-down duo version, in which Bill Howard and Molly Murphy, along with their guitars, will focus on the songcraft and let the music stand on its own. Let it wash over you.

Monday, March 21, 9 PM
The Wind-Ups, Bummers Eve, Shawnis And The Shimmers @ Fuzzy Cactus – $8
Monday night is always a little tough. First day back at work after a weekend in which — if you’re lucky — you got some time to relax… just enough to make your return to work a bitter, bitter pill. As a general rule, the best way to wash away that bitterness is to have a really good time Monday night. And of course, you can count on Fuzzy Cactus to bring you that good time, in the form of some rip-roaring rock n’ roll. This Monday night, the rock n’ roll comes from The Wind-Ups, a California-based project centering on the efforts of Jake Sprecher, who has previously backed Jonathan Richman and played in Terry Malts, among others. During the pandemic, Sprecher acquired a Tascam 388 eight-track recorder, and that was all the impetus he needed to make the most of his quarantine boredom and put together an album all by himself.

The result is The Wind-Ups’ debut, Try Not To Think, a power-pop powerhouse full of overdriven guitars, hard-hitting riffs, and catchy choruses that is sure to please fans of both Guided By Voices and Jay Reatard, as well as anyone who enjoys lo-fi versions of 60s style garage pop. I for one am way into it, and that’s true even before I imagine how great it’ll sound being recreated by a full band in a live environment. That’s what you’ll get at Fuzzy Cactus on Monday night, and it’s sure to be a great time. Local garage-rockers Bummers Eve (whose internet presence still says they’re based in Cincinnati, but I don’t buy it) are also on the bill. The evening will be opened by Shawnis And The Shimmers, the latest project from the former Nightcreature/The You Go Girls frontperson, who just dropped their debut EP, Wasteland, last month. It’s another catchy slab of lo-fi retro goodness, which only sweetens the pot for this entire evening. Dive in.

Tuesday, March 22, 7:30 PM
Soccer Mommy, Peel Dream Magazine @ The National – $22.50 in advance, $27.50 day of show (order tickets HERE)
The last half of the previous decade brought us quite a few talented indie singer-songwriters who made a big splash with their early work and then managed to get even better on their follow-ups. Local heroine Lucy Dacus is certainly one, but Nashville’s Soccer Mommy is definitely on an equivalent level where formidable musical talent is concerned. One listen to 2020’s Color Theory is all you need to figure that one out; as brilliant as their debut full-length, 2018’s Clean, was, Color Theory really ups the ante with a succession of gorgeous tunes that are sure to put a smile on your face… that is, if you don’t pay much attention to the lyrics.

It’s true; as with the previous album, this one is somewhat of a depression epic, and the moments when distorted guitars and walls of synthesized haze overwhelm the melodies make this clear. As someone who’s always been a depression baby, though, that kind of thing only pulls me further in. If you can relate, you just might be the perfect audience for Soccer Mommy’s performance at the National, where you can stand in a crowd of strangers who are all feeling the words Sophie Allison sings on the deepest and most intense level — just like you are. The great communal feeling of post-millennial angst and ennui: it unites us all. But hey, at least the music is great.

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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 by Michael Patrick Kelly, via Michael Formanek Drome Trio

VA Shows You Must See This Week: November 6 – November 12

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FEATURED SHOW
Saturday, November 9, 5 PM
Thrashgiving IV, feat. Vulcanite, Genosha, The New Mutiny, LAIR, Murdersome (Photo by Dennis Williford), Alluvion, Site Of Suffering, Cut The Architect’s Hand, Sentius @ Strangeways Brewing – $10 cash, or $5 with canned/non-perishable foods
OK, y’all, Halloween is over, which means we’re officially into the holiday season, for better or for worse. Right now it’s for better, at least for me, because in spite of all it’s terrible cultural baggage, Thanksgiving as it exists in 2019 is my favorite holiday. Sleep late, eat a big meal, watch football… what’s not to love? We hit the “for worse” part along about 8 PM when Mom starts getting antsy and wanting to hit the Black Friday sales (these days a good many of them start as soon as the sun goes down on Thanksgiving, and whoever’s idea that was needs to be put on trial for their crimes against humanity).

Anyway, Thanksgiving itself is still a few weeks away, but over at Strangeways Brewing, they’re getting into the giving spirit a little early, as this Saturday brings about the fourth annual Thrashgiving celebration, put together by Metal Teresa Productions as a benefit to help feed the hungry and house injured military veterans and their families. These good causes are well worth your support, and if you bring some canned or non-perishable food items to donate, you’ll get half off admission, so that rules as well!

In return for your five bucks and your cans of beans, you’ll get a veritable showcase of the best Virginia’s metal scene has to offer. From grunge-metal ragers Vulcanite to mournful doom sludgers Lair — who have a brand new self-titled album out as of last week — and from bloodthirsty thrashers Murdersome to brutal hardcore mosh maniacs Genosha, this show has a ton of headbanging awesomeness to offer. In addition to those four, there are half a dozen more excellent groups on the bill, and considering how cheap the price of admission is, it’s really quite the bargain if your tastes run toward headbanging. This one gets our highest possible recommendation.

Wednesday, November 6, 8 PM
Future Teens, Oceanator, Colpa Mia, Pump Fake @ The Camel – $10 (order tickets HERE)
Despite the name at the top of the bill, as far as I know, none of the bands playing at The Camel tonight have any members under 13 years old. However, Boston’s Future Teens do have a new album called Breakup Season, which is full of melancholy, heartfelt indie rock tunes of the sort the band aptly labels “bummer pop.” These days it seems like that whole twentysomething malaise that descends when you get out of college and don’t know where you’re going to go next can last well into your 30s and beyond, and it can be comforting to hear a band sing poignantly and relatably about it over some amazing pop melodies.

That’s what Future Teens has to offer, and I think we could all use a night of that — maybe a bit more than we want to admit. Along with it, we’ll also get a set from New Yorkers Oceanator, who have a similar sort of emotional vibe but add a good deal more bottom-end crunch to their harder-hitting alt-rock tunes — which is always nice. Richmond’s own Colpa Mia will add their own indie sound to the mix, and brand new local emo duo Pump Fake will get things started at The Camel tonight. Get down there and soothe your troubled soul with music.

Thursday, November 7, 7:30 PM
Chameleons Vox, Theatre Of Hate, Jay Aston, Unmaker @ Capital Ale House Music Hall – $20 (order tickets HERE)
The Chameleons were incredibly important to the development of UK postpunk in the 80s. While other guitar-based bands like Echo And The Bunnymen, The Cure, and The Jesus And Mary Chain are a bit more well-known today, any listen to 21st century exponents of music like this shows an indelible influence from the sound The Chameleons expertly crafted during their initial 80s run. The mix of Mark Burgess’s insightful, poetic lyrics, thundering basslines, and dramatic baritone vocals combined perfectly with the glittering twin guitar lines of Reg Smithies and Dave Fielding to create a legacy that still endures after four decades.

The Chameleons did briefly reform and release three more albums in the early 00s, but these days, Mark Burgess soldiers on as the sole original member, performing classic Chameleons tunes under the name Chameleons Vox. While his backing band has featured a variety of different musicians over the past decade, Burgess has always recruited excellent guitar players to recreate Smithies and Fielding’s gorgeous spiraling melodies, and his own vocal and bass talents ensure that the songs retain their proper gravity. Basically, if you love the Chameleons — and if you’ve enjoyed bands like Interpol, Shadow Age, or Soft Kill in recent years, you definitely do — you’re sure to have a wonderful night seeing Chameleons Vox bring legendary songs like “Swamp Thing” and “Thursday’s Child” to full, glorious life.

Friday, November 8, 8 PM
Ellen Siberian Tiger, HotSpit, She, CAPTCHA @ Bingo Beer Co – Free!
Don’t panic, folks — I’ve done some research and learned that despite their band name, Ellen Siberian Tiger is just as human as you and me. This trio from Philadelphia dishes out some pretty excellent grungy alt-rock in the vein of Hop Along or Speedy Ortiz, and I for one am digging it. I also can’t help but love the powerful, confrontational feminism espoused on tracks like “Kitchen Knife” and “When Men Explain Things To Me.” We need more of these sorts of lyrics in the world.

Ellen Siberian Tiger will be rocking the halls of Bingo Beer this Friday night in a manner my punk rock friends always wanted to back in the 90s, so I can’t help but be excited, and I’m just as excited for the trio of excellent Richmond groups that are sharing this bill with them. The outstanding HotSpit are at the top of that list, and while they’ve still only released a few demos online, their live performances around town over the past year or so have shown that this band has a ton of talent on offer, from their excellent vocal harmonizing to the gorgeously downbeat melodies they seem never to run out of. She, who’ve excellently evolved from a solo project into a trance-inducing atmospheric indie combo, will also bring some lovely sounds to your ears on this evening, and CAPTCHA are certainly far more pleasant than any gridded image demanding you click on the portions of the screen that feature crosswalks. Get down with this one.

Saturday, November 9, 9 PM
Queen Elephantine & Tavishi, Hex Machine, Manzara @ Wonderland – $10
In a world that tends to be overfilled with doom metal bands these days, it’s rare to find one that’s approaching the genre in a manner previously unheard. But with Queen Elephantine, who were originally formed in Hong Kong and now make their home in Philadelphia, just such a band may have come along. Granted, new LP Gorgon is heavy and gloomy as fuck, but it’s hard to say that this is really “metal” in the conventionally understood sense. Instead, it seems to combine astral-travelling psychedelia, apocalyptic drone, spooky occult atmosphere, and noise experimentation, all with a massive dose of sludgy heaviness.

The result, at least on Gorgon‘s 13-minute opener, “Mars,” is like some sort of strange crossbreed between Acid Mothers Temple, Corrupted, and Sunn O))). It certainly should come to mind-expanding full-volume life at Wonderland this Saturday night, and if we’re reading this correctly, local experimental noise musician Tavishi will be lending additional texture to Queen Elephantine’s set for what’s sure to be a fascinating and unmissable experiment in dark, crushing noise. Local noise-rock powerhouse Hex Machine will open up, along with quietly devastating Richmond postpunk group Manzara, making this an evening sure to blow your mind. Be there.

Sunday, November 10, 8 PM
Rice God & Friends Fall Festival, feat. Noah-O, Fan Ran, Illa Styles, BBX, Amala, Yung Apollo, Alpha Romeo, Papi Majae, Dre King, Bejxy, Kidd Khy, Slim Kartel, Chauncey De Giant, Don Chase, Van Silke, SAE, O-Z, Lil Grits, PT Veil, Distant Dee, Tone Redd, Cadillac Cat @ The Camel – $8 in advance/$10 at the door (order tickets HERE)
It’s been about a month now since Noah-O and Fan Ran got together once again to unleash a new installment of Dirty Rice on the world. Dirty Rice: Deux, which dropped just over a month ago, is yet another piece of evidence in the argument that Noah-O’s at his best when he works with one really talented producer for the entire length of a project. See also The Rain with DJ Mentos (a project that led directly to the formation of Analog Suspects), or Face/Off with Cadillac Cat, or All Souled Out with the late Kleph Dollaz… and that’s not even all the examples I could mention.

This Sunday night at The Camel, Noah-O and Fan Ran will be teaming up to lay some dirty rice on y’all in the live environment, and they’ll be doing it up right by turning the whole thing into a Fall Festival that will feature over a dozen other hip hop talents from both RVA and the surrounding region. In addition to top-level local powerhouses like Illa Styles, Slim Kartel, Distant Dee, and the aforementioned Cadillac Cat, there’s also a whole crew coming through from the Kentucky/Ohio area, including Yung Apollo and Alpha Romeo, plus a whole bunch more from all over! If you love hip hop, this is going to be hours of the dopest rhymes and sickest beats imaginable, with Noah-O and Fan Ran at the center of it all. So hey, you know what to do.

Monday, November 11, 7 PM
Lisa Prank, Magic Wand, Jimmy And The Delay @ Gallery 5 – $7 in advance/$10 day of show (order tickets HERE)
I love the band name Lisa Prank — and it’s not because I’m old enough to have actually had a Lisa Frank Trapper Keeper. Well, OK, it’s not JUST because of that. Anyway, Seattle singer-songwriter Robin Edwards struck gold when she named her indie-pop project, to the point that I’m amazed no one else has done it first. And on brand new LP Perfect Love Song, she also struck gold by getting production help from Rose Melberg, whose work in Tiger Trap, The Softies, Go Sailor, and others has been instrumental in creating and developing the exact sort of indie-pop milieu that Lisa Prank is working within today.

If you’re a fan of any of those bands, or if you’re too young to remember them but do enjoy bands like Speedy Ortiz and The Worriers, Lisa Prank is sure to be right up your alley. If they were 5 percent heavier or noisier, I’d call them pop-punk, but as it is, this is just simple, catchy pop music — and it’s great at being exactly that. It’ll put a big smile on your face, as will opening sets from local newcomers Magic Wand and Jimmy And The Delay. This will be a great way to end a really tough back-to-work Monday, so be there and let this show ease you into a better rest of your week.

Tuesday, November 12, 7 PM
This Will Destroy You, Christopher Tignor, Colin Phils @ The Camel – $15 (order tickets HERE)
In the wake of Explosions In The Sky’s Friday Night Lights-fueled early-00s success, a rising musical tide lifted all instrumental post-rock boats, and that of This Will Destroy You was definitely one. However, almost fifteen years after the release of their rapturously received debut, Young Mountain, This Will Destroy You have proven themselves to be more than just another post-rock combo writing epic instrumental after epic instrumental, all of which start to sound the same after a while.

Last year saw This Will Destroy You release two new albums in the space of a month, New Others Part One and New Others Part Two. Both show this quartet to be focused on different goals than one might expect; their songs are focused less on the sort of emotional escalation that, after a while, tends to feel like a gimmick repeated once too often. Instead, they build a musical mood and then live within it for several minutes, allowing the textures of their music to become the focus. It’s proggy, yes, and it’s also a bit nerdy, but there’s not a damn thing wrong with intelligent music, especially when it is able to be moving without being cliche. This Will Destroy You accomplish all that with aplomb on their albums, and seeing them pull it off live is sure to be quite the treat.

Elsewhere Around The State:

Friday, November 8, 6 PM
Sharptooth, Limbs, Wristmeetrazor, Nhibitions, Genosha @ RiffHouse Pub (Chesapeake) – $10 in advance/$12 day of show (order tickets HERE)
As metallic hardcore shows go, this one is sure to be top-notch. Maryland’s Sharptooth are an absolutely ferocious quintet full of anger and fury of an incredibly political nature. 2017 LP Clever Girl features a song called “Fuck You Donald Trump,” but if anything, the title track’s condemnation of men who act as insincere allies, or “No Sanctuary”‘s vitriolic condemnation of anti-LGBTQ bigotry, ring even more bold and true and real to me. Singer Lauren Kashan has used her platform to be a strong advocate for issues relating to abuse and oppression, and as awesome as her band is, the kind of heart she puts into her lyrics and onstage presence makes Sharptooth that much better.

So if you’re the kind of metal/hardcore fan who wishes more bands would take a stand for issues that matter, this is the show for you. And it features a bunch of other great bands as well — Florida’s Limbs refer to themselves as “post-hardcore” but on 2018’s Father’s Son, they lay out a brutal, metallic sound that still feels HC as fuck to me, even if it’s not Negative Approach. Wristmeetrazor, who are sorta-kinda from Virginia, arise from the screamo scene but have a strong metalcore attack on their latest LP, Misery Never Forgets. And of course, Genosha and Nhibitions hold it down for the heavy hardcore scene in Tidewater and Central Virginia with skill and panache. This one’s gonna rule.

Saturday, November 9, 7 PM
Leftover Crack, Days N Daze, Cop/Out @ The Bunker Brewpub (Virginia Beach) – $16 (order tickets HERE)
I admit it — for the longest time, I never gave Leftover Crack a chance. As a straight edge kid, their name wasn’t exactly appealing to me, and their reputation as simultaneously the crustiest of squatter punk bands (their Wikipedia page features a section entitled “Venue bans, criminal records, and visa restriction”) and a straight-up ska band seemed totally incoherent. But recently I went ahead and listened to some of their music, and it turns out that they’re actually pretty goddamn talented. Instead of having goofy horns all over the place, they play catchy, hard-charging punk tunes. And while they do often use those catchy off-beat bounce riffs that we all identify as ska, they also incorporate touches of metal and hardcore. In the end, they are clearly first and foremost a punk band, in the same way Operation Ivy always was.

So hey, maybe going to see Leftover Crack on their latest tour isn’t such a bad idea if you like some good punk rock fun. One thing’s for sure, there won’t be a dull moment from a band that’s known for writing unapologetic, provocative songs about shooting cops and doing drugs — and for having an audience full of even bigger reprobates than the members themselves. You might want to steer clear of the pit if the stories we’ve heard about mid-set barf are true, but the tunes will make up for any suspect stenches that might invade the room over the course of the set.

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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]

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

VA Shows You Must See This Week: August 21 – August 27

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FEATURED SHOW
Sunday, August 25, 7 PM
Red Death, Enforced, Dead & Dreaming, Loud Night, Mutually Assured Destruction @ The Camel – $10
We here at RVA Mag have had quite a bit of discussion, both in this very column and in other places, about Enforced’s brand new LP, At The Walls, so to call it a hotly anticipated local release would certainly be more than fair. Now the official release celebration for the album has finally arrived, and rocking out at this jam-packed hardcore/punk/metal show is sure to be the perfect capper to your weekend.

DC residents and recent Century Media signees Red Death, who share members with Enforced and are preparing to release a new LP of their own, are at the top of the heap here, and while it’s Enforced’s party, these guys stand out as guests of honor on their own behalf. 2017’s Formidable Darkness LP was the first with their current four-piece lineup and finds them leaning hard into the thrashier aspects of their crossover metallic hardcore sound, bringing to mind both 80s legends like Exodus and Dark Angel as well as current rulers like Power Trip and Richmond’s own Iron Reagan. These guys are going to lay waste to the Camel, so get ready.

And you also need to be ready for Enforced, whose dark thrash-core sound is both terrifying and galvanizing, and is sure to get you hella excited for thousands of At The Walls needle-drops to come. But we hope you’re parked close by, because you’re gonna want to get that LP to the safety of your car before the set starts and the pit starts moving. With three other incredible bands on the bill, including the first local show for RVA HC all-stars Mutually Assured Destruction (it’s Ace’s new new band, and his vocals are at a whole new level), you’ll really just want to get there the second they open the doors.

Wednesday, August 21, 8 PM
God Module, Finite Automata, Absynthe Of Faith @ Fallout – $8 in advance/$12 at the door (order tickets HERE)
If you’ve paid attention in the goth-industrial music world of the past 20 or so years, you’re sure to recognize that Metropolis Records has brought us a lot of the best work that’s come out of that genre — from Front Line Assembly to VNV Nation, and beyond. God Module may not be one of the first names that comes to mind when you think of that label’s rich history, but they have been one of the more consistent groups on Metropolis over the past 15 years or so, moving from early dancefloor classics like “Spooky” to their recently-released 11th LP, The Unsound.

On The Unsound, Jasyn Bangert and co. continue to work magic with the combination of dark synth moods, pounding electronic beats, and sinister yet somehow inviting vocals, which has situated them right on the borderline between industrial pound and gothic atmosphere throughout their lengthy career. At Fallout tonight, they’ll be bringing the pounding beats to get your shiny black Docs stomping on the floor, even as their downbeat melodies fill your heart with passion. It may be the heart of August, but black attire is definitely recommended for this one no matter how hot and humid it is outside.

Thursday, August 22, 7 PM
Death Valley Girls, Craig Brown Band, Piranha Rama @ Gallery 5 – $12 (order tickets HERE)
I’m not sure the cliched stereotype of the “valley girl” has any cultural currency in the year 2019, but back in the early 80s when Frank Zappa (and his daughter Moon Unit) had a novelty hit called “Valley Girl” while Nic Cage starred in a movie of the same name, it definitely meant something. That stereotype of a rambunctious teenage girl who hangs out at the mall (do people even go to malls anymore?) and is always on the phone (OK, this part still rings true) is what Death Valley Girls are subverting, both in their name and in their dark yet catchy psychedelic sound.

Considering they come from LA, they’re sure to have plenty of inspiration for such a subversion. They let it loose on albums like 2018’s Darkness Rains, which channels everything from The Stooges and Jane’s Addiction to Romeo Void in its foreboding tales of West Coast excess. When Death Valley Girls hit the stage at Gallery 5, they’ll bring plenty of lysergic noise, but you’ll still have a ton of catchy pop hooks to dance to underneath it all. With accompaniment from Third Man recording artist Craig Brown, formerly of the Terrible Twos, and his band, plus Piranha Rama acting as an excellent local opener, this one’s sure to knock your socks off. That’s OK — dance barefoot.

Friday, August 23, 8 PM
Gary Clark Jr, Blackillac, Peterson Brothers @ The National – $44 in advance/$47.50 day of show (order tickets HERE)
We’ve known for a while that Gary Clark Jr. is an incredibly talented guitarist who brings a 21st century feel to the classic-rock-radio staple genre of electric blues. However, if you thought (as I did for a while) that genre was too played out for even a talented player to truly breathe new life into it, you really need to give Clark a second look this year. His third album, This Land, is fueled by the juxtaposition of his fiery chops and some real anger about the state of the world today, specifically in Trump’s racist America.

The album’s opening title track is startling in its harsh, confrontational lyrics, and hits all the harder for it. On that track and others, like “When I’m Gone” and “Don’t Wait Til Tomorrow,” Clark fuses modern R&B and hip hop sounds with his always-killer riffing and powerful, soulful vocals. It’s a sound sure to delight a wide spectrum of music lovers, and while there’s no shame in having overlooked him up to now (I did too), the time has come to give Gary Clark Jr. your attention. Do so at the National this Friday night — you won’t regret it.

Saturday, August 24, 7 PM
Psychic Graveyard, Hex Machine, Bermuda Triangles @ Capital Ale House Music Hall – $12 in advance/$15 day of show (order tickets HERE)
Things are gonna get downright weird over at Capital Ale House’s Richmond Music Hall on Saturday when Psychic Graveyard arrive, and if I tell you that this band features former members of Arab On Radar and Chinese Stars, that might just clue you in on how weird it’s gonna get. Psychic Graveyard maintain the same sort of tenuous connection to postpunk’s experimental fringe that was present in their previous bands, but interjects a greater emphasis on programmed beats and synth-driven sounds — though it’d feel more than a little disingenuous to call their music “danceable” in any conventional sense.

What it is is noisy and bizarre, the same sort of unconventional strangeness that fans of the members’ previous bands loved so much. Therefore it’s no surprise to find them sharing this bill with fellow noise veterans Hex Machine and Bermuda Triangles, both of whom have unique sounds of their own to offer. Hex Machine’s heavy, metallic postpunk sound shines on recently-released LP Cave Painting, their first in nearly six years and a much-desired return to action from this stomping RVA trio. Meanwhile, Bermuda Triangles are carrying on with the same percussion-driven mutant space funk they’ve been dishing out for years now; their presence on this bill certainly warrants bringing your dancing shoes, even if Psychic Graveyard kinda doesn’t.

Sunday, August 25, 7 PM
Big Business, A Deer A Horse, Tel @ Capital Ale House Music Hall – $12 in advance/$15 day of show (order tickets HERE)
Big Business is back once again, and this power duo is now going on 15 years of proving that you don’t need a guitar to be heavy as hell. Bassist Jared Warren and drummer Coady Willis spent several years making up one-half of the Melvins, so their pedigree is certainly not in question, but their sixth LP, The Beast You Are, released earlier this year, shows that they can bowl you over just fine on their own. They’ll do so with aplomb when they hit Capital Ale House this Sunday for their first appearance in Richmond in over a decade (raise your hand if you also saw them last time they were here, when they opened for the Blood Brothers).

Big Business excels at ferocious riffs that continually batter your brain and compel you to furious headbangs, so it’s only appropriate that they share this bill with Brooklyn’s A Deer A Horse, who do much the same on recently-released EP Everything Rots That Is Rotten. From bombastic sludge to foreboding doom, the many moods of A Deer A Horse are all powerful, and all dark. Local sludge-doom powerhouse Tel will kick this one off with a slow-motion rumble that’ll set the whole night off onto a powerful course. Make sure you’re on board this train.

Monday, August 26, 9 PM
Bask, Manzara, Crimson Heat @ Cary Street Cafe – $10
Let’s keep the heaviness rolling straight on into the working week, shall we? With Bask coming to town from their NC mountain home, we certainly will! This metal powerhouse brings epic song structures, killer riffs, and soaring vocal prowess together to create masterful metallic beauty on their 2017 LP, Ramble Beyond, and whether you dig Led Zeppelin, Spirit Caravan, Neurosis, or Queens Of The Stone Age, you’re sure to find something to love from these talented North Carolinians when they take the Cary Street Cafe stage.

They’ll be joined there by a couple of shining examples of Richmond musical excellence. The first is Manzara, whose energetic yet spaced-out postpunk has been making a mark on the local scene for a while. If you’re not up on it, this is your perfect opportunity to get familiar. Plus, you’ll get a performance from a brand new Richmond supergroup, Crimson Heat, which features veterans from past RVA stoner warriors like Sinister Haze, Stone Woman, and Heathens. Get into this one — it’s gonna start your week off right!

Tuesday, August 27, 8 PM
Super Low, Manatree, Gnawing @ The Camel – $7 in advance/$10 day of show (order tickets HERE)
It’s a heavy week here in RVA, but not every show has to crush your head, right? If you’re ready to trade in the headbangs for some charming pop melodies that’ll make you smile, The Camel’s got you covered this Tuesday night, as Memphis pop artisans Super Low roll into town with some downright delightful indie pop sounds. They showed off their talents earlier this summer with the release of their self-titled debut LP, and you’ll definitely want to hear all of those excellent tunes in person when they roll through town this Tuesday night.

This show will also feature the latest incarnation of Manatree, now a trio with a stronger focus than ever on electronic textures in addition to their complex, talented indie song structures. They showed off this Radiohead-meets-Four Tet approach on the Rough Designs EP, released last spring, and it will certainly be fascinating to see them recreate these multi-layered, synth-rich tunes in a live environment. We’ll also get a performance from Gnawing, a killer local grunge-rock combo who certainly know how to bring the Dinosaur Jr and Superchunk vibes, if last year’s self-titled debut EP is any indication. And I’d say it probably is.

Elsewhere Around The State:

Friday, August 23, 8 PM
Corrosion Of Conformity, Crowbar, Quaker City Night Hawks, Lo-Pan @ Elevation27 – $25 (order tickets HERE)
I’m sure there are a lot of old heads out there like me, for whom the name Corrosion Of Conformity summons up memories of the North Carolina band’s early days as progenitors of the crossover hardcore sound of the mid-80s. However, we’d by lying if we pretended that this band weren’t better known in 2019 for the sludgy Southern-fried metal boogie sounds they cranked out throughout the 90s and early 00s. Fans of that COC sound may have been a little bummed when the band spent several years at the beginning of this decade in their original trio lineup, focusing on their early crossover work.

However, they’re bound to be stoked that COC has reunited with vocalist Pepper Keenan to crank out another heaping helping of that powerful metal roar on 2018’s No Cross No Crown. COC will be firing on all cylinders when they bring the classic Deliverance/America’s Volume Dealer lineup to Norfolk this Friday night. They’ll be accompanied by their longtime compatriots in New Orleans’ own swamp-sludge metal heroes Crowbar, who remain at peak form after nearly 30 years as a band, as shown on 2016 LP The Serpent Only Lies. This hellacious bill is rounded out by Texas rock n’ roll groovers Quaker City Night Hawks and Norfolk’s own Lo-Pan, this is gonna be a night to remember — one full of headbangs.

Saturday, August 24, 8 PM
BRAINxTOILET, Needle, Neck Breather, Ixias, Ancient Torture Techniques, Redundant Protoplasm, Kept In Line, Cybernetic Warkrab @ RiffHouse Pub – $8
Hey speed demon — are you feeling unfulfilled by the excess of sludgy heaviness on this week’s docket? Well then you better break all speed records heading down 64 East this Saturday night, because you’ve got a show full of absolute grindcore madness waiting for you at RiffHouse Pub. I’m talking about this show, which features several different maniacal grind ensembles from around the Mid-Atlantic region, as well as quite a few homegrown VA talents to keep your head spinning with hyperspeed blastbeat mayhem.

North Carolina’s BRAINxTOILET are at the top of the bill, and their ferocious power has the same sort of grotty rage built into it that we saw from past NC grind maniacs Dead In The Dirt. DC’s Needle have a cleaner b but no less maniacal approach to their grind blitzkrieg, recalling DC-area grind legends of the past like Daybreak and early Pig Destroyer. Where locals are concerned, Tidewater grind legends Ancient Torture Techniques appear to have gone from broken up to doing occasional reunions back to full-time action, so that’s always a cause for celebration. Meanwhile, Chesapeake’s Kept In Line has brought us my favorite demo of 2019 so far, in any genre, so you definitely don’t want to miss them. Pissed-off straight edge grindcore, I love it! There are four more bands I haven’t even talked about on this bill, but I’m sure I’m pushing the limits of the attention span for all you grind freaks, so I’ll just wrap it up by saying: get thee to RiffHouse Saturday night, where all your blastbeat cravings will be satisfied.

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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]

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

Five Ten Fiftyfold: Weekend Playlist by Hex Machine

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Every Friday night, RVA Mag brings you an absolutely essential playlist curated by Virginia’s most influential artists, musicians, and institutions.

This one comes to us from Hex Machine, the veteran RVA noise-rock act that brought us their excellent debut album, Fixator, back in 2012. Since then, the group has kept a somewhat low profile while singer/guitarist Trevere Thomas and drummer Douglas Andrae spent three years as the rhythm section for legendary experimental metal band Today Is The Day.

However, the duo have returned to full-time action with Hex Machine, and, along with bassist Alex Ricart, unleashed their long-awaited followup LP, Cave Painting, this week. The new album finds the group’s trademark noise chaos leavened by a dose of 80s postpunk, taking their entire sound to the next level. They’ll be kicking off an East Coast tour to support the album with a performance at Wonderland on Wednesday, July 17, and you’re not going to want to miss it.

Until then, you can enjoy this playlist prepared especially for you by the members of Hex Machine. It ranges widely across genres both predictable and totally unexpected — ambient electronic sounds sit shoulder to shoulder with raging punk and cerebral progressive metal.

Immerse yourself, Virginia.

Open this playlist from mobile in your Spotify app HERE.

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond