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Five Ten Fiftyfold: Weekend Playlist by Hex Machine

RVA Staff | June 21, 2019

Topics: Hex Machine, indie, instrumental, local music, music, Playlist, rock, rva magazine playlist, Weekend Playlist

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

Vegan Mustache Jazz: Weekend Playlist by Colin Phils

RVA Staff | June 7, 2019

Topics: alternative, Colin Phils, indie, instrumental, local music, math rock, Playlist, POST RVA Fest, post-rock, rock, rva magazine weekend playlist, rva music, rvamag playlist

Every Friday night, RVA Mag introduces you to yet another outstanding playlist curated by Virginia’s most influential artists, musicians, and institutions.

This time around, we’ve got a playlist from Colin Phils, a Richmond math-rock band with roots in Korea and a name that it took me six months to realize was a reference to the drummer for Genesis.

This Saturday, the inaugural POST RVA Fest, a one-day showcase of 15 post-rock, math-rock, and complex indie bands, mostly from the Richmond area, will come to the Broadberry. Members of Colin Phils have curated the entire thing, and on their excellent mix, they give us a perfect introduction to the vast majority of the bands playing the event, along with some classic math-rock, post-rock, emo, and indie tunes that are sure to brighten up your weekend. Grab your POST RVA Fest tickets here, and get ready for a full day of mind-expanding melodies.

Add it up, Virginia.

Open this playlist from mobile in your Spotify app HERE.

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

Fahrenheit Fair Enough: Weekend Playlist by Brother Rutherford

RVA Staff | May 31, 2019

Topics: brother rutherford, earthen instrumental, ethan johnstone, Houdan The Mystic, indie, instrumental, local music, music, Night Idea, Playlist, rva magazine weekend playlist, Weekend Playlist

Every Friday night, RVA Mag introduces you to yet another outstanding playlist curated by Virginia’s most influential artists, musicians, and institutions.

This week we are graced with a heaping helping of musical delights from none other than Brother Rutherford, who you Richmond music devotees may recognize as Ethan Johnstone, drummer for local math-rock groups Night Idea and Houdan The Mystic. He’s just released his first solo album under the name Brother Rutherford, Tunneling, which is a progressive instrumental rock album with touches of electronic, folk, and ambient sounds.

In addition to helping you get familiar with Brother Rutherford’s unique sound, his mix for us this week will fill your weekend with delightfully progressive and intelligent sounds drawn from all sorts of different genres, but all sharing a clear mood. It’s perfect for finding a shady spot outdoors and relaxing.

Get in the mood, Virginia.

Open this playlist from mobile in your Spotify app HERE.

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

RVA’s Butcher Brown discusses their latest release, ‘The Healer’

Charlotte Woods | May 19, 2017

Topics: Butcher Brown, DJ Harrison, instrumental, jazz, music

“This band is like the soundtrack of my childhood, like what my dad used to listen to,” said Corey Fonville, who plays drums in the Richmond-based groovy instrumental quartet, Butcher Brown.

Fonville, along with Devonne Harris (DJ Harrison, keys), Marcus Tenney (saxophone, trumpet), Andrew Randazzo (bass) and Morgan Burrs (guitar) make up the group. Fonville, Harris and Randazzo recently sat down with RVA Mag to chat about their latest album, The Healer.

The 10-track record is a melting pot of rock, jazz and funk and although we’re just getting to hear it now, it was originally composed in 2015.

With various musical influences such as Earth, Wind & Fire, Herbie Hancock and D’Angelo, the band has what Fonville calls a “musical kinship.” The Earth, Wind & Fire influence is perhaps most apparent in songs like “James River Tunnel Vision” and “Moses” with a blend of funk, jazz and soul. The Healer’s eponymous song then takes a slower tempo as a melody laces through it. Much of the entire album feels like a resurrection of music from another era.

”It’s a funny thing though because we play these songs so much that we start adding new sections to them,” Harrison said. “So a few months after we’ve recorded, the songs sometimes start taking new directions.”

In the original composition period, Harrison usually kept a recording of jam sessions for the other members to access via Dropbox for note taking.

“The release of The Healer was tough,” Randazzo said. “That album is indicative of what we were doing in 2015, but that’s not us now. We’ve changed a bit, but we really liked it so we just wanted to have it out there for people to listen to.”

The band held the release due to being in a transition period. One of the guitarists, Keith Askey, had recently lent his talents to a backing track for Kendrick Lamar’s Grammy award-winning song, “i” and decided to relocate to Los Angeles. Butcher Brown itself was shifting to new management at the time as well.

“This just kept pushing it back and then two years later, we just decided it needed to be out, even if it’s just on bandcamp,” Randazzo said.

The band’s name is derived from a video game called Ready To Rumble in which one of the characters was named Butcher Brown. The friends/bandmates were in agreement that it was a “cool character” and a cool name to use.

“We’ve been playing together for 10 years now,” Randazzo said. “It’s almost like we grew up together.”

The men met at the cusp of manhood. Fonville was a teenager attending a jazz program at Virginia Commonwealth University when he heard Harrison play, so he kept up with Harrison’s work in the golden era of Myspace. This was in 2006. By 2009 a mutual friend Jason Arce had connected the two, along with Randazzo. It’s been tours and performances ever since.

Presently Butcher Brown has plans to record new albums. Currently, they’re loosely touring the east and west coast where they interact with other musicians, some of whom they are fans of, such as Questlove and Thundercat.

“It’s cool to just brush shoulders with these guys that we’re fans of,” Randazzo said. “Getting recognition but also get to meet the people you idolize and not just being ‘some kid.’”

Photo credit: Joey Wharton

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