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Hiss Golden Messenger Brings Their Complex Southern Sound To The Broadberry

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Hiss Golden Messenger’s music may be hard to explain in a single sentence, but as bandleader MC Taylor tells us, that’s entirely intentional.

Assigning a genre to Hiss Golden Messenger is a difficult thing to do. Elements of folk, gospel, rock, roots, Americana, and country are all embedded somewhere in the makings of the Durham, NC-based outfit. It’s the confluence of founder, singer and songwriter M.C. Taylor’s introspective musings and the soundscape his chosen collective of musicians create that makes their sound so singular. For his 2019 effort, Terms of Surrender, Taylor enlisted Jenny Lewis (Rilo Kiley) and The National’s Aaron Dressner to take part in writing the latest chapter in the metamorphic songbook of Hiss Golden Messenger.

We caught up with M.C. Taylor to talk about the new record, life in the south, and the evolution of the band.  

RVA Mag: Hiss Golden Messenger is a collective of musicians and artists you surround yourself with in the studio and on tour to give your reflections and observations a certain texture. The sound can be called Americana, southern folk, etc. I have a hard time defining it. What’s the process of finding collaborators to create the sound you’re looking to capture? What would you call it (if you had to)?

M.C. Taylor: I have a hard time explaining what Hiss Golden Messenger sounds like (in a single sentence) too. That’s intentional. I want to be part of the creation of things that are hard to explain. All of my favorite art has many layers and isn’t meant to be understood on first listen or viewing. I’m trying to create something that keeps listeners coming back to develop their understanding of their relationship with the music. As far as collaborators, I’m looking for kind people that have confident and recognizable voices on their respective instruments. I don’t necessarily need technical virtuosos, but I want players whose personalities you hear when they play. 

RVA: 2019’s Terms of Surrender, like most of your records, has an inward journeyman’s feel to it. How much of your songwriting comes from inside and how much from what you see happening around you? I know having children has changed your perspective. What about the current political climate?  

Taylor: It comes from all over the place. Inside, outside, all around. As someone wise once said, the personal is political. 

RVA: What has relocating to the southeast done for you creatively and spiritually? How did the move in 2007 come to fruition, and what has kept you in North Carolina? 

Taylor: In 2007, my wife and I felt that a change in our lives was needed. This was before we had kids. We packed everything we owned into the back of our station wagon and drove across the country. We didn’t know anybody in North Carolina. But, having been here on tour several times, I felt that it could be a good location in the South to attempt to begin an understanding about this region in a real and engaged way. The most important things in my life — music, art, food, literature — have their roots in the South, and I wanted to know why. The only way to know was by living here.

Hiss Golden Messenger at Red Rocks, via Facebook

RVA: ABC News said Terms of Surrender is “as good as anything the band has ever done … easily one of the best Americana albums of 2019.” Recently, HGM was on CBS Saturday Morning. Is there anything different about this record that’s attracting a wider audience? 

Taylor: I’ve just kept my nose to the grindstone. What I feel is incremental upwards movement. Perhaps listeners hear some new sounds on Terms, but I see it as a continuing evolution.

RVA: Songwriter John Hiatt’s daughter Lilly is opening for HGM at the Broadberry. How did that come about?   

Taylor: Lilly is a friend, and someone whose music I like very much. I think that she’s a great songwriter.

RVA: What current or up and coming artists do you have your ears and eyes on? 

Taylor: I have to say that I spend more time with older music. It’s not that I’m not interested in new music — I very much am — but there’s still so much to learn from older stuff. Lester Young, Alice Coltrane, Roots Radics — these are all artists I’ve spent a lot of time with lately.

Hiss Golden Messenger comes to The Broadberry with special guest Lilly Hiatt on Thursday, Jan. 16. Tickets are $21-26 in advance, and can be purchased here.

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

Hurricane Florence has all the Best Events

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Facebook: The last refuge of the drab and glib, a social platform that has become as boring as it has ostracized; no more news, no more slapdash over news, outrage that is limited by a new algorithm that no one understands. Where has all the Facebook shenanigans and tomfoolery gone? Well, look no further than the vast array of Hurricane Florence event listings and their subsequent conversations. They are as glorious as they are clever.

Given the trajectory of the storm, those intrepid souls who are not out hoarding supplies or doomsday prepping in both South and North Carolina and our own Virginia, have been at home creating these events and they are everything on this dreary Wednesday.

Shooting Guns At Hurricane Florence To Scare It Away

With 20,000 attending and 51,000 interested, this event was planned for Richmond with the details quoted as, “Get your guns and your umbrellas. And your umbrella-guns, and your beer, and your beer-guns, and your tiny umbrellas to keep your beer dry, and join people from all along the East Coast in scaring away Hurricane Florence to protect our country from this foreign invader! Note: do not actually discharge firearms into the air. You could kill someone and you cannot frighten a hurricane. I cant believe I actually have to write this.”

Some of the best posts on the event listing can be found below:

 

Playing Nickelback & Creed to Scare Hurricane Florence Away

Nickelback and Creed aren’t just bands, they’re a lifestyle. Hosted by the august “Dank North Carolina Memes,” the event has 640 people confirmed with another 2,100 interested. The details of the event, with a callback to a classic Creed title, are as follows, “We do not welcome Hurricane Florence with arms wide open… Puddle of Mudd, Limp Bizkit, Hinder, and Buckcherry can also be played over your loudspeakers pointing directly at the Hurricane.”

Some of the best posts on the event listing can be found below:

Sacrifice Kids who went Abroad to Florence to Stop the Hurricane

Study abroad is a right of passage for American youth everywhere. The pros: A lifetime of memories, cultural immersion, and making America great overseas. The cons: Having to listen to the same youth talk about how cultured they are when they return. Something this Facebook event originating out of Georgetown University got 100 percent correctly when they said, “We all hate rain, but the only thing worse than rain is the kids who studied abroad and won’t stop talking about it. In order to rid our society of two great plagues, please join us to sacrifice everyone that won’t stop talking about the limoncello, gelato, and fresh pasta they ate in Florence.” While the event has 266 confirmed attendees and 469 interested, unfortunately, no one has actually contributed to the conversation.

 

Listen to Florence & the Machine as Hurricane Florence Wrecks DC

In an obvious move, those in Washington D.C. are hoping to brave and ultimately conquer this storm by rocking out to the sweet, sweet, sweet melodies of Florence and the Machine. And with 1,700 confirmed attendees with another 6,600 on deck, this event will not disappoint. While lacking some of the lackluster and gusto of other events, the listing does encourage you to, “Listen to Florence and the Machine in the comfort of your home while the hurricane hits!” which is never a bad idea.

Some of the best posts on the event listing can be found below:

This is Just Adorable

Hire MGK to Diss Hurricane Florence

Norfolk, which might be one of the locations most impacted by the torrential torrents of terror, was sure not to be out-done and is now planning an event whereby rapper “MGK”, aka, Machine Gun Kelly, will “diss” the incoming hurricane. No further details were offered by the organizers, yet 352 people have agreed to  attend with another 1,200 weighing their options. That Eminem diss video certainly shook things up.

Some of the best posts on the event listing can be found below:

Destabilize Hurricane Florence By Running Around It Really Fast

South Carolina, another potential epicenter for this insufferably savage storm, has come up with an event which is as ingenious as it is daring and bold: run around the storm clockwise really fast. While only seven people have agreed to this dastardly brilliant plan with another 23 potentially considering it, the events organizers have observed, “Hurricane Florence is rotating counterclockwise at speeds of up to 150 mph. This means that if we can get enough people to run that same speed around it in a clockwise direction, we should be able to weaken and possibly destroy the storm…Theoretically.”

There is only one conversation point, which sums up this event in its entirety.

There you have it Virginia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Washington D.C., all the events you will ever need to weather (zing!) this stormy apocalypse. Be sure to check out RVA Mag’s survival guide and good luck out there.

First Giant Terror Plants, Then Snakes, Now Great White Sharks “Pinged” off the Coast

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First there was the terrors plants. Then the exponential increase in reported snake sightings. And now, Great White Sharks.

According to the Global Shark Tracker developed by the organization Ocearch, there have been an increase in “pings” of tagged Great White Sharks, also known as Carcharodon carcharias parking off the mid-Atlantic coast including the Outer Banks. Ocearch defines a “ping” as any time a tagged shark’s dorsal fin breaks the surface of the water and sends a signal to the to the satellite overhead. “The transmission then sends back an estimated geo-location.”

While the initial inclination might be to avoid the seashore sushi buffet for creatures that can exert a potential bite force of 18,21 newtons, it is relatively rare for white sharks to attack humans so close to the shore. Yet however rare, the frequency of shark bites as specified by Shark Spotters out of New Zealand has increased, with 2015 having the most unprovoked shark attacks ever recorded – 98 in total.

What is the reason for this increase? Two reasons: People spend more time in the water and collecting data on the prevalence of shark attacks has improved greatly with the International Shark Attack File, maintained by the Florida Museum. North Carolina continues to be one of the premier locations for unprovoked shark attacks with 61 “bites” being recorded since 1935 – spread across eight counties.

Location of Shark Attacks in North Carolina

In the past thirty days there have been two Great White Sharks pinged off the coast; a male and female, one named Hilton and the other named Savannah. The male weighing in at around 1,300 pounds. Another eight have also been tracked and pinged this year in the vicinity of Virginia and North Carolina. Fear not though, experts in shark migration have said this is the time of the year when the giant fishes relocate north to give birth to their pups – not scouring the coastal regions looking to make short work of unsuspecting tourists.