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Bad Magic Confronts Tragedy on Latest Album, “What’s Wrong With My Eyes”

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Bad Magic is far removed from modern punk trends. The Richmond trio’s sound takes cues from 90s alt-rock mainstays like PJ Harvey and Cat Power, yet their sheer volume and intensity have made them a mainstay on punk bills in Richmond.

The band released its latest album, “What’s Wrong With My Eyes?,” in June, and filmed an accompanying music video for the single “Dream Police” which is premiering here at RVA Mag.  Unsurprisingly, vocalist and guitarist Julie Karr cites ’80s and ’90s alt-rock among the inspirations for her songwriting.

“PJ Harvey’s ‘Rid of Me’, Lemonheads, Dinosaur Jr., Cat Power, Neil Young, Wipers, and Tori Amos stay in pretty heavy rotation,” said Karr. “I revisited Arthur Lee and Love, too. I think ‘Everybody’s Gotta Live’ is maybe my favorite song.”

The band’s uncomplicated song structures and strong vocal melodies are offset by Karr’s vague lyrical abstractions, often hinting at ideas without saying them outright.

“It’s definitely an all-of-the-above type thing,” she said about her lyrics. “Some songs are intensely personal, or an exploration of my own anxiety, thinking about worst case scenarios, how situations could play out… Some of my songs are conversational almost, it’s not always a singular point of view.”

According to Karr, the 10 songs on the new record were written during a transitional period when she moved to Richmond from Gainesville, Florida.  The album, which the band recorded with Bob Quirk at Ground Up Studio, is the follow-up to “Harsh Surrender.” “I had a more difficult time adjusting than I expected. That time was also punctuated by the deaths of several friends. ‘Blue’ and ‘More Than You’ll Ever Know’ are both about dealing with these losses.”

There’s a definable preoccupation with tragedy on “What’s Wrong With My Eyes?” and the severity of the subject matter is often apparent without a close reading of the lyrics. “Depression’s Your Friend,” is the standout on the album, and is the only track whose song structure can keep up with the rawness of lyrical content.

Later on the record on “RIP Doug”, Karr sings about the death of Doug Hopkins, the original guitar player, and songwriter for Gin Blossoms. Hopkins was kicked out of Gin Blossoms shortly after recording “New Miserable Experience” due to his erratic behavior and alcohol use. He became increasingly despondent as the Gin Blossoms fame grew while playing his songs, and he killed himself shortly thereafter.

“It’s such a haunting story, I think I wrote that song in less than a day,” Karr said. 

Now on to this music video, “Dream Police” that RVA Mag has the pleasure of premiering. Karr, along with fellow bandmates Tim Falen (bassist) and Jimmy Held (drummer), filmed the video last fall at St. Augustine Beach in Florida. We won’t give too much away up front, you can enjoy the magic below, but let’s just say things get a little…hairy.

You can catch Bad Magic playing alongside Radioactivity, Cruzer, and Washers at Strange Matter Oct. 22.

 

 

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

 

Social Distortion’s Mike Ness Fights Trump Supporter at Concert

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Video has just surfaced of Mike Ness, legendary frontman of California punk band Social Distortion, taking swings at a concertgoer over an on-stage disagreement about politics last month at the Ace of Spades club in Sacramento, California. The clip shows 56-year-old Ness making aggressive hand gestures towards someone in the audience before taking off his guitar and jumping into the crowd.

The man allegedly assaulted by Ness, Tim Hildebrand, claimed he suffered two black eyes, a busted lip, and a concussion. Reports also have Ness spitting in the direction of the man before the beating took place.

According to CBS 13, the fight was due to Hildebrand heckling the singer after he made some disparaging comments about President Trump at the show. Telling the network affiliate, Hildebrand said, “I pretty much said, I pay for your music, not your politics.” He also told reporters that he stood in silent protest for two songs with his middle finger held high.

Once jumping into the crowd, the video shows Ness throwing some blows while being egged on by the audience. At one point, a concertgoer yelled, “Fuck yeah, Mike.” Hildebrand is a Republican and a farmer from the nearby town of Galt. The Daily Mail has reported that after the scuffle, he was escorted out by police where a report was filed. James Mauldin, who was interviewed by CBS 13, said the incident was “…a little bit excessive.” The band at this time has not commented on the incident.

Punk’s not dead.

 

Richmond’s Newest Collaboration Brings the Conflict and Fury

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Vinyl Conflict record shop has announced that Nickelus F’s new album, Stuck, will be released on the shop’s locals-only label, Vinyl Conflict Records, later this summer with an edition of 500 copies. The album was originally released on AGM on May 11 as a digital-only release.

Vinyl Conflict is known throughout the region for its selection of punk, metal, and hardcore records. Bobby Egger, owner and operator of Vinyl Conflict, started the locals-only imprint almost a decade ago to showcase punk and hardcore groups from Richmond. Nickelus F will be the first hip-hop artist on the label.

“[Bobby] reached out to me and asked about you know, would I be interested in having it on vinyl,” said Nickelus F, “I said, ‘fuck yeah.’ Damn right I want to have it on vinyl.”

Nickelus F is a prolific underground hip hop artist who has been releasing music in Richmond since the mid 2000s. He was known early on for his appearances on BET’s 106 & Park “Freestyle Friday” and for his guest spots on several Drake songs. In 2011 he collaborated with Ohbliv for the mixtape Yellow Gold, and in 2015 he released Trick Dice with Lil Ugly Mane. He produces and writes records at a fast pace, and has released a solo album every year for the last three years.

DIY punk labels and hip hop artists have been collaborating more often in recent years, and there is history between the two genres that dates back to the early 90s when Public Enemy and Anthrax teamed up on “Bring the Noise”.

More recently, Brooklyn rapper Ill Bill recently released a split single with Ghoul on Tankcrimes records, and Austin punk label 540 Records has released several hip hop records now, but the underground punk and hip hop scenes in Richmond have not yet crossed paths, which makes this release a unique event. Nickelus F, already a fan of punk and metal in the city, sees plenty of similarities between the two genres.

“I think the underground nature of my music, the rawness of it, and the attitude of it, is very punk and very rock,” said Nickelus F. “I feel like people identify with that about my music. I like the punk rock way of doing things, I like the grind of it all.”

DIY punk labels like Vinyl Conflict don’t operate like major labels. Short runs of vinyl releases are produced without a contract between the label and the artist, and the artist receives a portion of the copies to sell on their own at concerts.

“The thing that’s dope about the way that Vinyl Conflict runs is that, its like, you get on the grind and you do this,” he said. “Like, we’ll give you these records whatever, its up to you to sell them though, its up to you to get out there and rock these shows and make people want to buy this shit. And that’s always been my mindset going into things anyway.”

The Richmond hip hop scene has been growing in recent years, and there are now more events and open mics than there used to be in the city. Monthly events like RVA Lyricists Lounge are helping bring people together in the community, and the gathering has become a place where young, aspiring rappers can cut their teeth.

“We went through some really really dark times out here,” said Nickelus F. “I think we’re raising the integrity of the art that comes out from the city when it comes to hip hop artists.”

Egger is excited for the upcoming release Vinyl Conflict records, and has several other hip hop releases planned for the near future. He was surprised to learn that Nickelus F was dialed into the punk scene well before they agreed to do the record, and that his favorite local metal band is Cough.

Nickelus F said that he’s never been to a Richmond metal show, but that it’s something he wants to do this year.

“I like the hardcore shit, I like death metal, I like sludge metal, I like the shit rugged and raw,” he said.

Nickelus F and Lil Ugly Mane are going on a short tour at the beginning of August, and will be playing Vinyl Conflict’s Customer Appreciation Day concert on August 25 alongside hardcore punk bands Bib, Nosebleed, Deviant, and Slump.

 

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

1970s Richmond Punk Band Insinuations Gets Vinyl Reissue

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Bill Draper is a fast talker. His grey blazer and slacks are a hair too large, and a worn cap conceals his unruly mop of gray-black hair. He speaks with a sneering, southern-tinged drawl that can be as sweet and funny as it is biting. It has been over 30 years since his band Insinuations called it quits, but he still speaks fondly about the early days of Richmond punk.

“From the very beginning we understood that it was absolutely essential to develop a punk identity,” Draper said. “We wanted to separate ourselves from all these old hippies and leftovers from the 60s and early 70s.”

With that in mind, he formed the band in the late 1970s in Richmond with Linda-Marie Firmin, Lynn Abbott, and Paul Lipscombe. The four-piece liked the punk records coming out at the time, but they also shared a love for old blues records and R&B. They played about a dozen shows alongside notable Richmond punk bands of the era like Beex, The Barriers, and The Heretics, and recorded a single, “Prompt Critical,” in 1980 before breaking up in 1981.

Their songs were politically satirical, influenced by first wave punk but also by R&B, rockabilly and old blues numbers. Their varied musical interests gave Insinuations a unique sound that set them apart from other Richmond bands of the era.

“We weren’t a pure punk band, and punk purists took a dim view of us because we were eclectic,” said Draper.

The sleeve of the record, emblazoned with a bright red nuclear hazard symbol and the words “Radiation Hazard” printed boldly on the cover, cemented their status as an outsider band in the Richmond punk scene. The A-side, “Prompt Critical,” is an off-kilter, new-wave blues number about a nuclear reactor meltdown, written in the wake of the nuclear reactor failure at Three Mile Island in 1979.

The warped guitar playing and bluesy bass lines on the song are played with blatant disregard for punk trends of the time, a rarity in the Richmond punk canon. The B-Side, “(My Head Is Made Of) U.S. Muscle,” is a more straightforward punk number. It is a socially critical piece that rails against nationalistic ideas, and insidious, “my country, right or wrong,” attitudes of the time.

“Satire was my main thing,” said Draper of his lyrics. “I’ve got a political vibe, but I’m not as obnoxious about it as I used to be.”

The band only made 100 copies of the record, and of those, only about 25 are still known to exist. Sam Richardson, owner and operator of Virginia’s Feel It Records, tracked down Draper earlier this year, as well as a copy of the record with the intention of reissuing the single. He said he found out about the record from the owner of Steady Sounds, Marty Key, who scored a copy of the record at a flea market several years ago.

“It didn’t look like any punk records from Richmond at the time,” said Richardson. “It had all the subject matter and style of a cool Killed By Death-esque band, but it was also very local and unknown.”

Bill Draper, Photo By: Daniel Berti

Richardson was impressed by the DIY attitude of the band and the strength of the guitar playing, as well as the cover art and the subject matter. “It all connected for me, and I think it will for other people too,” he said.

This reissue will not be the first for Feel It Records. In the last few years, the small independent label has dug up and reissued records by obscure regional punk bands Lackey Die and The Landlords; seminal punk bands from Richardson’s hometown of Charlottesville, Virginia.

In the years since Insinuations disbanded, Draper has been living and working in Richmond. He occasionally performs and records under the name W.R. Draper, a folky pop project inspired by street performers and traveling musicians. As for Insinuations, a full reunion is not on the table, but Draper said he will be performing some Insinuations songs at the record release show on July 5 at Little Saint.

In the meantime, you can snag your copy of the Insinuations’ “Prompt Critical” 7″ from 1980 here. Its limited to 400 copies so get it while you can.

Gone, But Not Forgotten: The History of Punk House 805 W. Cary Street

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Earlier this month, nearly half of the row houses and storefronts on the 800 block of West Cary Street were demolished to make way for the construction of 805W, a controversial $18 million 100-unit apartment complex that will sit at the border of the Oregon Hill neighborhood on the corner of Laurel and Cary streets. The distinctive, historic architecture of those buildings, several of which were built before the Civil War, will be replaced by a hulking residential complex that stands in harsh contrast to the neighborhood surrounding it.

805 W. Cary St. Photo By: Daniel Berti

The erasure of those buildings came as a shock to many, but the loss of historic Richmond architecture is not the only story. The house at 805 W. Cary St., now razed, was the central spot for punk and hardcore shows here from 1992 to 1999, and was part of the vibrant 90s music scene in Richmond. The loss of the building itself is of no consequence to Richmond punk history, but it is indicative of the cultural changes that have happened in Richmond over the last 20years as it has become a more attractive destination for young professionals.

The house was a hub for local and touring acts at the time, and like many long-running house show venues, it was a revolving door for musicians, artists, and activists. Taylor Steele, frontman for Richmond hardcore band Four Walls Falling, lived at the house early on and did much of the booking. He said that the band also practiced in the basement of the house for several years, right around the time they were writing the songs that would appear on their second album, Food For Worms.

Four Walls Falling

“If there wasn’t a show going on, especially in the summer, then there wasn’t anything to do in Richmond,” said Steele. “There were no parties going on, no events going on.”

Steele, who still lives in Richmond, said that the city was not a great place for hardcore in the late 80s, but that all began to change in the 90s. First and second wave Richmond punk acts like White Cross, Beex, and Honor Role began to fade from view, and younger kids moved into the city to start bands that would hint at the modern hardcore style that Richmond is known for today. 805 W. Cary was on the periphery of this cultural shift, and hosted touring hardcore acts from all over the country.

Flesh Eating Creeps, Steve Ritt

“Our place was more for bands who were on tour but couldn’t get a show at a club,” said Steele. “Probably every punk and hardcore band from Canada that went on tour stopped in that basement.”

Occasionally, however, more prominent bands would request a show. Ontario straightedge band Chokehold played there after their concert in Virginia Beach was canceled, and California crust punk band Dystopia played a show there around the same time. Other notable shows that happened there were short-lived Richmond band, Ipecac, and Arkansas pop-punk band Red 40.

Steele said that they often let touring punk and hardcore bands crash at their house, even if they were playing a different venue that night. “When people needed something, we were there for them,” he added.

Flesh Eating Creeps

Elana Effrat was the first person to move into the house in 1992 as a sophomore at VCU. She said that it was an invigorating time to be involved in the punk and hardcore scene in Richmond and that she and her roommates moved into the house with the intention of doing shows in the basement. To organize shows, Effrat said that she communicated with bands primarily through letter writing since cellphones were still in their primitive stages.

“It was such a unique time,” she said. “It was a real community, and everything was done through word of mouth.”

Greg Wells and Chris L. Terry lived at 805 Cary towards the end of its tenure as a show house, in the late 90s. The residents of the house at that time were activist-oriented and held strong political views. Terry, former vocalist for Flesh Eating Creeps, now an author living in Los Angeles, said that the house did not have a reputation as a party house, rather the residents were more focused on playing in bands.

Flesh Eating Creeps

“805 was usually a pretty sober, music-focused environment. We had the reputation of being the fun police because we didn’t want it to turn into a party house,” Terry said. “There was a lot going on in the late 90s though. It was the sweet spot between the early 90s punk, gen X, alternative culture boom and the early 2000s gentrification and VCU expansion that made being an artist in the city harder and more expensive.”

Wells said that the residents of the house at that time were heavily involved in Food Not Bombs and with an anarchist collective called General Strike. They did anti-poverty organizing, produced a quarterly newsletter, and helped orchestrate a massive takeover of Monroe Park in 1998. The legacy of the house, Wells said, stretched out well beyond the 90s, as several of the residents of 805 went on to form an anarchist collective in Oregon Hill and eventually bought the Flying Brick Library in 2002,  a radical lending library and community space on Pine Street which offered books, zines, and periodicals,on class, labor, feminism, sex, queer issues, immigration, anarchism, and more. 

805 W. Cary, Image courtesy Google Maps, 2017

The cultural shift that has taken place in Richmond over the last two decades has been dramatic. At the time, said Terry, “it was cheap to rent a big house with your friends, work a couple days a week at a restaurant, and have a band.”

The gentrification and revitalization of the city in recent years has been a mixed bag for many residents, and it has been particularly hard on musicians and artists, as DIY show spaces like 805 West Cary have become untenable in the current economic climate. Richmond’s rent prices have increased substantially as developers have descended on the city, and the 805W apartment complex on Cary Street is just the tip of the iceberg, which could be anywhere in the neighborhood if $650 to over $1,000 for a one bedroom. 

“It was so sudden and fast that people were caught off guard,” said Steele. “It seems like everyone’s punch drunk on it, like what do we do? How do we fight this thing?”

Terry said that he was not surprised that the buildings on the 800 block of West Cary were being replaced, but that he does not agree with it.

“I do not like it when an organization with a lot of money displaces people with less money by constructing something for people with more money. Capitalism doesn’t help people,” he said. “We thought they were selling and tearing down 805 W. Cary when they evicted us in 1999 so it’s funny that it actually took almost 20 years for it to happen. I’ve been mentally prepared for this for awhile.”

And while the physical house may be gone and already in the process of becoming something different entirely, the memories of 805 W. Cary St., and the legacy it left behind will live on.

 

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

 

Stone Brewing Cuts Ties With NOFX Following Vegas Shooting Comments

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Punk band NOFX should probably change their name to “NO…Longer Booking Gigs” after remarks they made about the Las Vegas concert shooting, resulting in outrage from the public, and costing them their sponsorship from Stone Brewing Co.

The Los Angeles-based band, who rose to prominence in the 90s, recently played the Punk Rock Bowling and Music Festival, which is also unfortunately held in Las Vegas, where band leader Fat Mike, along with guitarist Eric Melvin made some derogatory comments about the October shooting, where 58 people were killed and over 800 more were injured.

“We played a song about Muslims and we didn’t get shot. Hooray,” Fat Mike said. Melvin followed that up with, “I guess you only get shot in Vegas if you are in a country band.”

Fat Mike then responded by saying, ‘You know, that sucked, but at least they were country fans and not punk rock fans.”

Videos of the show quickly spread on social media, with their words going viral, followed by backlash from fans and sponsors, including Stone Brewing Co. The Escondido–based brewery was a sponsor for the touring Punk in Drublic Festival, and had collaborated with NOFX on the Punk in Drublic Hoppy Lager, but cut ties immediately with the band following their comments, and released the following statement:

“We at Stone Brewing are aware of NOFX’s insensitive and indefensible statements this past weekend. As a result, we are severing all our ties with NOFX, including festival sponsorship and the production of our collaboration beer. We respect punk rock, and the DIY ethos for which it stands. To us, it means standing up for things you believe in, and fearlessly committing to what’s right. And it is for that reason that Stone Brewing is immediately disassociating ourselves from the band NOFX. Stone had a sponsorship deal for this summer’s Punk In Drublic festivals. Emphasis “had.” That sponsorship is now canceled.”

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The press release went on to note that while the collaboration beer, Punk in Drublic Hoppy Lager, is still available for purchase in retail stores, NOFX is not profiting in any way, and the brewery has even decided to donate all of the proceeds of the beer.

“…to try our best to make some good come out of these awful comments, we have decided that we will donate all profits of the beer to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Foundation, which provides post-Route 91 trauma counseling for officers and other first responders alongside other safety programs, training, and funding. We apologize to the fans of the beer itself, but know that we make this decision out of respect to all. Punk rock is cool. These callous comments were the furthest thing from it.”

The Punk in Drublic Festival kicked off at the beginning of May and made stops in Richmond, Austin, Forth Worth, Philly, Brockton, Mass., and Pittsburgh, with the festival wrapping up this weekend in Ohio. NOFX and frontman Fat Mike’s other band Me First And The Gimme Gimmes have been replaced on the bill by Descendants and The Vandals according to a festival spokesperson.

Yesterday, NOFX issue an apology on their Twitter for their remarks, four days later, but looks to be too little too late for this band. The damage is done.

 

Photo By: Dennis Williford