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Dreaming Is Free: Weekend Playlist by Washers

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It doesn’t happen every Friday night any more, but occasionally RVA Mag still brings you a super-fun playlist from Virginia’s most influential artists, musicians, and institutions.

Our first playlist of the Biden administration era comes to us from Washers, a Richmond melodic indie-punk trio featuring members of quite a few bands you’ve probably heard and enjoyed (Sports Bar, The Measure [SA], Worn In Red, etc). They’ve been around for a few years, but the ass end of the COVID quarantine era has spurred a period of productivity in them, and they’ve recently made their 2017 LP, The Things We Do, available on streaming sites. (It’s also available on Bandcamp if you want to pick up a permanent copy — after all, it is Bandcamp Friday…)

Of course, as drummer Brad Perry admits, “That’s not a newsworthy accomplishment in and of itself.” However, what is noteworthy is the fact that this rerelease of sorts is accompanied by an as-yet-unreleased bonus track, “Nowhere,” which actually premieres as the opening track on Washers’ RVA Mag Weekend Playlist. Which we’ll get to momentarily, but first, I need to let you know that there’s still more to come: Washers finished an album just before the pandemic descended upon us all, and they’ve spent the past year mixing and mastering on a remote basis to get it ready for release. No release date yet, but it’s coming soon, so keep an eye out for that one.

In the meantime, enjoy this massive playlist from Washers, which is set to soundtrack your entire weekend with plenty of catchy tunes, from the punk and indie hits you’d expect these guys to love to some freakier moments and even a few surprising left turns into country and hip hop. I forgot to give them my usual “25 songs, give or take a few” guidance on making this playlist, so they’ve given us an unbelievable 87 songs, for the longest RVA Mag playlist yet! You certainly won’t lack for tuneage this weekend.

Turn it up, Virginia.

Open this playlist from mobile in your Spotify app HERE.

Your Year In Spacebomb: Weekend Playlist By Spacebomb Records

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It’s been a while since RVA Mag brought you a week-ending playlist from Virginia’s most influential artists, musicians, and institutions, but just this once, we’ve got a new one for ya — so get stoked.

This week, we bring you a playlist that, we must confess, was created not for us specifically but for fans of music as a whole, from Richmond and beyond, by our friends at Spacebomb Records. “2020 has been a very different & difficult year for almost everybody,” the label said in a statement. “At times, we wanted to hide away from it all, and sometimes that was all anyone could do. But in the end, we focused on what we do best and tried to share great art with the world. We couldn’t be prouder of these musicians and releases and are humbled we are partners in sound with so many talented people.”

Over the course of 2020, Spacebomb has brought the world an even dozen new albums, including highly praised new releases from local fave Angelica Garcia and folk supergroup Bonny Light Horseman. There were also releases from popular artists like Fruit Bats and Laura Veirs, musically inclined comedian Tim Heidecker, and several releases from studio mainstays the Spacebomb House Band.

This playlist will give you a tour through all the highlights of Spacebomb’s 2020 — and considering how tough the year has been for everyone, knowing this much great music came out of it right here in Richmond is a pleasant silver lining.

Enjoy, Virginia.

Open this playlist from mobile in your Spotify app HERE.

Perfect Posture: Weekend Playlist By PJ Sykes

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Every Friday night, RVA Mag brings you a truly fantabulous playlist curated by Virginia’s most influential artists, musicians, and institutions.

This week, we’ve got a set of tunes from PJ Sykes, a veteran musician and photographer who’s been making noise around Richmond for years in bands like Hoax Hunters, Angels vs. Aliens, and a ton of others, as well as running longtime Richmond indie label Cherub Records. His latest single, released under his own name, premieres all over the internet today, and is a prelude to forthcoming solo LP FUZZ.

The single, which leads off a playlist full of hot tracks originating in Virginia, is a cover of “Rain In To The Sea,” by Richmond Americana group David Shultz & the Skyline. As with all of the songs on the playlist, the original version of this tune has strong resonances for Sykes.

“As I stumbled into writing FUZZ, my first solo album in [age redacted] years, I decided early on it would be a good idea to record a cover song. Something to help me figure out sounds and get back into recording,” he said. “I’ve been obsessed with ‘Rain In To The Sea’ by David Shultz & The Skyline for a decade now. It’s like a classic Tom Petty song, brilliantly simple sounding, yet tricky to play. I think it pairs well with the new songs I’ve been writing.”

Get the single, along with a B-side featuring an outtake from the last Hoax Hunters EP, over at Sykes’ Bandcamp. Then spend your weekend jamming this playlist full of Virginia-based musical excellence — it’s sure to brighten up your otherwise-spooky Halloween weekend.

Go vote, Virginia.

Open this playlist from mobile in your Spotify app HERE.

Hustle Punk: Weekend Playlist by James Seretis

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Every Friday night, RVA Mag brings you a truly fantabulous playlist curated by Virginia’s most influential artists, musicians, and institutions.

This week, we have a playlist from James Seretis, who is probably best known to readers of this magazine as one of the cohosts of The Hustle Season, a weekly podcast you can catch here at RVA Magazine every weekend, as well as on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Seretis and his Hustle Season co-host Gabriel Santamaria also run La Cocina Studios, and play together in The Flavor Project, where Seretis’s guitar plays off Santamaria’s bass and the excellent work of the many other band members to create a pleasing mix of funk, rap, soul, jazz, Latin sounds, and much more.

This week, though, James is getting back to his roots with a mix of punk rock classics that will give novices an excellent tour through the fundamentals of the genre, while reminding the more seasoned punks among us exactly what was so great about all those records we loved as teenagers that got us into this genre. A few picks are a bit… edgy (that Fear song, James?) but if you love punk rock, the Hustle Season, or both, that won’t be too surprising. Just don’t play this mix around your parents, and you’ll be fine. On this rainy weekend, sit back and let James Seretis add some punk rock spice to your weekend with this killer mix.

Turn it up, Virginia.

Open this playlist from mobile in your Spotify app HERE.

RVA 101: History Of Richmond Music Weekend Playlist

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Every Friday night, RVA Mag brings you a truly fantabulous playlist curated by Virginia’s most influential artists, musicians, and institutions.

This time around, it’s a follow-up to last week’s 100th playlist, in which we celebrated with 100 currently active Richmond bands. We’d originally planned to combine that playlist with the idea behind this one — a history of Richmond’s music scene over the past 60 or so years — but we got so far beyond the 100-song idea that we just split them into two.

So here’s the other half, which starts in the mid-60s with some garage rock, moves up through jazz, funk, early punk, the coming of hardcore, the postpunk 80s, the pop-punk early 90s, Richmond hardcore’s move toward world domination, the post-Y2K indie revolution, the city’s huge doom phase of about a decade ago, and a lot more that doesn’t neatly fit into a linear narrative.

This playlist is arranged more by chronology than sound, so if it jumps all over the place with lightning speed, please understand. Also, don’t get too upset if your favorite Richmond band of all time isn’t here — a lot of local music, especially stuff that was recorded in the pre-internet era, has never made it to Spotify at all. We’re just as bummed by this playlist’s lack of White Cross, Death Piggy, Superfriends, Fudge, and Single Bullet Theory (among many others) as you are. But there are still over 75 songs here for you to delve into, and you’re guaranteed to find an excellent bit of local music history that you never knew existed — if not several.

Study well, Virginia.

Open this playlist from mobile in your Spotify app HERE.

Top Photo: E. Broad St. at 7th, July 1960. By Adolph B. Rice, via Library of Virginia/Flickr

A Trip Through Richmond: RVA Mag’s 100th Weekend Playlist

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Every Friday night, RVA Mag brings you a totally rockin’ playlist curated by Virginia’s most influential artists, musicians, and institutions.

This week, we’ve taken the reins ourselves once again, in celebration of the fact that this is the 100th RVA Mag Weekend Playlist! We never would have figured that an idea we had on the spur of the moment would have lasted nearly three years like this, but since it has, we figured we’d use our 100th time around to celebrate the full spectrum of Richmond music, from all genres and all areas of the river city, by presenting 100 songs by (at least) 100 different currently active Richmond artists.

Now, this isn’t an exhaustive list of people and groups making music in our wonderful hometown — to do that would take something closer to 500 different songs, and even then, we’d be hampered by how many aren’t even on Spotify yet. Instead, you should look at this as more of an overview, a guided tour through everything from indie rock to hip hop to jazz, metal, punk, folk, and a lot more, including some things that are all but impossible to categorize. This playlist amounts to over six hours of music, and is sure to contain at least a few things you’ve never heard before, so dig in and appreciate the wondrousness of our city’s music scene.

Listen close, Virginia.

Open this playlist from mobile in your Spotify app HERE.