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Richmond, VA Culture & Politics Since 2005

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Raised In The City: Weekend Playlist by Benjamin Shepherd

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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 have a playlist from Richmond singer-songwriter Benjamin Shepherd, whose latest LP, Hold The Line, entered the world last month. On that album, Shepherd’s introspective take on Americana-influenced rock n’ roll is distinctive and memorable, and the playlist he’s prepared for RVA Mag listeners will take you on a similar journey through discontented punk, mournful blues, and pensive folk sounds.

Shepherd’s next live gig here in Richmond will be on August 22 at Garden Grove Brewing, along with Lowlight and Little River Creek Police. That’s a little while away, but this playlist should keep you smiling, thinking, and nodding along until then.

Hold the line, Virginia.

Open this playlist from mobile in your Spotify app HERE.

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

Fahrenheit Fair Enough: Weekend Playlist by Brother Rutherford

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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

Still Life: Weekend Playlist by Blessed

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

This one comes to us from Blessed, a British Columbia-based band who remind us with their music that, yes, Canada really is pretty far north. They’ll be bringing their gothic, metallic postpunk to The Camel on Tuesday, May 21, joining Richmond’s own Unmaker and Serqet in bringing some musical excitement to your midweek. Tickets are $10, and you can order your own right here.

But before you do that, dive into the playlist that Blessed has prepared so that you may give your weekend a truly excellent soundtrack. In addition to a few of their own tunes to get you psyched for Tuesday night, Blessed share a wide-ranging smorgasbord of outstanding sounds, taking you all the way from political punk to solemn indie to bouncy pop, and covering quite a few hotspots inbetween.

Take the trip, Virginia.

Open this playlist from mobile in your Spotify app HERE.

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

Summer Madness: Weekend Playlist By Marcus Tenney

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

This time around our festival of musical excellence is brought to you by Marcus Tenney, who you may know from many different arenas of sound around Richmond. On trumpet and saxophone, he performs with his own Trio and Quartet, as well as being a core member of Butcher Brown. And on the mic, he raps under the name Tennishu, and collaborates with his Butcher Brown bandmate DJ Harrison in a duo known as Tennison.

With this much going on, you can imagine that he stays busy at all times, and that’s definitely true this week. Tonight sees Tenney tearing things up at the Broadberry with a release party for Triple Trey, the latest slab of hip hop excellence from Tennishu. He’ll be joined by the R4ND4ZZO Big Band, featuring the rest of Butcher Brown, for an evening of powerful music from all walks of life. Tickets are $12 at the door — start walking now.

And on your way, put this Spotify playlist into your headphones and groove. It kicks off with “Peace,” the preview single from Triple Trey, and only gets heavier from there, with classic funk and hip hop from the likes of Rick James and the Notorious BIG standing alongside the best our modern river city sound has to offer, including Kenneka Cook, No BS! Brass, and a whole lot more.

Step to the rhythm, Virginia.

Open this playlist from mobile in your Spotify app HERE.

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

This Beat Is Mine: Weekend Playlist by Body Talk

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

This time around, we’ve got a flawlessly-curated selection of bangers from Body Talk, a local DJ collective made up of Mike Murphy, Tru Blu, Sean Lovelace, and DJ Mordecai. The members of Body Talk came together to get Richmond dance floors bumping with boogie-funk, disco, soul, go-go, and more sounds to keep your feet movin’ round.

You can catch up with Body Talk around town on a regular basis, and their next live appearance will be on Saturday, May 25th at Black Iris (322 W. Broad St). Music starts at 9:30, and if you arrive before 10:30, you get in free! After that it’s $5, so show up on time and dance all night! Body Talk DJ Sean Lovelace can also be heard weekly on WRIR, every Monday night from 11 PM to 1 AM, co-hosting The Heavily Cosmic Rotation along with DJ Heavy Styles.

Check all that out, but first, check out this massive collection of groovy tunes perfectly designed to get you prepared for a weekend of dance-floor transcendence. Funk, soul, R&B, disco… this playlist has got it all and then some.

Get it right, Virginia.

Open this playlist from mobile in your Spotify app HERE.

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

Biological Speculation: Weekend Playlist By KNOWGood Films

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

KNOWGood Films brings us some sounds from around their production studio today. This Richmond filmmaking project is currently working on completing their first full-length documentary, Shadow Boxing. In the meantime, they’re producing short films on YouTube, most notably their “Mastering The Minute” series, which has featured local artists and musicians like Chris Visions and RVA Mag’s own Hip Hop Henry. You can also find them on Instagram @knowgoodfilms.

One half of KNOWGood Films, Branden Wilson, reached out to us with a message for RVA Mag’s readers to receive in conjunction with their playlist.

“KNOWGood is not just a team of documentary, music video, and commercial directors; photo essay photographers; cover story journalists; and ‘mastering the minute’ creators. We’re also a ‘new religious movement.’ KNOWGood always has two main sacraments while in the editing room: water and music. This is a playlist compiled of songs that we prefer our new followers listen to. Best played from start to finish with a 10-second crossfade.”

Keep watching movies, Virginia.

Open this playlist from mobile in your Spotify app HERE.

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond