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LJ & The Sleeze, ‘Small Dick & No Brain’

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LJ and The Sleeze is back, bigger and better than ever as they gear up for their rerecorded record release and upcoming local gigs. This week the solo act turned group frenzy is posting a music video for the previously released track “Small Dick & No Brain” and following it up with a show at The Camel. 

From the conception of LJ and The Sleeze, Max Gottesman had been running the show as a solo recording act, simply playing with a larger live band. Now, that live band has become intertwined with every part of the music making, from the stage to the recording studio in Gottesman’s basement, and beyond. As they got to rerecording all of Gottesman’s original solo songs, they have become a tight knit group, and the explosive energy has only gotten more chaotic. 

In addition to Gottesman on vocals, the core members of LJ and The Sleeze are Ben Rosenstock and Gunner Timmerman on drums, Gray Stephenson and Eli Gray on guitar, and Carl Hill on Bass. 

“When I was looking for a live band I specifically was looking for people who weren’t assholes, so that’s a really good plus,” said Gottesman. “There’s no assholes.”

“We’re all actually really bad at playing music, but we’re all really nice people,” said Gray.

“In the best way possible it reminds me of playing in bands I’ve played in before where it’s primarily covers,” said Rosenstock. “We all come in, learn the songs, and just have fun.”

“Book us for your weddings,” said Gottesman.

“Yeah, we will make your grandparents leave and make it really awkward,” replied Rosenstock.

In response to Gray’s point, to say these folks are bad musicians is a massive joke. They possess the ability to come in each week, recording numerous songs and recreating them in the process. Plus, this is just one of multiple other gigs for some members. For example, Timmerman plays for Mel Machete, Rosenstock for Toward Space, and Gray co-owns the company Glare Goods. 

“I don’t get how you all play in this band and other bands,” said Gray. “This is my only band, but it’s so hard for me to remember when stuff happens.”

“I just watch Gunner do all the drum fills I wish I could do,” said Rosenstock. “I’m the boots and cats.”

“No, you’re the meat and potatoes,” replied Timmerman.

“We have boots and cats, and meat and potatoes,” said Gray. “How does that work?”

“All part of a balanced diet,” said Timmerman.

The balance for LJ and The Sleeze can be hard to come by, as often the members have to record separately, at different times and on different songs. Gottesman gets time with each member on a weekly basis and is able to knock out a few songs during each visit. Right now they have been incredibly busy as well, recording both the remake of the previous record, Keepin’ It Sleezy, and music for an upcoming third album.

“I’ve said it to everyone here individually, but everyone here is so fucking busy and I am so not busy,” said Gottesman. “I don’t want to ask too much more than that, so asking people to learn a third record on top of these other 15 songs and whatever covers is silly.”

“That’s the great thing about this band, we all do have stuff going on but Max makes it so easy to show up and just be a part of it,” said Stephenson.

“With the pace of things, I often leave your house with homework. But it’s fun homework,” said Hill.

It isn’t all recording and homework though. LJ and The Sleeze is looking to get themselves banned from YouTube and banned from Richmond venues with their excitable antics. At this point it appears there is no limit to the absurdity and nudity people are willing to put up with just to hear their music. Recently the band played a show at City Beach in which Gottesman stripped down and gave onlookers a show they probably should have paid more for than they did.

“Last time I got butt naked,” said Gottesman. “Gunner picked me up and my dick was on his shoulder.”

“My dick was on everyone’s shoulder,” said Gottesman. 

“There’s a part of City Beach that has glass walls toward the sidewalk,” said Gray. “There were people smoking out there and Max was rubbing his dick on the glass, so people who weren’t paying attention to the show just were like ‘WHOA.’”

“Kelsey, the show booker for City Beach, was trying to put Max’s underwear back on him in the middle of the set. Like, ‘you have to put your underwear back on,’” said Hill.

“Max was being a toddler trying to kick the underwear back off like ‘No! I don’t want to!’ He looked like a giant baby,” said Gray.

“City Beach is kind of the perfect place to play, just because the regular crowd is so the opposite of what we usually play for, but even they came around,” said Rosenstock. “We realized we could actually prove ourselves.”

LJ and The Sleeze has proven themselves above and beyond in this city as they expand and word has spread of their hijinx. Notably, they are becoming known for their productivity. LJ and The Sleeze lacks nothing in music production, including the creation of music videos. This week they have put out a music video for their song “Small Dick & No Brain,” for which Gottesman takes the creative controls.

“My wife had to go to work at like 6 in the morning on Black Friday, and I couldn’t go back to sleep,” said Gottesman. “So I decided to see if I could make the video happen, and finished it by the time she got home. It was on a whim.”

In the future, Gottesman has plans to create much larger scale music videos with friends and bandmates as well. So far they are looking at a number of those videos already being filmed and planned out for the upcoming year.

LJ and The Sleeze will be playing at The Camel on Sunday, December 12, with Zack Mexico and Piranha Rama. In celebration of the music video release and the growing band, they will be playing their hits and looking to party with the best of Richmonds locale. 

As Gottesman said, “I’m most excited to get naked at The Camel.”

Tickets are $10 and available through The Camel’s website, and doors open at 7 p.m. 

There will be a record re-release show at Fuzzy Cactus on February 12, 2022. As LJ and the Sleeze continues their leather-jacket-and-gold-thong-clad rumble through Richmond, there will be much more music to come, as the prolific and sleezy bunch looks to release a third new album not long after.

RVA Shows You Must See This Week: December 8 – December 14

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FEATURED SHOW
Punks For Presents 2021
Night One: Friday, December 10, 8 PM
Imaginary Toys, X-Mas, Toy Division @ Wonderland – $10 (order tickets HERE)
Night Two: Saturday, December 11, 7 PM
Bouncing Coals, It’s A Wonderful Lifetime, Santa Day Real Estate, International Superheroes of Glory @ Fuzzy Cactus – $10 (order tickets HERE)
The holiday season is upon us, folks. That’s right, Christmas is coming, and while it appears that the Omicron variant is set to be the lump of coal in all of our stockings this year (get your vaccines! And if you’re vaccinated, get your booster!), we are at least lucky to have finagled a way to have a real life, in-person Punks For Presents celebration this year, stretching over multiple weekends of December in RVA. Let’s get stoked!

If you like comedy, you’ll get a prelude to the P4P festivities on Thursday night at Cobra Cabana, but the real beginning of this year’s odyssey of tribute bands is Friday night, when Imaginary Toys will top the bill at Shockoe Bottom’s favorite punk rock dive bar, Wonderland! Cure tribute Imaginary Boys has been a fixture at cover band shows in Richmond for ages now, and this is not the first time they’ve added a Christmas theme to their recreations of Robert Smith’s mope-rock standards, so they’re sure to entertain, especially if you’re the sort of goth who sometimes wonders what the happy happy holiday season could possibly have to offer you. They’ll be joined on this bill by X-Mas, returning to the Punks For Presents lineup for the first time in a few years to recreate the sordid LA tales and flawless boy-girl harmonies of first-wave Cali punks X. And the whole thing will be rounded out by Toy Division, who will put a Yuletide gloss on all those songs Ian Curtis wrote about how depressed he was. If nothing else, it should appeal to the Cure fans showing up for the headliner.

The next day, head out to the Northside and post up at Fuzzy Cactus, where the evening of Punks For Presents tribute bands on offer will take a less goth, more melodic punk approach. It’ll start with The Bouncing Coals, whose holiday-themed twist on Jersey punk legends The Bouncing Souls is sure to cause some excitement. Then we’ve got It’s A Wonderful Lifetime, who recreate the music of those great dancers from New Brunswick, Lifetime. Is it emo? Is it pop-punk? Is it hardcore? Somewhere inbetween all of those, I’d say. And by the way, I have no idea if this band has anything to do with the long-ago Richmond-based Lifetime tribute put together by members of Wow Owls and 10:33, but if not, it’s carrying on a proud local tradition. The Fuzzy Cactus bill will be rounded out by the emo Christmas tunes of Sunny Day Real Estate tribute act Santa Day Real Estate and the pizza-loving pop punk of New Found Glory tribute act International Superheroes of Glory. It’s gonna be a snow-covered blast, and it’s for a good cause (all proceeds raised by Punks For Presents will go to Children’s Hospital of Richmond), so do your part by coming out and rocking!

Wednesday, December 8, 8 PM
Tyler Nail, Patrick Zampetti @ The Tin Pan – $22.50 (order tickets HERE)
It’s been a while since I had the opportunity to shout out a show out at The West End’s premier sit-down venue, The Tin Pan, but I’m glad to be able to mention their name once again. You know it’s gonna be something on the more chill end of things if you’re heading out to the Tin Pan, but that doesn’t mean it’s boring. Indeed, North Carolina singer-songwriter Tyler Nail has a downright hypnotic delivery on his acoustic Americana work — one that’s taken him a long way from his first shows, which were, if his website is to be believed, in a Taco Bell. Hey, at least the food was good.

Nail’s latest project is an EP called Devil, and the dark, foreboding sound of tracks like “Devil And A Deadman” is downright riveting. He brings an awareness in his music of deep-rooted Appalachian communities and the way things out in the country can sometimes get a little lawless; it’s the kind of thing a lot of Richmonders should appreciate, even if you’re more of a punk than a folkie. Maybe especially then. Nail’s joined at The Tin Pan by Patrick Zampetti, a local boy with an acoustic guitar and a riveting voice. This evening isn’t going to be all that loud, but it will certainly be memorable.

Thursday, December 9, 9 PM
Rezn, Lair, Doomsday Profit @ Bandito’s – Free!
Thursday night, on the other hand, will be loud. At least, it will be if you do what I recommend you do and go see Rezn at Bandito’s. Hey, the price is right. And if you need any further arguments to be marshalled in support of this recommendation, look no further than Chaotic Divine, the LP this Chicago quartet released last fall. Moving from spaced-out moments of pure psychedelia to crushing metal over the course of many lengthy epics, you might think this is another doom metal project. However, the fact that Rezn make use of all sorts of non-metal instruments over the course of this LP, from flute and saxophone to sitar, oud, and baglama, should tell you that Rezn have a lot more going on than any ordinary doom metal band you’re likely to encounter.

In fact, Rezn even released a limited-edition flexi earlier this year featuring a tune, “Mirror Mirage Dub,” that shows off their skill with the deceptively complex genre of dub reggae. These guys are sure to expand your horizons in all sorts of directions. But don’t worry, they’ll have plenty of headbanging moments on offer as well. Richmonders Lair will add to the headbanging opportunities, though they’ll take their sweet time getting there. Lair’s much more straightforward in their approach to doom metal, but they are far from boring, and they show it on the two-song release they put out last winter, At Our End. I don’t know whether to call it an EP or an LP, by the way, because on one hand it only has two songs on it, but on the other hand, those two songs add up to nearly 27 minutes of running time — longer than a lot of hardcore bands’ LPs. What I do know for sure is that it’s a deep, multilayered listening experience, and their set at Bandito’s is sure to be every bit as enthralling. North Carolina’s Doomsday Profit will round the evening out with some old-school downer sludge a la early Eyehategod. All this and the opportunity to dine on Bandito’s excellent nachos? What more could you want? (Yes, I will continue to mention their nachos every time I write about Bandito’s for the foreseeable future. Deal with it.)

Friday, December 10, 9 PM
Tasha, Mini Trees, S. Raekwon @ The Camel – $15 in advance, $18 day of show (order tickets HERE)
Things get downright emotional at The Camel this Friday night. And no, I don’t mean “emo” — if I meant emo, I’d say emo. I’m not afraid. But anyway, Tasha, who hails from Chicago, is a singer-songwriter who leads with her guitar, using her soft, muted sounds to tell stories about deep, dark feelings overtop of absolutely haunting tunes. Her brand new LP, Tell Me What You Miss The Most, is full of indelible melodies that sink deep into your soul and refuse to let go. Sometimes she’s backed by a band, and sometimes she’s on her own, but either way, she always grabs your attention and presents you with sounds you feel on the deepest level.

I will say that I don’t know whether Tasha’s coming to the Camel with a full band or on her own. However, I’m not sure it matters; her work has enough variety that you can tell she’ll be great in either format. Mini Trees, the Los Angeles-based project led by Lexi Vega, seems more likely to take the form of a full band, as they generally do on their new album, Always In Motion. Mini Trees also has more of an upbeat pop approach that, at least to me, seems to show the influence of West Coast weather on their vibes. These songs sound like they were written and recorded when the sun was out — but don’t make the mistake of assuming that makes them shallow. Like Tasha, Mini Trees is bringing real emotional depth to the fore, and their set is sure to move you. S. Raekwon, who is a New York-based singer-songwriter with (as far as I can tell) no ties to the Wu-Tang Clan, will get things started with a soulful approach to moody, guitar-driven pop. Get down with it.

Saturday, December 11, 7 PM
K Bay Presents: Benét, Kate Bollinger, Matthew E. White @ The Broadberry – $15 (order tickets HERE)
If you’ve been paying attention lately, you’re sure to know that K Bay is not only the name of Matthew E. White’s latest album, but also the name of the studio he built in his home as a sort of retreat from his Spacebomb base of operations. Therefore, the fact that this show is billed as a K Bay presentation, and features Matthew E. White at the bottom of the bill rather than the top, leads me to believe that he’s responsible for this entire bill. And therefore, you’ve got to figure that he put Benet at the top of the bill for a reason. So let’s talk about Benet, a local up-and-comer whose catchy dancefloor-filling tunes have been getting quite a bit of attention around the city and in the wider online world. They started out with last year’s Citrus City release, Stan Account, and followed up that EP with this year’s even more noteworthy collection of danceable tunes about love and romance, Game Over.

If you ask me, Benet is reason enough to show up to the Broadberry on Saturday night, Matthew E. White or no Matthew E. White. The addition of Kate Bollinger to the bill, another excellent Richmond singer-songwriter with a great new single, “Yards/Gardens,” further sweetens the pot. But of course, many of you are going to be showing up for the man himself, and you’ve got very good reasons for doing so. K Bay (the album, not the studio or the nebulous presenter of this event) is a collection of absolutely excellent tunes, showing off a wider variety of what White is capable of doing than any of his previous projects. Indeed, he lays out some dancefloor bangers of his own on this one, and you can expect tracks like “Let’s Ball” and “Electric” to be highlights of his set on this fine evening. Of course, if he drops some of his smoother balladry or even his quiet acoustic tunes, no one’s going to complain about that either. Really, whatever Matthew E. White wants to bring to Richmond, we’re sure to appreciate the resulting sounds. So let’s gather together and get down with it.

Sunday, December 12, 7 PM
LJ & the Sleeze, Zack Mexico, Piranha Rama @ The Camel – $10 (order tickets HERE)
What do you say, folks — should we spend the final night of our weekend at the Camel? In light of the fact that it’s one of the best places to hang out in the whole damn city, has great food, and is full of cool people, I might just say so regardless of what sort of music they’ve got onstage that particular evening. But once you see the rock n’ roll triple bill this show has in store for you, Sunday night at The Camel goes from “a good bet” to “fucking essential.” First and foremost, we’ve got LJ & the Sleeze, the latest project from Max Henry Gottesman, which takes that whole undercurrent of adolescent horniness that’s always an essential component of garage rock and finds out what happens when you crank it up to 17 or so. So far, the results LJ & the Sleeze have gotten with this tactic have been stellar, and the word is that Max has now recruited a full time band to back them up, so you can expect even better things to come on this fine evening.

Then there’s the other two bands on the bill, both of whom are totally willing to expand the usual band lineup well beyond the standard quartet or quintet. North Carolina’s Zack Mexico are driven by the dual rhythms laid down by their two drummers, who join half a dozen other members in making some mind-expanding psychedelic pop that isn’t afraid to push all sorts of musical boundaries. You can tell that this is their vibe when you check the track listing of their 35-minute LP Sound Waves For The Relaxed And Dying, which came out back in the cursed month of March 2020 (our condolences, Zack Mexico), and see that it only contains five songs, the majority of which stretch to over eight minutes in length. Things are going to get epic. And of course, when Piranha Rama is onstage, this genre-hopping Richmond band will do Zack Mexico exactly one better by bringing NINE musicians into play, throwing everything from jazz and soul to punk and surf-rock into a potent brew of catchy tunes. Get ready, because here they come. All of them.

Monday, December 13, 7 PM
The Wormholes, Lucy In Battle Armor, Glossing, Solace Sovay @ The Camel – $8 in advance, $10 day of show (order tickets HERE)
And hey, one good night at The Camel deserves another, am I right? Of course I’m right. This Monday night will get you back out to the venue after an action-packed weekend with some intriguing sonics from The Wormholes, a North Carolina duo with a penchant for art damage and a sound that incorporates everything from post-rock to psych-pop, and bases everything on the kind of up-to-the-minute indie sensibility that is guaranteed to make us all smile.

They are joined on this bill by a trio of Richmond ensembles, both new and veteran. Lucy In Battle Armor’s instrumental math-rock tunes have gotten more and more danceable as they’ve gone on, and the last we heard from them, back in 2019, brought us the super-fun SOPHE LP. Assuming they haven’t made any major changes since then, their set should get the whole place dancing, spacewalk-style. Then there’s Glossing, a brand new group featuring Richmond legend James Hoffer (who’s been in a million bands, including one with me! Wow, that was over 20 years ago), as well as former members of DC bands like Birds For Eyes and Broke Royals, coming together to do an entirely new thing. That’s sure to be worth hearing now rather than later, so get in on the ground floor for this one. Finally, Solace Sovay carries on their long-running tradition of bringing effects-laden alternative pop gems to the sound-starved denizens of the river city. Come down to the Camel on Monday and lap this one up.

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Email me if you’ve got any tips for me about upcoming shows (that take place after the week this column covers -– this week’s column has obviously already been written): drew@gayrva.com

VA Shows You Must See This Week: January 2 – January 7

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FEATURED SHOW
Saturday, January 4, 9 PM
Djanuary, feat. Stu Kindle, Sweet Potatoes Music, The Pop-Up Duo, Lil Jimmy & The Robinsons @ The Dark Room – $5
Well folks, it’s 2020. We made it through another holiday season — and another decade — alive, and it’s time to get our bearings and ease into yet another year here in Trump’s America. And what better way to get a non-stressful start on the 20’s (finally, a decade with an abbreviation that makes sense!) than with a week heavy with the wonderful sounds of jazz?

That’s what we’ve got for you this week, and at the top of the list is Djanuary, a year-beginning celebration of legendary Romani jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt masterminded by local ukulele strummer Stu Kindle. Reinhardt was one of the first guitarists and first Europeans to exert a strong influence on jazz, a feat made that much more remarkable by the fact that he only had the use of three fingers on his left hand due to an injury he sustained in a fire at the beginning of his career. Reinhardt’s integration of Romani folk music, and focus on stringed instruments rather horns and woodwinds, helped kickstart an entire genre known as “gypsy jazz.”

You can hear a strong influence from Reinhardt’s approach on Stu Kindle’s own agile, speedy ukulele technique, which makes it eminently appropriate that he’s the Richmond musician spearheading this entire evening. He’ll be joined in this evening-long tribute to Django Reinhardt by a variety of local talents including jazz combo Sweet Potatoes Music, the acoustic jazz-folk of Pop-Up Duo, and swinging acoustic string band Lil Jimmy and the Robinsons (which also features Kindle on ukulele). It won’t be loud, it won’t be heavy, but rest assured, Djanuary at The Dark Room definitely will be hot.

Thursday, January 2, 7 PM
Plastic Nancy, Hollywood Cemetery, Big Fundamental, Cleophus James @ Poor Boys – $5
I can’t imagine anyone isn’t glad to see Poor Boys and PRSMCAT carrying on the banner of Locals Only in this post-Strange Matter era — and it’s even better when it results in a rock-solid bill like this one. Plastic Nancy top the bill with some pretty outstanding psych-pop alt-rock that hit a new high on recent single “Think Of Now.” I for one can’t wait to see what their next batch of tunes sounds like — and chances are we’ll get at least a little bit of a preview tonight!

Hollywood Cemetery are a newer group from right here in the river city, but they’ve certainly got their sound locked down tight if recent EP Sweet Dreams is any indication; I never would have thought the mixture of catchy emo pop and Interpol-style postpunk drama would be anywhere near this much fun, but I’m happy to stand corrected. Alt-rockers Big Fundamental and soulful postpunks Cleophus James (old-person points for you if you know the reference) round out a killer bill of talented Richmond groups you should be paying attention to in the new decade.

Friday, January 3, 7 PM
Opin (Photo by Joey Wharton), ADAR, Velocity 128, Bri Bevan @ Gallery 5 – Free!
Gallery 5 turns 15 this year (as does RVA Mag — watch this space), and they’re showing no signs of slowing down as they roll into 2020 with an awesome art show featuring custom-made toys. That alone should make turning up at their free First Friday event a no-brainer, but the musicians they’ll have on hand only make it that much more essential. Opin, the post-White Laces group featuring members of Magnus Lush, Night Idea, and Navi, among others, is currently gearing up to release the long-awaited follow-up to their 2017 self-titled debut.

New single “No. 3” finds Opin in powerful form, with driving rock rhythms, multi-layered synths, and an incredible vocal melody overtop of it all. Can’t wait for more where that came from. This show will also feature DC retro synthwave duo Velocity 128, turning the whole place into the dancefloor from an 80s crime movie, as well as a performance by Charlottesville jazz-soul-rock hybrid ADAR. Local singer-songwriter Bri Bevan rounds out an excellent bill you’re sure to enjoy — get there.

Saturday, January 4, 10 PM
The Gilberts, Black Plastic, Lounge Lizzard @ City Dogs – Free!
It’s rare for too many bands to be touring around the holiday times, so this early into a new year, you’ve got to expect a lot of locally-focused shows. Fortunately for us, Richmond has a wonderful music scene that in no way, shape, or form has any need of out-of-town bands to make for excellent live musical experiences. For example, this Saturday, we’ve got this outstanding three-band local bill happening at City Dogs, the Main Street hotspot that was, in the early days of the 21st century, home to one of the best live venues in the city — the glorious chaos that was Nara Sushi.

City Dogs may or may not get as wild on this Saturday night as Nara used to back in its prime, but the music is certainly worthy of excitement regardless of how crazy y’all get out there in the crowd. Local quintet The Gilberts dish out indie-pop tunes with a shambling punk spirit. Black Plastic raves up with some driving alternative rock tuneage. And then there’s Lounge Lizzard, whose vocalist, Sera Stavroula, will be celebrating a birthday this evening — they’ll rise to the occasion with a big dose of their raging metallic punk sound. It all adds up to an evening you’re sure to enjoy, especially in light of the lack of cover charge. Use your cash to grab some chili dogs instead! Just be sure you don’t take them into the pit — that’s always a sloppy proposition.

Sunday, January 5, 8 PM
Brydge/Williams/Kartari @ Cary Street Cafe – Free!
Get ready for the first full work week of the new year — and the first non-holiday week since back in the first half of December — with this evening of fine jazz sounds over at Cary Street Cafe. Bassist Chris Brydge has worked with a lot of local jazz talents around town, including JC Kuhl, Fred Hibbard, and quite a few others. He usually does so in the company of drummer Emre Kartari, his rhythm-section partner in crime. And this evening finds the two of them together once again, this time working with saxophonist Eddie Williams.

This same lineup has performed gigs under the name The Eddie Williams Trio as well, so will the equal billing for the three indicate a different instrumental priority in this performance? The improvisational nature of jazz as a musical style all but guarantees we won’t know until the three musicians take the stage, but regardless of how it all plays out, we can certainly expect some outstanding bebop sounds from this trio of instrumental talents. Just what we all need so we can face the boss on Monday, right?

Monday, January 6, 8 PM
Zack Mexico, Landon Elliott, The Flavor Project, Manzara @ The Camel – $7 in advance/$10 day of show (order tickets HERE)
North Carolina group Zack Mexico have an intriguing approach to the art of creating psychedelic indie music, and you can tell the second they start setting up their gear. Beginning as a quartet, the group has expanded significantly in their decade together, most prominently with the addition of a second drummer. Seeing two full kits up there onstage is always powerful, and this band’s laid-back, tuneful approach does indeed carry a lot of power, even as it is often wielded with a subtle grace.

This is part of why Richmond singer-songwriter Landon Elliott is such a good match for Zack Mexico, musically. Elliott’s recently-released LP, Domino, shows off strong songcraft, making judicious use of 80s-style production and instrumentation at times while always first and foremost serving the gorgeous, introspective pop songs Elliott creates with a natural ease. It will be a treat to see this multi-layered sound come to life on the Camel’s stage this Monday night. The Flavor Project and Manzara will round out this eclectic bill with injections of funky Latin hip hop and dark, heavy postpunk. It’s sure to be a good time.

Tuesday, January 7, 8 PM
Dexter Moses & Marcus Tenney @ The Dark Room – $5
This Tuesday brings more jazz to the Dark Room, in the form of a meeting between two talented local saxophonists. Dexter Moses is the younger of the two, a blazing jazz talent who is still too young to order a beer at the HofGarden bar (at least for a few more weeks), but has been making a name for himself around town since his high school days. His skills at sax are worthy of a player twice his age.

Marcus Tenney isn’t quite there yet — his 2019 LP Triple Trey was a celebration of his having reached 33 years of age — but anyone who pays the slightest bit of attention to the local jazz, funk, and hip hop scenes is sure to know that he’s got a ton of talent in his own right, whether he’s showing it off in Butcher Brown, No BS! Brass Band, hip hop duo Tennison, or as the leader of his own jazz quartet. What sort of fireworks will ensue when the veteran comes together with the young gun in a fiery sax duo on the stage of the Dark Room? Something you’ll definitely want to see.

Elsewhere Around The State:

Saturday, January 4, 5 PM
True Body, You’re Jovian, Gone, Carnival Bird @ Smartmouth Brewing (Norfolk) – Free!
Down Norfolk way, Smartmouth Brewing’s warehouse seems to be about the closest thing they’ve got to Richmond’s wonderful Hardywood — a place predominantly concerned with creating craft beer (which I know the kids all love), which also brings the area some excellent free musical performances on a somewhat regular basis (now this is what I’M here for). They’re kicking off the year with exactly that sort of thing this Saturday as they bring us all a live performance by Norfolk gothic-postpunk ensemble True Body.

True Body haven’t given us a new helping of their dark, dramatic, synth-driven sound since the 2017 “Over It”/”Tourists” single, and that was three years ago now, so catching them live has become a must. Plus, they’re joined on this bill by fellow Norfolkers You’re Jovian, whose shoegazey indie-rock sound is always a hazy delight. There’s also a band called Gone on this bill, and all I can tell you for sure is that they’re not the same Gone featuring ex-members of Black Flag. But we do have a bit more information about Virginia Beach’s Carnival Bird, an indie-electro-pop duo featuring members of Radflux and Berries who will return to the stage at this event for the first time in over a year. So yeah, all of this is definitely worth being present for — especially since it won’t cost you anything to get in.

Sunday, January 5, 6 PM
Watersdeep, Route 29, Old Old, Good Grief @ Flipside Lounge (Fredericksburg) – $5
I freely admit that I don’t know as much about Fredericksburg’s music scene as I’d like to, but I’m always trying to learn, so I’m glad to have discovered a new F-burg venue to keep an eye on — Flipside Lounge, which is starting the new year off right by presenting this bill of catchy emo-punk groups from throughout the Old Dominion (should I be capitalizing those letters? Shrug). Watersdeep, at the top of the bill, are technically from DC, but close enough, right?

The Watersdeep boys refer to their sound as “sadboi pop-punk,” and if you enjoy bands like Saves The Day, Taking Back Sunday, and Knuckle Puck as much as I do, you’re sure to get a charge out of this band’s energetic, intense sound. Route 29, who coincidentally enough hail from my own hometown of Warrenton, have more of an indie feel, but still draw on emotional undercurrents that give their music a welcome resonance. Blacksburg’s Old Old are tough to google for, but reward the tenacious internet searcher with both a tough side and a sweet sensitivity. The entire evening kicks off with some fine power pop from Good Grief. Taken as a whole, it’s more than worth the hour’s drive up 95.

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Top Photo: Django Reinhardt in 1946, by William P. Gottlieb, Public Domain, via Wikimedia/Library of Congress

Email me if you’ve got any tips for me about upcoming shows (that take place after the week this column covers -– this week’s column has obviously already been written): drew@gayrva.com

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

VA Shows You Must See This Week: January 30 – February 5

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FEATURED SHOW
Friday, February 1, 7 PM
WRIR’s 14th Anniversary Party, feat. Unmaker, Black Liquid, Trapcry, Alfred, Minor Poet, Rebekah Rafferty and the Wakes, The Vulgar Bulgars, Sweet Potatoes Music, Jr Wolf, RVA Comedy showcase, and more @ The Renaissance Ballroom (107 W. Broad St) – $15 (order tickets HERE)
It’s kind of amazing to look up every February and realize that it’s been another year with the awesomeness of WRIR right here in our city. From one unicorn to another, we certainly must admit that the cards tend to be stacked against the kind of radio station WRIR is — a community-run, volunteer-operated radio station that manages, despite its low 42-watt broadcast power, to reach a wide range of local listeners and to connect strongly with the Richmond musical community. What’s more, it’s a great place to learn more about the issues of the day, from right here in Richmond to around the country and the world.

So yeah, it’s a little tiny miracle to see WRIR holding on for another year — 14 so far, and here’s to many more. It’s also a cause for celebration, and that’s what the station and its community will be doing when they gather once again at the Renaissance Ballroom this Friday night for the latest edition of a yearly party that never fails to deliver the goods. This year’s edition features all kinds of excellent music, covering the wide spectrum of local talent. Unmaker are at the top of the bill, and their dark, heavy, metallic postpunk is sure to bring down the house at the end of a long happy night — especially considering their always-active live performance style.

But that’s just the beginning, really. The music on offer runs the gamut from the cerebral hip hop of Alfred to the indie rock of Minor Poet and from the klezmer (jazz-influenced Eastern European/Jewish folk dance music) sounds of the Vulgar Bulgars to the melodic alt-rock of Rebekah Rafferty and the Wakes, this show has seriously got everything the curious music fan could desire. Plus, it brings the kind of adventurous programming you can expect from WRIR into real life before your eyes, as Black Liquid coordinates a hip hop showcase that’ll recreate the kind of improvised rhyming excellence that often graces his Saturday night radio shows, and Jameson Babbowski brings a talented slate of local comedians to his own non-musical showcase. And of course, all your favorite WRIR DJs will be in the house, spinning tunes and making friends. Best of all, your ticket price goes toward helping WRIR bring us another year of awesomeness. What could be more worthwhile than that?

Wednesday, January 30, 8:30 PM
Vanilla Summit, Khrundo, Return To Sender @ Vagabond – Free!
Now that we’re out here in the world moving on after the loss of Strange Matter, there’s definitely been some urgent searching (at least on my part) for another reliable local venue to fill in the mid-week holes in the Richmond live music schedule. What I’m fast learning is that on Wednesday nights, Vagabond is likely to deliver the goods. Their Jazz Wednesdays series is a great place to be pretty much every single week if you want to learn more about the community of excellent jazz musicians existing in Richmond. Their scene may not get as much attention as punk, metal, or hip hop, but that says nothing about what the local players have to offer — which, it turns out, is a lot.

Vanilla Summit are a five-piece jazz group who’ve been grabbing spots on live dates around town for a while now, and their 2017 Green Session EP shows exactly why — this dual-drumming quintet creates some excellent funky grooves while also bringing the introspective melodies we so often want from jazz. They may not be joined live by the ever-talented McKinley Dixon, who graces one of the tracks on their EP, but they will be performing along with a couple of intriguing ensembles, also hailing from the world of local jazz. Khrundo is a group led by guitarist Jake Adams, which is apparently going to feature nine members on this Wednesday night, all coming together to kick some ferocious grooves. Plus there’s Return To Sender, a bass-less trio led by Vanilla Summit sax player Nate Clark, to kick things off right. If you don’t know, you’re gonna learn.

Thursday, January 31, 8 PM
Zack Mexico, Piranha Rama, Billy Neptune @ Capital Ale House Music Hall – $8 in advance/$10 day of show (order tickets HERE)
Zack Mexico isn’t one guy, it’s a band — and a full one at that, featuring eight members, two of whom are drummers who each play full kits. And this group doesn’t hail from the country across our controversial Southern border; instead, they come to us from the much closer region of North Carolina’s Outer Banks, which must be a pretty wild place to be if you’re not a tourist or a vacationer. The music Zack Mexico makes is certainly wild, and hard to pin down as well; what sort of sound you get from them depends significantly on which track you listen to.

However, one thing can be determined for sure — there’s a psychedelic sensibility that underpins everything this band does, and an unorthodox approach to music that lands them pretty far outside of what we expect from “indie” in 2019, though it always seems to result in catchy tunes that get your feet tapping and put a smile on your face. In that way, they’re a perfect musical companion to one of the best new bands to come out of Richmond in the last year. I’m speaking here of Piranha Rama, of course, whose music can just as easily be said to be catchy unorthodox psychedelic genius — as you know, if you heard their excellent LP from last year. Openers Billy Neptune will get this show started right, and Piranha Rama and Zack Mexico will come together to take care of the rest. Get on board.

Friday, February 1, 7 PM
Midlife Pilot, Joel Worford, Colpa Mia, Tyler Meacham @ Garden Grove Brewing – Free!
Here in Richmond, the kids really are all right. This show is a good opportunity for all of you to find that out, assuming you haven’t already been paying attention to the many mini-waves of talented singer-songwriters bringing out excellent music around this wonderful city over the past couple years or so. Midlife Pilot are at the top of this particular list, and they’ve certainly shown sufficient merit to justify that position — this group, the brainchild of singer-guitarist Casey Graham, released an excellent EP of emotionally-oriented melodic alt-rock tunes late last fall.

While Midlife Pilot demonstrated an outstanding full-band sound on that EP, Ready To Be That Way, it’s hard to say exactly how it’ll translate live, since Graham himself played everything but drums on the record. Can we expect an Into It. Over It.-style solo performance? Or will there be a full band onstage? Either way, based on Graham’s track record, we’re sure to get some awesome songs out of it. Colpa Mia is more clearly a full-band effort, and recent single “Atlas” shows them dabbling in both the emotional melodies of the alt-rock world and dipping into synthesized postpunk/indie sounds. Live, their multi-layered sound is sure to captivate. More definitively solo singer-songwriters Joel Worford and Tyler Meacham will round out this excellent bill of up-and-comers, which you can partake of for no money down! How can you pass that up? Be there.

Saturday, February 2, 7 PM
Them Evils, Gemini Love, Loxias, The Goodbye Forevers @ The Canal Club – $10 in advance/$13 day of show (order tickets HERE)
I don’t know where we as a society stand on loud, noisy rock n’ roll in this day and age. It seems like if you check out festival lineups it’s the indie bands who get the most acclaim, and when the occasional band manages to rise above the fray and get a reputation for rocking hard, they draw more hate from the tastemakers than anything else. So are all y’all gonna think I’m a behind-the-times middle-aged lady for sending you to see Them Evils on a Saturday night?

You’ll be either frustrated or relieved to know that I really don’t care how you judge me on this one. I’m over here rockin’ out, blissfully ignorant of any judgment that might be coming my way. And you’ll be in much the same position if you make your way to the Canal Club Saturday night. Because while the hipsters may all be allergic to distorted guitars and hard-hitting good-time grooves these days, it’s always such a relief to cast off that albatross of manufactured coolness and let yourself enjoy something sincerely. Them Evils are primed to provide you with some sincere enjoyment, and in all seriousness, you cool kids who enjoyed Wolfmother and Red Fang at one time or another are gonna dig this just as much as your Greta Van Fleet-loving little brother will. Stop with the excuses and show up already.

Sunday, February 3, 8 PM
30 Year Sick, Cold Choir, Gothic Lizard @ Fallout – $5 in advance/$8 at the door (order tickets HERE)
30 Year Sick is a pretty evocative name for a band, even if any contemplation of the concept behind the name just makes you (or at least me) think, “There’s no way you’d stay sick for 30 years and not die.” I mean, unless we’re talking “siiiick!” in the modern-slang sense of the term, in which case we just end up down a rabbit hole of talking about which bands that have been around since the late 80s still legitimately rule (spoiler: not many, that’s for sure). But seriously, we’re not here to talk about that — we’re here to talk about the show that’s coming to Fallout, everyone’s favorite Shockoe Bottom fetish bar, on Sunday night.

30 Year Sick, the band, who hail from North Carolina, have a pounding synth-goth sound, which is definitely on the rockin’ end of things where that genre is concerned. Their 2018 EP, Postpunks, has an intriguing title that certainly invites rock-crit types like myself to use lazy genre terms, but I’m trying really hard not to take the bait. Instead, I’ll tell you that 30 Year Sick mingle a gloomy rumbling rhythm section with ominous guitar and synth melodies, all of which is topped by the true star of the show: Akmeraj Niroc’s incredibly powerful voice, which is strong enough to raise the tiny hairs on the back of your neck. And then the whole band will rock you out in a manner sure to thrill fans of Sisters of Mercy and Killing Joke alike. Don’t be afraid — explore the darker corners of Fallout for this one. It’ll do you no harm.

Monday, February 4, 7 PM
Boy Harsher, Nightcrwlr, Aesthetic Barrier @ The Camel – $13 in advance/$15 day of show (order tickets HERE)
It’s a good week for dark, gothic sounds. Spooky electronic duo Boy Harsher are releasing their latest LP, Careful, this Friday, and then on Monday, they’ll be here in town to play it live for us all. Careful was clearly born out of some pretty hard times, from loss of loved ones to difficulties in relationships, and singer Jae Matthews puts all of that into Boy Harsher’s music, combining as always with electronic musical genius Gus Muller to create an album’s worth of foreboding synthesized soundscapes.

Boy Harsher’s dark melodies and unnerving lyrical conceits have been compared (even by members of the group) to a David Lynch movie, and sonically, their work lands closest to a diabolical combination of Suicide and Yaz, with a strong dose of Nitzer Ebb-style severe European dance music. The kids in gleaming black Doc Martens will be stomping on the dance floor to this one, for sure; meanwhile, Matthews and Muller’s riveting presence is sure to keep you focused on the stage. Local electro-freaks Aesthetic Barrier will kick this all off, and we’ll get a bonus appearance from Nightcrwlr, yet another identity of the shapeshifting Kristina Esfandiari (King Woman/Miserable). It’s all going to be so amazing.

Tuesday, February 5, 9 PM
Brian Jones Trio, Doug Richards Orchestra @ The Camel – $10 in advance/$12 day of show (order tickets HERE)
RVA jazz really is a solid ticket for your midweek musical jones in 2019, and that’s probably why our week is bookended by shows that fall under that category. This one brings us the latest appearance of a Brian Jones-led ensemble here in Richmond, and as local jazz heads know, the presence of Brian Jones in any group is a sign of top quality musicianship. Of course, we’re not talking about the original Rolling Stones guitarist who died in the late 60s, we’re talking instead about the local drummer who has played with everyone from Agents Of Good Roots to Jandek to Randy Brecker.

The Jones trio on display this time will include fellow RVA jazz luminaries Daniel Clarke (piano) and Randall Pharr (bass), but one of Jones’s most frequent collaborators, saxophonist JC Kuhl, will also be on the bill — but performing with the other group. The Doug Richards Orchestra will contain around 18 different musicians on this Tuesday night, including local jazz luminaries like John D’Earth, Bryan Hooten, Stefan Demetriadis, and the aforementioned JC Kuhl, as well as all three members of the Brian Jones Trio. Doug Richards, who founded VCU’s Jazz Studies program in 1980 and recently retired after four decades at the university, has a robust pedigree of his own, and what he brings to this formidable ensemble is sure to be intriguing and delightful. Don’t miss a moment.

Bonus Hampton Roads Picks:

Friday, February 1, 7 PM
The Josephines, The Heart Stompers @ Toast – $10 (order tickets HERE)
If you like to rock but also identify strongly with the Southern sound with which all of us from this state are intimately familiar, the music of The Josephines is sure to call to you on a deep, primal level. This group — yet another in which a feminine name belies the all-masculine lineup — hails from Kentucky and will definitely remind you that that state, like Virginia, is very much a part of the South no matter what latitudinal parallel Bowling Green sits on. They’ve got loud rockers in their repertoire that are sure to have you stomping, raging, and headbanging, but they’ve also got a big dose of bluegrass in their sound, ensuring that you’ll never forget what state they hail from.

The Josephines’ 2017 EP Sober Up certainly lets you know the musical headspace where these guys are coming from. Likewise, Hampton Roads local country ensemble The Heart Stompers lets you know where they’re coming from right in their name. Formerly known as Gina Dalmas and the Cow-Tippin’ Playboys — certainly an evocative name in itself — this group taps into the outlaw country sound of the 70s and 80s with a modern punk edge and an amazing voice out front, courtesy of Gina Dalmas herself. If you can get down with some honky-tonk partytimes, Toast is the place to be for you on Friday night.

Tuesday, February 5, 8 PM
Rayland Baxter, Illiterate Light @ Boathouse Live – $15 in advance/$18 day of show (order tickets HERE)
You Tidewater residents are sure to have a fun Tuesday night at the Boathouse with Rayland Baxter. This alt-country singer-songwriter comes from a music family (his dad played on REM and Bob Dylan albums), and certainly has his feet planted in that tradition, as his more alt-country/folk-Americana tunes make clear. But on his latest album, Wide Awake, Baxter showed that he’s capable of the sort of widescreen pop that made the Beatles and the Byrds legendary figures that influenced a generation. Baxter taps into that psychedelic power-pop sound rooted in Americana dirt that is so au courant in 2019 United States of America, evoking the Beach Boys, the Grateful Dead, and other powerful musical touchstones with aplomb… and just a splash of post-Mac DeMarco slacker irony.

But we shouldn’t focus only on our headliner here — tourmates Illiterate Light hail from right here in VA, Harrisonburg to be exact, and have been making a powerful impact on the commonwealth’s music scene for a couple of years now. For a guitar-drum duo, they make strong, deep music, which connects power-pop, alternative rock, and the melody-uber-alles alt-country approach of My Morning Jacket or Band Of Horses. They show off all this and more on brand new EP Sweet Beast, which is an excellent calling-card to present to music fans of all stripes who find themselves wondering whether they should take the plunge on these local boys striving to make good. Message from us: dive in. You’ll be glad you did.

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Top Photo: Unmaker, by David Morton

Email me if you’ve got any tips for me about upcoming shows (that take place after the week this column covers -– this week’s column has obviously already been written): drew@gayrva.com [and yeah, there’s plenty more of my writing to read over at GayRVA — come say hey.]

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

RVA Shows You Must See This Week: 11/18-11/24

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FEATURE SHOW
Saturday, November 21, 8 PM
Night Birds, Iron Reagan, Red Death, Cross Eyed @ En Su Boca – $8
One of the two hottest punk rock tickets in town this week (more about the other one later) is happening at En Su Boca Saturday night–and it’s guaranteed to be a total mess, in the best possible way.
[Read more…] about RVA Shows You Must See This Week: 11/18-11/24