If you attended this year’s Best of C-VILLE party at Rapture, you know that The Nice Jenkins, our house band for the evening, brought more rock than a marble quarry. In a city with more musicians per capita than any other in Virginia, there are plenty of groups willing to turn it up or bring the noise, but few groups manage to follow the advice of Public Enemy and do both.
Lucky for us, The Nice Jenkins recently delivered a second heaping portion of choice noise in as many months. Drummer Adam Brock left a copy of the band’s latest, Elephant Twisters, with me a few weeks ago. After completing the necessary rehabilitation process following the last killer Jenkins gig—hey, a dude goes through withdrawal—I’m as happy as a Guns N’ Roses fan with a leaked copy of Chinese Democracy.
The four Jenkins fellows meticulously layer their tunes for live sets, and wisely returned to Roderick Coles, who recorded the likes of Hackensaw Boys and Jim Waive & the Young Divorcees, to transfer the same grit and guts, guitars that buzz and keyboards that pleasantly distort, onto Elephant Twisters. Opening track “So What 2” and the mid-album “So What 1” drop pop hooks as liberally as The Shins, but these tunes are more committed to shaking your ass than saving your life.
In other spots, the Jenkins guys stray from uptempo dance tunes like “Needs” and give themselves over to slower beats and ballads. It’s a move that’s not unfamiliar for Jenkins fans—the group has always had a knack for one-size-fits-all melodies to accompany any beat. But “When the Morning Comes,” featuring pedal steel work by Divorcees fret-slayer Charlie Bell, and “Down the Well” are two of the better slowburners the Jenkins has written; each song ties atmospheres from albums like Wilco’s Summerteeth and Modest Mouse’s The Moon and Antarctica to Brock’s tasteful, essential drumming.
As an added bonus, the Jenkins drafted local artist Thomas Dean to craft the album art for Elephant Twisters, which is chock full of pachyderms and funnel clouds that stretch across the CD. Dean recently teamed up with Jeremy Taylor, a respected artist and founding member of the Richmond-based rock act Engine Down, for a mural that covers one side of The Bridge/Progressive Arts Initiative. The mural was painted with non-toxic materials and is part of what The Bridge hopes to be an ongoing mural project, according to Dean.
And, while we’re talking about The Bridge…
Gawking at local art
In a move that may nab The Bridge some additional press for its current show—“Chill Out! Chill Out? I Will Not Chill Out!,” created and curated by many former members of Charlottesville’s Pudhouse underground music and arts scene—the beeswax-invading gossip blog Gawker posted photos of an artist they thought to be Banksy, a long-elusive graffiti artist whose street murals have appeared in New York City, London and elsewhere.
Turns out, the fellow they snapped was R. Nicholas Kuszyk, an artist based in Williamsburg, New York, and featured in the “Chill Out!” show. Kuszyk had a bit of fun teasing the Gawkerazzi and admits to being an associate of Banksy, but no more. Fortunately for you, Kuszyk’s work—a collection of teensy, neon robot paintings—is on exhibit and for sale at The Bridge now through October 26. Go take a gander. Or a Gawker.
A Bell, a belle and Paul Curreri
We don’t need to discuss how I got the records, or whether telling musicians it’s your birthday when it’s not is a deceptive way to get new music. Instead, let’s revel in the riches for a moment.
Mariana Bell’s latest album, Book—her first release since a 2006 EP and her first full-length album since 2003’s Dream of Italy—improves upon her previous lo-fi album with crystalline arrangements every bit as percussive as the young songwriter’s guitar work. Listen to the minor key chantey “Clumsy” and “Bad Today,” which opens with a guitar riff that mirrors Radiohead’s “Jigsaw Falling into Place” and showcases Bell’s skill at straining anxiety and tragedy into optimism and momentum.
From the gal that previously brought us September tunes as half of the orchestral pop act September 67, Shannon Worrell spruces up October with a CD release gig for her latest, The Honey Guide, at Live Arts on Monday, October 20. (Tickets are on sale for $15, to benefit Live Arts.) Worrell’s last record, The Moviegoer, dropped in 2000, but the wide-listening songwriter has performed around town more frequently during the last year and assembled a spectacular studio band for the record. Check back next week for a review.
And for those of you eager for new music from the incomparable songwriter Paul Curreri—our poet of palm- mute and the sultan of strum—the man has played a few unreleased songs at gigs and recently dropped by C-VILLE to record them for a Feedback Session. Click here to watch Curreri perform “Night Jet Trails” from Songs for Devon Sproule as well as two new songs, “Tight Pack Me, Sugar” and “California.”
