Accessibility in music is relative. A production choice to drop strident elements can open doors—or close them. A songwriting decision to blow up the arrangement with an unexpected halt, or inject a plodding track with a catchy chorus, can make a huge difference to audience reception. If Rick James were still alive, you could ask […]
The decision to use untrained actors can yield uncertain results. One possible outcome is the kind of ham-fisted, melodramatic overacting that renders a movie unwatchable. Another is cinematic gold. Such is the case with The President’s Cake. The sometimes humorous drama is a moving story set and shot in Iraq, during the 1990s under the […]
As a Halloween warm-up, the Virginia Film Festival’s After Hours collection offers four monster movies, even though none are being screened particularly late at night. Curated by Igor Shteyrenberg of the Miami Jewish Film Festival and horror fest Popcorn Frights, this thematic group of what the VFF calls “films that walk on the wild side” […]
Madi Diaz is overcome with emotion. And she certainly lets her heart rule her hands and her voice. Diaz’s kind of heartfelt music either works for you or it doesn’t; that is to say that someone baring her soul with soft determination either resonates with you and your own life experiences, or you shudder at […]
Three blonde sisters from Nashville by way of small-town Georgia perform neotraditional country music as The Castellows. Though they’re related, Castellows isn’t their last name; it’s Balkcom. The Instagrammable young ladies carry three-part harmonies through the voices of two of three triplets Eleanor (guitars) and Powell (banjo), while their younger sister—not one of the triplets—Lily […]
Have you ever seen Stunt Rock? You’d remember if you did. The 1978 trash cinema is some kind of musical/action/mockumentary about an Aussie stuntman who arrives in L.A., meeting up with a relative who performs in a terribly confused band called Sorcery. It’s the band I want to talk about: theatrically adventurous though musically inept, […]
Since 2006, The Vivaldi Project has been stringing audiences along with a host of engaging programs focused on Baroque and classical works. Co-directors Elizabeth Field (violin) and Allison Nyquist (viola) have created an impactful trio with the help of Stephanie Vial (cello); for their performance at UVA’s cozy but stately Old Cabell Hall on Friday, […]
When you’re ambitious, you do what you can to chisel out your chunk of fame. So what has Sharon Van Etten been doing? In following a singer-songwriter migration pattern that’s led her to Tennessee, New York, and California, she’s stockpiled her cred in indie circles (note her press release being penned by none other than […]
According to the internet, Bob Mould performed at the Marquee in New York City on March 8, 1991, touring his second solo album, Black Sheets of Rain. As an 18-year-old, I won two tickets to the show by calling into the local Long Island alternative radio station around 2am. Because no one I knew was […]
For a classical strings-meets-hip-hop beats duo, there’s something very unexpected about what Black Violin has become: easy to listen to. That’s both good and bad. Violist/vocalist Wil Baptiste and violinist Kev Marcus have made a choice to evolve over 21 years of fusing disparate styles. But as is often the case, time and repeated exposure […]