Alone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo

cd First off, the title of this collection of odds and ends from the Weezer frontman is disingenuous. Some of the songs were recorded in studios, most notably the segments of a rock opera called The Black Hole, tracked in a German studio, and the cover of Dion’s 1961 song "Little Diane." (Suggested by big […]

Hark! The Oratorio Society sings [with video]

As Feedback swung our car into a parking space at the Municipal Arts Center on Fifth Street, the 100 or so members of the Oratorio Society of Charlottesville-Albemarle were already streaming into the building for their weekly rehearsal.

Hip-hopsters

Violence has made it hard to hear live hip-hop in Charlottesville, but many local artists, including all of the Stack Boys, have MySpace pages where they share their music. We checked out some of their tracks, and below is a list of some of our favorites, along with a taste of the rhymes that they […]

Direct Transmissions from the Hunab Ku [with audio]

cd If colonial legend and Wikipedia are correct, Hunab Ku was the supreme deity of the Mayan civilization. The god, without a physical form, is represented by a symbol (somewhat similar to the Chinese yin and yang) that signifies the solar calendar, balanced forces and an embodiment of the center of the Milky Way, the […]

The Gentle Laxative Demonstration EP [with audio]

cd These songs have killer guitar tones. That was the first thought that hit me when I popped local rock outfit Truman Sparks‘ new EP, The Gentle Laxative Demonstration, into my CD player. "Sysiphean Task" introduces the six-song release with majestic acoustic guitar strums over twinkling, fuzzy, electric arpeggios. The song rises, falls, fizzles and […]