cd From the first lonesome strum to the final handclap-fueled sing-along, Bishop Allen‘s The Broken String twists my stomach in a giddy knot and sends my head floating away with its light-as-air hooks. Since teaching themselves the art of positive energy on Charm School, their self-released 2003 debut, Bishop Allen have been the authors of […]
Fiona Apple and Nickel Creek? Seductive songstress and sweet 'n' proper newgrass? Really?
music As I arrived at Outback Lodge, San Francisco’s Sweet Crude Bill and the Lighthouse Nautical Society were finishing up their second song. As a burst of vocal warbles and aggressive guitar strums punctuated the piece, Peter Agelasto from Monkeyclaus, the Nelson County studio/art farm where the band started out, told me that Bill was […]
Charlottesville Gamelan, Love Tentacle Drip Society, Brian Jones Quartet, Sarah White, Mountain Stage NewSong, Ryan Adams
cd “If we are here not to do/ what you and I wanna do/ and go forever crazy with it,/ why the hell we are even here?” asks Eugene Hutz at the opening of Super Taranta. Then, with a guttural cry, he summons the rest of the band into the mix, and immediately you want […]
“I’m a Reverend, I gotta have my own church so I’m not a chump,” explains Tim Clark, guitarist for local metal quintet This Means You.
The name of the game is change. Starr Hill just closed its doors. After more than 10 years of selling you your favorite discs, Danny Shea has stepped down from managing the Corner’s Plan 9 Music store to focus on booking and promoting Satellite Ballroom shows, which will now include bands that would have played […]
music Let’s start off with the good: The highlight of the night was a two-person mosh pit that broke out during a rendition of what I believe was the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” theme song. Another memorable moment was a guy hopping up from his bar stool to accompany the Screaming Infidels’ guitarist in singing […]
music The Battles show on the night of June 13 saw both familiar local characters as well as fresh faces from nearby metropolises like Richmond and Lynchburg. The span of ages was also wide, ranging from the eager high schoolers who perched front-and-center to the drunken 40-something with a tweed jacket and unnecessary sunglasses atop […]
music By the end of Animal Collective’s performance at the Satellite Ballroom on May 30th, the condensation on the room’s air ducts was dripping onto the audience like a refreshing indoor rain shower—a telling sign of the group’s typical live experience. Animal Collective saturated the evening in almost every way. They easily filled the Ballroom […]