Thomas Dean takes unusual pleasure in digging through crates of junky records. It’s partly the aroma of acidic paper inserts mingling with that of musty cardboard sleeves. It’s partly weirdo cover art, bonkers band names, and eyebrow-raising (or head-shaking) album titles. But mostly, it’s the music. Dean loves the thrill of sliding a random slab […]
Thomas Dean takes unusual pleasure in digging through crates of junky records. It’s partly the aroma of acidic paper inserts mingling with that of musty cardboard sleeves. It’s partly weirdo cover art, bonkers band names, and eyebrow-raising (or head-shaking) album titles. But mostly, it’s the music. Dean loves the thrill of sliding a random slab […]
More excellence: When Richelle Claiborne first staged Black Music Excellence Through the Ages in March she told C-VILLE, “It’s not the history of black music. It’s my history through black music—how all these different genres have impacted and affected me, or represented me, is the thread that ties it all together.” The singer, actress, and […]
New folk: Based in San Francisco’s Bay Area, The Rainbow Girls explore vibes of peace, love, and the pursuit of social justice through tight harmonies backed by guitar and keys. The Oshima Brothers, real life brothers hailing from rural Maine, offer a crisp blend of folk vocals and soft, poppy looped instrumentals, bringing a contagious […]
Blues class: Lorie Strother and Stephen Levine make up Dr. Levine and the Dreaded BluesLady, a Charlottesville-based duo with serious blues skills that’s been known to break out into an R&B or classic rock tune from time to time. Strother’s experience shines in her charismatic stage presence and full voice. Levine, a historian at UVA, […]
Craig Leon Anthology of Interplanetary Folk Music Vol. 2: The Canon (RVNG Intl.) Craig Leon produced the classic debuts of the Ramones and Blondie before covering some classical stuff himself (key title: Bach to Moog). On his ’80s new age albums Nommos and Visiting, Leon imagined the vernacular music of extraterrestrials, presenting it as slow, […]
Far afield: Folk singer-songwriter Damien Jurado began his solo career in 1995, self-releasing cassettes and performing intimate acoustic shows around his hometown of Seattle. Aptly described as experimental, Jurado’s work includes forays into found and field recordings—in 2000 he released a collection of fragments that he had found from sources such as thrift store tape […]
Happy at home: A rhythm guitar-centric band with a monster sax player that formed through late-night sessions at the University of Virginia might sound like a familiar backstory, but this six-piece rock act founded in 2013 relies on original, epic jams to cut its own swath through the East Coast venue map. Kendall Street Company […]
Drummer’s beat: Ari Hoenig gets so immersed in the art of drumming that he’s been known to use his body as an instrument when performing with The Ari Hoenig Trio. The jazz drummer, composer, and educator has a unique ability to modify the pitch of a drum, playing notes in the chromatic scale, melodies, and […]
Wild sax: Musical wilderness is the running theme as the Telemetry Music Series highlights free jazz with the “ferocious, sorcerous, and way out there” improv of Charlotte, North Carolina’s Ghost Trees sharing the bill with Space-Saver’s drum and sax-tinged combos of doom metal/acid techno/minimal synth. Guitarist, electronic musician, composer, and educator Kittie Cooper amps up […]
Nomadic harmony: Izzy Heltai’s indie-folk tells emotionally captivating stories that leave enough room for the listener to relate. His sparse piano and strong vocals are simple and soaring, invoking his nomadic lifestyle—Heltai has been traveling across the country, living out of his car to facilitate a passion for nature and motion. These elements are strongly […]