Is a bad movie made better because it’s funny, or is a funny movie made worse because it’s bad? And if it’s occasionally hilarious but totally dead in the water otherwise, what are you left with? So it is with Tag, a totally disposable, predictable, unfunny rehashing of tired tropes and gags we’ve seen done […]
Is a bad movie made better because it’s funny, or is a funny movie made worse because it’s bad? And if it’s occasionally hilarious but totally dead in the water otherwise, what are you left with? So it is with Tag, a totally disposable, predictable, unfunny rehashing of tired tropes and gags we’ve seen done […]
The members of The Can-Do Attitude know what they look like while loading their gear into a venue for a rock show. “Who the hell are these nerds?” they imagine other bands think upon seeing drummer Brian Wilson in a loon T-shirt, the word “Loonatic” printed under the aquatic bird graphic, or watching singer and […]
A bowl of soup is a comfort. Whether you are seeking relief from a head cold or cold weather, or want to pour your soul into cooking a meal shared with friends, soup is the answer. In 2013, Victoria Williams, Maureen Brondyke and Brooke Ray infused those ideas of sustenance and community into Charlottesville SOUP—a […]
Experimental group Algiers might be this generation’s quintessential protest band. Hailing from Atlanta, the four-man act creates music with lyrics as radical and furious as its sound, with influences ranging from post-punk to Southern gospel. The band’s name refers to a famous anti-colonial battle, and its tracks usually comment on America’s history of slavery and […]
With roots in Washington, D.C., the funky subgenre of go-go music is almost exclusively celebrated in the mid-Atlantic area—and Seductive Sounds Gogo Band is the newest incarnation on the local scene. Formed by members of the renowned Double Faces Gogo Band, including Blacko Da Rappa, the band embodies the blend of funk, R&B and hip-hop […]
Pittsburgh’s dark-pop quartet Dinosoul takes experimental-indie to the next level, mixing synth, reverb and delay-heavy guitar riffs with emotional vocals and health and wellness. Yes, that’s right. Band founder Donny Donovan is also a health, wellness and fitness coach, and Dinosoul offers a mission statement at its shows that asks “the universe to allow it […]
The psychedelic folk-rock band Liz Cooper and the Stampede formed at the unlikeliest of places—a golf course. Two things in life came easily to Cooper: golf and music. So, when she moved to Nashville, she found work at a country club, and eventually recorded her first EP with some co-workers. From there, she added Ky […]
Ari Aster’s Hereditary may be the best, scariest, and most effective American horror film in years. Not because it has the loudest scares, not because its ghosts have the creepiest faces, and not because its deaths are the most gruesome (though it does have its share). Writer-director Aster’s feature film debut builds dread at an […]
When it comes to visual art (paintings in particular), you can’t throw a rock without hitting a pastoral fantasy. Which may be why local artists Jeremy and Allyson Taylor’s reverence for nature comes as such a surprise. “I definitely go to the grotesque,” Allyson says, “because I find it really beautiful and interesting. And sometimes disgusting and […]
Bands rarely come as well-rounded as Blackberry Smoke. For fans of open-minded Southern rock, the five-piece outfit covers all the bases—pensive highway songs, distorted, arena-ready scorchers and bluesy explorations doused in Dixie grit. The group emerged from Atlanta in the early 2000s, and, as required by independent bands since the turn of the century, hit the […]