Was rock band Atlas Gray really formed as an effort to ward off an elephant stampede with a wall of sound? Despite the myth, Hartford, Connecticut’s power-soul five-piece deftly leads listeners on a fantastic exploration marked by signposts of jazz and funk, while navigating what the band deems an “emotional safari.” Since 2014, the group […]
Was rock band Atlas Gray really formed as an effort to ward off an elephant stampede with a wall of sound? Despite the myth, Hartford, Connecticut’s power-soul five-piece deftly leads listeners on a fantastic exploration marked by signposts of jazz and funk, while navigating what the band deems an “emotional safari.” Since 2014, the group […]
Through a fast-flowing, modern take on reggae, Richmond’s Mighty Joshua makes magical connections with his audience. The uplifting performer uses his art to fight HIV/AIDS and support children’s programs in Africa with a passion that’s resulted in garnering the official title of Virginia Reggae Ambassador. Vibe Riot opens. Free, 5pm Saturday, September 10. IX Art […]
No film is completely perfect, but it takes a special kind of wrongheadedness to make a decision that completely divorces an audience from enjoyment by being both morally repugnant and betraying its own narrative. This is the experience of watching Don’t Breathe, technical wunderkind Fede Alvarez’s follow-up to his promising remake of Evil Dead, which […]
In May 2015, housemates Judith Young and Will Mullany went to the Paramount Theater for a screening of Salad Days: A Decade of Punk in Washington, D.C. (1980-90). In the cushy theater seats, they watched how the early D.C. DIY scene unfolded, how now-legendary bands such as Bad Brains, Minor Threat, Government Issue and Fugazi […]
The last time I went on an online date, I found myself at Buffalo Wild Wings with a guy named Tony. It was 2010, and I was living on the New Jersey shore at the time. (He was actually the second Tony I’d gone out with, it being the Jersey shore.) I remember feeling…underwhelmed. Missing […]
Thee Oh Sees A Weird Exits (Castle Face) Led by John Dwyer, garage-psych wrecking crew Thee Oh Sees has churned out 15 albums, the latest being A Weird Exits. It covers familiar territory, though previous forays into jangly, poppy material have been obliterated. For the uninitiated, A Weird Exits is not an easy introduction; song […]
Over the course of two decades and 14 LPs, of Montreal’s Kevin Barnes has established himself as a bit of a sonic chameleon while usually covered in glitter. He swallowed up ’60s psych-pop, Prince-ly funk and glassy prog while morphing deftly between the personal and the fantastical. On the new record Innocence Reaches, the first […]
“There’s something compelling about taking something small and making it large,” says local artist Lou Haney, whose gouache on yupo paper paintings of larger-than-life fruit at various stages of maturity will hang at The Garage in September. “When an object normally fits in your hand,” she says, you have to reconsider your relationship to it […]
West Coast punk blasters Green Jellÿ began as Green Jello in the early 1980s, playing electrifying performances with rowdy crowds that eventually resulted in the band getting banned from some venues, and a Kraft Foods lawsuit that forced the name change. Imprinting itself on Hollywood’s underground scene, Green Jellÿ grew its reputation with the addition […]
All the performers in this variety show have been assassinated, except for Drew the Dramatic Fool, and the show must go on or he’s next. Drew attempts to perform every act, from juggling 36 balls to sawing someone in half, in a bumbling, comical examination of fear processed through stage antics established by royal jesters, […]