ARTS Pick: Alabama Shakes

After signing with ATO records and releasing the three Grammy nom debut Boys and Girls in 2012, Alabama Shakes has skyrocketed to stardom. The group’s follow-up record, Sound and Color, was highly anticipated by its fans, but even more so by the band members themselves. The Shakes thoughtfully embraced every facet of their influences, cut […]

Album reviews: Kopecky, SOAK and love+war

Kopecky Drug for the Modern Age/ATO Records A “family band” no more, Kopecky is back with a slightly new name and a slightly new sound, but its penchant for making fun music hasn’t changed a bit. Drug for the Modern Age will be a sonic surprise to some longtime fans, but it’s worth checking out. […]

ARTS Pick: Rock the Gospel

Traditional Christian tunes get a contemporary update at the third annual Rock the Gospel, a benefit concert supporting victims of domestic violence. Award-winning comedian Rich Praytor, the American Gospel Music Awards’ Christian Comedian of the Year, hosts this showcase of local and regional talent. Performing groups include Portico Band, the Sanctuary Choir from Mount Zion […]

Film review: San Andreas searches for glory amid disaster

If your favorite part of Independence Day is when the dog jumps to safety, San Andreas is your movie. Thematically and tonally inconsistent, it has one goal and one goal only: to make you cheer. Never mind the deaths of millions upon millions of human beings as the backdrop in a story that leads to […]

June First Fridays Guide

Richard Freeman is one of Virginia’s little-known art institutions. His frame shop sat stalwartly on the Corner for most of the last century, after opening under print-loving Paul Victorius’ ownership in the late 1930s. When the ’60s rolled around, Victorius took notice of Freeman, a former naval officer running a small art gallery in the […]

ARTS Pick: Sister Sparrow & the Dirty Birds

Since 2008, Sister Sparrow & the Dirty Birds has been on a meteoric rise to the top: playing over 600 shows, releasing three full-length studio albums (as well as an EP produced by American Idol’s Randy Jackson) and getting kudos from the press, including the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Glamour, USA Today and […]