As the newest artist-in-residence at Shenandoah National Park, documentary filmmaker Stace Carter sums up his outdoorsy side in one word: “Meh.” A former Boy Scout, Eagle Scout and decades-long Albemarle resident, Carter says he has “a great appreciation for comfort,” and his interest in this artistic residency comes not with the chance to shoehorn backcountry […]
Travis Thatcher wants you to dance. Not to Top 40, dubstep, salsa or hip-hop. Not to bluegrass or trance or even swing. He wants you to dance to electronic music. And as an electronic musician performing as the Voice of Saturn for the past 10 years, Thatcher has the chops—and the synthesizers—to get you moving. […]
For a city its size, Charlottesville has a truly amazing collection of world-class statuary. Standing at Court Square and two nearby parks, bookending West Main Street and of course liberally sprinkled across the UVA Grounds, they remind passersby of the Old Dominion’s leaders and heroes. Four in particular—of Confederate Generals Robert E. Lee, Thomas J. […]
Elated confusion seems to be a common reaction for most people after a KaiL Baxley performance. The Williston-Elko, South Carolina native shares more than a hometown with soul legend James Brown. The two had a strange and improbable friendship throughout Baxley’s childhood that undoubtedly influenced his current path. It may have inspired Baxley to forgo […]
As a teenager in Bhutan, Tashi Dorji’s access to media was heavily restricted, and some of his first musical influences came via shortwave radio and bootleg cassettes. After moving to America in 2000, the improvisational guitarist’s musical horizons broadened immensely, and Dorji discovered the music of Albert Ayler, John Zorn and Derek Bailey, who serve […]
If Echosmith and Mumford & Sons had a love child in Baraboo, Wisconsin, the sextet PHOX would be the result of their union. The band operates like a family, living together and creating most of its music—coffee shop folk acoustic swirled into a chaotic mix of rock, psychedelic and soul—within the comfort of home. Lyrically, […]
Lloyd Cole is enjoying a career renaissance. The release of his new rock album Standards has reignited the guitarist’s popularity, most notably in Europe where he’s been selling out theaters nearly every night of his current tour, setting Cole up for a triumphant return to the U.S. The songwriting on his new record is being […]
Between the friendly insects peering over the Downtown Mall, photography exhibits throughout town and talks with celebrated, prolific photographers, there are plenty of opportunities to make the most of the annual LOOK3 Festival of the Photograph. But one of the festival’s most unique experiences can only be had this weekend, when the WORKS exhibition takes […]
It may have taken four years of failed vehicles and forced cameos, but Melissa McCarthy finally hits her stride in Spy. Packaged and marketed as more of the same from McCarthy—an alternately crass and sincere broad comedy that misunderstands the difference between empathy and mockery—the slyly progressive and engaging Spy may end up being the […]
Once upon a time, Charlottesville-based playwright Caruso Brown was a terribly shy, introverted student at Virginia State College (now University). He grew up writing poems. That may have been the end of it, if a drama director at the school hadn’t read one of Brown’s poems and insisted that he perform it during the school’s […]