In some ways, the uniting of M. Night Shyamalan and microbudget horror production company Blumhouse for The Visit couldn’t be more perfect, and not just because audiences groan at the sight of their names during previews. Both camps are fully capable of greatness—Shyamalan’s first two and a half films and Blumhouse’s Insidious, Creep and even […]
In 2010, upon the release of Down Wires, an album described as gritty, soulful and startlingly Dylanesque, Anthony D’Amato exploded onto a revitalized folk music scene. While his brethren were busy cashing in on a highly produced, four-on-the-floor-driven sound (think the throbbing undercurrent of Mumford & Sons’ 2009 Billboard-topper Sigh No More), D’Amato was stripping […]
As audio engineer for Charlottesville’s Paramount Theater, it’s Gary Green’s job to make musicians sound great. What many people don’t know is that Green is an accomplished musician in his own right. A virtuoso harmonica player, he won the Hohner-sponsored 1987 World Harmonica Championships, and by his own estimate has since played on recordings for […]
The name evokes a tempestuous clan of freckled redheads taking no prisoners as they blast through a set of fiddle-driven pub rock in the heart of a Celtic village, but, in reality, Gaelic Storm is a group of friends who met in Santa Monica, California, and made it big after appearing as the steerage band […]
P.O.D. The Awakening/T-Boy/UMe P.O.D. ended its previous record, Murdered Love, with singer Sonny Sandoval dropping f-bombs and checking off a list of the many forms of baggage that Christians bring to the table. The Awakening takes up the cause by way of a concept record featuring a drug-addicted, alcoholic, home-wrecking, neglected man going through a […]
When it comes to making people laugh, comedian Kurt Braunohler goes big. Really big. He once hired a skywriter to scrawl “How do I land?” in the sky over Los Angeles. He has donned a tuxedo wetsuit and rode a Jet Ski down the Mississippi River, doing stand-up gigs along the way. Most recently, he […]
Xilent’s rise to prominence has been meteoric, to say the least. At just under two years since his debut release, Choose Me II, marked the arrival of a serious new talent, he’s become one of the most talked about names in dubstep. Maintaining a global DJ schedule alongside his production and remix work, Xilent is […]
If one were feeling particularly generous, parallels could be made between the recent spate of French-produced English language action films and the heyday of the spaghetti Western. Between the campy play at sophistication, the stylistic exploitation of genre tropes and the strange juxtaposition of gritty Anglophone leading men battling actors whose onscreen dialogue appears to […]
Updated: Due to a powerful storm, the opening of Lockn’ campgrounds has been delayed until further notice and Thursday performances have been canceled. When gates open to the show field on Thursday, returning campers and daytrippers will find what should be an improved experience at Lockn’ Music Festival, the four-day music bash on Nelson County’s […]
In 1965, amid the notorious counter-cultural hub of San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district, began what would prove to be one of the most influential experiments in rock history: Jefferson Airplane. As headliners of those now legendary festivals—Woodstock, Altamont, Monterey Pop and Isle of Wight—like the roaring sound of the zeitgeist itself, the music of the Airplane […]