Bowie’s changes

David Bowie was so ahead of his time that, even six years after his death, his music seems advanced. Brett Morgen’s concert film/documentary Moonage Daydream is a cause for celebration for the Thin White Duke’s millions of fans with its combination of musical footage, interviews with Bowie, other archival clips, and animation. Morgen has said […]

Time in a bottle

Having masterminded the Mad Max franchise, Australian director George Miller could have spent his entire career making billions filming high-octane chases around a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Instead, he consistently chooses unusual, disparate projects, ranging from The Witches of Eastwick to the animated Happy Feet. His latest, Three Thousand Years of Longing, again proves he’s anything but […]

Yola only lives once

She’s a six-time Grammy nominee who’s coming off a buzzy cinematic debut playing Sister Rosetta Tharpe in Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis. So why isn’t Yola, who’ll take the Jefferson Theater stage with her band on September 17, a household name? A few answers come to mind when talking to the self-proclaimed “genre-fluid” British songstress. First, she’s […]

Pick: Butcher Brown

Genre smashing: Richmond-based Butcher Brown is breaking the rules in the best way possible. The band’s upcoming album, Butcher Brown Presents Triple Trey featuring Tennishu and R4ND4ZZO BIGB4ND, deconstructs big-band jazz and reshapes it into “solar music,” a term coined to describe Butcher Brown’s Southern-leaning, sometimes psychedelic fusion. “We get daps from the jazz cats, […]

Pick: The Nude Party

Baked grooves: Formed in a college dorm in Boone, North Carolina, The Nude Party got its start at a regular gig as a house band, where performing in the buff earned the group a reputation as “the naked party band.” Nude Party’s sophomore album, Midnight Manor, harkens back to those house party days with a […]

Pick: Merrie Mill Farm & Vineyard Art Festival

In vino ars: Say so long to summer by enjoying wine and art at the Merrie Mill Farm & Vineyard Art Festival, a day-long showcase of local creatives. Sip on a sparkling white as you peruse works from 18 artists in a variety of mediums. And a crisp rosé pairs nicely with soulful blues-folk from […]

Pick: Tyler Burkhardt

September reveries: There’s nothing like listening to the strumming of an acoustic guitar on a warm, late-summer evening. But fingerstyle guitarist Tyler Burkhardt does more than just strum—he creates the sound of an entire band by hitting, tapping, slapping, and thumping the body and strings of his guitar. A Chesterfield native who now lives in […]

Pick: Light House Studio’s 21st Annual Youth Film Festival

Film stars: Behold the future of movies at Light House Studio’s 21st Annual Youth Film Festival. A celebration of the art of storytelling, the fest supports the org’s annual budget and offers a first-time viewing experience of 22 short films created by 90 student filmmakers in the past year. Get your blood pumping with a […]

Pick: Amanda Shires

Take it like Amanda: Award-winning singer-songwriter Amanda Shires is doing things her own way. Take It Like A Man, her seventh studio album, is a fearless confessional in the form of 10 intimate songs that offer musings on what it’s really like to turn 40. Grounded by Shires’ sultry voice and virtuoso fiddling, something she’s […]

Firmament of referentiality

As a poet, Kiki Petrosino has published four collections, including most recently, White Blood: A Lyric of Virginia, and received the Pushcart Prize and the Rilke Prize, among other awards and fellowships. As a prose writer, her first full-length book, Bright: A Memoir, published in August, and she will give a reading from it on […]