As the line-up of the excellent local rock band The Fire Tapes disintegrated last year, bassist Rob Dobson began looking for a new musical outlet for his songwriting efforts. He found a collaborator in drummer Greg Sloan, who currently holds down the kit for Ha-Rang and Dwight Howard Johnson, and the duo formed Big Air (which […]
As the line-up of the excellent local rock band The Fire Tapes disintegrated last year, bassist Rob Dobson began looking for a new musical outlet for his songwriting efforts. He found a collaborator in drummer Greg Sloan, who currently holds down the kit for Ha-Rang and Dwight Howard Johnson, and the duo formed Big Air (which […]
Introduce your little ones to the beauty of classical music with the Richmond Symphony Lollipops during an hour-long experience designed for young ears. Associate Conductor Erin R. Freeman breaks down the orchestra into bite-sized nuggets of sound in order to develop an understanding of how instruments work together to create compositions. An instrument “petting zoo” […]
It’s December 7, the height of the South African summer, and the excitement is palpable as the gates open at a warehouse-turned-music-venue in the popular tourist getaway of White River, Mpumalanga. Concertgoers gravitate to the largest of three stages at the Route 40 Music Festival, as the drummer of the newly formed band Cosmic River […]
Relaxed roots influences tinged with psychedelica mark the sound of Richmond, Virginia’s Avers. The collaborative quintet is derived from various musical projects including HyperColor, Farm Vegas, Mason Brothers, The Trillions, and The Head and the Heart. Despite its impressive indie pedigree, the group hardly considers itself a side project as it tours in support of […]
Deerhunter’s second album, Cryptograms, made it a household name in indie rock circles. Released in early 2007 by the legendary and long-running Kranky record label, the album features an appealing mix of sprawling and dreamy guitar sounds, anchored by slow-building, bass-heavy grooves and distorted, distantly cool vocals. It sounds almost as if the Atlanta-based quintet […]
In celebrating the area’s rich vein of Irish heritage, the Blue Ridge Irish Music School sponsors Dónal Maguire, a vocalist with profound reverence for his roots and one who instills pride and passion for his homeland. Singing unaccompanied or with mandolin, Maguire makes accessible the Emerald Isle’s enchanting melodies in songs about love, labor, and […]
Songwriter and UVA alumnus Adam Long has popped in and out of various groups on the Virginia music circuit for the better part of a decade. His current group finds Long writing the lyrics while his friends play the tunes. Scrapping early names like Adam Long and the Quest for the Grapefruits, the band settled […]
After a successful Kickstarter funding, and a month-long session cloistered in the studio, folk rock family act The Currys are celebrating the release of their first full-length album, Follow, fresh from the hallowed boards of White Star Sound. Formerly an acoustic act consisting of Jimmy, Tommy, and Galen Curry, the trio has added Matt Kauper […]
Musicians. They’re just like the rest of us. Some of them you hit it off with immediately—you get them, and they try their best to understand you. With others, you just don’t see eye-to-eye. Phosphorescent’s Matthew Houck is the type of guy it would be hard not to see eye-to-eye with. An Alabama native who […]
When she’s not teaching composition at UMass Amherst, Sadie Dupuis moonlights as the lead singer for rock troupe Speedy Ortiz. Originated as Dupuis’ passion project, Speedy Ortiz’s composed garage rock is flighty, while anchored in distorted, klaxon guitars. The punk angst is softened by punchy, cryptic songwriting that captures themes of unrequited relationships and self-deprecation in […]