A true instrumentalist, Jessica Lurie is an expert saxophone player, accordion player, and vocalist, accounting for the tremendous amount of praise she receives in the jazz community. The New Yorker is a real “jack of all trades” when it comes to her genre, and along with the Megaphone Heart Band, throws a complex melody over […]
A true instrumentalist, Jessica Lurie is an expert saxophone player, accordion player, and vocalist, accounting for the tremendous amount of praise she receives in the jazz community. The New Yorker is a real “jack of all trades” when it comes to her genre, and along with the Megaphone Heart Band, throws a complex melody over […]
Unique folk project Humble Tripe graces local fans with a celebration of its sophomore release, The Giving. The album is a collection of the unique Americana the players are known for, and incorporates odd instruments like the theremin (producing a sound often found in old horror flicks). The soulful, and often tough to categorize, ensemble […]
In 1932, a group of 21 African-American artists and intellectuals, including Langston Hughes, traveled from Harlem to the Soviet Union. The trip was part of an outreach effort by the Meschrabom-Film studio, which hoped to produce a propagandistic feature film, Black and White, criticizing segregation and racism in the U.S. The intention was to forge solidarity […]
It’s been a busy year for Welsh alternative rock trio The Joy Formidable. In addition to touring North America virtually nonstop, they released their sophomore album Wolf’s Law in January, contributed to Record Store Day in April, and released an EP, Silent Treatment, in July. But they wouldn’t have it any other way. Bassist Rhydian Daffyd took […]
Passion Pit’s sophomore album, Gossamer, stitches light-filled pop anthems with grown-up lyrics and a fluid style that shifts from bombastic synth slashing to singer-songwriter slow jams. Consider its lead single, “Take a Walk,” which pairs the story of an émigré’s failing marriage and financial ruin with a dance-worthy, uptempo beat. Get moving—and feeling—when the Boston-based […]
Josh Hodges was a deejay who didn’t like phonies. So when an obnoxious musician started bragging about his sexual conquests out on tour in 2007, Hodges thought of a way to put him in his place. “I wasn’t even trying to start a band,” he said. “The name Starfucker was intended to make fun of […]
Take a ride through the speakeasies and music halls of jazz past with singer Kathy Kosins in a concert presented by the Charlottesville Jazz Society and WTJU-FM. Kosins paints a beautiful picture of days gone by while maintaining a youthful and contemporary style in her music. She’ll also celebrate the release of her recent album, […]
For two weekends beginning September 28, a traveling fair entitled the Carnival de Resistance will visit Charlottesville and set up a mobile village in the parking lot of the Sojourners United Church of Christ on Elliott Avenue. The carnival theme is centered on four performances featuring earth, air, water, or fire, and combines dance, music, […]
Unbroken circle Three days after Lockn’, Andy Thacker is at the Pickin’ Shack, a shed in Downtown Charlottesville where invited friends gather weekly to trade songs and pulls of whiskey. In between blitzing through scales on his mandolin, he fields inquiries about Love Canon’s festival set—a high point for a player who’s often seemed destined […]
Boy meets boy. Boys start band. Boys break up. Boys start new bands. That pretty much leads us to today, with Jay Farrar fronting Son Volt, an alt country/Southern rock band with a relatively strong cult following—and there is also the story of the other boy, Jeff Tweedy, who formed Wilco, a band so popular […]