ARTS Pick: Michael Clem Trio

Folk lure According to the bio section on Michael Clem’s official website, he doesn’t take himself terribly seriously. The self-conducted interview posted there provides plenty of wit, and plays off of the overt self-promotion that permeates the business side of music. He hardly touches on his vast musical accomplishments—a long career with the popular folk-rock […]

ARTS Pick: Golden Banshee

Celtic couture King Golden Banshee is mysterious in the vein of traditional Irish folklore. With a limited presence online, the only information gleaned from the band’s Facebook description is a collective interest in Guinness. The five-piece counts flutes, fiddles, banjos, the bodhran, and tin whistles among its instrumental repertoire and uses them skillfully to recall […]

ARTS Pick: Third Day

Faithful foursome While the eleventh studio album by the well-established Christian southern rock band seems the result of hard work and posterity, Third Day has made it a goal to prove that its latest release falls into another category: miraculous. After a troubling start with a suspect record deal, Miracle, released in fall 2012, became […]

ARTS Pick: Stephane Wrembel

Django untamed A guitarist who learned his craft in gypsy campsites scattered across the French countryside sounds like the stuff of myths, but Stephane Wrembel’s colorful beginnings define his artistic career. His fifth album, Origins, was released last year and finds him reaching into that history to incorporate a broader palette of sound into his […]

Thurston Moore keeps thrashing in his latest project, Chelsea Light Moving

Wasted on the young Art rock legends Sonic Youth tentatively called it quits in 2011, but the band’s key members have remained characteristically busy with the usual slew of side projects and collaborations. Guitarist/singer Thurston Moore’s newest group, Chelsea Light Moving, is backed by a band of his protégés and collaborators, including Keith Wood of […]

ARTS Preview: Horsefang

Saturday night’s line-up at the Tea Bazaar is an unusual but promising mix. After several years of dormancy, Horsefang have returned, and their dusty, instrumental doom-metal riffs seem as vital as ever. They’re joined by Mike Gangloff, whose career oscillates between two unlikely poles: the rural twang of Appalachian traditionalism and the mind-expanding drones of […]

ARTS Preview: Weird Mob

Friday night is the live debut of Weird Mob, but the bands’ members may look familiar to Charlottesville concert-goers; the towns’ most adorable power-pop power-couple, Dave Gibson and Renee Reighart, previously played together in the now-defunct Hilarious Posters, and have also helped fill out the line-up of Adam Brock’s Borrowed Beams of Light project, all […]