We’re with the bands

By the C-VILLE Weekly Pick-Up Ensemble, led by Brendan Fitzgerald and John Ruscher, with session players J. Tobias Beard, Will Goldsmith, Cathy Harding, Erika Howsare, Scott Weaver and Sara Yenke

From the mosh pits to the nosebleed section, the floor seats to the door seats to the bar stools in the back, C-VILLE’s writers spend their nights the same way that you jukebox junkies do—hunting for music.

The best way to bag a good night of tunes, of course, is to know your prey—to live with them, sing along with them, walk together and rock together with them. Nobody knows music like C-VILLE. And nobody loves you like us, which is why we’re laying it out in easy-to-follow terms.

Here’s a Charlottesville music alphabet fit for any audiophile in town. Now come on, feel the noise!

Forget six degrees of separation. The music scene in this town is almost never more than two degrees from Coran Capshaw, the Dave Matthews Band manager turned businessman extraordinaire, spinning gold out of everything from merchandise to music venues to real estate. And Capshaw did a lot of tinkering with his empire during the past year.

Ready to rock? Capshaw’s Red Light Management picked up national players Alanis Morissette and The Decemberists, in addition to local successes Sons of Bill and Sparky’s Flaw. Meanwhile, According To Our (ATO) Records—the label that he formed with Dave Matthews, Bruce Flohr and Chris Tetzeli—nabbed Radiohead and Liz Phair.

“They’re kind of a juggernaut, which has been a nice thing,” The Decemberists’ lead singer Colin Meloy recently told C-VILLE about Red Light Management.

But the acquisition of the year was not something Capshaw picked up; it was something he sold. Live Nation, Clear Channel’s live music spinoff, bought Musictoday, Capshaw’s Crozet-based merch and ticketing company, for $26.5 million. Capshaw sold the first 51 percent of the merchandise company in 2006 for $11.1 million; Live Nation, presumably digging what it tasted, paid $15.4 million for the remainder.

Booking agents determine the identities of venues around town. Satellite Ballroom began as Danny Shea’s love-child, just as Starr Hill was Coran Capshaw’s baby. Gravity Lounge bears the stamp of Bill Baldwin and Che Stratos, Alan Katz spices up Coupe DeVille’s, and so on.

Enter local music promoter Jeyon Falsini and Magnus Music LLC, his new booking and promotion company. On the heels of Capshaw’s investment in Satellite Ballroom, Falsini has risen to the spot of No. 2 in the last few months, seizing on the hype of local acts like Birdlips (See: “Q”) and The Nice Jenkins, while digging up lesser-knowns from around the country, like Engine Down side-project Zetamale and Elvis devotee Wrenn Mangum. His most recent conquest? Taking promotional control of the Charlottesville Music Showcase, the weekly gig formerly housed at Orbit Billiards (now at Rapture) that introduced musicians like Helen Horal and Sam Wilson to many of us.

As Magnus gets bigger, look for Falsini to fill out the next level of venues. This is the man behind every band you’ll grow to love, our own Rick Rubin. Below, a list of some upcoming Magnus Music shows you need to see:

Charlottesville Music Showcase @ Rapture. Every Wednesday. From no cover to $5, 9:30pm. Twenty-one and over. Upcoming shows include reggae-rock act Six Chasing Seven on April 16; Sesshin, an avant-garde jazz group helmed by local producer James McLaughlin on April 23; and Travis Elliott Band on April 30.

Nice Jenkins @ Miller’s. Saturday, April 26. No cover, 9:30pm.

“Cinco de Mayo Fiesta,” featuring Dave Bartok’s Latin-flecked group, Mezcla Extra Fuerte @ Mono Loco. Monday, May 5. No cover, 10:30pm. This will be the last live performance at Mono Loco. (See: “T”)

Once Was @ Outback Lodge. Friday, May 2. $5-6, 9:30pm.

Who is the dude behind the beak? If you’ve caught a live show by The Falsies, this question has likely crossed your mind. Well, spoiler alert! That yellow-feathered fowl banging the drums is none other than Lance Brenner.

When wingless, Brenner straps on a guitar to play in the Naked Puritans and Thrum, produces CDs for local groups like Love Tentacle Drip Society, Kate Starr and the Screaming Infidels and, as of last September, provides Charlottesville with quarterly local music festivals. His well-orchestrated Freak Fest, Noble Savages and Surround Sound events have helped reinforce the badass diversity and firepower that Charlottesville music offers. And each of the three throw-downs has been a blast.

The Falsies, with a chicken-suited Lance Brenner

Next up? Brenner is planning Acoustic Mafia, a festival of Americana and roots music, and this summer he hopes to bring everything together with C-Fest, Charlottesville’s first annual music festival. That’s a daring goal for one man, but so far he’s taken risks and come up successful. He may dress up as a chicken, but Brenner sure doesn’t act like one.
 

The initials “DIY” stand for Do-It-Yourself: a philosophy, a way of life, a simple, self-explanatory concept that’s big enough to include Fugazi and Bob Vila, the Whole Earth Catalogue and Martha Stewart Living, and, out in Nelson County, Charlottesville’s own Ken Kesey, Monkeyclaus Studio founder Peter Agelasto. Monkeyclaus is so 21st century, so now, with the recording studio wired to the gills, man, uber-hi-tech yet vintage at the same time. Plus it’s green, what with the recycled materials, self-imposed carbon tax and wind-powered webpages. And, when it comes to local music, Monkeyclaus is where the edge is: Birdlips, Horsefang, Trees on Fire, Casa de Chihuahua, 6 Day Bender. Our town, our sounds.

Matthew Clark and Abel Okugawa at Monkeyclaus Studio

Agelasto built Monkeyclaus himself, with help from an army of fellow visionaries twisted on yoga and hopped up on tea and MP3s. That’s where the DIT comes in: If you take a collection of self-made artists and put them in one place where music and content is created and then manipulated and then dissipated, sent out into the cyber-ether in the form of downloadable sounds and whacked-out webpages, then you have a community of inter-subjectivity, or Do-It-Together.

DIY+DIY+DIY=DIT.

Got it?

In the early 1970s, alcohol consumption came to its logical conclusion and karaoke (Japanese for “empty orchestra”) was born. And now we have a social forum in which to give voice to the early catalog of Young MC in what will inevitably be half-remembered artistic renderings.

Never before has nostalgia come in such an organized yet chaotic form, the three-ring binder of fingerprinted laminated pages, a set list where one can hear “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” on the heels of a full-throated rendition of 2 Live Crew’s “The Fuck Shop.” It is ubiquitous. And no matter how much you protest, you too will take the stage and make the three- or four-minute journey from irony to unexpected sincerity.

Why not? That flat black binder holds the canon of our hard-won cultural knowledge. Every rose has its thorns. It is exactly 15 miles to the love shack. Daily, we live on our prayers.

Where to rock the city like a hurricane:

Monday: Big Al’s, 8pm

Tuesday and Thursday: Baja Bean, 9pm

Thursday: Buffalo Wild Wings, 9pm

Friday: Baja Norte, 9:30pm

Saturday: Lazy Parrot Grill, 8pm; Wild Wing Café, 10pm

Antonym: “Faddle.” Originally cross-indexed with “B for ‘bad-ass.’” As in, “A ‘fiddle’ is like a bad-ass violin.”

Not to slight any musician that identifies as a violinist, but there’s a special place in our hearts for local fiddlers. Ever heard Alex Caton saw her way through the hook-filled “Bonaparte’s Retreat” or her Keith-killing cover of the Rolling Stones’ “Factory Girl”? Rattled the floorboards during contra dances to bluegrass sets by the Toad Mamas or Floorplay? Watched Anna Matijasic really make the fur fly during a rare set with psych-rock gurus Ostinato?

A fiddle is spackled with sweat and stink, a musician’s unique swagger and sound beaten into it. It’s an instrument ripped from its upper-class connotations, fed a shot of whiskey and left to its own devices to make something of itself. Which may be why Charlottesville is less of a violin town. At the center of our music scene is the recycling of musical history, jazz and country getting second and third and fourth lives through new generations. And at the center of so many of these bands, from Jim Waive and the Young Divorcees to Casa de Chihuahua, is the instrument of change, Boyd “Shoulders” Tinsley’s eternal sidekick. And it ain’t a violin.

Boyd Tinsley, Dave Matthews Band’s fiddle man

By the way, Alex Caton performs with Verbunk, a klezmer-meets-Celtic-meets-Cajun group of knockouts, at Gravity Lounge on Sunday, April 27.

It’s the new black, only more active and less moody. Many acts (among them, it must be noted, is Green Day) are all taking steps towards eco-friendliness, and a lot of it can be seen right here. The Pavilion, recognized as one of the greenest venues in the country, is getting noticed for its big efforts: recyclable containers at concessions and flocks of bins in which to recycle them. Jose Gonzalez, who performed at Starr Hill, asks for biodegradable backstage catering (the packaging, not just the food). In response to the fuel-burning end of things, Vienna Teng launched a “Green Caravan Tour” which stopped at Gravity Lounge last April. Willie Nelson has his “BioWillie” diesel powering the bus he’ll ride to the Pavilion in July. Also being noticeably very good to the environment, logging the amount of carbon dioxide burned at each stop and eating locally, is the Dave Matthews Band.

Not only is green the color of eco-friendliness, money and your true love’s eyes, green embodies that vitality of the summer’s outdoor music scene. Again, hats off to the Pavilion for Fridays after 5 and concerts after work.

Here’s the green Pavilion’s schedule:

Feist, April 26

Switchfoot, April 27

Gary Allan, with Sons of Bill, May 8

Emmylou Harris, June 23

The Black Crowes, July 5

Phil Lesh and Friends, July 8

Live From The Hook, July 26

Willie Nelson, July 29

Crosby, Stills and Nash, July 31

B.B. King, August 6

Kenny Rogers, August 23

Fridays After 5:

Sons of Bill and Justin Jones, April 18

Kings of Belmont and 6 Day Bender, April 25

Eli Cook, May 2

Trees on Fire and NeedToBreath, May 9

Abbey Road and In Technicolor, May 16

The Groove Train and Tim Be Told, May 23

The Lee Boys, May 30

The Original Charlottesville All Stars, June 6

Inner Rhythm and Heather Maxwell, June 13

The John Stone Band, June 20

Peyton Tochterman & High Society, June 27

The Chickenhead Blues Band, July 4

Named for the frontman of Brooklyn-based gypsy rockers Gogol Bordello, who sound like what Major League Baseball players would sound like if, after cramming their bodies full of human growth hormones, they had a ‘roid rage in an accordion shop. Singer Eugene Hütz runs his klezmer-punk ensemble like the bastard child of P.T. Barnum and Iggy Pop. And, for many years, the occasional Gogol Bordello concert was the city’s only source for Yiddish folk music rave-ups.

Eugene Hütz, frontman of Brooklyn klezmer punks Gogol Bordello

Of course, sometimes you need more than a match to lead folks through the dark, and Hütz’s notoriously debauched performances left bonfires that miraculously drew what is now a thriving mix of klezmer music. Joel Rubin’s UVA Klezmer Ensemble continues to lure larger crowds and internationally acclaimed musicians like fiddler (see “F”) and Jimmy Page-collaborator Alicia Svigals. And, making the trek from the mythical (and, presumably, rhythmical) land of “Ratsylvania,” the scuzz-meets-swing gang known as Accordion Death Squad has managed to update the ancient Yiddish music for the leather-wrapped punk rock set. Catch the Death Squad at Saxx Jazz and Blues Lounge in Belmont on Saturday, May 10. And watch out for stage divers.

“They said that hip-hop was dead, y’all,” chanted Quentin “Q*Black” Walker, the dreadlocked emcee of the local ensemble Illville Crew, in front of the Jefferson Theater moments before kicking off a February 8 surprise gig.

Well, we posed the question in December when we took on the local rap scene in the wake of a shooting at Outback Lodge [“C’ville hip-hop R.I.P.?”]. But a few performers continue to both turn it up and bring the noise, and the Illville Crew remains the leader of the pack; according to Q*Black’s MySpace page, the group will hit the Satellite Ballroom with the Beetnix, long the token hip-hop group in town, on May 8.

And maybe the time is right for the city to latch onto the tag “Illville” and hang on for a bit. Ari Berne, who performs under the name “Ghetti,” quietly dropped his latest full-length album, A Full in Love, in March. Ghetti’s album is available as a free download on his website (ghettiget.com), and the rapper will perform alongside Pittsburgh-based indie hip-hop crew Grand Buffet at the Tea Bazaar on Wednesday, April 23. Don’t call it a comeback. Yet.

Known outside these pages as Renée Crist, “Jo Cline” was the late wife of Rolling Stone columnist Rob Sheffield, a former WTJU DJ. He met her while she was getting her MFA at UVA and immortalized their relationship in the bestseller Love is a Mix Tape. She penned the weekly Tünetown column for C-VILLE, which was retired after her death in 1997. A fan of Pavement’s Steve Malkmus and Bob Nastanovich, she covered them in her column, along with David Berman and the “side project” Silver Jews; she also wrote a cover story on Pavement drummer Steve West.

No, not the country-rap artist who recently brought his “bawitdaba”s to the John Paul Jones Arena. We’re talking about the Sparky’s Flaws and Sons of Bills of tomorrow. Some of these future stars probably haven’t made it out of their parents’ basements yet, but a few have already started making some noise.

The boys in Once Was, who hail from three local high schools, have nailed the piano pop sound of Ben Folds and Sparky’s Flaw. No surprise, considering that the band’s lead singer, John Anderson, is the younger brother of Flaw frontman Will Anderson.
 

Once Was

 
We’re always excited to hear some grrrl power, and that’s why we hope to catch a lot more of the band Evelyn, who recently took first place at Monticello High School’s Battle of the Bands with their edgy, energetic tunes.

The interestingly named blues rock trio Man Sandwich also has promising vibrations. And, of course, there are those youngsters who’ve been going at it since middle school: the jazzy and jammy Deltas and young guitar wiz Willie Denton-Edmundson.

Don’t see your band’s name here, kids? Fire up GarageBand, record a demo and send it our way!

When one thinks of noncommercial or community radio, stuffy announcers and droning news coverage come to mind. In Charlottesville, however, lowering the megahertz on your radio dial offers a diverse and exciting array of ad-free music programming.

WTJU 91.1FM offers gems like the long-running folk showcase “Atlantic Weekly” (Saturdays, 8am-noon) and “Radio Wowsville” (Sunday nights, 11pm-1am), which features a freewheeling selection of tunes and absurd characters like A. Larry Bethesda, Grandpa Ulysses Ezekiel “Grandpa” Cole and Blind Lemon Pledge.

Only 0.8 MHz away is WNRN 91.9 FM, where you can get your day started with Anne Williams on “Acoustic Sunrise” (weekdays, 5:30-10am) and relieve its stresses with “The Boombox”’s two hours of evening hip-hop (weekdays, 10pm-midnight). The station also offers specialty programs like “Ska Punks/No Losers” (Thursday night, midnight-2am) and dominates local electronic and industrial music coverage with DJ AudioRapture’s “Download” (Sunday night, midnight-2am) and DJ Rift’s “The Core” (Wednesday night, midnight-2am).

And, last but not least, what better way to spend a lazy Saturday than five hours of Garcia and Co.? WNRN’s “Grateful Dead and Friends” runs from 9am until noon, and, with just a nudge of the dial, you’ve got WTJU’s “Sunshine Daydream” from noon to 2pm. Can we get an “Only in Charlottesville”? Testify, listeners!

Merchandise is where music sells out. Colonel Tom Parker was hawking Elvis t-shirts in the ’50s, and few bands since have avoided the marketing wing of Art, Inc. (remember “This is not a Fugazi T-shirt” t-shirts?). West of Charlottesville and east of L.A., Crozet is home to the mothership of music merch, Musictoday. It’s all there on the website: CSNY Flip Flops ($20), Le Tigre tote bags ($10), Phish golf balls ($12), and—avert your eyes!—the Bob Dylan manicure set ($50).

And now, with the album all but obsolete, music available free online, and YouTube replacing the concert, it seems like merchandise is all a band has left to sell. But not all that’s emblazoned is wrong. Mysterious stickers slapped on drive-thru intercoms, the mosaic of pins on a hipster’s messenger bag, and the personal narrative of concert tees—band marketing has always operated as a viral way to spread the word. So hang posters by locals Matt Pamer and Thomas Dean with pride and light the barbeque with your Jim Waive matches. Pull on your American Dumpster panties, a clean Mass Sabbath shirt, and your 6 Day Bender trucker hat. It’s not selling out, it’s selling local!

UVA is prime territory for nerd spotting, but we’re talking about a special class of nerd, the kind that makes a home in the depths of Old Cabell Hall in a room called the Virginia Center for Computer Music (VCCM). It’s there that doctoral students in the Composition and Computer Technologies program work with button-laden devices called “computers” and other such sci-fi gizmos to create innovative sounds and far-out musical compositions.

VCCM students emerged last spring, as they will again on April 30, for Digitalis, a nerdcore computer music event.

During a visit to the VCCM, you may come across these talented nerds laboring on a variety of different projects. Peter Traub might be working on an Internet-based piece, such as ItSpace, his virtual sound installation on MySpace. There’s a chance you’ll see Troy Rogers, Steven Kemper and Scott Barton fine-tuning string-playing musical robots for their next performance. (Chance of stage fright? Negative.) Maybe you’ll run into guitar pedal guru Kevin Parks soldiering a circuit. Or, if you’re really lucky, you might catch VCCM Associate Director Matthew Burtner leading a passionate discussion about composer Karlheinz Stockhausen or presenting a surround sound composition on the center’s 8-channel speaker system. So watch who you’re calling Poindexter, you Neanderthals. These nerds are poised for their revenge.

You know, the folks that spew towering clouds of bass, or trumpet or cello on a regular basis. The musicians that populate our hometown version of Billy Joel’s “Piano Man,” who play our soundtracks while the waitresses practice politics and the businessmen slowly get stoned. Who sing us songs when we’re in the mood for melodies, and arguably do it better than any other city.

Nary a week passes when you can’t find Matthew Willner at Miller’s on a Monday night. The musicians that turn up at gigs by Paul Curreri and Devon Sproule make up a veritable A-Team of folk music: guitar-smacking Jeff Romano as B.A. Baracus, rhythmic poet Browning Porter as a dapper “Hannibal” Smith, Stratton Salidis as “Faceman” Peck. Hell, B.C. has been playing regular gigs at Miller’s for so long that “B.C.” feels like it has more to do with eras than the names of Monsieurs Barling and Collins.

Here’s the point, peeps. There will always be new musicians, just as there will always be crowds that come and go. But, with any luck, the gray-quaffed jazz man John D’earth and irrepressible mixmaster DJ eSc will be around so long as the regular crowd shuffles in.

As Marty McFly advised his band in Back to the Future moments before ripping into a Chuck Berry tune on his guitar, “Watch me for the changes, and try to keep up.”

Starr Hill is gone, but “Starr Hill Presents,” the promotional arm of Coran Capshaw’s music empire, is alive and well, hyping shows at the Charlottesville Pavilion and the Satellite Ballroom. This all gets confusing, however, when the Satellite Ballroom’s website begins listing “Satellite Presents” concerts, like Grand Buffet’s April 23 show or Mahjongg’s April 24 gig, both at the Tea Bazaar. Steve Earle’s gig at The Paramount Theater? The Boss’ gig at the John Paul Jones Arena? Produced in part, if not entirely, by Starr Hill Presents.

Now, if you really want to make your eyes cross, throw a few more local connections into the mix, namely the musicians signed to Red Light Management and ATO Records. For instance, Red Light Management clients and local country-rockers Sons of Bill are slated to open for Gary Allan at the Charlottesville Pavilion in a Starr Hill Presents gig, only months after performing at the Satellite Ballroom with fellow Red Lighters Sparky’s Flaw.

Let’s shoot for simplicity. How about this one: “Sons of Bill: A Coran Capshaw Joint.” Nice ring to it, hmm?

Local duo Birdlips (Lindsay Pitts on keyboards, Clifford Usher on guitar and both of them on vocals) recently flew into our favor when they released their debut record, Cardboard Wings. It’s a response to Usher’s year in Valencia, Spain; it’s a new way to think about the banjo; it’s a melodic and infectious album recorded at Nelson County’s Monkeyclaus studio (See “D”). The two permanent members of Birdlips say they share a love for ’60s psychedelia and folk; we say their take on well-traveled instruments is fresh and intuitive. Plus, they’re both really cute.

“The Red House was sort of a counterculture house when I was in school at UVA in the ’80s,” says local architect Gate Pratt of his college dwelling at 217 14th St. “It had a colorful history of artists and musicians, a creative crowd that was an alternative to the fraternity and sorority scene.”

“There were dozens of bands that probably came out of the house and played through it,” he adds. One of those bands, Ectoslavia, formed by Pratt and future Silver Jews frontman David Berman, included a couple other soon-to-be-well-known indie rock names in its revolving cast of noisemakers. Pavement members Stephen Malkmus and Bob Nastanovich, as well as Yo La Tengo bassist James McNew, were all part of the group’s loose lineup.

“We did play shows on a couple of occasions,” says Pratt, “but it was more a concept than a band at the end of the day.” And, like Ectoslavia, the cultural hub of the Red House faded away after Pratt graduated in 1989, leaving its spirit to live on in other similar music- and art-minded abodes around town.

“Sweetheart.” Self-titled CD. Satellite Ballroom. How about “S” for “Set aside Friday, April 18, for the season’s swingingest CD release party starring 6 Day Bender with sultry songstress Sarah White opening”? We’ve been priming the Sarah White well for over a year and she seems more than ready for a fountain of success. Late last year she followed up White Light, her plaintive alt-country CD, with Sweetheart. The title song earned her the top prize at the Mountain Stage competition, getting her the promise of a slot on that nationally syndicated radio show, and the EP as a whole charts a new direction towards what might be called a richer sound. Joining her for the Satellite gig is Ted Pitney, the former King Wilkie guitarist whose bluegrass-inspired stylings fill out Sweetheart.

6 Day Bender puts out the kind of loud, chugging music that says “We may be bluegrass, but we’re not hillbillies.” It takes a certain kind of sophistication to combine regional sounds with licks borrowed from Velvet Underground and the Stones. Even more impressive: These guys have been out of UVA for only a year.

Sarah White and Ted Pitney

Get to Satellite on Friday. In the years to come, if these acts fulfill their promise, you’ll be able to say you were there the night Sarah White and 6 Day Bender played on the same bill in what became the CVS. That’s legend, right there.

By the way, one “S” we like to avoid is “Sold Out.” On that note, see Feedback for details on how you can snatch a ticket to the Sarah White and 6 Day Bender show without spending a dime.

In layman’s terms, the eardrum. Or, in the eyes of City Council, the danger zone!

One of the unforeseen consequences of the city encouraging people to live above and around businesses is that people trying to sleep don’t like bands playing outside their windows. So the city approved a noise ordinance in March that limits noise levels to 75 decibels at all hours on the Downtown Mall and after 10pm for restaurants. The ordinance specifically was meant to curb loud music acts at certain venues like Outback Lodge on Preston Avenue, which has drawn complaints from neighbors, but some restaurants were in favor of the ordinance because it addresses loud street performers who can drown out Mall conversations.

So far, the only known showstopper is Mono Loco, which will stop hosting live music on its patio after May 5. A completely unscientific survey of Downtown a couple of Fridays ago revealed little change to the busking circuit—the electric guitar wunderkinds who play in front of the former A&N building were busting amped up solos like always. Jim Tolbert, the director of Neighborhood Development Services and chief architect of the ordinance, worked with teenage hip-hoppers Q*Black and the Illville Crew to make sure their February gig in front of the Jefferson was within bounds.

That’s our suggestion. There would be rules, sure, but there would be benefits as well. First, the workers of the Downtown Mall, newly united, would be required to learn at least five songs. These songs would necessarily consist of more than drop-D tuning and octave chords.

But the benefits! First, the dollar minimum contribution. No more quarters rattling around in your guitar or horn case. We’re talking folding money here. And anyone on the Mall for longer than an hour, within earshot of any busker, will be required to ante up. If not, off the Mall you go. This is where the advantages of the newly formed association with the Jersey 302 boys comes into play.

As any audiophile will be happy to explain at mind-numbing length, vinyl is THE ONLY way to listen to certain tunes. Plan 9, the Richmond-based record chain with two branches here in Charlottesville, isn’t THE ONLY place to get vinyl locally; Sidetracks sells wax and so do local thrift spots like Goodwill. Still, with its flip-through-the-bins atmosphere, and its employment of music geeks, Plan 9 is a beloved piece of the local musical puzzle. Back in March, when rumors surfaced that the Corner location might be closing, a lot of people felt sad and mad.

Said rumor states that building owner Terry Vassalos will lease the Plan 9 space—along with the Satellite Ballroom and Just Curry spots—to a CVS pharmacy. The rumor hasn’t been confirmed by any of the businesspeople involved. But, although employees of Satellite and Plan 9 haven’t gotten the word definitively, they sense something is up.

Though Plan 9 patrons can still ransack the Albemarle Square location, Satellite Ballroom-goers aren’t sure where they’ll see the kind of bands the venue has booked since opening in 2004. It all adds up to the kind of change that makes people grumble about corporations while lovingly dusting their 7-inches.

If you are old and white, and if the process of rehashing your mediocre, inoffensive-yet-entirely loveable hits from 20 years past is something akin to a pilgrimage, then Charlottesville is your Mecca. Come, make yourself at home in our Blue Ridge foothills, Don Henley.

We are not scared of your new face, Kenny Rogers, nor will we judge your walrus-like mustache, David Crosby. David Lee Roth, you remind us of what we were like before, when we were obnoxious without being wealthy. Transport us back. We beg you.

And be not afraid of the actual artists, those with something left to tell us. The Boss will be long gone before you come. We promise to protect you from Willie. Steve Earle’s sneer will not set you aflame as long as we are here. Be not afraid. We are your meal ticket now, and we are willing to part with our fortunes to listen to you perform the soundtrack of shopping malls.

Not all music venues are as easy to find as the Pavilion and its billowing, marshmallow canopy. Sometimes making your way to a lesser-known show can almost seem like trying to track down Blackbeard’s hidden booty. But, whether you’re headed to a living room rock show on Jefferson Park Avenue, a backyard musical barbeque in Belmont or a noise jam in a dusty warehouse (nudge nudge), we have one piece of advice: Stop, listen carefully, and follow the sounds. Surely you’ll soon arrive at the door to your next local underground music experience. And, if that doesn’t work, try asking that hipsterish looking guy walking down the Mall. He probably knows where the show is tonight.

Broadcast yourself, or other people. Don’t bother bringing your own camera to Gravity Lounge; they’ll record and post it for you. You can scroll through their posted videos and confirm that every show has the same red lighting. Search for “charlottesville” on the YouTube site and most of the results will be the big names and venues like the Pavilion or JPJ. You’ll be able to make out a faint chorus to the Chili Peppers’ “By the Way” behind the distortion and droning of the cameraman, or you may even catch a glimpse of Wayne Coyne between outstretched hands and confetti flashing in front of the camera at the Flaming Lips show. Narrow your search to a specific venue, say, Starr Hill, which has archived videos of an acoustic set from Corey Harris in 2001, or a Stephen Kellogg & Carbon Leaf collaboration. You know that time you got in late and  were stuck at the back of the crowd? YouTube might’ve been in the front row.

More highlights:

Explosions in the Sky, "Memorial" @ Starr Hill

The Blood Brothers @ Satellite

Dave Matthews Band, "Two Step" @ JPJ

Sparky’s Flaw, "Under Pressure" @ Satellite

How much is too much? How many more flyers can we tack up and tear down? How many albums can we afford to buy, to make, to download, each year? With Starr Hill gone and Satellite most likely following suit, this could be the end that Jim Morrison warned us about. How the hell can we rock and roll all night and party every day forever?!

Less talk and more rock, quitters! The point isn’t that you must live on a prayer and paint it black every night of the week. The point is that you can. That local music doesn’t have to worry about clearing some bar set by business; that music is the bar (and, therefore, the bars have music). Things don’t burn out or fade away, but burn brighter when a few people pour on the gas.

So turn your internal amps to “11,” get out and find your next local Jay-Z, or Zappa or Ziggy Stardust. We’ll see you at the show.

Correction April 18, 2008: Due to a reporting error, last week’s feature story [“We’re with the bands”] improperly identified Steve West as the original drummer of Pavement. West replaced original drummer Gary Young following the release of Pavement’s Slanted and Enchanted.