The Jefferson Theater, the historic downtown theater sold by Hook editor and former owner Hawes Spencer to local music magnate Coran Capshaw in 2006, has announced a re-opening date of November 27, closely following the abrupt closing of IS Venue at the end of September, the strong simultaneous opening of the Southern, and the imperiled-Outback rumblings of the week, as well the somewhat more distant closings of other beloved music venues like Starr Hill, Gravity Lounge, and the Satellite Ballroom.

Since the theater changed hands in April ‘06, it has undergone drastic and much-needed renovations— bars, bathrooms, balconies— and work is expected to continue after the opening on the basement and second balcony.

Nonetheless, Capshaw’s events company Starr Hill Presents has (more)

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Legendary New Yorker music critic Sasha Frere-Jones brutally laid the smackdown on Red Light’s high-flying major-label Charlottesville pop-rockers Parachute August 15 via Twitter. But despite the depths of his disdain (he actually coined the phrase “MIT poop wizard” in their honor), he has just been trumped here by what essentially amounts to a music review SWAT team.

The Singles Jukebox, a blog which started as a column in the now-defunct online music mag Stylus, is a sort of roundup rodeo in which several prominent critics from publications like Pitchfork and Rolling Stone review current pop singles, leaving behind one short blurb apiece and an aggregate score.

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In a video recently uploaded to YouTube, Albemarle expat, eventual American Idol castoff and industry-saving 2007 chart-topper Chris Daughtry heaps some love on C-ville rock songwriter Andy Waldeck while (more)

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As a result of their their primo placement, the free teaser track, and their two TV spots, Parachute’s new album Losing Sleep debuted at #1 on the iTunes Music Store’s sales charts yesterday, ahead of much-hyped new discs from Cam’ron, Steve Earle, and, well, everyone else. While that’s not quite as significant as, say, Soundscan figures or the Billboard charts, Apple’s download service surpassed Wal-Mart in sales back in February 2008 to become the largest music retailer in the country.

In addition, the corny-webcam-YouTube-covers-by-Asian-kids-with-acoustic-guitars index seems to indicate that these guys are going to be huge.

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Update: They’re now #1 on iTunes!

The big single from Red Light-managed local band Parachute is this week’s featured free download in the iTunes Music Store. This is not inconsequential placement, as other artists recently featured in this space include Mastodon, K’Naan, and Passion Pit; and local songwriter Shannon Worrell also got some love from the digital download service last fall.

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A smorgasbord of fan sites are reporting that the lead single for the upcoming DMB album Big Whiskey and the Groogrux King will be “Funny The Way It Is,” and even that it might be released to radio as soon as Thursday.

The album will, of course, be the swan song of sax player and founding member LeRoi Moore, who died last August as a result of injuries sustained during an ATV accident.

Above, one of first promotional shots of the band as a quartet, currently being used for the tour that stops in Charlottesville on April 16-17 17-18.

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We’ve been running our multimedia-heavy online music coverage for a year and change now, but this is a first for us (and, arguably, also the first* sharkman of the sharkpocalypse) — we’ve just had two local artists independently submit different versions of the same song, a traditional Irish reel Appalachian old-time tune called “Elzic’s Farewell.” It’s totally the new Watchtower/Chocolate Rain! Above, a transcription, in case anybody else wants to join in this pickin’ party.

* = Yes, we know we are setting ourselves up for a world of hurt with this. Don’t let us down, folks.

In this corner, longtime C-ville bluegrass band Walker’s Run, hyping up their show at Bel Rio on the 17th at approximately 160bpm.

Walker’s Run - Elzic’s Farewell

And in this… well, these aren’t really corners, but all the same, here’s fingerstyle folk guitarist Bill Adams, using his more reflective solo guitar arrangement to whet our appetites for his April 11 Gravity Lounge gig opening for John Hammond (not the Jurassic Park impresariosaurus, unfortunately).

Bill Adams - Elzic’s Farewell

Update: While we’re at it, here’s Mando Mafia’s version, which is where Walker’s Run got some of their tricks. The Mandos will be at Gravity Lounge on May 31.

Mando Mafia - Elzic’s Farewell

So who wins, people?

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Heads up, TV junkies: a song by semi-local (one member is local, the other is from France) electronic pop duo Panda Transport will be among the featured music on the episode of the medical drama Grey’s Anatomy airing tonight at 8pm on ABC.

Central Virginia-based singer Kathy Compton, who started the band with long-distance collaborator Thierry Holweck, says they were contacted on January 21 through MySpace on behalf of Chop Shop, the company run by music supervisor Alexandra Patsavas, and told they were being considered for a slot on the wildly popular show. Confirmation came yesterday.

“We don’t know how we were discovered,” says Compton, “The fact that they contacted us through MySpace leaves me to believe that there’s someone constantly looking for independent music.”

It’s a pretty cushy spot to be in: the song is slated for nearly three minutes of exposure, and in addition to the significant financial compensation involved, which likely will include royalties from syndicated broadcasts of the show in the future, Patsavas is something of a powerhouse in Hollywood. In the past (more)

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Worrell performed a mix of new and old Monday night at LiveArts at the release concert for The Honey Guide.
PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER

Recently-defrosted classic Charlottesville singer-songwriter Shannon Worrell’s new album only came out a couple days ago, but it’s already turning heads at the largest music retailer in the country:

The Honey Guide is one of this week’s featured picks in the iTunes Music Store’s folk section.

This is actually a coveted slot; Apple has been known to pressure record labels for exclusive iTunes-only releases in exchange for placement in the store, for example— but Worrell says this one was just a no-strings-attached gift from the pod gods.

“I was fairly shocked,” she says. “Somebody placed it based on the artwork or listened to it. The label didn’t do any marketing.”

But iTunes isn’t the only place to get it — Worrell says they sent it to the usual suspects in online distribution— Nimbit, CDBaby, Microsoft Zune, eMusic, and a few others. Our bet? Buy it from Amie Street, where breaking independent music comes at an astonishingly steep discount until it gets really popular.

Worrell says it’ll be hard to gauge the effects of the placement because she only gets bi-annual reports from the label, but depending on how this iTunes thing plays out, you cheapskates might be outta luck pretty soon.

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April 12 update: CANCELLED

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Pollstar is reporting that soul queen Gladys Knight will be one of many acts heating up summer nights at the Charlottesville Pavilion this season.

Knight began singing as a child with the Pips as a sort of family-band affair, but the backup group followed her well into her adult career. She signed with Motown in her early 20s and proceeded to nail a bunch of hit singles, including “Neither One Of Us” and a pre-Marvin Gaye, pre-CCR version of “I Heard It Through The Grapevine.”

She eventually moved on to other labels and a smoother sound after only five years. The Pips have long since retired, but Knight (more)

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Gene Meeks and his son, Steve, have been putting up lights at their Crozet-area house since 1994. The family nails a donation box to a tree for the thousands of people who come to Meeks’ Run to see the lights every year to show their appreciation and help local charities.

Late Saturday night, December 15, after they’d turned off their famed annual display, which was written up last week in the Hook, someone came by and cut the lock on the donation box.

“It looks to me like it was cut with a hack saw or a bolt cutter,” Gene Meeks says.

The robber may have thought he was just stealing from the Meeks family, but it’s (more)

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What happens when daddy goes to jail? The quadruple life sentences urged last week for Central Virginia’s serial rapist, Nathan Antonio Washington, a father of four, have raised awareness of the topic, and one local group is already doing something about it.

For the past two years, Santa Matters has brought joy to children of incarcerated men and women during the holiday season. Now in its third year, the organization has received requests for one hundred and fifty presents from area inmates.

Organizers says that’s a huge increase from last year’s fifty requests and the previous year’s thirty. Founders David and Holly Heilberg and Katharine Griffin are accepting donations of new presents or money at two different locations, Northside Library and at Mr. Heilberg’s Pantops area law office at 675 Peter Jefferson Parkway.

Or, Mrs. Heilberg says, she will drive anywhere (more)

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Don’t know what to get your best friend, cousin Elmer, or significant other for Christmas this year? Worried about spending too much money? Well, two Charlottesville natives have some words of wisdom for distressed holiday shoppers.

Chuck Langham, founder of S.C.R.O.O.G.E. (Society to Curtail Ridiculous Outrageous & Ostentatious Gift Exchanges), and Savitri Durkee, a Charlottesville expat currently living in New York City, encourage people to take more time and spend less money for presents. Langham and his wife, who live near UVA, agree to keep Christmas present spending to a minimum in their family, but they’re not out to convert the world.

“We basically think people should do what they want to do,” he says. “We’re a laid-back kind of organization: do what you want.”

At its height, S.C.R.O.O.G.E. had over 1,200 members in the U.S. and abroad, but Langham admits that his enthusiasm for anti-consumerism proseltyzing has waned, and newsletter now goes out to only “five to ten” people, he says.

However, Savitri Durkee, a graduate of Western Albemarle High School, is coming on strong. Now based in New York City, she’s a founder of The Church of Stop Shopping, an anti-consumerism organization headed by the “Reverend” Billy, also known as Bill Talen– who happens to be her husband. (He’s shown here stopping traffic in Times Square.)

Members of the Church of Stop Shopping detail their beliefs about consumerism and (more)

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