Jazz-fusion guitar
Jay-Z’s set will be the first time a non-student promoter has ever brought a hip hop show to John Paul Jones Arena. In 2007, UVA’s student-run University Programs Council booked rapper Common to play an April 11 show at the JPJ.For Charlottesville’s hip-hop fans, life just got a little less hard knock. For the first time ever, a non-student promoter has booked the John Paul Jones Arena for a hip-hop show, and the christening will come from none other than the best-selling rapper of all-time, Jay-Z. Opening will be Atlanta MC T.I., who has sold 6.65 million albums of his own. The show will take place Saturday, October 25 at 8pm. Tickets go on sale this Friday, October 3 at noon. No word yet on how much cheese fans will have to spend to see the show.
Since making his debut in 1996, the man born as Shawn Carter but otherwise known as Jigga, Hova, the CEO of Hip Hop, or just plain Jay has sold more than 26 million copies of his albums in the United States alone— more than Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Buffett, Nirvana, or Frank Sinatra. That’s not counting the other 24 million records he’s sold worldwide.
Jay-Z’s beginnings in life may not have been auspicious (born into Brooklyn’s Marcy projects, abandoned by his father, shot his brother at age 12, dropped out of high school) but (more)
Si Tapas, in taking over the old Starr Hill space on West Main, has apparently decided to both embrace the building’s history and answer the call of local musicians and audiences looking for new places to headbang: the upper floor will once again be a concert hall, this time with bars on both sides, late night grub available upstairs, and living room furniture giving the whole thing a lounge vibe.
They’re reportedly considering this a soft-launch of sorts, because extensive planned renovations to the performance space will stretch out for the next couple months. In the meantime, they’re starting with local and regional acts — here, with local pop-rockers The Sometime Favorites, classic bar band/pop-rock quintet Sweetbriar, and even sweeter local songwriter Mariana Bell — and aim to expand into national acts once they’ve installed the new sound system, set up the new lighting rig, and revived the joint’s mojo after a year and a half of down time.
Mariana Bell - Book
The Sometime Favorites - All Along
The Sometime Favorites - What You Wanted
Sweetbriar - Long Time Since
Sweetbriar - Line ‘Em Up
Sweetbriar - Baby, Don’t Say Goodnight
The moment the guys responsible for Si decide to open a new music venue, the Kings Of Belmont come scampering over to put their mark on it. Oh well. It had to happen sooner or later.
The Kings Of Belmont - The Jerk Store [demo]
The Kings Of Belmont - Git R Done
The Kings Of Belmont - South Bound
The Kings Of Belmont - Beg For More
The Kings Of Belmont - Sway
The Kings Of Belmont - Talking To Myself
Willy Porter is a folk singer with guitar chops strong enough to make you dizzy and verbal chops strong enough to wind Mad Libs-style live improv songwriting into his his shows.
Thomas Gunn ain’t no slouch either.
buy tickets onlineIf there’s a bigger modern folk-rock success story than Dar Williams, we have no idea who it might be. A hot streak in the late 90’s gave rise to “Calling The Moon” and “If I Wrote You,” both now signature tunes, and set her up to become the champion of a musical school usually overrun with everymen. Her poignancy and sensitivity vary enough to make sifting through her back catalog an awkward experience at times, but contrasting “The End Of The Summer” with an ass-whoopin’ like “Empire” definitely suggests that on a good day she can hit the mark at both extremes.
Lucy Wainwright Roche opens.
The Hook interviews Ms. Williams prior to the show.
buy tickets onlineSongwriter Jan Smith partners with multi-instrumentalist hubby Jeff Voegelgesang on her heartwarming folky compositions.
Young and accordingly hyperactive acoustic duo Carleigh Nesbit and Carl Anderson open.
Carleigh Nesbit - Three Steps Out The Door
Carleigh Nesbit - River Run Dry
Carleigh Nesbit - Turn On The Heat
Carleigh Nesbit - Your City Skies
Carl Anderson and Carleigh Nesbit - 3 Steps Out The Door [live]
Carl Anderson and Carleigh Nesbit - No Easy Way To Say It [live]
Jams led by local guitarist Tucker Rogers
Space Cadet 7 - Killer Octopus
Sunburned Hand Of The Man is a large psychedelic folk collective from Boston — slightly less large following the death of longtime member Adam Nodelman in August, actually — with a penchant for dark bass grooves and electronic glimmers. They started as a punk group called Shit Spangled Banner in the late 1990’s and now put out records called Weekend At Burnie’s on Sonic Youth frontman Thurson Moore’s Ecstatic Peace! label.
Adam Smith’s new one-song krautrock jam project Articulate Chewbacca opens.
We have it on good authority that this performance will consist of songs and dances from West Africa.
buy tickets onlineAndy Friedman is a New Yorker cartoonist turned acclaimed alt-country singer who has alternately been called both an “erudite redneck” and “a hillbilly Leonard Cohen,” and probably also many names considerably more scandalous than either of the above. He’s currently on tour to stir up the pot in advance of his next record, which will be released this winter. Opener David Gates, interestingly enough, is likewise a former Newsweek editor turned country singer.
Andy Friedman and the Other Failures - Probably Shouldn’t Call
Andy Friedman and the Other Failures - Idaho
Also featuring Amy Speace.
buy tickets onlineWhen working with the New Hip, acclaimed newgrass bassist Missy Raines likes to blend in influences that piss off the purists. Atta girl!
buy tickets onlineRobinella is the band fronted by Robin Ella Tipton and propelled by her husband, mandolin player Cruz Contreras, through a jazzy take on modern bluegrass and pop. Ezra Hamilton was one of Charlottesville’s most soulful singers until he blew town a couple years back; he’s been back a few times with the new alt-rock project he’s been working with in Ohio, but this will be his first local show as a soloist in quite some time.
buy tickets onlineSure, The Verve Pipe are pretty much the definition of washed-up 90’s alt-rock at this point, but frontman Brian Vander Ark is actually a pretty great performer. Pipe fans will get “The Freshmen” but will also enjoy throwback originals like “Resurrection” and “Written and Erased,” while everyone else should keep an ear out for his remarkable reworking of “Detroit Rock City.”
Brian Vander Ark - Lily White Way
Vander Ark’s better half Lux Land opens.
Lux Land - No More California Stars
buy tickets onlineDenver-based indie-pop quartet Dressy Bessy is another one of those Elephant 6 bands that’s just a little harder to keep track of (ie, not Of Montreal or Neutral Milk Hotel); guitarist John Hill also plays with the Apples In Stereo.
Dressy Bessy - Simple Girlz
Dressy Bessy - Side 2
Squaaks opens with tunes which grew from a toy keyboard fed into a four-track recorder.
buy tickets onlineOnly Baby Dee could bring together Bonnie “Prince” Billy and Andrew WK — the Cleveland singer-songwriter’s new album was produced by the guy responsible for one of the summer’s most buzz-worthy shows and features a guest appearance from the star of MTV’s absurd self-help reality TV series.
Baby Dee - The Only Bones That Show
Bonnie’s younger brother and Hook food critic Ned Oldham opens this one too.
buy tickets onlineYou may have caught this 5-piece roots rock outfit from DC at FloydFest a couple months back. Or you may have heard banjo and harmonica player Lissy Rosemont on that new Polow Da Don beat (seriously).
Junior League - With Hannah
Junior League - The Station
Junior League - South Carolina Blues
Junior League - Lemon
Junior League - Folding Cash
Waynesboro’s rodents jam away and Charlottesville’s six-piece Southern rock orchestra channels the Allmans.
Local rock quartet. Joe Pollock opens with guitars and loops.
A local indie rock trio and a Nashville folk rock weirdo inspired by equal parts Johnny Cash and Brand New, if that makes any sense (we’ll save you the trouble — it doesn’t). Check out the latter’s bizarre lo-fi cover of Radiohead’s “Idioteque.”
Sometimes it’s hard to decide whether the best thing about this local hip hop fusion band is how good they are or how young they are. Both bode well for where they might end up in another year or two; in the meantime, they’ve sent original drummer Andy Hunt on to law school and recruited generally unlawyerly replacement Granville Mullings, who you might know from, like, every other band in town.
The Blackout Project - Future Celebrity
The Blackout Project - What We’ve Become
The Blackout Project - Sew The Seams
Also featuring Pantherburn, a new project from Hackensaw Boys founder Philip St. Ours.
This jammy pop-rock singer-songwriter is driven by acoustic guitar and a mean rhythm section, and here he’s returning to Boylan Heights for a victory lap since his inaugural performance at the new venue a couple weeks back went over so well.
William Walter and Company - Sunflower [live]
William Walter and Company - All The Best [live]
William Walter and Company - Alright [live]
William Walter and Company - Border Crosser [live]
William Walter and Company - Myspace
Despite its name, last year’s inaugural Crozet Music Festival turned into an all-day showcase of Charlottesville musicians surrounded by the greenery of Crozet Park. This time around, we’ll get more of the same, but the whole escapade will relocate to the Misty Mountain Campground at the intersection of I-64 and Route 250, which should make it a whole lot more accessible for townies.
There are two stages chock-full of local talent, and given that it’s also been upgraded from a one-day event to an entire weekend, the schedule is too long and awesome to print here in any sensible fashion; you’ll have to check it out on the Festival’s web site. Let’s put it this way: pick a band, and if they’re not on stage at some point, they’ll probably be in the audience watching.
Huge fat load of MP3s after the jump, because the list is too freaking long to do it any other way…
California singer-songwriter Drew Danburry is a die-hard DIY harmonica player and guitarist whose Live In Paris includes quirky tunes with names like “I Am a Normal Healthy Person Which Means I Have Lots of Problems.”
Also featuring Roanoke indie pop-rock quintet The Young Sinclairs.
At the end of the millennium, Robert Randolph emerged as the most important new voice on the pedal steel guitar. After a few years meandering on the jamband circuit, he broke out with his own Family Band, which casts off the instrument’s country heritage in favor of a wobbly funk informed by Hendrix and early Michael Jackson (keep an ear out for the medley), and his 2006 album Color Blind was an attempted transition into more mainstream pop territory.
Kansas City flavored jazz and blues from the Richmond harmonica player
The Fustics are a rootsy Wilmington band with a particular interest in social and political issues.
Jazz-fusion guitar (and drums and bass, presumably).
Jazz-fusion guitar (and drums and bass, presumably).
Also featuring Timi Ryalls, who is a local guitar player. Now, if only we could figure out what the other guy is all about.
Hot gypsy jazz from the local guitar player.
Olivarez Trio - Choti
Olivarez Trio - Adieu, Bienville
Olivarez Trio - Chez Drennon
Local bassist Dave Bartok with a spicy Latin project
The a capella group, which is composed of St. Petersburg Conservatory grads, sings Russian sacred and secular tunes to raise funds for the restoration of their namesake monastery.
Guitar playing newcomer Sabra Guzman joins up with old hand and local fiddlin’ fiend Alex Caton to kick off a short tour full of classic Appalachian tunes, gospel, and Carter Family flavored classics.
King Of Spain lists both velociraptors and and Terry Riley among his influences, which is cool, because if there’s one thing that could make the godfather of modern experimental minimalism any crazier, it’d be a razor sharp scythe-like claw for slashing the throats of his prey.
King Of Spain - Animals (Part One)
King Of Spain - Decades
Also featuring Athens, GA indie rock quartet The Winter Sounds and Brooklyn Bloody Valentine worshipers The Antlers.
The Winter Sounds - Trophy Wife
The Antlers - Two
The pianist and cellist play Brahms, Schubert & Shostakovich
UVA faculty jazz ensemble with guest guitarist Royce Campbell
The conspiracy to cultivate Charlottesville’s musical mojo is stretchin’ the limits of their mission statement with this quartet from Asheville.
This young local singer-songwriter has assembled some tremendous local talent for her backing band, including members of Sons Of Bill and Old School Freight Train.
This Nelson County folk rock quartet is named after a pygmy healing ritual.
Several years ago, folk and Americana singer Dennis Warner gave one of the first Barking Cherry performances. In the time that has elapsed since, one of his songs has been adapted as a popular picture book for kids; here, he’ll be painting with six- and twelve-strings instead.
Dennis Warner - Mother Earth [live]
Dennis Warner - Love Will Find Its Way [live]
Email to RSVP.
Jazz from the guitarist and trumpet player
By the time his rapid-fire releases with Matador Records rolled around earlier this year, raucous Memphis garage punk singer Jay Reatard had brought acoustic guitars into the picture and generally tightened up the chaotic elements of his first “band,” the Reatards, of which he was actually the lone member at the outset despite the plural moniker. He may sound a little more mature these days, but given the remarkable rate at which he puts out new records, the pendulum may very well have swung back in the other direction by the time the show actually starts.
Also featuring Cola Freaks and revolving-door local rockers Order Of The Dying Orchid.
buy tickets online
Blues and roots music from a local quartet centered around a harmonica-playing frontman
Under questioning from the grand jury about his involvement with Monica Lewinsky, Bill Clinton rationalized having said there was nothing going on between them by uttering the famous line, ” It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is.” Clinton went on, “If the–if he–if ‘is’ means is and never has been, that is not–that is one thing. If it means there is none, that was a completely true statement.”
Huh?
Fortunately, the definition of “Is” on West Main is a little more straight forward–it’s a new music venue above the new tapas restaurant Si, both of which open next week in the old Starr Hill Restaurant & Brewery space on West Main.
“Si’s owners asked me what they should put in the space upstairs,” says Stew Hartman-Mart, who’ll be managing the music venue, ”and I suggested a music venue to fill (more)
Neil Diamond, seen here at June’s Glastonbury Festival in England, will play John Paul Jones Arena on Monday, December 8.In the 1991 movie What About Bob?, Bill Murray’s title character famously declared, “There are two types of people in this world: Those who like Neil Diamond, and those who don’t.” Charlottesville is about to find out who’s who.
The “Solitary Man” himself announced today that he will be coming to John Paul Jones Arena on Monday, December 8. The arena has yet to announce when tickets go on sale or how much they will cost.
Though Diamond has sold 120 million copies of his albums worldwide to date, back in the ’60s it didn’t seem as though he would make a living as a performer. Rather, Diamond worked as a songwriter in New York’s legendary Brill Building alongside the likes of Carole King, Burt Bacharach, and Neil Sedaka. The music world took notice of Diamond in a big way when the Monkees’ version of his “I’m A Believer” sold 2 million copies in its first two days of release, and would go on to be the best-selling single of 1967.
It wasn’t long before Diamond (more)
Guitarist-not-disc-jockey-damn-it DJ Williams is one of Richmond’s A-list funky dudes.
Local pop-rock songwriter William Walter rounds up a big ol’ posse and turns up the volume way up.
William Walter and Company - Sunflower [live]
William Walter and Company - All The Best [live]
William Walter and Company - Alright [live]
William Walter and Company - Border Crosser [live]
William Walter and Company - Myspace
Narrative-heavy bluegrass and folk from the energetic Richmond quartet with originals inspired by Johnny Cash and covers swiped from Gnarls Barkley.
The Chickenhead Blues Band - Talk To Me, Baby
The Chickenhead Blues Band - Glamour Girl
The Chickenhead Blues Band - Hunky Dorey
The Chickenhead Blues Band - Marvin’s Water
Classic rock and Americana, sometimes laced with psychedelics. Be careful!
Junior Moment - Mirror
Junior Moment - Point Of View
Junior Moment - Number 11
Brooklyn it-band Vivian Girls has been inducing fits in bloggers with their pointedly feminine shoegaze indie punk ever since the initial pressing of their debut album sold out within ten days back in April. The re-release is due a week after this show, so expect the hype to reach fever pitch.
Vivian Girls - Where Do You Run To
Tyvek opens.
buy tickets onlineLocal singer-songwriter
Joia Wood - To Do [featuring Trees On Fire]
Six-piece Richmond ska band. Kick things off with local electronic jams from 4D Rock!
buy tickets onlineHeavy rock night starts early with angry Minnesotans Four Letter Lie; also featuring Our Last Night, Capital Lights, and After The Fire.
buy tickets onlinePraising Bella Morte for being “Charlottesville’s best goth-rock band” may make you think of a big fish wearing eyeliner in a small pond, but don’t let the lack of competition fool you: these guys have an international following. Here, they release their new album, the sort-of-self-titled “Beautiful Death,” which is their first since new bassist Tony Pugh took over for founding member Gopal Metro last year.
An older track:
Bella Morte - On The Edge
Synth-pop duo Synthetic Division opens.
Synthetic Division - Back To Sleep
buy tickets onlineRichmond metalheads Dragonship say they sound “like your ears just got kicked in the balls.” For those of you fortunate enough to not know what that feels like, it’s kind of like getting your butt’s face rocked.
buy tickets onlinePunk rock from D.C., Norfolk, and Harrisonburg, respectively.
buy tickets onlineBy the time he moved to town two years ago, guitarist Ian Lawler had already recorded with Arrested Development, jammed with Herbie Hancock, and opened for Ozomatli. Now he’s got a new band of locals called In Full which he leads through a set of pop, rock, and funk.
Also featuring local trumpet player Matt Horn, who leads his own band through funk and hip hop.
buy tickets onlineShow after show, like clockwork, California indie-pop quintet The Little Ones and their unending pop hooks turn impeccably-placed handclaps into standing ovations.
buy tickets onlineSometimes Clumsy Lovers sound like an Americana band, but they’re actually from Canada. We worked up the term Canadiana as a compromise of sorts, but that just seemed so depressing and pointless. Then they threw in some Celtic influences and we gave up entirely. Go see ‘em if you enjoy acoustic instrumentation and thinking you’re somewhere else.
buy tickets onlineDubconscious proves that Athens, GA is capable of generating more than just 80’s-era proto-indie-rock and R.E.M. — the award-winning sextet plays reggae aimed at your head with an Afrobeat twist aimed at your feet.
buy tickets onlineJohnny Sketch and the Dirty Notes play funky rock from the Big Easy, and 106.1 gets your dirty, sketchy ass in for free yet again; give Brad Savage a big hug if you see him. Gary Green, Peyton Tochterman, and Sam Wilson open.
buy tickets onlineGlam-rock from a young pair of local brothers. Also featuring Connecticut rock quartet Quiet Life.
buy tickets onlineIn early April, before the near-universal acclaim for Portishead’s Third had started pouring in, the most striking thing about the impending album was the fact that their music was still alive at all so many years after Dummy. The existence of My Brightest Diamond is arguably even better proof of that, though: songwriter Shara Worden has been most successful as one of Sufjan Steven’s supporting musicians, but her solo work sometimes delves into the same melding of electronics and melancholy which defined Bristol trip-hop in the early 1990s, often with crashing guitars and light orchestral flourishes taking the place of the soul-searching minimalism.
My Brightest Diamond - Something Of An End
My Brightest Diamond - Inside A Boy
My Brightest Diamond - Golden Star [Alias remix]
My Brightest Diamond - Freak Out [Panique mix]
Also performing: Clare and the Reasons, who do their Brooklyn pop thing bolstered by the titular composer’s Berklee jazz brains.
buy tickets onlineThis sisterly cabaret duo is known for pausing periodically throughout their performances to pull strange homemade instruments from a chest on stage. Singer-songwriters Wes Swing and Theresa Andersson open.
Theresa Andersson - Birds Fly Away
buy tickets onlineThe Reverend Peyton and his Big Damn Band would like you to come to their damn show and buy all their damn CDs. It’s actually a damn small Damn Band, though — just a trio composed entirely of the good Reverend’s family members — but they still play a damn mean country blues. (We’re running this because we’re pretty sure he’s not actually a man of God, though — otherwise we’d be due for a smiting, or at least a frog plague.)
The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band - Mama’s Fried Potatoes
Also featuring Keith Morris and Accordion Death Squad.
Keith Morris - Candy Apples
Accordion Death Squad - Di, Margule, Di
Chris Smither is a top-shelf folk singer-songwriter with strong leanings toward the blues who accompanies himself with deftly fingerpicked acoustic guitar and a stompin’ foot which really means business.
Chris Smither - Leave The Light On
buy tickets onlineSan Francisco indie rock and power-pop quartet Birdmonster has toured with Art Brut, Nada Surt, Tapes n Tapes, Cold War Kids, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, and The National.
Birdmonster - Born To Be Your Man
Birdlips (no relation) opens with a set of alt-folk with keyboard lines twisted throughout.
Birdlips - Tire Chains
Birdlips - Some Kind Of Death
Kid Pan Alley is a national program which uses music to teach kids to be cute little creatives rather than passive Saturday morning consumer vegetables, and the Charlottesville branch is run by none other than local songwriting royalty Terri Allard, who somehow finds time to be the regional project director when she’s not hosting TV shows or, you know, writing songs. This concert is a release show for the local chapter’s newest CD, which features Jesse Winchester, David Lowery, John McCutcheon, Corey Harris, Sissy Spacek, and Sparky’s Flaw, among others.
Kid Pan Alley - I Used To Know The Names Of All The Stars
Kid Pan Alley - My Dog Did My Homework
Kid Pan Alley - My Shoes Are Spying On Me
Young local rock trio The Wave celebrates the release of their new album, High Road Hard Road; it’s been a full three years since their greenhorn debut Dreamers, and that’s an eternity in teenage years. Guitarist and primary songwriter Willie Denton-Edmundson says this time around he tried to channel Tom Petty in the compositions — before ripping nasty solos all over the place, at least. “My lyrics were a little bit stronger on the new one,” he says. There’s a bit of old-soul aesthetic at work, too; the solos are bluesier this time, and they also tried to stay away from newfangled studio cheats like punch-ins and overdubs which have become par for the course with so many other musicians. “I wanted to make it old fashioned and do it all the way through, because it just seemed more natural to us,” he adds.
The Wave - My Robot
The Wave - Sometimes
The Wave - Little People
The Great Eastern opens.
buy tickets onlineStill haven’t taken in your fill of local music? Well, who better to spearhead an official after-party for the Crozet Music Festival than local staple Jamie Dyer and his revolving-door Americana band Hogwaller Ramblers?
The local rock quartet performs alongside Sweetbriar guitarist John Byrnes. It’s just like Coupe’s, but boondocksier!
The local guitarist performs with special guest R.S. Hornsby
Sir Elton pounds out four decades worth of piano-pop masterpieces with as much of his trademark flamboyance as he can muster at age 61.
buy tickets onlineHat-loving Mechanicsville pretty-boy Jason Mraz gave new hope to area small-town songwriter types in 2002 when Waiting For My Rocket To Come went platinum on the strength of lead single “The Remedy,” but the 2005 follow-up Mr. A-Z didn’t fare nearly as well.
Irish vocalist and decidedly former Damien Rice best-bud Lisa Hannigan opens.
The UVA frat’s 13th “Hoodang” fundraiser features vaguely Irish folk- and pop-rockers Carbon Leaf, a regional favorite from Richmond whose song “The Boxer” turned them into the buzz band of 2003 thanks to some national ad placement. The all-day fundraiser is a benefit for the UVA Children’s Hospital and usually draws a few hundred participants. The Whiskey Rebellion and Mozely Rose start things off around 2pm, and the headliners should take the stage by 6pm.
Mozely Rose - Rolling The Dice
Singer Blake Christiana’s Brooklyn-based band Yarn weaves together alt-country and Yankee bluegrass, and on the last record rounded up an all-star cast including Casey Dreissen of the Sparrow Quartet, Caitlin Cary of Whiskeytown, and banjo virtuoso Tony Trischka.
Yarn - Bad Bad Man
Yarn - Don’t Break My Heart
Yarn - I’m Down
Yarn - Ain’t That A Sin
Yarn - Empty Pockets
Eight-piece inspirational bluegrass and gospel family band
