ARTS Pick: Pancake Party with the Star Children
The default option for any working band looking to raise some quick funds is usually Kickstarter, but We Are Star Children, as always, are thinking outside the box. To help fund the distribution of their next album, the local group are instead hosting a pancake breakfast on Saturday morning, May 18 at the Alloy Workshop. [...]
Mountain magic: A wealth of talent with local roots graces C’ville stages
Despite the band name, Mountain Man is actually a musical group of young women: Molly Sarle, Alex Sauser-Monnig, and Amelia Meath. The trio began singing together as students at Bennington College in 2009, and quickly got the attention of the music world, first by touring alone, and later with The Decemberists, members of Sigur Rós, [...]
Reeling them in: Light House Studio offers a head start on filmmaking careers
For the past 14 years, Light House Studio has offered filmmaking workshops for local students, providing a hands-on education that rivals many college-level programs. I was a student at Light House in its first class during the summer of 1999, and was crowded into a studio space in the basement of The Jefferson Theater with [...]
Instant nostalgia: Drunk Tigers are getting back together
The Drunk Tigers’ Zach Carter (left) and Matt Bierce are back for more at the Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar on Saturday, May 11.
The past is a present in Daniel Bachman’s nimble fingers
Bachman’s crew-cut, corn-fed charm might lead you to initially mistake him for yet another singer-songwriter-type seeking industry validation, but even a cursory listen to one of his tunes should reassure you that his muse was grown on the true vine.
Local record shops anticipate sixth annual Record Store Day
“For me, every day is Record Store Day,’” says Gwenaël Berthy. Since 2010, Berthy has been the owner and sole staff member of Melody Supreme, a vinyl-only record store on 4th St. downtown. Record Store Day, founded in 2007, is an international “holiday” founded with the intention of helping to keep stores like Melody Supreme [...]
Two thumbs up: Reflections on film critic Roger Ebert’s time in Charlottesville
Roger Ebert was my first film critic —really, the first non-fiction writer of any kind whose work I devoured. My parents had Pauline Kael, but for my generation Ebert was the gateway drug to film study and appreciation, best sampled in his 1,000-page annual anthologies of reviews, which were an encyclopedic and insightful peek into [...]
Rolling on: Holy Smokes wraps up with a stacked Tom Tom showcase
The Tom Tom Founders Festival has a dense schedule, seeking to offer something for everyone, from concerts to street parties to symposia on innovation. A glance at the calendar can be bewildering, and it may be tough to know where to turn. Although every attendee is sure to find something to enjoy, one event in [...]
Random Row Gets Reckless with Richard III
The newly-founded Reckless Theatre Company—not to be confused with the New York-based group of the same name—is the project of a trio of UVA Drama majors, Ahmad Helmy, Anne Connelly, and Adam Santalla. The troupe was founded this year with the intention of bringing theatrical events to the wider community while sharpening their dramatic skills. Their [...]
Harrisonburg’s MACRoCk celebrates 16 years of rock ‘n’ roll
The Harrisonburg-based music festival MACRoCk celebrates its 16th year this weekend with yet another solid line-up of local, regional, and touring indie-rock bands. Initially founded as the “Mid-Atlantic College Radio Conference,” MACRoCk has now severed ties with JMU and local station WXJM, but remains committed to throwing a killer annual festival. This year’s roster includes [...]
Cut and color: Jordan Grace Owens opts for bright, compelling simplicity
“I love old photographs,” Jordan Grace Owens said, “partly for nostalgia and partly for aesthetics—the weirdly forced poses and the flattened shadows from years of degradation. Most of my full-color paintings do refer to specific vintage photos, but the line drawings are almost entirely made up characters.”
Screening process: New gallery puts printed works at the forefront
“We’ve seen phenomenal enthusiasm,” deNeveu said. “The amount of people coming in here has been really flattering. A lot of people get excited about art that’s not in the $1,000, or even the $100 price range. We definitely have the best dollar-to-square-inch ratio for art in town.”
Weird Mob hits the books by day and the pop hooks by night
“It would be easy enough just to sit down and watch TV every night, but instead we work together on cool shit,” Dave Gibson said.
Nature versus nurture: Artists Allyson Mellberg and Jeremy Taylor examine coexistence
“In Jeremy’s work, all of his animals are really dignified,” Mellberg said. “Their eyes are really human. You identify with them beyond just seeing them as animals. The reason Jeremy uses the animals that he’s using isn’t because they’re cute, it’s because those animals are prey.”
Comedy writer repurposes a vintage sci-fi script for live performance in “Radio Raygun”
“Originally it was the idea of taking an old science fiction premise that wasn’t very good, and using it as a basis for sketch comedy,” Jones said. “But then I found this movie, that had everything I wanted.”
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 [...]
UVA’s French department ventures out with a film festival
This weekend, UVA’s French department will show a selection of recent French films at various locations around town. The festival is aimed at both casual filmgoers and academics, and the organizers hope to draw French-speaking and subtitle-reading viewers.
Peaks and valleys: Mountains’ Koen Holtkamp discusses the duo’s dramatic songcraft
Hearing Mountains live can be a revelation, a chance to dissect the discrete elements that make up its dense wall of sound. Though the volume can be overwhelming, there’s very little on stage movement or communication; Holtkamp and Anderegg seemingly share a psychic bond that lets them know where they’re headed next, based on careful listening and years of working together.
‘Militant anarchist’ Joe Jordan curates black history month film series
A New Yorker who studied drama at the NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Joe Jordan relocated to Charlottesville last year, after becoming increasingly upset about gentrification in New York. “I’m O.K. being an outsider,” he said. “But not in my own neighborhood.”
A double debut at the Tea Bazaar for art rock bands with familiar voices
Charlottesville music fans know Adam Smith as the front man for his namesake band The Invisible Hand, whose ability to knock out punchy, dense art-rock songs filled with hidden pop hooks has made it the best rock band in town. But for as long as he’s led that band, Smith has also indulged in a [...]
One at a time: Ian MacKaye on rethinking rock ‘n’ roll
For over 30 years, Ian MacKaye has been rethinking how rock & roll should work. As a teenager in the groundbreaking hardcore band Minor Threat he wrote passionate, aggressive anthems that inspired generations of punk kids to question the world around them.
Filmmaker forum: New cinema connects independent filmmakers to local audience
Jason Lappa and Jayson Whitehead hope to provide an outlet through the Bantam Theater, which opened in the Michie building’s Market Street courtyard, a space recently occupied by Club 216 (and before that, the original location of Live Arts).
Fade in: Yo La Tengo’s James McNew reflects on his Charlottesville past
Asked for a favorite musical memory of Charlottesville, James McNew concedes “It’s hard to pick just one,” though he does cite a late-career appearance by Black Flag, as well as shows by regional punk bands like Government Issue and Honor Roll.
The intermittent trajectory of brilliant drone duo Grand Banks
Grand Banks might be one of Charlottesville’s best-kept secrets. The duo of guitarist Davis Salisbury and keyboardist/singer Tyler Magill have been playing together for over 10 years, yet its discog-
raphy amounts to a handful of CD-Rs, and performances and recordings can go on hiatus for years at a time. But when Grand Banks gets together, dedicated followers anticipate some of the most transcendent, satisfying musical experiences around.
Cruise control: The Garage gets big love on Kickstarter
The loose community around The Garage suffered a shock in mid-September, when an elderly driver, departing from the funeral home, accidentally kept her car in reverse and backed through one of The Garage’s brick walls. Thankfully no one was injured, but The Garage now has a gaping, cartoon-like hole where its south face used to be.