From the ground up: While enjoying major-label success, Illiterate Light stays connected to its roots
Nearly a decade ago, a traveling troupe of musicians was midway through its set at the now-demolished Random Row Books in Charlottesville when the power went out. While darkness settled over the crowd, the band continued its performance undeterred, with no noticeable change in sound. That’s because the group’s set-up was running on a bike-powered […]
Sound Choices: Honoring family and following jazz
Angela Garcia Cha Cha Palace (Spacebomb Records) Angelica Garcia has that “it” factor. Listen across a series of loops, echoes, and howls, and her performances stop you dead in your tracks. They make you feel something. There are times when a solid live performance doesn’t translate in the studio, but that’s not the case on […]
Sound Choices: Recent Virginia releases resonate with dream pop, folk, and old-time music
Becca Mancari The Greatest Part (Captured Tracks) After cutting her chops in Lynchburg, Virginia, Becca Mancari brought the traditions of Appalachia with her to Nashville, where she quickly made a name for herself in Music City’s Americana circles. Her debut album Good Woman (2017) drew on elements of her roots, elevating them to the modern […]
Falling together: The Lumineers document the reach of addiction on III
Throughout history, rules and procedures have been established to provide structure—like getting from point A to point B. Books are read from beginning to end; a race participant begins at the starting line and progresses to the finish. But creative fields promote originality, leaving space for a band like The Lumineers to throw out the […]
![Kate Bollinger celebrates the vinyl release of her 2019 EP, I Don’t Wanna Lose, at the Southern on November 14. “Music is always around for a lot of people and it’s, I think, subtly powerful, but [not everyone] knows that it can really change people’s lives and change their brain patterns," she says. Publicity photo](https://www.c-ville.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Kate-Bollinger-Main-Press-Photo-Jonathan-Roensch-Square-e1573503616667-200x200.jpg)
Music in me: Kate Bollinger’s lifelong connection to healing through song
The health benefits of music have been widely researched. Evidence has shown that music can alleviate stress, reduce pain, and lead to better cognitive functioning in patients suffering from memory loss. A popular study released last year asserted that routinely going to concerts can contribute to an increased lifespan. Charlottesville native Kate Bollinger witnessed music’s […]
Star gazer: Bruce Springsteen goes to the desert in support of new album
With a career spanning nearly 50 years, Bruce Springsteen has long been a part of the fabric of American music. And his live performances? They’re nothing short of legendary. So it was a bit out of the ordinary when one of rock ‘n’ roll’s biggest names in touring announced that he wouldn’t be touring behind […]
Glitter art: The Flaming Lips keep it interesting with a far-out music and installation project
Wayne Coyne is sitting in a hotel lobby in Indianapolis, polishing off three espresso shots from the adjacent Starbucks kiosk. “I always say, energy is happiness,” he muses after taking a sip. Doling out fortune cookie philosophies about something as mundane as caffeine intake is what you hope for from The Flaming Lips frontman, who […]
Golden rules: Houndmouth applies folk-rock ethos to the digital age on latest release
Across two LPs and five years of nonstop touring, Houndmouth made a name for itself as a troupe of sonic time travelers. After performing at SXSW in 2012, the Indiana band signed to Rough Trade Records and dropped its debut album, From the Hills Below the City, the following year. Full of hard-luck protagonists who […]
Status update: Dawes scrolls past the SoCal sound on new album Passwords
The age of social media is rife with oversharing; dominated by a virtual playground where foodstagrams and political Facebook fights abound—and any semblance of privacy is tenuously maintained by CAPTCHAs and digital passwords. Los Angeles band Dawes explores this concept on its latest album, Passwords, by examining how the sociopolitical climate and our personal relationships […]
![Natalie Prass aimed to cut through the chaos with 2018’s The Past and The Future. “It’s a challenge writing catchy, danceable [tracks] about these deep, heavy subjects that are so nuanced, so multilayered,” she says. Publicity photo](https://www.c-ville.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/bone_DSC09316-edit-200x200.jpg)
Test of time: Natalie Prass merges old soul with a modern, political beat
Singer-songwriter Natalie Prass is camped out at a friend’s warehouse space in Richmond, Virginia, enjoying some down time before she embarks on the next leg of her tour, and she’s going through her morning routine, which includes making coffee and throwing on Janet Jackson’s “Pleasure Principle” from the 1986 album, Control. “Janet [Jackson] has always […]
Intellectual harvester: Farmer-musician Gregory Alan Isakov finds his own creative vocabulary in songs and seeds
One of the first things to know about Gregory Alan Isakov is that he finds inspiration everywhere, from seeds to refrigerator magnets. For the singer-songwriter, who pulls double duty as a full-time farmer in Colorado, it’s all about creating with the tools you have. In the years following his 2003 self-titled debut, Isakov has become […]
Universal chords: Hiss Golden Messenger digs into the deeper stuff
As Hiss Golden Messenger, M.C. Taylor has spent the past decade crafting songs that stand on musical traditions while summoning a world all of their own. That’s not surprising when you consider Taylor’s output in the new limited-edition Hiss Golden Messenger box set, Devotion: Songs About Rivers and Spirits and Children—it’s just one dichotomy in […]
Jessica Lea Mayfield gets personal about domestic abuse
Jessica Lea Mayfield is done apologizing. The Nashville-based artist made her solo debut in 2008 with the album With Blasphemy So Heartfelt, produced by The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach. Known for towing the line between straight-ahead roots (she grew up playing in a bluegrass band with her family) and snarling alt-rock, Mayfield delivered languid vocals […]
Keller Williams keeps stacking up the sets
There are certain musicians whose style is so unique that any snippet of their music is immediately identifiable. Multi-instrumentalist Keller Williams is one of those artists. A staple on the jam scene and the festival circuit for nearly 25 years, Williams has created a singular sound, which he dubs “acoustic dance music.” Although he wields […]
Wadada Leo Smith’s creative music leads the Impulse Festival
Heralded as a pioneering figure in the field of music for more than five decades, composer and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith’s artistic vision knows no bounds. Throughout his prolific career—which boasts upwards of 50 albums—Smith has delved deep into the power of sound, language and even color, to discover what art can tell us about […]
John Waters showcases the odd humor in Christmas
John Waters is a man of many names. Dubbed the Prince of Puke, the People’s Pervert and the Pope of Trash, among others, the legendary filmmaker has made a career out of his personal brand of quirky, twisted humor. Although best known for bringing Hairspray to the big screen along with cult classics like Pink […]
More fabulous: Trudie Styler’s Freak Show champions LGBTQ youth
In The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde writes: “The truth is rarely pure and never simple.” It’s one of many mantras employed by self-prescribed “trans-visionary gender obliviator” Billy Bloom, the vibrant protagonist at the heart of Freak Show, an adaptation of James St. James’ 2007 YA novel of the same name, and the directorial […]
Unusual folk: alt-j plays it smart
It might come as a surprise to learn that alt-J members conceive of themselves as a folk band. After all, the U.K. trio’s synths, patterns and rhythms don’t conjure the same aesthetic as an acoustic guitar-wielding troubadour. The experimental art-rock does, however, evoke its own brand of folklore. Take “Adeline,” a track from the group’s […]
Gov’t Mule’s Warren Haynes looks ahead at Lockn’
Warren Haynes is one of the most prolific guitarists and songwriters of our time. After joining The Allman Brothers Band in 1989 at the request of Dickey Betts, Haynes formed Gov’t Mule with bassist Allen Woody and drummer Matt Abts as a side project in 1994. Over 20 years later, Mule is an enduring rock […]
Ann Wilson on inspiration and ways to agitate
Ann Wilson has been pushing boundaries since the release of Heart’s debut album, Dreamboat Annie, in 1976. Wilson joined the band in the early ’70s at the age of 22, and her younger sister, Nancy, soon followed suit. Between Nancy’s guitar virtuosity and Wilson’s killer vocals, the two changed the face of music, reframing preconceived […]
Portugal. The Man finds inspiration in the past
The old adage “history doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes” rings particularly true in 2017. You don’t have to search hard to find parallels between the current sociopolitical landscape and the one that served as a catalyst for the counterculture movement of the 1960s. This observation wasn’t lost on the members of Portugal. The […]
Own world: The Wild Reeds’ unified harmonic vision
In his essay titled “The Decay of Lying,” published in 1891, Oscar Wilde famously wrote that “life imitates art far more than art imitates life.” The Wild Reeds (in town on July 31) experienced this concept firsthand when they were filming the music video for “Only Songs,” the first single off their sophomore album, The […]
Crossing boundaries: The story of Spoon’s latest sonic adventure
For more than two decades, Spoon has forged a path that embodies consistency. Across nine studio albums, the Austin quartet has dabbled in mainstream success (think “I Turn My Camera On” from 2005’s Gimme Fiction), but lives comfortably in the hook-laden, meticulous ebbs and flows that have solidified the group’s status as indie stalwarts. Comprised […]
Spoon’s latest sonic adventure began in the woods
For more than two decades, Spoon has forged a path that embodies consistency. Across nine studio albums, the Austin quartet has dabbled in mainstream success (think “I Turn My Camera On” from 2005’s Gimme Fiction), but lives comfortably in the hook-laden, meticulous ebbs and flows that have solidified the group’s status as indie stalwarts. Comprised […]
Animal Collective is ‘Kinda Bonkers’ in the best way
As one-fourth of experimental pop band Animal Collective and a solo artist in his own right, Noah Lennox (who creates under the moniker Panda Bear) has been making music professionally for nearly 20 years. Along with Dave Portner (Avey Tare), Brian Weitz (Geologist) and Josh Dibb (Deakin), Lennox and the Collective made their mainstream crossover […]
A record label at AHS puts passion into learning
In 2013, Chance Dickerson was working as a teaching assistant in the ESOL (English as a Second Language) department at Albemarle High School and he wanted to share his love of music with his students. So he set up an “underground studio” in an English class book closet and began teaching the ins and outs […]
Lucy Dacus sets course for big topics on second record
On “Troublemaker Doppelgänger,” a bluesy jaunt from Lucy Dacus’ debut album, the singer-songwriter posits, “No child is born knowing there’s an ugly or evil thing / When did my folks stop covering my eyes?” It’s a thesis statement of sorts for No Burden, a record that explores the responsibilities of adulthood. The cover art features […]