Haunting vocals paired with gentle guitar strumming define Sam Marandola’s solo project Oldest Sea. There’s no need for heavy rhythms on her self-released LP Sage Burner—it showcases just how effective pure instrumentation paired with melancholy vocals can be. With Winterweeds, Brandon Morsberger, and The Big Drum In The Sky Religion, fingerpicking blues and psychedelic also […]
twisted branch tea bazaar
Well-versed: A.D. Carson finds his place—in the unlikely bridging of hip-hop and academia
It’s a rainy Friday in late October, the first cold night of fall, and the people who’ve dared to venture outside tiptoe quickly around autumn leaves sticking slick on the Downtown Mall bricks. A few stories above, it’s warm and cozy inside the Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar, where a small crowd has gathered to hear […]
ARTS Pick: Sis
Spacey, slinky synths paired with earnest poeticism and come-hither vocals drive the experimental pop of San Francisco’s Sis. Touring on the heels of its debut album, Euphorbia, the group is already playing up the creative juice that’s flowing to a new release set for Spring 2019. In the meantime, Sis’ brand new single, “Nightie,” (released […]
ARTS Pick: Haiku Slam
Slam poetry gets a lot more fast-paced—not to mention, a lot shorter—with the Southern Gothic Futurist Haiku Slam. Participants must keep their poems to 17 syllables, as required by the original Japanese art form. Reigning champ Raven Mack hosts and competes, going head-to-head with a contender [...]
ARTS Pick: Daniel Bachman
The music of Daniel Bachman is known as American primitive guitar, but some may consider that a misnomer. The complex, plucked arrangements distinctive to the Fredericksburg native are anything but simple. Many of his songs stretch past the 10-minute mark, and some are entirely instrumental. [...]
ARTS Pick: Dinosoul experiments with indie sound
Pittsburgh’s dark-pop quartet Dinosoul takes experimental-indie to the next level, mixing synth, reverb and delay-heavy guitar riffs with emotional vocals and health and wellness. Yes, that’s right. Band founder Donny Donovan is also a health, wellness and fitness coach, and Dinosoul offers a [...]
Live music venue The Ante Room folds for now
A music venue is a strange place to be in the middle of the day. A club is designed for the nighttime, with its dark walls, ceilings and stages meant to be illuminated not by the sun but by bright lights, coming alive when bodies are in the room and music is in the air. […]
ARTS Pick: Airpark
When the six-piece band The Apache Relay quietly ended, brothers Michael and Ben Ford decided to work as a duo, and Airpark was born. One year later, the siblings are creating forward-thinking pop music, mixing vocal harmonies with minimal instrumentation manifested in emotional vibes that [...]
Rap battle winner Zeus4K looks to the next stage
Last April, J.R. Brown stepped onto the wooden stage at the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center and looked out at the small-ish audience that had gathered in the auditorium. With the house lights on, he could see everyone’s faces. All of their eyes—and ears—were on him. He was [...]
ARTS Pick: Dina Maccabee, Janel Leppin and Juliana Daugherty
Improvisation on viola, atmospheric cello and lush acoustics fill a unique bill of songwriters: Touring veteran Dina Maccabee (violinist, violist and vocalist) loops depth, space and complexity into the songs from her new album, The World is in the Work. Cellist, vocalist and composer Janel [...]
Listen up: C-ville’s hip-hop scene is on the rise
It’s a gray Sunday evening, 50-something degrees and drizzling when The Beetnix step onto the outdoor stage at IX Art Park. It’s been raining all day, but a crowd of more than 100 has gathered on the graffiti-painted concrete ground in front of the stage. Many of them hold their phones and [...]
ARTS Pick: The Lightmare Before Christmas
Moody times call for moody tunes. Locally stacked triple bill The Lightmare Before Christmas featuring the darkwave of Jaquardini speaks volumes to our need for something darker than the blues with the cathartic space beats of This Hollow Machine and the Brickbats’ Corey Gorey in a goth solo [...]
Woods Running takes off with expansive, emotional tracks
The four members of post-rock band Woods Running are about halfway through a pot of mint tea at Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar when they catch the eye of a bearded, ponytailed man sitting at the next table. “Hey guys! I thought that was you,” the man says with enthusiasm. “When’s your next show?” [...]
Rugged Arts nurtures a thriving underground scene
When R.U.N.T.215th was growing up in Philadelphia in the mid-1980s, he routinely stayed up late and recorded Lady B’s “ Street Beat” Power 99 FM radio show, taping it on his boom box. He’d listen to the tapes over and over—the sets were packed full of Public Enemy, MC Lyte, Audio Two and Melle [...]
ARTS Pick: Marian McLaughlin
Singer-songwriter and guitarist Marian McLaughlin weaves together imaginative lyrics and intricate classical guitar work, then delivers it so rhapsodically that you can’t help but be drawn into her wake. A couple of years ago, McLaughlin captured the attention of NPR’s “All Songs Considered” [...]
Businesses affected by Downtown Mall fire on the road to recovery
The June 29 Downtown Mall fire that started in Ike’s Underground Vintage Clothing and Strange Cargo also has temporarily closed Miso Sweet Ramen + Donut Shop and Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar. The Tea Bazaar suffered from “a fine layer of smoke dust over all of the restaurant including the office [...]
Fire started at Ike’s Underground under investigation
It was nearing lunchtime on the Downtown Mall when smoke began pouring out of the building that houses Ike’s Underground Vintage Clothing and Strange Cargo, Miso Sweet and Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar. Next door at OpenQ, CEO Otavio Freire was in his office, which “filled up very [...]