This is a short post but it’s a great little nugget I have spent the morning re-reading. I was a devotee of Cripsy’s column in the 90s and early 00s. He definitely got out every weekend and really did make ‘the crawl’, as it were. There are some great bands from Cville’s past reviewed here (with photos!) - The Counselors, Wisher, and some GREAT Trax show reviews/pics. Be prepared to spend your morning here:
It is springtime. As the weather gets warmer I get more anxious, having been cooped up inside in front of a computer all day - only to come home and put myself right back in front of it writing or coding or gaming. I don’t feel too bad about it - after all every five days there is a weekend. I love listening to records with the windows open. I love being single. I love spending a saturday afternoon sitting on the couch and getting up every half hour to change the side.
More often than not my affections turn to a special young lady and I will be inspired to make her a mix CD. »Read More
I’ve been contemplating this for a while now, and I decided to put my balls on the table and list a few of the most underrated and overrated bands in town. There may be more of these but here are a few that have been on my mind lately.
Here: Trees on Fire, the Acorn Sisters, Falsies, and King Wilkie
Like you, I have always loved the WTJU Rock Marathon. However, I’ve always been bummed that I missed some of my favorite shows because they were on at 3am and I just couldn’t rouse myself out of bed to record them. Now with internet streaming audio and wonderful (FREE) media players - we are able to rectify this problem. I’m going to show you how. NOTE: this article assumes a basic knowledge of installing software, and it’s geared towards a windows platform but the options are the same in Mac and Linux (I set it up in Ubuntu last night). »Read More
I guess I am the ‘rock guy’ here at Cvillemuse so I’m going to go out on a limb here and post some hate. This site has been far too nice since its inception and it needs a small dose of the real world. This post today is on 5 rules of show etiquette. There are more, but these are the basics. Please nail me to the wall if I get this wrong. I’m not too proud. »Read More
Saturday night the Dodos came back to town to play at the Tea Bazaar. On the heels of a new critically acclaimed record titled ‘Visiter’ on FrenchKiss Records, there was a large crowd assembled early to see them. I was pleasantly shocked to see that the Tea Bazaar was filled at around 10pm. Last summer when they came through town only about 15 people were there - and this is a band that well deserves the crowd.
If you’re in a band in town who’d like to see a review of your recordings - I don’t care if you’re a high school band, college, hipster, dance rock, house, rich house, poor house, old folks house, house for unwed mothers, metal, hiphop, etc. Send us your CD or vinyl or cassette or lo-fi jam. I will listen to EVERYTHING you send in. That’s a bold promise, I know, but I stand by it.
Send submissions to:
Spicy Bear Media LLC
c/o Cvillemuse.com
250 W Main Street, Suite 101
Charlottesville, VA 22902
The music scene in Charlottesville is incredibly diverse and writing about bands or reviewing CDs can kind of take on a dull character. Generally in my experience the people who flip first to the music section in the Hook/C-ville (because does anyone read the arts secrion of the Progress?) are musicians. “Did I get written about from my show last week? Is there gonna be a feature for my show next week?” I don’t write for either of those papers and I don’t play shows that would get written up - so why do I look obsessively? I guess I’m hoping that something really crazy happened or there was some truly epic event I missed that will give me some faith that people in local bands are taking risks onstage. OR that there are really wild things happening in our town that go under the radar unless someone at the paper happened to see it. I guess that’s what I am hoping to contribute to CvilleMuse, or what I hope readers will chime in with.
Dear reader - I know you’ve seen some crazy stuff. What is the craziest/most epic/dastardly thing you’ve seen at a show in Charlottesville? It could be a local band, national band, 10 years ago - doesnt matter. Anyone who saw Black Flag at the Mineshaft, for example, and can verify whether or not Henry Rollins did indeed chase kids through the parking lot (see appropriate passage in ‘Get In the Van’) who were throwing bottles at him. I’ll add my own story, maybe not as epic or cool as some - but I’ll get the ball rolling.
In 2002 or so I was at Tokyo Rose to watch some friends in the (now defunct) band Lyman play. My good friend had just started playing guitar with them. They had played a few songs when a local punker guy, whose name I won’t publish but we’ll call him Spike, meandered up to the stage with a Marker and started to write on the walls. The band kept playing and Spike went around back and got on the stage from the rear steps. He stepped past the drummer, kinda wandered through the band, and was writing on the walls. Now generally Spike is a pretty harmless guy, he was drunk and doing his thing. Only the band (and in particular my friend) didn’t really dig it and tried to get him offstage. Eventually they did, with some words, and seemed to start back up playing again without much more than a little laugh. It was Tokyo Rose, after all.
Not halfway into the next song his friend “Rager”, who used to live here but hasn’t in many years - was visiting from NYC - rushed up to the stage with a barstool and hit the singer with it. Got him right in the crotch with one of the legs and then tried to go after my friend. The singer, of course, grabbed the stool trying to wrestle it from Rager. The band kept playing kind of oblivious to what was happening until gradually the bassist - who was enormous - grabbed Rager (who was yelling and flailing punches) and pulled him onstage. The drummer climbed over his drumset and proceeded to try to get to Rager, and my friend the guitarist stepped back. Before I knew it stuff was getting knocked over and a brawl was happening onstage, people were stunned at how fast it happened and quickly the 3 guys dragged Rager offstage and out the back door of Tokyo Rose where the train tracks were. What happened after that I don’t know. My buddy the guitarist got offstage and looked a bit shaken, until the 3 bandmates walked back in (withour Rager) and shook off whatever agitation had overcome them. They finished playing their set and that was the end of it. It never got written in the paper, probably because there were only about 10 people at the show, but I can’t forget how surreal it was and how quickly it happened.
This is my first article for the site, so I’d like to introduce myself as Shaun did - although I prefer hiding behind relative anonymity. I am a curmudgeon and It’s nice to meet you.
Pelican, Chicago’s master craftsmen of instrumental epic rock, made a stop at the Outback Lodge on Friday night. I’d been looking forward to this show for months and I’m still kind of abuzz that they came to the Outback Lodge. The openers, Black Cobra (from San Francisco) and Unearthly Trance (from New York) were rather standard metal choices for a band as far reaching as Pelican, but I wasn’t turned off. Both openers were so loud that I found it a bit hard to breathe at the front of the stage - and at the Outback Lodge, this was almost impressive. The guitarist from Black Cobra (hands down the loudest two piece metal band I have ever heard) was using what looked like bass strings on his guitar and played through a monstrous guitar amp with 3 cabinets and a huge bass amp. Of course they were very nice softspoken California guys offstage, go figure.
For those unfamiliar with Pelican, I can only barely classify them as a metal band - and this is usually only for people who I’m forced to give a quick description. Maybe I’ll stretch and say post-rock or indie-metal, if those terms even mean anything. Genres tend to slip a bit when describing this band and now I have some time to write and you’re stuck reading it (hopefully). Their songs are often epic, pushing the ten minute mark and cascading through many ranges of sonic density, heaviness, and ethereal transcendence. Did I mention there’s no vocals?
On Friday’s show they played mostly songs from their new album ‘City of Echoes’, without a setlist in front of me and going on memory I believe they played damn near the whole album. Very little pause between songs, except to briefly announce bassist Bryan Herweg’s 35 birthday. The band was energetic and seemed comfortable on a small stage in front of a crowded and sweaty Outback Lodge. Though their drumming has been criticized recently by Pitchfork and some others I didn’t notice it. To be fair, the swells and depths of the melodies overcome pretty much anything for me. The only thing that could ruin Pelican for me would be a singer. I will say that the drummer Larry Herweg (brother of bassist Bryan) has always seemed a bit more removed from the music live than the others but it’s never cast a shadow over the band.
By the time it was over it seemed like it was too soon. The band had a good time, and the brief chat I had with guitarist Laurent Schroeder-Lebec he said if he could play shows like that for the rest of his life he’d be happy. Early on their promoter had suggested the Outback Lodge over the Satellite and I think it was a good decision. The show would have seemed cavernous and sparse at the Satellite but in the close, dark, smoky space of the Outback it was truly intimate. Here’s hoping they come back soon.
They’re playing again in Richmond on May 3rd at the National while on a two month tour with Thrice. With any luck I’ll get to see them again.
