Eight bucks can’t buy a whole lot these days.  Two gallons of gas.  A couple packs of smokes.  A beer or two, depending on your tastes.  But if you happen to be on the Downtown Mall this evening and looking for some live music, eight bucks sure will go a long way.  That’s exactly how much it will cost you to see 19 bands at five different venues in Charlottesville tonight and all of them are seperated by only a few blocks.  I swear I am not making this up. 

The wealth of musical talent on display tonight is such that in some ways it’s almost going to feel like a musical festival in that you can literally move from show to show as you would from stage to stage, and you’ll have to be ever mindful of who’s playing where so that you don’t miss some of your personal favorites.  And here’s the real clincher, every act on every stage has at least one connection to Charlottesville.  The details on a jam-packed night of music after the break.

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August 26:  Song of the Day.  My Morning Jacket–Touch Me I’m Going to Scream Pt. 2

Here’s another really cool animated video that has popped up in recent days, this time for one of my favorite tunes off of My Morning Jacket’s latest album Evil Urges.  (And you guys know how much I love the animation and the My Morning Jacket.)  In this new video for “Touch Me I’m Going to Scream Pt. 2) both the look of the video and the song itself are both really well done.  I’ll be interested to see what you guys think.

We’re just a little over a week away from the band’s upcoming performance at the Charlottesville Pavilion on Thursday, September 4.  Tickets are still available for this general admission show being billed simply as “An Evening With My Morning Jacket”.  For ticket info click here.  Gates open at 6pm, show starts at 7pm.  [”Touch Me I’m Going to Scream Pt. 2″ video after the break] »Read More

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The Charlottesville Music Showcase promises to make this Wednesday a “hump day” to remember with it’s 2nd Anniversary Get Down.  The “musical mojo” will be working overtime and I might even suggest you knock off work a little early to be a part of it all.  Just make sure you get some rest beforehand, because it’s going to a pretty full day of music.

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Here’s an interesting little news tip that should generate a great deal of discussion in the coming days and weeks.  The following excerpt is taken from the items listed on the preliminary agenda for the September 9 meeting of the Charlottesville Planning Commission:  [You can read the entire preliminary agenda here]

Preliminary Agenda

CITY OF CHARLOTTESVILLE
PLANNING COMMISSION REGULAR DOCKET
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2008 – 5:30 P.M.

…

CITY COUNCIL CHAMBERSIV. REGULAR MEETING ITEMS (Cont.) — 9:00 P.M.

H. SP-08-07-24 – (608 -612 Preston Avenue) An application for a special use permit for the property at 608 -612 Preston Avenue. This is a request to allow a dance hall within the Central City Corridor. This property is further identified on City Real Property Tax Map #32 as parcel 14 having approximately 165 feet of frontage on Preston Avenue and containing approximately 74,488 square feet of land or 1.71 acres. The zoning of this property is currently Central City Corridor and general uses called for in the Land Use Plan of the Comprehensive Plan are for Commercial Use. Report prepared by Nick Rogers, Neighborhood Planner.

Does this mean that the proposed Preston Avenue music hall may still happen?  No one can be sure as that decision will ultimately rest with the members of the City Planning Commission.  At the very least it appears that Starr Hill Presents, the group representing Coran Capshaw’s Red Light Management, is not quite ready to throw in the towel.  But before the Planning Commission can have its say, it still remains to be seen whether this issue will make it to the commission in the first place.  Steps are being taken and from what we’ve learned, this deal isn’t dead just yet. »Read More

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You’ll hear that familiar refrain and many more as former Credence Clearwater Revival frontman and rock n roll legend John Fogerty takes the stage at the Charlottesville Pavilion on Sunday.  And while Fogerty’s best known work comes from his years spent with CCR, his later solo albums are not to be overlooked.  Two of my favorites are the 1997 release Blue Moon Swamp which won a Grammy for Best Rock Album as well as his latest effort Revival, released in October of 2007, which also received a Grammy nomination.  Gates open at 6pm, show starts at 7pm.  Tickets are still available.  For info click here.

For the rest of your weekend events….

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“Singing, planting rice,
 village songs more lovely
 than famous city songs”

Haiku by Matsuo Basho

We begin with a poem from the Japanese poet Basho for a couple reasons.  The beauty of haiku is its ability to capture vastness in just a few simple lines.  In this way, less becomes more.  For local musician and singer-songwriter Wes Swing both the poet and the idea of less is more are at the heart of the music he makes. 

A classically trained musician who began playing violin at the age of 4, Wes Swing is creating a very unique and personal style of music that is unlike most of what I’ve heard in Charlottesville.  By drawing together elements of minimalism and modern classical pieces with expressions of folk that are at times reminiscent of the late Nick Drake, Swing hopes to push upon the boundaries of what defines the singer-songwriter genre .

[Wes Swing photo from the artist]

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Our beloved staff writer Shaun has posted on the Jazz scene in town a number of times before, but I feel it’s time to give a little update, especially with the arrival of new readers that, among other things, the beginning of the semester shall hopefully bring. (We do need indeed more people to write about music, art, theatre, literature etc. to give this site more variety. Shaun cannot do it all by himself!)

So here is my subjective preview of Jazz for the next week and a half. Before people feel the need to point it out: yes, some of my own bands will be in it, but I’ll make sure to give a fair overview, including the latest jive-talk of the town.

So this Friday, August 22nd, we’ll start with a rare Jazz treat. John Carden and the Greenwich Swing Time will play at Friday’s after Five at the Pavilion. Those who have never heard him perform surely missed out on something rare. It is not necessarily the most swinging or avant-garde of all ensembles in town but they are a lot of fun. Think: Billy Eckstine meets Broadway career and then gets endorsed by the Charlottesville Jazz society. The backup band features Humberto Sales of Beleza Brazil fame. His playing alone will, I think, make this a nice Summer evening event.

Also at Friday’s after Five the local jack-of-all-trades Matthew Willner will perform with his Jazz quartet. Who knows what instrument he’ll be playing here. Every time I have seen him in the past I have been astonished how creative and sophisticated his playing is and he surely surrounds himself with great musicians. He deserves the big stage.

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Trent Reznor is coming to Charlottesville and he’s bringing his band with him.

I happened to stop by Pitchfork.com this evening to discovered this little tidbit:   Nine Inch Nails has announced that they are extending their North American tour through December and one of the announced tour dates just so happens to be right here in Charlottesville.

After playing at The Forum in Inglewood, CA on September 6, the band will be taking the rest of the month off before kicking off a swing through South America and Mexico in October.  Nine Inch Nails returns stateside on October 23 with a tour stop in San Antonio, TX and then they will wind their way through the South before landing at the John Paul Jones Arena here in C’ville on November 5th.  The band’s website confirms the date, but no official word has been posted on the JPJ website yet.  Stay tuned for more details.

With the Charlottesville Pavilion’s concert season expected to wrap-up sometime in October, this is a pretty big concert announcement guaranteed to keep the Charlottesville music scene buzzin’ well into the fall.

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106.1 FM The Corner once again teams up with the Gravity Lounge to present another FREE concert performance as Teddy Thompson, the son of legendary performers Richard and Linda Thompson, pays a visit to Charlottesville on Wednesday, August 20.  Thompson is celebrating the release of his latest album A Piece of What You Need (Verve Forecast) which was released in the U.S. in June of this year.

Joining Teddy Thompson on the Wednesday evening bill are special guests Justin Jones from Washington, D.C. and The Grey Race from Brooklyn, NY.  The show kicks off at 7:30pm.

A Piece of What You Need is Thompson’s fourth solo album to date and is the follow-up to last year’s Upfront and Low Down which found the singer/songwriter reworking a collection of country classics from the likes of Dolly Parton, Ernest Tubb, and George Jones with surprisingly amazing results. 

I’ve posted a collection of video performances from Teddy Thompson after the break, including an acoustic performance of “In My Arms” (from his latest release), a live performance of “Change of Heart” on Letterman (from Upfront and Low Down), and a fantastic cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Tonight Will Be Fine”  (a live version of this one appears on the soundtrack for the film Leonard Cohen:  I’m Your Man).  I’ll see you at the show on Wednesday. Did I mention that it’s also free?!?

[publicity photo]

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On seeing Birdlips for the first time and giving a long, repeated listen to their debut album Cardboard Wings, released in February of this year.  That’s all after the break.

[Cliff Usher of Birdlips.  Photo by Greg Nash]

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