If you're in the mood for some good emotive post-rock, check out From Fragile Seeds , band taking influence from acts like Moving Mountains. On their solid debut EP, From Fragile Seeds shows off how much collective talent they have through music, especially in the vocals of lead singer Andrew Inge. From Fragile Seeds performs at the Camel on Jan. 19 with The Front Bottoms and Mansions .
The best things about asking around Richmond for new music? You get what you asked for - in spades. Thanks to a simple question on Twitter, I have been inundated with releases from new or fairly new artists in the area. I'm going to do my best to keep up. Nine Mile Island is an upbeat pop rock group in the vein of Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pearl Jam and Jet. They're a group of friends that have been making music together since eighth grade and it's great to see such [...]
Want more fun rock and roll from Black Girls ? The band is ready to release its new album, "Hell Dragon" and judging from the tracks below, it's shaping up to be a very good album. The band will have two release shows - Jan. 14 (Saturday!) at the Camel for their CD pressing and Feb. 17 at the Hippodrome Theater for the vinyl release. But if you just can't wait, you can pre-order here from Worthless Junk Records.
After 11 years of silence, Texas post-hardcore rockers At the Drive-In will be reuniting after they released a cryptic tweet earlier today . ¡ ATTENTION ! To whom it may concern: AT THE DRIVE-IN will be breaking their 11 year silence THIS STATION IS …NOW…OPERATIONAL No, they're not coming to Richmond (as of yet, but that would seriously kick so much ass), but the River City connection here is that local creative collective Mondial is working on the promotion with a new website [...]
A psychedelic folk duo full of rich Americana sounds that are reminiscent of Bob Dylan, Vandaveer and The Wailin' Jennys thrown in? That's the Spinning Leaves and they'll be playing tonight at Globehopper Coffee with the amazing Jonathan Vassar and the Speckled Bird at 7 p.m.
It's pretty obvious that White Laces wouldn't slow down after an insane 2011. "Dissolve Into Color" is the newest release from their upcoming 7" split with Philadelphia's Arches . Check it out. It's pretty awesome.
If you haven't heard the rustic punk sounds of Itchy Hearts , you are seriously doing yourself a disservice. Last year's "Tried to Be Punk" was such a good album. These guys played at the Camel last night and simply blew me away. I had seen them many times before, but this time, there was something about the crowd and the energy that made me enjoy the night more than I thought.
After taking a few days off for a much needed break (compiling best of lists took a lot out of me), I'm back to blogging for 2012 with a couple of New Years Resolutions of my own. Go to more shows This one's pretty obvious. I know I missed out on seeing a lot of great bands perform last year. Write less, experience more I've written so much about music, my head could explode sometimes. I didn't mind writing about it, but sometimes you just have [...]
2011 may be over, but things are already moving along in the Richmond music scene. Here are a bunch of artists who I expect to see big things from in 2012. DEAD FAME Seriously, I don't need to say anything more about Dead Fame (pictured above) than I already have this past year . Just listen to them. The group has its debut EP coming out early next year and they've made such an impression on me, I'm excited to see what happens next. You've got [...]
Some of the songs I couldn't stop listening to this year. Enjoy. Polly Scattergood - New York, New York Mika - Elle Me Dit Emperor X - Erica Western Teleport Foo Fighters - Rope Hotel Lights - Falling Down [...]
The Richmond music scene had so many incredible albums come out this year, there was no way I could lump them in with national releases and then have to narrow them down to 10 (there are actually 11 on this list). And since my blog is primarily local, I made a completely separate list - and even that was still hard to do. Here are the best albums Richmond musicians had to offer for 2011. COREY MCLEMORE - THE DEFINITION There's nothing really more I can say about the Richmond-turned-Brooklyn rapper and his [...]
The one thing I take pride in as a music lover is that I have a wide variety of tastes. After looking at Paste and Pitchfork's Best of 2011 lists, I realize I hadn't listened to the majority of their choices. The music I listened to and loved over the year is 1) mainstream (Adele's "213 is a phenomenal album, in case you didn't already know), 2) so obscure or foreign that no one's ever heard of it, 3) very local (hence the name RICHMOND Playlist) and 4) released in the past 3-5 years (I get late to the party [...]
Did you know that Keller Williams made a children's album? Yeah, me neither. But for being full of songs geared toward to young ones, "Kids" keeps the jam band sound that Williams is known for and makes it accessible to a younger audience. I'd rather have them listen to this than anything that Radio Disney is shoving down their throats. Keller Williams will be performing two shows on Thursday, Dec. 29. The first is an afternoon show for the kids that will feature songs from the children's album plus lots of surprises [...]
I'm going to be taking a few days off while I enjoy the holidays. If you haven't checked out my previous posts on holiday songs by local artists or listened to the RVA Holiday Mixtape over at River City Rapids , take a listen to those. I'll be back next week for my Best of 2011, which will be pretty intense. I hope all you lovely readers have a wonderful holiday season, whatever you celebrate. And now what has become one of my favorite local holiday songs, here's Fuzzy Baby [...]
Check out the new video from Long Arms covering the Ramones' classic "I Wanna Be Sedated."
It seems I was too quick to post yesterday about local artists and their Christmas songs. Because no sooner did I post, I managed to hear about two more releases. Make Phantoms , who just released their new EP "Solitary Never Sleeps," also released a single for Christmas, which sounds much more like an indie pop song than a holiday classic. You can get the two-song single for free here: makephantoms.bandcamp.com/albu m/jolly-old-st-nicholas-single Meanwhile, the musicians at Hope Church put together a Christmas album [...]
Christmas is fast approaching and what better way to get in the spirit of things than with some great local holiday music? Well, there's drinking heavily, but that works for every occasion. After giving away a bunch of free songs over Thanksgiving, Dean Fields is at it again. This time, he went into the studio and recorded a few of his holiday favorites, and giving the gift of songs to his fans. Get the entire album at deanfields.bandcamp.com/album/ christmas Matt White [...]
Richmond Playlist
Check Out: d’Eon – “Transparency pt. II”
the Weekender ::: New music from Catcall // the National // Summer Camp
KNIFE PARTY – RAGE VALLEY EP
