#interviews

2016 in Review: Stuff I Wrote

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river-city-magazine

So I’m going to attempt to end this jerk of a year with five wrap-up posts in five days. Fingers crossed this works. I tend to overwrite these things until they become albatross-y, so I’ll try to keep things snappy, starting with a quick list of links to music writing I did in 2016. Add in weekly contributions to the Off Your Radar newsletter and an August appearance on Sound Gaze and I can definitively say that this is the most blabbing about music I’ve done in a year.

Many thanks — seriously, too many to mention here — to the people I interviewed and the people who made what I wrote sound better and look prettier. Y’all know who you are, and I hope you also know how awesome and appreciated you are. Lots of fun stuff in the works for 2017. Until then…

Featured Off Your Radar weeks:

For Boomer Magazine:

For Richmond Navigator online

For River City Magazine

For RVA Magazine

For West End’s Best

 

RVA Magazine

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rva-magazine

It’s been a hot minute since I was in the print edition of RVA Magazine — the last time was in 2012 — but I’m happy to say I have an article in the new issue, which sports a truly gorgeous cover. Look at that thing. Greg Simkins, y’all.

I wrote about recording studios in Richmond, spending the first half my 2,000 words surveying options and the second half profiling the studio I’ve spent the most time in — Pedro Aida’s Audio Verite. Aida is a talented dude, and interviewing him gave me an opportunity to dig deeper into his relationship with music and how he got his start as an engineer/producer. It strikes me now that the reason that conversation was so rewarding and the reason Aida finds recording so rewarding are one in the same: It’s all about connecting with people. Finding the right studio… helping people make albums… writing… performing… at every stage, your success and your ability to connect with people are intertwined, and I feel like I now have a fuller understanding of that than I did before I started working on this article. Thank you, Pedro.

You can read the article here (I also have a few album reviews/blurbs in this issue) or find free hard copies around town. I found a stack at Belmont Pizzeria while out for a run and managed to tuck two into the front pocket of the hoodie I was wearing. They bounced around a bit on the way home, but it was worth it.

I’ll close by re-posting “Reinvent The Space,” which Positive No recorded with Aida at Audio Verite. (Click here for more info on the song and the great cause you can support by buying it.)

Positive No — “Reinvent The Space” [Bandcamp]

West End’s Best

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west-ends-best

Non-bloggy writing update Part Deux: I wrote an article for West End’s Best (just turn River City Magazine upside down and you’ve got yourself a West End’s Best!) about music venues in the West End of Richmond.

This was really fun — I got to talk to friendly people from Innsbrook After Hours, The Tin Pan, Enzo’s, J.J.’s Grille, and Rare Ole Times, all worth checking out if you haven’t had a chance to yet. Many thanks to everyone who I interviewed. It was heartwarming to connect with all these people who care about putting on good shows and showcasing bands from near and far. Some articles I finish and want to start all over again, so I can continue the conversation. I hope I get a chance to do this one again with other venues around Richmond.

Click here for spots where you can grab a copy of the magazine. Magazines, really. Two magazines, one grab. In the meantime, here’s a video of Don McLean singing “American Pie” at The Tin Pan earlier this year.

Don McLean — “American Pie” (live) [YouTube]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7edSpoduGiE

 

Carbon Leaf

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carbon-leaf

Quick non-bloggy writing heads up: I recently got to interview Barry Privett, the lead singer of Carbon Leaf, and while the article doesn’t appear to be online yet, you can grab a print copy of River City Magazine/West End’s Best at these locations.

Carbon Leaf is a name you hear and see quite a bit living in Richmond, but I didn’t know the group’s full backstory — how they all lived together in one house on Floyd Avenue at one point, how they were originally a cover band and had to make the tough transition to playing original music, which venues in town they played in their early years… At the same time that Carbon Leaf has evolved over the years, they’ve been a constant amid a great deal of change during the last two decades. Really interesting, I think. I hope y’all will grab a copy and then grab a ticket to their show this Saturday at The National — should be a really good time.

Carbon Leaf — “Indecision” (live) [Spotify/iTunes]

Martin Barre

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martin-barre-resized

On Friday night, I was spinning Aqualung on my turntable. On Saturday morning, I was speaking over the phone with Martin Barre, Jethro Tull’s legendary guitarist. (He’s performing at The Tin Pan on Saturday night.) It was a great, truly candid conversation, and I compiled the best bits for a Richmond Navigator interview that went online yesterday. I hope you’ll take a took and grab a ticket for Saturday, if you haven’t already.

If you’re curious about his solo work, here’s a track that provides a nice bridge between his past and present — a rearrangement of the Jethro Tull song “Slow Marching Band” that Barre included on his 2016 Back to Steel album.

Martin Barre — “Slow Marching Band” [Spotify/iTunes]

Perpetual Groove

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perpetual-groove

So happy to see my interview with Perpetual Groove hit the interweb. This was a pleasure to work on, in part because it’s such an exciting moment for the band. They’re picking up steam after taking some time off — new EP, on tour now, and they’ll be stopping in Richmond at the National this Saturday night. Should be a special show — keyboardist Matt McDonald said some really nice things about the National in our interview. I hope you’ll take a few minutes to learn more about their journey and their history of environmental activism in this River City Magazine article.

Perpetual Groove — “Best Of Anything” [Spotify/iTunes]

Sound Gaze

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Sound Gaze

Wanted to post quickly about Sound Gaze for two reasons. First, I wanted to thank Doug for having me on this weekend. He’s a class act, and if you’re not a regular listener, I’d highly recommend tuning into WDCE on Saturdays or subscribing to the podcast and catching up throughout the week. (I can confirm that it’s an excellent running podcast.)

Second, I thought I’d offer a few corrections and clarifications from Saturday, because I clearly have the recall of an overwhelmed chipmunk:

  • The new Head and the Heart album, Signs of Light, comes out on September 9.
  • The new Hiss Golden Messenger album, Heart Like a Levee, comes out on October 7.
  • I saw Xenia Rubinos open for Son Lux, not Son Little. In my defense, both shows happened at Strange Matter, and both were completely awesome.
  • That My Morning Jacket album I mentioned (with the amazing deluxe vinyl version) is The Waterfall.
  • Jump, Little Children did, in fact, form in North Carolina, though Wikipedia lists Charleston, South Carolina as their pre-breakup “adopted hometown.”
  • Apologies for smacking my gums before talking. I don’t think I normally do that, which makes it extra weird that I’d repeatedly do it on the radio.
  • Once again, I apologize for abusing the word “incredible,” though, if I were pressed, I’d probably defend any individual use of it.

I talked about having Carl Broemel’s album on hold at BK Music in part because I originally had “In The Dark” in my mix for Saturday but had to make some tough cuts, so I thought I’d share it below. I really, really like this Broemel album. I went straight to BK after the show to grab it and had it spinning just this morning. Well worth a listen, if you haven’t heard it.

Thanks again, Doug, and thanks to everyone who listened.

Carl Broemel — “In The Dark” [Spotify/iTunes]

The Big Payback

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The Big Payback

Have to break vacation silence because I’m too excited about this River City Magazine article to stay quiet: I had the chance to chat at length with Kelli Strawbridge, who fronts Richmond’s beloved James Brown tribute band, The Big Payback. He’s an incredibly inspiring person to talk music with. His interests are both broad (his other projects include KINGS, Mikrowaves, and Mekong Xpress & The Get Fresh Horns) and deep, given his clear passion for the pivotal soul that Brown made in his heyday. I learned a ton from speaking with him, and I was also lucky enough to chat with Bob Miller, who joins Strawbridge in both Payback and Mekong Xpress. I decided to write this article because the talent you’ll find in Richmond’s tribute bands is so much more illustrious and interconnected (Miller also plays in Fear of Music, which honors Talking Heads) than some may realize, and Strawbridge and Miller are excellent examples. Many thanks to both for all the help with the article.

Two upcoming shows I want to make sure to plug:

Click here to read the Payback article over at Richmond Navigator’s site.

James Brown — “Payback” [Spotify/iTunes]

FloydFest

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FloydFest

Quick non-bloggy writing update: Boomer Magazine gave me the opportunity to write an article about FloydFest, which is taking place from July 27-31 this year. I hope you’ll check it out — talking to Across-the-Way Productions marketing director Sam Calhoun was a blast, both because of his enthusiasm for the festival and because of his clear love for the bands they’ve booked. (The conversation was also thrilling because I managed to drop my voice recorder in a cup of ice water just minutes because he called, and arranging a backup recording situation resulted in a not-insignificant amount of adrenaline.)

One of the bands I was most excited about after our conversation was Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats. I remember seeing their self-titled album’s cover in 2015 when it came out — How could you forget that A+ chest hair? — but I totally whiffed on giving it a listen back then. I’m on board now though, and they’re one of the bands that make this year’s FloydFest lineup so outstanding. There’s also Gregg Allman, Warren Haynes, Bruce Hornsby… it’s looking like a great time.

Tickets are still available, so check out the article here, listen to Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats below, and click here for more info on the festival.

Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats — “S.O.B.” [Spotify/iTunes]

Sean Lennon

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Off Your Radar

Last bit of catch-up for the week is about Off Your Radar — the weekly newsletter I’ve been writing for.

I haven’t been posting my blurbs because I’m hoping folks will subscribe, but I have to mention what happened last week. We all wrote about Sean Lennon’s Into the Sun album, which I really enjoyed getting to know. I especially enjoyed a jazzy track called “Photosynthesis” and spent all of my 200-some words extolling its virtues:

Forgive me — I have to freak out a minute about “Photosynthesis.” There are lots of jazz elements on Into The Sun, but “Photosynthesis” effectively hijacks the album for six and a half minutes and sends it into orbit. The bass line is just unconscionably, intensely groovy — the kind of pattern that begs to be sampled and repurposed. (Couldn’t find it on WhoSampled, so it’s not too late!) I could totally see it adorning a slow-mo sequence in a Guy Ritchie movie: gangsters in suits dragging some poor, bloodied soul into a room he’ll never again see the outside of. The other place I see it fitting is in a Radiohead song. Like someone gave the sheet music for the B-section of “Paranoid Android” to a jazz ensemble and said “Go nuts.” (Into The Sun was released while OK Computer’s massive wake was still rippling outward, so it’s not that hard to imagine that scenario actually playing out.) Maybe this will be more interesting to me than to anyone else, but it’s odd how, even though Sean Lennon has lived an international life — kindergarten in Tokyo, boarding school in Switzerland, college in New York — this one bass line pushed my mind toward two icons of late 90s British creativity. Is that because his father’s shadow was looming over him then, or because it’s looming over me now? Both, maybe?

What a thrill it was to find out via a really kind Twitter post that Lennon saw the newsletter and enjoyed it:

Sean Lennon tweet

Blew my mind. Cheers to Doug Nunnally for starting this thing — I’m really proud to be a part of it. Even prouder today, actually, because Doug just let us know that the incredibly insightful writer of AnEarful is joining up! Welcome, Jeremy — can’t wait to hear your thoughts each week!

Here’s that Sean Lennon track I loved so much:

Sean Lennon — “Photosynthesis” [YouTube]