First things first: happy July and, ergo, the start of the second leg of 2009. If you are looking for air conditioned refuge, come to the reception for Kate Daugdrill, curator of the Garage, at the Box from 5:30-7:30 this evening. While Charlottesville may primarily know Kate for setting up some of the most compelling exhibits in town over the past year, she is a talented artist in her own right. “Art is a Branch of Agriculture” will be up through July and August so you’ll surely have a chance to scope it out if you can’t make it this evening. Kate hung everything yesterday and I must comment on what a great a job she’s done. I mean, she made all of the frames herself. Respect, Charlottesville.
And, again, apropos of the heat and prolific sweat glands, this very occasion will teach you what Kevin Everson means when he says “sticky sticky art.”
One of my favorite Tea House employees, Cindy Leal, will be showing off her prodigious dancing skills at her place of work tonight. She will be performing with other dancers and talented musicians, and I’ll be working the door (cause that’s what in-house roadies do). So come by and enjoy what promises to be an entertaining and worthwhile evening at the Tea Bazaar; things will kick off no later than 8pm and will end round 10 (leaving plenty of time for other various night activities).
Fun show at the Tea Bazaar tomorrow evening. I think I fairly nailed my description of Athens, GA’s Ear Pwr in an earlier write-up:
Ear Pwr are probably the twee-est damn thing I’ve ever heard. Which is surprisingly great. They’ve just embraced the thing and run with it like crazy. With ridiculously adorable delivery and too-cute lyrics like “Sparkly, sparkly sweater // you’re my favorite, you’re my favorite, you’re my favorite favorite shirt” it’s hard not to instantly crush on this band. Plus you’ve got all the requisite jingly, bleepy, bloopy, and highly danceable backing tracks appropriate for an 8-year-old’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles birthday party at LaserQuest. It’s sooo overboard!
So that’s pretty much the story on Ear Pwr. Touring partner Adventure is a one-man Nintendo-core electronic act out of Baltimore’s Wham City scene. And starting out the night at 9PM sharp are Bear War, a brand new C-ville based duo, who I expect will be a lot of fun and fit right into the electronic fun-time theme of the evening.
I’ll try to keep things running a little on the early side since I know folks will either be trying to hit the sack for the following work day or head over to The Box for James’ DJ set in a timely manner.
Show is $6 $5, BTDubs.
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UPDATE: Sorry folks, turns out Adventure is actually not playing tonight. Not sure what exactly the deal is, but I gather this is one of several shows that got cancelled. Tour fatigue? Anyway, still gonna be a great show… I’ll make it a $5 cover instead of $6, if that’s some consolation.
I’m doing my regular time-slot again tonight (1-3am; tomorrow morning, technically), so tune in to 91.1FM if yr up! …and then less than 24 hours later, I’ll be doing an in-person DJ gig thing at The Box on Monday night (from 10pm-ish until last call), so come on down (there’s no cover!) and have a drink and dance a little.
First of all, there’s an art opening at Try&Make. It’s put together by my friends Ashley Florence and Heidi Tullmann, and it features art by the two of them as well as Lisa Kittell, Sarah Jean Simmons, Meg Hamilton, and Isabella Scott (who will also be DJ-ing a dance party in the space after the opening). I know a lot of folks are excited about it, and it should be pretty fun. They’ve listed the event as running from 5 to 9pm … it’s in the space next to Reid’s on Preston Ave.
Community Bikes is doing their first Bike-In Movie of the season; everyone’s gonna meet around 8-ish and hang out and win door prizes until it gets dark, at which point they’ll show The Triplets of Bellville (which I’ve always wanted to see, and will sadly miss tonight). It’s free, at Community Bikes on West Main (behind Hampton Inn, off 9th st). I think they’re also in need of a last-minute sound system, so if anybody has any speakers they could loan to Community Bikes for the evening, give Amanda or Jennifer a call.
There’s also a metal show at Dust, with Salome, Horsefang, Three Faces of Eve, the Communion, and Transient. I know three of those acts have played there before and put on a good show; furthermore, a little bird (er, make that horse) told me it’s Curt’s birthday, so be sure to thank the bearded chap in an appropriately obstuse and/or mystical manner for all the things he’s done for local music. (I mean, sure, he’s crazy, but where would we be without him?)
There’s also a mellower-type show at the Tea Bazaar; Wes Swing is playing, along with Chelsea Lynn La Bate, Nora Jane Struthers. That one’s probably around 9-ish and in the $5 range, I’m assuming.
So those all sound lovely; you really can’t go wrong. Unfortunately, I myself will be working most of the night (we’re opening Away We Go at Vinegar Hill this weekend), but I do plan on enjoying a late-night swim tonight; the weather’s finally gotten unbearably hot enough to make post-midnight swimming an enticing possibility.
Well, apparently Michael Jackson’s dead. They’re reporting it as a heart attack.
I’m always had weirdly mixed feelings about Jackson — on the one hand, he was clearly a victim of abuse and what might charitably be described as a unhealthy upbringing, and appeared at most times to be more or less completely insane. Yet he was also given to such vulgar displays of egotism and wealth and spectacle (plus more or less constant accusations that he was a child molester) that I was never able to really elicit much sympathy for him.
Musically, his stuff with the Jackson 5 remains undeniably great, and while his records from the 80’s are widely regarded as pop masterpieces, I’ve always absolutely hated his voice, post-adolescence (the latest I go with solo Jackson is his 1972 cover of Bobby Day’s “Rockin’ Robin”). I mean, if there were an instrumental version of Off the Wall, I’d eat it up — Quincy Jones is amazing. I can’t really hang with Thriller or any of that nonsense (an unpopular opinion, I know) — still, Jackson had a weird, sad life, and his death has brought that into perspective. I’m not terribly upset about it, but I will say it’s a sad story and that one might hope his life had been happier and more balanced, less filled with spectacle and embarrassment.
Anyhow, enough negativity from me. Here’s an awesome clip of the Jackson 5 (with a great intro):
The Summer Film Series at The Bridge starts tonight!
This evening’s screening is to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. Accordingly, it’s an evening of gay-themed films, including two short films by Barbara Hammer (”Jane Brakhage” and “the History of the World According to a Lesbian”), and a longer feature, the 1966 film “Lupe” by the late Jose Rodreiguez-Soltero, about which the Filmmaker’s Cooperative says:
Strangely neglected for way too long, Jose Rodriguez Soltero’s Lupe is an underground classic of the stature of Flaming Creatures, Scorpio Rising, Hold me While I’m Naked, or The Chelsea Girls. It is ostensibly a biopic of Lupe Velez inspired by Kenneth Anger’s sketch of the Mexican spitfire in Hollywood Babylon and, stylistically, by Von Sternberg’s Marlene Dietrich vehicles. Rodriguez Soltero takes some liberties with the facts and produces a color-saturated, gorgeous dime-store baroque that tells of Lupe’s rise from whoredom to stardom, her fall into fractured romance and suicide, and her ascension into the spirit world. It is consistently inventive and surprising, and wrapped in a dense soundtrack that combines, Elvis, Cuban boleros, Spanish flamenco, The Supremes, and Vivaldi. It features some of the main players of the Ridiculous Theatrical Playhouse […] Mario Montez never looked better; no wonder this was his favorite film. Whether they know it or not, Pedro Almodóvar, Vivienne Dick, and Bruce LaBruce have a godfather in Jose Rodriguez Soltero.
… which sounds awesomely gay. We’ve also got a copy of vintage Mike Wallace TV special report on “the Homosexuals,” which I’m told is amusing and/or appalling in its earnest nearsightedness.
It starts at 8pm at The Bridge PAI, and the suggested cover donation is $5! Come check it out!
There are two house shows going down tonight as well as the Pattern Is Movement show at the Tea Bazaar (I’ll be working the door for the Tea Bazaar show…and, no, this does not mean I can let you all in for free. Sorry.)
There is a surf punk basement show going down; it was originally scheduled to take place at DUST but there’s been a switch up. Though I do love DUST, all of these bands will make for a killer house show. Here’s the lineup (and convenient myspace addresses…excuse my laziness).
Either e-mail a Nailgunner OR the dude who’s setting all this up (his e-mail: thrashedtobits@gmail.com). I honestly wish I could hit up this show because it’s going to be loud, dance-worthy punk rock. Just remember NO ALCOHOL/DRUGS. House rule yo.
SECOND HOUSE SHOW: They had one earlier this summer and now they are throwing down again at UVA’s brand new house venue (run by some of the coolest cats on-grounds). Fluffy Lumbers are back (they played the Tea Bazaar a week or two ago). Also, Your Spirit Animal, Jameson Zimmer, and Love Tentacle Drip Society are playing. And yet again, I will be missing Fluffy Lumbers who apprently sound way better live than they do recorded (and I liked their recordings!).
Here’s the Facebook event for more details…like where it is and all that junk:
Hopefully I’ve earned enough cred over the past couple days with really phenomenal back-to-back shows at The Garage and The Bridge (–To anybody who skipped those, you seriously missed out!–), that you’ll trust me when I say Wednesday night the Tea Bazaar is the place to be.
Pattern is Movement is a duo (previously a five-then-four-then-three piece) that for years have consistently flown just under the radar, despite a mountain of glowing reviews and some serious sustained blog love. Chris Ward and Andrew Thiboldeaux deal in tight, minimalist (yet simultaneously orchestral and rich) arrangements, relying heavily on repetition and subsequent variation, complex and evolving progressions, lots of pretty keyboards, and vaguely operatic vocal delivery. I’m really not sure if trying to sell you on a band with a straight textual description does anything for anybody, but if any of those words sound interesting, check them out, because they are.
Drunk Tigers are opening up. If you’re not yet familiar, they’re one of Charlottesville’s hotter new acts. For a band as brand new as they are, Drunk Tigers are surprisingly tight. Probably because all the members have been in a wide array of other popular local acts over the years. They’re energetic, fun, and more and more exciting every time I see them– in no small part because they’re starting to get the stage-swagger of a band who knows they’re pretty damn good.
