Better late than never, here are 10 albums I liked from this past year, plus an extensive run-down of my favorite concert experience of 2012. Mount Eerie – Ocean Roar (P.W. Elverum and Sun, Ltd.) Phil Elvrum’s return to form (albeit a slightly different form than the one he started out with) continues; this is [...]

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I only heard about this five minutes ago, and even then only by chance, but apparently Justin Wolf and Jay Purdy are playing at The Bridge tonight! Both are Cville boys who have made their names elsewhere (specifically, Philadelphia) but are back in town for the time being and playing a show tonight. Justin Wolf [...]

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Tonight at the Balkan Bistro (on West Main, near 10th st), the Smiffs are playing — that’s Charlottesville’s Smiths cover band, consisting of Butch Klotz, Nicholas Liivak, Scott Ritchie, and Jonny Kuthy. You have probably seen those dudes play heavier music in their real bands, but tonight they are the Smiths. Originally a pop-punk group [...]

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Those of you who are in Charlottesville today are surely itching for something to do, and possibly eager for alternatives to spending another day with your extended family and/or getting trampled to death at Best Buy. Here are two good suggestions: As part of the annual practice of Buy Nothing Day, Random Row Books is [...]

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Hey readers, sorry for the long delay between updates — both Carolyn and I have been extremely busy lately, without much time to devote to the blog… I did, however, want to let you know about the concert tonight at Random Row Books: Invisible Hand is playing, along with the Richmond band White Laces, and [...]

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Halloween comes but once a year, and there’s a bunch of fun things going on around town tonight: WTJU is doing a live performance of “the War of the Worlds” on-air tonight; a Charlottesville-specific adaptation of the Mercury Theatre on the Air’s 1938 adaptation of H.G. Wells’ 1898 novel. (Orson Welles — no relation — [...]

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We’re having a fun event at Vinegar Hill Theatre tonight; Halloween is approaching fast, and so is a tremendous hurricane, and there’s absolutely nothing else going on tonight so you should come check it out. We’re partnering with OffScreen to show three movies tonight: Joel Schumaker’s beloved 80′s vampire flick the Lost Boys, a grisly [...]

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Using DNA samples retrieved from fossil records dating from the college radio era, Dinosaur Jr. has been brought back to life and is now recording and touring again. Lou Barlow and J Mascis and Murph have apparently been able to put aside their differences — or at least pretend to, for the sake of making [...]

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I’m very excited that the Dum Dum Girls are playing tonight.  The two records they put out last year were on my best-of-the-year list, and I had just been thinking “I bet they’re pretty great live; I wonder if I’ll ever get to see them live?” when I heard that this show was happening. I [...]

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GULL is playing at the Tea Bazaar tonight, which is always a cause for celebration. Nate is a former member of Richmond proggy-hardcore bands Ultra Dolphins and Snack Truck, who’s now struck out on his own remarkable solo project. He plays groovy, start-stop riffs and chants, reminiscent of Lightning Bolt or USAisaMonster, and he gets [...]

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