O.D. in C'ville

Last weekend, a bunch of Virginia's best garage punk bands played in Charlottesville under the banner of the "Rock 'n' Roll Overdose" festival. Thankfully, somebody was there with a video camera. And thankfully, they were nice enough to edit their footage down to the digestible hunk you can watch above. You'll see The Villains, The Ladies, Black Jesus, The Dirty Fingers, The Brutal Knights, The Hookers, Big Bobby and the Nightcaps, and former Candy Snatcher Larry "Mud" May singing with several of the previously listed bands. The view of the stage isn't always so clear and the audio is shaky, but you get the idea of what the night was like.

American Roots

(Photo of Boo Hanks from Music Maker Relief Foundation)

A Virginia musician played a festival in New York City on Sunday, along with punk godmother Patti Smith, jazz hero Charlie Haden and folk giant Pete Seeger. His name is James Arthur "Boo" Hanks, an acoustic blues guitarist from Virgilina. Hanks has released an album through the North Carolina-based Music Maker Relief Foundation, a group that helps aging, poor musicians make money for necessities like housing and health care.
Boo played Sunday as part of the Roots of American Music Festival, an outdoor event connected with Lincoln Center. New York Times reporter Nate Chinen included him in his review of the 25th annual event. His story, headlined, "From Back-Porch Ease to A Taste of the Wild," includes these words:
"The music ranged from unfiltered to polished. Boo Hanks fell somewhere in between: playing and singing in the Piedmont style, he brought a back-porch ease to 'Trouble in Mind,' dropping the occasional beat or bar."
If you like Piedmont blues, go here to download three free tracks by Boo Hanks.
Here's the full lineup from Sunday's featival:
Alabama Slim, Adolphus Bell, Dr. G. B. Burt, Capt. Luke, Boo Hanks, Macavine Hayes and Big Ron Hunter, the Knitters: John Doe, Exene Cervenka, Dave Alvin, DJ Bonebrake, Jonny Ray Bartel, Haden Family Singers Labor of Love featuring Charlie Haden, Ruth Cameron, Petra, Tanya, Rachel and Josh Haden, with Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Stuart Duncan, Bryan Sutton, Dan Tyminski, and special guests Patti Smith and her band.

Friday Night Lights

(Hot Lava at The Boot, Toggle Switch photo)

There's much to report from Friday night's indie-pop extravaganza at The Boot, but here's the executive summary: It was a great, enlightening, entertaining evening of music.
Roanoke's Sad Cobras opened the show -- and I regrettably missed their first two songs. But what followed was almost all new music. The only tune the band played from their "No More Graves" album was "Bodycast." The new tunes struck me as a bit more somber than the most buoyant moments from the album. An exception was the set-ending "Blue Kettle," a new song that I can't wait to hear again.
Hot Lava's live set was much more straight-forward than what's heard on the "Lavalogy" CD. On stage, the band left behind most of the arty low-fi noise, which brought the focus on the Lava's sugary melodies and singer-guitarist Allison Apperson's lovely voice. I'm addicted to the CD -- which I just got my paws on last week -- but the Lava's live show sealed the deal for me. They're officially one of my favorite Virginia bands.
In some ways, we in Hampton Roads get to claim them as our own. Allison told me Friday that she's from Williamsburg -- a graduate of Lafayette High School. Keyboard dude Matt Deans is from Portsmouth. Drummer and audio mastermind Jared Sosa is from Norfolk. The musicians all crossed paths in art school at VCU.
Norfolk's own Little Trooper provided the finale to Friday night's shindig and I can see how the band's live show is getting more cohesive and forceful. My guess is that touring -- including a recent short run with Mas Y Mas -- has helped the group focus its live attack.
I left The Boot a happy man, clutching a Little Trooper button and a disc of two new songs: "Faster Louder" and "Dinner Time."

Midnight Confessions

(Photo of TAMS reunion by Rachel Greenberg. Pictured are Paul Tiers of Waxing Poetics far left and Kelly Miltier far right with someone named Johann in the middle)

It's mea culpa time here in Toggle Switch land. Mistakes have been made ... terrible, terrible mistakes.

Maybe that's the reason you, the Toggle Switch reader, aren't leaving me any provocative comments. That must be it. You're disappointed in me. I hereby pledge to do better.

Please give me another chance!

How did I eff up? Well, first of all, somehow I failed to alert you to the fact that two of the best roots-rock/blues bands in the region -- Rylo and Pawn Shop Lifters -- were playing together in Williamsburg tonight. This was quite an oversight. I beg your pardon. Seriously, if you're living in the 'burg and you were looking to go have a beer and listen to some live music tonight, this was the perfect double bill. Did any of you go see Rylo and PSL? Write some comments and tell me how it went. I'm sure it was smokin'.

OK, here's another of my fumbles. I've failed to follow up from the Punk New Wave reunion that was held back in June. In April, I reported on plans for a film documentary and photo book on the local New Wave scene from the late 1970s and early 1980s. Kelly Miltier and Pete Desnoyers were spearheading the project. They also held a reunion for scenesters and musicians from that era. I was hoping to attend and post about the experience, but I had to work that night, as it turned out.

Anyway, here's a belated message about how the reunion -- held June 29 at Headlights in Chesapeake -- came off. This was sent out by Miltier and Desnoyers soon after the event:

*************

"A massive killer big-time thanks to everyone that was able
to attend the Call To Arms reunion on Sunday the 29th. Our sympathies to
those of you who were unable to attend for one reason or another as you
missed a good one.

Hope everyone had as great a time as Pete and I. Even though we were busy throughout the day, we enjoyed seeing everyone in the same place, carrying on as before once again. Mac made the statement that "it seems like an extended break from one of our gigs" . . . how true.

The attendance was somewhere between 250 and 300 of you
guys and the club was impressed . . . honestly they were a little worried
that a bunch of old school 'punkers' just might wreak a little havoc
for old times' sake. We thank you all for your behavior - in general.

Bill Reid was there and a deal was knocked out to have the
live band showcase reunion at the Norva, which will be open to the
public. Details are forthcoming, especially as concerns the actual date. We
have a fall target but are basing the final decision after formal negotiations and additional info on Mac Quayle's availability schedule."

********

Miltier now tells me that the showcase is being planned for December. More details as they materialize. To look at more photos from the reunion, go here. To read more about plans for the book and movie go here and here.

Lava Love

(Hot Lava photo by Ellie Bolton, Bar/None)

Friday's show at The Boot featuring Hot Lava, The Sad Cobras and Little Trooper is sort of an small-scale Virginia indie-pop festival featuring three of the Old Dominion's most creative and tuneful ensembles.
Here's the overview:
Norfolk's own Little Trooper has great tunes, great spirit and a refreshingly unpretentious stage stance. For me, they're the shiznit. Roanoke's Sad Cobras are a band I've been salivating over for months now. The Cobras' CD "No More Graves" is an arty, ambitious disc that's melodic, heartfelt and -- at times -- very funny. The disc shows a lot of craftsmanship and I can't wait to hear what the band sounds like live.
Finally, there's Richmond's Hot Lava -- a spiky, sorta electronic, sorta poppy, sorta garagy ensemble that's about to release an album, "Lavalogy," on Bar/None Records, the respected label that's brought us music from Freedy Johnston, Yo La Tengo and They Might Be Giants. Just today, I got my hands on a copy of "Lavalogy." I'm still digesting it, but I can say now that it's both beautiful and brutal, both nasty and nice.
The Boot lists the start time of Friday's show as 10 p.m. Cover is $5.

Everything Happens Tomorrow

(Byrne and Eno photo from New York Times)

The Sept. 18 David Byrne show at Ferguson Center in Newport News will catch the former Talking Head at a cool moment -- exactly a month after he'll have released "Everything That Happens Will Happen Today," his new collaboration with Brian Eno. The album will be released tomorrow through the site www.everythingthathappens.com. The whole record will be available for free streaming or for purchase as a download. One track, "Strange Overtones," has already been available for free through the site, and according to today's New York Times story about the album, the track was downloaded 40,000 times in the first three days it was available.

So by the time Byrne reaches Newport News (regrettably without Eno, who isn't going to be part of the tour, though he'll probably show up for a few gigs here and there) Byrne and the rest of us will have lived with the music for a month. It'll be familiar, but still fresh. It's pretty much a best-case scenario for everyone involved.

The new disc is less experimental than Byrne-Eno's 1981 collaboration, as the NYT Jon Pareles story explains.

"The new album is by no means a sequel to 'Bush of Ghosts.' It is, in a way, more conventional: a set of songs, with verses and choruses, placing Mr. Byrne’s lead vocals up front with Mr. Eno’s voice occasionally in the background. Most songs are in major keys, using just three or four chords — different from the more elaborate pop songs Mr. Byrne had been writing. 'I think minor chords fill in too much of the picture already,” Mr. Eno said. “They push you into a certain place. You can make major chords sound sad, but you can never make minor chords sound happy.' "

Anarchy in The VA

(MySpace photo)

I was wondering what was up with Liberty IV, an experimental punk/metal performance space in downtown Newport News. There are vague references to struggles on the club's MySpace page, but it appears to be still alive and kicking.
The following blog post gives details about an upcoming festival that sounds like it could be a make-or-break proposition for the joint.

What follows is the post in its entirety:

*****************

"Here is the lineup and info for liberty 4 fest this year, hopefully everything goes well. I still have a few slots open if anyone is interested in playing.

Dates: August 29th, 30th, 31st. This is labor day weekend so most people hopefully will not have to work on monday, and can stay for the whole show on sunday.

Cost: The show is $10.00 for all three days, even if you only come to one day it is still $10.00 hopefully no one will have a problem with this, and this will help get us back on our feet.

Each day the show will start at 6pm except friday which will be 7pm there is no end time because the later it gets the less people we can disturb in the area. Apollo's will be open all three days, so please stop drinking in the parking lot, that is one thing that can definitly get us shut down very fast, and if we piss apollos off he can get us shut down immediatly. We will be selling drinks and chips, and 100% of the proceeds from that goes toward the rent, so please hook it up, 7 - 11 has enough money they don't need you.

the lineup us as follows so far, and change to this will be announced...

Friday August 29th
The Banner
Moutheater
Dead Thoughts Memory
Pushing On
Original Sin
Brain Damage

Saturday August 30th
Loss of Reason
Waiting Mortuary
Barefist
Macerated
Reckoner
Unknown Band

Sunday August 31st
The Unambomers
Naysayer
Parasytic
Plague The Suffering
Outrageous Rhinoceros

I am still waiting on a few bands, that have said they would get back to me, as you can see there is a good mix of bands, from hardcore, punk, and metal and we tried to mix them up each day so please come out and support these bands."

******************

Ain't No Grave

(Toggle Switch photos of Sarah Carter, top, and Red Clay River)

It's odd to have an authentic, folky musical experience in a strip shopping center near a big suburban mall, but such is life in "America's First Region" Hampton Roads.

Tonight, I spent a few hours in Volume, a fine record store near Lynnhaven Mall in Virginia Beach. The music I heard was wonderful -- way beyond what anyone should expect from a free in-store performance.

Take that, Virginia Beach Amphitheater!

Sarah Carter -- a solo singer I'd been hearing about for some time -- did not disappoint. She's blessed with a powerful voice that she uses to put a new spin on old-time classics from Dock Boggs, the Carter Family and the like. But she also writes some lovely tunes her damn self and accompanies herself on autoharp and ... high-hat! Oh, and add to all that a loopy, sometimes hilarious stage presence. I'm ready to go hear her again tomorrow.

Red Clay River is a gritty, folk-rock ensemble from Roanoke more than lived up to the recordings I'd heard online. Singer Daniel Bivins writes dark, stark tunes about struggling mountain people and sings them in voice somewhere between Steve Earle and a death rattle. His band -- a banjo player, an electric guitarist and violinist Camellia Delk (who also plays with The Bastards of Fate) -- back him with sympathetic restraint. Delk's violin and viola add drama to an already rich landscape.

I only had time to hear one song by the night's closer, Mason Dixon Disaster, but I heard enough to know they mean business. The band's high-volume Southern punk snarled sweetly.

Coal-fired Folk

(Photo from Amazon.com)

The August edition of Virginia Living magazine includes a story by Don Harrison about the 48-song box set "Music of Coal: Mining Songs From the Appalachian Coal Fields."

Don writes: "'Music of Coal' is a treasure trove for fans of Virginia mountain music. There's a rare live recording of the Norton banjo legend, Doc Boggs, and a touching duet featuring the late Carter Stanley and his daughter."

You can read more about the box set at this official site, but here's the track listing:

Disc: 1
1. Down in a Coal Mine Excerpt (The Edison Concert Band)
2. Mining Camp Blues (Trixie Smith)
3. Sprinkle Coal Dust on My Grave (Orville Jenks)
4. Coal Miner's Blues (The Carter Family)
5. Hard Times in Coleman s Mine (Aunt Molly Jackson)
6. He s Only a Miner Killed in the Ground (Ted Chestnut)
7. Coal Black Mining Blues (Nimrod Workman)
8. 31 Depression Blues (Ed Sturgill)
9. Prayer of a Miner's Child (Dock Boggs)
10. That Twenty-Five Cents You Paid (Sarah Ogan Gunning)
11. The L & N Don t Stop Here Anymore (Jean Ritchie)
12. Dark as a Dungeon (Merle Travis)
13. Come All You Coal Miners (The Reel World String Band)
14. My Sweetheart s the Mule in the Mines (Mike Kline)
15. Thirty Inch Coal (Hobo Jack Adkins)
16. Black Waters (Jim Ringer)
17. Roof Boltin Daddy (Gene Carpenter)
18. Dream of a Miner s Child (Carter Stanley)
19. Coal Miner's Boogie (George Davis)
20. The Yablonski Murder (Hazel Dickens)
21. What Are We Gonna Do? (Dorothy Myles)
22. Explosion at Derby Mine (Charlie Maggard)
23. Blind Fiddler (Jim Bud Stanley)
24. Loadin Coal (John Hutchison)
25. Coal Town Saturday Night (Randall Hylton)
26. It s Been a Long Time (Sonny Houston & Roger Hall)
27. Fountain Filled with Blood (Elder James Caudill & Choir)
Disc: 2
1. West Virginia Mine Disaster (Molly Slemp)
2. Union Man (Blue Highway)
3. Blue Diamond Mines (Robin & Linda Williams)
4. Set Yourself Free (Billy Gene Mullins)
5. Redneck War (Ron Short)
6. Sixteen Tons (Ned Beatty)
7. There Will Be No Black Lung in Heaven (Rev. Joe Freeman)
8. Deep Mine Blues (Nick Stump)
9. I m a Coal Mining Man (Tom T. Hall)
10. Dirty Black Coal (Kenneth Davis)
11. Black Lung (A. J. Roach)
12. Coal Dust Kisses (Suzanne Mumpower-Johnson)
13. Coal Tattoo (Dale Jett)
14. A Strip Miner s Life (Don Stanley & Middle Creek)
15. Daddy s Dinner Bucket (Ralph Stanley II)
16. In Those Mines (Valerie Smith)
17. Miner s Prayer (Ralph Stanley & Dwight Yoakam)
18. Dyin To Make A Livin (W. V. Hill)
19. You ll Never Leave Harlan Alive (Darrell Scott)
20. They Can t Put It Back (Jack Wright)
21. Which Side Are You On? (Natalie Merchant)

Secret Handshake

(Photo from www.blacktwigpickers.org)

I shouldn't be surprised anymore that I read about Virginia music in British magazines before I read about it from homegrown sources. (See several previous posts) But it still bugged me to see a very positive review of the Black Twig Pickers' album "Hobo Handshake" in the August issue of Uncut magazine. Mind you, I'm happy that a Virginia band is getting good ink across the pond. But I'm a little disturbed that I'm coming so late to the party. The record -- I've learned -- came out back in March!

Anyway, here's the text of Jon Dale's review in Uncut:

"Fronted by Mike Gangloff, long-serving member of backwoods drone outfit Pelt, Black Twing Pickers play traditional songs that sit at the bridging point between country, blues and folk. Their readings of tunes like "Never Miss Your Mama" or "Old Joe Bone" are respectful without feeling hidebound by tradition, and the rangy scrawl of Gangloff's fiddle, scratching over stringy banjo melodies and rudimentary, totally monomaniacal percussion reminds of Peter Stampfel's Holy Modal Rounders. Another beautiful set of American Primitive, '00 style."

A related gripe is that the Black Twig boys don't seem to know that Hampton Roads exists -- at least based on their posted tour schedule. Then again, our region isn't replete with venues for experimental/old-time music acts, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised by that, either.

If you're interested grabbing some Twigs music, you'll find free MP3s at both links given in this post.

Scheming For Justice

(MySpace photo)

The Nerve Scheme is a local punk band I've been hoping to see for some time. If the tunes they have posted online are any indication, they're a pretty tight band in a Fat Wreck Chords kind of vein. Tunes "Not Sorry" and "Dorktown" (both available for download) reminded me a bit of Bad Religion and Social Distortion -- not a bad set of sources if that's really where they're coming from. Formulaic? Well, yes. But there's a spark on the recordings and I'm eager to see if the live show kicks it up a notch. It doesn't appear that the boys are playing all that often, but they have scored a few choice gigs. On Aug. 24, they'll be at Steppin' Out with Agent Orange. Then, looking ahead to Sept. 30, they're set to warm up for a punk-adelic double header featuring The Queer and The Independents.

Freedom Funk

(Photo of Biggs from MySpace)

Seed Is ..., the veteran soul/funk/reggae/hip-hop collective, is playing a benefit for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Saturday at the Taphouse. If you've heard about these guys but never seen them, here's your chance. This is a big band -- horns, keys, singing and rapping -- that makes a big, wide-ranging sound. The mix of styles could mean lack of focus and confusion. But whatever style these guys dip into -- rock, go-go, jazz -- it always sounds like them. Over a decade or more, they've perfected a musical gumbo that will move your hips and soothe your soul. Biggs, the ensemble's guitar player, is a busy guy. When he's not jamming with Seed Is ... he's laying down the roots rock with the reggae group Session Rockers. He's also an in-demand session dude who contributed bass playing to a track on Kanye West's disc "Graduation."

Light in August

Friday night's indie-rock event at The Boot managed to live up to the considerable hype that preceded it.
Atlanta's Deerhunter is a band that, by general consensus, is about to make a great leap forward. Street talk and media reports pronounced that the band's appearance in Norfolk would be the last time the group would play a place so small. It's true that there's a national buzz surrounding the band's next album "Microcastle" - which officially comes out in October. It's also true that the band is getting ready to go out on tour as openers for Nine Inch Nails.
The stars are aligning, it would seem.
For me -- a listener hearing the band live for the first time -- Deerhunter's set was less a revelation and more confirmation that, in this case, there is fire to go along with that big plume of smoke. There were no crazy stage antics in Norfolk -- just a band playing creative, dense, somewhat mysterious rock 'n' roll. Eerie drones, strange electronic vocal effects, repetitive guitar grooves -- and an occasional burst of beautiful melody to offset the moodiness -- were delivered along with the odd stage presence of Bradford Cox. The whole affair was very much in the vein of My Bloody Valentine, and in more melodic moments, Jesus and Mary Chain.
For me, highlights were "Never Stops" from the forthcoming new disc, and the bouncing, dance-friendly "Operation," a tune Bradford said was brand new.
This is not a band reinventing rock. But it's clearly pushing it forward a bit -- and that's enough.
Tap into more Deerhunter's experimental goodness here.

Extra Dexter Texture

(Dexter Romweber photo by Camellia Morton)

Today's all about the Deerhunter at The Boot. It's a big deal. Expect a big crowd. I'll give you my take on the show later this weekend.
But for now, I'm turning elsewhere.
Dexter Romweber is one of those true, pure rock 'n' roll animals -- a guy who's studied the past, but also has a visceral hold on the music. I first saw his band Flat Duo Jets in Chapel Hill in about 1985, at UNC's Ackland Art Museum. It ranks among my favorite rock moments ever. Dex was thrashing about, threatening to knock over precious works of art. He seemed to be experiencing rockabilly convulsions -- eyes rolling back in his head as he sang -- and he literally kicked off his very cruddy thrift-store shoes while drummer Crow beat the living shit out of the drums.
Flip ahead 23 years and Romweber is still at it. He's well loved and respected in rock 'n' roll circles -- Jack White of the White Stripes has cited him as a primary influence.
But Romweber has never made a pile of money.
I hear you thinking, "But Sam, Dexter is from Chapel Hill. What does this have to do with 'Music in and around Norfolk'?" The local connection comes from drummer Sam "Crash" LaResh, a local guy who played with Romweber for years. Dex seemed to consider Norfolk a second home for a time in the 1990s.
I'm happy to report that Dexter's upcoming album may get him some richly deserved mass-media attention, thanks to some high-profile collaborators. Here's the press release that was sent out back in June:

**** Bloodshot Records and Dex Romweber announce the signing of a multi-album deal – a match made in heaven between two arbiters of the edgy side of rock, R&B and country. The first album, as yet untitled, will feature duets between Dex and Cat Power, Neko Case and Exene Cervenka. Recording commences in mid-August at Overdub Lane in Durham , NC ; John Plymale (Meat Puppets, Squirrel Nut Zippers, Corrosion Of Conformity) is producing. Said Nan Warshaw, Bloodshot co-owner, “Dexter’s reputation as a musician’s musician is well-established and so deserved, but we here at Bloodshot are also in awe of the unbridled fury and raw soul he has unleashed for decades.”

Dex Romweber is nothing less than an icon of the American music underground. The former frontman for the world famous psycho-surf-rockabilly-garage-punk combo Flat Duo Jets, released his first of nine albums in 1990 to rave reviews worldwide. He starred alongside R.E.M. and The B-52s in the 1987 cult classic film “ Athens , GA Inside Out”. His first national tour in 1990 was as opening act for The Cramps. He was showcased on MTV's The Cutting Edge and 120 Minutes, starred in the Flat Duo Jets videos "Wild Wild Lover" and "Radioactive Man", made a stunning performance on Late Night with David Letterman, and has shared the stage with dozens of other rock icons including Iggy Pop and the White Stripes.

The Dex Romweber Duo also features Dex’s celebrated sibling Sara Romweber (Mitch Easter, Lets Active, Snatches of Pink) on drums. Together the two have been performing electrifying concerts all over the US, including touring with Cat Power, Neko Case, Th’ Legendary Shack Shakers, Southern Culture On The Skids and the Squirrel Nut Zippers. ****