Asthmatics Attack

(The Asthmatics/ Toggle Switch photo)

There's nothing more soul soothing than loud, tuneful rock songs played by a tight band that fires them off with spirit and verve.

Case in point, The Asthmatics (previously known as King and Caroline and Volcano Roll), an indie rock trio from Newport News that returned from a prolonged hiatus Thursday night at Marker 20 in Hampton.

My pal Joe Atkinson writes melodies that lodge deep in your cerebral cortex and make themselves at home there. And his lyrics -- on songs such as "Trigger of the Gun," "Button Up Shirt," and "Firecracker" -- effortlessly evade cliche. Why isn't this band a beloved local institution? Drummer problems, lethargy, frustration ... pretty much the usual list of symptoms encountered by bands that play original music in Hampton Roads, even more so on the Peninsula.

The band's long absence from the local live music scene made Thursday's short set all the sweeter.

Viva Les Asthmatics. Here's hoping they'll soon cough at a bar near you.

Webb Center Chaos

(Ultra Dolphins' Nate Rappole, Toggle Switch)


(Marnie Stern, Toggle Switch)



(Blonde Redhead's Kazu Makino, Toggle Switch)

Saturday's Campus Chaos show at Old Dominion University was predictably strange, but strangely satisfying. I missed several of the bands that played in the afternoon, but caught a good part of the set by Richmond's hard-hitting Ultra Dolphins. Metal, punk and math rock blend together in the Dolphins' sound. They were very aggressive and very tight. Apparently they've been around for years but have played rarely in Hampton Roads. I hope somebody brings them back soon.

Those guys played on the steps of the Webb Center. Inside, The Love Language, a band from North Carolina was a nice surprise. Their carefully-crafted and artfully arranged indie pop was refreshing after the Dolphins' blast of angry energy. While their sound isn't incredibly original, it's lovely. I'll be reading and listening and learning more about these guys.

Marnie Stern was a bit of a disappointment, though. Her Dokken-meets-The Shaggs sound gets mad points for originality, but way too few points for melody. What she's doing is so interesting I was frustrated that her songs weren't just a little more comprehensible. Also, for someone with amazing chops, her performance was surprisingly sloppy.

Blonde Redhead was great. The trio puts out an amazing amount of intoxicating sound. Their film-soundtrack drama was powerful and beautiful and fun to watch. I'm glad I finally got to see this band, which more than lives up to the promise of its recordings.

Thanks, ODU, for assembling such an entertaining day of music.

Record Store Day Dream

To celebrate Record Store Day, I headed down to Birdland Records in Virginia Beach to spend some money and bag some CDs. Barry Friedman's store has moved a couple of doors down. It's in the same shopping center (Providence Square) but in a smaller space. Barry tells me that his landlord wanted to put an ABC store in his old location. So I suppose I shouldn't be depressed that yet another record store is shrinking. Plan 9 in Williamsburg moved across the street to a smaller location a year or so ago. I know that D.J.'s Music and Video in Norfolk is planning to move into more compact quarters.

The upside is that Plan 9, Birdland and D.J.'s -- along with Skinnies in Norfolk and Fantasy in Newport News -- are still alive in 2009. This time last year, I would have bet that one of those four would be gone. Instead, it's Volume in Virginia Beach that was the victim. I saw the marvelous Sarah Carter there for the first time last year at an in-store performance. I'll miss Volume.

When I walked up to the counter at Birdland on Saturday and set down my selections, the guy at the register (not Barry) wondered why I was buying so much. "Is it your birthday?" he asked.

Here's what I bought:

The Stooges "Funhouse" (double disc special edition)
The Beatles "Love" (for my wife, Patty)
Jill Sobule "California Years"
Buddy and Julie Miller "Written in Chalk"
Animal Collective "Merriweather Post Pavilion"

As a bonus, I got a "Record Store Day" compilation LP including tracks by Glasvegas, Raphael Saadiq, Black Kids and Q-Tip.

Mixed Bag

(Killbot photo courtesy of MySpace)

Here are some quick thoughts for a Sunday night:

1) Neko Case at The National in Richmond April 6. Case's voice is a wonder. In Richmond last week, it sounded as good -- possibly even better -- than it does on record. While the pace of her show was jerky due to between-song dawdling, her songs, her singing and her excellent band made for a fine night of music. My only other minor complaint was that some feedback problems marred at least one song. Beyond that, I was thrilled by the show. It was my first trip to The National (even though the place has been open about a year). Seeing how much it has to offer, I'm sorry I didn't cruise up to Richmond much earlier. As an aside, I'll point out that Neko is, in fact a Virginian, even though she's lived in many places across the nation and even in Canada. She was born in Alexandria.

2) "Locals Lounge," the radio show hosted by Alfredo Torres, featured Freedom Hawk live in the studio tonight. Great to see Torres still flying the flag for local music by asking one of the area's top hard rock acts to stop by his show. While not every band Torres spins on his show is a favorite, he does hit a home run from time to time. I understand he's even spun "My Brain" by Hampton's Uglyography -- for which he deserves my admiration and yours.

3) Speaking of Uglyography, Matt Thomas' solo project spent last week on a regional tour -- an impressive feat of logistical planning and utter gumption. I'm hoping that the tour pays dividends for Matt, who's been making great music and paying his dues for years -- including many in Hampton's wonderful Outer Loop. Matt's MySpace page includes some blog posts about his tour, which has included stops in Washington, D.C., Chapel Hill, N.C., Charlestown, W.Va., Richmond and Johnson City, Tenn.

I know next to nothing about Johnson City, but it seemed to be one of the highlights of the tour. Matt played with Johnson City's own Killbot, who made quite an impression. Here's an excerpt from Matt's blog:

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After me was another solo act called Killbot. This guy (Daniel is his name) was really off the wall and pulled off some rad stuff. His setup consists of a suitcase. It is a magical suitcase and I'm still not sure exactly what was in it. He performed with his back to the audience for the majority of the time, leaning into this suitcase on a table, and pushing buttons, tweaking stuff, doing something, I don't know what, performing magic. The result was the ultimate in noisy distorted dance music freak out with all sorts of samples and synth sounds and super nasty vocal tones ... it is difficult to describe without a sample of the music. Check out his myspace profile for a taste. To top it off, he jumped around in a quick step troll-like dance, which again, is impossible to explain. I'm not sure if troll-like is the right description, but I do not mean that as an insult, dude! It is the highest compliment.

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Are They Not Men? They are Stimutacs

(Stimutacs photo from MySpace)

If Toggle Switch really had its act together, it would be reporting on how Virginia bands -- including the delightful Hot Lava -- did at South By Southwest in Austin, Texas, a couple of weeks ago. Or, even better, Toggle Switch would report on how this year's edition of MACRoCk event in Harrisonburg. That new-rock celebration just wrapped up this weekend and I'm sure that some juicy news came out of that annual event.

Alas, Toggle Switch doesn't really have its act together. But maybe I'll eventually be able to devote some time to finding out how all that worked out. (Please do send me reports and I'll happily pass them on).

In the meantime, I'm going to write about Stimutacs, a Norfolk band that's worth your attention. Think about Devo with a more lo-fi approach and more metal guitars grinding in the mix, and you're starting to imagine what these guys are cranking out.

While the recordings posted on the band's MySpace page are a bit too crude for their own good, and the singing on all the tracks is a bit sketchy, there's clearly something interesting happening here. They're a band to watch -- which may be why they were signed up as an opening act for the Blonde Redhead-Marnie Stern show happening at ODU on April 25. For ticket info on that show, go here.