Spring is in the air and Richmond is most certainly feeling the fever. Most of our bands have returned from SXSW or whatever other spring-related touring they were doing. Gull is still on the road, and here is a pretty good video of his cover of Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus" from Portland, OR on March 22 (by Nick Barbery):
Gull is currently on tour with White Rabbits, so check out the rest of their tour dates.
Starfish Prime played in a Richmond-related showcase at SXSW courtesy of the blog Sweet Tea Pumpkin Pie. Check out the first part:
In Circles has released two new songs recorded with Chris Compton (The Demon Beat, The Fox Hunt). They hope to add these to another set of demos recently recorded for an upcoming album. They have put this out digitally on bandcamp AND on tape, which is good news for my kitchen boombox.
Jake Ashley, drummer from In Circles, answered a few questions to help us get to know them a little better.
How did In Circles form, and who plays what?
Aaron Tyree, Daniel Sebring, and I started this thing in 2008 in the ashes of old bands we were doing and it has constantly changed and grown for the better. It's been a strange trip from the beginning to now, but I think we finally have a really solid line-up that we are happy with.Our names and respective duties within In Circles are Aaron Tyree - vocals/guitar, Jake Ashley - drums, Aaron Boles - guitar, Aaron Lape - bass, and Kenny Howerton - guitar/keyboard. Aaron Lape is about to have a baby girl so a very close friend of ours (and our first bass player), Daniel, will be joining us again. We will definitely miss Aaron and he will forever be a part of this, but there is no better person to take over.
What have you been up to recently?
We just did a short tour up the East Coast and into New England for about 8 days in the middle of March and we had a ton of fun, regardless of all the problems we ran into. Met a lot of great people, and had a lot of fun playing in front of strangers.
Do you have anything you're looking forward to?
Our future plans are for a month long tour headed West in the summer and just keep writing songs for a new LP.
Who or what are some of the band members' influences?
Our influences are pretty broad and we don't even necessarily sound like them, but I think most of us can agree that those would be Depeche Mode, The Cure, Bauhaus, 80's punk/hardcore, The Replacements, and Silent Majority. I would probably be disowned if Aaron knew that I didn't list Joy Division and The Smiths/Morrissey as one of our biggest influences.
In Circles plays at Kingdom on 4/21 with: Daycare Swindlers, Walk the Plank, Amateur Thieves, and 45 AD. (All ages, 4pm, $8)
Dank D, aka Dan.K Diesel, has released "Planet Diesel," an insta-party in one song. Produced by Jae Posten, other vocalists featured include: Mike Truth, MC A Minus, Jordan Butler, Johnny Ciggs, and Delta. You can also check out Dank D's recent collaboration with producer Waldo, Wastelands to Wanderlands, on his site. Check out Dank D THIS FRIDAY (3/30) at Bonvenu (2915 W. Cary St.).
Finally, we have Mammals, formerly known as Jazz Cat, who has just dropped their Not Jazzcat Demos, featuring four songs of post-rock psychedelia. Try "Punch Brunch" which includes some Iggy Pop vocals (Lee Paluzzi) and keyboard crescendoes (Eric Mease).
By Sarah Moore Lindsey (soundsofrva.tumblr.com)