This week's pickins are pretty hefty, as some really great musicians have crafted some wonderful chunks of music for our discerning ears. The column this week is a little bit shorter than usual, but it's packed to the brim with goodies:
photos by Natural Science Productions
We start off with some videos from the 11th annual Crowefest, a 4th of July gathering with music from around Richmond. Bands that played included Goldrush (pictured just above), The Trillions, J Roddy Walston and the Business, Zep Replica, and the York brothers (accompanied by Tyler Williams of The Head And The Heart, among others). This year Todd Raviotta was there to take some great videos. Here is a good one from Goldrush - a cover of "All Apologies." (Click on Todd's name for more videos from the event.)
photo by Jon Turner
This video of Tim Barry playing a soundcheck with a little girl helping him sing is adorable and pretty righteous. That little kid is so cute and the classic Tim Barry tune, "This November," really works in a stark, wooden bar room with a kid in a Pebbles Flintstone frock.
You can catch Tim Barry in Norfolk at the Jewish Mother 7/14, Chapel Hill 7/21, and Baltimore 7/28 before he and Josh Small head out to Australia in August.
pic by darylcalfee.com
Richmond's Lobo Marino has been very busy putting together some awesome videos from new album Kite Festival. We premiered "Golden Flea" on Monday, but here are "Stay With Me" and "Celebrate," filmed in Spain and at Laney Sullivan's mom's house, respectively. The colors in the video are as bright and vibrant yet surreal as the slew of sounds in the song itself. In "Stay With Me," the dirge-like plea has a trance quality to it. The layers of male and female vocals reach some neat harmonies and the unison parts linger in your bones a little.
"Stay With Me"
"Celebrate"
David Shultz recently stopped by the WRIR studio and played a short set. His acoustic styling is reminiscent of Phosphorescent, with a dash of Americana and a pinch of Prairie Home Companion. His songs are emotionally stirring and introspective.
Chance Fischer has dropped his Epic Week EP. The guy who brought us "Breakfast Coke" has five new songs that pretty much rule. Listen especially to "Tantalize" (produced by DJ Grumble), which encourages an incestuous threesome: "Just me, you, your cousin, too/Chillin' at a crib in a birthday suit." But don't read too much into it: "I keed I keed I joke with you . . .When I know these words provoking you."
By Sarah Moore Lindsey (soundsofrva.tumblr.com)