Here, on Deau Eyes' sophomore album, venture into indie D.J., country western, R&B places: These poetic pieces are each neatly begun and ended but without rhyme, but I think with the way the endings reflect the beginnings, the songs express a desire to be in control of the self -- a stoic thoughtfulness. Recording a decision: saying "no," to an open-ended journey, exploring memories through emotion that lead to that decision, and the transformation to lessons learned and wisdom. All of these experiences are alive at once in each song. I think Deau Eyes is very plugged into a world of pro-femininity, female-pop that takes some inspiration from R&B. And I have to say, I'm noticing the bedroom pop genre is alive and well here in Richmond, where yet another talented recording artist is hard at work in their... closet! Awesome! 2. Moscow in the Spring- From the artist's website, we have "a dreamy pop number haloed in the hazy glow of starry synths and tinkling sleigh bells." Meant to sound like "an Icelandic airport." Feminine, not as hard-rock enflamed as her previous release, with lots of digital soundscapes, softer revelations, immediately sounds breathy and alluring, like Purity Ring, but a with a little more Brandi Carlisle-folk, a little more richness to the melodies than dream pop, but at her vocal heights, she does surrender to the dazed elegance, the delicate dissolution of a lilting, expiring melody. Images of dreams, sudden transitions, and by looking at the album cover, I'm a little dazed as we flash from memory to memory without much guidance. Rhythms surge steadily like a calm seashore or what the world must look like from the eyes of a bird. "I won't drop my life to get on the first flight." With the decisive ending to this song we are reminded that through it all, as we can see by the cover, the artist's eyes are firmly focused on the future. 3. When- Tamber of vocals much deeper at first, I notice there is great range in the tone of Thibodeau's voice. The song is set to indie/ western soft bass/guitar on a loop. It's hard to place it in a genre because it is changing forms with rapidity. There's an open and close: when to someday, but in between the question and answer, the music follows a winding, unrestrained path. A snapshot, a moment. I think this album is about transformation, but you are the camera and what is changing is the way you see the world. 4. Haven't You Had Quite Enough- political - Sinking further into the western theme in the introduction of this song, there a pause on an audio segment, a serious exchange between two people, and after that, the song wakes up to a very free, vocal-driven track with an upbeat, bright and rich sound. Think Cheryl Crow adding bongos -- I hear birds and the jungle. 5. Make Some Time - Back to the textures of track 2, an R&B track from this artist! But with modern twists - like the boomp boomp i hear in AJR!s "Bang," or with the way her vocals, when she repeats her lines with breathy exhalations actually slip into the trance-like sounds you hear in the earlier songs. Connecting this to Dirty Projectors for the indie R&B blend and loving it! 7. Safer Love- Beachy, artificial into. I love this song because it's like through all the confusion, a refrain emerges that offers enough of a way to make sense of relationship trials, by naming something they both wanted more - that is enough, and that is the balm. R+B plus some rock decorations. While Deau Eyes doesn't embody the sass and boldness of my favorite, "Autonomy," yet on this album, there's sass and boldness in this blend of music. 8. Another One Comes Around - Just when I was missing the sass, here the traces of Western flair come out in a big way, when Thibodeau transforms her voice into the best of female pop country. And the music in the background is easy and basic, like they've been playing all night. Like they are taking Nashville. When, in reality, this sound comes from.. nowhere? And in it, there's the faintest edge of guitar distortion, or the faintest heavy-handedness to the repetition of one line that puts listeners in a trance again. These moments are like little burn marks on a very familiar recording - little glitter-ice singes. 9. ENDS - songwriter acoustic track, sincere and simple. Nice to hear! I like this song. 10. Legacies- Makes sense that the title track would come at the end, but its a very dramatic ending that doesn't feel resolved but rather brave, new and different. Independence and femininity combine in a voice here that pushes boundaries with musical expression. To borrow a phrase from RVA Mag writer and Gay RVA editor, Drew Necci, "we need this album right now," and why? Because it's self-assured, self-aware and unafraid! Creative in the wake of a challenge!
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UNDYING NO BS BRASS BAND
I have been looking for this band to release an album! I'm going to think about the way it's put together like I would a collage - it feels modern, and i can engage with it on the level of pep music for a football game, or for it's innovation in the lyrics or particular blend of so many flavors - from jazz with rock flavor to new-jazz/modern indie-pop solos on like bad news track 6, but then again, it's also so retro because of the voices of the instruments and the jazz places the intstrumentals take us. For other bands on the radar doing what this band does, I'd recommend D.C.'s New Groovement? 2. Applause- fanfare track! takes you to a drumline, music is about empowerment and strength, 3. Undying- title track, more experimental - strong bass brass! 4. Vibrate Higher - soul, smooth jazz-style ranging melody still. this group seems to be focused on the energy of their band, jazzy, blue trumpet solos are backed by this really strong tuba bass line. then a turn back to the cans and rhythm from applause, blending it with jazz. Live for today, you can fly, spread your wings 5. Money is sign of Poverty - a little bit 50's swing - the big band sound - listen to the polished trumpets - they sound clean and yet they do retain a little bit of the rough and tough of a marching band style aggression. This theme comes back, and then, tuba intro - this instrument contributes so much energy to this album. Then, the trumpet gets down low and talks to the tuba while the percussionists do a scatter. Bring everyone back for another drumline, and at the end - a "tarantella" aka amazing saxophone dance break - to me the tension in this song is between big bands and more aggressive marching band pep music or, conversely, restraint and more expressive, aggression. The title of the song is provocative and a little bit in your face. 6. Bad News- I think we are still in a very retro place but some very modern instrument sounds will be incorporated. A striking trombone solo intro with a touch of saxophone. bring in the baritone and you have a building sound that is very modern and indie-rock-sounding. swing and jazz then sweeps you away with the flash of cymbals -- back to a red-carpet ballroom in the 50's. this is a song full of dramatic range and a wandering theme, the big band polish that alternates with the frank 'plaint of the lone trombone, but then moves on to an alto sax solo that cries above the whole pronouncement with that modern, haunted, independent tone. a complicated song with several themes wound together. i love it! 7. 2 the day- Shoutout to living in RVA, to living easy and maybe rebelling against the easy living. this group is full of an energy that says elevate yourself, those around you, with an attitude that is tough and demanding. Push the boundaries with positivity and don't settle for living easy. 8. Tiger Bomb - rap chorus then rock refrain backed by the brass. this is a fun song about the struggles, strength and pride of the band's creativity and success, maybe? instead of a rock guitar solo we get a trumpet backed by singing tuba that activates my imagination like a synthesizer (almost!!) and powerful drums it all feels a little bit like Sweet Child o Mine, Evanescence or something on the level of that drama- with a distinctively metal-rock flatness to it. 9. to jazz again, on That's a Wrap. It's soul but kind of flattened. Is that jazz? A little bit less climbing whole and complete than gospel and more experimental and focused on the small movements and moments. This song is right on that edge, and it's just beautiful. and truly takes you home! JUSTIN GOLDEN HARD TIMES AND A WOMAN Newlin Prize writer has it right calling this a blues roots album. I think its cinematic with all the varied textures of this music that doesn't ever take its self too seriously. Well-balanced and lovely! 1. Can't get right- Blues blues blues - there's reverb, there's harmonica, there're effortless vocals that don't get too dark. From the first notes I'm taken to a very happy rich place - it's Tennessee Jed in the strained voice of the guitar; it's music of the likes of James McMurtry for its Americana feel or Paul Simon for the gentle simplicity of the blues. 2. Ain't Just Luck- love the color of this guitar - reminds me of the pace and tone of Bob Dylan's most recent albums. This song has so many great steady voices to it, and when they run together, there's a little bit of a muddy quality at times. "I got caught in the river/ stood tall on the other side." This is the voice of blues that are not wasting time on regret and rather celebrating resilience. Imagery is a little bit like a fable or archetypal, making it a very traditional blues- carrying a dead bird over your shoulder to ward off bad things. 3. Lightning When She Smiles- rounds layered together, bright and sunny with the organ. a gospel fragment humbled down to just one repeating phrase and becoming like a meditation. I really like these blues riffs. This is just a beautiful song that is craveable- like the artist's smile. 4. The Gator - a little bit darker, the vocals are distorted in a way that feels like sunbaked or blind in the sun. back to the sound of track one and up-tempo a little bit. 5. Must Be Honey- victory love song, with organ and kind of the exit music feel. very sweet and mellow! 6. Moon Far Away- another love song, very traditional and distinctive. gators, hot sun and the blues land us somewhere Cajun or maybe just rural Virginian, with banjo and fiddle in a soft atmosphere, the sparse piano notes like bugs making ripples on still water, and the whole scene lit by the gentle glow of Golden's voice. I really like the end of the song because the intrusion of an unfamiliar sound that manifests itself earlier in the song for just long enough to make you scratch your head... this song throws in a little genre mashup with, honestly, movies. Production value is great on this whole track. Butcher Brown Presents Triple Trey featuring Tennishu and R4ND4ZZO BIGB4ND "The album was originally written and produced by the band's MC and multi-instrumentalist Tennishu as a hip hop album, but has since evolved into Butcher Brown's own eclectic ode to big band jazz, " From the band's statement above, partake in some garage hip hop mixed with the smoothest of jazz combos; this music makes me feel like anything is possible. I love the energy -- cinematic at times and then becoming a little more potent and expressive -- at all times, the jazz feels a little retro. The flow of Tennishu's lyrics is a haze through which we hear the smooth backdrop of jazz. I like the overall kind of muffled vocal production and the mixtape-style percussion. 4. Lawd Why- I love this song! It feels like such a unique voice - the music elevates these lyrics because it is so dramatic, but it takes me to a new and unfamiliar place. I feel like Foxy Cleopatra but in a modern, hip-hop time. 5. explicit, but cool the way the swinging saxophones sometimes sound like traffic zooming past you with the doppler effect. This is an urban sound, and it's not so intimidating but introspective and focused, driven on and by the pace of urbanity. 6/7/8. 777 - Mixtape percussion, music feeling a little more jazz, a little less like straight-out-of-a-Bond-film. Divided into movements, paying attention to atmosphere 9. Breevin' - explicit - another favorite though! Hype song- you know nothing hypes me up like ... smooth jazz! (Reminds me of Pineapple Express or something. Red was such a memorable character!) The bottom line: this music is easy to listen to and energetic. 10. Cusian- slow buildup, rap about staying dedicated to the squad (Triple Trey,) to making music, to the shows 11. 12. Outtro- almost gets as peppy and rough as No Bs's mellower stuff ;) here at the end, where the band departs from this album with a little extra pizazz. Last night
I bitched To my mom That I've Gained weight I always Bitch To my mom That I've Gained weight "Remember me 35lbs ago?" "You Were crazy" "That was me Pre-meds, I was fine!" "Stay on Your meds Don't eat That donut Have A salad, Try Harder" 50 pounds On Ability (Zombified) Lost 65 (No meds) Went *crazy* (Meds again) Gain 35 (Hate myself) I do This thing To purge My drive To eat I have Eeeeverything I might want But tomorrow I'm buckling D O W N And losing it. But inevitably, In the morning I'll want a croissant. Spooky Cool, Existential Pie
It’s almost spring. You’re starting to be able to count on sunny, warm days. Crocuses, Daffodils, allergies, Redbud blossoms. It’s all creeping back and Sunday was even warmer in the shade than Saturday was -- as the soak from Friday is brought to a more acceptable room temperature. Step out in confidence. Be overdressed and sweat off the winter cold. Let the chafing of an old canvas coat be your aging process, your weathering on the surface of a Tulip Poplar tree or a Sweet Gum. Take it in and let it out. Only letting passing joggers into the periphery of your bubble, inject your suburban landscape with the poppy-metal sounds of Spooky Cool’s 2022 album, Existential Pie. First out-of-date connections for me are to Arcade Fire, Naked & Famous, Animal Collective and the end of Beatles 1 — in other words, happy times – in its aggressive and energetic, complex drumline, an explosive introductory sound matching decisive, simple and mellow lyrics with sparkling, hi-tone lead and rhythm. I love the way underneath this layer of dazzling treble and vocals coming at you through a hookah cloud, a tin pan?... a sludgy, atonal bass rhythm, like a hidden character, lets itself be known only in maybe the second track and periodically thereafter. musings & muses at 3am
12/12 He rubs my back like I'm a child again, the only kind of touch I tolerated lulling my insomnia on a school night hot breath, soft kisses on my neck My dark knight (on dark nights), when I waken from haunted dreams gallantly abandoning nocturnal things lulling my insomnia on a school night ex-lover souveniers 10/26 A 2-in-1 shampoo Expensive pillows you insisted on Vanilla ice cream for your next visit, These are the relics of my ex-lovers Like heads on a stake Post-apocalyptic souveniers Tokens from the battlefield A pawn shop of heartache I tiptoe precariously In my haunted house of vignettes Forever sweeping Neverending shattered glass Why was she D.I.Y.?
Because she wanted to write her own fairy tale. Why did she do it herself - From the decor To her tie dye To her baby shower invitations To her concept of a life narrative for the past several years? At some point She started to do things herself Like taking out the trash Cooking Like paying for gas Like making decisions Until the decisions became so heavy It seemed like a sin Like it wasn’t fair to be DIY in a world like it is today... Yet then they grew from rebellion and faithfulness to the self in all its past forms. Little by little these odd experiences These DIY Could be classy Could be poor and simple Things she made to go with her life To signify how important Individuality And independence Free of any other inspiration Longing to be Of a void and completely irresistible Necessary Defining item for someone else No strings attached This is the spirit Infused in the little actions That occupied her between work And next efforts Kind of like stepping-stones The success of a job done with practice and ease And little by little Though she began to feel like Venus de Milo At times Holding and bearing nothing With no way of fighting or resisting Or even doing anything for herself When things were most gracefully done Then She began to feel It’s almost as though she took no hand in it Merely rode a tide witnessed an event that merely came forth in the light from under the earth as it was set in stone or something like that And so she cast things into it From it And hoped Which was kind of like a prayer without arms Hoped Until all she was Was DIY And longing to be made herself instead And longing to be helped and defined and invested in and spent a little to have a turn in fate Why, she wondered, is there no answer for me? Nothing I can hold onto? Why isn’t there a right and a wrong. Why must I DIY On faith Searching for the bottom like Narcissus Hoping, Waiting. Holding onto hope and holding down superstition Do fairy tales really just happen? Is it possible to take a hand? Years have started passing And wear from my working fingers Little by little The DIY The gifts and items are like a sign of time Thrown to the wind Pieces of dust off a statue of me Built for hope And hoping for a fairy tale. And wearing away into the void, A long way from being made anew, In every way the opposite of what I am -- what holds me together. ...join the artist in Jackson Hole, WY next weekend at the Jackson Hole Art Fair, as he takes the brash, appealing, wildfire spirit of graffiti to spread a message about conservation. Or, take a step back and notice that: “Woah, he makes a lot of kid stuff.” This is the pointed observation from my seven-year-old son, who loves to drink Kool-aid jammers on our camping trips and declared to St. Louis-based graffiti-style pop-art painter, Dave Ruggeri, in our zoom interview in June, “I am not an artist!” A father of two young sons himself, the mild-mannered and kind stranger laughed. A pair of Chuck Taylors shine in acrylic on his family-room wall above a Jackson Pollok spatter of salt and pepper that hangs around his head. After some time talking to Dave, I became riveted by the rivets on the sneakers, and as I began to appreciate their realism, their artful silver look -- I’ll get back to it later, my first impression was that joy and happiness exude from this artist's own opposing and resolute declaration. “I am an artist!” About five years ago, Dave Ruggeri says he thought to himself: “I’d regret not seeing how far I could go.” Here's the spirit of an iconic tennis shoe to give a sense of what motivates this artist in his work. What was cool to him in his youth inspires him now, as he goes back over the iconography of his past. Right out of high school, his youth spent in a Chicago suburb, Ruggeri achieved his BA in Art from Kansas State, and then followed other paths. Though he continued drawing, he also pursued graduate degrees in Economics and Public Health, achieving his PHD in Economics. Degrees achieved, Ruggeri decisively turned back to developing his art as a professional career, taking on more substantial sized pieces, pushing his hyperreal drawings and paintings by expanding his canvases. He looks back on his first paintings as having a tentative or experimental mindset or motivation: “What would people buy?” He created landscapes: a birch painting, an old sailboat and a barn. But years before, in college, he was most inspired by graffiti artists. Keith Haring and Kaws, New York City subway cars and train cars and posters, a mission to make art visible and accessible to everyone that was interwoven with hip hop and exciting expressionism. These new worlds came to him through another vital venue for spreading visual art: the blossoming internet. These were some of the exciting memories of college that fueled his love of art. Ruggieri liked “the colors, and creative intention.” He felt the style was “totally new.” And like the memories coming back to him that he shares to me with still-new excitement and passion, his passion for creativity couldn’t be doused. But from an economist’s perspective, he entered the field with a sober confidence too- he views art as a business, and puts his goals in perspective, always thinking of the long and short term. In building his art career, he is able to pass on low offers for commissions and stick to his own strategy - a mindset he feels he wouldn’t have had if he was doing the same thing as a younger version of himself. The boldness, the breadth and balance I perceive in his big career moves, is reflected in his style choice. Dave was in pursuit of exactitude, of hyperrealism that apparently fascinated him when it all gave way. In a dramatic and decisive moment, he was painting a landscape, one that people “would like to buy,” when he just doused it – defaced his own art, and after painting over it, he gave himself a new canvas and liberty to create free forms of painterly expression that initially inspired him as a young student. So, he says, from that point on, he began honing his current style, of which, “people say they’ve never seen anything like it, which has most meaning for me.” Absorbing the tension between loose style and controlled executions, Ruggeri gives his pieces flow and feeling, showing that “you can paint outside the lines.” As a process, he freely paints his backgrounds, not planning, and allows the result to direct him. Then, with all his skill, he aims to create images with intense texture -- thus far, canvases for people’s homes – people who will, years later, notice new things in them, “like my neighborhood in St. Louis.” A city-suburban grid of murals, old homes, and color that rewards the eye of its faithful residents. His paintings are thickly layered and textured – full of potential, as he sees it, to capture light in many ways as it moves through a room. So, as I continued to stare at that pair of Converse, ever more fascinated by those rivets that were so substantial and real as to begin to stare at me from the canvas, the modest shoes hovered over the artists head, and amidst his talk of the trajectory of his career, from his family home, he acknowledged that many of his paintings reside here with his family. That the nostalgia of them started from a very personal place. Ruggeri remembers liking shoes. He remembers being a high school kid, and first feeling that shoes were becoming a big statement. The images of his own childhood, he only hopes, will strike others in a similar way, by bringing back happy memories. His economic studies allow him to see these icons in a new light- preserved if you will, and no longer completely attached to their original meaning. Converse, we recalled, used to be the cutting edge of athletic shoe, and now their status is changed. And Air Jordans - another of his subjects - I confessed - don’t make me think of Michael Jordan or basketball but rather status, money, Kanye West! Pop culture! He acknowledges that his subjects range from some more whimsical – Pac Man or other nostalgia that people like or request of him, to others of a loftier message – endangered species. He shares that he enjoys going on nature adventures with his family. With his endangered species portraits, through the bold color of graffiti and a deft hand, he aims to recreate the “Power and presence” that these animals have. Overall, I found that his main subjects - nostalgia and the animals - the energy of these pieces, the more I spoke with this painter, came across to me, kind of revolved around the same tension. And that’s part, I think, due to Ruggieri’s process, which he spoke with me a little bit about. After the decisive departure from hyperreal drawing, Ruggieri began to embrace the world of graffiti art with bold, surprising, maybe even challenging spray paint color combinations, yet still combining this with realism in his striking portrayal of tennis shoes or whatever else. He allows the unplanned backgrounds he lays out with spray paint to guide what comes next in each painting – to play a part in decisions about which image goes on the canvas. Furthermore, the artist works on several ideas for future subjects at once by journaling his ideas and returning to them periodically, testing them for soundness mainly by time, all the while working on several projects at once. What Ruggieri calls the “direction of his message,” emerges from this work. In his economic-sensibility, Ruggeri challenges viewers to think about the objects outside their original intended significance, and instead, as maybe, icons. I find the portrayal of these items to be quiet, static or distant. Nostalgia, the past already have a sense of distance. The images are displayed on whimsical backgrounds, so with all the color and excitement, there’s also a traditional presentation has a quiet singular feel. The emotional impact of these paintings is enhanced by the spray paint technique he uses as well as Boston Stencil adornments. Ruggeri likes using this lettering he tells me is a stencil used by police departments, and like his subjects, is iconic. Tersely and ineffectually, I feel, with a "big-brother" threatening aura that has all the irony and ineptitude of a catch 22 -- is it laziness or nonsense? The way the wall has been graffitied no graffiti atop the graffiti to remind us next time, with a firm and real threat… there’s that great distance, that gap, like a mask. Is it hiding a system of enforcement, containment, that is overwhelmed by its own massive and demanding ongoing internal conflict? The city is a little dangerous and confusing. The wall hasn’t been restored, just marked - again and again, his graffiti-wall paintings are adorned with the words “No graffiti.” The persistence would be more troubling if the everyday staples of our American life weren't hovering in the midst of the conflict. Ruggeri couldn’t stamp out or ignore his own creative impulse. He admires the artists who wanted to bring art to people’s everyday world, even if its necessity, immediacy and passion, whatever made it real… was illegal. The phrase public nuisance has come to me now, and I guess, the lasting pop art icons like Pacman or Jordans, or a pair of boxing gloves, are displayed on top of these backgrounds in either whimsy or a little bit of triumph. Then, on another track, his portrayals of endangered species, floating on the same washes of spray paint, adorned with stark, Boston Stencil lettering. “Almost extinct,” have a different emotional impact. Here, the stencil letters insist! in an abrasive, unflappable, and grouchy way. The voice in which I hear these paintings belongs to one of my favorite bike polo players, Bruce “Legend,” of D.C. One of the few senior citizens out there tearing it up on the hardcourt, a lifelong messenger, who grew up with missionary parents in the Philippines, has a bright, kind presence. He’s known to shout on the court, or bark rather, inane curses when he dabs or misses a hit, or a pass, which is endlessly comforting to us 30-somethings all quietly battling against our inner nihilism, and every single g-dang time there’s an open goal, “goal’s open!” he barks to his team, or even from the sidelines, as if they should already know it and already be shifting their position accordingly. With unflagging exasperation. He never fails, and it’s in his voice, I confess, that I hear Dave Ruggeri’s paintings barking at me: “Almost extinct!” Ruggeri’s different subjects resonate with one another- so that the quietly disturbing, maybe frustrating overlap of graffiti and enforcement is deftly translated - focus shifted - to the challenges faced by conservationists. Will they survive? Are conservation efforts in vain? My conscience has comfort because big brother has a hand in conservation, but then again, I feel critical of myself for maybe my own passivity and permissiveness, for trusting or being complacent. This is the way my visit to Dave Ruggeri’s virtual gallery (his artist’s website) leaves me. Digging into the feeling of a joyful, real and beautiful world. The animals themselves are sweet and colorful (even the Mattise sharks.) Dave paints them in the whimsical colors of his fancy, with warm but intense expressions. He has experimented with different styles, and always looks forward to change. Through their boldness, he intends to convey the fact that “these animals have a lot of power and presence.” This, and their threatened status are “something we should talk about.” The artist’s process, revolving around these different ideas - different modes of expression, gives his voice a thoughtfulness and strength.
Ruggeri has begun to see a series in the collected works we discussed in June, which, when I take them all together, seeing on the one hand, a stillness and irony in the memorabilia glowing atop graffitied canvases, a love, an attempt to capture a time period of youth. Ruggeri sees the beauty of public art and finds it inspiring and deftly captures the controversy and excitement of graffiti art on his canvases, and I also feel that he is developing an artist’s vocabulary and a distinct style and voice. His conscientious conservation art, with its urgent exclamations – Ruggeri is asking me to meditate for a moment on life, the wide world, and warnings I see but don’t always acknowledge or abide. His message? Yes, we should be talking about, not ignoring, these moments! His materials include: Montana spray paint, which is popular among muralists, a Detroit based acrylic paint brand called Alpha 6 which he has recently decided to try after hearing about it on a podcast, and some mixed media materials like maps from the Department of the Interior. He works from a home studio, which “like any other, is just a mess.” From his youth, growing up outside of Chicago, to his current St. Louis neighborhood, which provides daily inspiration - the endless opportunities for his eyes to discover some new angle or facade on his daily walks, the rich interest of an established city-suburban landscape -- a fringe-space of old, updated and new, Ruggeri is in the process of looking for a new studio space in the same area, with relatively tall ceilings, because his canvases are getting bigger. The artist wants to continue installing his art in galleries (he is established in NW Canada, NY and Florida,) and attending art fairs, which he often does with his family. Ruggeri says that attending art fairs has played a key part in developing his professional style, because along with commissions, as he pays close attention to the public response to his paintings, noticing what people like best, and appreciating passers-by who simply relate to his memorabilia art with a happy childhood memory of their own, he continues to consider the principle of demand. He wants to keep expanding his work and finding new styles. Take a look at his “Bison” painting (top) for an instance where he was rethinking his style. In the coming week, he will participate at Jackson Hole Art Fair. Since 2015, Jacksonville, FLA, indie rockers flipturn have been maturing a sound that will be pressed and released later this summer.
Commenters find this music to be immaculate, or good music to listen to with your boyfriend. While I listen to one of their three singles, "Halfway," I'm questioning where the indie movement and pop intersect, or whether here is an instance where indie is just kind of consuming pop and producing something new and fantastic. The lyrics are so practiced and simple. I'm dreaming of C-460, Glenda the Good Witch. #mesas #desert skylines. I've never thought of being able to smell someone's lips. In fact, don't you kind of think they are odorless? But I love the way soul and bright guitar come together in this song. Easy soul in this song is detached from its own subject of regret and consumed in the beauty of the music. Righteous like Tedeschi Trucks, and just beautiful and fun. Love the organy piano! Then, "August," another single, delves into a more complex sound, with stilted rhythms and guttural vocalizations, howls and a transcendent empowered feel. This is more of an indie sound to me -- one maybe in the vein of Electrelane (for the dramatic feel and quality of electric guitar,) or "brooklyn baby," a third single, gives us distortion in the intro ala mac DeMarco, that fades into jazzy, even smooth jazzy infused rock delivery of, again, Electrelane or maybe gosh one of the greats - like Bruce Hornsby! There's rock and upbeat rhythm, and a kind of lost, indirect appeal to the past that sets us in our genre. All in all, the three singles for this groups upcoming album have me excited about the range of their indie rock sound, which touches on retro rock and a kind of dark, homestead indie scene that I think is out there, as well as great summery outdoorsy festival music with "Halfway." Definitely check this group out when they make their way to bonnaroo this summer, or more locally, the Broadberry, this November! Country Western Night AKA Come As You Are at Fuzzy Cactus
Saturday, April 9, Holy Roller, RVA, headlined a three-band performance at the Fuzzy Cactus on Brookland Park Blvd. Country Western was the theme of the night. Justin Golden and his band, The Come Up, another group of local performers, appeared, as well as The Great Beforetimes. Country western feels like the most true-to-form manifestation of this rock and roll bar’s purpose. I’ve loved seeing Acid Dad perform Searchin’ there and paying tribute to Elvis, who overlooks the bar from the first booth. It’s a shiny, alien, metal, country western, cozy kind of hole in the wall that devotes the all-gender bathroom space to local installation artists. Get down with the finely-crafted tiki sugar skull drinks. Get comfortable in a row of vinyl booths that line the bar, making a partition as well as offering a good view of the stage area. Hit up the pool table or the pinball machines. And feel free to stomp in your cowboy boots. Holly Roller’s name suits them well, because their male-lead singer has a wide open style and sings to a great wide open - not the open road though. Their music was spiritual and uplifting while still being fun. Easy, bright solos, a traveling bass and lots of backup vocals make it a wild and fun performance that comes to awesome heights enhanced by a wailing organ keyboard. Members of another local country-western group, Devil’s Coattails, who are on Floydfest’s bill this June were in attendance, and scattered fans in the full house sang along with several of this group’s songs. They were hot! Preceding their act, Justin Golden and the Come Up put on a mellow, blue kind of country folk performance. At times he sounded like Van Morrison, and at others, I felt the influence of labor songs. In those, I heard spiritual music. Golden reminds me a little of Tracy Chapman, for his humble persona on stage and the rich and husky quality of his voice. We, manning the door, liked the classic sound, the slide guitar, and I also appreciated the beautiful vocal additions from the group’s keyboardist. Hard copies of their album, Hard Times and a Woman, are available for purchase online. Justin Golden said, “we had a blast rocking out with Holy Roller and The Great Beforetimes.” He invites you to catch next appearance, May 30th, at Daydream Fest. I sat for most of this show by the doorman, soaking in the vibes, watching the detectives, and handing out sour peachie-o’s. Last night, by special permission, it was BYOC (candy) for me at this casual, colorful, craft-beverage venue! Don’t forget to bring cash for the door entry or hit a nearby ATM on the way to your next show and try the fried chicken! |
AuthorWe are Kieran and Michelle, two 32-year-old William & Mary grads living in Virginia. Archives
March 2024
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