Month: June 2008

Which came first, the mp3 or the egg? What’s the sound of one band clapping? If a music blog rocks your world, does it make a sound? It does now.

Feedback is C-VILLE Weekly’s new music blog, the authority on Charlottesville music and your backstage pass to music around town—the kind you don’t need to acquire by sleeping with Mötley Crüe. And, following the death of C-VILLE’s news blog, The Spiral—beaten to death by a gang of Chris Daughtry fanatics and kids wielding bloody Hannah Montana albums—Feedback is your official source for local music news, reviews and more. So, without further ado…

Frequently Asked Questions

"What makes you so special?"
I was born with a tattoo that resembles the cover of The Beatles’ Revolver. Next question.

"How should we get acquainted?"
I’ve taken care of it, folks—check out a free mixtape, from me to you, at Feedback’s Muxtape account, then see below for a review of last night’s Modest Mouse concert.

"What’s your favorite song to sing at karaoke?"
A tie: "Surrender," by Cheap Trick, or "Under Pressure."

"What’s your best street performer story?"
I spent a week performing a few blocks away from Harmonica Guy on the Ocean City, Maryland boardwalk.

Want to know more about Feedback? Leave your questions  with my secretary (pictured at the bottom of the Modest Mouse review) and I’ll talk more than Kanye West.

Now, onto Modest Mouse’s gig at the Pavilion…

A few years ago, the thought of Modest Mouse selling a million records landed near the top of my "Not In This Lifetime" shortlist—somewhere between "R. Kelly becomes president of MENSA" and the reunion of the Smiths. For more than half of their 15-year career, the band made songs that always approached pop music, then veered straight into oncoming traffic.*

So when Modest Mouse opened its Sunday night set at the Charlottesville Pavilion with all the grace of a Dodge Ram, growling and hissing its way through the indecipherable "Dance Hall," I had the same thought. "Dance Hall" is from the same record as "Float On," the song that essentially made the Mouse a platinum band—but you’d never know it, because singer Isaac Brock sounded like a broken muffler and the band jerked around like it was cruising for a D.W.I. charge. The song is one of the least friendly opening tunes the band could’ve played—a bit like walking onstage and giving a thousand or so people the finger.

But—considering that Modest Mouse has basically done just that for 15 years and are new to this whole "Top o’ the Pops" image—it was incredible to see a packed Pavilion singing along to old Mouse music like the unfortunately named "Doin’ the Cockroach." (Sell a Maxima with that, Nissan!) A few noticeably poppy songs—"Paper Thin Walls" and the apocalyptic dance-off "Dashboard"—came very early in the set, which might’ve been trying on a less patient crowd, but nearly everyone on hand seemed eager to entertain the rodents as they powered through B-sides, D-sides, and the ridiculous burlesque of "The Devil’s Workday."

And, the concert was stellar—not all hits, but a few unexpected surprises, like the cheery realism of "Here it Comes" and the live staple "Satin in a Coffin," easily the most demonic of the Mouse tunes, a banjo-led funeral march. (Listen to it here on the Feedback Muxtape.)I heard my first complaints about the sound quality this morning, but I thought things sounded great. Besides, this is what happens at Modest Mouse shows: You expect the slick sedan, the black Cadillac, and you get an oil fire on wheels, a violent, beautiful mess.**

*Something that Nissan might’ve considered when they made a commercial with the song "Gravity Rides Everything," which uses rotting fruit as a metaphor for death, not luxury minivans.

**Except for Johnny Marr, the former Smiths guitarist that handled string duties all night. Marr kept a solid rhythm and certainly seemed to enjoy himself, but the word that best summarizes his performance is "polite." He kept taking the microphone to thank the Dirty Dozen Brass Band and announced during the encore that the band wanted to "hang around a bit." "This Charming Man," indeed.

In an evening post on Dave Matthews Band fansite AntsMarching.org, it was announced that longtime saxophone player Leroi Moore was hospitalized for injuries sustained during an all-terrain vehicle accident at his home in Charlottesville. Moore was transported to the UVA Hospital and listed as in serious condition. A call to the UVA Health System was not immediately answered.

Information about Moore’s injury was originally posted on longtime DMB website The Warehouse. Moore’s injury occurred during a two-day break between performances, following a June 28 gig at the Nissan Pavilion in Bristow, Virginia. According to AntsMarching, the band announced that Jeff Coffin, sax player for Béla Fleck, would replace Moore while he was recovering.

Just announced: President George W. Bush will be the featured speaker at Monticello’s 46th annual Independence Day Celebration and Naturalization Ceremony on July 4. He bumped the previously scheduled speaker for the event, Ken Burns.

The security detail that Bush brings with him will certainly guarantee a headache for everyone involved. Monticello is still working out the details.

"A presidential visit involves some logistical challenges we haven’t figured out yet," says Monticello spokesman Wayne Mogielnicki. Some of those challenges could be the protestors Bush—one of the most unpopular presidents in history—inevitably invites on his travels.

"We will be in consultations with the White House advance team and Secret Service who do this all the time," Mogielnicki says about handling protestors.

Seventy-five people from 30 different counties will be sworn in as U.S. citizens. In the 45 years of the event, more than 3,000 people have taken the oath of citizenship at the event. Last year’s featured speaker was actor Sam Waterston of "Law & Order" fame.

There’s little word on why Bush, coming up on his eighth July 4 celebration as president, suddenly expressed an interest in attending.

"We have a standing invitation to the President of the United States to attend the naturalization ceremony at Monticello," Mogielnicki says, "and he accepted."

The 46th annual ceremony is scheduled to begin at 10am. It will be free and open to the public—or as open as these things get when a sitting head of state is in attendance.

So what happened to Burns?

"He graciously deferred to President Bush," says  Mogielnicki. "We will invite him at a later date."

Sean Singletary, one of the most electric players ever to run the floor for UVA, was drafted in the second round of the NBA draft last night, going to the Sacramento Kings with the 42nd pick of the draft. “I think he’s a really good pick in the second round,” said analyst Jay Bilas during ESPN’s coverage.

His name was called earlier than predicted by just about every mock draft, most of which had the point guard going unpicked. In interviews leading up to the NBA draft, Singletary dismissed talk that he would go undrafted, saying that he had a possibility of going in the first round. He’s the first Cavalier picked in the draft since Roger Mason, Jr. went in 2002.

As a second round pick, Singletary won’t be guaranteed a contract and will have to work to make the team this summer.

Everything was going smoothly for Maxine Rutlidge, Greenberry’s Coffee director of operations, while at the Barracks Road shop on Friday, June 20 until she faced a rather unexpected surprise. Her store was being robbed.

“I was in the office working and somebody came up from behind me and told me ‘Don’t look at me, don’t pull anything, don’t try anything, just give me all your cash,’” says Rutlidge. “So I thought, ‘Oh, it’s someone joking.’ So I turned and looked and he had a knife on the side of my arm and a brown paper bag.” Rutlidge stayed in the back out of harm’s way as the robber, disguised in sunglasses and a baseball cap, took the money and made his escape.

“It was pretty much myself and another girl in the office,” Rutlidge says. “He got a little bit from back here and we could see from the security cameras he was in the front of the store, by the cash register. So he took what little was in there and walked out of the store like nothing happened,” Rutlidge says.

As the robber left, Rutlidge feared that he would hurt customers or employees. “My concern was there were people that were coming in the front door, customers, and my concern was if he panicked now he’s going to come back here to us again, because he told us, ‘Don’t call anyone, don’t do anything until I leave.”

The robbery came as a major shock. “The store’s been here for 16 years, and it’s never happened,” says Rutlidge. “Of course it’s in the back of your mind that it could, but you never think it’s going to happen.”

According to NBC 29, a suspect was arrested earlier this week. Brian Brubaker of Crimora was arraigned in Greene County General District Court in connection with robberies at the Ruckersville Food Lion and Crawford Saddlery and Bootvil’. NBC29 says Brubaker is a suspect in the Greenberry’s robbery, though no charges have been filed.

The robbery led to changes for the store, including the placement of a window between the back room and the front of the store. Rutlidge also changed the layout of her office, turning her computer so that she could keep an eye on the office door. Even with the changes, the event has left its mark on Rutlidge.

“It leaves an imprint on your mind, and you become a little edgy,” she says. “I keep my back to the wall.”

The U.S. Olympic trials begin tomorrow in Eugene, Oregon, and Charlottesville shot-putter (and recent C-VILLE 20 cover boy) Adam Nelson will have to place in the top two to get a chance to compete in his third Olympic games. Yesterday, NPR published its fourth piece on Nelson, a two-time silver medalist, in its “Bound for Beijing” series on Olympic athletes, this time focusing on doping.

During this year’s Beijing Olympics, NBC will surely serve up a syrupy platter of heartwarming stories of athletes’ overcoming struggles to compete. But the games will also be pegged to plenty of stories on doping, casting a cloud of doubt over many feats of strength and endurance.

“Probably the most frustrating part about what I do is there’s nothing I can do, nothing that I can tell you, no test that I can take that can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that I’m 100 percent clean,” Nelson told NPR’s Tom Goldman. Nelson has never failed any of his 120 drug tests.

Nelson has a website, throwclean.com, that makes his anti-doping stance crystal clear. He says he made a promise 20 years ago to his dad that he would never dope and says he has stuck by that promise. And though he doesn’t believe in coddling dopers (“They are committing fraud and should serve jail time,” he said to NPR), he also seems to understand that the issue is complicated.

“I think it’s natural to have those kinds of questions,” he said. “What would give me an edge? Well, probably steroids. Probably growth hormone.”

On his blog today, local Realtor Jim Duncan points to a report just released by the Business Travel Coalition that names the Charlottesville airport as one of the top 100 regional airports threatened by rising fuel costs.

The report does not rank the top 100 airports among themselves, but merely lists them based on criteria ranging from proximity to other airports, to previous fluctuations in service, and a mix of business and leisure travel. Other airports on the list are in Roanoke, Daytona Beach and Ithaca, New York. The group also released a list of 50 larger airports that it deems to be threatened, including Norfolk and Richmond.

Duncan expresses some skepticism about the Business Travel Coalition, but points out that CHO’s own website is quite transparent about the challenges it faces. Possible Chicken Little-ism aside, it is sobering to think about a universe without airports in Charlottesville, Richmond, Norfolk OR Roanoke. Have you tried parking at Dulles lately?