While the lineup for Adam Smith’s Invisible Hand has changed over the years, the band’s current lineup seems the closest to a stable, functional family—perhaps because every member has a second creative outlet. Guitarist Jon Bray, who arrived from the now-deceased Truman Sparks, also makes deadly jungle boogie with Drunk Tigers. Bassist Thomas Dean has Order of the Dying Orchid. (He also makes some of our city’s most distinctive album art.) Smith popped up in Sparks and Order, but the Hand’s songs are indisputably his.
|
Something borrowed: Adam Brock releases a CD by his solo project, Borrowed Beams of Light, at Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar on Friday, July 3. |
That leaves drummer Adam Brock. Also a member of The Nice Jenkins, Brock’s non-Hand band has been on indefinite hiatus roughly since the release of last year’s Elephant Twisters album, and “indefinite hiatus” ain’t exactly “validating.” His drumming and singing is integral to the Invisible Hand sound—dig those “California Girls” harmonies!—but he didn’t join the Hand to be a melody maker, necessarily.
Yet Borrowed Beams of Light—Brock’s decidedly low-stress, high-quality solo project—proves that one of Charlottesville’s most gifted drummers may also write the curviest hooks. On Friday, July 3, Borrowed Beams of Light will release its first album, a self-titled EP, during a set at Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar with Birdlips ($5, 9:30pm).
Although both the album and gig place Brock in the frontman spot, his plans for Borrowed Beams of Light remain as humble as the project’s beginnings. “I’ve come to a period in my late 20s where I’m not concerned with ‘making it,’” said Brock during an interview last week. During the first years following his graduation from UVA in 2004, Brock felt that he might be wasting time if he wasn’t constantly networking for The Nice Jenkins. Borrowed Beams, however, is designed so that the music will pull its own weight. “Maybe it’s worse [now], but I feel better in my head,” he explained.
Save the arrangement for opening track “You Have a Sun!!!,” where he collaborated with former Jenkins member Nate Walsh, Brock penned the licks and lyrics. After he recorded drums on a four-track, he completed the rest in ProTools and hired Rod Coles to apply his particular brand of hot wax mastering; the final product splits the pocket symphony pop of bands like Destroyer with the Village Green-ery of The Kinks, two big influences for Brock.
The Invisible Hand is an influence, too, but a reconfigured one—as if Brock’s mixing board mind fuzzed the guitars and brought up the backing vocal volume. Fittingly, members of the Hand are recast as members of Brock’s band for the CD release gig: Adam Smith sits behind the drum kit, and Thomas Dean takes the keys. Seems like a happy family to me.
The kingdom of pop
|
Welcome back, guys and dolls! Club 216’s new location on Market Street opened on Friday, June 26. C-VILLE photographer Ashley Twiggs caught a shot of the new dance floor before the crowds broke it in. |
It seems a sad irony that Charlottesville’s most reliable dance scene (and only gay nightclub), Club 216, would reopen at its new location only a day after the death of Michael Jackson. However, just as Feedback hopes that The Gloved One’s soul will find a new vessel to carry on his message of sparkling socks and moonwalks, so he hopes that the spirit of Club 216 will comfortably inhabit its new home in the Old Michie Building at 609 E. Market Street.
Club 216 opened the doors for business at its new spot last Friday, June 26. Did it rock with you all night? Was it a thriller? We sent photographer Ashley Twiggs to capture the scene. For more details on the new Club 216 location, visit club216.com or call 296-8783.