Avery Fogarty grew up in Midlothian playing piano, singing in choir, and taking vocal lessons. When they picked up the guitar in high school, their musical world was transformed.
“When I started listening to Angel Olsen, Big Thief, and Snail Mail, that’s when I finally found a voice and I was like ‘I know what kind of music I want to make now,’” Fogarty says.
Fogarty began working the open mic circuit, where they met guitarist Kevin Ganley. The two decided to move to Richmond in a dedicated pursuit of music, forming Hotspit in 2018 with bassist Grant Tolber and drummer Kurt Bailey.
“The scene was incredibly welcoming. I feel like Richmond really takes care of new bands and really quickly we got to play some of the venues that I was going to and being like, ‘This is the venue I want to play; this would be the mecca for me or the big one,’” Fogarty explains. “I think we got to accomplish goals really quickly and that put us in a better position to be like, ‘Okay, how can we be even more serious? Maybe time to record and time to tour.’”
The group secured a date playing the renowned Audiotree series in Chicago, and thought it would be a good idea to release studio material ahead of the performance, so audience members would have a touchstone to listen to. Hotspit made its official recording debut in 2021 with CC, an EP tracked with Danny Gibney from the Harrisonburg group Dogwood Tales.
“That was the first time we had ever put out anything and realized how important recording is,” says Fogarty. “It’s funny because you think being a band is just recording, but for us, we thought we had to play every single show and cut our teeth first. So we did things a little backwards, but I wouldn’t change anything; I’m happy with how we approached it.
CC is a moody, melodic slice of indie rock, and this year, Hotspit picked up the pace with a follow-up EP, Memory of a Mirror Image. Standout track “Cave Dweller” was recorded at Drop of Sun in Asheville, with string arrangements by Jessika Blanks (of the duo Bedspread Radio) tracked back in Richmond at Bryan Walthall’s home studio.
“We try really hard to record what we can replicate live, so we don’t do a lot of overdubbing or extra elements that we aren’t also performing just so we kind of stay true,” Fogarty says. “Our live sound is similar to how we sound on our record.”
With two EPs under its belt, Hotspit plans a full-length release, and continues to tour, with stops in Harrisonburg, Baltimore, and New York City next month.
Didn’t it feel good to see that first live show after nearly a year without live music? The return of concerts this summer fall and marked one major bright spot in 2021, a year that was otherwise filled with uncertainty. (In some cases, even festivals came back!) But the pseudo-post-pandemic music scene looks much different. Wait times and lines at most venues are long, as proof of vaccination is checked at the door, and most club shows continue to be masked at the request of artists. Kudos to the artists, venues, and production companies that have been working hard to keep the industry afloat while providing a safe and comfortable experience for audiences.
While touring has been inconsistent, there’s one robust constant: creativity. There’s been no lack of new music in our region. It’s important to support the artists and venues in our community from the ground up—purchase tickets, purchase merch, and purchase music—and there’s a lot to choose from. Here’s a slice of central Virginia’s creative output in 2021.
DJ Harrison, Tales from the Old Dominion (funk): Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement and the removal of Confederate statues in his hometown of Richmond, DJ Harrison crafted a multifaceted commentary on race and space that taps into his prowess in a variety of genres, from funk and jazz to garage rock and punk. With Jimi Hendrix and Roy Ayers covers sprinkled in, Tales from the Old Dominion makes for a captivating listen.
DJ Williams, Short Stories (funk)
Fahim Rahman, Phototherapy EP (indie)
Fellowman, Walking Tours (hip-hop)
Høly River, Courage (indie)
Free Union, No Pressure (pop)
John-Robert, Healthy Baby Boy Pt. 1 (pop)
Kendall Street Company, The Year the Earth Stood Still: Ninurta + Inertia double LP (rock)
Lael Neale, Acquainted with Night (folk, pop)
Lowland Hum, At Home (folk)
Lucy Dacus, Home Video (indie): Released over the summer, Lucy Dacus’ opus still holds up at the end of the year, with predictions of album of the year coming to fruition: Home Video is NPR Music’s No. 3 album of the year, Consequence of Sound’s No. 6, and one of the top 30 rock albums of year as ranked by Pitchfork. The Richmond singer-songwriter’s well-deserved ascent is a triumph, and on Home Video, she harkens back to where she came from—creating an intimate portrait that draws on her high school experiences and also serves as a spotlight on our region, with music videos shot in downtown Richmond.
Matthew E. White, K Bay (indie)
Matthew E. White & Lonnie Holley, Broken Mirror, A Selfie Reflection (indie)
McKinley Dixon, For My Mama And Anyone Who Look Like Her (hip-hop)
Michael Clem, Rivannarama (Americana)
Mitchel Evan, Mitchel Evan (Americana)
Pet Moose Project, Goat Tracks (rock)
Prabir Trio, Haanji (indie)
Root Cellar Remedy, The Quarantown EP (blues, rock, country)
Sally Rose, Tread Light (pop, folk)
Ships In The Night, Latent Powers (dance)
The Steel Wheels, Everyone A Song Vol. Two (Americana)
Stray Fossa, With You For Ever (indie-pop, shoegaze)
Diet Cig, Don’t Like Driving Like I Used To + Live at Studio Two Three (pop-punk): The duo of Alex Luciano and Noah Bowman recently relocated from New York to Richmond, and settled in with an EP of reimagined songs from their 2020 album, Do You Wonder About Me?. On the heels of this three-song set came the release of Live at Studio Two Three, an album that showcases Diet Cig’s unmatched live shows. While Bowman holds down the beat on the drum kit, Luciano bounces around the stage, accenting her fluid vocals with buoyant jumps and high kicks—making Diet Cig a solid addition to the commonwealth.
Singles…and what’s to come in 2022
Ben Butterworth, “Purgatory Emporium” (indie)
Blake Hunter, “I Can’t Lose You” (indie)
David Wax Museum ft. Devon Sproule, Lauren Groans, and Dan Molad, “Love Light” (Americana)
Deau Eyes, “When” (indie)
Dropping Julia, “Chesapeake,” + “My Room” (pop)
Free Union, “Somethin’”+ “The Other Side” (R&B)
Good Dog Nigel, “My Whole Life” (indie)
Gold Connections, “Confession” (indie)
Isaac Friend, “How is LA” + “American Made” (Americana)
Kate Bollinger, “Shadows” + “Yards/Gardens” (indie-pop)
Lord Nelson, “Tooth and Nail” off the upcoming album Transmission (release date: January 21) (Americana)
Minor Poet, “Dissonance of Love/Silent Violent Creatures” (indie-pop)
Sleepwalkers, “Until the Night is Gone” (indie)
Suz Slezak, Our Wings May Be Featherless (release date: March 4) (Americana)
The Judy Chops, “Ready My Heart” + “Good Days Are Gone” + “Goodbye Sunday Morning” (Americana, jazz)
The Charlottesville-based wife/husband duo of Lauren and Daniel Goans have returned with their second quarantine-recorded album this year. (They released So Low, a reinterpretation of Peter Gabriel’s So, in May.) While So Low sought external inspiration, At Home is an intimate look inward, inspired largely by the birth of the couple’s first child. On the standout track “2082,” they ruminate on the sociopolitical climate, the state of the environment, and how the future will be impacted for the next generation. Brimming with their signature harmonies, At Home is a solid next stage for the homegrown act (released October 22).
Abby Huston
AH HA, Egghunt Records
Abby Huston grew up in Falls Church, and became integrated into the commonwealth’s arts scene while studying sculpture at VCU in Richmond. On AH HA, their sophomore output and debut on Egghunt Records, they offer a fresh and welcome voice to the spate of local music. Part shoegaze and part R&B, Huston’s dreamlike offerings are a perfect accompaniment to a chilly fall evening (released October 22).
7th Grade Girl Fight
7th Grade Girl Fight, Self-release
What began as a side project for Charlottesville musician Debra Guy has morphed into a full-blown, knock-down-the-door debut by a group of veteran local artists. After a series of area gigs and a string of singles, the musicians convened at James McLaughlin’s Mountainside Studio to take their output to the next level. Featuring Guy on vocals, Drew Pompano on bass, Wes Fleming on guitar, Bill Morris on drums, and J.J. Williams on synths/keys, 7th Grade Girl Fight’s self-titled full-length comes out of the gate swinging. Each track is a tightly crafted and concerted burst of rollicking energy for fans of garage rock or post-punk (released October 15).
Minor Poet
“Dissonance of Love”/ ”Silent Violent Creatures,” Self-release
Richmond-based musician Andrew Carter struck indie gold when he made his Sub Pop Records debut with the release of 2019’s The Good News. He’s followed that up with an awaited pair of singles, “Dissonance of Love” and “Silent Violent Creatures,” which continue his penchant for drumming up punchy pop-rock landscapes (released September 29).
Jeremy O. Harris will appear at the The Virginia Film Festival to screen Zola, discuss his work, and accept the American Perspectives Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cinema. Photo: VAFF
Playwright Jeremy O. Harris made history this year when his provocative Slave Play garnered the most Tony nominations ever for a single work (12, including Best Play). He began writing Slave Play while attending the Yale School of Drama, where he earned an MFA in playwriting, but his inspiration was intrinsic, stemming from his experiences growing up in Martinsville, Virginia.
Unpacking the harsh realities of sexual and racial violence and trauma, Slave Play stirred controversy with its brash and graphic nature. At times generating a sense of discomfort for the audience, the work forces theatergoers to face ugly truths, reckon with the past, acknowledge its impact on the present, and assess their own place within the trajectory. The same is true for Harris’ film, Zola, the adaptation of Aziah “Zola” Wells’ viral Twitter chronicle that took the internet by storm in 2015, resulting in the high-profile Rolling Stone magazine feature, “Zola Tells All: The Real Story Behind the Greatest Stripper Saga Ever Tweeted.” For his foray into film, Harris teamed up with writer/director Janicza Bravo to co-write an honest, raw look at sex work in America while maintaining the singularity and humor of Wells’ voice. In conversation with C-VILLE Weekly, Harris reflects on his rise to success, and what it means to him to return to Virginia.
C-VILLE: You went to high school in Martinsville, VA. Can you talk about how your experience growing up in the South, particularly in Virginia, impacts your current work?
JH: It’s impacted every facet. The tradition of Southern storytelling is very rich. The thing that’s special about the South is its sort of wild, complex history with both the slave trade—Virginia being the hub of the domestic slave trade in America once the Transatlantic slave trade was ended—and also the fact that Virginia specifically was sort of like the hub between the North and the South…but the Confederacy capital is in Richmond, right?
There’s a lot of complexities that come from this area that teaches one, without even knowing it, the value of what you want, and how you tell your story, and how you know your history. It takes a lot of nuance to explain to someone, as a Black person, that one of your best friends was the owner of the largest plantation in southwestern Virginia. What does that mean that we played there together? Just the fact that we played doesn’t absolve that person of anything.
These are the kind of questions that are at the core of Faulkner stories, right? These are at the core of so many of the bedrocks of American literature and literary traditions. Those things have very much been like a fuel to the fire of the stories I’ve told.
For a lot of people in the North, this year was one of the first times they’ve actually reckoned with race—even though Trayvon Martin happened [almost 10] years ago. There have been a litany of other things that have happened in our lifetime, for even someone as young as I am, that they could have pointed to as a moment of racial reckoning. But it literally took George Floyd and a pandemic for them to recognize it in the North.
And for people in the South, that sort of delayed recognition…I’ve always felt like racism, the questions around white supremacy, questions about privilege, even if the language wasn’t there, the ideas were very much there because they were ingrained in the architecture of where we were.
We’ve been dealing with our own racial reckoning here in Virginia. In Charlottesville, everything came to the forefront in the wake of the white supremacist rally in 2017—and most recently in Richmond with the removal of the Robert E. Lee statue on Monument Avenue. What does it mean to you to screen one of your works here, given the sociopolitical context?
I think it’s exciting; it’s a sort of a homecoming. I feel like myself, and a lot of people from Virginia, specifically, who feel othered—whether it’s because they’re Black, whether it’s because they’re gay, whether it’s because they’re a woman with too much ambition—they end up going to some faraway city and not coming back, right? And being like, this is a safer place for me to exist and explore and become the human being that I want to be.
I’ve done that and it’s been phenomenal for me, but it’s been tinged with some sadness because I would prefer to be able to grow with people that I grew up with; I would have preferred to have shared the lessons I was learning with everyone around me, and not feel as though I had abandoned my community and taken away a resource that you know, Virginia helped foster.
I was watered and planted in Virginia, and then I was uprooted, and went somewhere else and became a grand, surprisingly large flower, right, that beared fruit. And that fruit is being beared and shared with people in New York and people in L.A. So it’s really exciting to have this step of me being brought back and welcomed back in some small way to a community I left because I didn’t know if I would ever feel welcome there.
Photo: VAFF
Do you feel a responsibility to take the lessons you’ve learned and the success you’ve achieved and channel it back into your community in some way?
I think that’s a complicated thing. There are moments where I feel like I owe everything to everyone down there and then moments where I’m like “I owe them nothing.” Oh, do I owe the cousin that called me the F-word, do I owe the students that called me the F-word anything? No.
There’s that question of, is it up to the person who’s been historically disenfranchised or othered to do the work?
That’s what gives me pause about coming back. But on the flip side, I think of the fact that there are people there who opened their homes to me, who shared things with me, and taught me things that I would have never known. And there’s also some other little boy or other little girl who feels a lot like I felt there, who probably feels alone.
I also do think that it’s very easy to abandon communities that you think haven’t evolved fast enough without trying to help them evolve. And again, that’s a lot of labor. But a part of me is like, it’s easier to evolve when you see it right in front of you; it’s harder when you can’t see it at all.
Maybe I do owe it to my community to be this out, proud, Black, successful gay man in Virginia, who can be a model for people who maybe have never even seen a gay person that’s out. I mean, they’ve definitely seen a gay person, they just maybe haven’t seen one who feels comfortable telling the world who they are. And me existing there might be something that could change that, right? Me existing there as someone who is very excited and proud to have co-written a movie directed by a Black woman…might make people have a different relationship to gender, and who gets what jobs in that area, because now they might not feel as though there’s some wild imposition of masculinity the minute that a woman is involved in any sort of project that a man is involved in.
That brings me to Zola, which you co-wrote with director Janicza Bravo. What first attracted you to this project?
I was actively on Twitter as it was happening. [A’Ziah “Zola” King] had written maybe like 15 of the 145 tweets and I was at tweet 15 thinking, “This is the funniest line ever—who is this?” And I think that I was captivated immediately then by the ferocity of her voice and the newness of her voice in the sense that her voice felt similar to the ways in which I process the world.
Can you talk about your writing approach to the film? It’s a unique undertaking in that you’re adapting tweets. Many lines in the movie were lifted directly from Zola’s tweets—but how did you maintain her voice?
Isn’t it so funny [the opening line of the film]: “Y’all wanna hear a story about why me and this bitch here fell out?” Isn’t it such a Southern turn of phrase? That line just feels like home to me.
And it’s immediately captivating. It feels like sitting around the table talking to your friends.
Exactly. It does feel exhilarating. The thing that made it very easy for me was that she told the story with such conviction, with such an innate and natural understanding of the rhythm of the storytelling that I didn’t have to do anything. It was basically like plug and play. So every beat that’s in the movie is from her actual Twitter thread, right. And so we just went through it and wrote them all down as the outline. And we filled in the beats in between the tweets.
Anything that could have happened between a pair of tweets—like there’s a tweet where they got in the car, and the next tweet, they’re in Florida—we filled out what happened on the ride to Florida, then. And that became a really important process. And then outside of that, we went through her actual history—some of the things she had told [David Kushner], the man who wrote the [Rolling Stone] article about her and used those things to add further flavors to the story.
This movie is categorized as a comedy, but it takes on a very serious subject. And I felt like it challenged me. There were certain scenes that I thought were funny, and there were other scenes that made me uncomfortable. Then there were scenes that I appreciated, but I felt like I wasn’t the intended audience. As a viewer, I felt very self-aware and my interpretation was that that was intentional. Was it?
I believe very strongly that an audience who is aware of itself, aware of its presence, are able to take on bigger ideas, even inside of a comedy, than they would if they aren’t aware of themselves. You do enough to remind people that what they’re watching is a movie that has an idea and the ideas are X, Y, and Z, so that they’ll notice things like the Confederate flag or the fact that a Black woman who doesn’t look anything like Whoopi Goldberg is being called Whoopi Goldberg. And even if they don’t understand what that means in the moment, they’ll think about it for longer because the movie has done a lot to destabilize the relationship to what they’re seeing.
Charlottesville-based rapper and producer Fellowman explores the racial, social, and economic disparities in our own backyard with his latest interactive album, Walking Tours. In conjunction with the musical release, Fellowman invites listeners to participate in a public art project by visiting eight different locations throughout Charlottesville that inform and correspond to the album’s tracks. Each site features a QR code that takes visitors to private links for each song—the only way to currently hear the album in full is to follow the map posted on the artist’s website and social media accounts, scanning QR codes individually. A physical release is forthcoming, but for now, the format of this digital release is intentional. And the impact is twofold: Listeners are able to experience the collection as Fellowman did (he came up with most of the album while on walks), and they are also forced to confront one of the album’s central themes of inequality by acknowledging that navigating the city by foot is very different than by car (released 9/11).
Matthew E. White
K Bay, Domino
As the founder of Spacebomb, the hybrid studio, record label, and publishing house based in Richmond, Matthew E. White doesn’t have much downtime. For the past six years, he’s channeled his efforts into his role as a bandleader and producer. On the heels of this year’s collaborative release with Lonnie Holley comes K Bay, White’s third solo album (his first since 2015). With influences of soul, funk, and electronica, K Bay boasts all the touchstones of a typical White production. Bursts of energy are interspersed throughout—from the appropriately named “Electric” to the disco revival “Let’s Ball,” which received a choreographed dance treatment for the music video. Plenty of surprises arise throughout this captivating listen, which blends modern and retro elements, making it a contender for one of the best albums of the year in the format (released 9/10).
Kate Bollinger
“Shadows”(Single) Self-release
Following last year’s full-length release, A Word becomes a sound, “Shadows” is the first listen from a new batch of songs that Charlottesville artist Kate Bollinger cooked up during the pandemic lockdown. Possessing a dreamlike quality, the track carries the listener through breezy gossamer vocals and indie minimalism; it’s a promising preview of what’s to come from Bollinger (released 9/8).
Kendall Street Company
The Year the Earth Stood Still: Inertia, What is Yes Records
The Charlottesville alt-jam band has spent years building an audience through its festival sets and steady stream of live shows around central Virginia. Now, the group is positioned for a wider breakout with its largest undertaking to date: a double LP titled The Year the Earth Stood Still. In June, the band released the first installment, Ninurta, with the lead single, “Say Hey!,” laying out a dystopian fantasy across straight-ahead guitar and piano lines. The second installment, Inertia, completes the series, with the softer, psychedelic “Livin’ on the Bone” leading the way. Taking on the collective experience of COVID quarantine, Kendall Street Company invites the listener to join in on a spaced-out romp through an alternate reality that becomes all too real (released 9/24).
As one of the year’s most important releases, McKinley Dixon’s Spacebomb Records debut rounds out a trilogy of albums that were five years in the making. The Richmond-based artist’s first two albums, Who Taught You to Hate Yourself? (2016) and The Importance of Self Belief (2018), served as vehicles for processing, healing, and exploring both Dixon’s personal experience and the collective Black experience in this country. Following the tragic killing of his best friend in 2018, Dixon breaks down trauma on For My Mama and Anyone Who Look Like Her through the lens of religion and mortality with tracks like “Chain Sooo Heavy” and “Bless the Child.” As a storyteller, Dixon uses the imagery and techniques of gothic literature. He’s a self-described “musical time traveler,” relying on genres from hip-hop to jazz to analyze the past and enact change in the present. At times dark and brooding; at times rejuvenating and cleansing, the album is an homage to Dixon’s community and a must-listen for all. (Released May 7)
Disco Risqué
D3P
Self-release
Since dropping its debut album in 2015, Charlottesville funk-punk outfit Disco Risqué has carved out an audience with its frenetic grooves and energetic live shows. Composed of Charlie Murchie (lead guitar), Robert “Slim” Prescott (drums/vocals), Ryan “Swimsuit” Calonder (vocals/ trumpet/rhythm guitar), and Andrew “The Champ” Hollifield (bass), the group added Sean Hodge on keys and vocals last fall, resulting in a more robust, heavy sound. Now, the crew is back with D3P, a three-track EP to push into this new era. Recorded in Charlottesville and mixed in Richmond, D3P is a breath of fresh air after nearly two years of a global pandemic. Perky tracks like “Pre Fluff Party Fyfe” and “The Scene” complete a welcome, danceable listen from a band that doesn’t take itself too seriously. (Released May 28)
Sleepwalkers
“Until the Night is Gone”
Shoebox Treasure
Richmond staple Sleepwalkers’ new single is a retro-futuristic romp through the wee hours of the night. The group’s last full-length release, Ages, came in 2019 via Spacebomb Records, and harkened back to the pop landscape of the late ’70s and early ’80s. As a follow-up, “Until the Night is Gone” continues this trajectory with an unforgettable pop hook, tinges of disco, and cinematic touches, making it one of the top songs of the summer. Let’s hope there’s more where this came from, and cross our fingers for a full album announcement behind this track. (Released July 29) —Desiré Moses
Richmond collective Butcher Brown made its major label debut last year on Concord with the release of #KINGBUTCH, an expansive full-length album that showcased the group’s unique fusion of jazz, hip-hop, and soul. Now, the quintet of DJ Harrison, drummer Corey Fonville, bassist Andrew Randazzo, trumpeter/saxophonist/MC Marcus “Tennishu” Tenney, and guitarist Morgan Burrs returns with a companion EP, Encore, featuring five tracks that were recorded during the #KINGBUTCH sessions. “Truck Fump” is an energetic instrumental trip, while tracks like “VA Noir” give a nod to the region. It’s the latest installment in Butcher Brown’s ascent; the crew recently played NPR’s Tiny Desk (Home) Concert, while ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” tapped them to contribute to an updated version of the show’s theme song “Rip It Up” in 2020. Appropriately titled, Encore provides further insight and depth into the psyche of a band that never stops evolving. (Released June 4)
Lucy Dacus
Home Video, Matador
Across the span of two albums—2016’s No Burden and 2018’s Historian—and a collaborative project with fellow songwriters Phoebe Bridgers and Julien Baker, Richmond native Lucy Dacus has garnered national success and secured her status on the indie rock landscape. Along the way, Dacus made the move to Philadelphia, a city that boasts its own underground scene in the same vein as Richmond. Her third album, Home Video, harkens back to Dacus’ roots in Richmond, reflecting on mentors, friends, venues, and the experiences that forged her identity. On this coming-of-age account, Dacus turns her incisive, sharp songwriting lens inward, questioning how iterations of her current and past selves align as a cohesive journey. She debuted the album’s lead single, “Hot & Heavy,” on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” The track’s music video traces the record’s theme, combining home video footage of Dacus as a singing child with modern-day montages of her visiting the Byrd Theatre. She performed the follow-up single, “Brando,” on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” and the video was filmed at another Richmond haunt, the Theatre Gym at the Virginia Repertory Theatre. This hometown homage is Dacus’ strongest work to date, and is a contender for one of the best albums of 2021. (Released June 25)
Free Union
No Pressure, Self-Release
After dropping a double single in January, the Charlottesville-based collective spearheaded by Michael Coleman and Rob Dunnenberger is back with a career-spanning five-song EP. As a group, Free Union aims to unite genres, places, and people—and follows suit on No Pressure, enlisting co-production from neighboring Richmond artist DJ Harrison, and engineering and mixing from Adrian Olsen and Montrose Recording. Comprised of new compositions and songs that were written years prior, No Pressure traces the band’s trajectory and is a testament to its musical prowess. Standout track “Someone Like Me” is the perfect summer bop, but the entire crop of songs combines elements of pop and R&B in a groovy blend owned by the band. (Released May 28)
John-Robert’s musical ascent is the stuff of dreams. Hailing from Edinburg, Virginia—a small town north of Harrisonburg—he was tapped to play Something in the Water, Pharrell’s inaugural Virginia Beach festival, before super-producer Ricky Reed offered him the opportunity of a lifetime: Come to L.A. to record. (Reed’s worked with some of pop and indie’s biggest stars, with hits like Lizzo’s breakout “Truth Hurts” on his resume.) John-Robert took the leap—he signed with Reed’s Warner Records imprint and switched coasts during the pandemic. The result is the 20-year-old’s debut EP, Healthy Baby Boy Pt. 1. The moody, slow burn of “Move It to the Side,” and the swagged-out kiss-off “USMO” (an acronym for You Should Move On) brim with pop gusto. But the EP draws its name from the standout track “Healthy Baby Boy,” which maintains the down-home heart of rural Virginia. With his voice reduced to nearly a whisper, John-Robert sings over a hushed, finger-picked guitar, “Alex died and JJ had a kid.” These details are from his life; around the time that his friend’s brother died by suicide, another friend was experiencing the birth of his first child. John-Robert brings richness and depth to this project, and he’s just getting started. (Released April 2)
Prabir Trio
Haanji
Self-released
Prabir Metha immigrated to Richmond, Virginia, from India when he was 8 years old, and he’s spent nearly two decades furthering the city’s rich art scene—from his musical output to his work with the Richmond Symphony, the Science Museum of Virginia, and the founding of Gallery 5, among other efforts. As frontman for Prabir Trio, he takes the lead on vocals and guitar, with bandmates Kelli Strawbridge on drums/vocals, Kenneka Cook on vocals, and Russell Lacy on bass. The group’s debut, Haanji, explores Prabir’s bicultural experience as an American immigrant who is just as connected to his roots in Richmond as he is to the customs of India. Sonically, Haanji reflects this duality: Tinges of American rock ’n’ roll, lo-fi garage, and British pop are interwoven with traditional Indian elements forged with sitar, tanpura, harmonium, and tablas. According to Metha, haanji in Hindi loosely translates to yes in English, and it has been a guiding principle for him in his immigration journey. (Released May 11)
The Root Cellar Remedy
The Quarantown EP
Self-released
Charlottesville quartet The Root Cellar Remedy has honed its chops on the live music scene for years. The Quarantown EP marks the band’s first official studio recording, which was produced by James McLaughlin at his newly finished studio in North Garden. As the release’s title suggests, the group was motivated by the disruption of daily life and the cultural shift that ensued during the pandemic. The track “Quarantown” encapsulates the feeling of restlessness that arose for many throughout the shutdown, while songs like “My Joy” and “Red Velvet” channel the electricity of lust and love. With an amalgamation of straight-ahead rock, folk, and alt-country, The Quarantown EP captures the spirit of The Root Cellar Remedy’s live show and packages it into a nice summer listen as we gear up for the return of musical gatherings. (Released June 5) —Desiré Moses
David Wax Museum
Euphoric Ouroboric,
Mark of the Leopard
As David Wax Museum, the husband/wife duo of David Wax and Suz Slezak have churned out studio albums brimming with their unique blend of Mexo-Americana whimsy for 14 years. In 2019, their debut label release, Line of Light, garnered the Charlottesville pair a performance on “CBS This Morning: Saturday,” and the track “Big Sur” was featured on Netflix’s No. 1 show, “Firefly Lane.” But the national momentum backing the band’s upcoming tour came to a halt with the onset of the pandemic. Housebound, Wax and Slezak tried their hand at home recording, tapping into unbridled creativity, and Euphoric Ouroboric is the first of four albums’ worth of material they generated throughout quarantine. For remote production, they relied on frequent collaborator Alec Spiegelman, who utilized loops, drum machines, and other digital tools to bring a new, modern edge to the duo’s folk-inspired palette. On the disc’s first single, “Juniper Jones,” the tale of the title character unfurls across a cacophony of accordion, traditional Mexican instruments, and digital processing. Elsewhere, “Love Comes Around” hits its stride with a beautiful confluence of woodwinds and strings, while “Real De Catorce” is a marked shift in Wax and Slezak’s sound, bolstered by explosive electric guitar loops and gurgles that give the effect of being underwater. It’s a collection that catapults the warmth and effervescence that made David Wax Museum a household name into a new stratosphere of experimentation. (Released April 16)
38KEA
Seeds, Thy Divine
Thresher, Lost Appeal
Richmond-based rapper 38KEA’s latest output is the genre-bending, head-turning bop that we’ve been waiting for in 2021. As we slowly emerge from our quarantine-induced sheltering, Seeds, Thy Divine Thresher provides a collection of snapshots (each of the record’s 22 tracks clocks in at three minutes or less) all centering on the inherent goal of a seedling: growth. Musings on community activity give way to sociopolitical commentary on a track like “Fill The Cup Up,” which includes a clip of Donald Trump besmirching the Black Lives Matter movement. Alongside collaborators Jak3 and LAMPGOD, 38KEA boasts all the touchstones of modernity, creating a patchwork of glitched-out layers, abrupt stops, beat switches, and malleable samples. The languid distortion on “Group Home” and reverb-drenched loops on “I Wrote N I Soul” are album highlights. (Released March 8)
Gold Connections
“Confession”
(Single), AWAL
As Gold Connections, Will Marsh spent the past five years in Charlottesville channeling the grit of the ’90s—and adding plenty of his own flavor—on four EPs. After the release of last year’s Ammunition, Marsh made the move to Richmond, where he’s continued to hone his lo-fi, post-punk sound. Now comes his first single since making the commonwealth shift: a reworking of an old poem, set to a vast expanse of dirge and dance-rock. From the layered background harmony to the song’s propulsive drive, “Confession” is a masterful maturation of the Gold Connections sound. (Released May 7)
Charlottesville band Stray Fossa have released their first full-length album. Supplied Photo.
Stray Fossa’s “Commotion” is a warm, upbeat indie jaunt—a glassy melody pings away over an active drum track while far-off vocals give the whole thing a touch of the surreal. The tune clocks in at under three minutes, but that was enough to catch the attention of NYC-based talent scout Matt Salavitch in mid-2018. Salavitch was looking for new and interesting artists to book for Rockwood Music Hall, a Lower East Side independent venue that’s been a beacon for up-and-coming and established artists for more than 15 years. When he heard “Commotion,” Salavitch was immediately struck by its sound.
“It evoked some of that Brooklyn shoegaze dream-pop,” he recalls.
It turned out that the band with the big, shimmery sound was neither big nor from New York, but a trio out of central Virginia. Salavitch booked the group right away, and Stray Fossa joined the ranks of artists like Norah Jones, The Lumineers, and Sting when it took the stage at Rockwood.
Brothers Nick Evans (guitar) and Will Evans (drums), along with their childhood friend Zach Blount (bass) make up the homegrown band, which had been operating as a strictly independent entity: When they played the first Rockwood show, they had no management or label, tackled regional show bookings on their own, and recorded all of their music in a de-facto studio they fashioned in their living room. But after their New York performance, Salavitch was so taken with the group that he offered to lend a hand with management responsibilities.
“The fact that I discovered Stray Fossa and they came to my attention was evidence of what they already had going outside of the Charlottesville scene,” he says.
The group gained traction with a handful of singles and EPs, and there was no doubt that the music resonated with a wider audience. So their new manager encouraged them to record a proper full-length album.
With the space afforded by the pandemic and ensuing quarantine, the trio did just that. Released in early April, With You For Ever is a lush collection of synth-laden pop-rock. And it was a long time coming, to say the least.
The band members grew up in Sewanee, Tennessee, a small mountain town located between Chattanooga and Nashville. Nick and Will were raised in a musical household, where their parents’ record collection consisted of legendary albums by Simon & Garfunkel, David Bowie, and Brian Eno.
“We had this great library where [our dad] would get these concert DVDs, and he would basically give us a running commentary on his musical heroes,” Nick recalls.
In early high school, Nick (who is two years older than Will), picked up his dad’s guitar and began learning how to play. Will followed suit, taking up the drums, and inviting his best friend Zach to try his hand at the bass. Hours spent playing at each other’s houses slowly morphed into gigs around town and at area summer camps. Nick’s friend and classmate, Scott Owsley, would hang around in those days, too—but his instrument of choice was a camera. Now a television editor in New York City, Owsley taught himself how to edit using concert footage that he filmed during Stray Fossa shows in Sewanee, the summer before he and Nick went off to college.
Stray Fossa performing at the Southern. Photo: Tristan Williams
“The town itself has a culture around trying new things and defining your own artistic voice and I think a lot of it for them was figuring out what their voice would be,” Owsley says. “I definitely noticed that they started down that path in high school—not finding the sound itself, but it seemed like at the time they knew that that was the next step for them at a certain point.”
After high school, the musicians took a step back from Stray Fossa to follow their own paths. Nick attended Davidson College in North Carolina and, after graduating, moved to Berlin to do environmental advocacy work. Zach also graduated from Davidson, and returned to Sewanee to conduct psychological research. Will came to Charlottesville to attend the University of Virginia, and continued to build on a political ecology research project in Belize that he completed for his undergraduate thesis. Academic interests aside, they remained committed to playing music together, and all three moved to Charlottesville in 2017 to pick up where they’d left off—in search of their voice.
“We very much had to reinvent the wheel and learn how to play live together again,” says Zach. “Part of that was trying to figure out how to fill a room with only three people in a way that we were satisfied with. There’s tons of power trios out there—drums, bass, and guitar—and we always have a desire to produce more sound than what typically would be created by those three instruments.”
They rented a house together and now record out of a homemade studio in their attic. Nick experimented with guitar pedals; once he settled into a sound the rest of the band took it from there. Will spearheads engineering and production, and his detail-oriented work style involves layering and looping with a precision that allows the group to extend its music beyond the confines of a three-piece, creating the richness they had been searching for.
“I think we’re all very open to genre; we’re all open enough that in two years, we could have a very different sound,” Will says. “[A] big factor that influences our sound is the stuff that we’ve collected over the years. We still use the analog-to-digital converter boxes that we had when we were kids. We actually got so glued to it that we bought two; we had to go on eBay because no company still sells these things.”
While Stray Fossa could have chosen to settle closer to home in Nashville, the central Virginia music scene felt like the right fit.
“It was important to be in a place that really appreciates music, and a place where we felt we could actually jump in and get going,” Nick explains. “Charlottesville’s lent itself to that in a huge way, just because of how important the live music scene is, and how welcoming and gracious we’ve found it to be.”
With its strong network of community venues, central Virginia was a great training ground for booking shows. The group traveled from Blacksburg to Richmond to Harrisonburg and even to D.C. Will and Nick took jobs at the Southern and Zach started handling lights at the Jefferson, strengthening the group’s ties in town.
House shows, they found, were also a great way to connect with other bands. They recall nights playing Charlottesville’s Magnolia House with area acts Gold Connections and Minor Poet, and it was at a house show in Harrisonburg where they first met the duo Illiterate Light, a band rising quickly on the national scene. After shows, Stray Fossa would ask Illiterate Light’s Jeff Gorman and Jake Cochran for feedback on the performance.
“They reminded me of me and Jeff when we started out,” says Cochran. “They’d ask us to tell them directly what worked and what didn’t work. It was very serious and they were very dedicated from the get-go.”
Both drummers and producers, Cochran and Will established a kinship that remains. Will sent Cochran early mixes of the tracks that make up With You For Ever.
“When I first heard [the finished album] I took a step back,” says Cochran. “This isn’t just a Charlottesville band; this isn’t just my friends’ band anymore. …The work that they did…took it from a cool, local, regional band to the next band that the world is waiting to discover.”
Find Stray Fossa’s music and merch at www.strayfossa.com.
