“Several Dead Presidents are Buried in Our Backyard”

I was going to save this post for ‘Throwback Thursday’, but I decided to put it out there for President’s Day.

“Several Dead Presidents are Buried in Our Backyard, Richmond Music Cooperative, Vol. 2” is a compilation of mostly Richmond bands released in late 1993. It was released on this new, crazy, digital format called compact disc. At the time, it was still relatively expensive to master and manufacture cds, so often bands that lacked big recording label backing would pool their moneys to put them out collectively. They would often use these joint efforts as ‘demos’ to give to the relatively few radio stations and clubs that would be open to new music.

It includes tracks from some favorite Richmond bands like Hegoat, Used Carlotta, Schwa, The Technical Jed as well as Norfolk’s Candy Snatchers.
(Editor’s note: Personally, I have a bias for an earlier Virginia cd compilation called New Dominion, but many also like the Dixie Flatline compilation, which was released by Radioactive Rat, back when its headquarters was on the 200 block of S. Cherry).

The title and elaborate cover art for this cd were probably created by Steve and Terry Douglas, who used to live on the 800 block of China Street.
Steve Douglas, who has a long and colorful music history in Richmond, now lives in Australia and plays with an internationally touring ska band called The Resignators. The title refers to Hollywood Cemetery, where several presidents are buried.

Besides the relatively new cd format, the titles and music reflect a time when Richmond was still a gritty, donut hole of a city, the music scene was loosely based around Grace St. in midtown, and downtown was all but abandoned. Oregon Hill was wilder.

The Richmond Music Cooperative ‘label’ eventually released a third compilation of mostly punk bands called “Dog and Pony Show”.

GWAR Announces Brockie Memorial For Hollywood Cemetery

Richmond’s outer space metal monster band GWAR has announced that there will be an unveiling of a memorial monument to its late lead singer Dave Brockie, aka Oderus Urungus in Hollywood Cemetery at 2 pm on Friday, August 30, which is Brockie’s 56th birthday. A least a few of GWAR’s band members, including Brockie, lived at different points in Oregon Hill.

Dangerous Summer

The band Dangerous Summer is releasing a new album called Mother Nature on Hopeless Records. They are playing the Canal Club on June 15. One of their songs off the new record is called “Virginia”. Lyrics go like this and namecheck the neighborhood…

You woke me up, I didn’t know I’d fallen back to sleep
‘Cause you were alive inside my dreams
You were a freebird in the blue skies ahead
We should walk instead of driving, we we can talk and give our minds up
Watch the city line turn to gold

Take me to Oregon Hill
Take me to The James River
Take me to the ocean floor
Throw me in the water

Can you let me know you’re holding on?
Let me know you’re holding on
Let me know you’re holding on for one more day

End the night entangled in your arms on LSD
Finding the art in everything
Even blue skies pray for thunder and rain
If I could live inside your heart, and somewhere safe next to your garden
Watch the colors burn to gold

You pick me up when I lose self-control
You gave me everything I needed to find the best of myself
The light of the opening door
Crash
Fall all around me, it’s calm now
You give me a reason to stay, I don’t want to live far away
I wish on the morning that’s outside after the moments of clarity
Yeah, after the moments with you
I’d spend every morning with you