Category Archives: music

BEEX: The Early Years 1979-82

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This punk rock vinyl sold out it’s first pressing in like 1 1/2 weeks, which is pretty amazing and this review includes a nice O Hill mention…

Top-tier slept-on shit from Richmond, Va., in the era when punk was a poetic art student thing. Beex played dark and catchy clean-guitar punk with a singer named Christine Gibson whose ominous croon splits the difference between Patti Smith and Exene Cervenka.

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…And there’s something very Richmond about the nihilism in these songs about suicide cults, vicious dogs, and absentee dads. It feels more like Oregon Hill than the Lower East Side, anyway. Get this record and find out where it started.

Rumput and All the Saints Theater Company, Sept. 13th

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Though All the Saints Theater Company may be best known for founding the annual Halloween Parade that goes through Oregon Hill, they are Richmond’s one and only premiere subversive puppet theater.

On Monday, September 13th, they will performing with Rumput, a local group, at the Firehouse Theater, on Broad Street.

The Rumput performance will include traditional and experimental stringband music by Indonesian composers, newly commissioned scrolling artwork by Javanese artists, and original cinematic shadow theater.

Using their larger than life puppets blessed by the paper mache gods, All the Saints will perform their “Moon Shadow Cabaret,” an exploration of the darkness that seeks the light of the sun. This performance is for all ages, made with adults in mind.

All proceeds go to supporting artists in Indonesia, now the epicenter of the COVID pandemic.

Virtual Richmond Folk Festival Begins

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Unfortunately, the pandemic has forced this year’s Richmond Folk Festival to ‘go virtual’.
From The Richmond Free Press:

The 16th Annual Richmond Folk Festival, a celebration of music and culture from around the globe, will take place virtually Oct. 9 through 11.

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, people can enjoy the festival through a special television program, radio broadcasts and online streaming.

Music from Jamaican reggae, Chicago blues, Altai throat singing, kosher gospel, Gypsy jazz, Indian slide guitar, Gulf Coast boogie-woogie, Ireland and Dominican bachata will be featured from 6 to 10 p.m. Friday, Oct. 9, noon to 6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 10 and Sunday, Oct. 11, on Virginia Public Media radio stations 107.3 and 93.1 FM. The music is by performers from past Richmond festivals.

From 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, the festival will broadcast “All Together Now,” a two-part television celebration of Virginia artists, including Butcher Brown featuring J. Plunky Branch, Cora Harvey Armstrong, Kadencia and Jared Pool & Friends. The performances were filmed at Richmond’s Spacebomb Studios in partnership with VPM, and will be interspersed with performances from the festival’s Virginia Folklife Stage from the past. It will be broadcast on VPM Plus Channel 57.1 WCVW digital HD and livestreamed on VPM’s Facebook page and VPM’s YouTube page.

An interactive art installation by artist Kevin Orlosky will take place on Brown’s Island, the site of the festival in the past. Public participation is encouraged, with people wearing masks and socially distancing. People can paint a rock that represents something they miss, mourn or are looking forward to doing again after the pandemic. The rocks will become part of Mr. Orlosky’s stone labyrinth that, when viewed from above, will form a hand.

Artist Shannon Wright of Richmond, an illustrator and cartoonist whose work has been featured in major publications, books and online sites including The New York Times, created the official poster for the festival.

Details about the festival, performers, schedule, activities and where to listen or watch it are available on www.richmondfolkfestival.org.

As one of the handful of people who attended the very first folk festival (rainy) night in Richmond, back when it was National Folk Festival, I am delighted to see that it is soldiering on, as I very much enjoy the outside music it usually brings to the area. And while neighborhood relations have not always been harmonious, I know many Oregon Hill residents will be sad that they will not have the full festival just down the hill this year. It deserves support. (And talk is cheap- if you can afford it, do purchase a folk festival poster or t-shirt at Plan 9 Records or online).

A Trumpet Blast From The Past

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Photo of ad supplied by Todd Gfeller‎.

Music writer John Wirt remembers:

A big crowd showed up. Wynton’s father, Ellis, was teaching jazz at VCU then. The show included a drumming performance by Wynton’s younger brother, Jason. Ellis Marsalis died earlier this year in New Orleans from the coronavirus.

“Several Dead Presidents are Buried in Our Backyard”

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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”.