Island pop

The DOWNbeat Project - I Want You [live at Is Venue]
The DOWNbeat Project - Heaven
The DOWNbeat Project - He Lost Faith

Hip hop. Also featuring Space Cadet 7.

Space Cadet 7 - Killer Octopus

Teen rock bonanza; also featuring Dover, Never Forgotten and Full Moon Territory.

Crazy electronic jamband duo featuring a guitarist named (seriously) Zion Rock Godchaux. But that dude’s parents were both in the Grateful Dead, which probably explains a lot. The Former Champions open.

Funky Richmond guitarist. Chandler Dandridge’s Meandkidz open.

College-friendly pop paired up with impossibly optimistic retro-rock.

Tim Be Told - System
Tim Be Told - Analyze

Alt-country. Folk duo The Honey Dewdrops open.

Jim Waive and the Young Divorcees - Strike A Match
The Honey Dewdrops - Nowhere To Stand
The Honey Dewdrops - Fly Away Free

Alternative rock. Country-rockers Gunchux open.

Gunchux - The Walk Up 21st Street

Samba and Latin jazz

Beleza Brasil - Water To Drink
Beleza Brasil - Fever

Blues guitarist. Rocking Americana outfit Pantherburn opens.

Pantherburn - The Octopus
Pantherburn - Mister Baby [demo]

Grateful Dead covers. Carleigh Nesbit and her folk-rock Roosters open.

Carleigh Nesbit and Carl Anderson - Three Steps Out The Door [live]
Carleigh Nesbit and Carl Anderson - Passing Through
Carleigh Nesbit and Carl Anderson - Train Song

Carleigh Nesbit - Three Steps Out The Door
Carleigh Nesbit - River Run Dry
Carleigh Nesbit - Turn On The Heat
Carleigh Nesbit - Your City Skies

Popular local worldbeat band of yesteryear.

Baaba Seth - Wonderful
Baaba Seth - Upside Down [live]

Honky-tonk guitar wizard. Jeebus opens.

Bill Kirchen - Hammer of the Honky Tonk Gods
Bill Kirchen - Rocks Into Sand

1920’s swing

ACME Swing Mfg. Co. - Everybody Loves ACME

Local rockers. Teen dynamos The Wave open.

The Wave - My Robot
The Wave - Sometimes
The Wave - Little People
The Wave - Sometimes

Rolling Stone said Pennsylvania quintet Black Moth Super Rainbow’s latest album reminded them of “T-Pain tripping his balls off.” Thankfully, they (the band, not T-Pain’s balls) sound more like the kind of outlandish indie-pop which Flaming Lips producer Dave Fridmann might take an interest in than, say, the poorly translated anime their name might otherwise suggest.

Black Moth Super Rainbow - Born On A Day The Sun Didn’t Rise

R&B legends all, The Nevilles are easily ranked in the company of Allen Toussaint and Professor Longhair when it comes to New Orleans musical royalty, with a string — no, make that four strings — of gigs as in-demand sidemen and then solo careers and, collectively, a run as Toussaint’s house band. These days they’re passing the torch a bit — their touring lineup includes original Neville brother Aaron’s son Ivan on keys. Also featuring Dr. John and the Lower 911.

Check out Nice Jenkins drummer Adam Brock’s new bedroom recording project, “Borrowed Beams Of Light,” which came together when he started working on some solo material with an acoustic guitar during a Jenkins sort-of-hiatus. Featuring members of Corsair fleshing out the instrumental arrangements and Adam Smith taking over the drum kit.

Also appearing: lovely local indie-folk duo Birdlips.

Birdlips - Tire Chains
Birdlips - Some Kind Of Death

Named after the adorable clickety-clackety handheld percussion instrument, West Coast guitar-and-electronics experimental folk band Asthmatic Kitty since before Sufjan Stephens blew up with Illinois and thus are entirely qualified to complain about the term “freak folk,” even if you think it might somewhat apply.

Kentucky folk-rockers The Warmer Milks and Nelly Kate open.

Local singer-songwriter . Wes Swing opens.

Joia Wood - To Do [featuring Trees On Fire]
Wes Swing - Lullaby

Often-instrumental digitally-augmented experimental rockers from Brooklyn. Wanli and The Hilarious Posters open.

Gypsy indie-folk from New York with accordion parts and strings applied liberally and amps turned up louder than you’d expect.

Brainy local rock quintet

Trees On Fire - In The Middle [via WXJM Live!]

Jazz quartet led by the NYC guitarist

Funky new project from the local bassist

Melodic pop

Whether Loretta Lynn’s talented cousin Patty initially altered the spelling of her last name because ex-husband Terry Lovelace broke her heart or simply to avoid associating herself with Deep Throat, um, actress Linda Lovelace, the image of the forlorn country balladeer it evoked was enough to win her forty charting singles and four platinum albums over the next couple decades. Local songwriter Terri Allard opens.

The local pop-rock outfit re-emerges with new material and three new members.

Guitar + sax

Bluegrass and old-time

Blues and folk

Rootsy singer-songwriter plays blues and swing

Barbara Martin - Existential Blues [with Mac Walter]

Classically-trained jazz singer

Mostly-blues guitarist with bits of folk, country and gospel

Founding member Otis Williams anchors this new incarnation of the beyond-legendary Motown R&B powerhouse.

Abstract and psychedelic rock and Americana

The Wiles - Ask Alice

A little redneck? A little rock? Down Til Now has all bases covered.
PUBLICITY PHOTO BY BOB BAKER

In most cases of local up-and-coming bands– Parachute, most notably, alongside Sons of Bill or 6 Day Bender– members are recent college grads, living and practicing together 24/7. Yet according to the rockers of local quartet Down Til Now, making waves as an under-the-radar band has its advantages when you’re a certain distance from the college scene.

“We don’t have a lot of breakup, relationship songs,” lead singer Travis Lillard laughs. “We’re just versatile and can do all different styles of music.”

While they may still be a new face in the Charlottesville music scene, the guys of DTN have been a presence in Central Virginia for nearly four years. Beginning as most bands do– as childhood friends strumming guitars and writing lyrics– DTN crept up (more)

Summery island tunes featuring Billy Cardine of the Biscuit Burners on slide guitar

The DOWNbeat Project - I Want You [live at Is Venue]
The DOWNbeat Project - Heaven

Jam out with the huddled masses at the Independence Day Celebration and Naturalization Ceremony

Patriotic music a couple days early for those of you who just can’t wait to get your Uncle Sam on

Rock trio based around the Nashville singer-songwriter

Jazz singer and bebop pianist

Acoustic jazz guitar

Reggae

iRon Lion - Reggae Jammin’
iRon Lion - To See Zion

Local alternative rock band led by a former protegé of Daughtry guitarist Brian Craddock. Southern rockers Burnley Station and teenage trio The Wave open.

The Wave - My Robot
The Wave - Sometimes
The Wave - Little People
The Wave - Sometimes

Local legends of guitar, bass, and drums play instrumental rock in the vein of Band ofhttp://www.myspace.com/baabaseth Gypsies and Booker T, joined here by members of popular local worldbeat crew Baaba Seth

Five-piece rock band playing the prolific home recording output of Maryline and Jason Pollock, the latter the former guitarist from 90’s alt-rock band Seven Mary Three.

The Pollocks - Toys
The Pollocks - Screams
The Pollocks - One Night
The Pollocks - I Have Lost Touch With The World
The Pollocks - Behind The Songs I Can’t Write
The Pollocks - Negative Blood
The Pollocks - Breathless
The Pollocks - Black Behind Blue
The Pollocks - Country
The Pollocks - Don’t Ask Me If I’m Happy
The Pollocks - Poetry
The Pollocks - Sad Farewells And Long Goodbyes

Guitarist

Acoustic rock duo helmed by former Charlottesville resident Allen Rein

Jamband

Whimsical junkyard folk-rock

Jamband covers and originals with socially conscious lyrics.

Local singer belts out jazz and opera. Featuring Bob Bennetta and Bob Brown.

Classical and jazz piano

Americana out on the patio

Blues and rock covers

Delta and Chicago blues

Classic rock covers

Southern rock and alternative

The Seedz - Hey You
The Seedz - Another Fool

Indie rock

Dreaming Isabelle - Mine
Dreaming Isabelle - Not Missing You
Dreaming Isabelle - That I Am

Soulful R&B from the guys formerly known as Acoustic Groove Trio.

Hot new local rock quartet

The Hill And Wood - I Can Say What You Want

Local rock band

Blues guitarist

Roots rock from the local guitarist.

The Brian Patrick Band - Tumbleweed
The Brian Patrick Band - Nowhere Left To Fall
The Brian Patrick Band - It Hurts Me More
The Brian Patrick Band - Don’t Believe In Me
The Brian Patrick Band - California
The Brian Patrick Band - Big Muddy

The eclectic Chickenheads have shifted from blues to a jazz fusion sound.
PUBLICITY PHOTO

Local music aficionados should take an old mantra, “Don’t judge a book by its cover,” and apply it directly to one long-running quintet, according to guitarist Aric van Brocklin. Rather than take Chickenhead Blues Band strictly according to its name, he advises fans to listen closely and hear the new direction the band has taken.

“We don’t really focus on the blues,” he says. “Blues night was Thursday nights [at Durty Nelly's],” he says. “We’re really funky, fusion Chickenheads.”

Their story is well-known to fans: local blues musician Tom Robbins was asked to create a line-up for a Thursday night gig at Durty Nelly’s in 1999. After asking van Brocklin and bassist Vic Brown to join in on the fun, (more)

Parachute, led by Will Anderson, left, now has a national following. Will fellow Red Light client Sons Of Bill, led by James Wilson, right, see similar success?
FILE PHOTO BY JEN FARIELLO/PHOTO BY LINDSAY BARNES

Two years after they burst onto the Charlottesville music scene, both Parachute and Sons Of Bill are both on their way toward achieving dreams of making a living from the craft they love. In each case, some of the success is due to Red Light Management, the Charlottesville company owned by Coran Capshaw to manage Dave Matthews Band, whose client list now includes everyone from country superstar Tim McGraw to legendary jam band Phish. Capshaw signed both Parachute [then Sparky's Flaw] and Sons Of Bill in 2007, with the hopes of taking both young groups to new heights.

However, with Parachute’s debut CD Losing Sleep hitting high on the Billboard Top 200 album chart in its first week in stores and Sons Of Bill’s sophomore album One Town Away ready to hit record shelves nationwide on Tuesday, June 23, it’s become clear that one size does not fit all in the House of Capshaw. Indeed, when it comes to (more)

Guitarist Gary Boze and vocalist Julie Quarles channel British artists of the ’60s and ’70s.
PUBLICITY PHOTO

No need to take up arms and bar your doors: the British are coming to Charlottesville, but in the form of Richmond-based cover band The English Channel. Embracing influential British hits of the 60s and 70s, the five-piece band has only one desire– to keep the music that shaped their lives alive.

“It was a very influential time in pop culture, in politics, in the world,” says vocalist Julie Quarles, who recalls watching The Beatles on the February 9, 1964 episode of the Ed Sullivan Show when she was in second grade. “The Beatles changed everything– they changed music, they touched our lives.”

Don’t expect cheesy Austin Powers-styled accents or an all-Beatles playlist, as the English Channel prides itself on authentically recreating the sound of over forty British bands who were imported primarily in the late ’60s and early ’70s– with no American bands and nothing (more)

The Extraordinaires are known for theatrical rock.
PUBLICITY PHOTO BY RAMSEY ARNAOOT

Philadelphia-based quartet The Extraordinaires have a special place in their heart for Charlottesville. With three of the four band members local natives, putting C’ville as a stop on their tours isn’t much of a stretch– usually they come to visit old friends rather than to just play a gig.

“We came just to visit our friends before we ever thought about Charlottesville being just a stop on a tour,” says bassist Matt Gibson. “As long as we know somebody there, we’ll always come.”

It takes more than just friendships to prop The Extraordinaires to popularity in the local scene. Their bluegrass-tinged rock is attractive to an audience that that has heard Gibson, vocalist Jay Purdy, and guitarist Justin Wolf since the trio were playing in various area high school bands– which is why debuting their third album, Electric and Benevolent, at iS is so appropriate for the Philly musicians.

After growing up in the local music scene, Purdy moved (more)

This local favorite makes their “mountain rock” using both traditional bluegrass instruments and blazing amplifiers.

6 Day Bender - Kick Out The Fire
6 Day Bender - Devil Lets You Dance

Former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne spent an hour at James “Jinx” Kern’s tiny eatery on Market Street the afternoon before his show at Charlottesville Pavilion.
PHOTO BY ALTERNA2/FLICKR-FILE PHOTO BY JEN FARIELLO

“My buttons are about to pop,” declares James “Jinx” Kern, owner of Jinx’s Pit’s-Top Barbecue, the little barbecuery on East Market Street.

“We were wrapping up the lunch hour today, and suddenly someone walked in who looked remarkably like David Byrne.”

Indeed, arriving on bicycles, Byrne and his band showed up to try Jinx’s tasty barbecue, and even bought several orders of ribs and barbecue for later, perhaps to fuel up for their show at the Pavilion tonight.

“There’s an irony here,” says Jinx. “Back in 1985 I dated an ER doctor who was crazy about me because she thought I looked like David Byrne. That’s how I became a Talking Heads fan.”

As luck would have it, (more)

The thunderous local metal champs bring their recent hiatus to a deliciously violent end. Also featuring 70’s metal aficionados Twisted Tower Dire and local hard rock teenagers Psycho Circus.

ThisMeansYou - River
ThisMeansYou - Order 66
ThisMeansYou - Demon’s Cry

Conscious reggae from the former Stable Roots member

CD release show for the indie folk-pop band. The Front Street Band opens.

TigerLily - Bed Of Roses
TigerLily - Rockfish River

Singer-songwriter

david m. bailey - One More Day
david m. bailey - Dreaming Of Joy

Old-time

The Rivanna River Chiggers - Over The Waterfall
The Rivanna River Chiggers - June Apple
The Rivanna River Chiggers - Abe’s Retreat
The Rivanna River Chiggers - Sadie At The Backdoor
The Rivanna River Chiggers - Cold Frosty Morning
The Rivanna River Chiggers - Shuckin’ The Brush
The Rivanna River Chiggers - Greasy Coat
The Rivanna River Chiggers - Puncheon Floor

Inaugural meeting of the new Central Virginia Blues Society

Folk rock duo

Chicago blues

Folk and country stuffed with vocal harmonies

French guitarist plays Americana

Pianist, violinist and violist play Beethoven, Janacek and Mozart. Proceeds benefit the Ixtatán Foundation, which improves the water supply and educational resources available to parts of northwest Guatemala. Pre-concert lecture and BBQ dinner starting at 6:00, music at 7:30.

They may be comfy in nature, but Yeasayer is far from an “organic” band.
PUBLICITY PHOTO

Before they landed a deal with Baltimore-based music label We Are Free, Brooklyn quartet Yeasayer had a press release that read: “Yeasayer is a band for the future.” The mantra means nothing, according to guitarist Anand Wilder– just that the up and coming band didn’t have the most savvy promotional skills. Yet Yeasayer (the opposite of “nay-sayer”) is quintessentially a forward-thinking band, drawing inspiration from the lineage of rock while also utilizing modern musical technology to craft an indie-rock mesh full of harmonies and multi-faceted instrumental layers and textures.

“Maybe the next album will take place in the future, but the first one was pretty rooted in the present,” Wilder laughs. “We never were a part of that mythology that we’re a back-to-nature kind of group– we’re a band that fully embraces technology and sees no reason not to.”

Apart from their hypnotic rhythms and intriguing influences — Middle Eastern melodies here, gospel layers there — Yeasayer is a band popularized by their lyrical reactions to present global affairs– one of their first singles, “2080″ begins, “I can’t sleep when I think about the times we’re living in / I can’t sleep when I think about the future I was born into.” Yet Wilder insists (more)

The best part of Forro in the Dark? The close friendships between the band, according to guitarist Guilherme Monteiro.
PUBLICITY PHOTO

What do 19th century Brazilian workers and Charlottesville music aficionados have in common? Nothing– except the need to occasionally kick back and dance. Enter Forro in the Dark, which enlivens Fridays After Five this week by playing a traditional form of Brazilian dance music called forro using modern instrumentation.

“There is no band, even in Brazil, with a sound like we have– mixing traditional instruments with electric guitars, surf music, African, country-western, rock,” guitarist Guilherme Monteiro says. “We go to the core of all these styles.”

Forro (pronounced foe-hoe) music stemmed from small-town parties in Northeastern Brazil, where workers would leave their hardships at the door and enter into a sexual, fast-paced world of dance. There are several variants: (more)

Sexagenarian California singer-songwriter Jackson Browne’s most popular tunes typically hit the same pressure points as the late-70’s queso-rock of the Eagles — Browne even co-wrote “Take it Easy” — but he has become increasingly political in recent years, as evidenced by last year’s frustrated anti-Bush album Time The Conqueror and his subsequent lawsuit against the McCain campaign for its unauthorized use of “Running On Empty” in a television ad about gas prices.

Country legend George Jones was once enough of a drunkard to convince Tammy Wynette of “Stand By Your Man” fame to get a divorce. He’s probably off the sauce at this point, though, what with the new gospel album and all.