Speaking as a person who has consistently avoided living in places generally acknowledged as trendy, I'm always looking for exciting things coming from unexpected places. If you tell me your band is from Austin, Portland or (God forbid) billyburg, I'll be hoping that your band sucks. Your band probably does suck too.
So it was very refreshing to learn about the large amount of good music coming from Richmond, Virginia. A lot of it seems to be amped up breakcore with a high tolerance for noise and general spazziness. Jason from Richmond based CNP Records helped me put together this (by no means comprehensive) sampler of some of the town's more interesting exports.
Diamond Black Hearted Boy - Night One very interesting Richmond personality is Diamond Black Hearted Boy, a "post-hiphop artist who draws from the worlds of punk, hiphop, high art, disco, goth, industrial, and traditional african chant in his music and performance." The myspace. He's pictured below the fold in this article.
Narwhalz (of sound) - Pomeranian Redneck Snoopy Another of Richmond's most exciting artists is this pomeranian obsessed dude. His noisy, gameboyed-out ADD beats glitch around faster than a gif animation on a myspace page. He also runs a venue/gallery in town called Church of Crystal Light. This dude is nuts, just look at his webpage and you'll see what I mean. He also did the drawing to the right.
Hot Lava - Apple+Option+Fire I didn't know Hot Lava was from Richmond when I first heard them on Spleencoffin's Girlz of Noyz comp; all I knew was that I couldn't stop listening to their track, Ghosties, over and over! Turns out they've got many more equally addictive songs. Cutie indie-pop with psychy swirls, lyrics about video games and, most importantly, an endless supply of hooks! Apple+Option+Fire is from the new LP Lavaology. For those in NYC, Hot Lava will play Death By Audio in Brooklyn on January 10th.
Suppression - Maryanne Suppression's new collection of early records is out on CNP, but grind fans might also recognize them from releases on Noise Pollution, Slap-A-Ham, Pessimiser and Clean Plate. Making this trash since 1992, Suppression continues to play primitive powerviolence but adds newer, noisier developments as well. This particular track is a collab with harh noise freak Crank Sturgeon. The extensive discog.
More excellent mp3s and a video below the fold...
Shams - Pillow Talk Jason Coward, co-runner of the Church of Crystal Light and member of the most revered Pom Kiki Crew. Beginning as a drone artist, Coward developed toward house in 2005 as Shams. His influences include early Chicago house producers like Derrick Carter and Cajmere, New York's Strictly Rhythm Label, Lamonte Young and Phil Niblok. "The Godhead can be viewed and even caressed though house music."
Bermuda Triangles - Melting Bermuda Triangles' spazzy synthoid freakouts have enjoyed quite a bit of airplay here at WFMU. It is Jason Hodges' (of Suppression and CNP records) solo project. Naturally, the releases are out on CNP. More mp3 samples from CNP bands are available here.
Bogus Machines - Opium Babies Cool new post-hardcore act in the vein of Hot Cross. There's a demo out, which you should be able to order if you go to the myspace.
To go along with Bogus Machines, here's the first (probably last too) math rock one-man-band I've ever seen, Gull:
that hot lava track is the most infectious track i've heard in years!!
Posted by: lane | January 08, 2009 at 12:54 PM
Am very excited to see The Church discussed. Went there with my brother a few weeks ago, and the energy was very good. Especially enjoyable was seeing SKOAL KODIAK http://www.myspace.com/skoalkodiak , a group out of Minneapolis. I've never seen someone play a Clorox bottle so well.
Posted by: Port Seventeen | January 08, 2009 at 02:42 PM
At one point Bryan of Narwhalz had a side project called Google Earth that was Narwhalz plus four drummers. There are youtube videos if you are interested.
Also: this is just the tip of the iceberg. Richmond has at least two dozen more active bands that are totally awesome. Maybe I'm biased because I live here, but I think it's easily the best music scene on the East Coast.
Posted by: Andrew Necci | January 08, 2009 at 04:30 PM
why didn't you mention the amoeba men, or the now defunct hallelujah?
Posted by: james | January 08, 2009 at 06:50 PM
Both great bands from the coolest label in RVA...
Posted by: bopst | January 09, 2009 at 01:29 PM
mad props for this en serio. but is Richmond really unexpected? Come on, you knew we were cool...
Helllloooo, GWAR?
mary claire
music director, wrir-lp 97.3fm
Posted by: mary claire | January 13, 2009 at 03:21 PM
Amazingly, some people don't and I'd like to keep it that way...
Posted by: bopst | January 14, 2009 at 11:43 AM