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CHECK RVAMAG.COM DAILY
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RVA MAGAZINE 15 WINTER 2013
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Think strange.
Drink strange.
THE TWISTED MINDS BEHIND
Woodbooger Belgian-Style Brown | Albino Monkey White Ale
Wallonian Dawn Honey Saison | Phantasmic East Coast IPA
Affiliated merchants may be ascertained by consulting:
strangewaysbrewing.com
facebook.com/StrangewaysBrewing
Tasting Room Hours
Tue-Fri 4-9p, Sat 2-9p, Sun 12-7p
2277A Dabney Rd | Richmond, VA 23230
Book your strange event here.
[email protected]
(804) 303-4336
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photo: Ken Penn
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RVA #15 WINTER 2013
WWW.RVAMAG.COM
FOUNDERS R. Anthony Harris, Jeremy Parker
PUBLISHER R. Anthony Harris
PRESIDENT John Reinhold
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Andrew Necci
CREATIVE DIRECTOR Asian Rice
ADVERTISING TEAM John Reinhold, Rachel Whaley, David
Hudert, Hunter Haglund
EDITORIAL ASST. Brad Kutner
RVAMAG.COM & GAYRVA.COM Brad Kutner
WRITERS Michael D. Gorman, Andrew Necci, Shannon
Cleary, Doug Nunnally, Brad Kutner, Sarah Moore Lindsey,
Alex Criqui, Preston Duncan, Sam McClelland,
Melissa Coci
PHOTOGRAPHY David Kenedy, Todd Raviotta,
James E. F. Young, Ken Penn, Elise De Brouwer, Ron Rogers,
Chelsea Gingras, Anthony Hall
INTERNS Ashleigh Boisseau, Aleda Weathers, Amber
Galaviz, Melissa Coci, Sam McClelland, Andrew Johnson,
Matthew Leonard
GENERAL INFORMATION e: [email protected]
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cover art by Zach Landrum facebook.com/zlandrum
credit page photo by Ken Penn
Special thanks to Dan Anderson.
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RVA MAGAZINE WINTER 2013 CONTENTS
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VCU Area
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WEST END
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PLAYLIST
TRACKS WORTH LISTENING TO.
The 1975, “Robbers”
The 1975, Vagrant/Interscope
The 1975’s spectacular debut record is full of great upbeat songs, but
it’s the slower, heartbreaking, and astounding track “Robbers” that
truly stands out. For a band that has a million things going on in every
song, the music here is restrained and intentional, adding to the song’s
dark soundscape. Behind that reserved backdrop, the song pulls you
in innocuously before knocking you down with the best vocals of the
album from Matthew Healy. The amazing depth shown here will keep
you hitting the repeat button over and over. --Doug Nunnally
Superchunk, “What Can We Do”
I Hate Music, Merge
One could argue that Superchunk lyrics are just simple phrases
extracted from everyday life. However, I beg to differ. On I Hate Music’s
closing track, Mac McCaughan’s lyrics are at his most universally
resonant. “What Can We Do” is a lover’s lullaby about the dilemmas
life can impose on relationships. Life on the road, or life in a lover’s
arms, is a difficult quandary for anyone. With lines like “You’ve got
wrinkles around your eyes/I wanna kiss them when they close,” feeling
tired and complete never sounded so lovely. --Shannon Cleary
Guerilla Toss, “Trash Bed”
Gay Disco, NNA Tapes
There is something genuinely and joyfully insane about Boston
quintet Guerilla Toss’s music. “Trash Bed” is an explosive assault of
experimental noise rock, ripping apart the sonic canvas with wild
stroke after wild stroke of time changes and screeching vocals, evoking
influences as varied as drum and bass and the chaotic acid-fueled
postpunk of The Butthole Surfers. It’s the most vital music I’ve heard
in years. --Alex Criqui
Touche Amore, “Blue Angels”
Is Survived By, Deathwish Inc.
As someone who lived through the original era, the recent talk of a
“90s emo revival” has left me a little nervous. But I can’t deny that the
latest from California’s Touche Amore reminds me of Current, Torches
to Rome, and all the emotional hardcore records I loved as a teenager.
This 90-second uptempo blast makes me want to put my fist through
walls--or at least jump around my room screaming into a hairbrush.
--Andrew Necci
Blitzen Trapper “Ever Loved Once”
VII, Vagrant
Portland, OR’s Blitzen Trapper released a sweet album this year, and
ballad “Ever Loved Once” stands out with its complexity, unexpectedly
haunting multi-part vocal refrain, and the Southern bluegrass picking
overtop. The song starts with an eerie similarity to James Taylor’s “Fire
and Rain” but unfolds into something so much more special. Lyrics like
“I took her hand but she drew away like a bird getting ready to fly” will
shock and awe every time. --Sarah Moore Lindsey
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STUDIO NEWS
Cannabis Corpse has had a productive 2013. In addition to recording
a split LP with Cali thrashers Ghoul
(due for release on Tankcrimes anytime now) and touring the US with
Six Feet Under, they’ve recently put
the finishing touches on upcoming
fourth full-length and first for Season Of Mist Records, From Wisdom
To Baked. Their first LP to feature
the current three-piece lineup with
Landphil on vocals, this album also
features guest vocal appearances
from Six Feet Under’s Chris Barnes
and Black Dahlia Murder’s Trevor
Strnad.
Hirsute indie-rockers Houdan The
Mystic have been hard at work
lately on an upcoming EP. The
mathematically-inclined trio, who
mix everything from emo to progrock into their complex sound,
hope to release a four-song vinyl 7
inch sometime after the new year.
If their facebook page is any indication, they appear to be recording the songs in their living room-which makes sense, as DIY spirit
is close to the heart of the Subterranea Collective. This loose-knit
grouping of young RVA musicians
includes not only Houdan The Mystic, but also Way Shape Or Form,
Night Idea, Shy Low, Navi, Fight
Cloud, and more. Keep an eye on
these kids--they’re making things
happen around town.
Word has it that a new LP from
Heavy Midgets is coming in the new
year as well. New jams are showing
up in various places around town,
and from what we’re hearing, it
sounds like this indie-punk quartet
is digging deeper into their poppy
side, while still keeping things raw
and noisy. So, even more like all
the best parts of their 2012 split LP
with Tungs (which we loved)--can’t
complain about that. The LP, which
is apparently called Super King, may
or may not be coming out on Bad
Grrrl Records, but considering that
Bad Grrrl head honcho Ben Miller
has released all of the Midgets’ previous work, we figure the chances
are pretty good that he’s on board
for this one as well.
Local songwriter Dane Ferguson,
who has been playing frequent
solo gigs around town for the past
couple of years, has moved up in
the world with his latest project.
Known as Built To Fade, the group is
constructed around the production
skills of Kno from underground hip
hop crew CunninLynguists. Ferguson, along with Anna Wise of San
Francisco’s Sonnymoon and Seattle
solo singer Zoe Wick, provides vocals for this hip hop/soul/folk/electronica hybrid group, whose debut
LP, To Dust, is scheduled to drop at
the end of November. Preview the
album at the group’s website,
builttofade.com.
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DON’T
SLEEP
This page: Scenes from Cheap Fest IV at Strange Matter,
October 25 and 26. Photos by David Kenedy.
Top: Clang Quartet makes noise for Jesus.
Middle: Mutwawa gets the crowd stirred up.
Bottom: Narwhalz (Of Sound) makes his long-awaited
return to RVA
Opposite page:
Top: J. Roddy Walston whips his hair back and forth;
Halloween night at Strange Matter; photo by Todd Raviotta
Bottom--Instagram pics:
1--on the scene at RVA Zombie Walk 2013
(@katebydesign)
2--Cold weather gear from West Coast Kix (@westcoastkix)
3--Clockwork Orange at Hangar 18 (@xtinafitch)
4--Dia De Los Muertos (@lady_bong)
5--@holiday212 X Stars and Stripes (@rouge_jungle)
6--Knight of Beers at Mekong’s Hallobeer (@thereinholder)
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@katebydesign
@westcoastkix
@xtinafitch
@lady_bong
@rouge_jungle
@thereinholder
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ronytennenbaum.com
Available exclusively at Adolf Jewelers
Ridge Shopping Center
Parham & Quioccasin Roads
804.285.3671
AdolfJewelers.com
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Bizhan Khodabandeh
ACTIVISM through art and comics
by
James MoffitT
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later years, Bizhan would go on to co-teach this
class with Scalin.
During this time, Bizhan painted a lot of murals
and did live paintings, primarily because of his
involvement with Richmond’s graffiti scene. His
work from this period “looked like modernist or
Swiss design,” he says. “It was very grid-like, clean,
and easy to understand.” His graffiti work led to
a relationship with a local rapper, and together,
they produced a hip hop zine. While working on
this zine, and painting, Bizhan managed to finish
college and began couch-surfing, working as a
freelance artist.
Concerned that he’d become the proverbial guy
on the couch who spends years with no ambition
and no fixed address, Bizhan got to work. He set
up a screen printing lab and began learning how
to make prints. Soon he was printing t-shirts for
bands and applying to grad schools. His couchhost, Curtis Grimstead, eventually started
Rorschach Records and utilized several of Bizhan’s
prints and designs for the label’s releases.
“I know it might come across as cliche, but I find
inspiration in everything. Good artists excel most
when they recognize patterns that are social,
philosophical, physical, historical, political etc. An
artist’s ability to utilize these patterns to provide
delight or insight can be quite powerful when it’s
done well. Manipulating the built environment’s
patterns and symbols is the best way to present
one’s own vision of the world.” This is Bizhan
Khodabandeh’s explanation of what inspires
his art. His keen sense of observation, however,
expands beyond simply recognizing patterns.
Bizhan has the rare gift of being able to interpret
events and social patterns in a way that makes
them accessible and significant. You can see
this in his recent book The Little Black Fish, in
which Bizhan re-imagines a common Iranian
tale; translating it for an American audience and
increasing its accessibility. Over the years, he has
chosen to focus his interpretive lens on activism,
with the very real goal of affecting change in his
community.
As a first grader, Bizhan remembers doing a detailed
pencil drawing of a frill lizard. He was accused of
tracing by his teacher, and his mother responded
by telling him that tracing was okay. Bizhan recalls
being devastated at being accused of tracing, and
disappointed in his mother’s response. Neither
his teacher nor his mother recognized that he had
actually created the picture himself. Although his
talent was not immediately recognized, Bizhan
persisted, continuing to perfect his craft.
Bizhan “started out doing pro-bono design work
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for non-profits, student groups and musicians
while in undergrad.” During his first year in
college, both the Afghanistan and Iraq wars
raged overseas. Bizhan became more and more
interested in the wars, and in America’s political
activities at the time, and his art began to change.
Since then, he has done design work for Food
Not Bombs, Free Palestine Now, The VCU Living
Wage Campaign, and Critical Mass. “A lot of my
motivation for working with non-profits was a
direct result of seeing images of war broadcast
through Al Jazeera,” he explains. “The images
censored by American media showed children
mutilated by the bombings. Those images struck
a deep chord in me.”
This resonance converted itself into an activist
fervor. But, Bizhan says, he soon “realized while
debating people about the wars that I was very
ignorant about several subjects.” As a result, he
began spending much of his free time studying
sociopolitical theory and history. “My continued
self-education in these subjects greatly influences
my work.”
During these fledgling activist years, Bizhan had
what would become a life-altering experience.
He enrolled in a class at VCU called “Design
Rebels,” taught by Noah Scalin. It was here that
Bizhan began to fully develop into an artist that
made social consciousness part of his practice. “I
finally met someone who made ethics part of their
design practice--something that had seemed out
of reach in a profession where you are the face of
corporations involved in unethical practices.” In
At some point before he’d completed the grad
school application process, Bizhan was peerpressured into participating in a graffiti exhibit
at Richmond’s Gallery 5. At the exhibit, he met
the gallery’s founder, Amanda Robinson, whom
he later married. Together they began curating
numerous socially-conscious exhibitions. Amanda
also enlisted Bizhan to do design work for the
gallery. “With the help of my friend Kenneth Yates,
I curated several socially-conscious exhibits,
organized politically focused film showings, and
held workshops on guerrilla media techniques,”
says Bizhan of his time at the gallery.
After a fruitful and productive time with Gallery
5, Bizhan enrolled in grad school at VCU. He
explains his course of study this way: “I researched
decentralized social forums to come up with ways
to elevate people whom I felt were censored due
to their socioeconomic status.” He explains that
this research led to two huge projects. “One of
these projects was my I Dream of a Richmond...
campaign that received a lot of local as well as
international recognition.” The campaign featured
posters, combined with a Richmonder’s statement
about the city, and were displayed in numerous
locations. These posters amplified the voices of
citizens not traditionally heard in wider arenas,
and expressed ideas about the city that might not
have been what people always expected to hear.
Bizhan’s other project during this era, There Once
Was A Rebellion, attempted to provide information
about cheap and easily accessible media creation
techniques to groups not traditionally given a
voice in the media. While both projects were
successful, Bizhan says, “The public was far more
responsive to my I Dream of A Richmond campaign-which dealt with the same issues, but not in as
decentralized of a means as I would have liked.”
When asked what he meant by decentralization,
Bizhan explained, “Decentralization is the act of
dispersing power from an individual (or small
group) to multiple individuals. With media power,
centralization is predominately a product of socioeconomic status. As things stand now, the most
economically powerful also are the most vocally
prominent. Some of the projects I’ve worked on
dealt with experimenting on evening things out
locally a little bit.”
After finishing grad school, Bizhan began
teaching at the Appamattox Regional Governor’s
School. He taught there for five years before
accepting a position at the Department of
Communication Arts at VCU. The governor’s
school was never able to hire him full-time,
which Bizhan finds disappointing. “Those kids
were amazing. I really miss teaching there.”
As he developed artistically and professionally,
Bizhan’s work shifted almost entirely to comic
writing. “My first comic was an adaptation of
The Little Black Fish,” he explains. “The story
was related to my interest in sociopolitical
theory. It was originally written by the teacher
and activist Samad Behrangi. He was involved
with a group that aided in the fall of the Shah
of Iran in 1979. The story is about determination
in seeking truth, self-sacrifice, and questioning
authority.” Bizhan explained his shift into comics
this way: “I moved into comics as a direct
result of trying to marry my interests in history,
activism, and comics. Doing an adaptation of
The Little Black Fish was a great start, which lead
to Richmond Monuments, thanks to arm-twisting
by my father-in-law.” Richmond Monuments,
an ongoing webcomic (richmondmonuments.
com), is described as “anthropomorphizing
Richmond, VA monuments as if they were
objective observers of the populace.” Rather
than commenting on the historical figures these
monuments represent, the strip finds humor
through the monuments’ observations--and
expressions--of humanity.
While he is currently co-curating a traveling
typographic poster exhibition, comics remain
the art form he’s most invested in. Bizhan spends
most of his time working on two different comic
projects. Indoor/Outdoor, a parallel narrative
about two cats that explores Bizhan’s interest
in “the formal qualities of comics,” is “about
the adventures that an escaped indoor cat
and an outdoor cat have.” The Little Red Fish is
a “political allegory… loosely paralleling the
Iranian Revolution of ‘79, starting with the
staged coup of Mossadegh.” Due to its relation
to Bizhan’s Iranian heritage, The Little Red Fish,
like Bizhan’s last published comic, The Little Black
Fish, is definitely the project closest to his heart.
His drive for active resistance through art shines
through in his commitment to The Little Red Fish
and other similar projects.
Bizhan’s illustrations are quickly becoming a
staple within the Richmond comic community.
His work spans a wide range of subject
matter, and between his own concepts and his
commissioned pieces, it is clear that Bizhan is
one of Richmond’s foremost up-and-coming
artists. Simply put, Bizhan is a good dude with a
creative vision, and the talent and energy to see
it through.
www.mendedarrow.com
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The Southern Belles
by
Sarah MoOre Lindsey
The Southern Belles are taking off right now, both
in Richmond and on the Eastern seaboard. It’s easy
to see why, as the four-piece jam-rock outfit plays
groovin’, improvisational original tunes, as well as
some creative covers. The Belles are on the heels of
promoting their critically acclaimed latest release,
Sharp As A Knife, which came out in September of
last year. Their sound is a heady, jammy mix between
Southern rock and roll, jazz, and funk elements,
recalling bands from Steely Dan to Phish and The
Band. I had the opportunity to chill with these dudes
at The Camel when the band came back from its
longest tour ever (17 days!). They were surprisingly
fresh, funny, and just fun dudes. These guys are
close, too, which shows not only in their onstage
rapport but also when shootin’ the shit. They were
finishing each other’s ...sandwiches. No, sentences.
Take a peek as we find out about the band’s personal
Bermuda Triangle, how they deal with tension on the
road, and that one time they kicked it under an easyup in the middle of a highway for a few hours.
What do you think is most memorable about
this recent tour?
Zachary Hudgins (bass, vox): Most memorable?
Raphael Katchinoff (drums, vocals): Not least
memorable, because you probably wouldn’t
remember that.
Adrian Cuicci (guitar, vocals): I thought it was
cool going to Boone and seeing Tommy’s friends
from Appalachian State.
Tommy Booker (keys, vox): I hadn’t really played
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photos by
James E. F. Young
there in years. I’d kinda visit for brief times but I
hadn’t seen my friends like that. So I was happy;
I was vibing off the crowd a lot.
Are you heading to the studio any time soon?
Raph: Not till the fall.
Zach: [We’re] hoping November.
Adrian: We’re kicking around that idea. We’re
just getting to the point where we can seriously
start thinking about it with the material, time,
and financially. It takes a lot of effort all around.
about how we needed this guy [points to Raph]
to play drums...
Raph: ...and immediately regretted that decision.
Adrian: Every single day. Then Tommy moved
back from Boone, and moved away again, and
came back from New York and was around.
[Things] sorta just came together at that time.
We had some opportunities.
Zach: It was like a snowball effect, with a lot of
momentum going. I’m buried a little; I can’t get
out.
Where do you get your music engineered?
Raph: Last time we went to Sound of Music
Studios and worked with Bryan Walthall.
John Morand helped on a track [plus guest
instrumentation by] Stephen Keister and
the guys from No BS [Brass Band]. Our fine
experience has made us want to go back there
for round 2. We’ve already talked about it.
Zach: We’re going to use a lot of the same people
and get a lot of guests again. We’ve got a lot of
big ideas; we just need to start focusing in a little
more.
Raph: Big ideas, little wallets.
Do you want to, though?
Zach: Sometimes. but not always. Sometimes
you dig deeper and sometimes you bite it.
How did you get together as a band?
Adrian: I don’t even know anymore. We’ve all
known each other for a really long time.
Zach: We played in bands together throughout
our music careers... since high school.
Adrian: Zach and I were spending a lot of time
together playing music and we started to think
Are you guys working with a manager?
Raph: No, it’s all us. We were lucky enough to be
on the road with our good friends Eric and Billy
who just started a production company [Loco
Pickle Productions]. We’re both in a symbiotic
relationship where we can be on the road and
we need lights and sound, and they need to start
Who writes your songs?
Adrian: We all do. I start a lot of them but it goes
through the cycle. We work with Joey [Cuicci,
Adrian’s cousin; of Skydog and DJ Williams
Projekt fame], actually. We’ve used some old
ideas that me, Zach, and Joey put together a long
time ago and revamped them to spark. Tommy
writes, we all partipicate but it generally starts
with me and Joey.
MAGAZINE 15 WINTER 2013
James E. F. YoungRVA
/ www.richmondimage.net
honing their craft down and making connections.
So we brought them on the road. It’s been a blast.
You took a lot of pictures on tour, I noticed.
Zach: That’s Billy. A master of many trades, and
photography is one of them.
Raph: Yeah. He helped got our van unstuck, built
a bench in the van while we were driving, took a
nap on it...
Zach: You know those cooling armbands? He
was sewing them together to make a headband
so it could cool your head instead of your arms.
He is the master, man, a champion boy scout.
Is there a cover song that one of you wants to
play but no one else is on board?
Zach: Tommy wants to do all of Meatloaf, and
we just won’t do it.
Raph: We are at each other’s throats constantly
over covers.
Tommy: We are like old married people about
the right way to do things. It’s pretty funny.
Raph: You wanted to do some Abba. “Fernando.”
Adrian: I get shot down with covers a lot. I
wanted to do Grand Funk Railroad’s “We’re an
American Band.” So this is the messed up [stuff]
that happened. I said I wanted to do “We’re
an American Band.” Everyone pooh-poohed it,
right? Like it’s a terrible idea. Then someone
talks about going to Europe, and everyone starts
singing it and are like, “We should cover this
song! What a great idea!”
Tommy: In Europe it’s cool.
Tell me about the brush with death you guys
had on the road.
Raph: We almost died. Adrian was driving. It
was just an all around not fun day for driving.
We had to drive about 6 hours from Wilmington
to Athens, GA. to make an afternoon show at
Terrapin Brewery. We got as far as Florence,
South Carolina and our front tire blew. It ripped
the [van’s] side step-ladder off into the highway.
We put the spare on and we kept driving. Our
buddies who were following us, their car broke
down, and we stopped just to make sure they
were all right. We kept driving, and about 20
minutes later we were about a mile away from
the Georgia border when the left tire explodes
and blows the right tire off, so we lose both back
tires. Cuicci was trying to swerve off the road
and it trips the trailer, which flips over...
Zach: ...sending sparks and smoke everywhere.
Raph: [It was] the loudest, craziest noise. It
came flying around and knocked the back of the
van and skirted us into the other lane.
Zach: We pulled over and yanked everything out
of the trailer, bought 4 new tires.
Raph: We hung out on the side of the highway
playing spades under an easy-up...
Zach: for about 2 and a half hours...
Did you just happen to have one of those?
Raph: We were very prepared. Then [we] got
some waters from some locals. They [finally]
came back with the van and we made it to our
gig which was at the Nowhere Bar [Athens]. We
had only missed one show due to our ordeal.
Did you have any beers on the side of the road?
Zach: Did not have any beers. We had like three
people stop to bring us water...
Raph: ...but no cop car.
Zach: Not a single cop, nobody to help us. I
would have been pounding beer.
Had you known...
Raph: Had we known our trailer was going to
flip...
What do you love about the RVA music scene?
Tommy: I love the diversity of it.
Raph: You stole my idea!
Do you think there is anything that needs work?
Zach: I think what I thought needed work as I
was growing up and being a part of it is starting
to happen, in the art scene [and] bar scene.
Bar owners and musicians are all starting to
collaborate and work together to benefit each
other, and becoming way more of a family and
a scene instead of just musicians. We’re starting
to network. I think that’s going to push Richmond
way further.
Raph: We’re all in it together.
Tommy: It’s like a form of the union in a sense.
Zach: I have a good friend from California who’s
a wanderer. [He] came through here couch
surfing, and he really likes Richmond. He says
Richmond is the next cultural epicenter. Now
he’s living here and won’t leave.
Raph: It’s a black hole.
Even if you leave for a little while, you’ll always
come back. How do you avoid tension with
each other after being in the van together for
so long? Are there any funny arguments that
happened?
Raph: It’s all fleeting, spur of the moment
testosterone.
Tommy: I think flexibility is key when you have
seven people, and four of them want to do this,
and one wants to go that way. You have to be
able to compromise and come to an agreement
somehow.
Was this your first tour?
Zach: We did one last summer and our van broke
down again. In Florence.
Raph: It’s our Bermuda Triangle. We’re going to
avoid that.
Do you still get nervous before shows?
Adrian: I get some version of nerves--a very
particular, very unsettled feeling of like sort of
ready to get on with it--30 minutes before going
on.
Raph: I get really anxious, yeah.
Adrian: Sitting there thinking about the thing.
There’s no time to do anything. I always get
a little jittery or anxious, but not necessarily
nervous.
Zach: I remember my first two shows I got
really nervous, and as soon as I started playing,
I opened my eyes and realized, “Oh, I’m playing,
I feel fine.”
Adrian: I feel like after day 10 [of the tour], I
went into total muscle memory. I could relax and
just rely on routine a little bit. We were playing
so much similar sets in new towns trying to
showcase these tunes.
Tommy: If you’re confident with your instrument
and you know the tunes well, there’s not really
anything to be nervous about. But sometimes
it happens. The excitement. It’s not like being
scared, or [wondering] what’s going to happen.
thesouthernbelles.bandcamp.com
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down to nothing
by
I first saw Down To Nothing play at St. Stephen’s
Church in D.C. This was back in 2010, not long
after I’d been introduced to the latest generation
of straight edge hardcore bands, including Down
To Nothing as well as Trapped Under Ice, Cruel
Hand, Cold World, and more. The macho bravado
and heavy, fast riffs that were these bands’
stock in trade bore a superficial resemblance to
the scene breakdown bands (The Devil Wears
Prada, Suicide Silence, Whitechapel) that I had
listened to through most of high school, but
straight edge hardcore was more real. Songs
about friendship, loyalty, and hardships were
more relatable than mindless brutality. Instead
of swoopy, asymetrical haircuts and 808 bassdrops, raw album production and the tough guy
asesthetic seemed much more badass.
Being a senior in high school, I listened to Down
To Nothing’s ‘Home Sweet Home,’ with its claim,
“Hanging out is what we do best,” a million times.
My friends and I dreamed about graduating
high school and moving to Richmond. Down To
Nothing made this city sound like some sort of
punk rock utopia. I couldn’t wait to go to shows
and swim in the river all the time. I wanted to
hang out around VCU and the rest of the city,
shooting the shit with my friends all day.
Now it’s 2013, and I’ve lived in Richmond for
three years. Down To Nothing’s last full-length
album, Unbreakable, was released five years
ago, but they ended their long break between
albums this fall with the release of Life On The
James. Their fifth album expands on the ideas
originally expressed in “Home Sweet Home”-it’s an ode to the James River; Richmond and
its people; and the local hardcore scene in
which DTN have played a crucial role over the
last decade. Much like fellow Richmond punk
rockers Avail, Down to Nothing use their music
to celebrate Richmond in all of its grimy, historic,
sun-drenched Southern glory.
Life on the James shows a lot of pride in the
city. What makes you proud to be from
Richmond?
David Wood (lead vocals): Obviously, with the
name of the record, we love the river. I think
the small community--how small the city is,
everything is really tight-knit--it makes the music
scene feel like a family. It’s very easy to hang out
and make friends here. In other cities, you have
to drive like an hour and a half to hang out for the
evening. For years, we lived blocks away from
each other and we could just ride our bikes or
walk to each other’s houses. Daniel and I have
been swimming in the river since we were kids.
Later, through hardcore, we started meeting our
friends, and we’d swim in the river. That’s this
thing we did. So when other bands that we had
met on the road would start coming into town,
they’d see how we all interacted at home with all
of our friends. Every band from out of town felt
like they had a home in Richmond. They’d always
tell us how much they loved it, and loved coming
down and playing, and swimming in the river and
stuff. Just hanging out. Bands would a book show
here just to hang out with us for days at a time,
sometimes even weeks.
Chris Suarez photos by Ken Penn
Daniel Spector (drums): Sometimes they’d
just come through on the road, on the way
somewhere else. Like going from DC to Carolina.
David: Jared moved up here from Florida to be in
the band, so he can say some good stuff about it.
Jared Carman (bass): Yeah, it’s a small-big city.
It’s pretty central [to] everything on the East
Coast. Where I grew up, it was pretty secluded.
It was like a 12-hour drive to go anywhere else.
In Richmond, more so than anywhere else I’ve
been, everybody knows everybody. Sometimes
it’s not such a good thing--everybody knows
your business, even if they don’t know your
name. They know who you hang out with, or
who you date. [But] it’s not always a bad thing.
It’s definitely a smaller, hometown vibe, more so
than anywhere I’ve been. The good outweighs
the bad, for sure.
David: It’s still the South, so it definitely has
southern hospitality. Our friend’s bands that
will come through are like, “Man, strangers have
waved at me and say hello, ask me how my day
is going.” I think that adds a lot to it.
In the 90s, Avail was the Richmond band
that represented the city the hardest. Dixie,
Over The James, people say those records
embodied what Richmond was like at the
time. Now, I’d say as hardcore punk goes,
you’re carrying that torch. How does that
feel?
David: It’s crazy. We were just talking about
that the other day after our show at Kingdom.
The last few times we’ve played in Richmond,
we’ve sold out the venue. Which is just unreal
to us. Growing up, going to an Avail show, it
was sold out at Twisters, Alley Katz, and then
Strike Anywhere had that moment when they
were massive, and sold out shows at Alley Katz-which is Kingdom now. I still don’t think of us
that way. I still picture us as some young kids,
for some reason. It still hasn’t sunk in that we’ve
sold out a venue in Richmond. It’s pretty cool.
We’re in our 30s now, and seeing kids geeking
out about Down to Nothing stuff, talking about
Richmond... These kids from Florida drove up to
the show last week, and they were talking about
how they saw Shafer Court, which is in “Home
Sweet Home.” And they went to Belle Isle and
Pipeline, more places we’ve written songs about.
It made me realize that we do put on a good face
for Richmond.
Dan: I used to feel that same way about Avail
too, because they’d have lyrics about Monroe
Park and Oregon Hill. We grew up in Southside,
and we’d come over and it was like, “Whoa, this
is the place in that song.”
You guys started when you were in high
school. Comparing Richmond hardcore from
2000 to 2013, what was it like when you guys
first started playing shows?
David: When we first started playing shows, we
were young as hell. No one took us seriously. We
got heckled on stage and stuff. Shows weren’t at
Alley Katz really, they were all at Twisters, which
is now Strange Matter on Grace Street. Hardcore
shows were huge before our time--early to late
90s. We started coming out in ’97, and hardcore
shows weren’t that big because hardcore shows
were so violent back then. There weren’t that
many hardcore bands out of Richmond at that
time. So, seeing it now to then--there’s so many
kids, plenty of straight edge kids. The hardcore
scene isn’t segregated at all, all the edge kids
hang out with the kids who aren’t. It’s pretty
sweet. It’s definitely way less violent. I can’t
remember the last time I saw a fight at a show in
Richmond, which is awesome.
Dan: Going to a show in the late 90s, you were
guaranteed to see a fight, at least one or two
every show. And you always kind of had that
guard up--you wanted to just be safe. I think
it’s a lot more positive now. It’s a definitely
cooler than having to worry about getting beat
up. Don’t get me wrong, you can still see some
violence at shows, but it’s less encouraged as it
was back then. I think it’s definitely a positive
thing, especially for people coming out of town
for shows.
David: When we started going to shows, we
worried about getting our asses kicked, just
because we were young and people didn’t know
who we were yet. So, when we got older, when
we saw a kid, we’d go up to them and be like,
“Yo, what’s up man. Here’s some records, here’s
a mixtape of some old bands, you should check
them out. Here’s some old shirts of ours.” We’d
try to welcome them, instead of intimidate
them from coming out to a show. I think, our
generation and our friends, we really helped
made the Richmond hardcore scene grow a lot.
When you were younger, what were some
other hardcore bands that you listened to?
What influenced you?
David: Gotta give love to our locals first, like
Avail and Count Me Out. Strike Anywhere, Hate
O Four, this band called Indypendant.
Dan: Bands like Floorpunch and Ten Yard Fight.
Not local, but definitely a big influence in my
eyes.
David: There was also lots of Hatebreed and
Earth Crisis shows at Strange Matter. Definitely
bands like that, a lot of the early Victory Records
bands were our main shit. Oh, and Madball.
I’m sure when you guys signed to Revelation
Records, you were stoked to be on the same
label that lots of those bands were on.
Jared: That was like the biggest deal for us, we
took a picture when we signed the contract, of us
holding it. We put the Revelation logo on every
single thing we could.
David: We definitely took advantage of that,
bragging with the star. That was a funny time
that summer. Splitting Headache had just come
out, got us off our label at the time, which
didn’t care about us. We started getting offers
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31
from cool record labels. One of our friends was
working at Rev, and told us that they wanted to
put out bands again. We thought, how could
we not do it? Same label as Gorilla Biscuits and
Judge--are you kidding me? We’re stoked to be
on Rev still. It’s awesome.
Terror, it’s very hard. We’ve got some pretty cool
stuff for early next year, though. We’re trying
our best to make it happen. Any weekend, or
anything we can squeeze in, we’re going to do it
because the new record is out. Jared’s also been
super busy with Trapped Under Ice.
Dan: I think it was more of an emotional decision
to go with Rev at the time. We were so excited
about it, that we just did it. Instead of looking at
the finances, it was like, “Nah--Rev star.”
Dan: Between the three of us, it’s kind of like
magic when all of our schedules work with each
other so we can play. It’s been hard to do.
You guys don’t play too often, since you’re all
busy with other bands and other things. Now
that Life On The James is out, are you going to
be touring more?
David: We usually play Richmond once a year,
sometimes twice. We did United Blood this
year, and did our Christmas show last year.
We can’t do that [this year] because my other
band [Terror] is on going to be on tour most of
December.
We’re definitely going to try harder now, but
with Daniel being a doctor and my schedule with
32
David: It kind of makes it more exciting when
we do finally play. There was one point when
we were all burnt and sick of being around each
other--it was like “Ugh, guess we gotta play this
show.” And now, it’s like, “Yesss!! ahh!!” I’m doing
backflips when we get to play together. I get so
excited just to practice with these idiots.
You’re a doctor?
Dan: I’m an emergency medicine resident at
VCU. I’m a second year resident. It’s a three-year
program, so I’ll be a doctor pretty soon.
You guys started promoting this record pretty
heavily last year, saying it was going to come
out last spring for months.
Jared: It just takes a long time for a record to
come out. When a label sinks so much money into
it, they kind of have the say as to when it comes
out. Summertime is better than springtime for
releasing records, so it made sense to be patient.
It definitely did help, pushing it back. The
stickers for Life On The James are everywhere
around the city. I’ve seen them just as much
as the RVA stickers. Lots of people I know who
don’t listen to Hardcore notice them and have
being using that phrase, Life On The James.
Dan: I’ve been seeing random people hashtagging
#LOTJ on Instagram that have nothing to do with
hardcore, which is cool.
You should look to get hired by the tourism
department for Richmond.
Dan: That’s what somebody said on the internet
for the video we just put out. It’s of us at the
river and somebody said that the tourism board
should pay us. Everyone’s been saying, “God, I
want to go to Richmond now.”
Another thing that’s cool about the new record is
that you can appreciate it if you’re not a hardcore
kid; just the name of the record and the vibe, and
what it’s about, almost transcends that barrier.
People around Richmond can enjoy it. If nothing
else, they can enjoy the imagery and the phrase,
Life on the James.
I’ve seen a lot of people who were straight
edge end up breaking edge, writing off straight
edge hardcore, and getting immersed in some
other kind of subgenre of punk or metal. As
an edge band for all these years, what do you
think about those who break edge and sort of
leave the scene?
David: It’s true--just like anything, someone will
see something and think that looks cool for the
moment. So they try it out--then they’re gone. It
just happens, but it happens with anything in life.
Jared: It’s not just in straight edge hardcore,
if you played football in college or something,
you’re damned if you do, damned it you don’t.
If you keep doing it the rest of the your life, the
people who were into it when you were into it
are going to be like, “You’re still doing that?” And
those who quit doing it are going to say “Oh, I
got over that,” or whatever. Anything you do in
your life is going to be like that.
Dan: Especially when people get into it at 18
years old. You can’t expect everyone who gets
involved with it at 18 years of age to still be in it.
You can’t be butthurt about people coming and
going.
Jared: I think when you’re a young kid and you’re
real passionate about it, you get upset about it
and your feelings get hurt, you take it personal
or whatever. But all of us have tons of friends
who aren’t straight edge anymore. I just don’t
even bat an eyelash. Nobody does. I don’t want
to see anyone do anything stupid, but I’m buying
my friends beer all the time. We were trying to
have a record release party at Vinyl Conflict in
Richmond. I was going to take band money, like
$200, to buy beer for our friends. On that same
token, we’re not just a band for straight edge
kids. We are straight edge, but we’re not just
limiting ourselves to that.
David: Straight edge is a weird thing--it’s like,
very weird. Everybody drinks. Everybody’s
parents drink. The entire world drinks and
smokes. It’s just easy for someone to not be
straight edge anymore. The majority of the world
consumes alcohol. It’s bound to happen.
Is there anything else you want people to
know about?
David: Check out Naysayer, Break Away, Tough
Luck, Fire & Ice, Upperhand...
Dan: It’s cool that there’s so many young bands
out now. When we started, we were a young
band that no one gave a shit about. Maybe one
of these new bands will take our spot. All of
them are good, so check them out.
myspace.com/downtonothing
www.facebook.com/downtonothing
33
photo: ron Rogers
Six months ago, we couldn’t have blamed anyone
who thought Swordplay’s rap career was a thing
of the past. The Richmond rapper, known to the
government as Isaac Ramsey, was a fixture on the
local scene around the middle of the last decade,
playing tons of shows and dropping strong studio
releases like 2005’s Tilt EP and 2007’s Cellars
And Attics. But his new album, a full-length
collaboration with French producer Pierre The
Motionless entitled Tap Water, is the first release
he’s put out under his own name in over half a
decade. So where has he been?
Back in the mid-2000s, when Swordplay was
making a lot of things happen locally, his position
in the scene might have seemed enviable. But
for Ramsey himself, the situation seemed off.
“There was something that wasn’t sticking right
for me,” he says. “That’s because it’s all that I
was doing, and that’s not me. I can’t just go to hip
hop shows every week. I need to do something
different sometimes. I didn’t know it at the time,
but that felt very limiting, and eventually it sort of
imploded.” After the implosion came a period of
reckoning for the MC. “I had some things I needed
to figure out. [It was] an awkward part of being
in my mid 20s--a little debate I had to have with
myself on a mountaintop somewhere.”
Taking a break from playing shows, Ramsey spent
most of 2008 and 2009 traveling to foreign
countries for months at a time. “There were a
couple years there where it was just--work for
six months, save up money, crash in mom’s
basement inbetween trips.” His budget was
very limited, but between working on farms in
exchange for room and board and busking on the
street to earn food money, he survived quite well.
In fact, he says, “I might have just stayed in Chile,
worked on this guy’s farm and helped him open
up this pizza place. But I had this awesome show
to return home to, and there was no way I was
gonna miss it.”
The show in question was the Richmond date on
the Our Accents Sure Are Pretty Tour, a 2009
jaunt that brought several European MCs and
producers, including Pierre The Motionless, to
the US. This show was the first time Swordplay
and Pierre The Motionless actually met, but they
had been working together for quite a while. Their
collaboration began by coincidence in late 2007.
“I was recording some songs for a split 12 inch
that my buddy MC Homeless was doing with this
Indonesian punk rock group called Homicide,”
Ramsey explains. “One of those songs was called
‘The Opposite Of Happy,’ and I really dug the
beat. I thought it brought out some of the best
stuff I had ever heard from this MC, so I wanted
that for me, obviously.” Pierre The Motionless
was the producer responsible for the beat, and
Ramsey began working with him over email.
“Pierre remixed one of my songs, ‘64 Bit,’ first,
then he sent me a beat to write to. We just kept
collaborating.”
The oldest material on Tap Water dates from this
era, but after putting together a few songs, work
ceased for a while. “We [had taken] a year-anda-half long break on the album,” Ramsey explains.
“I didn’t write any songs for the album when I was
in South America. At that point we were talking
34
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Another incident that occurred during Swordplay’s
European trip had a great effect on his future as a
musician. “I was there in France, and my buddy,
the French producer/MC Zoen, was about to
leave for tour with MC Homeless and Ridlore. He
asked me, ‘Would you like to come on tour with
us?’ And how am I gonna say no?” Swordplay’s
sets on the tour were well-received, and provided
a new dose of inspiration for his music. “Music
is something that musicians often make for
themselves, but when you get positive responses
when you share it with people, that makes you
feel like you should continue to share it,” Ramsey
explains. “Maybe you’re even making a difference
in the world. And so that whole experience of
touring was very encouraging.”
It was in 2010, after a trip to El Salvador, that
Ramsey realized that he wanted to become a
full-time RVA resident again. He made the trip
with the Latin American Community Art Project,
a group founded by Salvadoran-American artists
(and siblings) Sandra and Oscar Cornejo. The
Cornejos are friends of Ramsey’s, and “they
invited me to go to El Salvador for seven weeks
and do a music program for kids there,” he says.
Ramsey describes El Salvador as “like being in
a little colony of the Empire. There were CocaCola flags everywhere. They use the dollar--they
don’t have their own currency. Everyone you meet
knows somebody, whether it’s family or a friend,
who’s gone to the US. I think it was the first time I
really had to wrestle with my privilege. It changed
what I wanted to do with my life.”
Ramsey returned to Richmond in 2010 with the
goal to put down roots and “do good work in the
community. Go back to school, get armed with
a superpower like a law degree, and use it for
good--because god knows there are some people
using it for bad.” Returning to VCU, he also got
involved in several community activist efforts,
working with anti-Cuccinelli group Cooch Watch
and taking part in the 2012 campaign to stop a
VA state bill requiring invasive ultrasounds for
women seeking abortions. Throughout this time,
he continued working with Pierre The Motionless
on Tap Water.
By spring 2012, the album was done--or so they
thought. Mixing was supposed to take place
in May 2012. Then, on April 30, Ramsey was
arrested while attempting to film a police action
on his cellphone. Explaining the situation that led
to his arrest, he says, “There were two arrests
already in progress, and something that seemed
like it might escalate into another arrest very
quickly. So we started filming.” Soon, Ramsey
found himself caught up in the action. “The more
that I was there, the more I realized that this
thing isn’t going to end well. And as it escalated,
it was becoming obvious that it was gonna take
photo: Elise De Brouwer
about just releasing what we had as an EP.”
However, the collaboration was re-invigorated by
the show the two played together in 2009, and
a few months after that RVA date, Swordplay
made a trip to Europe to continue working with
Pierre The Motionless. “After I went to Europe
and recorded the blueprints for ‘No TS Eliot’ and
‘Wonderful Things’ there, we resumed the writing
for the album.”
SWORDPLAY
the rapper
by ANDREW
more and more effort to prevent the inevitable.
And in all actuality, if the goal was to prevent an
arrest, it was a double failure.” He laughs ruefully.
After spending a night in jail, he immediately got
in touch with Pierre The Motionless. “[I] called
Pierre and said, ‘You need to send me one more
beat before our record goes to mixing. Please
do that right away.’” Pierre emailed a beat that
afternoon, which became “When The Hurricane
Comes,” the last song recorded for Tap Water.
“We probably finished the song within a few
days,” Ramsey says. “It just came out, because I
had really been reflecting on what the fuck just
happened.”
“When The Hurricane Comes” is one of the
highlights of Tap Water, a foreboding song
constructed around a repeating guitar melody
and a chorus that contains lines taken from the
video shot during the arrest. The song became
one of Tap Water’s pre-release singles, featuring
an incredibly powerful video that simply sets the
song overtop of unedited cellphone footage of the
arrest (see that video here: bit.ly/17dyvGu). The
mixture of left-wing politics and more abstract,
emotionally driven lyrics that shows up on this
song is replicated throughout the album, and
Pierre The Motionless’s beats seem uniquely
suited to Swordplay’s lyrical style.
The sound of Tap Water is more melodicallyfocused than a lot of hip hop albums, and
Swordplay’s ability to sing as well as rap is used
to good effect on songs like “No TS Eliot,” which
incorporates lines from “The Love Song Of J. Alfred
Prufrock.” The MC’s understated wit is showcased
on the gorgeously melancholy-sounding “Stop
Lying To Us.” If you don’t pay attention to this
song’s lyrics, you might think it’s a sad song, but
the choruses contain lines mocking implausible
television characters. Referencing the TV show
Who’s The Boss, Swordplay sings “We all know
Tony Micelli is a fake housekeeper. In real life,
Tony Danza’s boxers are lying about on the floor.”
Later in the song, he mocks Ronald McDonald
(“Nobody will ever trust a white guy with a red
NECCI
afro haircut”) and David Hasselhoff’s character
on Baywatch (“In real life, he’s not successful
with women under 60”). The album contains
more straightforward hip hop sounds as well-”Conversation Skills” and “No Teleportation”
show that Swordplay can still spit rhymes with
the best of them.
One cannot help but notice that Tap Water took
quite a while to come together; there’s at least one
reference in the album’s lyrics to the year being
2008. As amazing as the album is, did it really
take six years to put together? “An essential piece
of information is that Pierre and I are very, very
lazy creatures,” Ramsey says, laughing. While he
figures the record represents about a week and a
half of writing time, “we just didn’t sit down and
do it in a week and a half. It had to take place over
this four and a half year period.”
While Swordplay may not be at the center of the
Richmond hip hop scene the way he once was, he
feels like he’s found the proper role for himself. “I
enjoy what’s going on in the local hip hop scene
much much more than I ever did before,” he says.
“There’s a lot of good things in Richmond hip hop
right now. I might not be the driving force behind
it, and that’s fine. There’s no reason I should be.
It wasn’t good for me, or for Richmond’s hip hop
scene, that I be that person.”
These days, Isaac Ramsey enjoys being
Swordplay, but part of that is clearly because he
isn’t Swordplay all the time. Sometimes he’s the
singer/guitarist for his indie-punk band, Double
Rainbow. Sometimes he’s a student, or an activist.
And yes, sometimes he’s a rapper. “Rap is a totally
different form of expression,” he says. “I’m not
always in the mood to listen to rap. I’m definitely
not always in the mood to make rap. But I will
never stop wanting to make it sometimes.” When
the result is albums like Tap Water, we should all
be glad of that.
www.isaacontheinternet.com
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Toobz Muir
by
To be inside the mind of Toobz Muir would be
captivating, dark, and a little exhausting. With
this man, who has been a skateboarder, a hip-hop
MC, and a street artist, one conversation with him
is all you need to see that there are a ton of things
brewing in his mind. You can’t help but wonder:
what will Toobz do next?
When I first called him up to start our interview,
he hung up on me, saying I had the wrong number.
Slightly rattled, I had no option but to call him
back. But as I took a motivating breath to prepare
for doing so, my phone started ringing. “I am
so sorry!” he said. “You didn’t have the wrong
number! Your accent threw me off.”
We both laughed, and my nerves were eased
as Toobz and I joked about my Australian
pronunciation of his moniker. Luckily, this
provided a seamless segue into my first question:
where in this world did he get the name Toobz?
“We all go through that--trying to find out our
personal identity [other] than what our parents
give us,“ he said. “I’ve been through many names,
and I just decided Toobz was something that
really pertained to what I was actually going
through at the moment. You know how you go
through these tunnels of life? I chose Toobz
because it is like a passel of lives that speak
through a chaotic murmur, and I translate that
through my subconscious. I remain plural. It’s
forever changing and becoming clearer, but there
is no end.” When I told him it is also a really fun
word to say, he laughed and said, “A lot of people
also pronounce it ‘too busy.’ I’m like, ‘well, I am
very busy...’ That’s hilarious.”
In light of the quality of Toobz’s art, it is surprising
to learn that he only begun doing art in earnest
a decade ago. “I skateboarded for 20 years--way
before I did any of this art,“ he said. “I decided to
do art seriously about 10 years ago.” Toobz was a
sponsored amateur skateboarder, and he shared
some clips with me of his skateboarding days.
One video showed Toobz in 1993, at age 20. Amid
the sea baggy pants (complete with visible boxer
shorts, of course), the videos provide a flash of
graffitied walls, foreshadowing Toobz’s future. “As
you can see, I was doing graffiti that was terrible
back then,” he said with a laugh. “However, I never
broke a bone [in] the 20 years that I skated. I was
built for it.”
One thing evident in conversations with Toobz is
his loyalty to Roanoke, Virginia, his hometown.
Skateboarding took him to the west coast, home
of skate culture, but he could not shake off his east
coast roots. “I went out to California and I stayed
for a while. I learned the culture,” he explained. “It
was just.. I grew up on the east coast. It was not
as metropolitan, more earthy. I feel like I am more
planted here. I feel more natural here.”
When he left California, skateboarding’s hold
on Toobz also seemed to lessen. “I just felt like
it wasn’t for me. The whole lifestyle that I grew
up with was something that I just needed to keep
holding on to.” Back in Roanoke with skating no
longer inspiring him, he found himself needing a
completely different state of mind. “I went back
home, rethought about everything, and decided
I would not force myself anymore, “ said Toobz.
“I decided to just be in complete let-go state,
MELISSA COCI
to enjoy what life brings me instead of trying to
force it and make it happen all the time.” With this
new mindset, his career as an artist began to take
shape.
Toobz’s style could be described as dark and
absurdist, or in his own words, “confusion.” He
finds beauty in darkness, in moments of pain, and
his paintings often depict people with elongated
or distorted features. His inspiration comes
from his father, a man disfigured from birth by a
disease doctors could never properly diagnose.
“His story is vague,” said Toobz. “But he has a
deformed nose and his left side of his face doesn’t
match the right. He is missing part of his iris as
well.” Toobz has found inspiration in his father’s
story, including details from the seven years of
multiple surgeries his father undertook. He was
struck by the way society views people who may
look different, and of the beauty in disfigurement.
“My father went through many surgeries for at
least seven years, and when he’s telling me this,
I’m going ‘Wow, the pain’,” said Toobz. “But he
is still a beautiful person, because he learned
that somebody could love him and he could love
somebody else.”
While others may experience fear or discomfort
when confronted with people who have distorted
or disfigured appearances, the opposite is true for
Toobz. His father provided him with a sense of
comfort and love. Therefore, what the world sees
as ugliness is somewhat comforting to Toobz. “I
realized maybe within the last three to four years
that this is why I do the distortions that I do, why
I like that,” Toobz explained. “Because its that
security. That’s my style--through my father.”
Pain, and the truth found within this state, is also
a common theme in Toobz’s art. Again, this is
another by-product of his dad’s influence. “I love
pain,” he said. “I love the fact people go through
that darkness of their life, because most of the
time we try to hide that. We suppress that. There
is a lot of pain that all humans go through. Animals
even. You can see it in their face sometimes.
When you’re in tune with everybody else, and
you have that connection – then it’s all right there
in front of you. And when I capture that, it’s an
emotional state you know. And that’s what I’m
working towards.”
When asked how he would define the genre of his
art, Toobz reflected on what led him to his style.
“It’s weird, as I started out as confusion, then I got
categorized as ‘graffiti writer.’ But then I tried to
morph the two,” he said. “One of my really good
friends that I grew up with was from Newark, and
we went to New York often. I grew up in the mid
80s, so this is early 70s, the birthplace of where
this [graffiti] culture started. Then suddenly, it
gets passed quickly down the east coast. I was
into breakdancing, and I felt that everybody had
to be the king of style. You had to be the king of all
elements – DJing, breakdancing, graffiti, MCing –
which ran into what I still do now, I’ve been MCing
for... god, 20 years?”
Toobz said the abstract nature of his art often
leads to false assumptions about himself. Namely,
that he is on a whole load of drugs. “I’m super
sober,” said Toobz. “I haven’t done drugs for like
8 years. It’s just who I am. What’s weird is, I drew
when I was little – and it is very similar to what I
do now. Not the quality, but the ideas.”
Drugs got the boot when Toobz experienced
somewhat of a “quarter life crisis” at 32, leading
him to reassess his life. “I quit everything,
completely,” said Toobz. “I quit listening to hip
hop, I quit listening to everything that I felt I was
super righteous on. I felt like that was it. Let’s
minimize the brain and start all over again.”
“I went back and started thinking about a lot of
childhood memories,” he explained. “I read a lot.
I started listening to different music. I just went
though a huge transitional period, to where I felt I
needed to live in a different perspective. Not only
was it healthy, it was liberating and it pushed me
to better my work and to be more accepting of
what was ahead no matter the outcome. Since
then, it has been the best years of my life. I’ve
conditioned my world to be tolerable. I am very
driven to make it all happen.”
Toobz’s drive is evident through his prolific body
of work. He recently had a solo exhibition, Sewn
Well, at Richmond’s Love RVA Gallery. Toobz is
working on a mural in his hometown of Roanoke-“my largest mural so far.” He’s also perfecting his
portfolio. “I’m working on a portfolio of the best
of the best, so I can start to share my work with
larger events, and try to get out there as much as
possible,” he said. “I’d love to travel. I would love
to put my work out to different places.“
A discussion of Toobz’s art would not be complete
without mentioning a distinguishing fact: Toobz is
colorblind. “It’s a major thing,” he said. “I fought
with that for a long time.” Toobz taught himself
to not let his colorblindness affect his work, but
rather to enhance it. “I use a greyscale reference
and the tones within the reference, and use the
colors that match those tones. So I layer colors
to get shades and lighting, to make the subject
appear the way I choose to see it. So it ends up
looking the way it does due to my eyes.”
When I commented on how impressive his art is,
especially in light of his visual impairment, Toobz
was quick to deflect the praise. “I’m very humble
with what I do.” he said. “I always put myself in
the place of where I think I’m never good enough,
which is a good place. I’m always striving to be
better.”
It is this semper sursum tendere which draws
Toobz’s focus towards building respect for graffiti
art, rather than simply accolades for himself. “I
don’t care to be involved with fame,” said Toobz.
“I don’t care to have a million lovers, or a million
‘like’-ers and followers. But I do care about being
the pioneer, honing a style, and understanding
that it needs to be respected.”
As our conversation drew to a close, I couldn’t
help but tell Toobz how interesting it would be
to spend some time inside his mind, see how
it works. “It is here, there and everywhere,” he
responded. “It is scatterbrained, but it is very
organized at the same time.”
Luckily for us, we get to reap the benefits.
www.facebook.com/toobz.noel
37
AMERICAN BREW
photos by Anthony Hall
concept john reinhold / creative direction rAH
DUDES: jimmy, puck, josh, jim, andy, Phil, shotgun The Wolf and the rva beard league guys - travis, chad, matt + jose
--------------- featured brews --------------Legend’s Brown, Chocolate Porter , STRANGEWAYS’ Wyrd Sisters: Ophelia, Cordelia + Desdemona,
Wild Wolf’s alpha, wee heavy + honey blonde , Lickinghole Creek’s Short Pump Saison
Boulevard Brewery’s Tank 7 + 80 Acre, Red Beard Brewery’S OG Stout + 221 B Bakers Brown
Hardywood’s Gingerbread Stout & Devils Backbone’s Vienna Lager
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Richmond Beeristoric
BY Michael D. Gorman
At this moment in Richmond beer history,
it seems that we are living in a golden age
of unprecedented abundance. Since its
founding in the early 18th century, Richmond
has had a community of people united by a
love of beer. However, Richmond’s history
of brewing has been characterized by
transitions between boom and bust – very
much like the city of Richmond itself.
The first boom was the long period of Englishdominated culture during the Colonial era.
Visitors to taverns in Colonial Virginia, of
which there were many in the Richmond area,
could expect to find ales and porter on the
various bills of fare - probably brewed on site
or imported from England. The first evidence
of a dedicated brewery near Richmond is
that of the Westham Foundry, near where
the Huguenot Bridge is today. This brewery
was likely destroyed when Benedict Arnold’s
Redcoats sacked and burned Richmond
(after drinking the Richmond taverns dry) in
1781. Not coincidentally, this marks the first
bust for Richmond’s beer scene.
Sometime around 1800, the Richmond
Brewery was opened on the corner of
Canal and Fourth Streets. Though details
of breweries over the next six decades are
sketchy, knowledge of styles of beer was
plentiful by the time of the Civil War. Note
the knowledge of style and quality found
in the following article from the Richmond
Dispatch of October 13, 1863:
Real Lager beer. - We have received from the
City Brewery a sample of the beer made there. It
is fully equal to Northern beer, having strength,
softness, and a foam equal to cream ale. Before
the war beer was just displacing whiskey in the
popular stomach, and the good effects were
becoming apparent. Compared with the poison
now sold at the rum mills under the name of
whiskey, the worst beer would be welcome; but
when a man can get such an excellent beverage
as that made at the City Brewery he ought to
be willing to drop the poisonous compound of
oil of vitriol, nails, strychnine, &c., which is sold
to him for one dollar per drink as bourbon, old
rye, &c.
Is this the same brewery that called itself
the Richmond Brewery in 1800? Annoyingly,
the Richmond City Directory of 1860 does
not even include a section for breweries.
However, there are 80 saloons listed in that
directory. They must have been getting their
beer from somewhere – though as the above
article suggests, quite a bit of it may have
been imported from the North.
Two trends contributed to the huge growth
in Richmond beer that had begun by the
time of the Civil War: The population of
Richmond absolutely exploded between
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1850 to 1860 – from 27,570 to 37,910. This
was primarily due to Richmond’s emergence
as an industrial center. And due to the need
for workers in these factories, the immigrant
population of Richmond increased by 136%
during this same time. Intermingling with
native-born whites and enslaved Africans
were now Welsh, Jewish, Irish, and most
importantly for our story, Germans. Two
brothers in particular, Edward and Louis
Euker, were brewing their “Celebrated Lager
Beer” by 1858. By 1860, advertisements
for their establishment noted a “XX ale” as
well as London porter and Scotch ale. The
German influence provided beers not just for
the German palate; Richmond had become
a cosmopolitan and diverse city by 19thCentury standards.
The Civil War marked an interesting
transition for Richmond’s drinking population
– as the city was under martial law, only a
few licensed proprietors could legally sell
spirits or beer. As we have already seen, the
quality of liquors had declined dramatically
(probably propelled by the Civil War
equivalent of bathtub gin), leaving a void
which beer could fill. We will never know
the degree to which this was done – most of
the industrial area of the city was destroyed
in the Evacuation Fire on the night of April
2-3, 1865. City officials dumped medicinal
whisky into the canal, and the Union soldiers
who occupied Richmond found very little
left among the ruins with which to celebrate
their victory – the industrial, cosmopolitan
city was at its knees.
Though much of industrial Richmond was in
ruins, the city quickly rebuilt, providing jobs
to even more immigrants, and in particular,
Germans. Within a year of the end of the
Civil War, Edward Euker opened a beer
garden and brewery at Buchanan Springs,
at the corner of Harrison and Clay Street.
Other beer gardens were in operation at
the Hermitage Fair Grounds (where the
Redskins’ training camp is today) and Elba
Park (Brook and Broad). Beers sold there
were described as lagers, demonstrating the
continued German influence. John Deuringer
opened City Spring Brewery at the north end
of 8th Street (above Leigh Street).
No doubt responding to the Phoenix-like
rebirth of Richmond, in 1866 David G.
Yuengling Jr. left his father’s successful
brewery in Pottsville, PA to establish an
absolutely enormous new brewery in
Richmond. He called it the James River
Steam Brewery, and built an entire complex
of buildings at Rocketts’ Landing, just below
the city. The Richmond Whig noted the
opening:
Steam Brewery. - Just below Rocketts… Messrs.
Betz, Yuengling & Beyer have put up one of the
finest breweries in the whole country. Built of
amazing strength, and of the very best material,
it is some eighty feet high, seventy feet wide, and
one hundred feet deep, and has seven stories,
and one hundred and ninety-six windows. Deep
down in the earth, away from the light of day,
are huge vaults capable of holding six thousand
barrels, and within these deep recesses is a solid
built ice-house, containing some two hundred
and fifty or three hundred tons…everything
that wisdom, ingenuity and liberal outlay of
money could do, has been done to make the
establishment perfect… The working capacity
of the establishment is 400 barrels per day,
and the building cost about $200,000. Now
here is an enterprise of great magnitude just
commenced its work, furnishing employment
to a number of hands and affording facilities
for dealers in porter, ale and beer to get on
the spot an A No. 1 article…and at a rate less
than which they would have to pay outside the
State…There is no use talking of elevating the
State from its depressed condition if we don’t
co-operate with those who are able and willing
to give us a helping hand.
The city that didn’t even include breweries
in their directory seven years before was
suddenly applauding this “helping hand”
from the North. It brought jobs and an “A No.
1 article” to the tune of 400 barrels a day(!)
– who could complain? Richmond’s beer
tradition had just begun; five breweries were
operating in Richmond, and the future looked
VERY bright.
No one counted on the Panic of 1873. Overcapitalization of start-up railroads and
changes in currency standards overseas
caused a global depression that wrecked the
American economy. When people of the 19th
Century referred to the “Great Depression,”
this is what they meant. All breweries in
Richmond felt the pinch as industries began
laying off workers. In 1874, David Yuengling
attempted to use political favors to his
advantage. He wrote to J. L. Kemper, the
Governor of Virginia, that “I sent you per
Steamer [one barrel] of Old Stout in Bottles.
This has been brewed three years ago and
considered the Best. Should you find it too
strong, add water to suit your taste, and it
will be a delicious stimulant. Hope it will do
you good.”
Even a gift of aged stout was not enough.
Four of the five operating breweries in
Richmond, including the Eukers, closed in
1878. The next year David Yuengling Jr. faced
the reality himself and closed the massive
James River Steam Brewery. By 1880, there
were no breweries left in Richmond.
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Though Richmond, and much of the country,
was in financial ruin, people still demanded
beer. To meet the demand, outside breweries
began distributing to Richmond. Bergner and
Engel Company of Philadelphia was the first.
Their Richmond branch was on Broad Street,
next to the Richmond, Fredericksburg, and
Potomac depot. They advertised ale, porter
and lager beers, and their “Tannhaeuser
Brand.”
With no local breweries to match the
demand, in 1886 Anheuser-Busch opened a
Richmond branch at 1817 East Main street.
Several breweries from other cities, such as
Alexandria, Cincinnati, and Baltimore, set
up branches in Richmond during this time.
Beer was being supplied, but not locally.
This tenuous boom mirrored national trends.
Many American cities were like Richmond –
their local breweries had disappeared, and
large breweries swooped in to fill the void.
At the time, Richmond’s industrial output
was booming like it never had before. The
ability to mass-produce the cigarette had
caused a local boom, drawing in thousands
of industrial workers; it is not surprising that
beer followed the boom.
Suddenly, in 1892, local Richmond brewing
returned, and it came from Richmond’s
growing and powerful German community.
Peter Stumpf and Alfred Rosenegk, who were
both managers of outside breweries with
branches in Richmond, as well as officers of
the Richmond German-American Society,
started their own local, and enormous,
breweries. We can only speculate why two
competitors decided to throw off their cozy
jobs and strike out on their own in the same
year, but so it was.
Rosenegk, formerly of Anheuser-Busch, a
man of Prussian nobility and an officer who
had seen action in the Franco-Prussian War,
opened the Richmond Brewery at Hermitage
Road and Leigh St (where Todd Lofts are
today). Eventually, this was renamed the
Rosenegk Brewing Company. Rosenegk had
been something of a community organizer
for Richmond’s local German community –
yearly “German Day” parades were invariably
presided over by him, and clearly, he saw his
rise in prominence as a validation of the rise
of German political power in America.
Peter Stumpf, formerly of Bergner and
Engel, opened what was eventually called
the “Home Brewing Company” at Euker’s
old brewery at Harrison and Clay. Their
first year of operation brought about 38%
net profits and brewed 12,790 barrels of
beer. Their slogan encouraged customers to
“Patronize Home Industry and Build Up Your
City.” For whatever reason Stumpf threw off
Anheuser-Busch, note that he deliberately
put the focus on the local nature of the beer
to make his business thrive.
Despite the sudden focus on the local scene,
in 1898, Pabst Brewing Company set us a
branch in Richmond at 308-314 Hancock
Street (roughly where the VCU School of
the Arts is today). At this time, Pabst and
Anheuser-Busch were the only national
breweries with branches still operating in
Richmond.
By 1906, three local breweries existed:
Home Brewing Company, Rosenegk, and
Portner (despite being from Alexandria).
The city also held three national breweries:
Annheuser-Busch, Pabst, and the newcomer,
Schlitz. Unlike before, these breweries
weathered several national recessions and
continued on. This period of stability and
prosperity lasted for nearly 20 years.
In 1916, fully a year before the rest of
the nation, Virginia enacted Prohibition.
Halloween 1916 was the last day beer could
legally be sold in Richmond. Consequently,
Richmonders, who had voted against
Prohibition, drank the city dry that night. In
the wake of this law, the Rosenegk Brewery
closed, never to re-open, and Home Brewing
Company shifted over to making local soft
drinks, such as “Tru-Ade” and “Climax”
sodas.
This self-imposed bust left Virginia with
no legal breweries until the repeal of
Prohibition in 1933. Repeal did not throw
open the floodgates of brewing. Only 3.2%
beer was allowed to be sold. This severely
constrained the variety of styles available
to brewers and served to narrow what most
people considered beer. In addition, the
Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control
was established – never again would beer
and liquor sales go unregulated.
Home Brewing Company quickly shifted
gears back to brewing beer, and renamed their
3.2% product “Richbrau Beer.” Reporting
on the re-opening, a Richmond newspaper
stated that “the plant’s capacity will be 50
per cent greater than in 1916. Brewmaster
[George] Bernier assured reporters that his
plant now has a capacity of 50,000 barrels
a year. Judged by any standard, that is a lot
of beer.” Richbrau would be the only local
beer produced for the next 25 years. Not
surprisingly, outside breweries such as
Budweiser, Pabst, and Schlitz rushed back in
to distribute beer. At finer establishments,
patrons could even find imported beer such
as Pilsner Urquell and Guinness.
breweries, by the 1960s, Richbrau appeared
to be doing quite well – they began canning
beers, expanded their production, and even
sponsored the Richmond Virginians – the
first AAA baseball team in Richmond.
Then, on October 14, 1969, Home Brewing
Company announced that they had been
operating at a loss for the past three years,
and that due to “increasing competition
and higher costs,” they were ceasing
operations. The headline that appeared in
the Richmond News Leader accompanying
this announcement read, “Saddest Day in
Richmond Since April 1865.” No locally
made beer would be produced in Richmond
for nearly 25 years. During this time, the
national breweries increased their market
share as local breweries everywhere failed
to remain competitive. Locally produced
beer tended to be viewed as “old-fashioned,”
while popular culture naturally favored
breweries which could advertise and reach
a national market.
Suddenly, in the early 1990s, two local
breweries began operations. As a tip of
the hat to Richmond’s history, Richbrau
Brewing Co. opened in 1214 Cary Street. The
resurrection was in name only, and the new
brewery had no connection to the old Home
Brewing Company. Meanwhile, Legend
Brewing Company opened their brewpub
just across the river from Richmond.
Once again, the economy conspired against
local beer – in 2010, in the midst of a long
recession, Richbrau closed its doors, leaving
Legend Brewing Company as the only
Richmond brewery. This could easily have
been the start of a new bust, but unlike the
trends we have seen so many times, the
economic downturn had the opposite effect.
Craft beer had made considerable inroads
in Richmond, and breweries started opening
like they had never done before. In 2011,
Hardywood Park Craft Brewery opened, near
the old Rosenegk building. In 2012, Midnight
Brewing Co. and Center of the Universe
Brewing Company opened. 2013 has seen
the opening of Strangeways Brewing and
Lickinghole Creek Craft Brewery, with even
more breweries set to open in 2014.
Then, in 1935, the Kreuger Brewing Co.
of Newark, New Jersey, joined with the
American Can Company to test-market
canned beer. Richmond was chosen as the
test market for the first-ever cans of beer:
Krueger’s Cream Ale. By the end of the
year, 36 breweries throughout the US were
producing beer in cans. By contrast, Home
Brewing Company, still pushing to get their
beer into bottles, would fail to offer Richbrau
in cans until 1952.
As we look back at Richmond’s brewing
history, we can only marvel at what is
currently happening. In an economic climate
that would have seen mass closures of
breweries in the past, we are seeing the
opposite trend. There have never been more
local breweries in Richmond than today.
Will this trend last? Will the breweries in
town have the longevity of Home Brewing
Company? When we re-read this article
10 years from now, will this be seen as the
beginning of a wonderful boom, or another
of the seemingly inevitable busts? It is far
too early to tell, but right now, Richmond is a
great place for beer enthusiasts.
Despite heavy competition from outside
www.facebook.com/Beeristoricrva
51
BY PRESTOn DUNCAN & DOUG NUNNALLY
illustration
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R. Anthony Harris
Apocalypse Ale Works
According to Mayan legend, the apocalypse
was to fire up its engines on December 21st,
2012. Now taking into account that “apocalypse” literally translates as the lifting of a
veil, and it was never prophesied to be an
instantaneous occurrence, they might have
been right. Stay with us here. Apocalypse Ale
Works opened its keg lines in January 2013,
and has unveiled some damn good beer since
then. As the first brewery in Forest, Va since
Thomas Jefferson set about the business of
making hooch in the 1800’s, Apocalypse is
certainly walking in some ancient footsteps.
Coincidence? Who cares? The beer is damn
good. Check out their Belgian Dubbel, the
Lusty Maiden, and let the veil lifting commence.
www.facebook.com/Apocalypse-Ale-Works
Center Of The Universe (COTU)
Located twenty minutes north of RVA, Ashland has long considered itself the center of
its own beery-eyed universe. Appropriate,
then, that a brewery located there should
self-apply such a distinction. COTU started
filling kegs in November, 2012, and local beer
geeks fell into orbit immediately. With a lineup of gravitationally inspiring, communitycentric beers like Main Street Virginia Ale
and Pocahoptas IPA, as well as a forthcom-
ing El Duderino White Russian Stout brewed
with eight different malts and whole vanilla
beans (they really tie the thing together), if
you don’t believe the universe rotates around
this place, that’s just like, your opinion, man.
www.cotubrewing.com
Devils Backbone BREWING CO.
One of Virginia’s most illustrious breweries
can be found under the name Devils Backbone. Though the brewery only began in
2008, their line of beer has quickly put together a long list of accolades, awards, and
medals, ranging from the Great American
Beer Festival to the World Beer Cup. Taste
their beer selection and it’s easy to see why
they’ve been able to build such a strong name
in such a short amount of time. Their Vienna
Lager is an amber colored lager with a smooth
malt flavor and a finish full of caramel and
toasted nuts. The Wintergreen Weiss is a traditional Bavarian-style Hefeweizen that’s has
a truly unmatched fruity finish full of banana
and clove. For those wanting some adventure,
if you venture up to their Lexington or Roseland locations to visit their brewery, you’ll be
able to try their Mystery Beer as well. It will
definitely please your palate, but keep your
mind guessing.
www.dbbrewingcompany.com
EXTRA BILly’s Brewery
There is a special symbiotic relationship between barbecue and beer--a sort of Friends
With Benefits arrangement of ritualistic and
celebratory consumption. An air of festivity
and tradition. And this makes sense; both are
crafts taught by masters to initiates involving recipes unique, shrouded in secrecy, and
generally wrapped in historical, familial, and
autobiographical relevance. They both involve particular combinations of ingredients
being held in large metal containers at precise temperatures for specific periods of time
to allow for the alchemical process of their
transformation into something greater than
the sum of their parts--for them to give up
the proverbial ghost, as it were. So it should
be no surprise that in a land of tradition and
innovation such as ours, a longstanding barbecue institution would also brew beer. And
be damn good at it--their Citra Ass Down IPA
just took home a gold medal from the 2013
Virginia Craft Brewers Cup.
www.extrabillys.com/brewery
Hardywood Park Craft Brewery
Between a Gingerbread Stout awarded an elusive score of 100 points from Beer Advocate
(and aptly described as “like freakin’ Christmas in a bottle”), a coffee stout brewed with
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their beer lines, including takes on traditional
English & German recipes. The most popular
is The Green Eyed Lady, a strong Belgian ale
made with pistachios to deliver a taste that’s
familiar yet unique. Other beers in their line
include Fluvanna Fluss (hefeweisen), River
Runner (English bitter), Germanna Cargo
(dunkelweisen), and Ostara (imperial amber
wheat). With this brewery taking up shop in
an 1800s tobacco warehouse, the town of
Scottsville is sure to see a renaissance in the
coming years.
www.jamesriverbrewing.com
LEGEND BREWING CO.
Lamplighter Coffee, and an RVA IPA made
with hops grown by a dedicated minion of religious followers for whom drinking the stuff
just wasn’t enough, Hardywood belongs to a
rare class of breweries both locally grown and
widely known. Their mission, as they describe
it, “is to become one of the most respected
brewers in the United States through integrity
in our ingredients and in our business practices, through respect for brewing heritage, and
through the inspired creation of extraordinary beers.” Between an inventive, constantly
evolving resume of wildly popular, beautifully
crafted (if not at times downright weird – I’ve
heard stories of a tequila barrel tripel) brews,
and a regular schedule of art events, community improvement seminars, and shows at
their brewery here in Richmond, they could
just as easily move their mission statement
under the heading “accomplishments.”
It must have taken a certain amount of hopinfused gonads to name your brewery “Legend” from the get-go. Call it a self-fulfilling
prophecy, though, because since its inception
ery is named after Little Lickinghole Creek,
which runs through the Goochland family
farm where they grow their own hops and
barley and brew their beer with well water
drawn from deep below their fields. If you’re
unpersuaded by the veritable consciousness
with which they conduct their business, they
also donate $1 for every wholesale barrel, and
$10 for every retail barrel sale, to nonprofit
organizations. These folks specialize in Belgian style ales, and they impart to their beers
a quality of undeniable freshness, as though a
portrait of the landscape in which they were
created. Check for their Short Pump Saison
Virginia Farmhouse Ale, Magic Beaver Belgian Style Pale, and their hoppy foray, Gentleman Farmer Estate Hop Ale, around the
Richmond area; they are Virginia sealed in a
bottle, a taste of meditative rural calm in a
fiercely urban local beer scene.
www.hardywood.com
www.lickingholecreek.com
James River Brewing Co.
Lost Rhino BREWING COMPANY
“Forged in history, brewed with abandon”
reads the slogan of the James River Brewing
Company, located in Scottsville, VA, twenty
miles south of Charlottesville. This brewery,
opened in 2012 by owners Chris Kyle & Dustin
Caster, is quickly becoming the flagship of
their hometown, whose tradition the brewery proudly proclaims. Tradition runs through
With a name like Lost Rhino, you’d expect
something different and unique; and up in
Ashburn, brewers Matt Hagerman and Favio
Garci are creating just that. The New River
Pale Ale uses a variety of malts to create a
sweet finish that balances a large mix of hops
perfectly. The Face Plant IPA has a great floral aroma and rich herbal taste that’s gener-
in 1994, that’s exactly what this place has become. With fast-expanding East Coast distribution, and a sturdy corral of mainline brews
with a dedicated following (their Brown and
Lager leap to mind), as well as a perpetual
parade of increasingly complex and wellcomposed seasonals and one-offs like Vampire Red (a shockingly uncharacteristic beer
crafted to strike a harmonious chord on the
palate, and fear into the livers and hearts of
those acquainted with Hollywood Cemetery
lore), these brewers have certainly lived up to
the prestige of their moniker.
www.legendbrewing.com
Lickinghole Creek CRAFT BREWERY
Get your mind out of the gutter! This brew54
ated by multiple kettle additions. Lost Rhino’s
most popular would be their Rhino Chasers
Pilsner, a golden lager with a creamy head
that has a great spicy hop flavor. Perhaps the
brewery’s most unique quality is their collaborations with other breweries and brewers
that make for some truly creative beers, none
more original than the Pretty In Pink Pomegranate Saison made in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month by four female brewers
from four different breweries.
www.lostrhino.com
O’Connor Brewing Co.
Down in Norfolk, O’Connor Brewing Company
offers beer crafted by someone whose love of
beer goes back a long way. Kevin O’Connor
began brewing beer in college, and after begging for a job at St. George Brewery, he got
started learning the industry. After leaving
St. George and spending time with Specialty
Beverage, O’Connor began brewing beers
in his backyard in the summer of 2009. The
next year, O’Connor Brewing Company was
born with those three backyard beers as their
initial flagship lines. You can still find those
three today, too: Green Can, a light-bodied
Golden Ale that’s crisp & easy to drink; Red
Nun, an Irish Red Ale with a robust malt backbone balanced with hops; and Norfolk Canyon, a Pale Ale that’s medium-bodied with a
solid malt palate and pleasant hop finish. The
brewery offers many more flagship beers, as
well as seasonal offerings that can be found
from Richmond to Hampton Roads.
www.oconnorbrewing.com
Starr Hill BREWERY
The title of Virginia’s largest craft brewery
belongs to Starr Hill, located in the Blue Ridge
Mountains. The brewery offers several types
of beer, the most popular of which is their
Northern Lights IPA. The potent beer with a
citrus-floral aroma and full-flavored bitterness is currently the best selling IPA in Virginia. Other favorites would include the unfiltered wheat beer The Love or the dry-hopped
pale ale Grateful. Starr Hill’s current reach
extends from Pennsylvania and New Jersey
down to Tennessee and North Carolina, and
the brewery has strong connections with the
music scene, with its namesake being the
historic Starr Hill Music Hall. They even participated in the first Bonnaroo event back in
2002. Founder Mark Thompson started the
brewery in 1999, and with the slogan, “the
gift of great beer,” Starr Hill has built a strong
reputation throughout Virginia.
www.starrhill.com
Strangeways BREWING
Three Brothers
A love of home-brewing and great beer lead
to three brothers of Harrisonburg to start the
aptly titled Three Brothers Brewing Company
in December of 2012. Despite a young age,
the brewery’s beers are already racking up
awards, such as their double IPA The Admiral and the Rum Barrel Aged Belgian Dubbel,
which took home the Bronze in the “Woodand-Barrel-Aged Beer” category at the 2013
Great American Beer Festival this past October in Denver, CO. Other favorites include The
Great Outdoors, a low-bitterness, crisp, and
easy-drinking pale ale, and Hoptimization, an
IPA with a clean citrus flavor yet aggressively
bitter bite. The beer can be currently found
from Northern Virginia down to Blacksburg
and as far east as Richmond.
…Is exactly that. Their beers are the fermented essence of something slightly mad
and fearlessly, unapologetically weird. They
mutter unintelligible profundities from the
threebrosbrew.com
darkest corners of your palette. They dance
in possessed gyrations from so many glasses
like drunken carnies at a Wiccan rite. They
swing across stylistic boundaries like an Albino MONKey (their irreverent yet traditionally
adept Belgian white brewed with coriander,
orange peel, and white pepper) on a trapeze,
and stick the landing every time. Strangeways
gives body to the weirdness of life in perpetuity, both with their beers (like the Phantasmic
East Coast IPA, which has such a bizarrely
sweet, Belgian quality, in uncustomary marriage with a smooth and somewhat reserved
hoppiness, that it is reminiscent of absolutely
nothing), and their dubious behavior, such as
partnering with burlesque groups to transform their tasting room into a den of hedonistic indulgence. If you too infrequently unfurl
your proverbial freak flag, just grab one of
these concoctions. Those strange enough to
know will understand.
Wild Wolf BREWING COMPANY
On the Brew Ridge Trail in Nellysford, you’ll
find the “home of howling good food & beer,”
Wild Wolf Brewing Company. Here you’ll find
truly original beers crafted by brewmaster
Danny Wolf--whose talent was honed at Siebel Institute of Technology in Chicago, America’s oldest brewing school, as well a month
long program in Europe. Wolf’s skill-set has
led to the creation of some of Virginia’s most
unique beers such as the Alpha Ale, an American pale ale with a well-rounded hop & malt
character that’s perfectly crafted for all beer
lovers. Their Blonde Hunny Ale is another
popular line; an unfiltered Belgian wheat ale
that’s sweetened with honey and packed with
a special spice blend for an extra kick. Wild
Wolf began in 2011 in the Wintergreen area
and in April 2013, the brewery began packaging their beers to make their way into stores
across Virginia.
www. strangewaysbrewing.com
www.wildwolfbeer.com
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SCREENS ‘N’ SUDS
by
Screens n’ Suds is a locally based and charity
focused organization that provides attendees
throughout the Richmond, Charlottesville, and
Harrisonburg areas with a refreshingly original
donation experience. In an effort to raise funds
for various local and national charities, including
the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and the
Virginia Association of Free Clinics, Screens n’
Suds holds several events every year, all featuring
a combination of music, small batch craft beers,
and beer-inspired screen printed artwork.
The group has seen a substantial increase in
support since it was first started, and, as a
result, has expanded from what was originally a
single event in the Richmond area to an annual
weeklong series of events across the state. 2013
marks Screens n’ Suds’ fifth consecutive year of
operations, and the group hopes to continue the
mission stated on their website, screensnsuds.
com: “To unite communities through the
appreciation of craft beer and screen printed art
while raising money for the National MS Society
and other charities.”
The project was started in 2009 as the brainchild
of co-founders Brian Gearing and Ric Hersh, in
an effort to combine the duo’s mutual passions
for beer, art, and music. The idea for Screens n’
Suds was developed after Gearing and Hersh,
both longtime fans of the band Phish, met on the
online conversation forum Phishposters.com, a
website dedicated to the sharing and discussion
of the band’s poster artwork. Soon, Gearing
and Hersh discovered that they lived only three
blocks away from each other. After realizing they
shared not only a love for music and art but also
an appreciation for specialty craft beer, the two
friends began developing a concept that would
combine all of their mutual interests.
Screens n’ Suds was originally intended to be
an offshoot of Brian Gearing’s previous project,
The Gig Gallery, an online web store that
specialized in the sale of limited-edition signed
and numbered screen-print concert posters.
The plan was to hold a poster show featuring
work by various screenprinting artists from
around the Richmond area. After struggling to
find a venue interested in hosting the event, the
team was approached by Gearing’s friend Jason
Bruner, owner and CEO of the Virginia Beachbased promotion/management company QuiVa
Productions. He was interested in hosting the
event at the downtown Richmond location of
Capital Ale House, a restaurant and bar that
specializes in local and imported craft beers.
This pairing, along with Hersh’s role as one of the
founding members of the Richmond Beer Lovers
organization, led to Gearing and Hersh’s decision
to incorporate craft beer into the project itself.
The name for the project was inspired by Sam
Verrill and Jess Harris’s group, Screens n’
Spokes, established in Philadelphia in 2007.
Screens n’ Spokes combines limited issue screen
printed poster art with a love for cycling, as
posterRVAMAG.COM
by Doe EyedDAILY
CHECK
Sam McClelland
opposed to a love for specialty craft beer. After
Gearing and Hersh had developed a fully formed
concept for their project and had secured Capital
Ale House as a location to host the events, they
contacted Verrill about using the same outline
for their own name. Verrill decided to allow the
team to borrow the name, under the condition
that they donate a percentage of their profits
to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, the
charity that Screens n’ Spokes was established
to support. Gearing and Hersh, who both have
relatives who suffer from MS, agreed.
Although the first year’s event was not as
successful as the team had hoped, they still
managed to raise around $1000, and continued
to make plans for the future. For the second
year, the group made a number of changes.
The decisions to make the event free with a
suggested donation; bring in Marco Benevento,
an experimental rock and jazz pianist and
songwriter from New York, to perform at the
end of the event; and to feature artwork from
increasingly well-known artists (including David
Welker from SoHo, New York) increased the
attendance from around 50 people for their first
event in 2009 to 200 people in 2010. Hersh
emphasized that making the event free was
one of the most critical changes that was made
after the first year. “Obviously if you don’t have a
price tag on something, you’re more likely to get
people out,” he said.
Eventually the group’s main event was moved to
Gallery 5, a multi-dimensional gallery of visual
and performing arts located at 200 W. Marshall
Street. Gearing explained that this move allowed
the project to expand and diversify the beer
menu for the events. “Having the event at
Gallery 5… I think that was what really brought
us to a point where people were starting to know
about us,” he said. “At Capital Ale House, it was
kind of difficult, because they’ve got their beer
menu and they have their beers that they sell.
We didn’t have a whole lot of freedom to pick
the beers that we wanted to pour at the event.
They helped us out as much as they could, but
their hands were kind of tied. But then, once we
moved it to Gallery 5, it made things a lot easier
and gave us a lot more freedom to be a little
bit more creative and get some of those more
interesting, off the wall beers that we wanted to
get.”
The brew selection for the 2013 event series
includes contributions from five different
breweries across the central and southern
Virginia areas. Blue Mountain Brewery, which
is located about half an hour outside of
Charlottesville in Afton, Virginia, developed the
largest batch of beer to be featured at Screens
n’ Suds this year. This beer, dubbed Foxy Mama,
is a red tripel that was hopped with French
Strisselspalt. Itty Bitty Press, a Richmondbased screenprinting and design shop that has
done work for Screens n’ Suds in the past, was
commissioned to provide the label art for this
year’s Blue Mountain contribution. Foxy Mama
is the only beer in this year’s series that will
be available to the general public following the
Screens n’ Suds main event.
For their contribution, Richmond’s Hardywood
Park Craft Brewery combined three different
stouts that were aged individually in Wild Turkey,
Jim Beam, and Maker’s Mark Bourbon barrels,
blended together with a Belgian Strong Ale, and
then left to age for about two months in a rum
barrel. This beer, aptly named Menagerie, is
nearly 12% alcohol by volume, the strongest beer
in this year’s series. Norfolk’s O’Connor Brewing
Company prepared an imperial milk stout
called Mermaid’s Milk. The label artwork for
Mermaid’s Milk was donated by local designer
and artist Ashley Phipps. Three Brothers Brewing
Company, based out of Harrisonburg, brewed
an India Pale Ale (IPA) with Brettanomyces
(Brett) yeast, which was titled Meet Brett IPA.
Brettanomyces is a wild yeast which gives beer a
slightly sour and earthy flavor. Label art for this
beer was done by Matt Leech.
The final, and arguably most unique, beer
contribution for the 2013 series was created by
Richmond brewery Strangeways. Starting with
the same base beer, an oaked Belgian Tripel,
Strangeways brewed three separate batches,
which were fermented independently with three
different types of yeast. These beers, collectively
known as the Wyrd Sisters, were each named
after tragic heroines from Shakespeare plays.
The Cordelia beer, named for King Lear’s longsuffering daughter, was created with Celis yeast,
which is known to give beer a slightly tart flavor.
The Ophelia beer, named for Hamlet’s tragic,
heartbroken lover, was fermented with the La
Chouffe yeast, and is extremely pale. The last of
the Wyrd Sisters was developed with a Trappist
yeast, which often produces a very malty beer
with a ripe flavor and some fruity characteristics,
and is named after Othello’s doomed wife,
Desdemona. Christian Leaf, the art director at
Richmond based marketing and advertising
company Gain Incorporated, designed the label
art for the Wyrd Sisters beers.
The artwork for the 2013 Screens n’ Suds series
includes between eight and twelve new prints,
a slightly smaller edition than previous years.
However, the lack of quantity for this year’s run
certainly does not imply there will be a lack of
quality. In fact, according to Hersh, who directs
the Screens side of the project, this reduction in
the number of new prints was intentional. “One
of the challenges we always face is having so
much beer art,” said Hersh. “We don’t want to
over-saturate our own market.”
With contributions from a number of new and
returning artists, the 2013 edition of Screens n’
57
Mike Budai
AJ Masthay
Team 8
The future looks bright for Screens n’ Suds; the
project has continued to grow and expand since
their first event five years ago. In 2011 Ric Hersh
(who lived in Richmond for sixteen years) moved
to Chicago, where in 2012 he organized and
held the very first Screens n’ Suds event outside
58
The Bungaloo
Suds included artwork from Sean S. Berg, Ashley
Phipps, Christian Leaf, Brian Mandeville, arts
collective Bomb Proof, Andrew Stronge, Itty Bitty
Press, Plastic Flame Press, Shawn Hileman, and
Crazy Redbeard, among others. Because this
is the fifth anniversary of the Screens n’ Suds
series, the artistic direction that was given for
this year was to utilize the term “quint-essential.”
Artists were encouraged to incorporate what
they consider to be quintessential to craft beer
into their work.
of Richmond. The group plans to hold another
event in Chicago next year. Hersh, who will again
be organizing the event in his new hometown,
described Chicago as “a great art and beer city,
so it’s a really easy fit for our organization.” Along
with the second upcoming event in Chicago,
Screens n’ Suds are also working on potential
openings in Oregon, New York, and Colorado.
They hope this growth will help get more
diverse and higher caliber musicians, artists, and
breweries involved with the organization.
To date, Screens n’ Suds, along with their sister
organization Screens n’ Spokes, has raised over
$300,000 for charity, and produced over 130
prints. Brian Gearing attributed the group’s
achievements to the support they have received
from the community. “The fact that we don’t do
a whole lot of marketing, and we don’t advertise,
but we’ve still had the level of success that we’ve
had, really speaks to how much we owe to the
people who have supported us throughout the
years.”
www.screensnsuds.com
Matt Leunig
59
60
61
RECORD Reviews
Ahnnu
Bearstorm
Body/Head
Richmond-to-LA transplant and experimental
electronic artist Ahnnu strips away all you
know about beat music in his latest release of
increasingly visionary and advant garde music.
Ahnnu’s use of found sounds and ambient
undefined rhythms creates a futuristic take on
musique concrete for the digital era. (AC)
The second album of epic death/black metal
from a local quintet who’ve been under the
RVA radar for a while now. Production isn’t
always perfect, and I wish they got away from
midtempo riffs more often, but the proggy
touches help, and when this album’s at its
best, as on 8-minute closer “Glacial Relic II,”
it rules. (AN)
Kim Gordon and Bill Nace formed Body/
Head in the wake of Sonic Youth’s apparent
disbandment. Coming Apart’s raw sound,
all from just Gordon’s voice and the duo’s
intertwining guitars, is a stark and droning
exploration of noise and space in sound,
which goes beyond both punk rock and
conventional musical structure. (AC)
Caretaker
The Dismemberment Plan
Uncanney Valley
Partisan
Druglord
Battered Sphinx
(NNA Tapes)
You Are Loved
(Driftwood)
This newly-assembled quartet rises from
the ashes of RVA hardcore bands Postcards
and Fixtures. They add distorted vocals and
chaotic riffs to powerful drumming and
widely varied tempos, and feed the whole
thing through ragged-but-right production.
The result is a brutal debut EP that’s over way
too quick. Give us more! (AN)
Haints in the Holler
Skin & Bones
(haintsintheholler.bandcamp.com)
Lead vocals shift from male to female
with constant harmonies on Haints in
the Holler’s new album, Skin & Bones.
Americana string band songs fill the record
while several selections, including title
track “Skin,” explore a little psychedelic
territory. Acoustic roots sounds feed the
soul with Southern-inspired aural treats.
(SML)
62
Americanus
(bearstorm.bandcamp.com)
Coming Apart
(Matador)
Enter Venus
(druglord.bandcamp.com)
The Cales
Slasher Rock
(Bad Grrrl)
These local weird-rock upstarts make their
impressive debut with Slasher Rock, on
Richmond’s Bad Grrrl Records. With their off
kilter pop sensibility and surf-rock inspired
guitar mutilations, The Cales bring big hooks
and sharp turns song after song. (AC)
Gorguts
Colored Sands
(Season Of Mist)
Going in with little to no expectations, I was
pleasantly surprised by Uncanney Valley. The
reunited Dismemberment Plan is not the
same band they were--nor should they be.
This is a record that illustrates how the band’s
influences have evolved, while showing they
can still make great music together. It’s good
to have you back, D-Plan. (SC)
Doom metal trio Druglord has released Enter
Venus, four tracks of stoner sludge buzziness
engineered by Windhand’s Garrett Morris.
The album, released on cassette, features a
melodic atmosphere broken into chunks by
progressive guitar and new depths of lowend bass solos. Enter Venus steps up as a
viable contender for album of the year. (SML)
The first album in 12 years from Canadian
metallers Gorguts is worth the wait.
There’s rarely a breath of calm on Colored
Sands, except for the beautifully dramatic
instrumental “The Battle of Chamdo.” It’s
hard to escape the riffage and prog influence,
but I gladly allow both to envelop me like an
adventurer being sucked into a lethal maw of
quicksand. (BK)
Hellbear
Jordan Tarrant
Kjell Anderson
Jordan Tarrant is a marvelous talent that
channels the heyday of Americana on this EP.
Lazarus is a soothing reminder of songwriters
with penchants for personification and
cautious melodies. The tales told are
infectious, and there is no telling how long
you will be daydreaming about tracks like
“Baby I’m Here” and “Guilty.” (SC)
Jazz, soul, and hip hop combine in a forwardthinking, 18-track homage to NYC on Kjell
Anderson’s Full Manifest. With many song
titles named after intersections in the City,
the album sets a stage on every track.
Whet your appetite with “Jay St./Brooklyn
Bridge Sax,” and turn up the percussion and
scattered saxophone in a Skerik kind of way.
(SML)
Hellbear EP
(Fake Art Fake Music)
Five blazing biker-metal tunes from this
raging RVA quartet. Chugging guitars,
galloping double bass beats, and hellacious
screams are all over this record, and will
have you headbanging and waving the devil
horns in the air throughout. Sometimes
unrelenting brutality is fun, and this is
definitely one of those times. (AN)
Lazarus
Full Manifest
(jordantarrant.bandcamp.com) (kjellanderson.bandcamp.com)
Alex Criqui (AC), Shannon Cleary (SC), Brad Kutner (BK), Sarah Moore Lindsey (SML), and Andrew Necci (AN)
(The) Melvins
The Milkstains
My Darling Fury
Hearing that the Melvins were returning to
their 1983 lineup, I wondered what to expect.
Fast hardcore a la their Mangled demo? Halfformed basement jams? Actually, this is a
really solid album. There are some goofs
here (“99 Bottles Of Beer”?), but those who
love the Melvins’ usual brilliant math-grunge
bombast will dig the hell out of this. (AN)
The river city’s favorite Link Wray acolytes
deliver two guitar-heavy tracks of their nobullshit rock and roll. Both songs, “Carolina
O’keeffe” and “Intimidator (You’re Dale To
Me),” are classic sneering lyrical tell-offs
catapulted over nonstop thunderous drums
and the group’s retro-punk swing. (AC)
Beautiful orchestral pop fuses with
percussive post-rock on My Darling Fury’s
Licking Wounds. The vocal range that
lyricist/pianist Danny Reyes exhibits can
rarely be duplicated; his register goes from
soaring falsetto to dream tenor. Bassist Todd
Matthews engineered this opus of an album
with a meticulous ear. (SML)
Mike Kinsella has always been a bit of a
musical phantom. With Owen, his sad fodder
is a great soundtrack for drunken haunting. On
this record, the idea seems to be reinvention.
He eschews his former perspective through
lyrics, while the instrumentation expands
into fascinating territories. Maybe not his
best, but I am impressed. (SC)
Positive No
Queens Of The Stone Age
Shining
Todd Herrington
Dreamy enchanting pop gems that
encapsulate the beauty of Richmond,
Virginia. Positive No have the spirit of the
nineties, but they belong in the present.
On their debut, they excel at showcasing
their influences elegantly while infusing a
natural spark that should raise the bar in
Richmond music. (SC)
The best Pink Floyd album of 2013. There
are some decent tracks on this record, but
overall the album’s HEAVY drama and
moodiness is what makes it a Roger Waters
best-of collection. It usually takes me a few
months to get into a QotSA album, but
sadly, after six months, Like Clockwork has
still not made it into heavy rotation. (BK)
Tres Cabrones
(Ipecac)
Via Florum
(Little Black Cloud)
Voyeur
Little Death
(v-o-y-e-u-r.bandcamp.com)
The debut EP from local musician/producer
Voyeur starts out with a James Blake vibe,
but grows eclectic over its 5-song duration.
“Just Say Goodbye” is like a Devendra
Banhart torch-song ballad, while the closing
title track is a 7-minute epic reminiscent of
Pink Floyd. An interesting first effort--let’s
see what he does next. (AN)
Hell Gel
Licking Wounds
(themilkstains.bandcamp.com) (mydarlingfury.bandcamp.com)
Like Clockwork
(Matador)
Warren Hixson
Hawaiian Underwear
(warrenhixson.bandcamp.com)
This collection of B-sides should be a
dream for any fan of this band. Spanning
back to 2006, it’s a true representation of
the varied identities that Brent Delventhal
has taken with this moniker. If “Glitter
Dancer” doesn’t get your head nodding, I
don’t know what will. (SC)
One One One
(Indie Recordings)
Owen
L’Ami du Peuple
(Polyvinyl)
Things
(toddherrington.com/store)
This Norwegian jazz band decided to
go metal a few years ago, but kept the
skronking sax solos. Imagine Meshuggah,
Refused, Helmet, and the ghost of John
Coltrane collaborating on a chaotic
industrial hardcore/metal album. I know
that might sound insane, but it actually
works really well. I can’t stop playing this
record. (AN)
Todd Herrington has come into his own on
his debut solo album Things. Showcasing
his versatility and range, the different songs
are paradigms of their respective (usually
funky) genres. Somehow Herrington has
fused a 1970s PBS aura into all of his songs,
from soulful Stevie Wonder-esque “What
We Had” to Southern rock-inspired “The
Reason.” (SML)
Yuck
Zac Hryciak
& The Jungle Beat
Glow & Behold
(Fat Possum)
Losing your singer after one album can
seem like a crippling blow, but the opposite
has been true for Yuck. Guitarist Max
Bloom proves to be a better vocal fit than
the departing Daniel Blumberg for the
band’s melodic, shoegazey alt-rock. The
occasional brass accents only sweeten a
delightful sophomore effort. (AN)
Flower Dog
(zandthejungleb.bandcamp.com)
The Jungle Beat has put together a
wonderful two-song preview with Flower
Dog. Illustrating the new dynamic of the
group while showing the further evolution
of their collective songwriting, tunes like
“Pale Flower” truly glisten. A new fulllength is expected in the coming months.
(SC)
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