Charlottesville's Satellite Ballroom closes.

A little more than three years ago, Satellite Ballroom converted a Plan 9 Music sublet into a hotspot for local and independent music. During its short tenure on the Corner, the venue has become an impressively vital source of live entertainment – largely thanks to the persistent efforts of Satellite booking agent Danny Shea. "I had a list of bands that I would be really happy to have come, and I've been surprised at how many bands I've been able to scratch off that list," Shea said. These scratched names have included indie acts as popular and eclectic as Yo La Tengo, Animal Collective, Girl Talk, Deerhoof and Vashti Bunyan.

Yet all good things come to an end, it seems. As was announced this Monday, Plan 9 is allowing its lease on the Corner to expire – thereby expulsing Satellite Ballroom, a subtenant. The implications for Charlottesville's local music scene are grim. As the only medium-sized venue in town, Satellite Ballroom's closing will leave a substantial gap for the live music scene in its wake. For the time being, there are many popular music acts – ones too big for the Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar, but too small for the Pavilion – who will lack an appropriately sized venue.

James Ford, contributor to the Charlottesville music blog Nailgun Media, points out that the Satellite Ballroom situation is merely the latest in a long string of music venue closings. "In the two to three years that I've been here, I've seen the range of available venues narrow significantly," Ford said. Starr Hill recently merged with the now-closing Satellite Ballroom, Gravity Lounge has long been announcing its closing (even if it hasn't gotten around to it yet) and house parties are becoming ever rarer. Even if the Pavilion and John Paul Jones Arena continue to thrive, these larger venues fail to cultivate the same sense of community and cater only to those with bigger wallets and more mainstream musical preferences.

Venue closings continue to narrow the amount of choice that Charlottesville's music fans have – especially for supporters of local music, or those with less conventional tastes. One of the most notable symptoms of these closings is that hip hop artists are almost never able to book shows, even though there a number of local acts who would love the opportunity to perform. The problem, however, extends to small-time artists from all genres. "I get e-mails weekly, from people out of town, who are having trouble setting up a show here, and I'm not even officially a booking agent," Ford said.

There is some hope, however. Satellite Ballroom is currently in the midst of searching for a new venue, and the promotional group Red Light Management (who recently invested in Satellite Ballroom) has a significant interest in making the relocation a success. "We are a little bit in scramble mode," Shea said. "We all felt like we'd be able to work out an extension for the lease, but apparently that's not the case." So while the demise of Satellite Ballroom isn't set in stone, the venue's future isn't clear either.

If one thing is certain, it's that Charlottesville has a community hungry for Satellite's music. Many students have worked hard to raise awareness of the situation via Facebook, and the "Satellite Unite" group has been organizing a letter writing campaign to Satellite lot owner Terry Vassalos. Furthermore, there are many community members who continue working hard to bring great music to Charlottesville. "There are a lot of dedicated, hard-working people organizing concerts here because they care about it," Ford said. Shea echoes these sentiments, albeit more reservedly. "On one hand, you can figure that it will sort itself out, that there's enough energy in this town. On the other hand, I'm a pretty big believer in not taking anything for granted."

It's unclear whether or not Satellite Ballroom or a comparatively sized venue will return, but one thing is certain – recovering from this loss will take a lot of hard work from the very same people who have already done so much to bring great music to Charlottesville all these years. As Shea commented, "This business is a labor of love – nobody is going to get rich, and you're lucky if you get it to work." Let's hope that fortune ends up on the side of people such as him.

Originally written for the Cavalier Daily:
http://www.cavalierdaily.com/news/2008/apr/24/satellite-ballroom-closing/

All Tomorrow's Parties lineup announced.

All Tomorrow's Parties, a London-based festival that recently expanded into the United States, has just announced the 30-act lineup for its NYC show. Easily the most buzzed-about act is the recently reformed My Bloody Valentine, who garnered massive critical acclaim with their 1991 shoegaze masterpiece Loveless before going on hiatus. The group will make its first U.S. concert appearance in a little over a decade and a half at ATP. Built to Spill, Meat Puppets, Thurston Moore (of Sonic Youth) and Tortoise will also appear, playing their definitive albums in full, while groups such as Mogwai, Polvo and Shellac will appear to play more traditional sets. The festival will take place in late September.


My Bloody Valentine - "You Made Me Realise"
Originally written for the Cavalier Daily:
http://www.cavalierdaily.com/news/2008/apr/24/the-pulse26713/

Coldplay release Viva la Vida details.

Hyper-popular alt-rockers Coldplay have recently released information surrounding the release of their highly anticipated fourth album – the full title of which is Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends (that mouthful was apparently inspired by Frida Kahlo). According to Chris Martin, the band's latest has been highly influenced by the "sights, sounds and flavors of Latin America and Spain." He also said there is experimentation and exploration, but the music is "real and honest". Hmm. The album, produced by legendary electriconica musician Brian Eno, is due out June 17 via Capitol.

Coldplay - "The Scientist": (from A Rush of Blood to the Head; 2002)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqWLpTKBFcU

Originally written for the Cavalier Daily:
http://www.cavalierdaily.com/news/2008/apr/24/the-pulse26713/

Pitchfork.tv opens to the public.

Pitchfork Media – a popular site for online reviews of independent, hip-hop and electronic music – debuted its new satellite web site Pitchfork.tv on April 7. The goal of this new site is to provide high-quality video content for indie bands, who don't normally get the same high quality media coverage as their major-label brethren. The web site, which is notable for its exceptionally high-quality video streams, allows users to view any of the hosted videos – which includes pre-recorded concerts, music videos and mini-documentaries – on-demand, at any time, and completely free of charge. The site also allows for embedding in blogs.

Try out Pitchfork.tv now!: http://pitchfork.com/tv/

Originally written for the Cavalier Daily:
http://www.cavalierdaily.com/news/2008/apr/10/the-pulse26512/

Panic at the Disco - Pretty. Odd.

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is an undisputed classic. Arguably the greatest album ever made by The Beatles – who, by general consensus, are the greatest band the world has ever seen – it was a milestone release in terms of studio innovation, cohesiveness and even album art. And the music? Sgt. Pepper's sounds remarkably fresh in a modern context – every bit as brilliant and engaging as it was more than 40 years ago.

Apparently, Vegas quartet Panic at the Disco (observe the freshly removed exclamation point!) are fans of Sgt. Pepper's as well – so much so that they've modeled their latest album, Pretty. Odd., after it to a tee. They've got the same thick atmospherics, gobs of back up instrumentation from horns and strings and even the same sort of faux-live album introduction. The resemblance between the two albums is uncanny.

This is hardly a surprise, of course – My Chemical Romance aped Queen for Welcome to the Black Parade, and The Killers borrowed the songs on Sam's Town from the Big Book of Bruce Springsteen. At this rate, it was only so long before the Fab Four became the next target for an super-popular pop-punk outfit. What sets Panic at the Disco apart, however, is that their album is actually quite good.

Repeated listens reveal the band's similarity to The Beatles is, for the most part, superficial. Panic doesn't have the ability to write pop songs the way The Beatles did, and in all likelihood, they never will. While the group borrows heavily from the psychedelic atmosphere of Sgt. Pepper's, they are still writing the same variety of unabashed pop-punk music they always have – if only in a markedly different context.

This newfound focus on texture pays off in spades. Regardless of what the band's detractors might say, ambition suits Panic at the Disco wonderfully. Pretty. Odd. maintains the pop sensibilities of Panic's mediocre debut but reframes them in lush orchestral flourishes and ornate production techniques. The group's songwriting may have improved only marginally – brilliant songs such as "She's a Handsome Woman" and "When the Day Met the Night" excluded – but their songs sound much better framed with trumpets and violins than the flavor-of-the-moment synthesizers that characterized A Fever You Can't Sweat Out. If nothing else, Pretty. Odd. is worth listening to for its exorbitant production – this album must have cost Pete Wentz's label a fortune to make.


Panic at the Disco - "Nine in the Afternoon"
There are problems, to be sure. Frontman Brendon Urie's emo yelp doesn't quite gel with the band's new sound – although back-up singer Ryan Ross sounds great when he takes center stage in album highlight "Behind the Sea." Pretty. Odd. also suffers from a lack of songwriting variety toward its tail-end, in spite of quirky interludes such as "I Have Friends in Holy Spaces" and "Folkin' Around." However, the whole of Pretty. Odd. congeals into an album that is mischievous, clever and (most importantly) lots of fun.

Although Panic is far from reaching the same heights The Beatles once scaled, they have released a follow-up album good enough to match their immense popularity. Sure, music fans might be better off dusting off Sgt. Pepper's instead of purchasing Pretty. Odd., but Panic's latest far outpaces the superficial glitz of their debut and indicates that these Vegas post-teens might actually have something worthwhile to share with us.

Originally written for the Cavalier Daily:
http://www.cavalierdaily.com/news/2008/apr/03/dont-panic-pretty-odd-exceeds-expectations/

Radiohead ask fans to remix "Nude".

The Starbucks nearest you may have been selling copies of In Rainbows since early January, but that doesn't mean that Radiohead is done promoting their new album just yet. Way across the pond in England, Radiohead has just released the woozy "Nude" as their second single. To commemorate the event, the band is hosting a remix contest that's open to everybody – including you! All you need to do is (1) buy the raw tracks from iTunes, (2) do a bit of mixing and matching on your own and (3) upload the results to radioheadremix.com. The best remix will be determined by an online vote.


Radiohead - "Nude"
Originally written for the Cavalier Daily:
http://www.cavalierdaily.com/news/2008/apr/03/pulse/