Scene Recap: Fringe Festival, Emily Horton, Naked Songs

Countless great outlets, organizations, and individuals cover the music scene in Richmond, so many that it might be hard to keep up to date on all of them. We’ll try and collect some great articles, coverage, and news bits we’ve read each week here at The Auricular.

• The Richmond Fringe Fest returns this weekend and there were a lot of interesting interviews, spotlights, and overviews posted this week to promote it. I’ll run through each of them below here, but also make sure you go to the Fringe Fest’s website for more information. (Website link here.)

• Karen Newton talked with founder and directrix Carmel Clavin for Style Weekly in this really interesting piece laying out the time between the last show in 2020 and this year’s grand return. (Article link here.)

• Rian Moses from HearRVA talked with Grim Kells from Grimalkin Records, who will be performing as Spartan Jet-Plex along with x0teric at the Fringe after party on Sunday night. (Article link here.)

• Richy Jones / Qing Richy talked with percussionist Matthew Lau, who will be performing his IDENTITY piece on Monday night. More from Richy below. (Article link here.)

• Not music related, but Angelea Hengle at HearRVA talked with dancer Ginnie Fae, who will be performing Oracle Of The Morrigan on Sunday. (Article link here.)

• Also not music related, but Andrew Bonieskie at RVA Magazine talked with the people behind the Fruit Salad clown performance. This article has my favorite first sentence of anything published this week. “Clowns.” My mind immediately jumps to a hopeful crossover between Pennywise and Fizbo. Once a clown, always a clown. (Article link here.)

• Speaking of Andrew Bonieskie, he also published his new edition of Sound Check at RVA Magazine, which covered Caroline Rose, Toward Space, and The Wilson Springs Hotel. (Article link here.)

• Karen Newton over at Style Weekly previewed the new songwriter showcase at Sound Of Music starting this upcoming Tuesday. Naked Songs is the name and it’s one of several in the area that are adopting this round-robin format for performances. If you have a chance, I suggest you check it out! (Article link here.)

• Also at Style Weekly, Don Harrison talked with guitarist Gary Lucas for an interesting Q&A. Lucas performs at the Byrd on 4/22 as part of the James River Film Festival. Check out the article and make plans if you don’t have them already! (Article link here.)

• Shockoe Sessions has had some rough luck lately. 3 out of the last 4 weeks, one of the musicians has gotten injured or sick at the last minute and was unable to play. Thankfully, the folks at In Your Ear were able to pivot quickly this week and bring in two talented singer-songwriters: Jonathan Facka and Saw Black! Shockoe Sessions is a loose production in general, but something about this change-up made Tuesday’s night show feel extra inspired and free. Check it out. Saw Black opens and Jonathan Facka closes in a great one-two musical punch. (YouTube link here.)

• I love a good local retrospective and Qing Richy delivered strong this week, offering a video analysis for HearRVA on the 2018 album Moonchild by Kenneka Cook. The video also includes an in-depth convo with Kenneka Cook which I can’t recommend enough. This was one of our favorite records back in 2018 here at The Auricular and I would love it if it could continue to grow its audience each year. Kudos to Richy and the HearRVA for this one. And kudos to Kenneka for making such memorable music. (YouTube link here.)

• Connecting The Dots rounded out its first season this past week with music executive and entrepreneur Quinelle “Coach Q” Holder. I really hope Chris Mattison brings this show back because these talks are so fascinating. Every episode in this season has been must-watch. (YouTube link here.)

• Scum City Spotlight returned this past week with its fourth episode featuring local screamo band Humanitarian Deficit, a relatively new band to the local hardcore scene. Laid-back interview, but also in-depth covering anything you could think of with this trio. (YouTube link here.)

• Issue #5 of GFY is out now so grab a copy at The Camel, Sticky Rice, Get Tight Lounge, Plan 9, Bandito’s, Rumors, En Su Boca, and 20 other places I’m forgetting. Copies are free and I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed Issues #3 and #4. (I assume #1 and #2 were equally great, but I failed to grab them.) Make it your mission to find a copy this weekend. (Instagram link here.)

• I snagged the first issue of Music Is For Nerds last Friday night and this zine is one you want to pay attention to moving forward. Put together by “two punk-ass high schoolers” named Reaper and Enobaria, this type of stuff gets me really excited for the the next generation of the local music scene. Head over to their Instagram where you can find some ordering information. (Instagram link here.)

• It’s been several months, but I was finally able to bring back the Richmond Music Roundup this past Tuesday covering music from April 1st to April 8th. We’ll be back next week covering the 9th through the 15th, as well as some stuff we missed at the beginning of the month. (I try to be complete, but I am far from perfect.) If you got anything coming out soon, drop us a line wherever so we can add it to our unruly, stress-inducing spreadsheet. That thing is the biggest blessing and curse of my life. Anyway, go listen to some new local music here. (Article link here.)

• We talked about the Fringe Fest going on this weekend, but there are dozens of other shows going on elsewhere. If you’re looking for something to do this weekend, I will again point you to the fine people at Restless RVA (Instagram link here) as well as our own show column penned by the marvelous Mrs. Necci. (Article link here.)

• Time to close out this column with a local song. I’ve got a huge list of songs I’ve earmarked to talk about for this column, most of which have notes I’ve scribbled down at 3 AM that make no sense to me whatsoever when I wake up three and a half hours later. I was scrolling through the list last night when writing this column and I came across this eloquent gem: “punchy vocal bliss, visual abstract abstractness, percussively cheeky.” I’m clearly in my element late at night. The song in question is “Lately” by Emily Horton, a sensational pop track from spring 2020 that I’ve never gotten a chance to write about before because I was a little busy around that time trying to keep the mental breakdowns to single digits. You know, normal 2020 stuff. Anyway, this track is paradise for modern pop lovers. Pristine vocals. Dynamic lyricism. Clever production. Irresistible melodies. I guess what I wrote down at 3 AM does start to make sense as you immerse yourself in this playful and irreverent world. Horton’s vocals are the definition of pop bliss with a polished and precise tone that floats through the bouncy and snappy percussion. The way the vocal rhythm moves against the pulsating beat gives the song a cheeky give-and-take feel, which matches the lyrical nature of the song in a sense too. As for “visual abstract abstractness,” that wonderful phrase is talking about the artwork for the single, which you can view here or at the top of this article. It’s a memorable spin on jigsaw patterns and something I imagine looks way different at 3 AM when you just need to sleep. All in all, this is a great pop track that might have gone overlooked because of when it was released. Check it out below and if you like it, I’d point you to her February 2021 record Eighteen, which is more sparse in sound but still moving and memorable. I’ll catch you all next week.