My YouTube Page

7/23/2008 -- Dan-O of Adam West has joined The Rats on guitar. Adam West is disbanding.

Finally! Someone has given us some club scoop. The Triple will cancel your show if they get a better offer. Bands playing there get the door, but often fail to receive the promised tab discount.

Rockitz, which books The Camel, tends to be forgetful. Get a "specific contract" as soon as you book something there and keep in touch with David Hudert constantly to make sure he remembers.

Poe's Pub gives you the door as payment, but they also let all the regulars in free.

Cafe Diem has their favored band roster which is hard to break into.

Ty and Company Expresso in Powhatan has closed.

Babe's is only booking live music on Thursdays.

The manager of Easy Street will pull the plug on you if you play too loud (because the acoustics in that place are truly awful...the least little volume blows the top of your head off, but I know how much you are tempted to turn the dial up because the crowd noise is also incredible). Also, checks paid to bands have been known to bounce and it's weeks before the club makes good on it.

Share your club horror stories!

7/22/2008 -- Blue Line Highway's "A Perfect Curve" added to the CD Gallery.
 

7/21/2008 -- Ah...greed, drunkenness and betrayal in the local scene, an all too common story here.
 

The Dregs added to the CD Gallery.

Matt Koon of the Matt Koon Foundation has joined Katana Mantra on bass. After winning the 2008 Rockitz Battle of the Bands, Katana recorded a three-song demo at Sunrise Recording Studio. A full-length CD is due in 2009. Auditions are currently being held for rhythm guitar. Contact Bubba Farmer. Katana is currently Brian "Sideshow" Lytle, Joey Farish, Koon and Farmer.
 

7/20/2008 -- "Wall-e" is a very good movie. Not just for kids. The animation is beautiful and the robots truly do wonderful acting with next to no dialogue.
 

7/19/2008 -- Shout out to Green Giant and the Matt Koon Foundation for supporting the Journal! Green Giant is Bob Watkins on bass and vocals; Johnny Watkins on drums; Joe Kennebeck on keyboards; Terrell Bowers on guitar and vocals. The band was a trio for three years and then added keyboard recently.
 

7/16/2008 -- I was looking through my folder of digital photos sent to me in the last six months and I find these: DSC01607, GR5, graypromo, HPIMO140, image001, img3504, maybe.jpg (which I happen to know is really Buttercup), picture151, and promo.jpg. Eventually I am going to trash these because I have no idea who they are. If you're doing this to all the publications, you need to stop. Name your photos with your full band name (!) so the photo editors have a clue and they'll keep digging them out and using them when you have a calendar listing.

7/14/2008 -- A Seattle, Washington, comic book dealer named Planet Lolar is selling 1995 issues of the Richmond Music Journal on eBay for Buy It Now prices beginning at $35. I've become a collector's item. On another coast! How did my papers get to Seattle in mint condition? (It's Colin of Crazy Charlie's and the Flood Zone.)

Fall'n added to the links and my Onionhead videos are now posted on my YouTube page.
 

7/11/2008 -- Has The Fifth found yet another new place to play? They're booked at RoxC's Steak House & Cabaret, 2124 Willis Road on Saturday, July 26.
 

7/7/2008 -- Grovers Mill added to the links. Gary Bailey of the band says he was in bands in the '80s and '90s (another century, it was), and wished the Internet existed then for promotion. I wish it existed then for job hunting.
 

7/1/2008 -- Wrenn Mangum has pre-qualified for the finals of the Images of the King World Championship Contest and will be performing at Graceland on Aug. 16-17. Like The Taters, his act is now fully regional and he frequently travels all over Virginia and Maryland.
 

6/29/2008 -- Forest George sees The Highstreet Lowlifes at the Edgar Allen Poe Museum.
 

6/27/2008 -- Matt Harris has left Kinetic Element to move to West Virginia, so the band seeks a new bass player who understands progressive rock or wants a challenge. Email Mike Visaggio or visit their MySpace page.
 

The complete 11 years of print copies of the Richmond Music Journal are available on microfilm at the State Library of Virginia and Virginia Commonwealth University library for your researching pleasure.

The Richmond Concert Band would like donations of used musical instruments to loan to Richmond City school children. All donations are tax deductible. Visit www.rcband.org.
 

Donate your old newspapers to the Richmond City Animal Shelter at 1600 Chamberlayne Ave., where the SPCA used to be. For the best older dogs and cats, declawed cats, etc., go there!
 

rmjournal@mindspring.com
The Richmond Music Journal is owned and operated by
Mariane Matera
since November 1993.