5/15/12 -- Alley Katz is now Kingdom.

Today I got a press release from a band that printed out to be 11 pages because they used such a huge font and wanted to share with me all the reviews they've ever gotten. I did not read it.

5/6/12 -- Rosie Soul's first original song, "Let's Get F'ed Up!" is available for free download.

4/23/12 -- The central Florida band Yogurt Smoothness, a two-piece noise rock outfit out of Winter Park, is looking for a Richmond booking for June 25. If you can add them to your show, they might return the favor in central Florida. Email Leah Putlek at Planet Pluto Booking.

4/17/12 -- Gray Gurkin is working on a new CD at Dan-o's studio Snake Oil Recording.

Cary Street Cafe is doing Open Jam with Dave Shifflett on Saturdays from 2-5 p.m., Tripp and Jenny Old Time Jam Session on Sundays from 2-5 p.m., costume karaoke on Sunday and Monday nights at 9, and X-Box 360 Rockband on Thursdays at 10.

4/16/12 -- McCook's in Lakeside ended its open mic nights on Wednesdays and switched to acoustic Thursdays, reports Amy Henderson.

2/7/12 -- Samson Trinh would like you to follow him on Facebook as well as his band Upper East Side Big Band and follow him on Twitter at @samsontrinh.

 

The To the Bottom and Back Bus is a free shuttle service that runs from Elwood Thompson's to The Market on Tobacco Row in Shockoe Bottom, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from 6 p.m. to 3 a.m., and along The Boulevard and East Broad, with stops at Bandito's, and the bars along Grace, Robinson, and Main streets on Friday and Saturday from 6 p.m. to 3 a.m. They stop anywhere along the route to pick up or drop off. Call 908-2945 for more information. Cab drivers hate them. You can track all the 2BNB buses from your computer or mobile phone. (For information, visit www.2bnb.org.)

There is a Richmond Music Journal group page on Facebook where you all can join and post your own photos and gigs. There's many photos posted there that I've taken over the years or people gave to me. I don't friend musicians I only know through the Journal on my regular Facebook page because that's for the life I'm living now, but feel free to remember old times on the group page, and don't feel insulted if I don't friend you. Unless we spent a lot of time together at some point, I probably will not. But you can follow me on Twitter all you want: www.twitter.com/MarianeMatera, although you will be bored.

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.