Welcome everyone who saw us in the new Style Weekly Music Issue! For the up to dates on the latests and greatests, and to buy music and such, check out our tumblr:
Also, John Robinson is a NY local, and it’s been an honor to work with such an underground master. Check his stuff out here:
Thanks and hope you dig the tune!
Excited to let everyone know that our esteemed trombonist Reggie Pace just joined the band of the mighty Bon Iver! Wanted to drop everyone a line today, because tonight (Monday, June 20, 2011) you can catch him and the rest of the band on The Colbert Report, and tomorrow (Tuesday, June 21, 2011) they will be on the Jimmy Fallon show!
And if that wasn’t enough—Reggie’s coming back to RVA on Thursday to play with us at Balliceaux for MONDO ITALIA DANCE PARTY!
Don’t worry, Reggie’s still in the band–despite the whole, “I’m a rockstar and only eat things with truffles or truffle oil in them” thing. I’m using this opportunity to write some new tunes for our next record.
And we’re all getting our truffle hunting skills on point!
For more info on Reggie joining Bon Iver, check out this article on RVA NEWS.
We had our celebration at The Camel on Tuesday, and now it’s time to share this new album with the rest of the world!
You can buy our new album, Beach of the War Gods, at any of these fine sites:
Here’s more info on this exciting release:
Glows in the Dark’s Latest Album
Beach of the War Gods
Explores Cinematic Music in a New Light
The latest release from Glows in the Dark takes the relationship between music and film way beyond the expected. Following their 2008 debut, Beach of the War Gods is guitarist and leader Scott Burton’s idea of how music can be inspired by movies, and it’s a clear evolution of Glows in the Dark’s sound that is driven by tight grooves and loose improvisations. And for Burton, it’s a way of combining two of his interests just short of scoring a film.
Every track — except one — is named after the movie that it’s inspired by, like the first track, “Revolver,” which is about a 1973 poliziotteschi film of the same name. It’s a good indication of Burton’s angle. “I’ll take a movie and try to recreate the structure of the movie in a song,” Burton says. “It’s figuring out a different way to tell the story with improvisation.” Trombonist Reggie Pace and tenor saxophonist John Lilley represent the film’s two main characters: a cop and a criminal who are forced to work together. Burton’s use of a repetitive groove while activity swirls around it happens from the album’s onslaught and reappears frequently in his compositions.
Pace’s and Lilley’s roles are similar in “The Silence,” the 1963 Swedish film directed by Ingmar Bergman, in which they explore the twisted relationship and character development between a mother and her sister in a land where no one can understand them.
For some of these compositions, the band gives the music new meaning when they play it, never having seen the film that it’s about. For others, like “Manhunt,” viewing the film dramatically altered the band’s interpretation of the song. In the film, a small-time criminal who is being chased by the mob sees a mobster kill his wife and child with a car. “You see something in him snap,” Burton says, and what follows is “probably one of the single greatest car chases that has ever happened in a movie.” When the criminal gets his revenge, there’s a strange feeling of release that is beautifully alluded to in the music.
John Carpenter’s “Halloween 1978” finds its way into “One Armed Swordsman.” Burton takes a cue from hip-hop and the art of sampling, but with a live band. He explains, “I like the idea of that happening organically and acoustically as opposed to digitally.” Especially with Carpenter’s music, which is mostly if not completely played with a synthesizer, the band owns their acoustic sample of the eerie, anxiety-ridden music. The music that surrounds it on both sides about the the Shaw Brothers film starring actor Jimmy Wang Yu is about a small town hero whose arm gets chopped off within the first few minutes.
“I usually decide if I’m going to write a song about a movie before I see the movie,” Burton says, and like One Armed Swordsman, Beach of the War Gods happens to star Jimmy Wang Yu. The impetus for watching films like these is often Kung Fu Night, a weekly gathering at Burton’s house of friends devoted to watching movies of the genre. Pace and Burton both wondered how they could reflect in their music the movies that they have watched, and while the trombonist took the influence to his No BS! Brass Band with pieces like the suite The Ballad of the Eagle Claw, Burton applied it more to the form and structure of his compositions.
Even a lack of form inspire Burton’s compositions. The 1975 film Violent Rome starring Maurizio Merli is a great action movie without an overarching plot. “It’s literally just a collection of scenes,” he says. In four parts interspersed throughout the album, each “Violent Rome” is a small vignette of controlled improvisation. The second part has bassist Cameron Ralston and drummer Scott Clark filling up all the space while Pace and Lilley improvise long tones. Ralston and Burton take over the long tones in the third part while Pace mimics Clark’s cymbal swells and pulsating drums, providing fodder for Lilley’s solo.
In a similar fashion, “Caliber 9” is an extended solo for Pace with the plot thickening behind him. The 1972 Italian film is about a former mob accomplice who gets out of prison to find the mob chasing him for money that he supposedly stole before being locked up. “It’s all about this guy being put under extreme pressure,” Burton says, “so the way we did this was to have it be a feature for Reggie.” A twist at the end of the movie is reflected appropriately.
The album closes up shop on “My Name is Cameron Vale,” inspired by the terrible acting by the main character in the film Scanners. The piece is “based around the idea of some guy slowly going nuts, basically a brain being overloaded,” Burton says.
In a city as small and filled with talent as Richmond, Virginia, the best musicians are going to play in multiple bands, and that could be said for all five members of Glows in the Dark. But Burton’s compositions along with the versatility of each player allows them to sound true to the band while keeping their unique musical persona. Pace (Fight the Big Bull, No BS! Brass) is still Pace and Ralston (Fight the Big Bull, Ombak, ILAD) is still Ralston, but they all adapt to the Glows sound. Same with Clark (ILAD) and Lilley (Fight the Big Bull, Bio Ritmo). “It is really remarkable how different everyone sounds in different bands,” Burton says.
But together, they form the Glows in the Dark sound, even while recycling material from Burton’s old rock trio Ones and Zeros (“Gary Glitter”). For an album mainly inspired by decades old cinema, their sound is surprisingly groundbreaking.
Release date: May 24, 2011
Personnel: Scott Burton (guitarist, compositions); Reggie Pace (trombone, percussion); John Lilley (tenor saxophone); Cameron Ralston (bass); Scott Clark (drums).
Track listing:
1. Revolver
2. Violent Rome I
3. Beach of the War Gods
4. Manhunt
5. One Armed Swordsman
6. Violent Rome II
7. The Silence
8. Violent Rome III
9. Caliber 9
10. Gary Glitter
11. Violent Rome IV
12. My Name is Cameron Vale
Join us for the official release of our new album:
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Live Performance at The Camel (1621 W. Broad St.)
9pm All Ages and FREE!!!
ZAHA (NYC) will open.
This follow up album has been a long time in the making, and we’re excited to finally unleash it in the wild!
…
We will have a limited number of physical CDs available for $10 each, but fear not, because the album will also be available to download on iTunes, AmazonMP3, eMusic, and more.
We’re also thrilled to be joined by NY experimental band ZAHA, who will be opening!
Also, if that weren’t enough, we are excited to unveil a video for the song “Gary Glitter” created by the amazing Mitchell Craft!!!
Glows in the Dark – Gary Glitter from g4ztop on Vimeo.
Here’s a tracklist and more info on the record:
Beach of the War Gods (2011)
1 Revolver 5:31
2 Violent Rome I 1:03
3 Beach of the War Gods 6:49
4 Manhunt 6:58
5 One Armed Swordsman 7:12
6 Violent Rome II 1:06
7 The Silence 7:34
8 Violent Rome III 2:35
9 Caliber 9 3:52
10 Gary Glitter 3:48
11 Violent Rome IV 1:07
12 My Name is Cameron Vale 7:37
Recorded by Lance Koehler Jan 22-24, 2010 at Jo Ann-land Studios in Cullen, VA
Mixed by Lance and Glows in the Dark Feb. 1, 2010 at Minimum Wage Studios in Richmond, VA. Mastered by Lance Koehler.
Every song on this album is inspired by the movie of the same name, except “Gary Glitter.” “My Name is Cameron Vale” being inspired by David Cronenberg’s Scanners.
All songs by Scott Burton except Violent Rome I-IV by Glows in the Dark
One Armed Swordsman contains elements of “Halloween 1978” and “The Shape Stalks Laurie Strode” by John Carpenter. Produced by Glows in the Dark. Associate Produced by Brandon Mitchell.
Special Thanks to Tray Eppes for the hospitality, inspiration, and goat. Steven Bernstein for continued support, and helpful analysis. Jneiro Jarel for the advice. And Richmond for it’s constant excellence and Lance for getting it on tape.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Performance at Balliceaux
10:00pm, FREE 21+
203 N. Lombardy, Richmond, VA
www.balliceauxrva.com
Join Richmond band Glows in the Dark as they delve into brand new territory. Inspired by the Italian Crime films of the 1970’s, Glows will present 2 solid sets of grooves taken from these films in a format that’s very new to the band. Playing in front of a backdrop of sex and violence from these films, they will treat the material as a DJ would—-transitioning seamlessly between grooves to keep the people dancing. Dancing? That’s right, Glows will leave behind their free form experimentation, in order to properly keep the crowd moving, and honor the great Italian groovesmiths of yore! This is an exciting time for Glows, presenting this show for the second time at Balliceaux, and adding guests to help the band do it right. Glows will add Lauren Serpa on flute, and special vocals from Eddie Prendergast and Lydia Ooghe on a few deep cuts! In addition, the great SnowPanda will DJ before the gig and keep everyone grooving between sets!
Join us for this special showcase of RVA talent!
More on our guests:
SnowPanda: http://snowpanda.com/
Lydia Ooghe: http://www.lydiaoogheandluxvacancy.com/
Eddie Prendergast: http://amazingghost.bandcamp.com/
February 24, 2011
Performance at Balliceaux
10:00pm, FREE 21+
203 N. Lombardy, Richmond, VA
http://www.balliceauxrva.com
Join Richmond band Glows in the Dark as they delve into brand new territory. Inspired by the Italian Crime films of the 1970’s, Glows will present 2 solid sets of grooves taken from these films in a format unlike anything the band has done before. Playing in front of a backdrop of sex and violence from these films, they will treat the material as a DJ would—-transitioning seamlessly between grooves to keep the people dancing. Dancing? That’s right, Glows will leave behind their free form experimentation, in order to properly keep the crowd moving, and honor the great Italian groovesmiths of yore! This is an exciting time for Glows, and they are very excited to bring this great old music to a whole new audience.
From all of us to all of you, we want to wish everyone Happy Holidays with a Christmas standard from a recent show:
I had arranged some Christmas tunes from Vince Guaraldi’s Charlie Brown Christmas album to play at a recent Commercial Taphouse show, and upon setting this challenge for myself, two things happened:
1) Reggie wasn’t able to do the gig because of a conflict with NO BS.
2) Cameron was sick in bed.
So to solve these problems we:
1) Were able to work with trombonist Toby Whitaker from Bio Ritmo and Amazing Ghost.
2) Played the gig without a bass player, which meant some last minute adjustments, but it worked.
ENJOY!
And look forward to many new exciting things coming in 2011, including our new album, and the fabled remix project featuring Count Bass D, Jneiro Jarel, and Tim Gane!
Eurocrime: being a synonym for the word Poliziotteschi…which we discussed here.
Here’s an interesting one. This recording finds us in the early stages of a new show we’re working on, playing hard hitting Eurocrime covers mixed with music we recorded for the documentary Eurocrime. We play this music in front of scenes from Eurocrime films being projected on the wall behind us. The idea being to give an authentic 70’s Italian funk vibe that you can sometimes even dance to (whaaaa?)
For the projection, I had a DVD of Eurocrime movie trailers that ended up being slightly more extreme than I had intended. Tons of violence and sex. It added to the vibe, but the rape was unexpected. Glows is no fan of rape…so I’m gonna retool the footage for our next go round!
We got some good and interesting writeups, and over all the response was very positive. I can’t wait to get everything tighter and add more tunes.
We performed 2 extended suites of tunes. Here’s how they broke down:
Eurogroove #1=One Against Many (Glows), Mark il Poliziotto (S. Cipriani), Betrayal (Glows), La Via Della Droga (Goblin), Corsa Mortale (P. De Luca).
Eurogroove #2=Roma Violenta (De Angelis Brothers), J & B (Glows), Drug’s Theme (E. Simonetti, Goblin), Racket (Glows)
There will be more, and it will be glorious!
Also, check out Through a Glass Darkly in the second set. Scott Clark and I just started a duo and have been using our free section in this song to work out new ideas.
Enjoy.
7.26.10 Balliceaux, RVA
Set 1 (First Eurogroove Performance)
Set 2
2) Up and Down
3) Winterlight
5) Manhunt
6) Revolver
The first of two recent shows finds us back at Commercial Taphouse, playing for a full house and all warmed up after a long rehearsal earlier in the day. ENJOY!!!
And stay tuned, our show the next night will be online soon enough!
7.25.10 Commercial Taphouse, RVA
Set 1
1) Gary Glitter
2) The Silence
5) Manhunt
Set 2
1) I Crudeli
2) Winterlight
3) Nero
5) Up and Down
Our return to Commercial Taphouse went great. It was good to see Sean behind the bar again, and have a packed house to play for. We tried melding songs together in a different way for our first number, and it went great. It’s always fun to imagine these songs flowing together, and then having no idea what that would sound like until you’re actually doing it. At this point, the group is so comfortable with the material, that it’s fun to add some creative challenge to the usual mix of song/improv. Nothing is perfect though, and in this case, we didn’t get the whole second set recorded, but what we did get came out sounding good. We even played a new tune called The Boss, inspired by the Fernando Di Leo movie of the same name, though only the first few minutes got recorded. Enjoy!
6.27.10 Commercial Taphouse, RVA
Set 1
1) Revolver>Across the Roof>The Silence
2) One Armed Swordsman>Halloween>One Armed Swordsman
3) Manhunt
4) Winterlight
5) Up and Down
Set 2
Glowing Realm 
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