Virginia is for Lavas

I have a hard time describing something that I really like – I have an easier time describing what I don’t like but that isn’t what this blog is about. It is about sharing what we really like --> love. And I really adore --> love Hot Lava. I could describe their music with standard indie-flavored nomenclature because, face it, we humans love to catalogue and classify [read: pigeonhole]. I could say that their music is sometimes “twee” with enough prerequisite fuzziness to call it “lo-fi”. Or, if I were to use art or literary speak, I would probably say that it was lyrically fraught with “flights of the imagination” and is tonally “polychromatic”. More simply, at its fundamental nature, Hot Lava is clever and apt feel-good pop music. Some would argue that not every song is lyrically in the “feel-good” category but, even at its most somber, it is dynamic. Lavalogy [Bar/None, 2008] is a fiery, volcanic oozing album of pop goodness with the whipped-cream-cherry-on-top vocal timbre of Allison Apperson.

Even though they are finishing up their follow-up album [tentatively called “Iceland”], Hot Lava is playing a “farewell” show this Saturday evening at Strange Matter in Richmond, VA. But since Hot Lava has had an ever-changing line up from the start, always with Allison as the nucleus, it seems that “they” will be back! Whether or not it will be a re-configured Hot Lava, Allison tells us that “I plan to carry on the torch after this round of Lava ends. Not right away because this group of folks were by far the best team ever. But if I’m playing guitar and singing, the project will always be Hot Lava.” She says that their next release will be “out in early 2011” and that, while she has written a lot of the songs, “Jared [Sosa] and I collaborate a lot and he writes some songs, too. We write together a lot.”

Here are a few tracks from Lavalogy, courtesy of the band.

Hot Lava - Apple+Option+Fire [mp3]

Hot Lava - Iggy [mp3]

Hot Lava - JPG in the Sun [mp3]

I asked Allison about some of her favorite singers. She recommends Mariska Veres, Jennifer Moore from YellowFever and Paige Hodges from the Sad Cobras. Hot Lava shares the bill, this Saturday, June 19th at Strange Matter, with two of their favorite Virginia bands Eternal Summers and the Sad Cobras along with Brooklyn-based Family Trees.

Further links:

Buy Lavalogy on I-Tunes

Hot Lava on MySpace or Hot Lava Official Site

Bar/None Records