Backstage with ...
Groove Town Alliance
 
From Virginia Beach
They play alternative funk-rock
See them 7 p.m. Saturday at Shaka's, 2014 Atlantic Ave., Virginia Beach. $5. 227-7153
Virginia Beach’s Groove Town Alliance knows playing gigs will get its tunes out locally, but what the four-member funk-rock band really wants is a music licensing deal.

from Chesapeake
they play ... Alt-rock
see them  7 p.m. Friday at The NorVa, 317 Monticello Ave., Norfolk. $10. (800) 745-3000.
Website www.facebook.com/andrband
A New Day Rising, which took its name from a lyric in the Foo Fighter’s song “Times Like These,” will play its fourth show at The NorVa in Norfolk on Friday.

Backstage with ... Galaxy Dynamite From Norfolk They play “I feel if you wanted to put our genre in the simplest of terms, it would be electric groove,” said drummer Mike Mahgerefteh.

From Norfolk

They play Alternative rock

Website www.thekillcircuit.com
 
This alternative rock trio, which formed last year, has released a four-song EP of original music and recently filmed an episode of Cox Channel 11’s "Soundcheck."

Backstage with ... Knuckle From Virginia Beach Playing a mix of rock, blues, funk and reggae, the band will headline its second show at The NorVa on Friday. The lineup will also feature local bands Foreplay, Malt Liquor Sundae and The Remedy.

Backstage with ...

Uglyography

Matt Thomas blames his horrible handwriting and his tendency to look up odd words on the Internet for the name Uglyography. "I came across the word and thought to myself, ‘For anyone that has ever tried to read my handwriting, this would make a good band name,’ " he said.

Rapper Kap Rizzy, whose birth name is Nathaniel Brown, grew up in the Tidewater Park area of Norfolk. "I didn't get a chance to do a childhood because I had a lot of responsibilities in front of me," he said.

The three members of  The Difference were playing with other worship bands when they met. When those groups fizzled, drummer and vocalist Thomas Guglielmo of Poquoson,  guitarist and lead vocalist Ryan Mekkes of Norfolk and bassist Josh Jones of Chesapeake  got together in January and started writing songs.

Base of operations Virginia Beach
Style of music Alternative rock
Bio On Tuesday, The Influence will release "Falling Objects" on its independent label, Flying Eye Records. It's a follow-up to 2007's "Pig Radio." Drummer Collin Cogan said the band decided to search outside of Hampton Roads for a producer and found Raleigh, N.C.-based Ted Comerford.

Base of operations  Virginia Beach Style of music  Classic and modern rock Bio  Last November  when four teenagers came together to form mOceans (pronounced motions), they never thought they would get regular requests for Def Leppard’s “Pour Some Sugar on Me.”