Commonwealth A-Go-Go: Virginia Coalition

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VIRGINIA COALITION'S LATEST album might be titled "Home This Year," but it has less to do with the Alexandria-based band's home than you might assume. The group actually recorded its sixth studio album all the way across the country — in California.

"Well honestly, there is no way to record an album, in my opinion, at home because your life goes on the same and you can't lose yourself," singer Andrew Poliakoff said. "It's really like taking a trip — going on an adventure ... The s--t we were coming up with at home when we were working on it was just not that good. We needed to go out and be alone."

It was a bit like starting over for Virginia Coalition, which recorded its first album, "The Colors of Sound" in Atlanta in 1998. Since then, the trio had recorded closer to home.

"We all just drove down to Atlanta, sequestered ourselves and did it," he said. "Life gets in the way when you're at home."

But the band is back home now and ready to start the summer off right, with 94.7 The Globe's Summer Shindig at Jammin' Java in Vienna tonight. The sold-out bash also features South Carolina's NEEDTOBREATHE and surf songstress Tristan Prettyman.

Poliakoff said it's a thrill to hear his band's single, "Sing Along," hitting the airwaves on 94.7.

"It's hard to put into word the level of excitement you feel after being a musician for almost a decade and you turn on the radio in your hometown and you hear your song on," he said. "You feel a bit like you got to the top of Everest."

Surprisingly, Virginia Coalition has never played at Jammin' Java before, which makes their stop at the intimate Vienna coffeehouse a special gig for them.

"I think we're going to make use of it," Poliakoff said of the venue. "I don't know how otherwise, other than emotionally. We'll be wearing pants, we'll be dressed normally," he added with a laugh.

The show also serves as a chance for fans to check out VaCo's new sound, which was ushered in with the March release of "Home This Year." The band decided to ditch the more funky, percussion-heavy go-go sounds of its youth to craft songs that stood alone.

"Over the past seven or eight years we've been touring and touring and touring and it became — we'd sit there as a group and we'd be like, 'How are we going to translate [new songs] to stage?'" Poliakoff said. "That was instantly the first application we were considering. I think we just got rung out on that. We wanted to try something different.

"It's fun to get up there with percussion instruments and go bananas, but after a while ... for some reason ... we kind of just wanted to say something more," he continued. "We had a lot more to say about how important life is and love and relationships and pain and suffering to look positively behind that and say that it's not just some giant s--tstorm that's hitting everyone over the head and you can't really say that over a conga."

Poliakoff also cited age as a factor for the band's transition to more simplistic, folksy songs.

"We got a bit older and we said, 'Let's write songs, who gives a f--- how we're going to play the songs,'" he said. "We wanted to write well-crafted songs that really speak to us as a people and a group, not just live."

Poliakoff said overall fan reaction to the new songs has been "amazing," he admitted there are people who ask, "Where's the go-go?" While Virginia Coalition still plays a number of the old songs in concert, "Home This Year" is at the forefront, Poliakoff said.

According to Poliakoff, this new style is here to stay.

"We kind of traded in our percussion for no-nonsense three-part harmonies" he said. "We pretty much drew a line in the sand, drove the harmonies up to the garage, opened the door, took the old car out and parked the harmonies. We're not going back."

» Jammin' Java, 227 Maple Ave. E., Vienna; Wed., 8 p.m., sold out; 703-255-1588.

Written by Express contributor Rudi Greenberg

Photos courtesy Virginia Coalition