Lincoln Calling line-up locked in; on family trees; a brief NYC hiatus, and while I’m gone…

Category: Blog — @ 5:06 pm September 3, 2009

Jeremy Buckley, the organizer of the annual Lincoln Calling Festival which runs Sept. 30 through Oct. 5 at seven Lincoln venues, has posted the line-up in Facebook right here. We’re talking about 106 bands at 35 shows.

More LC news: This year they’re offering an all-access pass that gets you into every show for just $20, but it’s a limited-time offer. The $20 price only lasts through Saturday. After that, the all-access pass is $25 through Sept. 12, and then $30 after that. If you live in Lincoln, you can buy a pass at Kinetic Brew inside the Bourbon Theatre, 1415 O St. If you live in Omaha (or presumably anywhere else) you can buy one online at e-tix, right here.

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Lot of chatter about The Omaha World-Herald‘s official Omaha Music Scene Family Tree, which ran on the front of the paper’s poorly named ETA section in the Sunday edition. You can read it online here. The problem, of course, is that the “tree” (which isn’t a tree at all) focused almost solely on Saddle Creek Records’ artists and businesses, and neglected to mention the hundreds of other musicians and entities that are at the core of the Omaha music scene. As you can imagine, all of those who were left out are a bit miffed. The OWH is the newspaper of record, after all, so its declaration of what comprises the Omaha music scene will be viewed as creed by readers who know nothing about it (which, it would be safe to say, is about 99 percent of the paper’s subscribers).

As I say in this thread on the webboard, perhaps a better name for the chart would have been “Six Degrees of Saddle Creek,” a play on Six Degrees of Separation and Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.

In his defense, Coffey did provide this disclaimer: “Omaha’s music scene involves more people, bands and venues than could possibly fit on this page. This chart covers the big names, but some items inevitably got left out.” But that, apparently, isn’t going to be enough to satisfy all those with hurt feelings.

My take on all of this: Everyone needs to suck it up and cut Coffey some slack. The guy is doing things at the OWH that I never thought were possible. Somehow he’s managed to break the OWH of the mindset that the only thing worth covering are American Idol-quality Qwest Center acts. I always marveled at how his predecessors — Christine Laue and Niz Proskocil — gutted out all those Nickelback and Taylor Dane concerts only to have to go back to the office and write reviews that didn’t blow them out of the water.

The OWH sent Coffey to Lollapalooza for godsake, and Coffey has even managed to get the OWH to acknowledge there is an internet outside of Omaha.com. Unlike so many other national newspapers and media outlets, Coffey is allowed to have both a Twitter feed (here) and a blog (here) that are not owned or operated by the OWH. That’s groundbreaking. And on top of that, it’s good reading. Here’s hoping that he can keep the momentum going and that the powers that be at OWH don’t rope him back into their odorless, colorless, flavorless stable.

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Well, it’s that time of year again when I head to NYC for some rest and relaxation (and as always, if you have any suggestions for must-see or must-eat places in NYC, send them to me). As such, Lazy-i will be on hiatus for the next few days. Judging by the venue calendars, I picked the right weekend to skip town. Here’s what I see worth checking out in my absence:

Little Black Stereo, maybe the most lauded band in the Omaha scene that I have yet to see perform live, is having its CD release show at The Waiting Room Friday night with Shiver Shiver, It’s True and Another Holiday. $6, 9 p.m.

Also Friday night, Little Brazil is playing at O’Leaver’s with Digital Leather and Cloven Path (Hey, didn’t they break up?). $5, 9:30 p.m.

While down at Slowdown Jr., Omaha’s latest supergroup, Our Fox, is playing a show with Outlaw Con Banana and Dim Light, and it’s FREE.

After that, it’s looking mighty thin.

I may or may not provide dispatches from Gothem while I’m gone, but I will be updating the ol’ Twitter feed (follow me). Have a good holiday weekend.

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Lazy-i