There hasn’t been much to talk about music-wise, however Craig Dee at fabulous O’Leaver’s IM’d to say Neva Dinova will be playing at the club this-coming Sunday afternoon/evening (Jan. 21) with Sean Pratt and Jess Price of Doom Flower/Campdogzz.
Price was on that smoking Dec. 14 bill at Reverb Lounge (that also included Marcey Yates), so if you missed that show, here’s another chance to catch Jake and Co., along with a solo set by Jess Price. I’m told Neva has been in town since that December show holed up in Make Believe studio working on a new album, and that Jake flies back to LA next Monday. Sean Pratt also has been recording new material, which you’ll likely hear Sunday afternoon. The O’Leaver’s gig starts at 5 p.m. $15.
Has O’Leaver’s turned the rock machine back on? They also just added a concert with Rosali (backed by David Nance and Mowed Sound), April 20.
It being the dead of winter in Omaha, there hasn’t been many other touring indie shows booked, though a couple more have been announced. Here’s your Omaha touring indie rock calendar through spring:
— Jan. 21 – Neva Dinova, Jess Price at O’Leaver’s
— Jan. 21 – Squirrel Flower, Goon, The Dirts at Reverb
— Feb. 1 – MX Lonely at Blindspot
— Feb. 16 – David Nance and Mowed Sound LP release at Reverb
— Feb. 17 – Matthew Sweet at Waiting Room
— Feb. 19 – Yo La Tengo at Waiting Room
— Feb. 24 – Porno for Pyros at The Astro
— Feb. 29 – Katy Kirby at Reverb
— March 6 – Jenny Lewis at The Admiral
— March 18 – Color Green at Reverb
— March 22 – Sun June, Wild Pink at Reverb
— April 20 – Rosali at O’Leaver’s
— April 24 – Sheer Mag at Reverb
Missing from the above list – any touring indie shows at The Slowdown… what’s going on there?
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Lazy-i Best of 2023 compilation CD.
I’m closing the books on 2023, which means this is your last chance to claim a copy of the Lazy-i Best of 2023 Compilation CD. If you want one (they’re free), drop me a line with your mailing address and I’ll mail one to you. It includes music from Genesis Owusu, Slowdive, Blondshell, Neva Dinova, Boygenius, Lewsberg, Lana Del Rey, Bad Bad Men, Palehound and more. You can also listen to the playlist at Spotify from this link or search “Tim McMahan” in Spotify, then select “Profiles,” then “Public Playlists.” You’ll find it along with a few from past years.
Considering what’s going on outside right now, you can’t blame local music venues for not booking a whole lot of shows in the dead of winter. Very few people are going to venture out into this Arctic hell to see a rock band. And god help any band traveling on the interstates.
Anyway, there is a show happening tonight — Omaha-based indie alt-country band Clarence Tilton headlines at Slowdown Jr. The band has been pretty active over the past months and even recently hired a publicist, so something must be up. They’re my favorite country band from Nebraska. The elusive B.B. Sledge opens this show. I say “elusive” because I’ve been meaning to catch their set most of last year and have missed them for one reason or another. The band includes Daniel Knapp of Son, Ambulance fame (Joe’s brother).
Tonight’s Clarence Tilton show has wisely been postponed until March 2. If you’re going out this weekend, you may want to call ahead or check the venue’s socials to make sure whatever it is you are planning to do is still happening.
It’s an 8 p.m. show, so by then the streets could be cleaned up and drivable (though it’ll still be 20-below-zero windchill). $15.
That is all I got. If I missed your show, put it in the comments. Stay warm and have a great weekend…
North Carolina’s Rosali Middleman – a.k.a. Rosali – has sort of become an ex-officio Omahan this past year, having recorded her just-announced album, Bite Down, with a shit-ton of Omahans. In fact, most of David Nance’s band, Mowed Sound, is Rosali’s backing band.
The new album, out March 22 on Merge Records, is a collaboration with Nance, guitarist James Schroeder, and drummer Kevin Donahue, who also worked on her 2021 album, No Medium.
Bite Down was engineered by the esteemed JJ Idt and Schroeder (with Alex Bingham) and produced by Schroeder and Rosali. Among the special guests on the record are Omaha natives Stephen Bartolomei, Phil Schaffart, Matt Carroll & Sara Bertuldo (See Through Dresses), Daniel Knapp (Son, Ambulance, BB Sledge), Karen Pietsch and Margot Erlandson. Non-Omahan Ted Bois handles keys and is member of Dan Bejar’s Destroyer.
In fact, you might have seen Rosali and Mowed Sound open for Destroyer at The Waiting Room back in April 2022. Bejar, it seems, is a big fan of both Rosali and her new album. From the press release:
“Bite Down makes me think about singers and bands that throw themselves hard into the storm, the way the Rosali quartet does. The calm of her voice over top of the band’s raging—it is the emblem of songs that live to put themselves in harm’s way. But it’s not harm. It’s just that you have to play hard to get at these goods. The calm of Rosali’s voice, the straight talk of her inner search vs. the wildness of the band, the sonic storm she rides in on. That’s their sound.
“The Mowed Sound. It’s hard to talk about these last couple Rosali albums without talking about them. They play free and wild and relentlessly melodious. They rip and create space and fill it up with what seems like reckless abandon, but listen carefully or listen for a while and you’ll find them paying real close attention to each other and exactly what the song demands. – Dan Bejar
Check out the video of the album’s first single, “Rewind,” below that features special guest appearances by Nance, Schroeder and Donahue.
Rosali also announced a North American tour that kicks off March 19 in Denver (March dates support Mary Timony (Helium, Ex-Hex)) and wraps up April 20 at O’Leaver’s. You can pre-order the album from Rosali’s Bandcamp page.
Mike Jaworski, a.k.a. Jaws by those who know him, emailed last week saying his current project – SAVAK — has a new album coming out called Flavors of Paradise on Brooklyn label Ernest Jenning Record Co.
Those of you who were around the Omaha music scene back in the day remember Jaws from his bands Hong Gyn Corp, The Cops, Virgin Islands and Hello from Waveland, as well as his Seattle-based record label Mt. Fuji, which in addition to releasing albums by The Cops dropped records by Omaha indie band Little Brazil.
So yeah, Jaworski is something of a legend who hasn’t lived around here in ages, but is still remembered as an icon.
Anyway, SAVAK is a three piece indie rock band that also includes Sohrab Habibion (ex-Obits, ex-Edsel) and drummer Matt Schulz (ex-Holy Fuck). Joining them as part of the live version of SAVAK are indie rock veterans Jeff Gensterblum (Small Brown Bike, Her Heads on Fire) and Matt Hunter (New Radiant Storm King, Silver Jews).
The new record was recorded at Steve Albini’s Electrical Audio studio but without Albini and instead with Matthew Barnhart (Superchunk, Bob Mould). “No guests, no edits, no country and definitely no funk—the record is lean, spacious and lively,” says the press release. Undoubtably modern, the record also has some retro touches, among them the Byrds-like harmonies on “Let the Sunlight In” and the ‘70s acid guitar on “The New New Age.” It’s the most tuneful SAVAK album to date and a total gas.
The band will be playing around Brooklyn this spring and have a tour of France slated for April (ah, April in Paris), but no Omaha dates planned (SAVAK would be the perfect fit for the Outlandia Festival!). Preorder the album here.
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Tuesday appears to be the day when bands announce tours.
Ty Segall is headed back to Omaha May 7 for a gig at The Waiting Room. Yesterday he dropped the final pre-release single from his upcoming full-length, Three Bells, which will be released Jan. 26 on Drag City.
Portland’s STRFKR announced they’ll play at The Admiral Theater April 28. Their new album, Parallel Realms, drops on Polyvinyl March 1.
Indie darlings (and personal favorite) Waxahatchee announced their new album, Tigers Blood, drops March 22 on Anti-. They also announched a slew of 2024 tour dates. Their closest pass to Omaha will be the usual Kansas City, St. Paul, Chicago swing April 18-20. See you on the interstate.
Yesterday it was announced via their PR agency that David Nance’s next album, titled David Nance & Mowed Sound, will be released Feb. 9 on Jack White’s Third Man Records.
Nance’s relationship with White goes back at least to September 2018 when a member of White’s team reached out and asked if Nance would open for White at an outdoor gig at ONEOK Field in Tulsa, according to this interview. A year later, Third Man released a 7-inch by David Nance Group, “Meanwhile” b/w “Credit Line”. I guess ol’ Jack liked what he heard.
From yesterday’s press release:
“Led by Nance on vocals and guitar alongside Kevin Donahue on drums, James Schroeder on guitar, Derrick Higgins and Sam Lipsett on bass, alongside guest appearances from Megan Siebe, Skye Junginger, and Pearl LoveJoy Boyd, Nance brings together a crew of veteran Omaha musicians for a record that showcases Nance’s voracious appetite for anything that rocks, anything that soothes, and all the glorious static and disturbed transmissions in between. ‘The whole album is a big magic trick,’ Nance says, ‘most of these songs were written as country songs and then were perverted into different forms…but it sure as shit isn’t a country record.’”
No, it’s definitely not C&W. Folks who saw David Nance & Mowed Sound open for Icky Blossoms Dec. 26 at The Waiting Room likely got a sneak preview of some of the new material, which, as I mentioned in the show review, sounded like a midwestern version of Robbie Robertson and The Band. Listen to the first single, “Mock the Hours,” embedded below. You can pre-order the album from the Bandcamp page, which, strangely enough, has Nance’s own Western Records logo on the header (but includes a link back to the Third Man Records site).
The album’s track listing includes yet another version of “Credit Line” — this will mark the third recorded version of the song that I’m aware of, and hopefully resembles the gritty, rock version they played at Petfest back in ’22.
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There are no indie shows to speak of this weekend. It’s as simple as that.
However, in perusing my Instagram feed this week, I discovered that New York-based heavy shoegaze band MX Lonely will be playing at the mysterious, illusive, new all-ages punk venue The Blindspot Feb. 1.
It took some serious internet digging to find out anything about the band, but I finally found this article on Post-punk.com that said MX Lonely was formed in November 2021 by Rae Haas and Jake Harms (ex-HARMS), initially as a home recording project. In November 2020 Haas began collaborating with fellow Brooklyn multi-instrumentalists, Gabe Garman and Chris Curtin. The article’s author, Alice Teeple, said thier music sounds like “a mix of Deftones, Hotline TNT, Preoccupations, Nothing, Cloakroom, and a few Frank Black screams for good measure,” which is pretty straight on. Hear for yourself.
Anyway, stick a pin in Feb. 1 for this show. Opening is Omaha underground buzz bands Western Haikus and Cupholder. The Blindspot used to be one of those places that didn’t list their address, however their latest posts on Instagram show the addy as 619 So. 20th St. $10, 7:30 p.m. Considering my age, I’m going to have to go in disguise…
Last year, the first touring indie rock show I attended was Lala Lala and Minne Lussa at Slowdown Jr. on March 12. So, basically, no rock shows after the holidays until spring. Despite Omaha having added two state-of-the-art live music venues, things won’t be much different this year.
It’s just a fact that we get very few indie shows in the winter months, and I can’t say I blame the venues, who know people are less likely to go out to shows when it’s below-zero outside. Plus, bands don’t want to be driving around the country in the snow. I get it.
Still, there are a couple indie shows worth noting in the next few months, but not at Steelhouse Omaha (only seven shows total booked through the end of February, three of which are comedians), or The Astro (four shows booked leading up to March, including Porno for Pyros Feb. 24).
Here’s your touring indie rock calendar through spring:
– Jan. 11 – Big Head Todd and the Monsters at The Slowdown
– Jan. 21 – Squirrel Flower, Goon, The Dirts at Reverb
– Feb. 17 – Matthew Sweet at The Waiting Room
– Feb. 19 – Yo La Tengo at The Waiting Room
– Feb. 24 – Porno for Pyros at The Astro
– Feb. 29 – Katy Kirby at Reverb Lounge
– March 6 – Jenny Lewis at The Admiral
Throw in a couple local shows no doubt more shows will be added (probably) — slim pickings, but it looks better than last winter.
To give you context, Minneapolis’ First Avenue/7th St. Entry indie rock calendar doesn’t look much better. Of note, they also have Indigo De Souza Feb. 14, Militarie Gun and Cold War Kids Feb. 24, and Silversun Pickups Feb. 25. In fact, by comparison, Omaha has a better winter calendar, IMHO…
Happy 2024. If you wisely stayed away from social media and your usual online haunts during your holiday break, bravo!
You missed nothing. Really. What you might have missed are the end-of-year articles at Lazy-i.com. And that’s fine. You can catch up now. Here are the links:
There are still copies of the 2023 Best of Comp CD available. If you want one (they’re free), drop me a line at tim.mcmahan@gmail.com with your mailing address and I’ll drop one in the mail for you. It includes music from Genesis Owusu, Slowdive, Blondshell, Neva Dinova, Boygenius, Lewsberg, Lana Del Rey, Bad Bad Men, Palehound and more. You can also listen to the playlist at Spotify from this link or search “Tim McMahan” in Spotify, then select Profiles, then Public Playlists. You’ll find it along with a few from past years.
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Tonight, the first indie rock show of the year is at The Slowdown. Laura Jane Grace is, as we all know, the front person of indie/emo act Against Me! but also has been playing out as a solo performer since before releasing her 2018 debut, Bought to Rot, on Red Scare Records. These days Grace releases music on Polyvinyl Records, the latest EP being 2021’s At War With the Silverfish.
Joining Grace tonight is Mya Byrne, former member of the roots rock band The Ramblers. She’s maintained that twang on her latest album, Rhinestone Tomboy (2023, Kill Rock Stars Nashville). Omaha’s own Glow opens at 8 p.m. $32.
This is the first indie rock show of the year, and also the last touring indie rock show until Squirrel Flower plays at Reverb Jan. 21 (and what looks like the last touring indie show at The Slowdown until May!). Get it in while you can, it’s going to be a long, cold winter…
Some call it a trip into the supernatural, others say it’s divine intervention… I merely know it as my annual predictions column! It is here that I look into my magical Fender Squire Strat and see the future of Omaha’s — and the nation’s — indie music scenes. Ah, but before we get to 2024, let’s see how I did with my predictions for 2023:
2023 Prediction: For a majority of young indie music acts, recording and releasing entire albums is costly and almost always a money loser. Beginning this year, we’ll begin to see a new focus on bands (and labels) promoting individual tracks rather than full albums.
Reality: Billboard would have you believe that albums are stronger than ever, based on acts like Zach Bryan and Taylor Swift. Fine. But for indie artists, things haven’t changed. Furthermore, the rise in vinyl sales (up 51% in 2021) has more to do with collecting than music listening. Music data company Luminate reported that 50% of LP buyers don’t have a turntable.
2023 Prediction: With inflation through the roof and the erosion of album revenues, touring also has become a money-losing proposition for new bands. Watch as more artists cancel tours stating the current tour model is not sustainable.
Reality: Animal Collective was among those who cancelled a tour this past year, calling touring “an economic reality that simply does not work and is not sustainable.” The answer, for huge artists, is to simply ratchet up ticket prices. It’s sad when the Wall Street Journal publishes articles with tips on ways to afford concert tickets, including getting a second job or opening high-yield savings accounts.
2023 Prediction: Big music festivals and national indie tours will be dominated almost solely by legacy bands in ’23 — acts whose heydays were one, two, even three decades ago.
Reality: Huge fests, like Pitchforkfest, were still headlined by modern acts like The Smile, Bon Iver and Big Thief, who also headlined this year’s Maha Music Festival. That said, so far bookings at Omaha’s newest large venues – Steelhouse, The Admiral and The Astro — have been dominated by legacy acts.
2023 Prediction: Also in the bummer category, despite the vinyl explosion, downtown Omaha will not be able to sustain so many record stores. Watch as one of them closes its doors in ’23.
Reality: Ending a tradition that began in 1982, Drastic Plastic’s Vinyl Lounge, located above The Monster Club in the Old Market, closed shop in February.
2023 Prediction: In a shrewd money-making move, a number of large local stages once known for hosting indie rock shows will begin booking full weekends of cover bands, Ranch Bowl-style.
Reality: Cover acts and tribute bands continued to be popular bookings on stages that used to be dedicated to indie rock shows. In fact, as the year came to a close, The Slowdown’s calendar was almost solely dedicated a Beatles tribute act.
2023 Prediction: Omaha Performing Arts’ new Steelhouse music venue will open in May. Booked by Live Nation, it won’t be afraid to take chances (partially because it’s a funded nonprofit) and will pump new life into Omaha’s waning indie music scene.
Reality: So far, Steelhouse’s bookings have been anything but risky, focusing mostly on legacy projects and targeting sell-out crowds rather than taking chances booking large touring indie performers.
2023 Prediction: The Maha Music Festival will make a huge announcement after it enjoys yet another successful year in 2023.
Reality: Months after its (mostly) successful 2023 festival, Maha announced a move from Stinson Park at Aksarben Village to the new Riverfront Park in downtown Omaha for its 2024 two-day festival.
2023 Prediction: Meanwhile, Outlandia Festival will be bigger and better in Year 2, adding on-site camping and a broader array of artists, including new breakthrough indie acts.
Reality: Outlandia had another successful year, and indeed added camping to its festival offerings. And while their headliners were older acts (Lord Huron, Modest Mouse, Jimmy Eat World) they also booked cutting-edge indie acts Horsegirl and folk monster Gregory Alan Isakov.
2023 Prediction: Does Omaha have room for a third music festival? You better believe it. Watch for the announcement.
Reality: Does Nebraska Crossroads Music Festival, launched downtown last year, count?
2023 Prediction: The band with the longest-running original lineup, U2, will finally come to an end.
Reality: U2 enjoyed a lengthy residency at Las Vegas’ eye-popping Sphere at The Venetian Resort. I’d still rather see them play at Red Rocks.
2023 Prediction: Bands we’ll be talking about this time next year: David Nance, Lewsberg, Phoebe Bridgers (again), The Faint, Courtney Barnett, The Smiths, Parquet Courts, Hand Habits, Orville Peck, Matt Whipkey, Cactus Nerve Thang, Icky Blossoms and Car Seat Headrest.
Reality: Almost all enjoyed new albums and tours in 2023, with the exception of The Smiths (though Morrissey and Johnny Marr remained very active) and Cactus Nerve Thang (Let’s do it in 2024!).
2023 Prediction: A huge movie crew will arrive in River City in ’23 and begin filming a Netflix/Amazon/Hulu docu-drama series about the music scene during the early 2000s.
Reality: Not this year, but it’s only a matter of time.
Final score: 9 out of 12 – impressive (if I do say so myself). So what about 2024? Hold onto your hats…
2024 Prediction: Spurred on by the successes of unions and other organized workforce movements, musicians – both indie and otherwise – will address how criminally low streaming revenues has made musician’s lives unsustainable. Next year musicians will finally organize to force streamers to pay up, but success will depend on the most successful performers willingness to take a financial hit.
Prediction: Musicians also will take on a unionized approach toward live music, resulting in better income streams for touring indie artists and those who support them. However, it’ll also mean even higher ticket prices for the rest of us. Are you willing to pay top dollar for the music you love?
Prediction: That’s not all. Musicians will come up with innovative ways to package merch to increase revenue. Leveraging the collectors’ market, bands (and labels ) will start packaging T-shirts and other non-music-related items with their vinyl releases. Are trading cards in their future?
Prediction: Its location won’t be the only thing different about the 2024 Maha Music Festival. To draw larger audiences to the larger Riverfront concert space, Maha will begin to more aggressively stray from the indie-focused line-ups that characterized past festivals. Also look for a revised dedication toward local music and the city’s music history.
Prediction: Not to be outdone by Maha, Outlandia will continue to become bigger and better, expanding to a three-day festival – Friday-Saturday-Sunday.
Prediction: With all these new music venues, the expansion of local festivals, and the continued growth of entertainment districts, businesses will be desperate for advertising outlets with the loss of The Reader (and the inevitable shuttering of the Omaha World-Herald). A new publication will emerge in ’24 focused on art, entertainment and dining, which will even include a (very limited) print edition.
Prediction: Entering their first full year of operation, The Astro Theater will battle head-to-head with Steelhouse Omaha for the exact same music-loving audience. It’s the monstrous Live Nation (who books Steelhouse) versus the combined might of One Percent and Mammoth Productions (who book The Astro). Because this town ain’t big enough for the two of them.
Prediction: As if we didn’t already have enough music venues, next year watch for an announcement of the creation of a brand new high-dollar music venue to be located in the heart of Omaha, catering to a youth market.
Prediction: Despite the closing of Omaha’s most prestigious jazz club — The Jewell — having gone almost unnoticed last year, an entrepreneur will team with an out-of-town company to open a new jazz-focused music venue that will act as an extension of Kansas City’s successful jazz scene. Omaha will finally have its first modern-day, successful jazz club.
Prediction: Is there a merger in Saddle Creek Records’ future?
Prediction: Following the current trend, the number of local indie-rock bands will sadly continue to decline. Watch as metal and hardcore bands fill the void thanks to support from new all-ages clubs like The Blind Spot in Omaha and The Swamp in Lincoln and rise in bookings of national touring punk/metal bands. Omaha’s future sounds loud… and dissonant.
Prediction: It’s not all bad news for local indie: The result both of indie music’s national dominance by women singer/songwriters and years of hard work by the Omaha Girls Rock organization, watch as a number of new female singer/songwriters emerge next year from our scene to receive national attention. It’s about time.
Prediction: Other performers we’ll be talking about this time next year: Low, David Nance, HAIM, Spoon, Alvvays, Desaparecidos, The Faint, Wet Leg, Talking Heads, Waxahatchee, Vampire Weekend, Neva Dinova, The Strokes, Interpol and Cactus Nerve Thang (again).
Prediction: We’ll find out whatever happened to Eric Clapton.
Prediction: A local music journalist will finally begin writing his long-awaited history of the Omaha music scene circa 1993-present. Ah, but who will be the publisher?…
Prediction: Conor Obest won’t appear on Saturday Night Live but will appear on another prime-time TV show — masked or unmasked….
So here it is again, the Lazy-i Best of 2023 compilation CD. I’ve been putting this comp together since 1994, originally on cassette. It’s a collection of favorite tracks I’ve come across during my work as a critic-at-large for Lazy-i.com and the aforementioned, now-defunct, Reader. The CD is mailed to friends and associates as a sort of year-end holiday card that’s also an audio time capsule (and collector’s item!).
Got a CD player? This year, I’m sending a liminted number of copies to anyone who asks, while supplies last (and there ain’t many). Just send me your mailing address via email to tim.mcmahan@gmail.com.
Here’s the track list:
Genesis Owusu, “Leaving the Light” from the album STRUGGLER (AWAL)
Sextile, “Contortion” from the album Push (Sacred Bones)
noname, “Namesake” from the album Sundial (self-released)
Slowdive, “Kisses,” from the album Everything is Alive (Dead Oceans)
M83, “Amnesia,” from the album Fantasy (Mute)
Yo La Tengo, “Aselestine” from the album This Stupid World(Matador)
Hotline TNT, “I Thought You’d Change” from the album Cartwheel (Third Man)
boygenius, “Cool About It,” from the album The Record(Interscope)
Blondshell, “Joiner” from the album Blondshell (Partisan)
Lloyd Cole, “Warm by the Fire,” from the album On Pain (Edel Music)
Neva Dinova, “Outside,” single (Saddle Creek)
Slow Pulp, “Broadview” from the album Yard (ANTI-)
Palehound, “Eye on the Bat” from the album Eye on the Bat (Polyvinyl)
Pardoner, “Get Inside!” from the album Peace Loving People(Bar/None)
Lewsberg, “Communion,” single (12XU)
Water from Your Eyes, “Out There (The Dare Version)” from Crushed by Everyone (Matador)
Bad Bad Men, “No Thanks” from the album Messed Up(SPEED! Nebraska)
Model/Actriz, “Mosquito” from the album Dogsbody (True Panther)
Lana Del Rey, “Let the Light In” from the album Did you know there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd (Interscope)
Mitch Gettman, “Empire” from the album Tilde (self released)
Bright Eyes, “Christmas in Prison” single featuring John Prine (Oh Boy)
The playlist also is available in Spotify. Simply click this link or search “Tim McMahan” in Spotify, then select Profiles, then Public Playlists. You’ll find it along with a few from past years.
But wait, there’s more. As I said, I’ve been putting this comp together since ’94, so I figured why not (for Throw Back Thursday’s sake) post the playlist from the Lazy-i Best of 2003 comp CD? That was 20 years ago. It was a different world for sure. Omaha’s indie music scene had just begun to capture national attention, and almost all the bands on this comp played at Sokol Underground.
Here’s the track list:
Guster — “Keep It Together” from Keep It Together on Warner Bros.
The Jayhawks — “Save It for a Rainy Day ” from Rainy Day Music on American Recordings.
Yo La Tengo — “Moonrock Mambo” from Summer Sun released by Matador.
Criteria — “Play on Words” from En Garde released by Initial.
The Rapture — “I Need Your Love” from Echoes released by Strummer / Universal.
Steely Dan — “Things I Miss the Most” from Everything Must Go on Warner/Reprise.
Crooked Fingers — “Big Darkness” from Red Devil Dawn, released on Warm Records.
Death in Vegas — “Girls” from the soundtrack to the motion picture Lost in Translation, released on Emperor Norton.
Consonant — “Night for Love” from Love and Affliction released on Fenway Records.
Guided by Voices — “The Best of Jill Hives ” from Earthquake Glue released by Matador Records.
Liam Lynch — “SOS” from Fake Songs, released by S-curve Records.
The Kingdom Flying Club — “Artists Are Boring ” from Non-fiction released by Emergency Umbrella Records.
Okkervil River — “Blanket and Crib” from Down the River of Golden Dreams on Jagjaguwar Records.
The Postal Service — “The District Sleeps Alone Tonight” from Give Up on Sub Pop Records.
Atom & His Package — “Lying to You” from Attention! Blah Blah Blah released on Hopeless Records.
Enon — “The Power of Yawning” from Hocus-Pocus, released by Touch and Go Records.
The Shins — “Turn a Square,” from Chutes Too Narrow on Sub Pop Records.
Sun Kil Moon — “Lily and Parrots” from Ghosts of the Great Highway, released on Jetset.
The Pernice Brothers — “Baby in Two” from Yours, Mine & Ours, on Ashmont Records.
The Twilight Singers — “Martin Eden” from Blackberry Belle, released on Badman.
I stil have a few copies of this one in the basement. The good news is as of today, the playlist also is available in Spotify. Simply click this link or search “Tim McMahan” in Spotify, then select Profiles, then Public Playlists. Take a trip back in time!
An observation about the crowd at last night’s “day-after-Christmas” concert featuring Icky Blossoms (and friends) that someone else made, which, on hindsight, seems particularly relevant: Other than ourselves and a couple folks who were with us, there were no familiar faces in the sold-out-sized crowd jammed on the floor of The Waiting Room. Demographically, the audience was young for a band that hasn’t released any new music in almost a decade (eight years since Mask, to be exact) and whose early single (the bouncy “Babes”) was released in 2012. Yet despite this, the crowd was mainly filled with anonymous 20-somethings (other than us) there to get their dance on. These Christmas concerts usually feel like millennial wedding receptions populated with the usual group of music-scene hipsters who grew up listening to the same records from the Saddle Creek label (either their own copies or their older brothers’ or sisters’ copies). This, it seemed, would be a good thing, — a reflection that the band’s audience is rotating a new generation of listeners, perhaps driven by recent song placements in video games (see Sunday’s blog entry) or (more unlikely) the after-effect of Icky Blossoms having performed at this summer’s Maha Music Festival. Either way… hope for the future?
We arrived just as PROBLEMS (a.k.a. Darren Keen) was finishing his set and the place was already jam packed. There was Darren on stage behind his synth equipment riding herd over a flock of gyrating dancers.
David Nance and Pearl Lovejoy Boyd at The Waiting Room, Dec. 26, 2023.
I grabbed my Rolling Rock and we pushed through the crowd toward the front just a David Nance and his band began their set. I’ve always been a Nance fanboy back to his Actor’s Diary (2013, Grapefruit Records) days, having watched him go from a noise collage artist through psych rock, garage rock to what he’s doing now, which resembles something that Robbie Robertson and The Band might have played during their Scorsese-filmed heydays. Nance has a crisp, golden voice with just the right amount of wheeze to give it the soul needed to power these Midwest blues-rock nuggets.
Top of the list was an uptempo rock number about “taking the covers off” with someone, which was a new one on me, and, a more laid-back-than-usual version of “Credit Line,” a cool ripper with a groovy guitar loop that, in times past, had straight-up rocked. Nance’s overall set was more subdued than any in recent memory, powered by his usual sidemen including drummer Kevin Donahue and guitarist Jim Schroeder, with Pearl Lovejoy Boyd providing tasty harmony vocals. I don’t know who that was on bass, but he was awesome.
Then on came Icky Blossoms, and by then we had pushed our way through the crowd to that dark divot off the side of the stage by the bathrooms, well out of the way of what I assumed would be a bouncing mob.
Icky Blossoms sounded as good as always, though I don’t remember seeing them play to such a large crowd. The band played their usual set drawn from their two albums, the highlights (for me, anyway) again being the dance numbers – “Babes” and “Cycle” among them. By the time they got to the night’s big raver, “Sex to the Devil,” they’d asked the lighting guy to turn off the overhead lights, leaving them illuminated only by the under-lit stage lights that strobed in sync with their music. That lighting combined with the bouncing crowd gave the room the same energy I remember from Faint concerts from back in the day.
Joining the core band of Nik Fackler, Sarah Bohling and Derek Pressnall was bass player Sara Bertuldo (See Through Dresses) and drummer Javid Dabestani – with this solid line-up, new music (reportedly) on the way and what appeared to be a fresh new audience, there’s nothing holding back Icky Blossoms except their own complicated lives. It would be fun to see them re-emerge as a modern-day dance powerhouse…
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