by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Push the Sky Away (Bad Seed Ltd.)

I was glancing at Chris Aponick’s activities at SXSW, and it looks like he was trying to hit all the shows I would have tried to hit last night: Iggy and The Stooges, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and most of all, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.

I came to Cave’s new album, Push the Sky Away, a few months after its January release. I listened to it right after it came out, but just wasn’t feeling it.

Which reminds me of something wizened Domestica frontman Jon Taylor told me way back when his band was called Mercy Rule. As we were driving in his van on the way to a gig in Des Moines (I was along writing a feature for The Note) Jon talked about how music reviews were inherently skewed based on whatever mood the reviewer was in at the time s/he listened to the record.

“If the guy’s in a crappy mood, he’s going to give the record a crappy review.” I’m paraphrasing here. It’s been almost 20 years. Still, truth never ages, and Jon’s comments were spot on. If you’re in a shitty mood, you’re less likely to give some as-yet-unheard music a fair shot. The same thing’s true if you’re distracted or simply not paying attention.

That’s kind of what happened with this new Nick Cave album. I first listened to it on Spotify while doing something else — maybe I was running or writing — whatever it was, I wasn’t able to really absorb the album.

And then last week I listened to it again while making dinner — specifically a chicken florentine dish that takes about an hour of mindless focus — when suddenly the album came to life as the best thing I’ve heard so far this year. I turned around an listened to it three more times on repeat, mesmerized.

As with most of his recordings, Cave is almost perversely dramatic in his singing/speaking, as if telling dark lies at midnight, which btw, is  the best time to listen to this record. The centerpiece is a track called “Jubilee Street,” that starts out with a quiet repeated guitar line and Cave’s storytelling, slowing building to a massive crescendo over six and a half minutes. Its style and sound is exactly like something written by the Kadane Brothers, the sparks behind classic bands Bedhead the The New Year. But instead of Matt Kadane’s droll vocal delivery you get Cave at his most urgent and most triumphant. Huge.

The rest of Push the Sky Away is just as cool. From the dark rumble of “We Real Cool” (with the classic line “Wikipedia is heaven when you don’t want to know anymore,” to the nearly 8-minute-long rock eulogy “Higgs Boson Blues” that calls out both Hannah Montana and her real counterpart: “Miley Cyrus floats in a swimming pool in Toluca Lake and you’re the best girl I ever had…”

There are moments when I’m reminded of Robbie Robertson’s forays into spoken word drama — his “Somewhere Down the Crazy River” comes to mind — but Cave is never nearly as corny and never less than sincere.

Let me join Aponick’s chorus in saying that a certain music festival (or promoter) could do much worse than getting Cave or Iggy onto an Omaha stage.

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In this week’s column, a look at the futility of boycotts featuring Facebook, Hy-Vee, Rush Limbaugh, CVS and The 49’r. You can read it in this week’s issue of The Reader or online right here.

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

South by Southwest 2013

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Ah SXSW, how I miss you so. The food, the frolic, those amazing days and nights of music music music, stumbling from one club to the next, hoping to catch a glimpse of one of tomorrow’s stars or yesterday’s has-beens, the constant search for a urinal or just a place to sit down, the endless lines, the long trek from one end of 6th St. to the other, the long treks to and from the hotel on the other side of Red River, the odd celebrity sightings, the late night bacchanal when 6th Street turns into a noise-orgy of drunks, drugged and angry young townies weaving through the crowds on single-gear dirt bikes.

Not this year. No money. No time. Goddamn you, American Dream.

Instead, like most of you, I’m stuck at home reading reports by the handful of friends who made the long journey to Austin. The biggest contingency of reporters comes from our very own Hear Nebraska reporters team. You can follow along at hearnebraska.org, though as of noon, we’re still waiting for their first report.

Somewhere out there in the middle of 6th Street is The Reader‘s Music Editor Chris Aponick, who is updating thereader.com daily with his SXSW updates. Here’s his first report.

The Omaha World-Herald‘s Kevin Coffey began his coverage yesterday. You can follow his exploits at his Rock Candy blog.

Want a perspective from outside of Omaha? Sure you do. Your best bet is austin360.com, who posted the best list of critics’ picks I’ve seen online, right here. Hopefully they’ll do this again next year when I return.

Strangely, if you go to pitchfork.com, you’ll see nary a word about SXSW. I guess they figure it competes with their own Pitchfork fest? Who knows.

So will the austin360 team head to The Parish tonight for Saddle Creek Record’s showcase. If I was going, I’d get that coverage out of the way on day one. While it’s interesting to see what kind of reaction Omaha bands get in Austin, there’s nothing more meaningless than traveling cross country to see the same bands perform who play here all the time. Check out the full schedule of Saddle Creek band SXSW performances right here.

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Meanwhile, back in Omaha, the only show going on tonight is yet another tribute / cover band at The Waiting Room. It’s understandable that there are no indie bands booked this week in town, this being SXSW week, but I can’t remember a longer stretch of time that Omaha has been without a decent touring indie show. Is One Percent / The Waiting Room losing interest in indie? The only indie show on their calendar this month (other than the two-night Tim Kasher gig at O’Leaver’s) is Wavves March 28. The kids at Slowburn are doing their best to pick up the slack. Things will (slowly) turn around in April…

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.