Welcome to Lazy-i, an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news.
The focus is on the indie music scene. Yes, there’s a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area, but Lazy-i also offers interviews, stories and reviews about national indie bands.
Most of the feature stories and columns in Lazy-i will have previously been published in The Reader, Omaha’s monthly alternative newspaper.
by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com
If my records are correct, it’s been a number of years since Har Mar Superstar played in Omaha. The artist formally known as Sean Tillmann used to practically hang out in Omaha back in the city’s indie salad days of the early 2000s. In fact, former Omahan and member of the Conor Oberst’s Desaparecidos, Denver Dalley, toured as part of the Har Mar Superstar experience.
In addition to his musical adventures, Tillmann began popping up on the silver screen, snatching small roles and cameos in movies such as Drew Barrymore’s Whip It and Ben Stiller’s Starsky and Hutch remake. His last album was 2021’s Roseville (Love OnLine Records), and this year he returned to the road with selected dates throughout the U.S. (including a show in Tokyo). Tonight’s gig at Reverb Lounge appears to be a one-off.
From a press release issued back in March, Tillmann said: “Omaha is a really important place to me and the development of my music. I wrote many early Har Mar songs there with the guys from The Faint and spent a lot of time immersed in the very thriving scene they cultivated starting in the mid-90s. I’ve always loved playing there.”
Tillmann has always had an uncanny knack for writing hook-filled pop songs, and his high-flying shows border on cabaret. This one could act as a homecoming of sorts, and will likely be crowded. Opening at 8 p.m. is DJ Tayboosh. $25.
Also tonight, the all-female Led Zeppelin tribute act, Zepparella, performs at The Waiting Room. Opening the show is the midwest power-trio Bad Bad Men. 8 p.m. $25.
Meanwhile, across town at fabulous O’Leaver’s, In Tongues headlines. The band features long-time LinOma indie-punk veterans Robert Little, Jason Ludwick and Boz Hicks. Jar and BareBear also are on the bill. This one is free and starts at 9 p.m.
Tomorrow night (Saturday) it’s back to O’Leaver’s for Wedding, a project fronted by Anne Schulte. However, the Facebook invitation says it’s “Wedding w/Pearl Lovejoy Boyd, Susan Sanchez, Stephen Bartolomei.” So I’m not sure what that means. Chicago indie folk act Tall Pines also is on the bill. This one’s also free and starts at 9 p.m.
Finally, The Joslyn Castle has begun hosting programming in its “historic” carriage house. Saturday night they’re they’ve got a concert with California synth duo System Exclusive. Joining them are locals X-ID and Specter Poetics. Tickets are $17.85 (available here) and the show starts at 7 p.m. I haven’t been to the Joslyn Castle carriage house in decades, but if it’s the same as it was back then (dinky), this show could be packed.
And that’s all I’ve got. If I missed your show, put it in the comments section. Have a great weekend.
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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 © 2025 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.
by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com
Singer/songwriter Ben Eisenberger (Hussies, FiFi NoNo, Screaming Plastic) just announced the Aug. 1 release of his next solo album, Ben Eisenberger Chamber Group, along with the first single, “Controlling.”
Recorded throughout last year at ARC Studios with Adam Roberts, the album was produced and mixed by local studio vet Ben Brodin and mastered by Carl Saff. This isn’t Eisenberger’s first album. “My previous releases were either very soloistic, or scrapped-together, and I wanted this record to feel more like a ‘band’-style project, and the result is a nice mix of what each player brings to the table (folk, classical, free-improvisation),” he said.
Joining Eisenberger on the album are Colin Duckworth, pedal steel, guitar, mandolin; Phill Smith, percussion; Lillian Kraft, keyboards, and Michael Frederickson, bass. Preorder the 12-inch vinyl at Eisenberger’s Bandcamp page.
You can get a sneak peek of some of the new songs tonight at Reverb Lounge when Eisenberger and his new band perform along with Chicago-based singer/songwriter Amanda DeBoer Bartlett. Fiddle in the Middle opens the show at 8 p.m. $17.
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Yesterday, Independent Project Records released the second single, “Heretofore,” from Nebraska legend Jeff Runnings’ upcoming album, Piqued.
“‘Heretofore’ has all the murky, abstract-yet-stripped-down allure of lifelong favorites of For Against frontman Jeffrey Runnings, like Section 25 and the Comsat Angels, aptly recorded on an old 8-track tape machine,” says the track’s liner notes.
Jeff passed away in March after a battle with cancer. This posthumous album will be released July 11 in a variety of formats and can be pre-ordered from the IPR Bandcamp page.
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Finally, Saddle Creek Records announced that its latest signing is Seattle-based singer/songwriter Dean Johnson. Saddle Creek already released a 7-inch single by the 52-year-old singer/songwriter as part of their Document Series in March.
I Hope We Can Still Be Friends is Johnson’s second album (the first on the Creek) and is scheduled to drop Aug. 22. Says Saddle Creek: “Across 11 tracks, Johnson’s haunting tenor vocals crest over muted instrumentals peppered with brushed drums and slide guitar swells.” Preorder the album here.
Check out the first single, “Before You Hit the Ground,” below. You’ll get a chance to see Johnson up close and personal as he’s been added to the Sept. 17 Rilo Kiley show at the Astro Amphitheater.
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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 © 2025 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.
by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com
Just a couple weeks after the organization publicly acknowledged it had taken the defunct Omaha Girls Rock! program under its wing, Grow Omaha reports The Bay (formerly known as Rabble Mill) has plans to renovate the old Larkin’s Parkin building at 6120 Military Avenue in downtown Benson.
According to the Grow Omaha report, the building’s first floor will house an indoor skate park while the second and third floors will house classrooms, office space, a performance stage, fashion room, sound production studio and an “esports room.” Grow Omaha says the proposed project site is under consideration for rezoning from “general industrial” to “neighborhood business district.”
I reached out to officials at The Bay, who had no comment. That said, the project has been rumored for years, and earlier this year, The Bay opened offices in the former B Side storefront, which is located in downtown Benson next door to Virtuoso Pizza.
If Grow Omaha’s report is accurate and the project moves forward, it would represent a substantial investment in Benson and would have a major impact on one of the city’s most vital entertainment districts.
Some background: Old-timers will remember the building, located across the street from Reverb Lounge, as having once been a Chevy dealership way back in the previous century. Then, about a decade ago, John Larkin converted the building into a short-lived valet parking service in an effort to fill the ongoing need for parking in the overcrowded Benson District. The building appears to have sat vacant for a number of years.
Grow Omaha, founded by Jeff Beals and Trenton Magid, has been publishing economic development news for over 20 years, and has recently expanded to cover entertainment and dining news as well. Their website is at growomaha.com.
And as I said in last week’s write-up, The Bay (formerly known as Rabble Mill) is a multi-program organization based in Lincoln and Omaha that acts as a sort of interactive hub, offering kids training and guidance to help them contribute to the workforce and the community. They do it through art, music, fashion, gaming, and perhaps what they’re most known for – skateboarding. If you’ve been to any large youth-focused event over the past few years, you’ve seen The Bay’s skateboarding outreach project.
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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 © 2025 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.
by Tim McMahan,Lazy-i.com
We’re already halfway through a fairly good year for indie album releases, though there hasn’t been a single overpowering album that’s made an impact on the national psyche like, say, records released in 2024 by Charli XCX, Cindy Lee, Fontaines or The Cure (and the list of 2025 local indie releases through May is all but non-existent – what’s happened to our local indie scene?).
I thought maybe the new Perfume Genius album (Glory) or Sharon Van Etten album (Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory) would crack through the indie glass ceiling and make waves in “greater pop culture,” but while both are, indeed, very good, they still remain firmly buried in the indie ghetto micro-niche.
Anyway, for your gatekeeping pleasure, below are some albums from the first half of the year that deserve your attention, just as they’ve caught mine.
Florist, Jellywish (Double Double Whammy) – The album by the Brooklyn-based quartet fronted by singer/songwriter Emily Sprague is a quiet meditation on her life and world view. While the mostly acoustic music couldn’t be any prettier or more comforting, there’s a thread of deep anxiety that winds through the entire album that no doubt reflects a generation’s angst as it wonders how it’ll survive in a post-global-warmed-over world divided by polarized political discourse. As their song goes: “It’s been a good time in the right places / It’s been a bad time for a lot of humans.”
Sextile, yes, please (Sacred Bones) – LA-based trio has emerged over the past few years as EDM giants, thanks to their knack for creating irresistible beats and synth sounds reflected in sonic chrome. But while their previous album, 2023’s Push, leapt atop their most infectious single, “Contortion,” yes, please is more focused on creating dance-enabled slogan-themed anthems like “Women Respond to Bass,” which, while true, is hardly a revelation. And while it feels like we’ve heard most of these synth sequences before on their previous outings, yes, please rewards repeated listenings thanks to clever nuances that sneak out of the cracks. When the band stretches out of its confort zone, on tracks like trance-inducing “Soggy Newports” and pop candy “Kiss,” we get a glimpse of where they could be headed.
Perfume Genius, Glory (Matador) – Early singles “It’s a Mirror” and “No Front Teeth” gave the impression this album was destined to make frontman Mike Hadreas the rock star he deserves to be. But after those opening tracks, things return to the familiar, moody, lilting territory he shares with acts like Sufjan Stevens. Hadreas has a way for making gorgeous, anxiety-driven song-poems (“Mr. Peterson” from his first album is still my favorite), but I know there’s a complete, muscular indie rock album still waiting to turn him into an arena act.
Palmyra, Restless (Oh Boy) – The Richmond trio’s sound is indie-folk or indie-country or, maybe even emo-folk. With upright bass, electric and acoustic guitars, mandolin and banjo — along with the layered three-part harmonies — it’s easy to lump them in with dusty crooners Avett Brothers, but Palmyra’s songs are way more poppy and hook-filled than anything by those old sad sacks.
They wisely add a solid drummer to these recordings, pushing the album away from traditional folk and toward more approachable indie singer/songwiter stuff by the likes of, say, The Frames’ Glen Hansard, alt-country legends The Silos, or London alt-folkies Flyte, thanks to their uncanny knack for finding ear-worm melodies for songs about surviving breakups and overcoming loneliness and identity struggles. Pained confessional “Shape I’m In” feels emo until you realize singer Sasha Landon is describing his life-long battle with manic depression. Standout “Palm Readers” sounds like a Mountain Goats chestnut until they belt out the chorus that turns it into an anthemic confessional.
Rounded out by Mānoa Bell and Teddy Chipouras — all three contribute songs — there’s not a bad tune in bunch. Maybe there’s something to this whole emo-folk thing….
More to come…
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Tonight at Reverb Lounge, which has become (or maybe always was) the home for touring indie acts, Oklahoma singer/songwriter Samantha Crain headlines.
Crain, a prominent Choctaw Nation songwriter and three-time NAMMY (Native America Music Award) winner, is a tour veteran and first-string collaborator, having toured with everyone from Avett Brothers to Racheal Yamagata. Her vocals can be heard on albums by First Aid Kit, Wild Pink and Murder By Death, among others. No doubt her music was influenced by all those collaborators, along with a healthy dose of Kate Bush.
Her latest LP, Gumshoe, dropped this past May on Real Kind Records and continues in an upbeat, indie-pop direction. Opening for Crain is Alaskan singer/songwriter Quinn Christopherson, whose latest LP, Write Your Name in Pink, was released in 2022 by PIAS. 8 p.m., $22.
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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 © 2025 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.
by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com
Shortly after the conclusion of the scorching opening set by Heavy Clippings Friday night at Reverb Lounge, a concerned-looking man in his 30s walked up as I perused the merch table and asked who just played.
“They’re Heavy Clippings. They’re from here,” I said. The guy nodded and asked if they had an album and if he could buy it. I’m not sure why he was asking me, but I said the band indeed had a new album, but they don’t have physical copies that I was aware of. “It’s on Bandcamp, and probably on Spotify,” I added.
He nodded again, then walked away. I noticed other folks examining the unmanned merch table, likely also looking for a copy of a record that didn’t exist.
This prompted a discussion with another band on the bill, wherein I asked when they were going to put out their next record. The band member simply asked, “What’s the point?”
It’s a good question, especially if you’re at a certain level of the indie music food chain or a local band with few or no aspirations of “making it big” and/or “getting to the next level” and/or making any real cash playing music.
For them, the live performance is the heart of their artistic passion; and while it would be great to record physical formats — vinyl, CD or (ugh) cassette — doing so is almost always a big money-loser at a time when money is becoming harder to come by. For the most part, vinyl albums are for collectors; most people listen to recorded music via streaming or downloads.
This is the point in the review where I should be writing “despite that, I would have bought a copy of Heavy Clippings’ new album, Dog & Bird in Grass.” But that would be a lie. I wouldn’t buy a copy, not because the album isn’t awesome (it is, along with their performance Friday night), but because I don’t have the money or space to keep buying vinyl.
However, bands still need to keep recording and releasing recorded material, even if it’s only digitally. As I told Mr. “What’s the Point?” — how else will anyone hear your music other than going to your infrequent shows? We gotta have new music, and bands need to document their creations. And while we all know Spotify and Apple Music are hardly revenue distributors, we can still support bands by buying digital downloads from Bandcamp, which everyone who doesn’t buy physical media should do.
So… back to the show. I only caught the last 20 minutes of Heavy Clippings’ set, but I’ve seen them at least three times in the past, and Friday night’s performance was right up there. The band consists of two former members of the band Yuppies — Noah Sterba and Jeff Sedrel — along with Vince Franco and Tanner Rogerson. Their new album was produced and recorded by Jim Schroeder of Mesa Buoy and David Nance and Mowed Sound. They sounded “heavier” than their usual hypnotic post-punk – which is sort of Midwestern version of Lewsberg or The Feelies with Sterba providing plenty of folkie drawl — good stuff.
Minne Lussa, who followed Heavy Clippings, is easily the best dream pop / shoe-gaze band from ‘round these parts. Dense and dreamy, they remind me of early Galaxie 500 or Luna, with warm, glowing instrumentals that add an Album Leaf flair. The guitar interplay between frontman Matt Rutledge and guitarist/vocalist Eric Bemberger (ex-Beep Beep) is masterful and otherworldly, but Friday night the band introduced new member, Zoie, who added yet another shimmering layer of guitar as well as vocals on a new song she wrote. The band appropriately ended with a gorgeous cover of “Alison” by Slowdive that left the crowd wanting more. If you haven’t seen Minne Lussa in a while, it’s time to get reacquainted.
Closing out the evening was Matt Focht and his band Head of Femur, a project that has been around for well over 20 years. They started as a four-piece and have since expanded to as many as eight players, though Friday night there were only six on stage.
Combining guitars, keyboard and other assorted instruments including violin and bongos, their unique sound touches on a variety of styles, from ‘70s prog acts like King Crimson and Moody Blues to post-punk bands like early Talking Heads to modern-day progressive indie acts like The Dear Hunter or Panda Bear.
Focht’s energy ignites the band into an exuberant celebration that naturally invites the audience to come along for the ride, and most of the around 50 on hand certainly did. Halfway through the set, Focht and company threw out a tasty, unexpected cover of the Bee Gee’ “Nights on Broadway” that fit right in with everything else they were doing, and added to what was another very fun evening at Reverb Lounge.
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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 © 2025 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.
by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com
Today begins another College World Series – the time of year when The Slowdown constructs its white tents, slaps on the eye black, and reopens the secret basement money-counting room in a vain effort to keep track of the avalanche of greenbacks pouring through their doors from the nation’s college baseball fans.
It also means Slowdown won’t host any significant indie music for the next two weeks. Actually, the next significant indie show at Slowdown isn’t until Laura Jane Grace & Band plays the main room on Aug. 2 (the same day as the Maha Festival, btw).
If you’re not a baseball fan, it’s best to swing wide of downtown Omaha for the next couple weeks to avoid the mayhem (though to be honest, the Old Market turns into a ghost town during the actual games).
So what’s in store for the rest of us this weekend? Well, the two biggest shows feature local acts.
Tonight’s big show is Head of Femur at Reverb Lounge. I’ve been told the band has an entire album in the can that they’ve yet to release, which means we’ll likely get to hear some of that new material this evening. This is a loaded bill with Minne Lussa and it’s also a sort of album release show for opener Heavy Clippings as their new album, Dog & Bird in Grass, was released last Friday. Heavy Clippings is fronted by indie veteran Noah Sterba with Vince Franco, Jeff Sedrel and Tanner Rogerson. Their new album was recorded and mixed by Jeff Schroeder. The show starts at 8 and is $10. This one will be crowded!
Tomorrow night it’s back to Reverb Lounge for headliner Bad Bad Men, who I’m told will also be rolling out a batch of new tunes (is a new album imminent?). Joining them are rock grinders Million Dollar Veins and Nathan Wolf’s new prog outfit Titus Groaners. Loud, violent, you know the drill. 8 p.m., $10.
Finally, the only notable out-of-town show this weekend Saturday night at The Sydney where Minneapolis electronic-dance duo E.T. performs. They sound heavily influenced by acts like Sextile (you’ll recognize the synth lines). $10, 9 p.m.
And that’s all I got. If I missed your show, put it in the comments section. Have a great weekend.
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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 © 2025 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.
by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com
Last November, Chalis Bristol, chair of Omaha Girls Rock!’s board of directors, announced that due to a budget shortfall, OGR’s programming would end the following month. But she said sad news wasn’t goodbye forever:
“We are moving forward with the hope that while OGR may no longer be the official organization you have loved over the years, our programming will soon continue with the support of another organization whose mission and values align with our own.”
That organization turned out to be The Bay, a non-profit formerly known as Rabble Mill, which also includes elements of the long-defunct Hear Nebraska.
OGR began in 2011 by founder Stefanie Drootin (bassist for The Good Life, and member of Big Harp). In addition to teaching girls how to rock, OGR provided a support system that enabled and encouraged girls to design their own futures. OGR grew over the years, hosting camps and playing showcases at local clubs and festivals (including the Maha Festival), where camp participants rocked out in front of large audiences.
So what’s The Bay? It’s a multi-program organization based in Lincoln and Omaha that acts as a sort of interactive hub, offering kids training and guidance to help them contribute to the workforce and our community. They do it through art, music, fashion, gaming, and perhaps what they’re most known for – skateboarding. If you’ve been to any large youth-focused event over the past few years, you’ve seen The Bay’s skateboarding outreach project.
In April, The Bay informed key supporters they’d taken on OGR’s mission and hired former OGR Operations Manager Sara Bertuldo to be Workforce Education and Omaha Girls Rock! Program Manager. Indie music fans will recognize Bertuldo as front person of local shoe-gaze band See Through Dresses. Sara will hit the ground running, as The Bay said OGR Summer Camps will return in 2026.
“This news was many months in the making, and we are thrilled to welcome Omaha Girls Rock into The Bay family,” said Andrew Norman, executive director of The Bay. “Music has always been a vital part of The Bay’s programming, and with the addition of OGR’s expertise, we are strengthening our commitment to youth empowerment and creative expression.”
In a time when Omaha’s indie music scene seems to be in a constant state of deflation, OGR’s return is welcome news. The Bay recently opened new Omaha offices in downtown Benson (conveniently located next to Virtuoso Pizza). I suspect we’ll be hearing more big news from The Bay in coming months.
If you ever considered donating to The Bay or Omaha Girls Rock – or have in the past – now is the perfect time because The Bay board member Craig Meier, and wife Heather, have committed $10,000 in matching funds for donations made through June 23. These funds will support Omaha Girls Rock summer camp registration fees for families in need. Make that donation here, and learn about the organization at thebay.org.
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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 © 2025 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.
by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com
So, two separate album release shows vie for your attention tonight. You read about V.V. Volume 1 yesterday (here). Now here’s a little something about tonight’s show at Reverb Lounge celebrating the release of Leafblower’s Burn Cruise LP.
The eight-track album has indie rock veteran Danny Maxwell (a.k.a. DMax of Little Brazil and New Lungs) at its core on guitars and vocals with bassist vocalist Craig Fort (The Fucking Party, Lightning Stills), guitarist Clark Jahn and drummer Tab Tworek. The album was recorded by sound engineering extrodinaire Ian Aeillo at Make Believe Studios with additional tracking by Leafblower at Studio D. Ian also mixed it at A Sun Room.
Only two tracks from the album have been made available – early singles “Unsatisfied” and the title track – both heavy post-punk rockers that border on metal. You’ll have to go to tonight’s show at Reverb to hear the rest and buy the album (it’s not available on their Bandcamp page). Order it direct from the label’s website – Max Trax Records – right here. Formats include badass Limited Smoke (and/or black) 12-inch vinyl.
Joining Leafblower tonight at Reverb is O’Leaver’s good-time punk monsters Dance Me Pregnant featuring Chris Machmuller, Johnny Vredenburg, Corey Broman and Jeff Ankenbauer. Opening is Gary Dean Davis’ tractor punk extravaganza, Wagon Blasters. It’s gonna be loud. Show starts at 8, $12.
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By the way, it also just so happens to be the first Friday of the month, which means tonight is Benson First Friday! Galleries and businesses up and down Maple Street will be featuring works by local artists. Among them is Ming Toy Gallery, 6066 Maple St. (right next door to Legends Comics), where we’re celebrating the opening of JJ Carroll’s Head Shot. You can read all about JJ In this little ol’ profile I wrote in support of the show (Did you know he once worked as an animator in New York City?). The show runs from 6 to 9 p.m. Drop by, say hi, and have a piece of birthday cake because it’s also Ming Toy’s 10th Anniversary. See you there.
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Like I said, the V.V. Volume 1 album was covered yesterday, but again, here are the details on tonight’s album release show at Slowdown’s front room. Performers include Lodgings, Custom Catacombs, Neva Dinova, Ash Rayne Boe, Stephen Bartolomei and The Sun-Less Trio — all of whom have songs on the album. Tickets are $15, show starts at 8 p.m.
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As for the rest of the weekend, punk bands Spurney’s Hawk, Plastic Presidents and Dip Tet perform at fabulous O’Leaver’s Saturday night. And as per usual, the show is free and starts at 9 p.m.
Also Saturday night, the annual Midwest Tacos and Tequila Fest is happening at Falconwood Park in Bellevue. We’re talking tacos, tequila, art and music, including a performance by Latin punkers Las Cruxes. The event runs 3 p.m to midnight and costs $20. More info here.
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Finally, Sunday night it’s back to Slowdown for Panchiko. The UK band’s claim to fame involves the story of having a copy of their unlabeled demo CD discovered in a thrift store bin, uploaded by a random fan onto 4chan and going viral. Legend has it that it took four years for fans to finally discover who was behind the demo. The song that started it all was “D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L,” which became a viral hit.
Well, all of the above took place way back in 2000. The band reformed in 2021 with original members Andy Wright (keyboardist and producer), Owain Davies (vocalist and guitarist) and Shaun Ferreday (bassist), alongside new members Robert Harris (guitarist) and John Schofield (drummer). The band’s latest, Ginkgo, was released last April by Nettwerk Music Group. Their sound vacillates between dream pop and indie rock and at times reminds me of aught-era Gomez.
Opening the show at 8 p.m. on Slowdown’s main stage is Tempe dream-pop band Alison’s Halo. Tickets are $35.
And that’s all I got. If I missed your show, put it in the comments section. Have a great weekend.
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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 © 2025 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.
by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com
Tomorrow night’s V.V. Volume 1 album release show at Slowdown will be a veritable showcase of Omaha indie music talent, featuring six of the seven bands represented on this first-ever compilation album.
Mike Saklar, from the band Sun-Less Trio (and one of the driving forces behind the album), said the project dates back seven or eight years — before the COVID pandemic — with numerous bands falling out or joining along the way.
In the end, the Volume 1 lineup consists of local bands Lodgings, Custom Catacombs, Neva Dinova, Ash Rayne Boe, The Sun-Less Trio, Violenteer and Stephen Bartolomei. All but Violenteer will perform tomorrow night, though the band intends to take part in future out-of-town release shows later this summer. Saklar said plans are in the works for Volume 2 with additional bands, and it could even become an annual affair.
The 12-inch audiophile vinyl comes by way of Furnace Record Pressing. Saklar said the test pressings sound better than anything he’s purchased in the past few years. “LPs seem to be dirty, poppy or dull as of late,” he said. “This one sounds like what we grew up with.”
The bands put together a mini-documentary that includes sounds from the album as well as archival footage. Check it out below. It’s the only preview unless you’re going to the show, as the album’s Bandcamp page (where you can order your copy) doesn’t include sample tracks, which is kind of a throwback to the pre-digital days when you didn’t know what you were getting until you got home and put the record on the turntable. That “mystery” was part of the fun.
In addition to 12-inch vinyl, the album’s Bandcamp page offers cassette, compact disc and digital download options. No doubt all formats will be available to Slowdown tomorrow night. Tickets are $15, showtime is 8 p.m. More info 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 © 2025 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.
by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com
From an indie-music perspective, there are zero shows happening this weekend – national or local.
The closest thing to an indie concert is ‘90s MTV band Cake at The Astro Amphitheater on Sunday. The band’s ’96 breakout album, Fashion Nugget, was released on Capricorn Records. It includes the classic single, “The Distance,” which has a quarter-billion plays on Spotify. Cake would eventually jump to Columbia Records.
I always thought Cake songs had fun bass lines. They would have been an interesting “get” for the Memorial Park Concert. Instead, we “got” Ringo Starr. Oh well. Tickets are $55; show starts at 8 p.m. with no opener.
Rock shows return next weekend with the Leafblower album release show at Reverb and the big V.V. Volume I show at Slowdown; the following weekend Head of Femur plays Reverb. The next touring indie show is Panchiko at Slowdown June 8.
Below is the updated list of touring indie shows on my radar. What am I missing?
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Today, Alan Sparhawk of the band Low released a new album with fellow Duluth musicians Trampled by Turtles. This is not the first album Sparhawk has released since the 2022 death of his wife and partner in Low, Mimi Parker, but it is a return to the same voice and songcraft we’ve come to know him for.
Why Trampled by Turtles? From the one-sheet:
As friends and mentees of Low’s, taken under Sparhawk and Parker’s wing from their earliest days as a bar band—Trampled by Turtles have performed with Sparhawk countless times over the years. The Duluth ties run deep: “There’s a certain vibe that has to do with underdog syndrome, coming from a small town,” Sparhawk muses. “Some of it is the weird grind and slackness that being at the mercy of Mother Nature puts in you. It humbles you.”
Among the new songs on this collection, “Too High,” “Princess Road Surgery,” and “Not Broken” were all tracks Parker and Sparhawk had conceptualized and had been working on in the last few years.
Maybe someone somewhere could book an Omaha show forAlan Sparhawk and Trampled by Turtles? Just sayin… I’d go.
Have a great weekend.
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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 © 2025 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.
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