Tonight at Sokol Underground, Maria Taylor and Statistics with Taylor Hollingsworth. We know about Maria and Denver, but Hollingsworth is a mystery. Apparently he’s a southern boy who lives down in Birmingham, which might explain the Maria connection. His new CD, Tragic City on Brash, is somewhat straightforward rock a la Teenage Fanclub or Matthew Sweet sung in pure nasal by a kid who, judging by the photos, looks like he’s about 17. Very tuneful, very hooky. The show starts at 9 and will cost you $8. This is the last date on this tour, so expect some surprises as well as a sizable crowd of friends welcoming back their conquering heroes.

Tomorrow night Fromanhole takes the O’Leaver’s stage once again with touring bands Billing, Montana’s 1090 Club, Des Moines’ The Autumn Project and San Diego’s Tenebre. $5, 9:30. And that’s about it for the weekend. No shows on Sunday this week. Get some rest.

The Stepford Five, A New Design for Living (Reverbose) — Typical by-the-numbers jangular indie rock by a Columbus, Ohio, four-piece, complete with chiming guitars (good) and limp, uninspired vocals (not good). The brooding “Getaway Car” is the best of the bunch, but it’s only 95 seconds long. In the end, we’ve heard this all before. Rating: No.

Column 35 — From Russia with Rock
Indie is anything but old hat in Moscow.

Imagine being back in the ’80s when indie music was just beginning to break. That’s what’s happening right now in ol’ Mother Russia, where an unjaded music scene is discovering new sounds not at their record stores or on the radio, but on the ‘net.

So says Omaha musician Craig Korth, who just returned after spending almost a month in Moscow with musician pal and local legend Tim Kasher (Cursive, The Good Life). The trip was a vacation of sorts, with travel and lodging provided by a close friend of Korth’s who works for an international brand management firm. Korth and Kasher spent three weeks soaking in the sordid tackiness of modern-day Moscow, a place where after 10:30 at night a typical bar becomes a brothel loaded with hookers. “After awhile, we didn’t go out much,” Korth said.

When they did, they frequented a movie theater/restaurant/night club called 35mm, where with the help of a promoter-friend of Kasher’s, they ended up playing a couple gigs toward the end of their stay. More on that in minute.

Korth said perhaps the trip’s biggest surprise was how the youth of Moscow have embraced indie rock. “It’s a new thing there,” he said. “They’re like sponges, soaking up everything on the Internet. They were telling me about American bands that I never heard of.”

Korth said the rock clubs — which resemble comfortable American dive bars — blare ’70s punk acts like The Ramones alongside cutting-edge indie music, while the kids discuss acts like The Constantines, Bloc Party and Dismemberment Plan. “They’re absolutely zealous about finding and getting this music,” he said. “They are explorers in every sense of the word, cut off from the rest of the music community except for the Internet, which is available everywhere.”

How pervasive is it? One evening while Korth and Kasher were having a drink outside a club a kid walked up and began singing one of Kasher’s songs. “That was weird,” he said, “especially when you consider Saddle Creek doesn’t have a distributor over there, and Russia is a wasteland when it comes to CD stores.”

Just as surprising were the more than 200 music fans that turned out at 35mm the night Kasher and Korth played a gig on the club’s main stage. Korth, who said he’s recently soured on the tired American music scene, was renewed by the crowd’s wide-eyed enthusiasm. “There’s no jadedness among them,” he said. “They weren’t standing around with their thumbs up their asses. They were into it and weren’t afraid to show their appreciation.”

Korth joined Kasher for about half of his hour-long set, playing Good Life songs he had learned while on tour with the band. “While we were playing, members of the crowd kept placing these little notes at our feet written in English with simple phrases like, ‘Please play longer.'” Korth kept the notes as souvenirs of a night that he won’t forget.

That gig, and a Kasher solo set played at the venue’s cafe the night before, were among the highlights of Korth’s trip. The lowlights included struggling with the guttural Russian language, the New York-style high prices and the endless search for decent food. Then there was the constant state of paranoia brought on by omnipresent police and military. His fear would end up being justified when Korth and another friend were shook down for cash by the police. Lucky Kasher was left unscathed. “The constant feeling of nervousness wore us out in the end.”

Korth is now back in the states, working on songs for a new album as well as trying to find a job. Kasher, meanwhile, is living in New York City. Neither plans on going back to Moscow anytime soon, Korth said. They’re just happy to get out of there with their lives and their memories. “I choose to forget about the stuff that I didn’t like.”

The Maria Taylor interview just went up (read it here). She talks about the possible break-up of Azure Ray and that band’s future, making her new solo album 11:11 and performing with her bro and sis. Was there a definitive answer to the Azure Ray question? Not really. She said she and her cohort, Orenda Fink, are still very close friends, but when I proffered the idea of perhaps a co-headlining tour where both do a solo set and then come together at the end and do an Azure Ray set, she said what amounts to “that would defeat the purpose though, wouldn’t it?”

Among the stuff that didn’t make it in the story was our discussion about Omaha. When I first interviewed Maria in 2002 she and Orenda had just moved to here. I asked her after all that time if she had any regrets? “I still love it,” she said of Omaha. “I have so many great friends here. I’m actually not there very much. I’ve been traveling a lot, I go visit friends in New York and family in Birmingham. It’s my home base. I live in Dundee and I love it.” Yeah, but didn’t I hear an interview on KCRW about a year after you moved here where you guys were saying you were having second thoughts? “I think that was Orenda. You can put me anywhere and I would be OK. Orenda had a hard time adjusting to the weather and the personality of the city. She hated it, but now she’s stuck (having just married The Faint’s Todd Baechle now Todd Fink). She’s warming up to it. The snow gets to me and I hate being cold. To me, a place is all about the people who are there.” But don’t you miss Athens? “All of our friends moved away. Athens is a college town, so people don’t stay there. Andy (LeMaster, Athens native and member of Now It’s Overhead) is rarely there. Sometimes I miss the time that I spent there, though.” Maria Taylor plays Sokol Underground Friday night with Statistics and Taylor Hollingsworth.

Tonight, our old, wigged friend Scout Niblett drops in at O’Leaver’s with non-wigged Kyle Harvey. Both for only $5. This one could get crowded.

Brazilian Girls, self titled (Verve Forecast) — Highly lauded critical darlings for their electronic/bossa/reggae style I think of these New Yorkers as Air meets Sade with a slight island lilt. Terrific upon first exposure, but a little goes a long way. The best parts are the dance tracks (“Don’t Stop,” “Sirenes de la Fete”) that make up a lot of it, but there’s little here that I’d care to hear again. Rating: No.

Not much going on, and no shows tonight. A quick glance at the web: Here’s a piece from Pitchfork about the futility of releasing albums that uses Bright Eyes as an example. Interesting quote: “Keep someone plugged in and happy, and they’re yours. But let them lie, and they’ll start to wonder: whatever happened to you, anyway? Did you move back to Omaha or something?” Here’s a nice Maria Taylor piece that you could think of as a preview for my Maria Taylor piece that runs in Lazy-i tomorrow. Interesting quote: “She and Oberst are also both fiercely loyal to their Saddle Creek family, which Taylor notes is becoming increasingly attacked by haters.” It does? Roger Waters has a new opera and he’s performing in in NYC (read). “The 61-year-old songwriter told the US audience Ca Ira was ‘sort of reiterating The Wall,’ Pink Floyd’s seminal album, with its themes of ‘powerlessness in the face of loss.'” You can hear the whole thing next year… in Rome.

Lismore, We Could Connect or We Could Not (Cult Hero) — Great programming, great low-fi electronics; cold, uninteresting songs sung by a woman with a voice of an adenoidal robot. Sort of a limp Postal Service meets Gerty or Hooverphonic, but without their melodies or direction. Repetitive. Rating: No.

Well, late on today’s blog entry because I was busy putting together an interview with Maria Taylor that’ll be online Wednesday, not to mention a column about rock in Russia that’ll go online Thursday. Busy busy busy. Just like 1 Percent Productions, which has a big show tonight with Von Bondies at Sokol Underground. If I go, I’ll be getting there early (9 p.m.) to see Philharmonic on a big stage (worth the $10 by itself). One Percent just sent out its latest update that includes announcements of a second Faint show Aug. 16 with Orenda Fink and The Mariannes opening. Then there’s Sleater-Kinney Oct. 12, booked down in the Underground. Methinks it’ll have to be moved upstairs.

The Keep Aways, self-titled (Chair Kickers) — Like Belly or The Muffs meets Joan Jett, this screeching Duluth-based girl-powered punk has the tooth-numbing guitar work to make it rock, and rock it does. The blazing chop guitar is a syncopated wall of fuzzy noise. “Standards” starts fast and just goes faster. “Hey Song” is the Joan Jett anthem she never made, clocking in at under 2 minutes. In fact, none of these go far past 3, which is as it should be. Rating: Yes.

I received a communiqué yesterday from a very good source telling me that the Rolling Stones has been booked to play in Omaha Jan. 29, 2006. No specific venue was stated, but considering the time of year, the only realistic facility would be the Qwest Center. Is it a done deal? Well, there’s nothing confirming this information on the Qwest Center events page, the official Stones tour page or the unofficial Stones page, but my source has never been wrong. His information, however, could change and this concert could never happen, such is the complicated world of rock and roll. If it happens, figure on tickets with a face value of $150 to $300, if you can get them. I suspect if this is true you’ll be reading about it in the Omaha World-Herald or hearing about it on the radio the day it’s confirmed. Probably the only show more exciting is tonight’s Fromanhole show at O’Leaver’s. This one has been confirmed and tickets have a face value of $5 (if you can find them).

Phosphorescent, Aw Come Aw Wry (Misra) — Vocalist Matthew Houck has the same broken, craggy Peter-Brady-at-puberty voice as Okkervil River’s Will Sheff, and some of the music is even reminiscent of Okkervil’s, but this Athens band takes things even further from a twangy, rural-route standpoint. The tinkling piano waltzes are infused with both old-fashioned brass and newfangled electronics. Think of it as a trip-hopped bluegrass swing album with more than its fair-share of Van Morrison-style dirges. Sure, the dirges can get heavy at times (the barely moving, thick as molasses “Dead Heat”), but when the harmonies are rich it can be a slow glide into waltz heaven (the ethereal “South (Of America)”. Dark and surreal, Aw Come Aw Wry is the hip soundtrack to your own funeral. Rating: Yes.

So after losing all evening at the track (Horseman’s Park — I’ll be there again tonight and tomorrow, it comes but once a year, you know) I trotted down to Sokol Underground for The Show Is the Rainbow’s Homosexual Mohawk CD release show. Since it was only 11:15 and four bands were scheduled to play, I figured I’d get there in plenty of time to see TSITR’s AKA Darren Keen do his thing. But as I walked up to the place, the promoter, who was busy on his cell phone, told me Keen’s set was already half over and would be all over in a few minutes. Sure enough, Keen and his band were on stage belting out their new mega-fast punk explosions. As advertised, each song was a minute or less long. Call it spunky-new wave-metal-punkcore, with Keen throwing in a few tasty metal guitar licks here and there. No real stage hi-jinx other than Keen’s between-song banter, which usually lasted longer than the songs themselves. It was kind of like VH1 Storytellers on meth. The crowd of 125 ate it up, and the whole thing was by 11:30.

Here’s what’s happening in your world musicwise this weekend: Tonight it’s hoe-down/blarney rock with FortyTwenty (the hoe-down part) and The Killigans (the blarney part) at Sokol Underground. $7, 9 p.m.

Tomorrow night: Omaha mathy noiserock ensemble Fromanhole is at O’Leaver’s with Minnesota’s Self-Evident and Iowa’s Save A Bum Foundation. $5, 9:30 p.m. Sokol Underground/1 Percent are hosting three bands I know nothing about (which means they’re probably metal or hardcore) Escaping Sobriety, Red #9 and Donky Punch — no price or band description on the 1 Percent site.

Sunday night the I-don’t-know-them-so-it-must-be-metal rule applies again at Sokol Underground with Nodes of Ranvier, Barter the Trigger, The Fall of Athens and Damiera. $8, 9:30 p.m.

Make Believe, self titled EP (Flameshovel) — The latest by the Kinsella brothers (Tim and Nate). Intricate art-noise that rarely fails to grate. In all fairness, the keyboard-bass-driven “Temping as a Shaman,” jammy “Witchcraft” and Karate-esque “Abracadabra – Thumbs!” are about as close as these Kinsellas have gotten to approachable (listenable) music in years, but it’s still a reach-too-far toward the abstract. Better than Owls, but what isn’t? Repeated listenings are rewarded with a tension headache. Rating: No.

Column 34 — Another Shot of Oxygen, Please
You don’t have to be stinkin’ drunk to rock.

While interviewing Omaha musician Dereck Higgins last week, the question of smoke-free, alcohol-free venues came up.

Higgins had played a couple shows earlier this year, including a gig at O’Leaver’s, that were far from stellar. Part of the reason was that Higgins has never felt that his music is conducive to a bar setting “People are there to get drunk and get laid,” he said. “They’re not focusing on the music.”

Fine, but if you’re a rock musician (or in Higgins case, an ambient pop musician with British prog overtones) where else is there to play but in a bar? Ask yourself when was the last time you saw a band (not a cover band, not a blues band) perform outside of a club or festival setting? The under-21s aren’t the only ones with something to complain about — there are very few places to see live, original rock music without being smoked out or boozed on.

Thanks to singer/songwriter/popster Richard Schultz, Higgins found an outlet at the Omaha Healing Arts Center. The venue was hardly new him. He performed there back in June 2003, playing bass alongside one of his personal musical heroes — The Chameleons’ Mark Burgess. Situated in the heart of the Old Market, Healing Arts is a combination health food store, restaurant, yoga gym and massage/physical therapy outlet.

Unlike the usual smoke-hole booze huts I frequent, Healing Arts is a veritable oasis. The converted warehouse-style building sports a main room that feels like a New Age church, with high, beamed ceilings and a skylight that stretches 30 yards or so along the entire room. Sure, everywhere you look are portraits of yogis and other spiritual types, and you can’t deny the distinct “hippy vibe,” but hey, who can argue with such a tranquil setting?

For last Saturday night’s gig, the stage had been set up along a wall halfway down one side of the long room. Schultz had strung Christmas twinkle lights along the rigging, stretching the green plastic chords overhead to the opposite wall. It gave the place a sort of urban, outdoorsy feel.

First up was a band of youngsters called One Mummy Case — youngsters that is, except for Higgins, who played bass in the band. With two teen-aged multi-instrument lead singers, a keyboardist and drummer, One Mummy Case is the next generation of Simon Joyner/Conor Oberst singer-songwriters, sporting styles that are similar to both. The hour-long set was remarkable for a first-ever gig, the band playing to a room filled not only with music fans, but with family (moms and dads) and friends. Talk about pressure. Regardless, you’d think these guys had been performing on stage for, well, months at least, especially considering that a few of them looked no older than 15. Where else but a no-alcohol place like Healing Arts could a band like this perform?

Healing Arts proprietor Sandy Aquila said the 200-capacity room is available for just about any gig, including the typical all-ages rock show. Even punk shows? “I’m interested in working with people who are looking to make things more harmonious or healthier,” Aquila said. “That doesn’t necessarily mean pretty, beautiful music; it can still be raunchy rock and have a positive message.” On the other hand, druggies or “negative people” need not apply.

But despite having approached a number of local promoters, Aquila hasn’t had much luck booking the room, which rents from $400 to $600 a night. The reason: It’s smoke-free and booze-free. “In the end, it all comes down to money,” she said.

A half-hour after One Mummy Case finished its set, Higgins’ own band took the stage. It was quite a contrast from his one-man karaoke bar shows. The band, which included John Friedman on guitar, Bill Eustice on bass and Jeff Tegtmeir on drums, turned Higgins’ usually spacey, keyboard-driven ambient movements into full-out rock songs, showcasing Higgins’ skills on scorching guitar solos. It was a nice night of music and even nicer to be able to go home from a rock show and not have to fumigate my clothes.

A tasty new interview with Darren Keen a.k.a. The Show Is the Rainbow went online this morning (read it here). Darren talks about ending his feud with Saddle Creek (old news) and his Homosexual Mohawk band (new news) and rethinking his life as an arena rocker. I got most of the pertinent stuff in the story (The Reader’s version will be a couple hundred words lighter), except some comments about doing his own booking. Keen did what a lot of local bands refuse to (or are afraid of or are too lazy to do) — for the last couple years he booked his own tours. And no, it wasn’t easy. “I’ve spent hundreds of hours doing it, it could be thousands of hours. I can’t tell you how many tours I’ve booked at this point. I started by playing within eight hours of here (Lincoln) and then building another rung around that and then another. You play a lot of the wrong places. Right when I get to the point where I can really do it all myself, I get a booking agent.”

Keen also compared the Lincoln and Omaha scenes. The biggest difference: “In Omaha, you have a lot of people really concerned about ‘making it’ and how they’re going to find booking agents and sell records. For Lincoln bands, it’s all about the music.” He also talked about getting his car broken into in New Orleans June 25 and having 150 TSITR CDs stolen along with joggers, t-shirts and other merch. “It was a kicker,” he said. “It was the first time I had money to pay a year and a half of rent. Instead I had to buy a year and a half of merch. It was devastating at first.” You can help out poor Darren when he plays at Sokol Underground tomorrow with Beans and a couple other bands.

Tonight, however, is Richard Buckner at Mick’s with Anders Parker in a show that’ll probably sell out. $10, 9 p.m. Meanwhile, down at O’Leaver’s, it’s The Plus Ones (ex-members of Mr. T Experience and Pansy Division) with The Goddamn Rights. $5, 9:30.

Jane Francis — Skeletons for Tea (Eskimo Kiss) — From Saxapahaw, N.C., by way of Lucinda Williams. I haven’t heard this kind of hippy folk since Cindy Lee Barryhill. Whatever happened to her? Rating: No.

Whenever anyone asks me what bands I’d like to see come through Omaha, the list is pretty small: Red House Painters/Mark Kozelek, Yo La Tengo, and my favorite of all, Silkworm. I was never able to get anyone interested in bringing Silkworm to Omaha, probably because for whatever reason, they’re virtually unknown here (even though they once played The Cog Factory (which I missed)). Now it’ll probably never happen. Silkworm drummer Michael Dahlquist was killed in a car accident July 14 in Niles, Ill. According to a post from group member Tim Midgett on the band’s official Web site, two other people in the car with Dahlquist were also killed. “They were behind a car at a light,” Midgett wrote. “A young woman, bent on doing injury to herself, ran into the back of the car at a high rate of speed. Evidently, all three guys were killed instantly.” Now Billboard.com is reporting that the woman who caused the accident was allegedly suicidal, and is being accused of deliberately causing a high-speed crash. Sad news indeed.

Look for an interview with The Show Is the Rainbow online here tomorrow.

The Brunettes — Mars Loves Venus (Lil Chief) — Sweet-as-candy boy-and-girl indie pop songs by way of New Zealand that bear more than a slight resemblance to Tilly and the Wall or Tegan and Sarah (this generation’s K Records/twee pop). These naive love songs with deceptively simple arrangements (don’t be fooled) could be the soundtrack to your own personal Summer of Love… if you’re 15. Brass, tinny guitars and a sweater full of la-la’s provide that trendy, retro feel though there’s more to it in a snarling ’60s sort of way. Just enough garage to remind me of Elvis C’s first album, and that’s a good thing. Rating: Yes.