Just placed online, a detailed interview with Cursive’s Tim Kasher and Ted Stevens (read it here). They talk about the band’s new CD, Happy Hollow, the role of faith in their lives, the concept of concept albums (and why theirs isn’t one), the musical convergence with The Good Life, the making of the record, those crazy horns, and breaking up and getting back together again. It’s looong. It’s also the cover story of this week’s issue of The Reader, which should be stacked around town later today. I don’t have much else to say, other than go read it. Again, you won’t be able to pick up the new CD until Aug. 22 (I doubt there will even be copies available at Saturday’s Sokol Auditorium show).

And if you haven’t had enough Cursive, tomorrow’s column (which will actually be online late tonight) compiles more comments from Ted’s interview that didn’t make it into the cover story. Ted talks about criticism of the new record (and criticism in general) as well as the future of Mayday (sort of).

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Head Like a Kite, Random Portraits of the Home Movie (Patter25) — After an initial listening, I wasn’t really sure what to make of this album. I had a hell of time figuring out what writer Dave Einmo was trying to convey. I couldn’t even figure out how to classify his music. The songs on Random Portraits of the Home Movie are just that. Random. There is a very simple rock sense about most of the songs. Melodic guitar lines are often doubled on the bass and keys. Easy-going progressions, catchy choruses and the like.

Then comes the weirdness that threw me off the trail: Tons of samples and even more electronic drums give the album an almost industrial-techno feel. The whole flip-flop effect. One thing that was clear from the onset, though, was that this album was well produced. I would hate to say overproduced, but without even catching the producer’s credits it was obvious that someone with some serious pop sensibility was key in making this album happen. That someone was Brian Deck who also has worked with Modest Mouse and Iron & Wine.

Luckily enough, Head Like a Kite had a scheduled Omaha stop around the time I received this disc. I expected a four or five piece band. Two guys showed up. With the orchestration on the album, I figured there was no way that they could play it with the same effect. Out came the third member. A 17-inch Powerbook. Half of the live show came from that beautiful titanium box. To my surprise, these two gents pulled it off. The highlight of their set was “A Dime and a Cigarette,” which also is the best song off the album — a song which could easily be heard on the radio or MTV. And thankfully, most of the filler material found on the album was left out of the live set. Rating: Yes. — Brendan Greene-Walsh

Tim sez: “Your Butt Crack Smile” is pure Goo-era Sonic Youth meets Kraftwerk with Sonic Youth winning out. The SY comparisons continue on the laid-back, mumbly “A Dime and A Cigarette.” They shift back into Kraftwerk gear for “Interested in Worms?” Do you see a pattern here? I didn’t. For the most part, the short instrumentals are filler or placeholders, while the vocal tracks are sneering SY-influenced mid-tempo indie rockers. Not bad, but not enough to keep me interested. Rating: No

This is the second time that The Reader has dropped a bomb on me. “That story you’re doing on Cursive… we’re thinking cover.” There goes my weekend. I’m getting burned out, dudes. Regardless, it’s done and it’ll be online Wednesday morning, all 2,500 words of it. Meanwhile, tonight, for those of you like me who missed An Iris Pattern on Saturday night here’s your chance to see them again, this time at O’Leaver’s with In Praise of Folly and Shipwreck. $5, 9:30 p.m. Meanwhile, way across town at The Rock (225 South Washington, Papillion), everyone’s favorite Conor Oberst impersonator, An Angle, is playing a gig with three bands I’m unfamiliar with — Controlling the Famous, Go!Motion (not The GO! Team) and Push to Talk. When An Angle first emerged a few years ago, their Bright Eyes schtick was like vaudeville – so aped that people had to hear it to believe it. Judging from their myspace page, little has changed. Well, they say imitation is the greatest form of flattery. Maybe Conor will swing by and see for himself… $8, 8 p.m.

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Seems like it’s been forever since I’ve been to a show when in fact it’s only been a week (I was at the Speed! Nebraska showcase last weekend). Things have slowed down a bit at the venues over the past few weeks. I blame summertime. This too will change. Here’s what we got for this weekend.

Tonight at Sokol Underground, singer/songwriter/Team Love recording artist David Dondero is at Sokol Underground with Omaha’s own Simon Joyner (I don’t know if this gig will include his band, The Fallen Men, or not) along with Seattle’s Sonny Votolato (Blue Checkered Record Player). This could well be a solo acoustic night. The One Percent site doesn’t say. Regardless, it should be a scenesters’ paradise. $8, 9 p.m.

Also tonight, Lawrence, Kansas, improvisational noise band This Is My Condition plays at O’Leaver’s with The Lepers and The Shanks. $5, 9:30 p.m.

Tomorrow night is draped in mystery. Scheduled for Sokol Underground is Brandtson w/An Iris Pattern, Desole, The Umbrellas and Rochester, but for whatever reason the show no longer appears on the One Percent Productions’ show schedule (though it’s still listed on their calendar sans (that means without) Brandtson). The Brandtson site still lists the date, and I haven’t heard from anyone that this show has been changed or canceled. Update: This show is going on without Brandtson, who canceled due to a personal emergency. $10, 8 p.m.

Sunday night The Goofy Foot is hosting the acoustic folk hip-hop of Malcolm Palmer with fellow folkies Fork in the Road and Boston’s Hi8us. $3, 8 p.m. Nice.

See you at the show…

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Column 84 — Urban Legend
An Iris Pattern’s Greg Loftis revealed.

Who is Greg Loftis? I’d heard the stories about him for months. Stories? More like urban legends. He’s the world traveler that could be calling from his cell anywhere on the globe. He’s the guy that hangs out with Idlewild and Greg Dulli and Tommy Hilfiger. He’s that guy whose mysterious girlfriend has a curious eastern European accent (A spy perhaps?). Loftis? “Have you seen him? He owes me money.” Loftis? “Watch out for him, he’s a shady character.” Loftis? “I hear he’s got the majors sniffing around.”

Mention his name and anyone who knows him will smile knowingly. Everyone, it seems, has partied with Loftis, and has a story to prove it.

The one and only Greg Loftis addressed these legends Sunday afternoon in a near-empty 49’r Tavern. Looking rockstar dapper in a gray corduroy jacket worn over a Stone Roses T-shirt, he could have been mistaken for Jeff Tweedy’s shaggy brother.

He told me about the bullfight. “We were kicking a ball around outside a soccer stadium in Madrid. Some Spanish guys with a good sense of humor said, ‘Why don’t you kick it in the middle of that stadium.’ Great idea! Once we got inside, they let loose two bulls and we realized we had to get out of their fast or we’d be gored.”

He told me about the time he ran naked across the Ukrainian border on a 35 zloty dare (about $10 American). “I’m quick like a bunny,” he said, adding that no one shot at him. “It was a bear sanctuary, the only place where there’s no border patrol. The only thing I had was a bowie knife. It was the freest thing I’ve ever done.”

Interesting. Amusing. But what’s it got to do with the Omaha music scene? Well, in addition to being an adventurer, Loftis is (surprise!) a musician, and his new band — An Iris Pattern — is pretty damn good. Find out how good Saturday night when they open for Brandston at Sokol Underground. Or go to myspace.com/irispattern, where you’ll hear their unique style of rock that blends indie with arena with psychedelia with something distinctively Midwestern… and Nebraskan.

Raised on an acreage in 29 County, just north of the dusty little town of Tekamah off Highway 75, Loftis is a 27-year-old country boy who discovered his roots late in life. He started wandering at 19 after a semester at Midland Lutheran, which he attended on a football scholarship. “My heart yearned for something more,” he said. “I drove out to the East Coast and lived in a tent on Myrtle Beach. One guy showed me how to play a few chords on guitar and turned me onto my own music scene. He was telling me about Conor Obest, about all these bands that were from where I was from and knew nothing about.”

Loftis bounced around the East Coast, eventually making the acquaintance of a Polish girl named Anna Petri while laying down some background vocals for a friend’s band at a New Jersey recording studio. That was three years ago and they’ve been together ever since.

It’s Petri who’s inspired the trip to Madrid and the Ukrainian streaking episode and a lifestyle that includes long visits to her family’s small estate in Lublin, Poland (a little town about 90 minutes east of Warsaw), which Loftis calls “one of my favorite places.”

And it’s Petri that introduced Loftis to fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger. “She lived with him for two years as a nanny,” he said. “We met in New York at a birthday party. Tommy is curious and sweet.”

He’s also a fan of An Iris Pattern. Loftis gave Hilfiger a CD of some of the band’s recent tracks recorded by A.J. Mogis at Presto Studios. The next thing he knew, he was talking to A&R executives from Warners and Atlantic. “We’re getting calls back now. I have to fly out to New York next week for some meetings,” he said. That’ll be followed by a New York showcase sometime in the near future.

Has the Omaha scene come up in his conversations with label execs? “I know that Steve Lunt (Atlantic Records) knows about it,” Loftis said. “He asked ‘Are you associated with Saddle Creek?’ and I said ‘I guess so, if you consider buying those guys a shot an association.'”

But the fact is that it was the Omaha music scene that drew Loftis from a job managing a resort near Lake Waramaug, Connecticut. “I came back here because of the music scene and only for the music scene,” he said. “There’s no other reason. I make fun of it every chance I get, but that’s why I’m here.”

And that’s why he’s staying. He has an idyllic vision of where he wants the scene to go. “I love the idea of an incestuous, awesome music community where people know each other and believe in each other.”

For now, Omaha and An Iris Pattern is keeping Loftis from Poland and Spain and the rest of the world. “I’ll do my thing in New York. And even if Warners pulls the trigger and Tommy is a hero, I’ll still call this place home.” Spoken like a true legend.

So what is the Omaha World-Herald myspace all about? It was brought to my attention in an e-mail that said, “Well, there goes SLAMOmaha.” The OWH‘s “new” Omaha.com site will feature a database that will “include band descriptions, photos, rosters, MP3s and discographies, and the entries will also cross-reference upcoming performances of each band, which will also be displayed in a new calendar section.” Hmmm… sounds like SLAM to me, without the “discussion boards.” And judging by the number of bands on their myspace “friends” page, bands are eager to sign up.

There was a time, not so long ago, when SLAMOmaha.com was thee online destination for local bands and music fans, sporting one of the most up-to-date gig calendars anywhere, thanks to the bands themselves, who were responsible for maintaining the calendar. Will the new Omaha.com “bands” site be maintained by the bands, too? I have to believe that’s the only way it’ll work if it’s going to be kept up-to-date. I can’t imagine the OWH is eager to dedicate a warm body to taking phone calls whenever a band changes drummers or lines up a gig at O’Leaver’s.

Regardless of how they maintain it, the idea is an interesting step taken by a newspaper that’s been accused of being out of touch with the city’s youth — a demographic that they’re going to have to attract eventually if they want to keep printing papers, right? Right?

Come on. Reading the OWH is a rite of passage, an affliction that occurs after you get married, have kids, change your political affiliation and quit listening to good music. For years acquaintances at the paper have told me about management’s ongoing concern that OWH readership is “dying,” and that the next generation has no interest in reading a printed newspaper. The Internet and cable TV are their preferred sources for news (if they’re interested in news at all). What they fail to understand (or admit) is that kids didn’t read the OWH in the ’60s, ’70s, ’80s or ’90s, either. Their parents did. But after they moved out, got married and had kids of their own, they found themselves with a whole lot more time around the house, and suddenly that newspaper looked a bit more interesting.

Will the advent of new technology break that circle? I don’t think so. But the OWH does, and that’s why you’re seeing them develop databases for rock bands as a desperate attempt to attract young eyeballs, to get next-geners comfortable with going to omaha.com for information so that maybe — just maybe — they’ll start picking up a newspaper, too. They certainly can’t be doing it for the ad revenue.

Though it’s not mentioned on their myspace page, I have to assume that the new omaha.com will also host discussion boards. If not, this ain’t gonna work. It may not work anyway. All the old-time Slammers who lived on the music and “cool talk” boards migrated away from the site a long time ago, preferring to take their chatter to Live Journal. And I can’t imagine the Herald allowing unmonitored discussions on their server.

… and speaking of the OWH… Yours truly made it into the pages again for the first time since he was the editor of The Gateway 100 years ago. Yesterday’s issue included an editorial titled “The Quest for Coolness,” that refers to “a local blogger” who is “beside himself that anyone could possibly consider Omaha a Fun City.” They went on to quote from my Fun City column. Pity they didn’t have the stones to either mention The Reader (where the column also appeared) or my website’s address. It’s common knowledge that The OWH doesn’t acknowledge any non-OWH-controlled local media sources in print. You will never see the words “The Reader” mentioned in them thar pages, nor KETV or 1620 The Zone. Ain’t happening. Strange policy. Despite what their paranoid editors may think, the OWH ain’t in competition with The Reader, local television or even “local bloggers.” In the minds of 98 percent of their readers, they own the Omaha news hole. So what are they afraid of?

As for the editorial (located here): If the paper and the Chamber of Commerce think the answer to Omaha’s “quest for coolness” is to bring in more national-chain retail outlets like Cheesecake Factory and Williams-Sonoma, then so be it. They get what they deserve. I guess we all should take the approach of the Omaha World Herald and self-help guru Stuart Smalley and just keep saying to ourselves “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and, doggonit, people like me!” And for god’s sake, enough with the “misguided grumbling.” After all, we do live in FUN CITY!

Back to music tomorrow with a profile of An Iris Pattern’s Greg Lofits.

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July 3rd should always be a busy night for shows — we don’t have to work tomorrow. So tonight there’s The Third Men and Anonymous American at Shag. AA is a regular there, but The Third Men is something of a departure for the lounge. $5, 9 p.m. Also tonight, Thor featuring help from Dave Goldberg (The Terminals), Steve Jacobs (Diabolic Possession and The Filthy Few) and Jeff Decker at Shea Riley’s. $8, 8 p.m. Meanwhile, One Percent is hosting Damiera w/ Barter the Trigger, Cordova, & Leaving Lafayette at Sokol Underground. $7, 8 p.m. While Someday Never is hosting Asian Man Records artist Monkey at O’Leaver’s. $5, 9:30 p.m. Pick one and enjoy.

Now take a look at this Myspace page, and we’ll discuss it together tomorrow: http://www.myspace.com/omaha_dot_com. What’s the World-Herald up to now…?

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