Could there be a quieter way to start the new year? There’s nothing going on this week. Well, almost nothing. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Omaha’s own awards pageant extraodinaire — the Omaha Entertainment Awards this Thursday at The Holland Center. A little bird (named Greg Edds) told me that the featured band for the night’s final performance is none other than Little Brazil, who will be capping off an evening that will include performances by The Jazzwholes, Chris Saub Trio and… well, I’ve never heard of the rest of the performers… Regardless, it should be a fun evening filled with pomp and circumstance, gleeful winners and sad, heart-broken losers (at least four losers for every winner), as well as lots of booze (They sell booze at The Holland, don’t they?). Tickets, believe it or not, are still available from ticketomaha.com for $25, or you can watch it live on Cox Channel 248. Expect a full run-down of what happened the next morning at Lazy-i.

A little Bright Eyes new to pass along: Seems you won’t be hearing Conor Oberst crooning on an iPod of Chevy commercial (or any commercial for that matter) anytime soon. According to this piece in The Houston Chronicle, Oberst doesn’t license his music for commercials or TV, which was a problem for the producers of crappy NBC series Friday Night Lights. They loved Bright Eyes’ cover of Daniel Johnston’s “Devil Town” so much that they wanted to use it on the show. Unfortunately for them, Oberst said no. So instead, they hired California musician Tony Lucca to cover Bright Eyes covering Daniel Johnston — making it perhaps the first cover of a cover to ever air on national television.

In other Bright Eyes news, NME is reporting (here) that Bright Eyes will perform at “Bring ‘Em Home Now,” an anti-war benefit to be held March 20 at NYC’s Hammersmith Ballroom. Also performing are Michael Stipe, Chuck D, Rufus Wainwright, Fisherspooner and Peaches.

Tune in tomorrow for what has become the year’s most popular feature on Lazy-I: The annual “predictions” article, where I’ll look back on how well I predicted ’06 (catch up here) while showing you lucky readers what will happen in ’07. Don’t miss it. And while we’re talking about ’06, you may want to take a moment to enter the Lazy-I Best of 2006 Comp CD giveaway. This year’s disc includes tracks by Yo La Tengo, Simon Joyner and the Fallen Men, Scissor Sisters, Junior Boys, Cursive, Cat Power, Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins, Royskopp, Ladyfinger, The Terminals and more (see the track listing here). Judging by the number of entries I’ve received so far, you’ll never have a better chance of winning this valuable collector’s item! All you have to do is e-mail me (tim@lazy-i.com) with your name and mailing address and you’ll be entered into the drawing. You can’t win if you don’t enter!

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