Column 124: Peeking Through Coattails
Coyote Bones does it on their own.

A few weeks ago on my website (lazy-i.com), I went gaga over the new CD by Coyote Bones, Gentleman on the Rocks, calling it hands down the best locally produced non-Saddle Creek CD that I’ve heard so far this year — based purely on the song writing. The reason for the caveat tacked on the end will become obvious as I recap a discussion I had the following day with a reader:

Lazy-i Reader: “Hey Tim, I read on Lazy-i what you said about the new Coyote Bones disc. Why do you have to laud everything that involves Saddle Creek?”

Me: “What are you talking about? Coyote Bones isn’t on Creek. You know that.”

LR: “Yeah, I know that, but let’s face it. These guys went out of there way to get every Creek-connected musician involved in their project. They obviously want to be associated with the label.”

Me: “Regardless of who’s playing on the disc, the songs are solid. It’s not like Andy Lemaster will be touring with them.”

LR: (Sarcastically) “Yeah, whatever you say…”

I can sort of understand where that skeptic was coming from. Gentleman on the Rocks really does have a laundry list of Saddle Creek royalty contributing to its production, including Maria Taylor, Neely Jenkins, Nick White, Kianna Alarid, Andy Lemaster, Orenda Fink, Matt Baum, Ryan Fox, Dan McCarthy, Derek Pressnal and Jacob Thiele, with recording credits that include Joel Petersen’s basement.

Anytime you put together that much local (and national) star power you’re bound to get accused of exploiting your connections. But Coyote Bones frontman David Matysiak said that the plusses of having such a huge list of talented, well-known guest stars easily outweighs any accusations by clueless critics.

“I suppose if I was a music critic and I wanted to take the negative route I would say, ‘This guy is riding coattails,'” Matysiak said. “All I can say is that I’ve been there all the time, sharing stages with these folks or just hanging out with them. I knew the record was going to be fun to make and a new start for me, and if this person could bring it to life, why not make that happen? I don’t think it matters who’s on the record. It took two and a half years to put it together, and I’m proud of the songs.”

Matysiak’s connection to all those folks goes way back to his old band, Jet by Day, a gritty, grungy guitar rock outfit that also included Coyote Bones instrumentalist Mason Brown (who now also plays in Tilly and the Wall). When I mentioned that I had just listened to Jet By Day’s 2001 split single with The Blindfold Parade, Matysiak verbally cringed.

“We didn’t think too much of that 7-inch,” he said. “The fact that you have it indicates that it got distributed better than we thought.”

Matysiak said Jet by Day grew beyond the two singles released by Two Sheds Music (including a split with The Maginot Line). The band also released CDs on respected indie labels Kinder Core and Future Farmers, nabbed a feature in Magnet and toured up until the day they fell apart — just as they were starting to get noticed.

While living in Athens, Matysiak became best friends with Tilly and the Wall’s Derek Pressnal and Nick White, and also met members of The Faint, Cursive and Bright Eyes while setting up shows for them and his band in Athens and Atlanta. Eventually he took up Pressnal’s offer and moved from Atlanta to Omaha, staying at his house for over a year.

Once here, getting people to sit in on sessions was second nature. “If we needed to add a trumpet or piano, it just so happened that Orenda (Fink) and Dan (McCarthy) were around to help out.” Old Athens pal Andy Lemaster’s contributions — all recorded at his Chase Park Transductions studio — are some of the most powerful, including a stirring synth hook in stand-out track “Grand Eclipse.”

“Mason started to write those synth parts and I was trying to sing in a Depeche Mode kind of way. I love that classic ’80s sound,” Matysiak said. “It’s an example of something we couldn’t do with Jet by Day.”

The CD, slated for release May 29 on the Matysiak’s co-op label, CoCo Art, already is chocking up impressive presales from around the globe, likely based on those Saddle Creek connections.

“People say if you put those names on your record, anyone will buy it,” Matysiak said. “Once the record is out awhile, it’ll lose that stigma. It’s just a press angle. The same thing happened with Tilly, where it was first known as Conor’s new band or as a tap-dancing gimmick. Eventually that went away. So will this.”

Only time and touring will tell. The band currently is on the road performing their songs minus the all-star contributors that fleshed out the disc, just like they did April 12 at The Waiting Room. Stripped down, the music was more straight-forward, cutting through the fat to reveal the songwriting meat and bone that propels the band. They could (and probably will be) the next big thing to come out of Omaha, with or without those Creek coattails hanging in their eyes.

According to the online countdown clock at Slowdown’s website, the venue will open in a mere 24 days. The first show was booked a couple weeks ago — Built to Spill on July 18. And now the website has added a discussion board with its first survey question: “Would you like Slowdown to be smoke-free?”

Voting requires that you register, of course. There’s a problem with conducting an online poll — the owners of said poll generally have to respond to its outcome. What if 51 percent of responders say they want the venue to be smoke-free? Will that be enough to sway owners/operators Robb Nansel and Jason Kulbel, who already have said they intend to allow smoking? Probably not. Despite what anyone says, the decision rests squarely on their shoulders. Since Slowdown doesn’t serve food, the club can legally allow smoking, at least for the next four or five years or whenever the city’s ordinance expires (or until the state eventually passes legislation that bans smoking in all public spaces).

Not allowing smoking probably makes the most sense, especially considering that Slowdown will target an under-21 crowd, an audience whose parents likely would be more apt to allow their kids to go down there if they knew it was a smoke-free establishment. Add to that the fact that a state-mandated all-public-spaces ban probably will be in place before the city’s current ordinance expires, and the fact that neither Robb nor Jason smoke (as far as I know) and the decision seems obvious. That is until you factor in the financial costs of making the club smoke-free.

The long-standing argument always has been that if you ban smoking, smokers will not come. I think that’s probably true, but only for the serious 2- to 3-pack-a-day lifers (or death-ers). Casual smokers won’t care — they’re there to see the bands, anyway. Will it stop them from hanging out and drinking afterward? Maybe, probably. And that might be the tipping point in their decision.

Robb and Jason are running a bar, after all, and selling booze is a big part of that. Under-21s don’t buy many $4 Rolling Rocks. One of the factors to the venue’s success will be how well it caters to a drinking clientele — to get them down there with or without live bands performing. And smoking always has been a factor in drawing a “regulars” crowd. Has the smoking ban hurt the draw at Sokol shows? Probably not, but no one goes to Sokol for any other reason than to see the bands — after the last encore it’s off to The Brothers or O’Leaver’s or The Waiting Room for last call. Slowdown wants to be on that list of final-destination bars, too, a list that (because of its proximity) will include all the Old Market bars as well. That’s why this poll probably won’t mean anything at the end of the day.

Tonight at The Waiting Room, it’s San Francisco’s Thee More Shallows with local boys Capgun Coup. $7, 9 p.m.

–Got comments? Post ’em here.—

Torrential rain may have kept some at home on Saturday night, but I and about 120 others were willing to take our soaking to catch the Coyote Bones CD release show. I arrived at The Waiting Room after Dereck Higgins had finished his set, which is unfortunate because he’s one of the best musicians in town. Playing second was Flowers Forever fronted by Derek Pressnall of Tilly and the Wall. Their set was gritty and spirited, with pounding drums that forced home the grunge rock idea. (Editor’s note: Grunge rock? Eh?)

Each member of Coyote Bones donned a large sombrero in reverence to Cinco de Mayo. Their set thrived off of an almost unbridled energy. Never before has a tambourine been played so enthusiastically. It was refreshing to see a band play that’s not static and melancholy. At the center of Coyote Bones is David Matysiak and Mason Brown. For the show, they were supported by a large cast of friends, including Greg Edds (Little Brazil) on guitar, and (for a few tunes) Kianna Alarid (Tilly and the Wall). Their music combines pop rock and folk, but has a driving punch that keeps the energy flowing. It’ll be interesting to hear if that same energy transfers to their CD, which I was given in exchange for an owl-adorned book-end. Someone needs to explain that barter system to me. The show’s highlight definitely was the large cat piñata that was smashed to pieces during their last song.

SoTHEN – Lookatchurself Reggie Measuresworth (self-released) — If you can remember the early ’90s, then you already have a good grasp on what this album sounds like. Jangling and often inappropriate guitar riffs over roots-rock bass with trash drums. Add some raspy vocals that follow basically the same melody for every song. These guys remind me of a rehash of Bush. Ugh. Rating: No — Brendan Greene-Walsh

Tim Sez: Oh it’s not that bad (except for maybe “Surprise,” which features some creepy spoken lines). Frontman Jonathan Townes sounds like he grew up with Pearl Jam, Bob Mould, Foo Fighters and a slew of grunge and post-grunge bands. Yeah, there are obvious ’90s overtones throughout the whole disc, which is good or bad depending on your memories of that era. I don’t hate it, but there’s not enough here creatively to recommend it. Rating: No

Column 123: Digital Divide
Homer’s hunkers down as downloads grow.

They’ve been talking about the end of the CD for years now, since a certain portable device reared its sleek, white plastic head in 2001. The advent of the iPod, iTunes and digital music files was viewed by some as the eventual end of the line for record stores. Kinda like how the CD was suppose to kill the record album, but that’s another story.

So now it’s 2007, and my local Homer’s is still open down on Saddle Creek Rd., looking busier than ever as I drive by on a Saturday afternoon while my sleek white plastic friend that’s hidden in my Mini’s glove box feeds Neil Young’s Live at the Fillmore East to my car stereo.

Both formats — old fashioned CDs and newfangled digital downloads — can and do exist in harmony. At least for now. Downloads are catching up. Case in point — the first week sales of Bright Eyes’ latest album, Cassadaga. As has been reported countless times, the album logged in at No. 4 on the Billboard charts with first-week sales at just slightly north of 58,000. What hasn’t been discussed is that 11,000 of those sales were digital downloads — around 19 percent. That’s a bigger percentage of downloads vs. CD sales than Modest Mouse or The Arcade Fire had with their recent releases.

And that’s good news for Saddle Creek Records. Creek executive Jason Kulbel said the label has done what it could to encourage iTunes downloads. “Encourage probably isn’t the right word,” Kulbel said. “The things we did with iTunes are more of a necessity these days. We gave them an exclusive pre-order track. If you don’t give them an exclusive item, you don’t get the best site placements (banners, features, etc.). The better feature placement you have on there, the better you do.”

Ironically, Cassadaga boasts ultra-cool Grammy-worthy packaging, with artwork that’s only decipherable using a special decoder window included inside the CD sleeve — something that’s completely lost on those 11,000 who downloaded the album from iTunes, Napster or elsewhere. Kulbel said the intricate (and expensive) packaging wasn’t a mad stab at luring people to buy the “hard version” of the album. In fact, the label makes more money selling downloads than CDs. “(There’s) no manufacturing cost on iTunes, so you come out ahead on digital sales,” he said.

“It’s been apparent for awhile now that you certainly cannot ignore digital music,” Kulbel added. “…in the last couple years, we’ve thought a lot about digital sales and how they relate to the future of music. It’s one piece of what could ultimately kill record stores — part of the problem, we’ll say.”

Sounds dire, especially for independently owned record shops. But Mike Fratt, president of Homer’s, isn’t exactly shaking in his boots. He talked about the issue a couple weeks ago while attending the annual convention of the Coalition of Independent Music Stores (CIMS) in LA, where a half a day was devoted to the topic. Fratt says no one knows for sure what role digital sales will play in the future, or how it will impact independent music stores. That said, The New York Times reported last month that digital sales jumped 53 percent in the first quarter of ’07 vs. the same period in ’06, while CD sales slumped 17 percent. Part of the drop was due to the lack of big-name releases in the first quarter.

The good news: “Digital isn’t growing at a pace that’s in line with the decline of hard sales,” Fratt said. “Digital sales are still a blip. Physical goods are 85 percent of the music market.”

Still, independent music stores are looking for a place to play in the growing digital music game. Fratt says indie retailers are working with individual bands to offer exclusive downloadable content tied to online storefronts like homersmusic.com. “The structure of record labels is beginning to disintegrate,” Fratt said. “We’re now dealing directly with the artists.”

It’s impossible for stores to make money from digital downloads, he said. “We’re doing it because we feel like we have to. We’re not going to throw a bunch of money down a rabbit hole by desperately looking for a digital solution.”

The real answer is for the wholesale cost of CDs to drop to $7.50. “The physical business would reignite if people could find everything they wanted at $10,” Fratt said. “We don’t think physical sales will ever go away. The question is where will it level off? 50/50? 60/40?”

Perhaps the only golden lining to the relentless drop in physical sales is how it’s driving some of the big chain stores out of business. “We need to just hunker down and maintain ourselves for a couple years,” Fratt said. “So many people will exit the market that it will open opportunities for indie stores. There are new ones opening right now, while Tower and Virgin are closing.”