Regular readers of Lazy-i can skip this week’s column, which I include below for posterity’s sake only. It’s a remix of last week’s Lazy-i review of the Oberst concert with the Spin.com Oberst review, with a slightly different lead and ending.

Column 217: Fly Like The Eagles
Oberst Kicks off U.S. Tour

A day before the sold-out Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley concert at The Slowdown last week, I got an e-mail from an editor at Spin.com, asking if I could review the show for their site. I guess the fact that Oberst was kicking off a national tour in Omaha — and playing new material from his upcoming album, Outer South — was newsworthy. So out of that came a review, which is still online and linked from the Spin.com homepage.

The “hook” to the write-up: That Oberst and his pals are this generation’s Eagles. Each member of his band took the helm for at least one song during the concert, while The Conor played the role of enthusiastic sideman. Guitarist Taylor Hollingsworth was Joe Walsh on a short Beatle-esque pop song, bassist Macey Taylor was Timothy B. Schmit singing a twangy number that could have been off Oberst’s last album, while drummer Jason Boesel did the Don Henley thing behind the kit while Oberst sang along, off microphone.

It was an amusing comparison that of course breaks down when you realize that 1) The Eagles never had a frontman like Oberst to anchor everything, and 2) Other than a similar amount of country-rock twang, the two bands’ music isn’t terribly similar. When they’re rocking, Oberst and Co. sound more like the Allman Bros. than The Eagles (In fact, I can hear Dickey Betts’ classic duo-guitar harmonies on “Jessica” in my head as I type this).

OK, now here’s what didn’t make it into the Spin.com review:

Capgun Coup was on stage when I arrived at around 10:30. Frontman Sam Martin wore what looked like a Kurt Cobain wig and an argyle cardigan sweater. Was it some sort of tribute to the fallen hero a few days after the 5-year anniversary of his death? I don’t know. However, I think Cobain would have approved of the tribute as well as Capgun’s crash-bam rock style. With the organ/keyboard off to the side, the set had more of a garage-rock feel, but with a proggy overhang that kept things riled up. As per usual, their performance seemed almost purposely sloppy. As Oberst would say later in the evening from stage, Capgun is a band that can’t be put in a box, and doesn’t even know what a box looks like. They’re doing their own thing, whether you like or not.

Clearly some of Conor’s little-girl fans didn’t. From my roost off to the left I could see a small bevy of bored, pissed-off looking girls leaning against the stage; two of the little puppy dogs had their backs to the band, arms crossed, waiting. They didn’t have to wait very long.

Oberst and Co. wasted no time after Capgun’s rather short set. There was Conor in his super-tight skinny brown jeans, button-up shirt, Banana Republic sports jacket and flat-toe boots roaring into a couple new songs that were darker than the usual stuff, singing about Jesus and charisma with lines like, “I got a sad, sinking feeling.”

While not overly chatty (He’s no Kasher when it comes to between-song patter), Oberst did get off a few good lines. Halfway through the set he commented on the Slowdown complex. “Me and Robb (Nansel) never thought we’d have our own mall. Now we have our own mall. It’s fantastic,” he said in a way that could be taken as sarcasm. He dedicated new song “Nikorette” to his dentist and even did a brief commercial, repeating his dentist office’s location and saying, “Over the years I smoked a lot of cigarettes, but they can give you something to make your teeth white,” and then broke out a big ol’ smile.

Overall, it was a solid two-hour concert that nicely wove the new stuff with stuff off the first album. The highlight (for me, anyway) always is the slower, quieter stuff, and Oberst has a couple nice ones on this new record, including a somber waltz called “Ten Women,” and a song that led off his encore that could be “Lua Pt. 2.”

I applaud the fact that everyone in the band got to contribute a song or two, but the only non-Oberst song that stood out was the one sung by Boesel. We’ll see how it all works out in the end. Oberst clearly just wants to have fun with this band. I can’t imagine how he could ever feel he was on the same level with everyone else unless he shared the writing and lead vocal chores with the rest of his chums.

I concluded the Spin review with this: For a guy who’s been performing on stage since he was 14, Oberst has never looked more content than when he’s playing with the Mystic Valley Band. Still, he’s the kind of guy who never stays in one place — or with one band — for very long. So tell us, Conor, are you in this one for the long run?

I realized after I wrote it that most of his young fans won’t “get” the reference to the Eagles’ 1979 album, and in fact, many won’t even know who The Eagles are. That’s OK, because something tells me The Eagles don’t know who Conor is, either.

It’s been pretty quiet the past few days for shows. That’ll change as we head into the weekend.

Happy Tax Day.

–Got comments? Post ’em here.—

No, this isn’t necessarily pertinent to us folks who live in Omaha, but since there’s nothing else going on today I figured I might as well pass on some info about one of my favorite old-school indie bands. The fine folks in The Poster Children wrote to say that they’ll be “emerging from hibernation” on Memorial Day weekend to play a show at The High Dive in Champaign, Ill., in honor of Josh Gottheil, who was an integral part of the 1980s Champaign-Urbana music scene. Also scheduled to appear are The Outnumbered (Jon Ginoli’s pre-Pansy Division jangle punk band), Lonely Trailer (hugely influential CU quirk rockers) and Cowboy X (Trashcan Records power poppers). The details:

Sunday May 24, 2009
The High Dive
51 Main St.
Champaign, IL

Doors open at 7 p.m., the show starts at 8 p.m., PC plays at 11 p.m. It’s a 19+ show. Tickets available at thehighdive.com.

Check out a few ancient Poster Children videos if you don’t know who they are. Have they ever played in Omaha?

–Got comments? Post ’em here.—

The smoking Quonset hut has been dismantled, freshly graded beach sand has been added to the volleyball courts, spring is in definitely in the air at O’Leaver’s. After catching a little bit of The Ten Commandments (Nile turns to blood, green death sequences) it was off to everyone’s favorite booze dispenser, where I arrived just in time for Shiny Around the Edges. I’m told they change their line-up frequently. For Saturday night, the band featured frontman Mike Seman, his wife on drum (not drums) and a guy on bass for a set that can only be described as “experimental tribal noise.” The first 15 or 20 minutes was drum and bass and feedback and ethereal vocal/chants. The last 10 minutes, when Seman switched to drum and his wife strapped on a second bass, was more interesting in a throbbing-post-rock sort of way. The set was more “out there” then I remember the last time they came through; you got to hand it to them for changing things around.

The Dinks got off to a rough start thanks to a broken bass string, but their follow-through was golden. Most of the guys in this band were in the now-defunct Shanks — a violent, free-for-all punk experience that had a way of driving itself off of a cliff every time they performed. Shanks shows were dirty train wrecks that consisted of thrown beer bottles and man-on-man make-out sessions. The Dinks are a different thing altogether. There is an obvious, focused attempt to make this into a rock band rather than a performance-art experience. The result is better music that ranges from punk to metal to straight-up rock. I credit the double-guitar attack, which is getting there but isn’t quite there yet. And while I enjoy Shanks’ recordings purely for their noisy decadence, this band’s songs could be acceptably added to anyone’s playlist. This is rock music — not garage rock — just rock, and if they keep their eyes on melodies (yes, melodies) they could turn into a winner. Check out the action photo from Saturday night (and get a peek at O’Leaver’s state-of-the-art stage).

* * *

Tonight at The Holland Center, it’s Death Cab for Cutie with Cold War Kids and Ra Ra Riot. This is promising to be a memorable show for those lucky enough to have tickets. I don’t. The 1 Percent website says that it’s sold out, but omahaperformingarts.org was still offering second-tier tickets at $35 apiece, but they won’t last long. Show starts at 8.

-Got comments? Post ’em here.—

My review of last night’s Conor Oberst concert is actually here, at Spin.com. Read it, then come back and read the rest.

OK, here’s what didn’t make it into that review:

Capgun Coup was on stage when I arrived at around 10:30. Frontman Sam Martin wore what looked like a Kurt Cobain wig and an argyle cardigan sweater — was it some sort of tribute to the fallen hero a few days after the 5-year anniversary of his death? I don’t know. However, I think Cobain would have approved of the tribute as well as Capgun’s crash-bam rock style. (see photo). With the organ/keyboard off to the side, the set had more of a garage-rock feel, but with a proggy overhang that kept things riled up. As per usual, their performance seemed almost purposely sloppy. As Oberst would say later in the evening from stage, Capgun is a band that can’t be put in a box, and doesn’t even know what a box looks like. They’re doing their own thing, whether you like or not.

Clearly some of Conor’s little-girl fans didn’t. From my roost off of stage left I could see a small bevy of bored, pissed-off looking girls leaning against the stage; two of the little puppy dogs had their backs to the band, arms crossed, waiting. They didn’t have to wait very long.

Oberst and Co. wasted no time after Capgun’s rather short set. There was Conor in his super tight skinny brown jeans, button-up shirt, Banana Republic sports jacket and flat-toe cowboy boots roaring into a couple new songs that were darker than the usual stuff, singing about Jesus and charisma with lines like “I got a sad, sinking feeling.” (see photo).

While not overly chatty (He’s no Kasher when it comes to between-song patter), Oberst did get off a few good lines. Halfway through the set he commented on the Slowdown complex. “Me and Robb (Nansel) never thought we’d have our own mall. Now we have our own mall. It’s fantastic,” he said. He dedicated new song “Nikorette” to his dentist and even did a brief promotional speech, repeating the dentist office’s location and saying, “Over the years I smoked a lot of cigarettes, but they can give you something to make your teeth white,” and then broke out a big ol’ smile.

Overall, it was a solid two-hour concert that nicely wove the new stuff with stuff off the first album. The highlight for me is always the slower, quieter stuff, and Oberst has got a couple nice ones on this new record, including a somber waltz called “Ten Women,” and a song that led off his encore that could be “Lua Pt. 2.”

I applaud the fact that everyone in the band got to contribute a song or two, but the only non-Oberst song that stood out was the one sung by Boesel. We’ll see how it all works out in the end. Oberst clearly just wants to have fun with this band. I can’t imagine how you could ever feel on the same level with everyone else unless you shared the writing and lead vocal chores with the rest of your chums.

* * *

After a solid week of shows, here’s the weekend line-up:

Detroit disco garage band Electric Six is at The Waiting Room tonight with Bang Camaro. $13, 9 p.m.

Meanwhile, down at Slowdown Jr., it’s Stardeath and White Dwarfs, an Oklahoma band fronted by Wayne Coyne’s nephew, Dennis Coyne, and yes, there’s more than a little Flaming Lips residue to their music. Opening is the irascible Talking Mountain. $8, 9 p.m.

Also tonight, Lincoln punk duo Once a Pawn opens for Goodbye Sunday at The Barley St., $5, 9 p.m.

Tomorrow night’s just as busy. The Sydney is hosting its first real rock show Saturday with Little Brazil and The Filter Kings. 9 p.m., $5.

O’Leaver’s is hosting Denton, Texas post-punk band Shiny Around the Edges with The Dinks and Watch the Train Wreck. $5, 9:30 p.m.

While Saddle Creek Bar brings the punk, old school-style, with The Upsets, Lowkey, Binfield Broke It and Officially Terminated. $5, 9 p.m.

–Got comments? Post ’em here.—

Try as I might, I could not get in touch with Bloodcow for comment, and in the end, it didn’t matter as the ingenious pitch discussed below speaks for itself.

Column 216: Perfect Pitch
Sometimes a one-sheet actually works.

About a 100 years ago, I was asked to be part of a panel on the music industry, representing (I guess) the perspective of a music journalist. The panel was part of a conference for up-and-coming musicians, designed to give them “tips” to succeed in an industry where success often is the result of a fluke of luck or a curious aligning of stars rather than talent or hard work.

The discussion — which consisted mostly of the moderator barking out her personal viewpoints rather than referring to a panel that included some actual music business professionals — eventually got around to the subject of self-promotion. Specifically artist promo packages. Specifically promo CDs and the supporting documentation. Specifically, one-sheets.

The moderator said that “having a perfect package” — including CD, multi-page bio (no typos), and professionally produced 8×10 print-ready photos, all collected in a rugged folder — was essential not only to grab the attention of those booking talent at venues, but radio station programmers and music critics. The ocean of blue jeans and T-shirts feverishly took notes, maybe for the first time in their lives.

And then the moderator threw it to me. “Wouldn’t you agree, Tim?”

No, I said, I would not agree. Don’t bother with any of that stuff. It’s expensive, it’s time-consuming, it’s unnecessary and if it shows up in my mailbox, chances are it’ll end up right in the trash. If I want to know more about you or I need a photo of your band, I’ll get it off your website or MySpace page. All I want is a copy of the CD and a website address. The rest of that stuff is clutter that I don’t have time to sort through. If you do decide to create such a package, my only suggestion is that you make it recyclable.

The moderator stood frozen with mouth agape, staring at me as if I had just stood up, turned around, dropped my drawers and farted loudly into the microphone. She then proceeded to tell the audience just how wrong I was and to not listen to my idiocy. I leaned back in my plastic chair and let her talk, and eventually the “discussion” moved to another pointless topic. Needless to say, it was never “thrown to me” again for the rest of the morning, and I’ve never been asked to participate in another such panel.

And that would have been the end of the story and this week’s column, except that something arrived in my mailbox last week that made me eat my words. Inside the non-descript manila envelope was a folded piece of graph paper with a message written in black crayon, as if scrawled by a child or a mentally challenged (is that the politically correct terminology?) adult. It said:

“Dear Tim, When not doing large piles of blow off of our OEA award, maxing out our credit cards, or planning to launch our own taco restaurant, we have been busy touring, making our way to Austin during SXSW promoting our new 7′.”

The letter was from local metal phenoms Bloodcow. It went on to say that the record was a split with Boston band Motherboar, and that the Bloodcow tracks were recorded by (Omaha punk legend and producer) Jim Homan at Warehouse Studio.

The note also said (in perfect hand writing, no typos… er mistakes) that Bloodcow has signed to Crustacean Records out of Madison, Wisconsin, and will be releasing a new CD on that label in the latter part of the fall of ’09.

“We have plenty of shows coming up and are getting a tour set for July. Enjoy the record! Thanks Bloodcow.”

I’ve included a scan of a portion of the note, where the writer has drawn a near-lifelike castle and storm cloud, and clarified that “Yes, this is Crayola.”

Now here was a one-sheet that caught my attention. I didn’t know if I should put the record on my turntable or contact the Nebraska Dept. of Corrections to see if a lunatic was on the loose writing crayon-letters to perspective murder victims. Luckily, I did the former and was rewarded by nearly seven minutes of jittery, vein-bulging punk-metal that wasn’t afraid to lay into the funk. Loud, angry, snarling, flamboyant; songs “Shop Together” and “Evil Magna Carta” had everything that would make any metal-lovin’ dude throw the devil horns in approval (and the Motherboar tracks weren’t bad, either).

Would I have listened to the single without reading the letter? Probably. But not with the same attitude; and having the right attitude when listening to anything (let alone a metal track) makes all the difference.

So here’s to you, Bloodcow, for putting me in my place, proving that a one-sheet isn’t a waste of time, especially when it looks like a ransom note written by a mentally retarded killer.

PS: Bloodcow opens for Jucifer this Thursday (April 9) at The Saddle Creek Bar.

* * *

A caveat before I begin: I’ve never been a fan of The Hold Steady. I bought Separation Sunday and Boys and Girls in America on the urging of others (We’ve got a lot of Hold Stead foamers in Omaha), listened to them a couple times and rarely (if ever) listened to them again. No question that Craig Finn is one clever, witty mofo. And who wouldn’t like their faux-Thin Lizzy guitar crunch? I don’t know, but for whatever reason, they’ve never done it for me. Their music is too repetitive, and Finn’s monotone nasal delivery is charming but quickly becomes tiresome. I’d rather just read his lyrics.

Still, here they were, coming to Omaha for what will be deemed as one of the biggest shows of the year (even though it took until yesterday for the show to finally sell out The Slowdown). The crowd was a sausage party — guys outnumbered women 10 to 1. Most of them were in their late 20s early 30s — the big brothers of the crowd that will be down at The Slowdown tonight for Conor.

At around 10:15, The Hold Steady took the stage and tore right into a set with only a moment’s pause in between songs — very little stage banter other than Finn saying how much he liked the club. Out of the gate, the sound mix was muddy and dense — maybe the worst sound I’ve heard at Slowdown on the big stage. It took about 15 minutes to make the necessary adjustments, and after that, it was all rock, with only a few slower ballads thrown in to break things up. (See action photo)

It’s not fair to criticize Finn’s vocals. Sure, he’s monotone and doesn’t really sing at all, but some of my favorite bands’ frontmen can’t sing either — Lou Reed, Randy Newman (who Finn most closely resembles vocally), Dylan and Gary Dean Davis, who Finn sort of resembles physically. Actually, that’s not true at all. Sure, they both have the same hair and glasses, but Davis is a man mountain, a fighting farmer with the power to crush a stage with his mighty leaps. Finn looks like he’s four feet tall and is more of a stage prancer than leaper. He looks like someone who works for public radio rather than a rock star. But a rock star he is. From my vantage point just off stage left, I could see that Finn had the crowd in the palm of his hand — very commanding in a weird sort of way. Just about every guy who stood along the front of the stage sung along with every word he sang, pumping their fists in approval.

The Hold Steady is a terrific, well-seasoned band, and it was a great show, even though the music inevitably bored me long before the encore. These guys love their so-called “Unified Scene,” and it loves them back. I’m just not a member of that scene.

* * *

So there are three good shows going on tonight. The marquee event is Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band kicking off their tour down at The Slowdown. The lucky ones who got tickets will get to hear the new material off Oberst & Band’s upcoming Outer South. Opening is local faves Mal Madrigal and Team Love recording artist Capgun Coup. This show sold out about a month ago. Watch for Twitter updates from Slowdown.

A good alternative would be Bonnie “Prince” Billy at The Waiting Room with White Magic. As I said in this week’s issue of The Reader: Bonnie “Prince” Billy is Will Oldham — singer, songwriter, musician, actor, former member of The Palace Brothers, the list goes on and on. His music has been hung with the term “alt-country,” though the songs on Beware, his latest release on Drag City Records, go well beyond that label. Sure, there are acoustic guitars and fiddles and plenty of twangy choruses, but Oldham’s songs are more like explorations of his soul rather than a drive down a dusty country road. At the bleakest moments, the music holds a lost, dark quality, a shadowed loneliness, but with a touch of reassurance that a Palace Brother or Oldham or a Prince is waiting at the bottom of the well to lead you back into the light. $15, 9 p.m.

And then there’s the rock in the form mentioned in the above column: Bloodcow opening for Jucifer at The Saddle Creek Bar. Also on the bill are Motherpile and Officially Terminated. There’s nothing on the Saddle Creek Bar website to indicate that this show strays from their usual $5 cover charge. And from what I hear about Jucifer, it will be LOUD. Starts at 9.

–Got comments? Post ’em here.—

While glancing at my iGoogle page, I noticed that the Omahype RSS feed hadn’t been updated since mid-March. Updates to their blog have fallen off over the past few months, but never for this long. When I clicked on the link, here’s what I got:

hey guys we had fun
we’ll be around
thanks to anyone cool we met
thanks for the guest lists
thanks for the mp3s
love you forever

omahype @ gmail

And that, it appears, is that. All of Omahype’s archived blog entries are coming up 404 Not Found. The only way to find them is via web.archive.org (the Wayback machine), which goes back to Sept. 2007.

I loved Omahype. I know I’m not the only one that’s going to miss Andrew and Ian’s acerbic, enthusiastic takes on the local music scene, as well as their live reviews and leaked mp3 files. Over the course of a couple years, they managed to make a sizeable mark, providing a fresh, young perspective that this scene was — and is — sorely in need of. Thanks for the memories, guys. You know you can always come back online…

* * *

Tonight at The Slowdown it’s Minneapolis band The Hold Steady. If you didn’t get your tickets, you’re out of luck because it’s SOLD OUT.

–Got comments? Post ’em here.—

Speed! Nebraska Records announced yesterday that it signed high-flying rock ‘n’ roll bands Techlepathy and Wagon Blasters to exclusive contracts.

Techlepathy features Lincoln Dickison (The Monroes, Bombardment Society, Putrescene), Eric Ernst (Fullblown, Sound of Rails, Aemon), and John Kestner (Fullblown, Sound of Rails, Coldsore). The band is described as “Black noise in a black room: a spiritual meltdown, a precognitive vision. Post humanistic, seeking a chemical bond with the circuitry.” I describe it as noise punk. You make the call when their debut CD, Anthem for Future History, is released later this spring or early summer.

Wagon Blasters features Gary Dean Davis (The Monroes, D is for Dragster, Frontier Trust, Pioneer Disaster), William Thornton (Past Punchy and the Present, Low Rent Guilt, Frontier Trust), Robert Thornton (Now, Archimedes!, Past Punchy and the Present, Culture Fire, Clayface Regular) and Jesse Render (The Monroes, Lonny and the Lux-o-values, The Bullphrogs). When they first started playing around town late last year, they covered a few Frontier Trust classics, which will give you an idea what kind of sound they’re after. Speed! says look for WB’s new release sometime this summer.

Both bands are playing O’Leaver’s April 17 — put it in your dayplanner.

* * *

Wonder who that guy was running around with a video camera during the last Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley band tour? It was none other than Phil Schaffart, the band’s guitar tech and now filmmaker. His documentary of the past year and a half touring with the band, titled One of My Kind, is slated for an Internet release on April 15 by Causecast.

“Footage from Tepoztlan, Mexico, where they recorded their first album, Conor Oberst, their worldwide tour in 2008, and the making of Outer South in El Paso, TX, takes viewers on a 60-minute musical journey around the world,” says the press release. The film will be available as a free stream or HD download at Causecast.org, IFC.com, conoroberst.com, mergerecords.com and wichita-recordings.com.

Causecast is “a community of people and nonprofits that are actively involved in causes like child slavery, global warming, mentoring, animal rights and autism research, just to name a few,” says the press release. Wonder if they’ll be any footage from last September’s Anchor Inn gig…

* * *

Singer/songwriter Damien Jurado plays tonight at The Waiting Room with Laura Gibson. $10, 9 p.m.

–Got comments? Post ’em here.—

Enchanted Islands, Beep Beep‘s new CD on Saddle Creek, is one of my favorites so far this year. Eric Bemberger and former band member Chris Hughes managed to figure out a way to streamline and soften the edges to their more-challenging, abstract music while adding a new dimension with songs that are mellow and catchy yet just as subversive as typical Beep Beep fare.

That said, the band’s CD release show at The Waiting Room Saturday night didn’t capture the album’s essence and power, maybe because they’re still learning how to perform the music live. Like the Barley St. show about a month ago, they didn’t play any of the new album’s slower, mellower stuff. The one exception was “The Lion’s Mouth,” which featured James Reilly singing from within the crowd. Reilly still seems tentative on vocals, almost as if he’s holding back, unsure of himself. He was barely audible throughout the set. He needs to throw himself into these songs like he does with his other band, Pharmacy Spirits.

Missing from the ensemble was new drummer Ian Francis, who Bemberger said had a previous engagement (i.e. another gig). He was replaced for this show with Ben Armstrong (Head of Femur), who just so happened to play drums on Enchanted Islands. Bemberger was his usual preening self — strange and awkward like a schoolgirl who just discovered s/he’s a schoolboy. Darren Keen, on the other hand, continues to be the lion who roared, this time with his shirt off (and no, he didn’t go “Full Monty” (like at his TSITR CD release show) during his excellent opening set). This is a strong , talented band. I hope it gets the time it needs to develop into a band that can transport its audience to those elusive Enchanted Islands, mellow stuff and all. Here’s an action photo from the show.

* * *

Omaha punk rock heroes Box Elders, hot off a recent tour that included a handful of shows at SXSW, are opening for Quintron and Miss Pussycat and Psychedelic Horseshit tonight at The Waiting Room. $9, 9 p.m.

–Got comments? Post ’em here.—

Not much happening as we wait for the weekend to take effect. The forecast seems to change hour-to-hour. It went from 5 to 9 inches of snow expected Saturday night into Sunday to only a dusting (according to Accuweather). We’ll have to wait and see, but it looks like it’s all going to swing north to Sioux City.

The preceding weather report was brought to you by The KTIM Severe Weather Storm Team™

OK, onto the scorecard for this weekend:

Tonight, Lincoln’s Forty Twenty is having its “final show” at The Waiting Room with The Black Squirrels and Gerald Lee Jr. with Josh Dunwoody. Wear your cowboy hat. $7, 9 p.m. We’ll miss you boys.

Meanwhile, down the way at The Barley St. Tavern, Brad Hoshaw and the Seven Deadlies will squeeze themselves onto the stage before Son of 76 and The Watchmen play. $5, 9 p.m.

The big show Saturday night is the Beep Beep CD release party at The Waiting Room with The Show Is the Rainbow and Cat Island. Will Darren “go all in” like he did during his CD release show a few weeks ago? You’ll have to show up early to find out. $7, 9 p.m.

Bloodcow also is having a 7-inch release show Saturday night at O’Leaver’s. $5, 9:30 p.m.

–Got comments? Post ’em here.—

Here’s the final word on SXSW. First, the full story — all three days of Lazy-i blog entries from Austin — all 5,000 words — cleaned up and compiled into one cohesive story, with all the photos, too. Take a look.

And here’s this week’s column: Three different views of SXSW by three people who had three different reasons for being there. The summations:

Jeremiah McIntyre: “It’s fun. You get to get in front of a lot of people. Parking can be a pain in the ass, but both times we played the 6th St. area we got lucky and got spots right in front of the club.”

Robb Nansel: “One of the downsides of living in Omaha is that you don’t have access to all those people all the time. And South By Southwest and CMJ are the two times a year that everybody you want to talk to and do business with is going to be in the same city.”

Eric Bemberger: “It was not only an opportunity to see things that changed my life, but to converse with someone who’s responsible for it.”

Column 215: SXSW Epilogue
For bands, was it worth it?

It’s only been a week since the South By Southwest Festival ended and it already seems like it never happened. We’ve all gone back to our little corners of the world, wrote our post-coital summations in blogs and columns and articles and podcasts, told our stories at our respective bars and hang-outs and begun planning for next year with Austin in the rear-view mirror.

From a music journalist’s standpoint, not only is SXSW a blast but also a real opportunity to see and hear new music in a condensed, compressed setting. But what about the bands and labels who actually participated in the festival? Was it worth their time to drive or fly cross country, figure out (or actually pay for) lodging and then perform in the center of the cyclone to 15 or 50 or 500 or 5,000 strangers?

Case in point: After seeing our very own Box Elders play at punk wonderland Red 7 on the last day of the festival, I tracked down Jeremiah McIntyre to congratulate him. The first words out of his mouth after saying “thank you” were “Buy us some beers, man, we are so broke right now.”

Look, if you’re PJ Harvey or even Cursive, you’re probably doing SXSW in style, but if you’re an up-and-coming band just signed to a label — or one of the few that’s unsigned — the decision to play SXSW comes with a financial cost that may make you think twice before accepting the invitation. Then again, you’d be stupid to turn it down.

“We’d never been to South By Southwest,” said McIntyre a week later. “I’d do it again as long as I didn’t have to do any of the work.” Box Elders, which also include brother Clayton McIntyre and drummer/keyboardist Dave Goldberg, played five times at the festival. Jeremiah said other than the performances, SXSW was a chance to meet the folks from Goner Records, the label that’s releasing their new album in July.

“Goner wanted to get everyone together to meet and do some work,” he said. “It was really informal. We met the publicist who’ll be working on our record and a couple people who might do booking for us. Booking our own shows is a real drag.”

Does SXSW provide advantages for unsigned bands to find a label? “I guess,” McIntyre said. “The whole signed/unsigned thing seems irrelevant these days. Signed to what? Do people really buy records on labels anymore?”

Robb Nansel, executive at Saddle Creek Records, certainly hopes so. He’s gone down to Austin for the past nine years.

“I do feel like it’s worthwhile to be there,” he said from a conference room in his Saddle Creek offices. “You may only be playing to 10 people, but the likelihood is that three of them are booking agents, two are writing for a magazine and two are at record labels.”

As an example, Nansel said that Saddle Creek fleshed out its relationship with Two Gallants at SXSW. “We met them down there, we saw them perform and then we went up and spoke to them and set up a time to spend a couple hours together to talk and not watch bands,” Nansel said. “And the rest is history.”

He insists that there are plenty of unsigned bands still invited to the festival, and that it provides a great A&R opportunity to scout talent. “From a label’s perspective, I go there for four reasons,” he said. “To support our bands, to hopefully see new bands we’re excited about, to see all of our friends that we don’t get to see that live in other cities, and to conduct business with managers, booking agents, press people and publicists. The whole industry is there.”

I was surprised to find that labels aren’t charged to host showcases at SXSW. Saddle Creek, who tries to do a showcase annually, merely makes the request and sends the list of participating bands, then SXSW organizers decide on the venue. Last year, Creek’s night showcase was at The Dirty Dog. “We’re never playing there again,” Nansel said. This year they got the larger, nicer Radio Room. I also thought that bands were playing for free. Not so, said Nansel. Participating bands can choose between getting $200 or a single badge that will get one of the members into all the clubs. The rest of the band members get wristbands, which means dealing with long lines.

Among those playing the Saddle Creek showcase was Beep Beep. Frontman Eric Bemberger said playing SXSW was worth it for a myriad of reasons, but for him it was a chance to see a lot of bands he might never have had a chance to see, like punk legends The Homosexuals and Canadian indie band Mother Mother. “It was the adult equivalent of Disney Land,” Bemberger said.

“As far as propelling the band, I can’t think of too many examples,” he added. “There was someone that attended our show that said, ‘I run this venue in Sacramento, give this card to your booking agent.’ Stuff like that. There were people who wanted to do video interviews that many not have if they hadn’t seen us play.

But if you’re unsigned…

“The practicality of South By Southwest is slowly but surely disappearing,” Bemberger said. “There are bands who are self-released that work so hard to get there that are overshadowed by all these self-gratifying hyped showcases and parties. But other people, who are trying to make music and lasting connections and find someone to support on their next tour, all that is valuable. Record labels, what are they anymore, anyway?”

That’s it for SXSW for this year. Time to book my hotel for next year.

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