A couple years ago at a show at The Slowdown I bumped into Craig Crawford, bass player for one of Omaha’s most important ’90s punk bands, mousetrap. Craig had mentioned at the time that he’d been in touch with mousetrap frontman Patrick Buchanan and that there had been talk about a possible band reunion.

This information was a bit surprising based on an interview I had conducted with Buchanan in March 2004 when his band at the time, After Dark, was coming through town for a show at The 49’r. Buchanan said he couldn’t even listen to mousetrap records because they brought up “too many memories, most of them bad.” He concluded that interview (which you can read in its entirety here) with this: “You might think you made some good records, but you never know if you’re creating anything important. I guess we did. Maybe in 10 or 15 years I’ll be able to listen to them again.”

Now here was Crawford a few years later saying that a reunion was a possibility. I was skeptical, but I still mentioned it in my year-end “predictions” article. Two years passed and nothing happened and I thought that was the end of it.

Then last week I got a message via Facebook from Craig that said, once again, a mousetrap reunion was in the works.

“We are 90% committed at this point,” he said. “Patrick lives in Detroit now, and is planning on commuting into Chicago for practices. He wants to use a drummer from one of his old Chicago bands, and I have no problem with that. I have access to a warehouse and large-scale PA here, so that is good. I also want to document this when it happens. I’ve got cameras and all sorts of shit! This should be fun. Patrick is very excited about this, and I am as well. I would love to see if Scott (Miller) would want to be involved, but I do not know how to get ahold of him.” Hey, anyone know Scott’s whereabouts these days?

Craig said this landmark show has yet to be booked, but I have to believe that just about any of the major clubs in town would be honored to host a mousetrap reunion show. How well would it draw? That’s a good question. Among the Saddle Creek Records contingent and Omaha’s dynamic noise-punk scene, mousetrap is the stuff of legends. But that’s not a terribly large crowd. For many (including myself) this would be a can’t-miss event. More to come…

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Saddle Creek Records seems to have shaken its Pitchfork jinx with this recent review of The Rural Alberta Advantage’s Hometowns. It scored a massive 8.0, and these comments, “…Rural Alberta Advantage were known as the best unsigned band in Canada before Saddle Creek snapped them up and re-released this debut. And it’s a good thing they did; songs this good deserve to be heard by audiences as large as their sonic scope.” This is the highest-rated Pitchfork review for a Saddle Creek act in recent memory (or perhaps ever?). Keep in mind, this is a re-release. Let’s see how well The RAA scores with their first Creek-exclusive album.

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Tonight at Slowdown Jr. Bowerbirds plays. They’re out on the road supporting their latest album, Upper Air, on Dead Oceans. They play pretty acoustic folk-rock with accordion and plenty of harmonies. Opening is Megafaun. $10, 9 p.m.

Did anyone notice that Amazing Baby is scheduled to play at Slowdown Sept. 27? They’ve yet to list the date on the 1% or Slowdown websites, however. Amazing Baby is one of the hotter (and better) new indie rock bands on the scene. Check ’em out.

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By the way, Pt. 2 of my guest appearance on the Worlds of Wayne podcast (celebrating the show’s 100th episode) is now available for your listening pleasure at www.worldsofwayne.com.

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Hey, where’s this week’s column? Column space this week was used for an extended interview with Tim Kasher in support of Friday night’s free Cursive show at the Slowdown parking lot. The interview will be online right here tomorrow.

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