Live Review: Our Fox, McCarthy Trenching, It’s True; (My) Top 20/Next 15…

Category: Blog — @ 6:44 pm December 14, 2009

The fact that my driveway had turned into a skating rink by 9 (and that I had a deadline the next morning) kept me from the Lash LaRue Toy Drive show (despite having already paid $17 for a ticket — what the hell, it’s a good cause).

As for Saturday night, I was surprised at the size of the crowd at The Waiting Room — only about 100 people for one of the better line-ups in recent TWR history. Shows at O’Leaver’s and Slowdown could have cut into the draw or maybe It’s True is just playing too often. Who knows.

Our Fox was on stage when I got there, but the line-up was different than what I expected. No Roger Lewis, no Jake Bellows (Who I believe is in England performing with Alessi). Instead, a trio headed by Ryan Fox roared into a set of fractured indie/folk rock that started out safe before bleeding bright red with feedback. It reminded me both of Neva Dinova and Fox’s old outfit, The ’89 Chicago Cubs. I’m dying to hear these guys when they’re at full strength.

Dan McCarthy started his set by holding a raffle for a slightly used guitar strap — something that presumably he no longer will need as he announced that he won’t be playing guitar anymore, only piano. And that would be just fine with me, based on the keyboard-only set that he performed Saturday night. My favorite songs off McCarthy’s last album, 2008’s Calamity Drenching, were the ones he played solo with piano. No other local singer/songwriter has a better sense of melody behind the ivories, or a more honest, forlorn approach to singing in general.

McCarthy spent the entire set playfully complaining about The Reader‘s Top 20 / Next 15 list in the current issue. McCarthy Trenching didn’t make the list because, well, they didn’t release anything in ’09 and rarely played (Come on, Dan, you were on the list last year). McCarthy was relentless, and with each jab between songs, I shrunk a little further into the shadows.

Finally, It’s True performed its usual pristine set, though I was disappointed that they didn’t work in any new material. I don’t know what’s on their new, yet-to-be-released album, but I’m beginning to think that it must be a full-band rendition of the songs on his debut.

* * *

Speaking of the Top 20, I’ve already heard from a couple bands that are pissed that they didn’t make the list, and I can’t say that I blame them. No one wants to be told that they’re not good enough to be in the top 35 bands in the area. Actually the list isn’t the top 35, it’s the top 20 most notable bands of ’09 AND the 15 bands that The Reader predicts will make a mark in 2010. Here’s The Reader‘s list:

The Reader‘s Top 20 Bands

Beep Beep
It’s True
Brad Hoshaw & the Seven Deadlies
The Black Squirrels
Outlaw Con Bandana
Conor Oberst
Brimstone Howl
Cursive
Simon Joyner
Emphatic
Box Elders
Landing on the Moon
The Show is the Rainbow
Capgun Coup
Brent Crampton
Ladyfinger (ne)
UUVVWWZ
Little Brazil
Matt Whipkey

The Reader‘s Next 15

Bear Country
Dim Light
LIttle Black Stereo
Son of 76 & The Watchmen
Filter Kings
Noah’s Ark was a Spaceship
Thunder Power
Matt Cox Band
Mal Madrigal
Satchel Grande
Our Fox
Digital Leather
Mercy Rule
Platte River Rain
Baby Tears

FYI, the process for creating the list involved having The Reader music writers each create their own list. Those lists were then compiled by editor Sarah Wengert, and four of the writers (including myself) got together and argued out the final line-up. Overall, I think it was pretty accurate. But in the interest of full disclosure, here’s my list:

Tim’s Top 20

Conor Oberst
The Faint
Cursive
Box Elders
It’s True
Brad Hoshaw and the Seven Deadlies
Simon Joyner
Brimstone Howl
UUVVWWZ
Ladyfinger
Little Brazil
Midwest Dilemma
Beep Beep
Tilly and the Wall
Matt Whipkey
Noah’s Ark Was a Spaceship
Landing on the Moon
Capgun Coup
The Show Is the Rainbow
Bloodcow

Tim’s Next 15

Honey & Darling
Wagon Blasters
Ragged Company
Digital Leather
Outlaw Con Bandana
Bear Country
Thunder Power
Conchance
Techlepathy
Yuppies
Kyle Harvey
Broken Spindles
Anniversaire
Black Squirrels
Little Black Stereo

Let the shouting begin.

–Got comments? Post ’em here.

Lazy-i

Pretty big friggin’ weekend for shows…

Category: Blog — @ 10:44 pm December 11, 2009

Those looking for The Price of Rock cover story, it’s here. Go read it. For the rest of you…

I’m just going to run through my picks quickly and you can figure it out yourselves…

Friday Night

Over at O’Leaver’s, Ragged Company (who I wrote about here) is opening for Travelling Mercies and Buick McSnake, neither of which I’ve heard of. Still, it’s O’Leaver’s, and sure to be worth your $5. Starts at 9:30.

Down at Slowdown Jr., indie band Flashbulb Fires, who I also haven’t heard of, is headlining a show with three bands I have heard of — Lincoln’s Machete Archive (worth the price of admission alone), along with Honey & Darling (awesome) and Down with the Ship. $7, 9 p.m.

Also, Andrew Jay has a CD release party at The Barley St. Among the “special guests” is Dave Downing, who is a member of Ragged Company who is also supposed to be playing at O’Leaver’s tonight… Anyway, $5, 9 p.m.

And finally, The Whiskey Pistols are playing at The Saddle Creek Bar, where there’s never a cover and the booze is cheap and cold.

Saturday Night

Top of the list is Digital Leather (just got a big review in Pitchfork, here) with Perry H. Matthews (amazing new unreleased and unavailable CD recorded at Enamel) and Dim Light (always a show stopper) at Slowdown Jr. $8, 9 p.m.

Also at the top of the list, an all-star line-up at The Waiting Room headlined by It’s True and featuring McCarthy Trenching, Our Fox and The Bruces (singer/songwriter/genius Alex McManus). $8, 9 p.m.

O’Leaver’s has Fortnight, O Giant Man and Bazooka Shootout. $5, 9:30 p.m.

It all leads up to…

Sunday Night

The Lash LaRue “Pine Ridge Benefit” Toy Drive at The Waiting Room with Cursive, Capgun Coup, Brad Hoshaw and Vago. This will sell out, folks, so get your tickets now $14, 9 p.m.

Whew!

–Got comments? Post ’em here.

Lazy-i

Feature story: The Price of Rock…

Category: Blog — @ 1:26 pm

My portion of the Price of Rock cover story written for The Reader is now online at Lazy-i, here. Go read it.

I’ve been “involved” in The Reader‘s Music Issues for the past few years. Two years ago the focus was on sound guys (interviews with a dozen or so). Last year it was electric guitars (defining the six most commonly used, their distinguishing factors, their differences, their advantages). This year it’s the price of being in a band. I’m sure that area musicians who already know all of this look upon these stories as rudimentary spoon-feeding to the masses. I understand that. They are not the audience (necessarily), though hopefully they recognize a lot of the information and can nod their head knowingly. Maybe they disagree, who knows.

The focus was on touring indie bands. Musicians in local bands that never tour or that are in cover bands probably don’t know or care about a lot of this info since they’ll never have to (or want to) experience it. They have regular jobs and regular careers that pay regular salaries and provide regular benefits, like health insurance. And on weekends (or occasionally during the week) they play a gig at one of the local watering holes and pocket the cover charge as a bit of bonus money. Nothing wrong with that. Then there are the ones who feel compelled to reach further with their music, who have turned their backs on having a typical career and everything it provides in order to pursue a dream of making a living solely on stage. Those are the ones we’re talking about.

Brad Hoshaw, Little Brazil and Cursive were chosen because each represents a band at a different stage in its career. Though he’s been playing music for years, Hoshaw said he only really began focusing on music as a living a couple years ago. Little Brazil has been doing this for five years or so with some success, and Cursive is recognized as one of the more successful local bands (Even still, Matt Maginn says that everyone in the band has a job on the side these days to make ends meet).

My biggest thanks go to Brad, who shared a lot of information that many musicians would feel squeamish about sharing publicly. I think he knows as I do (whether he would admit it or not) that despite the losses, his first tour will be the one he remembers when he’s rumbling across country in a tour bus headed to his next theater-sized gig. His debut album, Brad Hoshaw and the Seven Deadlies, was one of the favorites I’ve heard this year from any band anywhere in the country. That’s because Hoshaw is a one of the best songwriters in the country. Someone at a label will figure that out, eventually.

Anyway, go and read the feature, then run out and buy tickets to Sunday night’s Lash LaRue Toy Drove concert at The Waiting Room, which features Hoshaw along with Cursive and the subject of yesterday’s column, Capgun Coup. Tickets can be bought online here for $14. Do it quick before the show sells out.

* * *

Look for a weekend update wrap-up blog entry later today (probably).

–Got comments? Post ’em here.

Lazy-i

Update later; Dave Rawlings Machine tonight…

Category: Blog — @ 6:48 pm December 10, 2009

Between the blizzard and the scooping of snow, I haven’t gotten around to creating a page for the Hoshaw/Edds/Maginn interview mentioned yesterday. Look for it online tonight (I’ll update this page with the link). Or, if you’re super-eager, you can pick up the interviews/story along with the top-20/next-15 list in the new issue of The Reader, which should be hitting the stands today. Regardless, I’ll have it all online here tonight or early tomorrow…

To my knowledge, Dave Rawlings Machine is still going tonight at The Waiting Room with Phil Schaffart opening. $17, 9 p.m. If I hear about a cancellation, I’ll let you know here. The show tonight at The Slowdown — LA singer/songwriter Mike Simmons — has been canceled, though the Slowdown will still be open (hosting one of their infamous pub quizzes).

–Got comments? Post ’em here.

Lazy-i

Column 249 — Loaded Capgun; Snomaha…

Category: Blog — @ 6:39 pm December 9, 2009

This is a busy week for content in that The Reader‘s annual “Music Issue” hits the stands. The theme this year is “the cost of rock.” There are four articles total. I interview Brad Hoshaw, Greg Edds of Little Brazil and Matt Maginn of Cursive about the costs of going on tour and living the life of a musician. Brad shares a lot of numbers that will be no surprise to other musicians but might open some eyes from the general public. That story will be online here at Lazy-i tomorrow.

A second story looks at how musicians are coping with health insurance issues. The third is a list of various costs, from studio time to CD production to practice space rental, and so on. The fourth story is the annual Reader Top 20 list of the top bands in the area, plus the 15 to watch out for in 2010 — always controversial, always fun.

And then there’s the following column — an interview with Sam Martin of Capgun Coup, where he gives his take on the topic and talks about the band’s new album. Lots didn’t make it into the column because of space. Among the comments was his thoughts on Simon Joyner. I’ve always thought that Martin had a similar vocal style as Joyner — that wonky, off-kilter, almost purposely off-pitch vocal style that can make you feel uneasy.

“I didn’t really like Simon’s music until about three years ago,” he said. “I guess I hadn’t been that depressed before, I hadn’t been looking at myself with that much of a magnifying glass. His songs really spoke to me. I’m sure there’s an influence there subconsciously. I like his lyrics and his voice.”

Capgun will be putting out videos for every song on Maudlin. Last week was the release of the video for “Only the Times Are Changing,” an eye-popping piece of data-moshing fun directed by Jacob Thiele of The Faint that perfectly captures the chaos of the song (check it out here). Martin said he wants to get involved in film making and has been writing scripts and working with local film maker Nik Fackler (Lovely Still). He says he thinks Omaha should be investing in the film making industry so that people don’t have to move to California to make films. “It’s sad for Omaha to be putting money in things like Midtown Crossing. We already have enough stores, why not build another industry instead of more stores?”

We even chatted a bit about national healthcare. “I think it’s a big band-aid on a body that’s already dead,” he said. “If they want to do free healthcare for everyone with psychological problems, that may be beneficial, but I think there are way bigger problems. The government itself is a big fucking problem. I’m for the Public Option, I’m for people staying alive and being happier, but I don’t think it’s going to make people happier. If people aren’t happy when they’re sick, they’re not going to be happy when they’re not sick.”

Fun interview. Fun band.

Column 249: Capgun Confessions
It’s all about the attitude…

“I’m pretty poor, I guess. I don’t have a job and I live in my mom’s basement for now. After this tour I’m going to get a job and save money to travel. You can’t be really poor and do your art, but to be a songwriter, all you need is a guitar and to be alive.”

That’s Capgun Coup’s Sam Martin on the poverty of being a musician. He was responding to having his band’s press materials read back to him, the part where it says how they “willingly dove head first into poverty in order to pursue music, bidding farewell to the possibility of financial stability.” It conveniently ties to the theme of this year’s “Music Issue” — the price of pursuing the life of a musician.

But while Martin and Co. are indeed paying that price, they’ve had a pretty sweet gig since they first surfaced in 2007 with their jangling, shrill noise rock. Capgun Coup’s music is sonically dense and frenetic, like watching a group of 7-year-olds dancing a hyperactive shag to the Sex Pistols, not understanding what they’re hearing, only reacting to the energy and the noise, moments away from flying out of control, from taking a forced naptime. In the middle of the group is Martin yelling out the words like a high-strung dodgeball captain at recess.

You either get their music or you don’t. Most critics don’t, and write them off as “sloppy” and “unfocused.”

“That’s the attitude,” Martin says of the criticism. “It’s nice to know our attitude shows through the music. It’s also sloppy because we don’t practice that much, and sloppy in that there’s a lot going on at some points. We play what’s fun to play.”

He sounds like he doesn’t give a shit about the critics, and why should he? Conor Oberst “got it,” and agreed to release Capgun Coup’s music on his Team Love record label, starting by reissuing their debut, Brought to You by Nebraskafish (originally released on Slumber Party Records), and now releasing their sophomore effort, the more refined Maudlin, recorded in April by local studio pro A.J. Mogis at Oberst’s ARC Studios. To capture the chaos (and to save money on studio time), Mogis recorded the band live in one room. “We told him how we wanted it to sound, and he got it exactly right,” Martin said.

Maudlin takes a sort of natural right turn from its predecessor. Instead of the minor-key indie rock of the debut, Martin and the band fused elements of surf and garage rock into the mix, giving it a psychedelic flare. Martin said the style came naturally, having grown up listening to his parents’ 45s in his dad’s ’50s-diner-style basement, complete with jukebox. “Velvet Underground, Beach Boys, Mamas and the Papas, stuff like that,” he said. “I don’t listen to that much new music.”

Laced among the spy guitar and noise are Martin’s lyrics for songs like “I Wish I Was a Fag.” He says that anyone who follows the words will know that it’s not a homophobic song, but if, like me, they download the record, they’re going to be out of luck. The only words that I can make out are “I can’t but I want you bad every girl that I had was a jerk I wish I was a fag so this party…” and then I’m lost.

“The group I hang out with, their scene is very androgynous,” Martin explained. “I like that. It’s not masculine or feminine in any given person. The song was written in that context. It’s about being broken up with, and not wanting to be, and getting the run around by a certain person and finding a safe house in friends, in guys, and thinking about how easy it would be if we could just date and I wouldn’t have to deal with motives.”

Team Love was “weird about” the song title and wanted them to change it. “They didn’t want it to be a speed bump,” Martin said. “Well whatever. That’s the title of the song and there’s no need to change it. I don’t think about what people think outside of Omaha. I write (songs) for people that are close to me.”

Martin says all of this over a cell phone from somewhere in Gainesville, Florida, on the road with Cursive — a fortunate situation for any young band, and he’s grateful. But he knows touring has a price.

“If you think about how far we drive every day and how much it costs to eat and smoke and drink, we probably won’t come back with much money,” he said. “It’s hard on relationships as well. It’s hard to keep a relationship if you’re going to be gone for months at a time, especially young people who haven’t worked through everything. Young people seem more jealous and wary of their partners than mature people.”

Sounds like Martin is still licking some wounds. “I regretted it at the time,” he mused. “In the long run, it’s good what happened.”

He knows the road won’t last much longer, and then it’ll be back to working a regular job, at least part-time. “I like to be able to eat well,” he said, “and most of my calories come from liquor now, and I don’t want it to be that way much longer. If you work more than 25 hours a week, you don’t have the passion and energy to do music and think about things as much.

“You can take things for granted. It can always be better. I’m trying not to focus on what’s good and focus on how other parts of my life could be better, and ride this one out.”

Capgun Coup plays with Cursive, Brad Hoshaw and Vago this Sunday at The Waiting Room, as part of the Lash LaRue toy drive.

* * *

I told you I’d pass along the info regarding the Comme Reel CD release show when I found it. The show is Dec. 19 at O’Leaver’s.

I also got an e-mail from Mal Madrigal pointing out that the CD included in their new vinyl record is a “real CD” and not a CDR. They went all out this time.

Digital Leather’s new album, Warm Brother, got reviewed at Pitchfork, here. It got a 7.3, and a closing line of “The balance between carefully fitted parts and their edge-of-danger deployment keeps us on thrillingly unsteady footing for the album’s duration. It’s a kitschy, shticky, charming curio.” Digital Leather plays at The Slowdown Dec. 12 (this Saturday).

Everything got cancelled last night, and judging by the streets, I wouldn’t be surprised if a few get canceled tonight, especially shows that involve out of town bands. That being said, Flobots is scheduled to play at The Waiting Room tonight with Kinetix. $15, 9 p.m. Just got word that Flobots is canceled.

–Got comments? Post ’em here.

Lazy-i

Eagle Seagull on PIAS (finally), new albums abound; Mynabirds tonight…

Category: Blog — @ 11:06 pm December 7, 2009

Eagle Seagull announced today in various places (including my e-mail box) that the long-awaited The Year of the How-To Book will finally be released in early March 2010 on [PIAS] Recordings, the home of Dinosaur Jr., Editors, Everlast, Crystal Castles and others. Four songs off the upcoming album are now online at the band’s myspace page. How long have we been waiting for this record? Two years? One has to believe that the folks in the band are dead tired of playing these songs, and now they’re going to have to play them for another year…

* * *

Some CD releases/show announcements/new stuff also entered my email box recently.

— Bear Country will be celebrating the release of their EP, Frozen Lake, on Slumber Party Records Dec. 28 at Slowdown Jr. I’ve been listening to it off and on for the past few days and can tell you it’s the best SPR release to date.
— Mal Madrigal will be celebrating the release of their new LP, Fingers of Trees, the day after Christmas at The Slowdown. Joining them are Machineshop (Tiffany Kowalski) and Tin Kite (Stefanie Drootin and Chris Senseney). I believe this is yet another vinyl-only outing (though you will get a CDR in the sleeve).
— Comme Reel, the reinvention of No Blood Orphan (all the same members!), has a new album coming out, but I’m not sure when because I lost the letter that came with the disc (sorry Mike). I’ll post it as soon as I find out.
— Last but not least, Paul Hansen of Perry H. Matthews sent me an unmastered version of their new untitled album, recorded by Joel Petersen at Enamel. It is a true mind-fuck (in a good way). Unfortunately, unless Hansen gets a job, no one else is going to hear it. Could someone lend him a few hundred bones? It’s in everyone’s best interest.

* * *

Tonight at The Waiting Room, Mynabirds (Laura Burhenn — half of the late, great Georgie James, who I talked about here) open for The Dutchess and the Duke, along with Greg Ashley of Gris Gris. $8, 9 p.m. Check it out, y’all.

–Got comments? Post ’em here.

Lazy-i

Jack Oblivian, It’s True, Filter Kings tonight…

Category: Blog — @ 10:21 pm December 4, 2009

It’s a crazy-busy Friday night for shows, none of which I’ll likely see as I’m “under the weather.” None the less, that shouldn’t stop you from taking in one of the many spectacles happening around town tonight (and tomorrow night).

Top on the list tonight is Jack Oblivian and the Tennessee Tearjerkers at Slowdown Jr. with John Paul Keith and the One Four Fives and Nebraska’s very own Brimstone Howl. Jack Oblivian a.k.a. Jack Yarber is something of a legend of the Memphis underground/garage scene thanks to his work in Compulsive Gamblers and The Oblivians. His latest with the TT’s, The Disco Outlaw, was released this year on Goner Records. JPKat145s are signed to Big Legal Mess (Fat Possum). $10, 9 p.m. If you can’t make the show, try to catch Brimstone Howl at Drastic Plastic at 6 p.m. this afternoon.

Talk about a big show in a too-small venue, It’s True headlines tonight at The Barley St. Tavern. Expect to hear tracks off Hawkins and Co’s yet-to-be-released new LP. That alone is enough to crush Barley St., but also on the bill is Noah’s Ark Was a Spaceship, Underwater Dream Machine and Cowboy Indian Bear from Lawrence, KS. $5, 9 p.m.

Meanwhile, just up the street at The Waiting Room, it’s The Filter Kings with The Mercurys and Cowboy Dave Band. TWR recently opened their swank remodeled pinball room, complete with a couple booths and shiny new bathrooms. Very uptown. $8, 9 p.m.

Also tonight, Sarah Benck plays at PS Collective ($5, 9 p.m.), and Minneapolis band Tarlton plays at The Saddle Creek Bar with Welcome to Florence, 9 p.m., free.

Tomorrow night, Beep Beep plays its second-to-last show ever opening for Melt Banana at The Waiting Room. Joining them is The Show Is The Rainbow. $10 adv./$12 dos, 9 p.m.

Downtown at Slowdown Jr. Saturday night, Brianna Lane (Minneapolis, MN), Jeremiah Nelson (Madison, WI), Brooks West (Nashville, TN) join Brad Hoshaw for an “in the round” performance. $8 9 p.m.

Also Saturday night, the first of Lash LaRue’s annual Toy Drive shows is happening at Burke’s Pub. The line-up includes Lash, Michael Campbell, Sarah Benck and Korey Anderson. Admission is $10 or a new toy. Show starts at 9.

Finally, down at The Sydney, Little Black Stereo plays with Spider+Octopus, Kyle Harvey and The Worst Friends Ever. $5, 8 p.m.

–Got comments? Post ’em here.

Lazy-i

Briefly: Thunder Power, Cursive, Brimstone, O’Leaver’s…

Category: Blog — @ 7:02 pm December 3, 2009

A few things of note on a quiet Thursday:

— Looks like Thunder Power has the auspicious honor of being the first Nebraska band accepted at South by Southwest 2010, according to this list on the SXSW site. Congrats. I intend to attend SXSW again this year, if I can find a decent hotel (and it looks like all the ones downtown are already sold out).

— More Cursive/Kasher interviews keep going online, including this one at offbeat.com and this one at Gainesville.com. As FYI, tickets are still available for the Dec. 13 Cursive show in conjunction with the Lash Larue Toy Drive. Get them while you can.

— While I’m thinking of it, Brimstone Howl has a live in-store performance scheduled for tomorrow (Friday) at 6 p.m. at Drastic Plastic, 1209 Howard. You should go. It’s free.

— Pretty dead tonight show-wise. O’Leaver’s is hosting The Answer Team with Rock Paper Dynamite and The Half Hearts. $5, 9:30 p.m.

–Got comments? Post ’em here.

Lazy-i

Column 250: Five Years Down…

Category: Blog — @ 8:34 pm December 2, 2009

Chronologically, this is actually No. 249, but timewise, it’s the end of five years (Column No. 1, which was a piece on Willy Mason (who had just signed with Team Love Records) was published Dec. 2, 2004. You can find it here (but you’ll have to do some scrolling)). Thanks to everyone — and The Reader — for sticking around for five years. Now onto the next five years…

Column 250: The Big 250
Five years down…

This week’s column marks the five-year anniversary of Lazy-i — 250 columns, which equates to around 250,000 words, which, if you linked them end-to-end, would reach to the moon and back. Who would have thunk that someone could write essays about the Omaha music scene — and indie music in general — for five frickin’ years? I sure didn’t. Anyway, it’s time to glance over our shoulders at the past year’s worth of columns and provide any needed updates before we slog forward into year six. As I do every year, I beg/grovel/beseech you to send your column ideas to tim@lazy-i.com. It’s your input that keeps this thing going. Now, onward!

Dec. 3 — Column 201: Darkness on the Edge of Town — A recap of crime troubles that struck Dundee in late 2008 and the great Benson blackout. The Infinite gas station on Leavenworth where Tari Glinsmann was murdered is now long abandoned. And though there haven’t been any murders around here lately, crime remains a problem, especially in Benson where both Burke’s and The Barley St. Tavern were held up at gunpoint, and where a friend of mine was mugged only a few months ago — a signal that it’s time for local merchants to pull together and hire a security guard to walk the streets at night.

Dec. 24 — Column 204: Mick’s Deep Sixed — Count me among the many who thought the closing of Mick’s signaled the beginning of the end of Benson’s emergence as an Omaha live music hub. When The Sydney opened in its place, the owners had no intention of making it a music venue, despite having kept Mick’s old PA in tact. But only a few months after opening, that PA was back in action above the Sydney’s tiny stage, and the club has emerged as yet another option for live music in Benson.

Feb. 12 — Column 209: A Simple Truth — An interview with Adam Hawkins, the singer/songwriter behind the band It’s True, where he talks about his past demons and his future dreams. Since then, Hawkins has become one of the stars of Omaha’s next wave of singer/songwriters, thanks to solid local shows and regional touring. Hawkins and his band entered ARC Studios last fall with producer A.J. Mogis to record the follow-up to there there, now… / i think it’s best. Look for it next spring. In the meantime, something tells me there’s an OEA Award in Hawkins’ (near) future.

March 4 — Column 212: The Entrepreneurs — The column title refers to Ladyfinger band members Jamie Massey, who runs The Sydney, and Chris Machmuller, who runs Worker’s Take-Out on So. 50th (next to O’Leaver’s). They opened their respective businesses during the depths of the worst national economic crisis since the Great Depression, and both continue to thrive. In fact, Worker’s has added a new dining room. Can a citywide (nationwide) chain of Worker’s franchises be far behind?

May 28 — Column 223: Save Box Awesome — Despite efforts to keep it open, Lincoln indie music venue Box Awesome was shuttered at the end of June. At the time, the club’s booker, Jeremy Buckley said he and owner Jeremiah Moore were actively looking for a new location. Instead, they turned their focus to Moore’s new Bourbon Theater — a massive live music venue built in a converted movie house located right on Lincoln’s ‘O’ St. Buckley said the venue’s front room is being used for smaller shows. So no new Box Awesome? “Not until we are comfortable with the Bourbon as a fully functional venue,” Buckley said.

June 17 — Column 226: The Lincoln Invasion — Speaking of Buckley, he also was the impresario behind two of the most successful festivals of ’09 — Lincoln Invasion and Lincoln Calling. Look for the return of Lincoln Invasion in June ’10, and another Lincoln Calling next fall. And this coming April, look for Omaha Invasion — where Omaha’s best and brightest bands will invade Lincoln venues. Now all’s Buckley needs to do is figure out a way for Nebraska to Invade Kansas (and vice versa).

July 15 — Column 230: Seeing Red — The column recapped the making of Little Brazil’s music video for the song “Separated,” shot on location at The Sydney. Plans called for the video to debut in late August. No one foresaw the untimely, tragic death of the video’s producer Drew Billings of H-Minus Productions. Billings died in his sleep Sept. 11. “His death was a shock to all of us,” said Little Brazil’s Greg Edds, who added that afterward, the video’s production took a back seat to mourning the loss. The final edits have just been completed, and the “Separated” video will have its invitation-only premiere Monday, Dec. 14, at Filmstreams. Shortly afterward, look for the video online at the Little Brazil Myspace page (myspace.com/littlebrazil).

Oct. 14 — Column 242: 2001: A Grubb Odyssey — Where we caught up with Grasshopper Takeover frontman and now studio producer Curtis Grubb. His rock rescoring of the last 35 minutes of 2001: A Space Odyssey (think Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon synced with The Wizard of Oz) will soon be heard by none other than Mrs. Christianne Kubrick — wife of the late Stanley Kubrick, who requested a copy of the CD/DVD. The rest of us will be able to get a copy of the soundtrack online on 1/1/2010. Look for the physical release sometime in February, as well as a screening of the project in early spring. It might be the last we hear of Grubb for awhile, as he began an odyssey of a different kind Nov. 11 when he and partner Marcie Webber welcomed twins Elliott Logan Grubb and Everly Kai Grubb into the world.

–Got comments? Post ’em here.

Lazy-i

Old Canes in OWH; Pine Ridge listening party tonight…

Category: Blog — @ 6:58 pm December 1, 2009

No new live reviews as I was out of town last weekend. It was pretty quiet show-wise anyway, except for Sunday night’s Season to Risk reunion show. Things will be picking up in the weeks to come, however.

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A headline worth mentioning: Omaha World-Herald‘s Kevin Coffey put together a one-night tour-diary of Old Canes’ mid-November show at The Slowdown (which was reviewed on Lazy-i here). You get plenty of Technicolor from frontman Chris Crisci as well as some nice pics from OWH shooter Kent Sievers. Check it out here. While we’re talking about Mr. Coffey, I never got a chance to thank him for the Omaha World-Herald T-shirt I won after he (or his editors) took my suggestion to name his new column “Rock Candy” after his blog. Can’t wait to wear it to a rock show!

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There’s a listening party tonight at The Waiting Room for the Christmas at Pine Ridge: Vol. 2 compilation CD. I got a preview copy a week ago and have already picked my favorites of the bunch (Noah’s Ark, Korey Anderson, Josh Dunwoody). The party begins at 7 and is free.

–Got comments? Post ’em here.

Lazy-i