Like last week’s column, this week’s column is a retread of old blog content, due to the fact that all of The Reader‘s deadlines were pushed back four days because of Memorial Day. That means Column 273 is/was this review of last Thursday’s Thunder Power CD release show — ancient history, I know. By the way, a couple people commented on that review, including one that translated the alien-robot-language singing quoted in the story:

“Ar-ee op-bop whep bep bay / Op bet tee.”

Translated:

“Sorry ’bout winning this one… for the team…”

A clever line. I wonder if the rest of the lyrics are that good.

Week-early deadlines mean outdated columns. But I guess I shouldn’t be complaining about deadlines, considering the word on the street is that The Omaha City Weekly is ceasing publication. While I haven’t confirmed that directly from the horse’s mouth, one of the paper’s columnists — MarQ Manner — made the statement on Facebook, and a non-City Weekly editor said the same thing. If it is true, it’s the end of an era. The City Weekly has been around for a long time. Not as long as The Reader, but long enough to be a legacy in this town. Its closure would drop the number of weeklies from four to three (The Reader, Shout! and Go!). I’m sure the survivors are rejoicing, but anytime you lose a publication it’s one less outlet for readers… and writers. Manner said he intends to continue writing his column for Shout! I have no idea what’s going on with CW music critic Will Simons. Hopefully he also will land on his feet, though he’s plenty busy with his band Thunder Power, which just released an EP and is working on a full length. I’ve read and enjoyed Simons’ stuff for years. Just like I enjoy MarQ’s column and Kevin Coffey’s writing (and Niz’s and Christine Laue’s before him at The OWH). For a brief time, I taught a News Editing class at UNO in the evenings. I always told my students that despite the elbowing-though-the-crowd, get-the-story-before-the-other-guy competitive nature of journalism, as a writer I never felt as if I was in competition with anyone — especially fellow writers and critics. And I still don’t. You can only learn from other writers and their work. They should inspire you, not threaten you. We’re all trying to do the same thing — express ourselves and our opinions through the written word. I’ll leave the competition to the publishers, who have to duke it out for advertising dollars in order to pay our meager wages (and I mean meager).

Anyway… I’ll believe the CW is dead and gone when I don’t see it on the stands for more than a month. They went through a similar shut-down earlier this year, only to return from the dead.

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There are two solid shows going on tonight. At The Waiting Room, it’s the Omaha stage debut of High Art, Darren Keen’s new project, which I wrote about in some detail right here. Also on the bill are stdz and DJ Kobrakyle. $7, 9 p.m.

Meanwhile, at O’Leaver’s, it’s Doom Town Records‘ crown jewel Baby Tears, with Capricorn Vertical Slum (ex-Vampire Hands) and La Casa Bombas. $5, 9 p.m.

Nobody likes the idea of competition when it comes to art and music. And yet… whenever Omaha invades Lincoln or Lincoln invades Omaha, it begs the question as to which scene has the strongest roster of bands — maybe only to me and a few other a-holes, but the question does come up. And it’s becoming harder and harder to defend Omaha, especially when you look over the line-up of bands playing the second annual Lincoln Invasion July 9 in Benson.

The line-up: The Amalgamators, Amy Schmidt, Diamond Kazzoo, Dirty Talker, Ember Schrag, Husbands, Kris Lager Band, Machete Archive, Manny Coon, Masses, Mercy Rule, No One Conquered, Wyoming; Once A Pawn, Orion Walsh, Pharmacy Spirits, The Power, The Renfields, Ron Wax, Shaun Sparks and the Wounded Animals, Shipbuilding Co., Smith’s Cloud, South Of Lincoln, Tie These Hands, and The Vingins.

It’s a very solid line-up. The only bands missing (that come to mind) are High Art (Darren Keen’s latest), For Against, UUVVWWZ, Son of 76 and The Watchmen and Ideal Cleaners. High Art is playing the night before at TWR, and the rest, I’m told, were unavailable.

The venues involved in the one-day festival: The Barley Street Tavern, Burke’s Pub, Benson Grind, Louis, The Sydney and The Waiting Room. “We were hoping for eight venues but had to settle for six, as The Foundry and PS Collective were not available for the date we had to work with,” said event organizer Jeremy Buckley. “I think we were able to balance a lineup of established acts with a good number of newer bands that have made waves in Lincoln, but haven’t had much exposure in Omaha yet.”

The cover charge will be $8 to get into all six venues all night, or $5 gets you into any one venue for the evening. The band/venue schedule has yet to be posted on the event’s Facebook page. According to a press release, the the fest is being “supported” by an organization lamely called “Lincoln Is A Music City” — I have no idea what that is supposed to be, other than a Facebook page and a website.  According to both: “Lincoln Is A Music City is a collection of people who are interested in promoting and growing the local music scene in Lincoln, NE.” Buckley said it is “a loose collective of Lincoln music minded people who try to brainstorm ways to make the local scene as vibrant and visible as possible.” He also said Son of 76 frontman Josh Hoyer came up with the name. The title alone is bold. Most people consider Lincoln to be a “Football City” or the state capital or a great place to get drunk, but “A Music City”? It begs the question: What is Omaha? Is Omaha “A Music City”? If Lincoln is “a music city,” then maybe Omaha is “Thee Music City.” Which city deserves the title? And here we go again… Actually, I think Nashville is “a music city.” Maybe Memphis. But not Omaha, and certainly Lincoln, but I guess to the handful of bands that are behind the effort, Lincoln can be anything they want it to be.

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Tonight at The Barley Street Tavern, it’s Minneapolis self-proclaimed post punk/gothic/shoegaze band The Funeral And The Twilight, with Noah’s Ark Was A Spaceship, and Bazooka Shootout. $5, 9 p.m.

I saw a grand total of zero bands this weekend. Zero, as in none. I wanted to see music, but there just wasn’t anything going on except karaoke and tribute acts. Hopefully that’ll change in the coming weeks, though the list of just-announced shows in the One Percent monthly e-mail seems to indicate that we’re only going to get about one “important” out-of-town show per week moving forward. Sure, there’s always the usual CD release parties and the plethora of local-band showcases around Benson, but only a few nationals stood out on the list of just-scheduled gigs, including One EskimO (June 21), Maps & Atlases (July 7), Rogue Wave (July 18), and Tokyo Police Club (Aug. 1). In the “already announced” category is Blitzen Trapper next Monday, The Mountain Goats July 13, Deerhoof and (in a separate show) Mates of State June 25, The Hold Steady July 6, MAHA Festival July 24, Miniature Tigers Aug. 5, and The Black Keys Aug. 9. Missing from the list is that DEVO show that was rumored all over town and even posted on the Anchor Inn website (but never announced on the One Percent site) — that show is in limbo as far as anyone knows.

One other show 1% announced today:  The next MAHA festival play-in round June 24 at The Waiting Room. Those competing for a spot on the festival’s small stage are The Matt Cox Band, Midwest Dilemma, Honey & Darling, Tim Wildsmith and Landing On The Moon. Seeing as I’m 0 for 1 in the predictions department (I predicted Noah’s Ark Was a Spaceship would win the last battle of the bands at Slowdown, while generic rockers Betsy Wells took the prize), let me add to my abysmal average by saying that had I a vote to  cast, it would go to either Honey & Darling or Landing on the Moon, but that Tim Wildsmith will win the contest. Place your bets…

Speaking of MAHA, the organization posted a comment on Facebook the other day implying that The Faint’s performance at their festival would be the band’s last: “Given the most recent post on their Facebook page, fans of The Faint had better savor the performance at MAHA,” it said. The comment is in reference to Depressed Buttons, who I talked about in this blog back in April (here, to be exact). The new “band” (their terminology) features Clark Baechle, Todd Fink and Jacob Thiele, and has been busy building a blog — located at depressedbuttons.com — and putting tracks online at a soundcloud page, located here (They’ve also got a Twitter page, here). It’s electronic, it’s DJ, it’s remixing, it’s a party. I’m not sure that it’ll be anything beyond their version of Daft Punk (Will there be helmets?). Does Depressed Buttons spell the end of The Faint? I’m doubtful, even though Dapose is working on projects of his own and Joel Petersen is busy at Enamel Studios. Time will tell.

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Just as it was announced, lala.com closed its online doors for good yesterday, offering credit for iTunes to those with a balance on their lala account. All those awesome lala imbeds on reviews sites like Pitchfork have disappeared. Now we wait to see what Apple decides to do with the service. There was a rumor that they intended to use lala as a base for offering iTunes “in the cloud,” but now I’m hearing that might not happen due to ongoing contract/rights negotiations/disputes with various record labels. It would be a drag if Apple bought the service only to shut it down.

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Cass Brostad, Blue Sharks and Matt Cox are performing at tonight’s Pizza Review event at The Waiting Room. $10 gets you all the pizza you want from 20 different pizza vendors, with proceeds going to the food bank. It starts at 6 p.m.

Also tonight, Philly punk band The Menzingers play at Slowdown Jr. with Cheap Girls, La Casa Bombas and Speak Easy. 8 p.m., $10.