Tennis at Slowdown Jr., Aug. 16, 2010.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

There continues to be a trend in indie music toward ’50s and ’60s-style doo-wap rock. Denver band Tennis, who played to around 50 at Slowdown Jr. Monday night, certainly fits into the category. Consisting of husband and wife duo Patrick Riley (guitar) and Alaina Moore (keyboards/vocals), they played a set of easy-going throwback rock featuring Riley’s glowing Telecaster that sounded like it was transported out of a jukebox from Happy Days. Moore’s voice had that uneasy Natalie Merchant lilt (when it was in key).

Cabana Boys at Slowdown Jr., Aug. 16, 2010.

Opening with their usual solid set of yell-along punk songs were the anglers from Well Aimed Arrows, who ratcheted up their enthusiasm despite having to stare at a sea of seated patrons (Come on, folks, get out of your chairs, ferchrissake). Last night also was the world premier of Cabana Boys, a new trio featuring bassist Annie Dilocker (Digital Leather), drummer Kit Carson  (La Casa Bombas), and guitarist Kevin Cline (Watching the Train Wreck). You could call their sound “drunken garage rock slacker surf,” except that none of them appeared to be drunk. More to come, please…

* * *

Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2010 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Filmmaker Lindsay Trapnell e-mailed me a week or so ago to tell me about a film she’s trying to get financed via Kickstarter, the fund-raising website which you remember from Digital Leather.

The film is called Seafarer and the primary actors are Melissa Geary from Honeybee and Sam Martin from Capgun Coup. “And though we’re not quite to the scoring/music stage of the film, the film will feature original music from area musicians and bands,” Trapnell said.

According to the film’s Kickstarter site, the movie is “about floating between adolescence and adulthood. It’s about feeling swallowed up by a big city and yearning for a simpler life. It’s about realizing that every relationship in your life is in transition, from your parents to your partner. It’s about feeling lost and searching. It’s about realizing you are still young and letting go. It’s about getting up one morning and taking off, driving across the country, and landing in the Midwest.” In other words, it sounds like a coming-of-age rock movie. You can check out an early trailer at the Kickstarter site or at the official Seafarer website.

Plans call for shooting on location in Omaha this fall. “Our most expensive costs include procuring camera and sound equipment and accessories like lenses, a dolly, a car rig etc. These items, which are quite costly, are critical to our film as the story will be told primarily through visuals. We will also use money raised to feed our cast and crew, pay for necessary travel, create DVDs, and market the film and enter festivals.”

So far, 34 people have pledged $2,365 (including one who pledged $500!). The goal is to raise $3,500 by Aug. 30. Of course your pledge will earn you all kinds of cool stuff, including limited edition recordings, DVDs, photos, souvenirs, even a cameo in the film. Check out the Seafarer Kickstarter page.

This is not Trapnell’s first attempt at film making. Her short film, Hump, was selected as part of Film Streams’ Local Filmmaker Showcase. You can watch Hump online at www.lindsaytrapnell.com

* * *

Even more mail… Last month I got an email from Lazy-i reader Kelly Murphy, who uncovered a rare 1990 recording of Omaha band 5th of May made at the old KRCK studio which was located “above the drug store at 50th and Dodge and was broadcast on KRCK 95.3 via Cox Cable,” Murphy said. He added that KRCK was a true pirate FM station until the FCC paid a visit to owner Paul Kriegler. Afterward, the station changed hands a number of times before Matt Markel took over, made it “legitimate” and changed the format to goon rock.

Anyway, the line-up of 5th of May was Marty Maxwell, vocals; Frank Maxwell, guitar; Bob Boyce, drums; Mike Jaworski, bass, and Bob Crawford, guitar. The setlist from that November 1990 session was, according to Murphy: The Kid, Backdoor, Calling Out Your Name, All Kinds of Weird, Shoutdown, Take What’s Yours, Lead Singer of Firehose, The Ride, Out of Time, Crosstown Traffic, He We Go Again.

Here’s the kicker: Now you, too, can own a CDR copy of that 5th of May performance. Murphy has offered to burn copies for anyone who drops him an e-mail at kelly@triagestaff.com. I’ve got a copy, and the recording quality is surprisingly good, while the music can only be described as “groovy.”

* * *
There are two very hot shows going on tonight.

At Slowdown Jr., Denver indie buzz band Tennis hits the stage. Read about them in this article in the New York Times or check out their music at their Myspace page. Headlining is Omaha’s very own Honey & Darling. Also on the bill are bark-rockers Well Aimed Arrows and the debut of Cabana Boys (Annie from Digital Leather, Kit from La Casa Bombas, and Kev from Watching the Train Wreck). $8, 9 p.m.

Also tonight, The Watson Twins (who you might remember from Jenny Lewis’ first solo tour) are playing at The Waiting Room with Ferraby Lionheart. $10, 9 p.m.

* * *

Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2010 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Quitzow at The Waiting Room, Aug. 12, 2010.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Want proof of the amazing power of Lazy-i and The Reader? Check this out: If you didn’t count members of the other bands and the staff at The Waiting Room last night, there was a grand total of two people there at 9 p.m. to see the Young Love Records showcase. So suck on that OWH!

Who knows what happened. Maybe it was the thousand-degree heat or the three NFL football games or the English Beat at Slowdown (though I was told that was slow, too). Maybe it was the previous night’s show that drew just under 100 people. Whatever it was, the club was sadly empty when Setting Sun took the stage. But like the true pro that he is, frontman Gary Levitt performed his full set with the same panache as if it was a packed room. So did Quitzow, who saw the crowd triple in size to about six during her funky set of electronic dance pop that lured one couple to the dance floor to shake their asses. The crowd eventually ballooned to at least 30 when Landing on the Moon started at around a quarter to midnight, playing their usual solid set of indie rock ballads.

Poorly attended shows have forever been a rite of passage for indie bands, and last night’s was no exception. Quitzow and Setting Sun now have a story they can pass along after their inevitable rise to rock star status — the night they played in Omaha to two people, and still managed to rock the house.

* * *

Thursday night and last night were my “weekend shows.” There’s nothing on my radar for tonight or Saturday night. Phoenix is playing at Stir tonight, but I just saw them in September last year. With no new album and no chance of hearing new material, why bother seeing the exact same show again, especially at $35 per ticket? Opening is unknown band Toro Y Moi. Show starts at 8. Snoozer bluesman William Elliott Whitmore is playing at The Waiting Room tonight with Matt Cox and Muscle Worship. $10, 9 p.m.

And that, as they say, is that. Look for me at The Brothers or some other fine drinking establishment…

* * *

Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2010 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

So-So Sailors at The Waiting Room, Aug. 11, 2010.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The best part about music criticism other than the free CDs is following young bands, watching them from their first performance, seeing where they’re headed, and in the case of an act like It’s True, watching them burst into flames just as they begin to reach their zenith.

Along those lines, it’s a pleasure to watch So-So Sailors evolve right before my eyes. When I saw their “debut” at The Slowdown a few months ago, their music was interesting, but the band, especially frontman Chris Machmuller, seemed tentative and unsure. It was, after all, their first gig. What did you expect? But if they could pull something off in that situation, and pique your interest to see them again — and then again like last night — well, they must have something going on.

I wouldn’t call last night’s set, played in front of about 65 people at The Waiting Room, a “night and day” performance compared to the Slowdown set; instead it was more like “night and daybreak,” when the light is just beginning to come up and you can begin to make out features in the landscape that were invisible only a few moments earlier. So-So Sailors’ sound has become more visible, but not all the features are well-defined.

Their first song last night turned out to be their best — a tune that took advantage of the two-piano attack (Machmuller on one keyboard, Dan McCarthy on the other across the stage) along with Machmuller’s voice. As I’ve said before, if you’re expecting the pained screech-howl that he uses for Ladyfinger, it’s not there. Instead, Machmuller sings with a sweet, high voice reminiscent of very early, quiet (and forlorn) Neil Young. And when he pulls out his alto sax, you can’t help but smile.

As a whole, all the songs and arrangement last night were very Young-ian; there was even one soft tune that I thought could be a Neil cover. The formula calls for the rest of the band — Alex McManus on guitar, Dan Kemp on drums and Brendan Greene-Walsh on bass — to come in after a quiet intro verse by Machmuller and the keyboard(s), turning songs into crashing, grand rock odysseys that are arty and jazzy and bittersweet, especially after everyone pulls back again at the end, inevitably leaving Machmuller and the keyboard(s) to walk away alone into the dark.

Machmuller’s voice did lose some of its oomph toward the end of the set, like a balloon slowly deflating, eventually getting lost in the mix (especially on the last song). But that will only get better over time. It already has, compared to their debut. There’s a buzz around town about So-So Sailors, and there should be because they’re doing something that’s beyond the norm for this neck of the woods. It beacons back to ’70s rock, but without the chug-a-lug stomp or tired Americana twang. It’s both nostalgic and completely modern, and sounds like it’s still being distilled. I can’t wait to see where they take it next.

Ted Stevens kicked off the night with a solo set that was at its best when he loosened up and let himself be inventive with his electric guitar rather than merely sing over chords. He played some licks last night that took his sound in an entirely different direction than I’ve heard either with his past solo work or with Mayday.

The Bruces at The Waiting Room, Aug. 11, 2010.

The Bruces were a highlight. The line-up was Alex McManus on electric guitar and vocals, and Steve Micek on drums. Micek was as much in focus on stage as McManus, playing inventive, almost improvisational drum fills that gave a backbone to every song. This wasn’t McManus folk, it was McManus rock, but with a keen appreciation for melodies  — I’ve seen Alex do solo electric sets in the past that, quite frankly, were simply too dissonant for my taste. Instead, these were terrific songs with downtrodden and oftentimes strange lyrics painting stark, unique, lonely images. At times, it reminded me of darker Silver Jews material, but McManus’ voice is richer and more soulful than David Berman’s. Add Micek’s throaty drums and it came together as a special treat, one of the best live sets of music I’ve heard from McManus.

* * *

The Young Love Records caravan pulls into The Waiting Room tonight — Setting Sun, Quitzow and Landing on the Moon (for more info, see yesterday’s blog). $7, 9 p.m.

The English Beat returns to The Slowdown again after just being here in March. This time, the more impressive Fishbone isn’t along for the ride. Instead, the openers are Bad Manners and Chris Murray. $20, 8 p.m.

* * *

Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2010 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Young Love's Erica Quitzow and Gary Levitt.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Column 283: Love and Records

The dynamic duo behind Young Love…

Oliver Morgan of local indie band Landing on the Moon described them this way (and I’m paraphrasing because it was after a long night at O’Leaver’s): They each do their own thing, completely, separately, and it’s obvious when you listen to their bands, but there’s no mistaking that they’re together in everything — their music, their business, their lives.

Oliver was talking about Gary Levitt and Erica Quitzow, the owners/operators of Young Love Records, the label that signed Landing on the Moon earlier this year. But in addition to running a label and a recording studio, the couple also each has his and her own band that the other plays in — Setting Sun and Quitzow. And the two couldn’t sound more different.

Setting Sun, Levitt’s project, is low-fi, mainly acoustic, neo-psychedelic indie rock reminiscent of Neutral Milk Hotel, The Decemberists, even a bit of Arcade Fire. The single “Driving” off the just-released Fantasurreal chugs like a tidy indie freight train, while “Make You Feel” is as psychedelic as you can get with a trumpet playing a counter melody. Levitt played most of the instruments on the album, but Quitzow added backing vocals, bass, violin and cello.

Then there’s Quitzow, Erica’s sassy, sexy dance project, whose only goal is getting the audience to forget about their dreary lives for a little while and have some fun. Juice Water, her just-released second album, is a synth-driven dance-floor ass-shaker, thick with beats, bass and Quitzow’s snarling, cooing, barking vocals. Levitt produced the record and added some percussion and bass.

“I mixed both the records, but we mostly write by ourselves, though we do help each other in bits along the way,” Levitt said.

“Gary has the studio days, and I work through the night,” Quitzow said. “I ask him for feedback sometimes and he brings a lot of fantastic ideas, particularly for arrangements. Sometimes he’ll play a bass or percussion track. After tracking, he brings the production magic to the records. He’s an obsessive studier of sound technology and can make things sound however I want.”

The couple first met playing music together, eventually becoming collaborators on more than just music. “We’re not married and we really don’t relate to the idea, though we fully respect anyone who does,” Quitzow said. “Marriage doesn’t fit in with our approach to life, we’re either together or we’re not. I don’t participate in any other religious institution, so why this one? Ultimately, music brought us and keeps us together, it’s our biggest passion.”

So I guess it only made sense for them to start a record label, which Levitt quipped was a “really smart career move.” They formed Young Love in 2004 as a musicians’ collective — they now have four bands on the roster, rounded out by Seattle band Skidmore Fountain.

So how did a label based out of New Paltz, New York (just outside of Poughkeepsie) discover and sign a band located halfway across the country? “We knew Oliver through his brother and played together in Omaha,” Levitt said. “We also hung out and housed Little Brazil and Ladyfinger when they played in New York. I can’t remember which came first, but we hit it off and fell in love. We love their music and hard working spirit and also their genuineness.

“Each band on Young Love Records is part of a family,” Levitt added. “If a brother or sister does well, they help their siblings along the way. This interview is probably a case in point. I’m not sure you’d be talking to us right now if it weren’t for Oliver Morgan and Landing on the Moon.”

True, but then again, without Landing on the Moon, it’s unlikely that the bands would even be coming to The Waiting Room Thursday night. Pulling from everyone’s resources seems an obvious recipe for success, and one of the only reasons to be part of a label in this age of record industry decay. Unless, of course, your label is Merge.

“It would be great to become as influential as Merge Records,” Levitt said. “I would still want to record bands all the time, but it would be a dream come true to own some more great gear. If we sold as many records as Neutral Milk Hotel or Arcade Fire, I could probably get that Fairchild 670 I dream of.”

With their label having just signed a deal with distributor Red Eye (Kill Rock Stars, Barsuk, Warp), that two-channel compressor just might be a little more within reach.

“Success is defined in many ways for us,” Quitzow said, “by people coming to our shows knowing the music because they downloaded it for free, or when people sing along and dance at a show, but financial success may continue to come primarily from licensing. Oh how I fantasize about BMI checks.”

She also fantasizes about being alone, something that rarely happens when you’re on the road with the guy who isn’t your husband. “Right now I’m on tour and exhausted from connecting,” she said. “I’ve been connecting so intensely with people at shows and people who we stay with. The music is a vehicle for conversation and sharing experiences, and I’m pretty tapped from meeting so many shockingly like-minded people. I want to be in a padded room or a stimulation-deprivation tank for like 10 days.”

Stimulation-deprivation tank? All I can say to that, Erica, is welcome to Omaha.

Setting Sun and Quitzow play with Landing on the Moon, Thursday, Aug. 12, at The Waiting Room. Showtime is 9 p.m. Admission is $7.

* * *

Tonight at The Waiting Room, it’s a trio of superstars: Ted Stevens (Cursive, Mayday, Lullaby for the Working Class), The Bruces (Alex McManus) and The So-So Sailors (indie rock supergroup extraordinaire) all take the stage for one night only. $7, 9 p.m.

Down at Slowdown Jr., Chicago indie-pop band Netherfriends (Emergency Umbrella Records) performs with Sam Martin (Capgun Coup). $5, 9 p.m.

* * *

Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2010 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

What, no show reviews from this past weekend? The reason: I just got back from vacation since last Wednesday, in cool, dry Breckenridge, CO, one of the few places in the world where there is no good music — not in the bars, not on the mountains, not on the radio. Which made me thank my lucky stars that the GTI is equipped with a satellite radio. We spent the weekend listening to XMU, the indie satellite station, which I have to believe is becoming as important as Pitchfork even though their playlist is woefully narrow.

After overdosing on Arcade Fire for a few days in the row (it was as if XMU was sponsored by the band), Teresa insisted on Sirius “80s on 8” for the drive home — that meant nine straight hours of ’80s pop music. Why not? It’s been awhile since I dipped myself into the Reagan Era, music-wise.

Every once in a while, someone will tell me that he thinks his parents’ music was better than the music from the current era. Well, if his parents’ music is ’80s pop, I’m not sure that’s true. Was there a more flamboyant, more excessive era in pop music? Believe me, I know. I grew up in the ’80s with MTV and hair metal and the disco hangover. Listening back now, I have to believe all that excess was fueled by nose candy in the sort of opposite way that downers and pot influenced music in the droopy, drowsy ’60s.

By contrast, the ’80s was speed, glitter, rainbows and more more more. I can imagine high-dollar recording studios booked by rich rock bands for months at a time and helmed by zoned-out record producers who spent their time trying to figure out how they could squeeze more sound effects into every track. “I think we should add some zinger effects right here – zing zing zing,” says the mustached former Sabbath roadie as he desperately tries to keep his elbow from knocking over the mountains of cocaine piled along the top of the sound board.

How else do you explain a song like “The Reflex,” by Duran Duran? It’s as if the band and producer were trying to put every inane sound effect into every spare second of the song. Go back and listen to it again. It’s the most idiotic, cartoonish-sounding recording you’ll ever hear.

It had to be the coke that made them want everything bigger, right? Take drums. Back in ’85, your typical pop song couldn’t use regular analog drums. Not big enough. Every song had to use sampled electronic explosions – crash, crash, crash! Every beat was a bomb going off. Thirty years later, those bombs sound both big and hollow at the same time.

And then there were the egregiously narcissistic guitar solos — the staple of ’80s macho rock, so drenched in testosterone they wreaked of Brut and body odor. Sure, there were guitar solos in the ’70s, but they generally fulfilled a purpose, they at least tried to enhance the music experience. Not in the ’80s. Every hair metal song had to give 20 seconds (which felt like two minutes) to the lead ax man so he could pull down his leather pants and let everyone know how good of a guitarist he thought he was. But instead, those solos almost always just got in the way.

But more than hair metal, which was Cro-Magnon dumbshit music for a white-trash nation, the ’80s, specifically the mid-’80s, brought on the emergence of gay American dance music — post-disco good-time synth pop that was more effeminate than anything in the past. People point to Bowie’s androgyny in the ’70s, but to those who weren’t “in the know,” Bowie and the glam crowd were just a bunch of clowns who discovered their girlfriends’ make-up kits. “Gay” to them meant “Look at me, I’m a freak.”

That wasn’t the case on the dance floor in the ’80s. There was no mistaking the intent. Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Pet Shop Boys, George Michael, these guys weren’t wearing crazy orange Bowie wigs or dresses, but there was no mistaking where they — and their music — were coming from. Sure, they were coke heads too, and were among the most guilty when it came to excess in their music arrangements. Add the calliope of sound to the late nights, the colored strobes, the sweat and the poppers, and the ’80s for them became a glorious blur that would, eventually, end tragically.

But before that, the gay culture had never so permeated popular American culture. Before long, even ’70s legends were trying to update their sound and style to fit the era. How else do you explain Born in the USA-era Springsteen? The guy who used to look like a skinny, greasy mechanic, suddenly emerged post-workout, with tight jeans, tight shirt and headband, he couldn’t have looked more gay. And “Dancing in the Dark” — with its tooting synths — couldn’t have sounded more un-Springsteen-ish.

So that’s what went through my head after listening to “80s on 8” for seven hours. We eventually couldn’t take it anymore and had to change it back to XMU, where I discovered something about the ’80s and what’s wrong with today’s indie music. No matter how excessive or overindulgent ’80s pop music was, you almost always could find the melody to every song, and after just one time through. They were songs that, after a couple spins, you could  sing along to, whether you wanted to or not.

Try that with most of today’s indie rock. Listen to the “Barricade,” the new track by Interpol, then afterward, try to hum the melody. When was the last time a melody by Spoon stuck in your head (other than the one used in the commercial)? Can you sing one line from a Deerhunter song? When it’s not singer/songwriter fare, indie music is drama and effect, an emotional tone poem or soundscape with a few lines of poetry thrown in. There aren’t a lot of indie “songs.”

And these days, there aren’t many good pop songs, either. We listened to XMU Hits or whatever its called and got an hour of Katy Perry and the rest of the current tribe of girly girl artists who all seem to be singing the very same, proudly misogynistic songs that no woman over the age of 25 (and certainly no straight man) would take seriously. Do not compare them to Madonna.

Hmmm… in retrospect, and considering that it also marked the birth of indie, maybe the ’80s was a better era after all…

* * *

Tomorrow: An interview with Young Love Records artists Setting Sun and Quitzow. Be there.

* * *

Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2010 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Festival season continues Saturday with Farnam Festival at the corner of 40th and Farnam Sts. starting at 3 p.m. The goal: To raise $50k to help turn Farnam into a two-way street between 36th and 42nd. How this will help the businesses along that street, I’m not entirely sure, other than the fact that they’ll be getting traffic from both directions instead of one. I personally can’t imagine a two-way Farnam (especially in front of The Brothers), but what the heck, right? I assume money raised will go toward, what, construction to make the street two-way? Isn’t that a job for the City of Omaha? Does the money go to the City? More likely it’ll go to the Midtown Business Association who is spearheading the effort. Maybe they need it to pay for lawyers and architects? Look, I don’t know and it’s not spelled out on their website.

Regardless, what it means for the rest of us is an afternoon and evening’s worth of music by a handful of local bands (most of whom are Benson regulars) for a $10 admission. And, of course, a beer tent also will be set up. The sched:

3:15 p.m. – Normandy Invasion

4:25 – Brad Hoshaw and the Seven Deadlies

5:30 – The Third Men

6:35 – Sarah Benck

7:45 – Thunder Power

9:00 – Midwest Dilemma

10:15 – Southpaw Bluegrass Band

BTW, this thing is supposed to become an annual event.

* * *

Meanwhile, the North Downtown district (sadly nicknamed “NoDo”) is having a block party this Saturday. You can read about all the festivities here, but the music part of the gig is an open house at Slowdown starting at 7 p.m. The line-up is Bear Country, Talking Mountain and the mysterious KISS-loving DJ known as Tyrone Storm. The cost, absolutely free.

* * *

There’s more to this weekend than festivals and block parties.

Friday night Noah’s Ark Was a Spaceship plays at The Barley St. with Why Make Clocks and the Ketchup and Mustard Gas. $5, 9 p.m.

And, The Mynabirds are playing at the Stir Lounge Saturday night with opener Jake Bellows. $5, 9 p.m.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Readership of this-here blog has been off the hook the past couple of weeks. I guess it has something to do with the coverage of both MAHA and ConorFest. So to readers new and old, thanks for coming. Just a reminder, there’s a comments section at the bottom of each blog entry, and lately it has been getting plenty o’ action, so make sure you scroll down past the copyright mumbo-jumbo for your opportunity to voice your own opinion, or you can always go to the webboard. Just one rule: Play nice.

* * *

Tonight at The Waiting Room Miniature Tigers (Modern Art Records/ILG)  drops by on their first headlining tour as they head to Lollapalooza. Opening is The Spinto Band and The Delta Mirror. $10, 9 p.m.

Meanwhile, it’s a night of laid-back folk at Slowdown Jr. with Desert Soap, Platte River Rain and Cass Fifty and the Family Gram. $7, 9 p.m.

And finally, at fabulous O’Leaver’s it’s McCarthy Trenching, Jake Bellows and Phil Schaffart — all for the usual $5 at the usual 9:30.

* * *

Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2010 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Gillian Welch and David Rawlings at The Concert for Equality, July 31, 2010.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Here’s my “official review” of last Saturday’s Concert for Equality that runs in today’s issue of The Reader, presumably with a handful of photos (Pt. 1 ran here Monday). The whole day felt like a small-town street dance, a gathering of a community for what will be remembered as one of the most important indie music concerts in Omaha history. If you missed it, well, you can always relive it on YouTube.

Column 282: Live Review: Concert for Equality

Breaking down another language barrier.

It was supposed to be a protest concert — the Concert for Equality — but it will likely be remembered as a Saddle Creek Records music festival with an underlying, almost subliminal message about the evils of local laws designed to discriminate against immigrants.

A good message, no doubt, but how could it compete with this concert’s line-up? When was the last time that the three crown jewels of Saddle Creek Records played in Omaha in the same week? A decade ago? Ever?

With The Faint playing the previous Saturday at the MAHA Music Festival, and now Bright Eyes and Cursive playing at the Concert for Equality, we were seeing it happen again. Add performances by Desaparecidos and Lullaby for the Working Class, and you’ve turned the clock backwards 10 years, to a time when Omaha music mattered to the nation.

But even that line-up wasn’t enough. The buzz in the crowd all day was that Neil Young was going to drop by for a couple numbers at the $50-per-ticket concert at The Waiting Room following the outdoor show. Yes, Neil Young. Why stop there? Why not Bono or Springsteen or a reunited Led Zeppelin or the ghost of John Lennon? If there ever was a secret special guest lined up, it probably was Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy or another of concert organizer Conor Oberst’s music buddies like M. Ward or Jim James, who had showed up unannounced for the Obama rally at the Civic a few years back. But even those two seemed like a long-shot now that the Fremont anti-immigrant law that got the ball rolling was unlikely to be enacted anytime soon.

For every line of copy and sound bite in the local news that amplified Oberst’s message of both indignation and tolerance, there was a hate-quote from cave-dwellers like NAG (Nebraska Advisory Group) calling Oberst a racist and suggesting that he be deported. The media was bracing for a protest, but if there was one, no one saw it on Maple Street. Word spread that a handful of flag-waving crazies had set up camp near the Walgreens on Radial Highway. They might as well have been in Lincoln.

Nothing was going to stop this concert, anyway. After three warm-up bands — Flowers Forever, Vago and The Envy Corp — Bright Eyes took the stage exactly at 7:15 and played a too short set that included “Bowl of Oranges” and “Road to Joy,” along with new Oberst number, “Coyote Song.” The Bright Eyes line-up was core members Oberst, Mike Mogis and Nate Walcott, along with Clark Baechle on drums and Cursive’s Matt Maginn on bass. Like the MAHA second stage, it was hard to watch their performance while a blinding sun burned just above the lighting rigs, forcing everyone’s left hand in front of their eyes, while their right held a cold tall-boy.

After years of watching a sullen, almost depressed Conor Oberst scowl throughout his concerts, it was a pleasure to see him smiling and energized, as if the crowd of mostly like-minded fans had lifted the weight of the world from his tiny shoulders. He seemed almost… happy.

The sun retreated behind one of Benson’s broken buildings as Gillian Welch and David Rawlings began their set of acoustic finger-picking folk that wound up being a highlight of the day. When Cursive launched into pain-howl ballad “The Martyr” it didn’t matter if any Benson resident had bought a ticket — they heard Tim Kasher screaming in their living rooms. I cannot understate how loud it was — earplug loud from down the street at Benson Grind. Cursive matched the volume with an intensity that was violent, angry, amazing.

And then came Desaparecidos — Landon Hedges, Denver Dalley and the rest of the crew all on stage, all growed up playing the best set of the band’s disjointed history. Watching Desa brought on a wave of both nostalgia and lost opportunity. If ever there was a project that Oberst needed to be part of right now, or for that matter, during the Bush years, it was Desa — the perfect vehicle for his bitter temper tantrums, a rallying cry against cynicism for a disinterested, privileged suburban generation. A pity that the Desa set would only be a one-off.

As would the Lullaby for the Working Class reunion. Ted Stevens and his crew countered a day of anger and noise with an evening of acoustic serenity — soothing, soaring melodies that have aged well over the past decade.

In the end, Neil Young stayed home. There would be no “special guests” at The Waiting Room for the “Deluxe” ticket holders. The “hootenanny” consisted of Welch and Rawlings, joined by members of Bright Eyes followed by more Desaparecidos, and then the finale — everyone joined in on a song by David Dondero with a chorus that ran close to the tune of Bright Eyes’ “Land Locked Blues,” but with the lyrics:

They’re building a new Berlin Wall
From San Diego to Texas, so tall.
Don’t they know that they can’t stop us all?
But they’re building a new Berlin wall.

Oberst did his best to rally the troops behind a sentiment that I’m still not sure any of them clearly understood. I know I didn’t. The message sounded like: We don’t need any borders… at all. Would the suggestion still make sense the next morning, after the sing-along fever-buzz wore off? Oberst and his followers could work to get rid of all the localized, backward-thinking immigration laws that are destined to pop up like kudzu across the country, but they still had a federal crisis to deal with. I wonder if Conor or Dave can figure out a lyric that rhymes with “feasible, sensible national immigration policy.”

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2010 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Mercy Rule at Duffy's during last year's Lincoln Calling Festival, Oct. 3, 2009.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Jeremy Buckley yesterday announced the initial line-up for this year’s Lincoln Calling Festival, which starts Sept. 29. Below is the preliminary list of bands. Presumably more will be added (Do they really need more?), with a final confirmed list slated for Sept. 1. As always, this is a very solid collection of local bands with a few notable nationals sprinkled in. Buckley can pull this off because he actually pays his bands to take part in the event. The nine venues participating this year are The Bourbon Theatre, Duffys Tavern, the Zoo Bar, 12th St. Pub, The Alley, Marz Bar, Fat Toad, the Bricktop, the Black Market and the rooftop of Sandy’s (actually, that’s 10). Buckley said ticket prices will be announced next week, and you’ll get a substantial discount if you buy way in advance.

Here goes:

The Allendales (Lincoln) http://www.myspace.com/theallendales
Bandit Sound (Lincoln) http://www.myspace.com/banditsounds
Bear Country (Omaha) http://www.myspace.com/bearcountry
Brimstone Howl (Omaha/Lincoln) http://www.myspace.com/brimstonehowl
Capgun Coup (Omaha) http://www.myspace.com/capguncoup
Christian Mistress (Olympia, WA) http://stereogum.com/399492/christian-mistress-home-in-the-sun-stereogum-premiere/franchises/haunting-the-chapel/
Conchance (Omaha) http://www.myspace.com/conchanceallcity
Cowboy Indian Bear (Lawrence) http://www.myspace.com/cowboyindianbear
Deerpeople (Stillwater) http://www.myspace.com/deerpeople
Honeybee (Omaha) http://www.myspace.com/honeyhoneybee
The Hood Internet (Chicago) http://www.myspace.com/therealhoodinternet
Ideal Cleaners (Lincoln) http://www.myspace.com/idealcleaners
The Kickback (Chicago) http://www.myspace.com/thekickback
Life of a Scarecrow (Lincoln) http://www.myspace.com/lifeofascarecrow
LookBook (Minneapolis) http://www.myspace.com/lookbookmusic
Loom does Lincoln Calling (Omaha) http://www.myspace.com/loomgathering
The Love Language (Raleigh, NC) http://www.myspace.com/thelovelanguage
Manny Coon (Lincoln) http://www.myspace.com/mannycoon
Mercy Rule (Lincoln) http://www.speednebraska.com/independent_bands/mercy_rule.php
Mezcal Brothers (Lincoln) http://www.myspace.com/themezcalbrothers
Noah’s Ark Was a Spaceship (Omaha) http://www.myspace.com/noahsarkwasaspaceship
Patrick Park (Los Angeles) http://www.myspace.com/patrickpark
Poison Control Center (Ames) http://www.myspace.com/thepcc
The Prids (Portland) http://www.myspace.com/theprids
Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers (Phoenix) http://www.myspace.com/azpeacemakers
Sea Wolf acoustic (Los Angeles) http://www.myspace.com/seawolf
Sera Cahoone (Seattle) http://www.myspace.com/seracahoone
Shaun Sparks and the Wounded Animals (Lincoln) http://www.myspace.com/compoundshaun
The Song Remains the Same (Omaha) http://www.myspace.com/songremainsthesame01
Talking Mountain (Omaha) http://www.myspace.com/talkingmountain
Techlepathy (Omaha) http://www.myspace.com/techlepathy
Third Men (Omaha) http://www.myspace.com/thirdmen
Thrones (Salem, OR) http://www.myspace.com/thronestour
Those Darlins (Murfreesboro) http://www.myspace.com/darlins
Thunder Power! (Omaha) http://www.myspace.com/thunderpowermusic
Turbo Fruits (Nashville) http://www.myspace.com/turbofruits
Union Line (San Juan Capistrano) http://www.myspace.com/theunionline
UUVVWWZ (Lincoln) http://www.myspace.com/uuvvwwz
Wagon Blasters (Omaha) http://www.myspace.com/wagonblast

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Tomorrow: Another take on The Concert for Equality…

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2010 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.