Conduits

Column 318: Four bands, two slices of vinyl, one distinctive sound.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The dim, squalid confines of The Underwood Bar are a fine place to drink yourself into oblivion while playing a game of pool or pinball. They’re not such a fine place to conduct an interview, especially with four bands simultaneously. But that’s where Conduits drummer Roger Lewis decided would be the best place for what would turn into chaos.

Crammed between the pool table and glowing digital jukebox in the back of the bar sat Lewis and Conduits band mate Jenna Morrison; InDreama frontman Nik Fackler with his bandmate — legendary bass player Dereck Higgins; Icky Blossoms mastermind Derek Pressnall, and the hardest working guy in local music, Darren Keen, the genius behind Touch People. If you go to The Slowdown this Friday night you will hear all of these musicians and their band mates perform together on one bill, maybe for the one and only time (though there’s talk of repeating the line-up sometime in Lincoln).

Darren Keen a.k.a. Touch People

The occasion for this grand collective is the release of a duo 7-inch split — one song from each band on two vinyl records. Morrison said J.J. Idt, who plays in both Conduits and Icky Blossoms, came up with the idea, and then “one link led to another.”

It sounded like a great story, but somewhere before Lewis bought me a second Rolling Rock and after one of the fat, bearded locals plugged the jukebox and began belting out lines to Vanilla Fudge’s “You Keep Me Hanging On,” I realized that it was all going to get lost in the noise and confusion of trying to reign in six people talking from six different angles.

And that the project’s real story centered around the music, anyway. The recordings break down like this:

“Misery Train” by Conduits is a perfect slice of the band’s trademark dream-pop sound, dim and faraway, with Morrison’s angelic voice burning through the mist like a distant beacon, safe and familiar and strangely comforting in its ghostly beauty.

Icky Blossoms’ “Perfect Vision” is a pop gem, a mid-tempo hand-clapping slacker anthem that’s a combination of Jesus and Mary Chain and Love & Rockets, with Pressnall standing right in the middle of it all, singing presumably with eyes half closed lines like “Nothing to do but get high in the afternoon.”

InDreama

Opening with icy synth tones, InDreama’s “Reprogram” evolves into proggy electronic drunk-funk. As much an art piece as a rock song, the track defines Fackler as a Midwestern version of Beck, unafraid to reach out and try something different for difference’s sake, but never losing sight of the melody.

Finally, there’s Touch People’s “Sound Expression,” a cacophony of electronic noises and break beats tethered to an uneven foundation of shifting chords and tones, with Keen’s voice emerging strangely through the floor boards with lines like “Sometimes a sound is just a sound.”

Side-by-side, each song is starkly different, and yet somehow there’s a sonic thread — a dreamy vibe — that binds all four together into a cohesive whole. These four bands stand at the vanguard of a new direction of Nebraska music, a clear departure from the singer-songwriter fare that so brazenly defined the scene over the past decade.

In fact, all the bands are second-generation outgrowths of former projects. Icky Blossoms was born out of Pressnall’s Flowers Forever (which was a side project of Tilly and the Wall); InDreama is a bastard child of Fackler’s The Family Radio; Conduits includes veterans of Eagle Seagull and Son Ambulance, while Touch People is a third concurrently functioning incarnation of Darren Keen, who’s better known for his persona as The Show Is the Rainbow.

Derek Pressnall of Icky Blossoms

The duo splits are an introduction to all four bands, which despite their obvious differences make sense collectively. Consider these singles as a crossroads where all four meet before spinning off once again in their own directions. We can expect to hear full lengths or other recordings by all four at some point later this year. But for now, they’re all together, at least for one night.

“This scene is more accepting of general weirdness,” said Keen, who despite frequently playing in both Lincoln and Omaha has always been viewed by some as an outsider. “Omaha and Nebraska music has evolved from its labels. Now it’s like any other cool city. Seattle, for example, is more than just grunge.”

“We’re in a period in Omaha music where there are so many kick-ass bands out there,” Lewis said. “It’s a kick-ass-band overload!”

Fackler, who is more well known as the writer and director of indie film Lovely, Still, said seeing Conduits perform “genuinely inspired me. I got that feeling again to put a band together.”

“We all are just friends,” Pressnall added, “and while this hasn’t exactly been thought out, we’ve all been very inspired by each other. When I see these bands, I just want to go home and push myself creatively.”

From there, the conversations rose to a fever pitch and I started to lose my balance. Like a wise Jedi master or an all-knowing Buddha or what he really is — the veteran of some of the area’s most important legacy bands —  Dereck Higgins simply looked at me, smiled and summed it all up perfectly. “Can you feel it?” he asked quietly between three conversations. “Can you see how all of us are connected? There’s something going on here.”

Conduits, Icky Blossoms, InDreama and Touch People play Friday, April 15, at The Slowdown. Tickets are $7, show starts at 9 p.m.

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Minneapolis chamber-folk band Dark Dark Dark is at Slowdown Jr., tonight with Honey & Darling. Check out Chris Aponick’s interview with the band if The Reader (here). $8, 9 p.m.

Also, tonight is the first of two nights of the Omaha Invasion Festival in Lincoln. $6 per night or $10 for a 2-day pass. Here’s tonight’s sched:

Thursday – April 14th – Duffy’s Tavern

08:40 – 09:20PM – Kyle Harvey

09:40 – 10:20PM – Lonely Estates

10:40 – 11:20PM – Down With The Ship

11:40 – 12:20AM – All Young Girls Are Machine Guns

12:40 – 01:20AM – Midwest Dilemma

Thursday – April 14th – Bourbon Theatre (Rye Room)

08:20 – 09:00PM – Underwater Dream Machine (Bret Vovk)

09:20 – 10:00PM – Vago

10:20 – 11:00PM – Dim Light

11:20 – 12:00AM – Conchance

12:20 – 01:00AM – Matt Cox

Also, according to Saddle Creek, Bright Eyes is on Leno tonight. Set the DVR for stun…

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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 © 2011 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

The New Pornographers

Full-time Pornographer

New Pornographers’ Kathryn Calder is more than a fill-in

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Early in the interview with New Pornographers vocalist / keyboard player Kathryn Calder I figured I’d try a bit of a joke.

Calder said she was recovering from a solo show played the night before in Duncan, a small town an hour north of her home of Victoria, British Columbia. While people mostly know her from her New Pornographers role, she said a few also remember her work with former band Immaculate Machine, as well as from her solo album, Are You My Mother?, released last fall.

“I haven’t done many solo shows yet,” she said. “I’ve planned a little tour in a spot when I knew New Pornographers weren’t going to be doing anything. It makes it easier.”

It was here that I suggested that if Calder needed more time to nurture her solo career, she could always hit up fellow New Pornographers vocalist Neko Case to fill in on her parts while she was gone, which resulted in Calder’s good-hearted, if not polite, laugh at my rather lame joke.

Kathryn Calder

It’s a joke because part of the reason Calder was asked to join New Pornographers in 2005 was to fill in for Neko Case when Case is away doing a solo tour. Calder first began working with the band on ’05’s Twin Cinema album. “I wasn’t really in the band yet,” she said. “The reason they invited me in was to see how well I’d fit in with the sound. I guess we were recording in early 2005 for Twin Cinema and in June I had my first five dates with the Pornographers. That was the trial period, and I guess they were happy with it clearly. In August they just started to invite me along.”

Calder is credited with back-up vocals and piano on that album. By the time 2007’s Challenger was released, she was a full-blown Pornographer, having spent the past two years touring with the band. “Carl (Newman) gave me a more prominent role of that record,” she said.

Calder plays an even more prominent role on the band’s fifth album, Together. Released last May on Matador Records, the album was a departure from the New Pornographers’ more inward-sounding, intimate recordings, to something more, well, robust. Opening track “Moves” launches with a guitar-and-cello riff that would feel right at home on a latter-day Zeppelin album before it lets go into a piano bounce and frontman Newman’s familiar, groovy summer-time vocals. Neko Case takes over for track two, the swinging “Crash Years,” while Dan Bejar’s sinister snarl is front and center on big-pop rocker “Silver Jenny Dollar.” Mixed among it all is Calder’s sweet vocals, giving the band its distinct harmonic sound.

“I was more involved in this one than any other record,” Calder said, adding that she spent a lot of time at Little Blue recording studio in Woodstock, NY. “We hadn’t heard the songs before I arrived at Woodstock. You get played these songs and have to jam them out.”

It wasn’t until after the recording that Calder discovered that the album would be dedicated to her mother, Lynn Calder. “She had just passed away in July 2009,” Calder said. “We went to record in September. The songs were written by that point and I was still reeling obviously and they dedicated it to her, and I thought that was nice.”

The New Pornographers, Together (Matador, 2010)

More than any other New Pornographer’s album, Together is a mix of the band’s generous vocal talents. “Carl even said that it’s the first album where he thought he was singing the least,” Calder said. But having that much talent means that — like Calder and Case — everyone has side gigs. As A.C. Newman, Carl Newman had something of a hit with 2009’s Get Guilty (Matador Records), and Bejar is known as much for his other band, Destroyer, as for New Pornographers, having released arguably one of the best albums so far this year with Kaputt, on Merge Records.

Because of all these side projects, you never know who you’re going to see when New Pornographers rolls into your town. For next Thursday’s show at The Waiting Room, Neko Case will be along for the ride, while Bejar most likely won’t be, Calder said.

“We have various incarnations for all eventualities,” she said of the ever-changing line-up. “We have the ability to play as a 6-piece, 7-piece and as an 8-piece. On our last big tour we were a 10-piece.”

With Bejar gone, Calder said the band will “just fill in his parts and won’t play that many of his songs. We can also play some of his songs with Carl singing Dan’s parts. It’s just how it has to be.”

With Case along on this tour, Calder said the two will be doing a lot of singing together. “Carl is very clever when he arranged it,” Calder said. “I play piano and play the same thing whether she’s there or not. I’m always doing my thing anyway. She sings her songs and I sing with her, and we’ll sing at the same time, providing a powerful female assault.”

Calder said expect a 7-person line-up at The Waiting Room “and there will be lots of singing and foot stomping, and I’ll even bring out my accordion for one song. It’s going to be a lot of fun.” And that’s no joke.

The New Pornographers plays with The So-So Sailors, Thursday, April 21, at The Waiting Room, 6212 Maple St. Showtime is 9 p.m. Tickets are $22 adv. / $25 DOS. For more information, visit onepercentproductions.com.

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I’m a bit surprised that this New Pornographers show hasn’t sold out yet. What’s up with that, Omaha?

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An addendum rather than a correction to yesterday’s Poster Child item: Jeremy Buckley e-mailed to say that he has two partners in his new business — Dub Wardlaw and Scott Hatfield from Duffy’s. Regardless, there’s no question that Buckley is “all in” on this one: As part of the deal, he no longer works for The Bourbon Theater, though Poster Child is booking shows for the venue. When will we begin to see Poster Child-produced shows in Omaha?

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Tonight at The Waiting Room it’s Jersey guitarist / instrumentalist / one-man band Delicate Steve (real name: Dave Marion), who’s new album, Wondervisions, was released on Luaka Bop, a label created by Talking Heads’ David Byrne. AMG compares him to Animal Collective (not quite) and Dirty Projectors (getting closer). Opening is Bad Speler (a.k.a. Darren Keen) & DVH (a.k.a. Dereck Higgins). $8, 9 p.m.

Meanwhile, down at Slowdown Jr., Lightning Bug is headlining a show that also includes I Was Totally Destroying it, Cashes Rivers, and what I believe is the stage debut of Pony Wars, a new band featuring Craig Korth (Oil, Brave Captain). $7, 9 p.m.

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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 © 2011 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan. Lazy-i.com

Poster Child Productions (a name that will always remind me of the classic Champaign Illinois band The Poster Children) is the name of Jeremy Buckley’s new music promotion company. We all know Jeremy as the guy who puts together the Lincoln Calling and the Omaha Invasion festivals every year.

Anyway, according to their website: “Poster Child Productions is a promotions company based out of Lincoln, Nebraska, with a focus on providing quality live music events at venues across the state. While the company name is new, its staff brings more than a decade of booking experience at more than 20 venues across Lincoln and Omaha. Our goal is to bring quality national talent to Nebraska and pair those bands with the amazing local roster of musicians performing live music across the state.”

Sounds impressive. And to think it all started way back in 2004 with Lincoln Calling. For this year’s Lincoln Calling festival, which is Oct. 11-15, Buckley is trying something completely different — he’s inviting any and all bands to apply to be part of the festival.

“I’m hoping to eliminate a lot of that back and forth by asking bands to fill out a quick application if they want to be considered for this year’s fest,” he said. “As always, bands will receive some sort of pay, which will be negotiated separately for each band and showcase. Of course applying doesn’t equal automatic acceptance, but it will help me keep track of interested bands while compiling contact info, bios, press pics, etc. for once it’s time to promote the event.”

The application is located online here: http://lincolncalling.com/registration.php

Meanwhile, this coming weekend is the second annual Omaha Invasion Festival, an idea that Jeremy admits was born out of a suggestion made on this here website.  This year, Duffy’s and the Bourbon Theater will host the event. Tickets are $6 per night or $10 for a two-day pass that gets you into both clubs. Here’s the schedule:

Thursday – April 14th – Duffy’s Tavern

08:40 – 09:20PM – Kyle Harvey

09:40 – 10:20PM – Lonely Estates

10:40 – 11:20PM – Down With The Ship

11:40 – 12:20AM – All Young Girls Are Machine Guns

12:40 – 01:20AM – Midwest Dilemma

Thursday – April 14th – Bourbon Theatre (Rye Room)

08:20 – 09:00PM – Underwater Dream Machine (Bret Vovk)

09:20 – 10:00PM – Vago

10:20 – 11:00PM – Dim Light

11:20 – 12:00AM – Conchance

12:20 – 01:00AM – Matt Cox

Friday – April 15th – Duffy’s Tavern

08:40 – 09:20PM – Hello From Ghost Valley

09:40 – 10:20PM – The End In Red

10:40 – 11:20PM – Flight Metaphor

11:40 – 12:20AM – Lepers

12:40 – 01:20AM – Blue Bird

Friday – April 15th – Bourbon Theatre (Rye Room)

08:20 – 09:00PM – Cordial Spew

09:20 – 10:00PM – Witness Tree

10:20 – 11:00PM – Mitch Gettman Band

11:20 – 12:00AM – Honey & Darling

12:20 – 01:00AM – Answer Team

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Finally, it appears that our friends at MECA have finally plugged in redskyfestival.com, Red Sky’s official website. There’s nothing there that we didn’t already know, but it clearly won’t be long now until they make their big announcement (maybe this weekend?). Wonder how many of the predictions/rumors in my Red Sky Festival column, posted in March, will come true?

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Tomorrow: The New Pornographers

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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 © 2011 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Biters at Slowdown Jr., April 8, 2011

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

What to say about Biters, who played at Slowdown Jr. last Friday, other than they brought the big-guitar glam-pop rock like no one since maybe Butch Walker at TWR last year and certainly like no band from around here. Their sound was pure Cheap Trick meets T. Rex meets The Stooges meets The Boys meets… well, you get the picture. One could argue that the sound is at its very core derivative, and that derivative is exactly what the crowd was there for. With the shag cuts, skinny-leg black pants and rock Ts, they certainly were trying to look the part of a NY glam punk band circa 1980-something. And you could toss them off as just another modern tribute if they weren’t so darn good at what they do — wet-leather tight from the duo guitars to the amped-up rhythm section and the too-wordy frontman with the inane between-song (or in some cases during-song) crowd patter. After the last few years of somber-dream-vibe and/or country-hick indie, I could use more of this.

Biters were followed by fellow Atlanta rockers The Booze, who put on a clinic of how to ape Exile-era Rolling Stones right down to wee frontman Chaz Tolliver’s Jagger strut. With their unintentional hippie-era costuming, it would be easy to make fun of — or simiply discard — this band if (again) it wasn’t so good. Makes you wonder why the focus in Altanta isn’t on these two fun and amazing acts…

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Over the weekend, the ol’ Twitter account finally topped 500 followers, thanks to @autopilot_art a.k.a. Alexia Thiele, who as Lazy-i’s 500th Twitter follower wins nothing except my humble gratitude and my suggestion that everyone who reads this should check out autopilot-art.com, Alexia’s small but mighty Omaha-based clothing business. I met Alexia once while shopping for hoodies down at American Apparel, wherein I suggested that all long-sleeve T-shirts should have a hood sewn on them (and inwhich she agreed). As for what it means to reach the 500 mark — well, not very much. As we watch the not-so-interesting evolution of Social Media, Facebook is clearly coming out on top, and will remain so, while Twitter will always be a tool for promotion moreso than conversation. Anyway, thanks Alexia and the 499 others who follow @tim_mcmahan. 1,000 here we come.

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Finally, and briefly, I’ve had a few people ask what I think of the Stir Cove concert series line-up that Harrah’s announced last week (which is listed here). My initial reaction is that Harrah’s seems to be oh so gradually getting interested in the big name indie acts, and as a result, could provide some competition for the one important music promoter in our neck of the woods. Black Keys was announced in February, and sold out a few weeks later. Mumford & Sons, a band that has caught the attention of folks into formulaic Euro-ethnic rock, sold out within hours of its show announcement. Good for them. Something tells me Flaming Lips will be next. As for the rest of the line-up, well, there’s a reason why they call them “casino acts” — almost all are bands that had their best days a long time ago, except for apparently Eric Church, who I’ve never heard of. Last year the Stir folks dipped their toe in the indie waters with Phoenix. How long before they realize that major CMJ performers are good for their business? And if they ever do, what will it mean for those Omaha venues that depend on the big indie acts for their livelihoods?

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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 © 2011 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

We’ve got a top-heavy weekend musicwise, with a lot going on tonight. Let’s get to it:

At Slowdown Jr. two Atlanta-based garage bands — Biters and The Booze — along with locals Snake Island open a show tonight for Rock Paper Dynamite. According to the Facebook write-up, Biters have “all the coolest elements of Cheap Trick, Thin Lizzy, AC-DC, Bowie and even the Beatles. Huge background vocals bring to mind Sweet, Slade and Queen.” Nice. $8, 9 p.m.

Meanwhile, The Lepers return to everyone’s favorite stink-hole, O’Leaver’s, for a show tonight with Brooklyn rockers Ladycop. $5, 9:30 p.m.

Our old friends Landing on the Moon are playing the boats tonight, specifically Harrah’s Stir Lounge, with Lonely Estates. $5, 9 p.m.

And if you’re in Lincoln tonight, Cursive is playing at Knickerbocker’s with Pharmacy Spirits and So-So Sailors. $12, 9 p.m.

Pickin’s are a bit slimmer Saturday night. The only thing on my radar is Zep tribute band The Song Remains the Same at The Waiting Room with Learning to Floyd, which I assume is a Pink Floyd tribute. $7, 9 p.m.

Finally, Sunday night The Show Is the Rainbow opens for Philly electronic duo RYAT at The Waiting Room. $7, 9 p.m.

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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 © 2011 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Column 317: Hot Wax Holiday

Locals indies celebrate Record Store Day April 16

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

We had time to kill before the 7:45 show at Aksarben Cinema, and having already grabbed a bite to eat decided for reasons of proximity to walk through Kohl’s Department Store, whose overly ambitious catchphrase is “Expect Great Things.” As I was strolling down one of the fluorescent-bright main aisles, somewhere between the jewelry counter and “notions,” I nearly stumbled over a stack of turntables smack-dab in the middle of the floor, marked $70 each.

And I thought to myself, well, there really is no reason for any right-headed music fan to not buy vinyl now. If a place like Kohl’s, the very essence of mid-American retail homogeneity, sells turntables (and for $70), all excuses have flown out the window.

I tell you this as a precursor to heralding that Record Store Day is a week from Saturday — April 16. Begun a mere three years ago as a “celebration of the unique culture surrounding over 700 independently owned record stores in the USA” Record Store Day has become something of a holiday for collectors of music, whether it be released on vinyl or not. In Omaha, it’s celebrated by The Antiquarium, Drastic Plastic and the largest of the bunch, Homer’s Records.

“It reconnects music fans with music stores,” said Homer’s general manager Mike Fratt. “After consumer habits (were) shifted away from music stores over the last 15 years by aggressive mass merchants, this gives indie stores an opportunity to level the playing field and generate loyalty.”

If anything, Record Store Day is a reminder of what record stores used to be — way stations on the road to artistic maturity where fans discovered new music, new ideas, new possibilities that they never would have discovered on their own or on the radio. At their very core were the “record store guys,” whose job was to ask what you were into, and then point you in the direction of something you may not have considered of even heard of. It was from a Homer’s record store guy that I first discovered The Pixies, way before they became one of the most influential bands of the late-’80s early-90s.

All that, of course, was before the Internet, which while making music immediately accessible to just about everyone, also has effectively taken away most of the magic and mystery behind record collecting, while systematically crippling the industry.

But I digress.

What started as a niche concept in ’08 has turned into a full-blown industry bonanza for record stores, labels and artists. “Just about any big name has a piece for RSD this year,” Fratt said, “from Lady Gaga to the Rolling Stones, from Syd Barrett to Rush.”

And why not? When you consider that vinyl sales have nearly tripled since ’07, to 3 million units sold in 2010, you can see why major labels are beginning to get into the act, though Fratt said almost 90 percent of vinyl sales have been from indie label offerings.

He said among the highlights for RSD this year are an AC/DC 7-inch, a “test pressing” of Big Star’s Third, a pink 10-inch from Kate Bush, a 12-inch of a new Fleet Foxes tune, a Jimi Hendrix 7-inch and a Nirvana 12-inch that reissues tunes of covers previously only released in Australia years ago. “Rush has a 7-inch, as does Pearl Jam, and Ryan Adams has a double 7-inch package,” Fratt said. It’s not just vinyl. The Decemberists recorded an in-store performance at Bull Moose (an indie store in Maine), which is one of a few CD offerings this year.

“The Rolling Stones and Bruce Springsteen both have 7-inch releases, and the Flaming Lips collect their first five albums into an LP box set,” Fratt said. “The Lips LPs no longer are available separately, so this should be a big demand — albeit expensive — item.”

He added that Warner Brothers Records has put together four, colored-vinyl split 7-inch singles that feature a different band on each side performing the same tune. “So, Green Day records a Husker Du classic with Husker’s version on the other side” Fratt said. “The others include Jenny & Johnny with Gram Parsons & Emmy Lou Harris, Mastodon with ZZ Top, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers with the Ramones.”

Hot stuff, and all in very limited supply. Fratt said with product available on a first-come basis, expect long lines at both the Old Market and Orchard Plaza stores. Both locations also will host special performances in the afternoon, including School of Rock out at Orchard, and a handful of DJ’s downtown (including, believe it or not, yours truly at 3 p.m.).

The Antiquarium, home of Omaha’s punk and indie music scene, also is getting in on the RSD action with limited-edition vinyl releases from a handful of larger indie labels, including Matador, Sub Pop and Merge. While you’re there, check out their large selection of used vinyl and locally produced sides from such labels like Speed! Nebraska, who’s been been carrying the vinyl torch since the mid-’90s.

So mark April 16 on your calendar, go to recordstoreday.com for more details, and get ready to celebrate vinyl. And remember, Record Store Day doesn’t have to be just one day a year.

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So again, Record Store Day isn’t this Saturday, it’s next Saturday. And yes, you read that right, I will be DJ-ing at the Old Market Homer’s at 3 p.m. that day, though I wouldn’t call what I’ll be doing “DJ-ing” in the Brent Crampton/Kobrakyle sense of the word. Fratt simply asked if I’d like to come down and spin some music for an hour, so if you’re there, you’ll hear some of my old and new faves. Omaha World-Herald music guy Kevin Coffey also will be taking over the turntable for an hour, along with DJ Kobrakyle and the international winner of the Belle & Sebastian essay contest, John Ficenac. Fun!

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The hot show of the evening is Omaha adopted son Dave Dondero at Slowdown Jr. Dave’s lastest, Pre-Existing Condition, was released on Ghostmeat earlier this year. Pitchfork gave it a 6.0. I have not heard the disc, but gotta believe it rates higher than that with normal people. Maybe Dave was docked by PF because of his long-standing association with Nebraska and Saddle Creek. Also on the bill is former Hold Steady keyboard player Franz Nicolay. $10, 9 p.m.

Also tonight, Bret Vovk is playing at The Barley Street either as The Ghost of Bret Vovk or simply Bret Vovk (as the Barley Street website has it listed). You may remember Vovk from Underwater Dream Machine. Opening is the appetizingly named Parasite Diet. $5, 9 p.m.

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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 © 2011 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Not a helluva lot going on this week, so I thought I’d pass along this tidbit of news that came by way of slicingupeyeballs.com (SUE). MTV has announced that it’s reviving landmark indie music program 120 Minutes as both a monthly program on MTV2 and an online web series called 120 Seconds on the MTV Hive portal, where you can also find full archived episodes of the series.

The new show will be hosted by Matt Pinfield, who I never liked as much as original host Dave Kendell, but is still better than anyone else on MTV these days (and he never seems to age). No word on what will happen to Subterranean, the hour-long MTV program dedicated to indie videos. SUE says Sub ended its run in 2007, which is strange since I just watched last week’s episode last night on my DVR.

Anyway, in preparation for the launch of the new 120 Minutes, MTV has begun adding live performance clips to the Hive site, including The Cure doing “Fascination Street,” Pixies doing “Planet of Sound,” Jesus and Mary Chain doing “Sometimes Always,” and World Party doing “Is It Like Today?” All four are embedded at slicingupeyeballs, right here.

I was going to wax poetic about 120 minutes, until I realized that I already did that… back in 2006. Instead of pointing you to the entry, I’ve copy and pasted it below to avoid your whining about the old site’s eye-straining white-on-black design. Back then I was complaining about there being no radio stations in the Omaha market that play indie music. Four and a half years later and nothing’s changed.

Tomorrow: I write about Record Store Day a week early so you have plenty of time to mentally prepare…

On it’s 25th birthday, remembering the only two hours of MTV that mattered… Aug. 2, 2006

There have been — I don’t know — 1.1 million stories written and broadcast within the last 24 hours about the 25th anniversary of MTV, and of those 1.09999 million complained that the channel, which (lest we forget) was created to air television commercials for record companies, was no longer a “music station.” Most of the reports devoted a lot of time to MTV’s current reality-show programming — like the sickening My Super Sweet 16 — and then pondered if it was “the right thing for our kids to be watching.” Even the OWH‘s former music reporter, Christine Laue, did sort of an “overview” story about MTV.

In every thing I’ve seen, heard and read, the reporters completely missed what I consider to be MTV’s biggest impact not only on today’s national music scene, but on the Omaha music scene as well. Since there’s nothing else going on today — no music feature to post this week (X ain’t doing interviews, at least not with me), no shows tonight worth pimping — let me explain…

Growing up in Omaha, the only music I heard was whatever records my parents owned (the usual collection of Broadway soundtracks and lounge music, plus my dad’s copy of the original motion picture soundtrack to the movie Grand Prix (blared as loud as possible on his then-cutting-edge Telefunken stereo system) along with whatever was on Z-92. When we moved to Fort Calhoun and I was in high school, the music of choice came in two flavors — Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd… And, of course, whatever was played on The Z (Van Halen, Journey, REO Speedwagon, you know the drill).

Just like today, Omaha didn’t have a college radio station that played real college (i.e. “underground”) music. You had The Z, Rock 100, Sweet 98 and a boatload of country stations. You could not hear what was going on in the then-infant world of alternative music. The raciest thing I remember hearing on the radio was The Z’s Slats Gannon playing a track or two off U2’s War album, which seemed bold and experimental.

Then along came MTV. It’d been around for years, but no one I knew had cable TV until I was in college. Suddenly all the lousy music you heard on the radio now had pictures to go with it. That awful Jefferson Starship song or the ubiquitous ZZ Top song off Eliminator that Z-92 played into the ground could now be both seen and heard. Who remembers Gina Tomasina? Sure, MTV played videos by a few bands that we (thankfully) hadn’t heard of, like Men Without Hats or The Thompson Twins or Duran Duran, which eventually would cross over to the radio, but that was about it for any breakthroughs. MTV was there for those brain-dead moments, it was something you had on before you went out that night or when you were sitting around your friends’ house drinking beer after class. Completely inconsequential, except for one single program, and I think everyone who reads this blog knows what program I’m thinking of (and no, it wasn’t Yo! MTV Raps).

For two hours every Sunday night, MTV aired a show called 120 Minutes, a program dedicated solely to college music in the early days of indie. For the first time, many of us who had been shielded from that weird alternative music were hearing bands like The Smiths, Joy Division, The Cure, Husker Du, Echo & The Bunnymen, Public Image Ltd, The Psychedelic Furs, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Depeche Mode, Aztec Camera, World Party, Lloyd Cole and the Commotions, The Alarm, The Connells, Syd Straw, The dB’s, Buffalo Tom, Chapterhouse, The Stone Roses, Inspiral Carpets, Galaxie 500, Cocteau Twins, The Sundays, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Sonic Youth, Mazzy Star, Pixies, Jane’s Addiction, Nine Inch Nails… the list goes on and on throughout the early ’90s until the Grunge bands brought alternative to the surface.

120 Minutes was the only place to hear this kind of music broadcast in Omaha other than the short-lived cable-only KRCK. Sure, the show skipped over entire genres of underground music (There was no hardcore on 120 Minutes, for example — bands like The Butthole Surfers, Black Flag and other SST acts were too harsh for television or didn’t make videos), but at least it was something. I can say without hesitation that the program had a lasting impact on my taste in music.

And I can tell you from interviews with a number of local bands that 120 Minutes impacted their taste in music, too. Yes, most of the ’90s-era Omaha musicians became aware of the music that influenced their sound from places like The Antiquarium, Drastic Plastic, The Cog Factory and their network of friends, but most of them also watched 120 Minutes every Sunday night. It was a cool show, chock full of cool music and the occasional cool interview by Dave Kendall — I still remember seeing Johnny Rotten complain about The Cure (“It’s all done in minor key. It’s boring!“).

I have to believe that Omaha wasn’t the only city or town inwhich 120 Minutes was the only avenue for college music. Think about all the indie bands out there now and ask yourself how many of them watched that show. It’s probably more than you think.

Anyway, in its ongoing evolution to become an electronic pile of shit, MTV canceled 120 Minutes in 2003, but the show still lives on in a different format on MTV2 — the 60-minute-long Subterranean, which I Tivo every week. The sad truth is that, to this day, Subterranean is still the only place to hear real college music in the Omaha area other than Dave Leibowitz’s two hours on The River, which is also broadcast on Sunday nights. It’s sad that we still don’t have a college radio station that plays college music in this town and ironic that Subterranean played videos by Saddle Creek Records bands years before any radio station in Omaha played them. The more things change, the more they stay the same…

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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 © 2011 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Two sides of a spectrum show-wise tonight….

At The Waiting Room it’s the brutal, chaotic, noise-rock of duo Brian Chippendale (drums, vocals) and Brian Gibson (bass, etc.), more commonly known as Lightning Bolt. Opening is Ties. $10, 9 p.m.

Meanwhile, over at Slowdown Jr., it’s Detroit folk rockers Frontier Ruckus with Midwest Dilemma and Kyle Harvey. $7, 9 p.m.

That’s all I got today, folks…

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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 © 2011 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

It's True (full sequence) at The Waiting Room, April 1, 2011.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

There are two reasons why there was a lot of chatter in the audience during Friday night’s It’s True “reunion” / “CD release” show at The Waiting Room. Reason 1: The show was “sold out.” I put that phrase in quotation marks for a reason, which you may understand by looking at the crowd in the above photo, perhaps the largest crowd I’ve ever seen in TWR. And Reason 2: Said crowd was made up of a lot of friends and fellow countrymen who spent the past couple years becoming fans of It’s True, and conversely, became a sort of extended family. And since that family hasn’t been together since last summer, they had a lot of catching up to do.

That explanation isn’t going to help those who just discovered the band, however, one of which complained to me that he couldn’t find a place to hear them without having to also hear yelled conversations between two, three, four other people. He had a right to be pissed, but who expects to really “hear” the band when they go to something akin to a wedding reception?

That said, I had no problem hearing them — no crowd can drown out TWR’s mighty sound system. And what I heard was at times angelic, explosive, violent, angry, loving, lost, lonely, funny, happy and familiar. Yes, there were 12 people on stage at the beginning of the set — the breakdown included back-up singers, two percussionists, and lots of guitars — but everyone seemed to have a reason for being there, which is more than I can say for some of the ridiculous everyone-and-their-best-friend ensembles I’ve seen/heard over the years. The first half of the show focused on reproducing the depth of sound and substance heard on the band’s EP, Another Afterlife, for sale for the first time that evening. And for the most part it was spot on. Hawkins ran through the album with little spacing between songs, intent (it seemed) on getting through the set list as efficiently as possible. I assume playing with 11 musicians is a trick not unlike juggling cats — everyone thinks it’s fun to look at except for the guy tossing the kitties, who would just soon get it over with before one of them plunges to its death or sinks its claws into your wrist.

It's True (first sequence) at The Waiting Room, April 1, 2011.

Hawkins seemed more comfortable when the band switched to the stripped-down version heard on the previous album. The crowd seemed more responsive as well, as the band dipped into the more familiar material that they’d been waiting to hear again. Certainly the old stuff — with its lengthy, bombastic feedback jams — lends itself to stage heroics, while the newer, more compact (i.e., shorter) material is in many ways more direct and more effective in a pure songwriting vein. I like the new stuff better, and maybe the crowd did as well, as it thinned oh so slightly during the encore.

A final note: Hawkins kept his glasses on for the full 12 rounds. In the past, the specs were either violently whipped off or set on the stage three or four songs into the set, but Friday night they stayed firmly affixed to the bridge of his nose all evening long. Read into that observation whatever you will.

The only opener I caught was Cowboy Indian Bear, who did a pretty good job capturing an audience that wasn’t there to see them.

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Quite a singer/songwriter showcase going on tonight at Slowdown Jr. Brooklyn’s Sharon Van Etten’s latest album, Epic, was released on Ba Da Bing in ’10 and received a whopping 7.8 on the Pitchfork meter. You might know her for her guest-spot work on The Anters’ last album Hospice. In the middle slot is Little Scream. Her new album, The Golden Record (Secretly Canadian), reminds me more than a little bit of St. Vincent. Opening the festivities is Simon Joyner. This is a pretty “epic” line up for $8. Starts at 9.

Also tonight…. Seems like there were as many people excited about tonight’s Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears show when it was announced a month or so ago as there were when the upcoming Sharon Jones / Dap Kings concert was announced . Well here we are, a month or so later, and BJL still hasn’t sold out. Not yet, anyway. Opening is Tennessee’s Those Darlins. $12, 9 p.m.

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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 © 2011 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Adam Hawkins of It’s True said that tonight’s CD release show for Another Afterlife at The Waiting Room will feature as many as 12 musicians on stage at the same time. “It’s not going to be like a rotating cast,” he said. “We’re arranging songs for about 12 people. And hopefully we’ll remember the songs. We’ll have had maybe six practices with the big band by the time it happens.”

I suspect that the evening will have a “reunion” feel to it despite the fact that it’s an album launch. Hawkins said he doesn’t intend to ramp up a touring band, at least not anytime soon (see why here), so tonight’s show and tomorrow night’s show at The Bourbon Theater may be the last times you get to see It’s True perform in the foreseeable future. Expect a crowd, and maybe lines as no advanced tickets were offered to this show — it’s walk-up traffic only. Opening is The Haunted Windchimes, Noah’s Ark Was a Spaceship, and Lawrence band Cowboy Indian Bear. $8, 9 p.m.

Tomorrow night’s big show is “chillwave” artist Toro Y Moi at Slowdown Jr. TYM is South Carolina native Chaz Bundick and a plethora of electronic devices. His new album, Underneath the Pine (Carpark) is synth-y and beat-heavy, the shimmer is dreamy, the vocals breathy and echoing, the melodies intentionally loungy (a la Stereolab). Pitchfork gave the album an 8.4. Opening is Adventure. $10, 9 p.m.

Last but not least, Wye Oak (who you read about yesterday) plays at Slowdown Jr. with Callers Sunday night. I realize it’s a school night, but you won’t want to miss this amazing band that’s signed to Merge Records. And it’s only $8. Starts at 9.

That’s what I got. Let me know what I’m missing.

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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 © 2011 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.