The Show Is the Rainbow's Darren Keen at Dundee Day, Aug. 27, 2011.

Column 339: Dancing in the Street

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Below is a handful of images from this past weekend’s festivities. Look for a full review in this week’s column. Until then…

Mister Heavenly at The Slowdown Block Party, Aug. 26, 2011. The "indie supergroup" was more Man Man than The Shins or Modest Mouse.

The Hold Steady at The Slowdown Block Party, Aug. 26, 2011.

The Hold Steady's Craig Finn makes a point during The Slowdown Block Party, Aug. 26, 2011.

Gus & Call at Dundee Day, Aug. 27, 2011. Is this the best band on the Slumber Party Records roster? (Yes)

Digital Leather plays a rapid-fire set at Dundee Day, Aug. 27, 2011.

The Show Is the Rainbow's Darren Keen in the crowd at Dundee Day, Aug. 27, 2011.

The Show Is the Rainbow ends Dundee Day on a high note.

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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.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

It’s been a long, flood-ravaged festival season here in river city, but it’s finally coming to a close this weekend with three big day shows that mark the sun-setting of summer.

The big show tonight is at The Slowdown parking lot — the annual Omaha Block Party. Now in its third year, the free outdoor show features a balanced line-up of old and new (and male and female) that MAHA would have loved. According to The Slowdown website, gates open at 6:30 but music doesn’t start until 8 p.m. with local heroes Conduits, who just returned from opening a few dates for their old pals Bright Eyes. They’ve been called a “shoegaze band;” I think of them as more of an ambient dreamscape ensemble fronted by a gorgeous statue of cool, chanteuse Jenna Morrison.

Next up is San Diego-based laid-back psych-rock band The Donkeys (Dead Oceans Records). Groovy, West Coast, sunset, you get the vibe. They’re followed by emerging indie supergroup Mister Heavenly, a trio that consists of Honus Honus of Man Man, Nick Thorburn of Islands and Joe Plummer of The Shins. Their debut LP, Out of Love, was released on Sub Pop a couple weeks ago. The tracks I’ve heard sounded like poppy Man Man cast offs.

Finally, headlining tonight’s show, the return of The Hold Steady, a band perfectly suited for outdoor festival-style events. This could be the biggest draw ever for a Slowdown block party, especially if the weather cooperates (and forecasts indicate that it will).

Again, the gig is free, but you need to go to the Toyota Antics website (the event sponsor) and print out an RSVP. It’s quick and easy. Of course you’ll be able to drink your face off tonight at the show, as well as buy dinner from three vendors — Dante’s Pizza, Chicago Dawg House and Blue Line. It all wraps up at midnight.

If you’re not into The Hold Steady, you can cut out early and high-tail it to The Waiting Room for Noah’s Ark Was a Spaceship, Moscow Mule and Landing on the Moon. 9 p.m., $7.

Also tonight, Lincoln’s Floating Opera is doing a 20 Year Retrospective concert at The Side Door Lounge. 9 p.m.

Which leads us to tomorrow’s festival cage match between Dundee Days and the Farman Festival.

At Dundee Days, located along Underwood Ave. near 50th St., the lineup is:

Noah Sterba and the Cocktails
Yuppies
Gus and Call
Conchance
Digital Leather
The Show is the Rainbow

Garage heroes Yuppies are starting to attract attention on a national level. Gus & Call (whose style is best described as “bootgaze”) may be my favorite act on the Slumber Party Records roster, while Digital Leather is one of my favorite acts on any roster. And what crazy shit will The Show Is the Rainbow a.k.a. Darren Keen pull on this rather public, family-friendly stage? Find out tomorrow night. I’m told bands start at 3 p.m., and admission is usually around $5, but I can’t find anything online to verify that.

In addition, Dario’s also is hosting bands outside starting at 6 p.m. Bands include The Bishops, Rock Paper Dynamite and Pony Wars. No idea if there’s a cover for Dario’s  (but there usually is).

Meanwhile, Farnam Festival is going on across town at 40th and Farnam Sts. starting at 5 p.m. The lineup and sched:

5 p.m: Doors Open
5:20-6 p.m.: Kyle Harvey
6:20-7:10 p.m.: Blue Bird
7:35-8:20 p.m.: All Young Girls Are Machine Guns
8:45-9:45 p.m.: Little Brazil
10:15-11:15 p.m.: The So So Sailors

So-So Sailors was one of the highlights at Dundee’s Spring Fling earlier this year; Little Brazil will likely roll out some new, unreleased material; and you simply can’t go wrong with anything Kyle Harvey does. Admission is $5, and vendors will be on hand, including Prairie Fire Pizza.

It’s a shame that these two festivals will be going on at the same time.

The weekend closes Sunday night with Pogues-influenced celtic-booze rockers Blaggards at The Waiting Room with Witness Tree and Chasing Turtles. $7, 8 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

It all comes down to one question: Why should people buy recorded music at Homer’s Records or any other independent record store rather than order it online?

“In 2011, it’s a 50-50 split between digital and physical,” said Homer’s General Manager Mike Fratt, referring to a music market split between digital music files and physical CDs and vinyl. “If people choose to buy a full album, almost 75 percent of the time they choose to buy a physical version. Fidelity has something to do with it; also, it’s the ultimate backup.”

Then Fratt gave what I believe is the real reason to shop at record stores: “I think going to a record store is an enjoyable experience, like going to a book store or a comic book store,” he said. “There’s a type of discovery that occurs in a record store that cannot be replicated online.”

No number of reasons, however, was enough to save Homer’s Orchard Plaza location at 2457 South 132nd St. Originally opened at Bel Air Plaza in 1975, the store moved to Orchard Plaza in 1980. Fratt, who began his Homer’s career in the warehouse in 1978, managed the Orchard Plaza store for five years before transferring to the Old Market location, and eventually into the head office in ’91. In its heyday, Homer’s boasted a worldwide chain of six stores. Today Fratt finds himself working out of a small office tucked away off the sales floor of the Old Market store, soon to be the chain’s sole survivor.

Last Friday Fratt sent out an announcement that the Orchard Plaza store will close Sept. 10. “Quite frankly, we’re surprised we made it this long with two locations in Omaha,” he said in the press release. “When we surveyed the future landscape in 2006 we assumed we would be at one location per city by 2010. Most of our indie record store brethren in the Coalition of Independent Music Stores are down to one solid location per city.” He added that the 132nd & Center area is “losing its oomph as a strong retail sector, and Homer’s was not willing to risk moving the store with the hopes of finding an audience.”

Fratt confirmed the obvious reason for the closure via a phone call Sunday. The store was losing money. “The store’s long-term lease ran out at the beginning of 2010,” he said. “We looked at the numbers and it wasn’t quite under break even. We did a one-year lease, and as we neared the end of 2010, we were still right on the edge. So we did a 90-day lease, then another 90 then a 60. Now the store is below break even.”

He said some but not all of the Orchard Plaza staff will go to work at the Old Market Homer’s, where sales are actually up for the year. “And we’re very optimistic about the next 10 years.”

Next 10 years?

“All of our indie brethren all feeling challenged, there’s no question about it,” Fratt said. “For us, the unit sales in CDs has pretty much leveled off at the Old Market location. We’re not giving ground. Part of the reason has to do with the declining price point — we have a huge bin, literally thousands of artists, whose music sells for $7.99. That’s why catalog sales are fairly robust.” Sales of new releases, however, are down slightly, he said.

“The second issue is vinyl,” he added. “It’s been huge, and a large part of our business, and it keeps growing.” Though he’s referring primarily to used vinyl, new-release vinyl sales also have stepped up. Other revenue comes from selling used product on Amazon Marketplace (Homer’s closed its Web store two years ago).

Asked what the music industry needs to do to keep independent stores alive, Fratt said a few trading partners are allowing them to buy at a lower price and hold the product four to six months before paying for it. “Hopefully by that time we’ve turned it and can pay it off,” he said. A new distribution model could involve selling new music on consignment, though there are some accounting challenges to overcome. “It could be something of a game changer.”

Fratt still contends that the biggest threat to independent record stores wasn’t digital downloads, but the giant box stores like Best Buy, Wal Mart and Target. “Target now offers fewer than 1,000 titles,” he said. “Best Buy shuttered its operations and now contracts it out. Borders is exiting the market.”

He said in addition to leaning on its used record sales, the Old Market store is “recommitting to gifts,” offering merchandise other than recorded music to all those folks wandering up and down Howard St. after dinner.

“But overall, it’s about catalog, which is what built this company in the ’70s and ’80s,” Fratt said.

“There’s a quantity of people still purchasing physical. Not everyone has a home computer — 20 percent of people don’t have broadband and never will,” he said. “Physical is not going away, no matter how much people want to bitch about it. It isn’t. I think we’ve got 10 years, easily.”

In the end, it all comes down to that original question: Why should people buy music at a record store instead of online? As long as Fratt continues to have an answer, Homer’s will be around.

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Tonight, Cramps-inspired Lawrence band The Spook Lights returns to O’Leaver’s with Snake Island! and Watching the Train Wreck. $5, 9:30 p.m. What the heck, it’s Thursday.

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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

A couple interesting new Conor Oberst interviews have surfaced in the past couple days. Both restate what Oberst has been saying for months — Bright Eyes will not be deep-sixed, sun-setted, placed in mothballs and/or permanently unplugged after support tours for The People’s Key conclude.

In a brief Q&A at Canada’s MetroNews site, Oberst again tried to clarify an earlier statement regarding Bright Eyes reported demise: “No, not definitively. We don’t really have any plans for the future at this point, but as far as that whole thing, that was something where someone took a quote that I said [out of context] and that was something that other people decided. We never made an official announcement. Even if it were our last record, we wouldn’t say it was our last record. As the rumour mill works, that’s kind of the way it goes. You can definitely quote me, this is not the last Bright Eyes for sure.”

Oberst reiterated the statement again in this story at hitfix.com. In addition to the breakup denial, the story states that Oberst has no definite plans for any project, including Monsters of Folk or a solo effort. The article also says that Oberst is now living in New York City, though let’s be honest, these days he’s living on the road.

And then there’s this from the article:

Oberst has “gotten out of the music business” in regards to his former label ventures, with Saddle Creek and Team Love. Were he to release an album next year, he’s not even positive what label it’d be on. “Will there even be records in a couple years?” he asked. When it comes to digital channels and pay models like newly launched Spotify, “It’s still sort of the Wild West.”

Though Saddle Creek doesn’t sign multi-release agreements with its artists, I’ve always assumed that any future Bright Eyes LPs would be released on the label, and I still do…

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Speaking of Saddle Creek artists, Tim Kasher has a new video, produced by the crazy kids at Love Drunk, for “Opening Night,” a track off his just-released EP Bigamy, More Songs from the Monogamy Sessions. Try as I might, I can’t get the video to imbed into my WordPress files, so here’s a link. Check it out. It was shot at Saddle Creek’s Ink Tank screen printing plant.

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From the Lazy-i Vault, Aug. 24, 2000: The Music Box had a surprise in store last week. Walking up the venue’s ramp to the front door, you knew something was definitely up. Where was the huddled mass of smokers who usually crowded the deck, sharing ashtrays along with their addiction? Once inside, an old familiar odor answered the question. 

I asked a bartender when they had lifted the prohibition on smoking, a feature that the owners staunchly stood behind when the venue opened a year ago.

“Last Wednesday,” he hollered over the racket.

“Why’d they change their policy?” I yelled.

“To make money.”

Well, it wasn’t all about the Benjamins, Manager J. Rankin said. “This is what the people wanted,” he said. “In all honesty, I would like to see the nonsmoking thing still work, but it’s tough to pull off in the Midwest.”

The idea must have been in the works for a few weeks, judging by the cool little black-and-silver matchboxes embossed with The Music Box logo scattered around the tables. Smoking is limited to the upper-tier bar, as no-smoking signs are everywhere in the lower section. Despite the fact that nary a puff can be smelt in the lower bar, Rankin said further precautions are being taken to keep the smoke out of your eyes. “We’re in the process of adding an additional 15 tons of ventilation,” he said. “The units have 12-inch-thick charcoal filters that take everything out of the air.”

Chances are the fancy air conditioners won’t be up and running for this Saturday’s American Diabetes Association benefit featuring eight bands, including Spiral Locomotive, Project Wet, 8th Wave, The Fonzarellies, Jimmy Skaffa and Chesire Grin. A $10 donation gets you in to the festival-like party that runs from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m.

 Other upcoming acts of note include legendary harmonica player and bluesman Rod Piazza & The Mighty Flyers, along with the Shufflecats and Lincoln’s Baby Jason and the Spankers Aug. 30; and the reigning father of British Blues John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, Sept. 18.

Rankin insists the bar isn’t turning into a blues club. “We’re adding about one blues event a month, which is about the maximum for us on a regular basis,” he said, pointing to an upcoming show featuring former Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Zakk Wylde Oct. 7.

But what about the local acts? “There’s a multitude of great bands out there we haven’t had in yet, but there’s only so many days in a week,” he said.

Business is good at the Music Box, Rankin said, but there’s still a lot of work to do. “Once summer is over, all the alternative things going on will disappear. We’ll come to our own this fall and winter because of lack of options in town.”

Back to the Present: After lifting its smoking ban, the Music Box stayed open only three more years, closing its doors in October 2003 after an “impasse” with the landlord (or so they said at the time). With what many believed was among the area’s best sound and lighting systems at the time, the club booked a number of interesting national and local bands, including Pinetop Seven, Richard Thompson and locals like Oil and The Good Life. They catered toward more of a mainstream clientele, only occasionally booking indie bands. Strangely, its biggest criticism came from those who thought the club was too sterile, too clean, “too nice.” A few years after it closed, the building that housed The Music Box — and Sharky’s and Firmatures before that — was demolished to make way for a new 24-Hour Fitness.

As for their original non-smoking policy, The Music Box proved to be way ahead of its time, being the only music club that banned the habit back then. Four years after it closed, The Slowdown would adopt the same policy when it opened in June 2007. A year later, a local ordinance banned smoking  altogether in Omaha bars, in June 2008.

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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

Why are there no photos from this show, which took place at Slowdown Jr. Friday night? Because there was (almost) no light on stage. Not pitch black, but too dark for an iPhone, dark enough to be… afraid. Back When playing virtually in the dark seemed appropriate for the band’s rather dark vibe.

I hadn’t seen them before Friday night, not because I was avoiding them, but because one thing or another got in the way. After seeing their latest video, which surfaced last week, a more intense effort was made to not miss their next show.

Earplugs were tempting and almost necessary while waiting in line to get in. Their sound is mammoth — loud and sludgy, some might say bleak. On first blush it reminded me of stoner rock — there were moments that called to mind Kyuss and Sleep, but Back When is more acidic, more metal, more purposely colossal. A colleague at the show compared them to Source Tags & Codes-era Trail of Dead. Maybe, maybe.

With a low wall of amps stacked behind them, they were indeed powerful, but the compressed size of Slowdown Jr.’s stage cramped their sound and the mix lacked separation that could have been attained on the big stage, which would have been a better fit. Additional research into their recorded material is necessary before I can tell you what they were singing about.

By contrast, The Answer Team (which didn’t perform in the dark, but were dimly lit) sounded downright pleasant. The crowd had peaked for Back When, despite the fact that it was Answer Team’s CD release show — but that’s why you invite a band with a solid following to open these kinds of shows. As on their debut full length, O Sad And Future Human, they most often try the classic quiet-slowly-build-then-explode arrangements that are the hallmark of most of their influences. But too often on stage Friday night they started out loud and simply got louder. Dynamics is one of the only things that can fill the void that all instrumental-only indie bands have to overcome without having vocals and lyrics. Another bridge is varied arrangements, and for the most post, The Answer Team delivered, though they still can fall into that rut of repeating the same four or eight bars’ worth of chord changes over and over — another pitfall of instrumental-only bands. Regardless, by the end of their set, they had the crowd wanting more.

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It’s looking pretty quiet show-wise for the next few days. We’ll make up for it, however, come this weekend with three major outdoor events, including a neighborhood brawl that pits Dundee against the 40th and Farnam area. More later…

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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

This press release was just received from Mike Fratt, general manager of Homer’s. It speaks for itself. More later after I get a chance to interview Mike. But for now, here’s the press release in its entirety:

Starting on September 1st, Homer’s Music will begin its 40th anniversary celebration, marking four decades as a locally-owned business and its status as one of the nation’s leading independent record stores.

The celebration will be bittersweet, as Homer’s will also be closing its Orchard Plaza location, 2457 South 132nd St.. Orchard Plaza’s final day of operations will be September 10th, according to Homer’s Music general manager Mike Fratt.

The 40th anniversary celebration marks the opening of the first Homer’s, the downtown Old Market location, which started operations in 1971. Homer’s is one of the two remaining original businesses that started the Old Market in the early 1970s.

“Quite frankly, we’re surprised we made it this long with two locations in Omaha. When we surveyed the future landscape in 2006 we assumed we would be at one location per city by 2010.” Fratt explained. “Most of our indie record store brethren in the Coalition of Independent Music Stores are down to one solid location per city.”

Homer’s started with an Old Market location at 415 S. 11^th St, moving around the area over its 40-year-run, before settling back in at 1210 Howard St. in October 2009. The 1210 Howard location was a previously housed Homer’s for several years in the early 1980s.

“The Old Market location is doing well and sales are up for the year.” Fratt said, “And we are very optimistic about the next 10 years. Mass merchant big box retailers have radically ramped down their commitment to music and this has benefitted Homers. Used CD, DVD and LP sales are robust, Record Store Day has been a game changer and physical sales remain strong due to reduced retail prices”

Vanguard Recording artists Viva Voce will perform at Homers Old Market Tuesday,  September 13^th at 7pm. This will be the band’s only area appearance in support of their new album, The Future Will Destroy You.

With sales of music split evenly between digital and physical the predicted demise of record stores has been overplayed and recent trends nationally point to a bottoming out of declining sales led by record breaking sales of Adele’s “21”, Lady Gaga, the Jay-Z and Kanye West collaboration and upcoming releases from Lady Antebellum, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Lil Wayne.

“The 132^nd & Center area is losing it’s oomph as a strong retail sector,” Fratt explained, “and Homers was not willing to risk moving the store with the hopes of finding an audience. Our landlord, Slosburg, has been super to work with and it’s a large part of the reason we lasted this long at Orchard.”

There will ongoing sales at the Orchard Plaza store, as it prepares to wrap up its lease at that location. “We have thousands of used CDs at $1 each and thousands of used LPs at half price and more at $1 each.

Homers is a Nebraska owned and operated independent music retail store specializing in buying and selling new and used CDs, DVDs, and LPs. Consistently named Omaha’s best music retailer in any metro-based poll Homers is a member of the Coalition of Independent Music Stores and a founding member of Record Store Day. Homers is loacted in the Old Market at 1210 Howard and online at www.homersmusic.com

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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

The Answer Team has come a long way since the first time I saw them play at The Barley Street way back in November 2008 (yeah, it really has been that long). But on their self-released debut long player, O Sad and Future Human, which is being celebrated with a CD release show tonight at The Slowdown, they’ve managed to stay the same indie-prog-instrumental course, but with grander results. They site Mogwai, Explosions In The Sky, Pelican, This Will Destroy You and Godspeed You! Black Emperor as influences; I still hear Album Leaf/Tristeza in their compositions. You be the judge. Opening is stunning prog/noise rock outfit Back When, and those dirty punkers New Lungs (fronted by D-Max from Little Brazil). $7, 9 p.m., more info here.

Meanwhile, down at The Barley Street Tavern, noise-rock masters Techlepathy (Speed! Nebraska Records) will be unveiling new songs that they’re currently recording with Steve Micek (The Stay Awake). Opening is Lincoln band The Surprise Left, whose lineup includes Rich Higgins on guitar/vocals (ex-Sideshow, The Holy Ghost, Imperialia, Pat the Bunny, Eric the Red, Peer Puppet), Paul Engelhard on drums (ex-For Against, A-1 House of Fun, Busmans Holiday, Tel Quel, Holiday, Young Nebraskans (LA), Wabofi) and Chris Palmquist on bass (ex-Eric the Red, The Sound of Rails, Eamon). $5, 9 p.m.

Saturday night Dim Light (the stylish, sinister trio of Cooper Moon, Tom Barrett, Boz Hicks) is celebrating the release of its first 7-inch, “For You,” at The Brothers with Private Dancer (probably their last show for a long time) and the always amazing Solid Goldberg (Dave Goldbert, that is). $5, 10  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.

The Faint circa August 2001, from left, Jacob Thiele, Joel Petersen, Todd Fink (then Baechle), Dapose and Clark Baechle. Photo by Bill Sitzmann.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

From the Lazy-i Vault, Aug. 15, 2001:

There is nothing in Omaha or elsewhere quite like The Faint, and they know it.

Their ultra-stylized live shows have enough panache to transform even the bleak, wood-paneled, linoleum-floored confines of Sokol Underground into a be-seen-style glossy, New York City dance club. It’s not done with smoke and mirrors. More like smoke and light and heat, and a digital-pulsed rhythm that throbs in syncopation with the black-clad lads’ every twitch, their bodies bent in strobe-lit silhouette behind racks of keyboards, wires and gear.

Their stage show is a flawless marriage of tune and technology, driven by a style of music that is at once familiar to anyone who listened during the bad-hair days of New Wave electronic pop to bands like Human League, Berlin, Thomas Dolby, Front 242; a style that carried on into the ’90s with dance-house acts like Depeche Mode, New Order and The Cure. But though comparisons can be made — and always are — nothing from the Reagan-era on or since has really sounded like The Faint’s brand of dark, sleek, digitally driven rock.

It is high-style anywhere, but especially in a state that takes pride in comparing itself to choice cuts of meat cooked “rare, well done.” The Faint is an oddball outfit, too sleek to recognize how sleek it is, denying fashion while at the same time setting it.

So began a story that tried to describe what would become one of the hottest bands to emerge from the Omaha music scene. It was written to support the release of Danse Macabre, the follow-up to The Faint’s break-out 1999 album, Blank-Wave Arcade. Released by Saddle Creek Records Aug. 21, 2001, Danse Macabre is my favorite Faint album, and judging by the reaction that almost every one of its songs received during live shows, it was their fans’ favorite, too. More from the vault:

The Faint, Danse Macabre (Saddle Creek, August 2001)

The difference (from Blank-Wave Arcade) both in sound and musical style is a slap in the face right from the opening track, “Agenda Suicide,” which sports the darkest, bleakest sing-along chorus laid over the band’s patented minor-key voice-of-doom-in-a-jumpsuit synth counter-melodies. And, of course, an irresistible house-dance rhythm track. The hyper-kinetic whirl of “Glass Dance” comes on like a video-game-colored rave soundtrack, but with irresistible, undeniable hooks. “Let the Poison Spill from Your Throat” and “Your Retro Career Melted” carry a distinct Some Great Reward-era Depeche Mode punch.

The fireworks, however, don’t reach maximum height until midway through the CD. The streamlined “Poised to Death,” is a sassy head-shaker, while “The Conductor,” a song the band has opened its set with since they began touring this summer, is a regal, minor-key dance anthem, complete with vocoder-distorted vocals (just like Neil Young’s Trans, for you old-timers) and orchestral-quality piano tones. Next, Todd’s portrait of life on the edge, “Violent,” marries stark, grim images of violence and murder with Sputnik-tinged synth pings and an ever-throbbing thump-thump-thump house beat that’ll keep anyone shaking it. CD closer “Ballad of a Paralyzed Citizen” takes advantage of a gorgeous cello line played by Cursive’s Gretta Cohn to set the stage for one last dark fable, with the opening lines: “I’m paralyzed and things could change for you as well / You’re not so bad off now, you can move anything you need.”

Said Todd during the interview: ”Rather than analyzing different things about sex, this one sort of does that with death. Neither album is all about sex or death, but there is sort of a death theme this time.”

The record would go on to sell 147,000 copies, making it the band’s all-time best seller and among the best selling Saddle Creek releases. It came at the dawn of Saddle Creek’s (and some would say, Omaha music’s) Golden Age, with The Faint, Bright Eyes and Cursive jockeying back and forth as the most popular bands on the roster (a battle that Bright Eyes would eventually win).

“We’re not trying to get popular,” Todd said. “I think radio sucks and I’m not going to jump through hoops to get on it.” He yawned and put a CD in the stereo. “We don’t want to be millionaires. I don’t know what we’d do with the money.”

Back to the Present: Today, as far as anyone knows, The Faint are no more, though there hasn’t been an “official announcement” saying the band has permanently split. Last I heard, Joel Petersen was living somewhere in Los Angeles and was releasing music as Broken Spindles. Mike Dapose, whereabouts unknown to me, created death metal/electronic/experimental project Vvwerevvolf Grehv. Todd, Clark and Jacob — all now living in Omaha — started a new electronic dance project called Depressed Buttons, which will begin a monthly residency at the all-new House of Loom, 1012 South 10 Street, on Sept. 9. DP already has released music on Mad Decent, an LA-based label owned by Thomas Wesley Pentz, a.k.a. Diplo, the Grammy-nominated producer of  M.I.A’s “Paper Planes.” You can check out some Depressed Buttons music at their Sound Cloud page: http://soundcloud.com/depressedbuttons.

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Tonight at The Waiting Room, it’s the illustrious return of punk-metal madmen Bloodcow with Lo-Pan and Anestatic. Bloodcow never fails to put on a fantastic show. Do not miss. $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

The weather was perfect. The bands were awesome. And the crowd was… well, it could have been bigger.

The final “official” head count, according to MAHA Music Festival organizer Tre Brashear, was 4,000, “slightly down from last year.”

A disappointment, and yet, by all other accounts, this year’s MAHA, held last Saturday at Stinson Park in Aksarben Village, was a success, certainly from a fan perspective. I realized this about 15 minutes into Guided By Voices’ set, standing in a crowd of T-shirts and sunscreen and Coors Lites snuggled in red Kum & Go koozies, the sun just peeking over the western horizon after a long day of warm light, slight breezes, temperatures in the upper 70s — a perfect day weather-wise. By all accounts, by everyone I spoke with, MAHA was flawless. The bands and the stages and the sound were fantastic. You could not have asked for anything more… except, of course, for more people.

The review: In addition to Guided By Voices, which flawlessly tore through a set of their finest (“14 Cheerleader Coldfront,”  “I Am a Scientist” “Hot Freaks,” “The Official Ironmen Rally Song,” you know, the classics), the other main stage standout was — strangely, unexpectedly — J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. Seated with an acoustic guitar on his lap, looking like a worried Mr. Natural in nerd glasses, long gray hair blowing in the afternoon breeze, Mascis leaned forward and played a blistering set that drew from his solo work and D. Jr. catalog, highlighting his intricate, ornate, gorgeous guitar work. His voice, a craggy, weary, heart-broken moan, sang of personal yearning while his guitar didn’t gently weep, but soared. Undeniably beautiful, but at the same time, desperate and utterly depressing. By mid-set, it was actually bringing me down.

Mascis was quite a contrast to what came right before it — So-So Sailors on the “second stage,” located to the left (south) of the main stage and sounding somewhat better, thanks to an easing of volume and the natural earth barrier behind it. You could argue that the main stage sounded slightly overblown, overdriven, just plain too loud. By the end of the evening my voice was ragged from having to scream to talk to the person standing right next to me (no matter where I stood in the Stinson compound).

So-So Sailors was the second stage’s highlight, along with Noah’s Ark Was a Spaceship, which has people asking if they’re the best unsigned band in Nebraska. The other local stage highlight was Lincoln instrumental prog act Machete Archive, a band perfectly suited to cover Rush’s 2112 if only one of them knew how to sing. OEA talent show winner The Big Deep and Lincoln electronic dance/groove act Somasphere rounded out the “little acts.”

Cursive crowds the stage at MAHA.

Des Moines’ The Envy Corps launched the “big acts” on the main stage shortly after 1 p.m. to a smallish crowd that was still 10-fold larger than the typical early afternoon crowd at last month’s multi-million dollar Red Sky Festival. The Reverend Horton Heat followed with an omnibus career-spanning set of indie rockabilly. Local superstars Cursive, featuring original drummer Clint Schnase, was the most bombastic (and loudest) of the day. To me, it was worth thirty bucks just to hear them do “The Martyr.” So-called “headliner” Matisyahu’s electronic reggae rap closed out the evening to a dwindling crowd (despite the half-priced beers).

Overall, a great day in the park for any indie music fan. Still, “from an ‘economic’ perspective, the day was just OK,” Brashear said. “We had good ticket numbers, but we found that people didn’t stay for the whole day, which hurt our food/beverage/merch sales. People came just for RHH, or just for Cursive and GBV, or just for Matisyahu.” The “coming and going” is likely a symptom of MAHA not being a true “festival” — a multi-day event where people have to commit (due to traveling and camping) to stay for the duration. For MAHA to expand to something like that next year (and yes, there will be a “next year”) the festival will need to find a “presenting sponsor,” which it lacked this year.

Maybe the day’s biggest winner was Stinson Park. “The fans LOVED it,” Brashear said, “but (we’re) not sure what Aksarben Village thinks about us.” He said more volunteers were needed for after-show clean-up. “We had too much mess left over when the Farmer’s Market started the next morning.”

Guided By Voices after sundown at MAHA 2011.

Then there’s Aksarben Cinema, who I’d been told was livid after discovering during last month’s Playing With Fire concert, also held at Stinson, that they had some sound “leakage” problems that caused Harry Potter fans to experience Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings from their theater seats. The buzz Saturday was that the theater, which is the central village draw, was going to put its foot down for future festivals.

During Matisyahu’s set, I walked over to the theater and chatted with the kind gentleman stationed at the ticket-tearing gate and asked if they’d had any noise complaints. He said a couple patrons mentioned something, but that was about it. He suggested I find out for myself. “The auditoriums closest to the park are probably 5 and 6,” he said. “Pop in and see.”

So I did. The Smurfs movie was playing in No. 5. I stretched my eardrums as much as I could, and thought I heard something, maybe a low rumble, but I couldn’t be certain. No. 6 was seating for Harry Potter. Pre-movie commercials and music were playing. Again, I heard nothing. Matisyahu wasn’t “Cursive loud,” but they were certainly earplug loud.

Instead of fighting it, the theater needs to figure out a way to tie into MAHA, that is if it’s held in the park next year. If it were up to the fans I spoke with, it would be. They all said they preferred Stinson’s cool grass lawn to the sun-baked concrete slab of Lewis & Clark Landing. But for MAHA to grow into a real multi-day festival, it’ll need to find some place even bigger and better than both those locations.

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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.