by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Same routine as yesterday: Go here to thereader.com and read my Day 2 recap of SXSW featuring reviews of performances by Neon Trees, Glen Hansard, and Gardens & Villas, and the amazing Jesus and Mary Chain, then take a look at my photo diary, below.  And if you really want to know about the pain that is SXSW, read my column in this week’s issue of The Reader, online here.

Inca Abraham at Antone's, SXSW, March 15, 2012.

Neon Trees at Antone's, SXSW, March 15, 2012.

Glen Hansard at Antone's, SXSW, March 15, 2012.

Cults at 1100 Warehouse, SXSW, March 15, 2012.

Gardens & Villa at Mohawk Patio, SXSW, March 15, 2012.

Purity Ring at Central Presbyterian Church, SXSW, March 15, 2012.

Titus Andronicus at The Belmont, SXSW, March 15, 2012.

The Jesus and Mary Chain at The Belmont, March 15, 2012.

The Jesus and Mary Chain at The Belmont, March 15, 2012.

Tomorrow: Day 3. See you then…

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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 © 2012 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

So here’s the deal, my 2,500 word summery of my first day at South By Southwest is online right now, right here at thereader.com. Nine bands, includes reviews of Sharon Van Etten, Fiona Apple, Zola Jesus, The Ettes, Blood Orange and more. Read it NOW, then come back and look at the following photo gallery from yesterday’s gigs.

The Ettes at The Ginger Man, SXSW, March 14, 2012.

Dev Hynes of Blood Orange (center left, hat) talks to Alexa Chung of 24 Hour Catwalk fame, SXSW, March 14, 2012.

The Violin Monster on 6th St. is among the "colorful" sights. SXSW, March 14, 2012.

Puffy Aureolas at Beerland, SXSW, March 12, 2012.

The Wedding Present at Red Eyed Fly, SXSW, March 14, 2012.

Fiona Apple at Stubb's, SXSW, March 14, 2012.

Sharon Van Etten at Stubb's, SXSW, March 14, 2012.

Zola Jesus at Elysium, SXSW, March 14, 2012.

Freedy Johnston at Hilton Garden Inn, SXSW, March 14, 2012.

Check back tomorrow for Day 2!!! My back is killing me….

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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 © 2012 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Tomorrow I’m off to Austin to cover a few days of SXSW for The Reader… and for Lazy-i.com. Here’s how the coverage will work: The daily “updates” will be posted at thereader.com (I’ll post a link to it here daily). However, my photos from the previous day’s adventures will appear right here the following morning (if I’m not being held in custody). The final wrap-up will, of course, appear in the printed edition of The Reader (and online there and here).

In addition to my coverage, The Reader also will have daily posts by Reader Music Editor Chris Aponick and Hear Nebraska owner/operator Andy Norman — all exclusive. That’s what you get when you provide the badges. Not included in the deal, however, is Twitter/Facebook. So for updates and comments from SXSW throughout the day — including photos — follow me at twitter.com/tim_mcmahan — Fun!

This year’s Omaha presence at SXSW is… respectable. Saddle Creek will have a showcase Friday night with Mynabirds, Big Harp and Icky Blossoms. Other Creek acts in Austin include PUJOL and Two Gallants. In addition, Depressed Buttons has a gig on Saturday, but that’s about it for official SXSW performances. Sounds like a couple other local peeps will be performing, but they’ll be playing unofficial shows not part of an actual SXSW showcase — not it matters as most people can’t tell the difference between an official and unofficial event.

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Sales numbers for Cursive’s I Am Gemini are in, and they’re a bit surprising. According to Mike Fratt, general manager at Homer’s, first week sales of I Am Gemini were 4,300 physical units, 1,250 digital for a total of 5,550. Fratt was surprised at the low percentage of digital sales. Wonder if it has anything to do with the album’s fantastic combined vinyl/CD packaging?

Fratt said 2nd week sales were off all charts (on neither top 200, nor Heatseekers chart), and off digital, which would mean fewer than 360 physical and fewer than 1,000 digital.

One more stat of note: I Am Gemini was the first Saddle Creek release that wasn’t made available on Spotify the week it was released, and last I looked it still wasn’t.

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Before I head out of town, I’m contemplating attending tonight’s big show at The Waiting Room — New Lungs will be unveiling some new material when they headline a show with Millions of Boys, Swamp Walk and Places We Slept. Quite a lineup, and the price is right: FREE. Show starts at 9 p.m.

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Finally, I keep running into people telling me they sure do miss my column not realizing that I still write a column, but that it’s exclusively published in The Reader and not here. With that in mind, I’m going to post links to my weekly column right here in Lazy-i, though I won’t be posting the actual text.

And I’m starting today with a link to last week’s column, which is particularly timely since it talks about the Equal Employment Ordinance being voted on today by the Omaha City Council. Read that column right here.

See you in Austin.

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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 © 2012 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Criteria at The Waiting Room, March 9, 2012.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

It was another great weekend of shows, starting with Friday night’s 5-year birthday party at The Waiting Room.

I arrived in time to catch one song by The Photo Atlas — their usual high-energy dance rock a la The Rapture left me wondering why these guys have yet to catch on nationally.  By the time Little Brazil came on stage The Waiting Room was crowded, though not a sell out. LB lit it up as per usual, using the opportunity to play some new material which fell in line with their older stuff but somehow felt more modern. Frontman Landon Hedges continues to galvanize his role as indie music’s Freddy Mercury with his soaring, high voice and overall stage bombasity. Before closing their set, Hedges suggested that Criteria’s Stephen Pedersen would have to come out for their last song, a fiery rendition of a Smashmouth tune — not the “Walking on the Sun” Smash Mouth, but Pedersen’s old old band. Sure enough, out came Steve to share vocals on the final chorus, and the crowd went nuts.

Moments later, he was back on stage fronting Criteria. Here’s a band that hibernates for months only to pop their collective head out once a year (or so) to thrill its fans and generate unfounded speculation that perhaps this time they’re back for good (though we all know better).

I’ll say what I’ve said every time this band reunites — they haven’t lost any of their chops. The band still shreds, and Pedersen can still hit those high notes with a mighty fist in the air. His rockstar moves and his movie-star good looks have always made him an indie version of Rick Springfield (“…paging Dr. Noah Drake…“), though these days he’s in Hard to Hold territory.

The difference between this performance and all the other Criteria reunions was the crowd response — I’ve never seen their fans so animated and into the music. And we’re not talking about oldsters from “back in the day” — there were plenty of youngsters screaming back the lyrics who couldn’t have been around when Criteria was first hitting the stages of America a decade ago. How this happens — how a new generation discovers a band that rarely plays and hasn’t released an album in years (and obviously doesn’t get any airplay) — is indeed a mystery.

Icky Blossoms at The Slowdown, March 10, 2012.

Saturday night was the send-off concert for Icky Blossoms at The Slowdown. The show, originally slated for the Jr. room, was moved to Slowdown’s main stage due to the anticipated crowd size. It turned out being the right call.

Here’s my takeaways:

— The band seemed tighter than usual, maybe they were nervous?

— With the new songs, Derek Pressnall appears to be taking a back seat on vocals to Sarah Bohling, who still doesn’t seem completely comfortable in that lead role. It’s either that, or the sound mix was poor, because I couldn’t hear her on half her songs as she struggled to project above the booming rhythm section.

— Ah, that new rhythm section of Saber Blazek on bass and Clark Baechle on drums is bad-ass. Anyone who’s seen Machete Archive knows about Blazek’s chaotic ballet when he’s deep in a groove, and years of playing in The Faint (and in Bright Eyes) has made Baechle arguably the best drummer in Omaha. HUGE.

— If Sitek has had an influence on their sound, it may be in their new emphasis on deep beats. Icky always was a dance band, but now they’ve pumped up the volume to new levels, reminiscent of The Faint.

The more I see them, the more they remind me of The B-52s and Public Image Ltd (PiL), with Derek divided somewhere between Fred Schneider and John Lydon. Meanwhile, Bohling continues to fill the Nico role. Nik Fackler’s guitar textures continue to impress me, as does his knee drops. When he’s wigging out next to Blazek the whole room feeds off the energy.

In retrospect, I do think Bohling was simply tight at the beginning of the set, because she laid it on toward the end, especially on a new tune that she shared with Pressnall, whose name presumably is something like “Riding Around in My Car Forever.” And then there was the closer, the always huge “Perfect Vision,” which never fails to get the crowd bouncing. It’ll be interesting to see how well the tune translates to a South By Southwest audience this week. I’ll let you know.

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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 © 2012 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Marc Leibowitz, left, and Jim Johnson stand in The Waiting Room just prior to the venue's grand opening in 2007.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Seems like only yesterday that Jim Johnson and Marc Leibowitz were standing in the empty, broken down building that once housed the legendary Lifticket Lounge at 6212 Maple St. and talked about how they were going to transform it into their dream music club. That was five years ago. Within its first year of operation, The Waiting Room gained a rep as one of (if not the best) place in town to see rock shows, fueled by stellar bookings from the owners’ own One Percent Productions, fantastic bar service and a killer sound system.

Said Johnson in this 2007 Lazy-i profile: “Here, we have control of our own destiny. We can make it the way we want to make it. After doing 800 shows, we think we’ve determined what this town needs.”

Little did they know that their efforts would be the driving force behind Benson’s transformation into one of the city’s most vibrant entertainment districts. Tonight the guys — along with everyone who’s enjoyed a show there — will celebrate The Waiting Room’s five-year anniversary, and five stellar performers are helping blow out the candles: Little Brazil, The Photo Atlas, Great American Desert, DJ Kobrakyle and the night’s headliner, Criteria (yes, that Criteria). Expect a crowd. $5, 9 p.m. Hopefully we’ll all be doing it again in 2017.

Also tonight (but in Lincoln) it’s the debut of the Good Speaker Fest, a night of music organized and curated by Darren Keen, a.k.a. The Show Is the Rainbow a.k.a. Bad Speler a.k.a. Touch People. We’re talking 21 bands performing at three Lincoln establishments: The Bourbon Theater, the recently opened Mix: Bar and Arcade and the legendary Yia Yia’s Pizza. It all starts at 6, and admission is only $7. L. Kent Wolgamott’s got all the deets in this Ground Zero cover story.

And then tomorrow night (Saturday) it’s Icky Blossoms in Slowdown’s big room with Midtown Marauders and Pony Wars. As mentioned in yesterday’s Icky interview, the goal is for the band to generate as much cash as possible to help get them to SXSW in Austin next week. $7, 9 p.m.

Also Saturday night down at fabulous O’Leaver’s, Saudi Arabia (formerly The Dinks) plays with The Eightysevens. $5, 9:30 p.m.

And over at Stir Lounge in CB The Whipkey Three plays with Fizzle Like a Flood. $5, 9 p.m.

And the party continues at The Waiting Room with Landing on the Moon, Moscow Mule, The Big Deep and Vago. $7, 9 p.m.

And down at The Barley Street Tavern, Midwest Dilemma opens for Les Jupes. $5, 9 p.m.

Finally, Sunday night at The Waiting Room it’s Eisley (Equal Vision Records) with Tallhart & Christie Dupree. $13, 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 © 2012 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Icky Blossoms

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Here’s the story: Icky Blossoms is headed to SXSW next week. They’re driving. The distance from Benson, Nebraska, to Waterloo Records in Austin, Texas, is roughly 770 miles the way the Google flies. Gas currently costs around $4 a gallon. They’ll be driving a van that probably gets (if they’re lucky) 10 miles a gallon. If you use the above numbers:

770 / 10 x $4 = $308

That number does not include the cost of roadside junk food and other assorted “necessities” to make the 14-hour non-stop drive tolerable. Nor does it include the cost of lodging (substantially more than $308 if they’re staying at a hotel) and meals needed while in Music City.

Icky Blossoms just returned from Los Angeles where they recorded their debut album with TV on the Radio’s David Sitek to be released on Saddle Creek Records in early July. If you’ve ever been to LA and know how expensive its pleasures cost, than you know the band very likely is tapped out.

That’s where you come in. This is an early heads up for this Saturday night’s Icky Blossoms show at The Slowdown. In an effort to generate as much money as possible to cover costs, the band has moved the concert from Slowdown Jr. to Slowdown’s big stage.

Icky Blossoms needs you. Change whatever you had planned for Saturday night. Buy your tickets now. $7, here. You will be watching the birth of Omaha’s Next Big Thing.

To entice you even further to come to Saturday’s show, Icky Blossoms’ guitarist/vocalist Nik Fackler offered to answer some questions about the new album, touring and the future of the band.

What did Dave Sitek do to improve these songs? Did he act more like an engineer or as a traditional producer, and what’s the biggest change we’re going to hear in these songs from what we’ve heard in the past?

Nik Fackler: Sitek produced a creative, experimental and pro atmosphere for us to work in. I personally haven’t worked with many music producers, so for me he was kind of like a film director. He orchestrated the flow, experimented with ideas, created beats and analogue synth sounds and kept us all on schedule. He had an ear for what would work on the dance floor and kept a continuity between all the songs. The biggest change to previously released songs is quality, clarity and bigness.

Did you guys write any new material in LA for this record? Will we hear new songs on Saturday? What is the scheduled release date for the new record?

Nik: We wrote three new tunes when we were out in LA and we will be playing all three at the show on Saturday. The record is going to come out in early July.

What’s the lineup for Saturday night’s show? Is it the regular “live band” lineup?

Nik: The live lineup has shuffled a bit. Saturday’s show will see Saber Blazek (Machete Archive) on bass, Clark Baechle (Faint, Depressed Buttons) on drums, Nik (Fackler), Sarah (Bohling, keyboards, vocals), and Derek Pressnall (lead vocals, guitar) take stage.

How is Derek going to tour with: 1) a new baby in the house, and 2) Tilly and the Wall releasing a new record (and, presumably, touring as well)? Is that going to limit the amount of touring that Icky will be able to do this year? 

Nik: We are planning on touring and promoting the record as heavily as we can. How much that will actually be will be determined in the way the record is received and what kind of offers come in. If all goes well it definitely will be a balancing act, but not one we can’t handle. Our main focus right now is to continue to make our best songs and as many of them as we can so we can build a fan base. Scheduling stuff can always be worked out.

What about your schedule? If funding comes through for one of your major film projects, won’t you have to put Icky on hold? Does one project (music or filmmaking) take precedent over the other?

Nik: Creation is my soul.  The goal for me is to never limit the amount of things I can create. I think we live in an age where artwork like film and music can be accomplished quickly. The digitizing of the world has removed some of the hands on aspects of art, but created the ability to produce things more quickly and with just as much quality. Right now, I am in a mode of work. Trying to forge a path for myself where I can do everything and not have to put anything on hold. Right now, it’s about coming up with a balanced and positive process to execute all these different ideas I have.

Neither takes precedent over the other. In a way I see them as all part of the whole.

How many times is Icky going to perform at SXSW? I know of only two gigs currently scheduled.

Nik: We are playing three shows. Thursday: The Waterloo Records Party, Waterloo Records Parking Lot, 2 p.m.; Friday: Saddle Creek Showcase at Lamberts BBQ, 7:30 p.m.; Saturday: Mad Decent/ Check Yo Ponytail/ Fool’s Gold Super Party at Emo’s East, Noon.

Opening for Icky Blossoms this Saturday at Slowdown is Midtown Marauders and Pony Wars. 9 p.m. $7. See you there.

And this just in: Rolling Stone is featuring the first track off the new album, “Babes,” right here. Or download it here.

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Midwest Dilemma at Slowdown Jr., March 7, 2012.

Last night saw a much stripped-down version of Midwest Dilemma at Slowdown Jr., at least compared to the last time I saw Justin Lamoureux’s band, where there were something like 16 people on stage. Last night MD played as a 4-piece with Lamoureux on guitar backed by cellist, flautist and brass player (tuba, bass trombone). I know he likes the big ensemble (hey, who doesn’t want to be surrounded by their friends?), but I much prefer this slimmed-down format which strips the songs to their bare essentials with just enough unique accoutrement for added flavor. Years of performing have aged Lamoureux’s voice like a fine Bordeaux. He’s discarded any vocal affectations (at times in his career he used to sport an Oberst bray) and now sings with a purely unique folk voice that would be appealing to anyone who likes, say, M. Ward’s style of music. Among the highlights was an ode to The 49’r and Lamoureux’s pre-song take on the role the bar played in his life (spoiler alert: booze). He hinted that a new album could be ready to go in a couple months, but quickly added that he’s been saying that for the past four years. Maybe it’s time we all put a collective boot up his ass?

Headliner Water Liars came on at around 10:30 to play a short set in front of about 10 people (including myself, bar staff and Lamoureux’s bandmates). Despite the lax crowd, their songs sounded heartfelt and full for a duo in the classic guitar-and-drums design. I love this guy’s voice, which reminded me of Will Johnson on songs that reminded me of Will Johnson as well. Gorgeous stuff.

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Tonight at House of Loom it’s the homecoming of nefarious hip-hop artist Buck Bowen, returning from California and places beyond. Hear Nebraska has the story of where Buck’s gone and where he going, right here. His hop-hop set tonight is part of Loom’s Midtown Marauder Showcase, which runs from 9 p.m. to 2 and costs $5. More info here. Bowen also will be manning the turntables at Loom Saturday night for a DJ set. Info on that showcase is here.

Also tonight, a live performance by KMG and Birthday Suits — I have no idea who these dudes are, but it don’t matter cuz the show’s at O’Leaver’s, which means it ain’t nothing but a party. $5, 9:30 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 © 2012 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Water Liars enjoy a smoke.

RIYL. That stands for Recommended If You Like, and it’s used by lazy journalists like me to describe bands by comparing their music to another band’s or performer’s music. It’s handy, but frowned upon by a lot of artists because it’s thought to marginalize and diminish their own creativity efforts.

Here’s how it works. Water Liars are playing tonight at Slowdown Jr. RIYL: Will Johnson (Centro-matic), The Bruces, David Bazan (Pedro the Lion), M. Ward, Okkervil River, Will Oldham… and so on. The duo’s new album, Phantom Limb (released by Misra Records) is pretty fantastic. This show flew under the radar for me, I had no idea it was coming up. Go. Opening is Midwest Dilemma. 9 p.m., $7.

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Sometime in the middle of the night when I was fast asleep, my phone blooped/bleeped with the following tweet: “Bret Vovk took your column to heart and stepped it up a notch tonight. Guitar, piano and loops making a lush set.” The tweet came from O’Leaver’s Pub. I’m not sure who owns that account, obviously someone who works/lives there. When I saw it this morning I thought, “Good for him. I wish I would have been there.” Then I thought, “Why doesn’t he do this for all his performances?” There are a lot of musicians out there who make fantastically dense, creative albums with multiple tracks and layered sounds and then go on stage and perform them with just an acoustic guitar. I know, I know… it’s difficult and sometimes impossible to replicate the album’s sound live. It not only takes technology, it can take additional musicians to help bring the songs to life, which takes time and money, whereas it’s faster and cheaper to throw your guitar in the back seat and go to the club and just do them solo. Because it’s about the songs anyway, right? I get it. But… if you can add just a little more than your guitar and voice, if you can get just one or even two of your pals to help you on stage, if you can come a little closer to the target, especially when that target in no way resembles its solo acoustic counterpart, why wouldn’t you? Vovk’s got two advantages over a lot of local singer/songwriters: 1) He writes good songs, 2) He has a good, unaffected voice. Why not showcase both as best you can every time you perform? Because I’m afraid the next time Underwater Dream Machine plays live — and I’m able to go — it’ll just be Vovk and his guitar again…

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BTW, I think there are something like 1.26 billion people playing solo acoustic shows somewhere on any given night.

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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 © 2012 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

I’ve been meaning to write a formal review of Underwater Dream Machine’s new album, A Very Lonely Dream About Space, since it came out months ago. This is what I can tell you about it: It’s like a drug-induced lullaby to Andy Kaufman sung by an ex-member of the Up With People Choir who jumped parole after being arrested for running a prostitution ring while acting as the leader of a wilderness cult that lives on a small armed compound just north of Kennard. It’s weird. Maybe a little bit too weird at times. Maybe a bit distractingly weird, especially when you consider that songs of such singular beauty as “Revolution” and “Already Gone” are so good that Wayne Coyne has put a sizable bounty on the head of UDM frontman Bret Vovk. That’s a long-winded way of saying that this album is already on my short list for being one of the best locally produced records of 2012. Now the question is whether Bret can replicate these songs’ gorgeousness in a live setting. We’ll find out tonight at O’Leaver’s when UDM plays with Pearl and the Beard. $5, 9:30 p.m.

Based on what I’ve seen from their website and Facebook page, Brooklyn band Your 33 Black Angels has about 33 members, or at least more than a half-dozen. How they’re all going to fit on the tiny Barley Street Tavern “stage” tonight should be an interesting challenge. They call their sound psychalternativepopsoulpunk, but I just call it twang-rock with a healthy dose of The Kinks thrown in for good measure. Opening is the always interesting, always evolving Dim Light and maybe one more band that’s TBA. $5, 9 p.m.

Also this evening at 7 p.m., it’s the third installment of the Record Club at the Saddle Creek Shop, where folks can sit around, flip through the bins and listen to a classic LP in its entirety and then chat about it afterward. Tonight’s record is Magnetic Fields’ new one, Love at the Bottom of the Sea. The music starts at 7 down at the Saddle Creek Shop in the Slowdown complex. Go here for more info.

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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 © 2012 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Cursive at The Slowdown, March 3, 2012.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

You have to hand it to Cursive. It’s one thing to play songs from your new album to an adoring sold-out crowd who want the hits. It’s another thing to end the show with one of the album’s more obscure tracks. But that’s exactly what Tim Kasher and Co. did Saturday night at The Slowdown.

The crowd began to arrive early for the opener, Virgin Islands, a band fronted by former Omahan now Seattle-ite Mike Jaworski (or just “Jaws” as he’s known by the inner circle). Like his other band, The Cops, Virgin Islands has a punk esthetic that recalls ’90s post-punkers like Bad Religion and Rocket from the Crypt. The style is straightforward, but unlike The Cops, there’s more variety between songs and more room for the rest of the band to stretch out, like on the set closer that turned into an extended punk jam centered around a blazing guitar. While the audience stood mesmerized, Jaws grabbed a tambourine and ran through the crowd.

Fellow tourmates Ume came next. A trio fronted by guitarist/vocalist Lauren Larsen, I had no idea what to expect and was pleasantly surprised by the band’s take on metal — yes metal, or at least a milder form of metal. Larson knows her way around a fretboard, though her Nancy Wilson (Heart)-style coo seemed out of place among all the abrasion. I tried to imagine a classic metal vocalist singing the words and was transported to an arena circa 1982. Ume’s sound had just enough angular elements to complement the headliners, but as much fun as it was watching Larsen toss her gorgeous blond locks while committing first degree riffage, the music was (for the most part) unmemorable.

Cursive came on shortly before 11 to an adoring crowd packed into the bowl in front of the stage. All this talk about the band’s “older crowd” is nonsense. I was surrounded by people in their teens and early 20s, though there were also plenty of “old folks” there who were around when Domestica came out more than a decade ago. Kasher, sporting the beginnings of a wilderness beard, was in fine voice as he ran through a set list that wove songs from the new album with most of the bands “hits” including “Art is Hard” “Mothership Mothership, Do You Read Me?,” “Big Bang,” “Dorothy at 40,” and, of course, “The Martyr” (strangely “Sierra” was missing).

I was surprised at how seamlessly the new songs fit in with the old stuff, nothing seemed awkward or out of place, but at the same time, none of the new songs, including the first release, “Sun and Moon,” stood out. The new album is the most divisive of their catalog — you either like it or you hate it. It’s a classic “grower” of an album that will take time and multiple listenings before it catches on with the fanbase. Taken out of context as they were Saturday night, the songs were pretty good; they have much more depth when taken as a whole with the rest of the album, which is yet another reason Cursive should consider doing at least a few shows where they play the entire album in order, and in full costume (just kidding about the costumes part).

The band obviously has great faith in this new record, judging by their encore, which included the highlight of the evening — a stellar version of “From the Hips” from Mama, I’m Swollen, an album that flew under the radar but is bound to be remembered in years to come as one of Cursive’s all-time best. By the third verse of the song, the crowd erupted into a pseudo-mosh pit — the first time I’ve seen anything like that at a recent Cursive show. There were even a couple guys hoisted up in the air crowd-surfing style. But instead of riding out that energy to the end, the band closed the encore with “Eulogy for No Name,” the challenging closer on I Am Gemini. It couldn’t have been the end, especially when Ted Stevens played off Kasher with a sound collage of feedback and loops. But then, just like that, the lights came up, and the guy next to me said, “I guess that’s it.” No one expected them to end on that song, but glancing at their tour sets on setlist.fm, they’ve been ending with “Eulogy…” at all their shows. I guess it’s a classic case of leaving the audience wanting more.

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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 © 2012 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Bleeding Rainbow at Slowdown Jr., March 1, 2012.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

A brief conversation from Thursday night’s Bleeding Rainbow/Crocodiles show at Slowdown Jr…

Shortly after Crocodiles finished their set I made my way back to the merch table, not to buy their stuff, but to buy some music from the opener, Bleeding Rainbow. Blond, perky frontwoman/bassist Sarah Everton was more than happy to oblige.

Me: “Which of these is your most recent album?”

Sarah: “Well, none of these are really very recent.”

Me: “Well, which one has the last four or five songs you guys just played?”

Sarah: “Well, none of them. That was all new material. We don’t really sound like that on these records.”

Me: “OK then, when are you putting out a new record?”

Sarah: “We don’t know. We don’t have a record label.”

Me (What I wanted to say): Well then why are you on bloody tour with Crocodiles?

Sarah ended up pointing me to a 7-inch called “Color the Sky” that came out last April, which she said was the most current recording available and the closest to sounding like the band currently sounds, and which I quickly snatched up. Strangely, it’s a one-sided 45 — the flip side is literally groove less (how much more could it have cost to press a B-side?).

Turns out Bleeding Rainbow used to be called Reading Rainbow, and among the wares that Sarah had on her table were a couple 12-inch albums, including one that was released on the amazing HoZac label, who they apparently are no longer aligned with (though they’re playing a HoZac showcase at SXSW in March).

I bring you this long diatribe (and two days after the fact) because Bleeding Rainbow was absolutely amazing — one of the best bands I’ve seen in a long time. The set-up is simple — two guitars, drums and bass, with Sarah and one of the guitarists sharing vocals and creating flat-toned harmonies on songs that are jet-fueled by guitar riffs and loud as fuck. Their songs were fast and hard and often ended with those two guitars fighting each other in a symphony of blinding power. There was nothing terribly innovative about what they were doing. In fact, their sound heralds back to ’90s’ post punk. They (strangely) get compared to Dum Dum Girls and Wavves, who they don’t resemble (though their music is much better). They’ve also been throttled with a “low-fi” label, though there’s nothing low-fi about the sound.

I wasn’t alone in my adoration. One rather well-known local musician gushed even more than I just did, completely blown away. And yet, as good as their music was, we’re not going to hear it played on our stereos anytime soon if what Everton said is the case — no label, no plans to record. Maybe that’s where this tour comes in. Maybe some label flunky will come to one of their shows on this tour and will hear what I heard and offer to help them get their music recorded. Or, the way things are going with labels these days, maybe not…

Crocodiles were good, too, in a sort of The Cure-meet-Brian Jonestown Massacre sort of way. Not bad, but not memorable, and they paled in comparison to the opener. As that local musician/fellow gusher said after Bleeding Rainbow ended their set, “How would you like to follow THAT.” No kidding.

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If you’re reading this Saturday night, you’re either off to Cursive at Slowdown or off to The Brothers for White Mystery. White Mystery is a punkified, garage version of the classic guitar-and-drums two-piece a la The White Stripes. Opening is The Lupines and Snake Island.  The show is $5, and starts at 9 or shortly thereafter. White Mystery is headed to Lincoln tomorrow night for a show at The Zoo.

As for Cursive, if you haven’t gotten your tickets yet you’re out of luck as the show is SOLD OUT. Opening is Omaha expatriate now Seattle-ite Mike Jaworski’s new band Virgin Islands and Cursive tour mates Ume. 9 p.m., see you there.

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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 © 2012 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.