by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

This might be the weakest weekend line-up I’ve seen this year show-wise. I blame Husker football.

Tonight at The Waiting Room, Des Moines band The Nadas plays with Moses Prey. $15, 9 p.m.

Tomorrow night, Landing on the Moon plays at Slowdown Jr. with Cannonista, The Bros and Timecat. $7, 9 p.m.

And that’s about it, other than DJ MarQ Manner will be behind the turntables this afternoon/evening at House of Loom as part of the bar’s “Non-DJ DJ” series. Expect to hear plenty o’ Prince, Adam Ant and Falco. 5 to 8 p.m. and free.

I may be missing something. In fact, I probably am. If so, please add your show(s) to the comments section.

Happy Labor Day, you tireless workers.

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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

It’s been somewhat quiet news-wise the past few days, which has given me a chance to catch up on some new releases. Look for a slew of reviews online in the coming weeks, including a summary of the best stuff from the first three quarters of 2012. The year indeed started out slow, but there have been a few interesting releases this summer.

What else…?

Omaha singer/songwriter/musician/filmmaker/golden boy Nik Fackler and bass playing legend Dereck Higgins talk about the upcoming InDreama debut right here at Hear Nebraska. The article is an intriguing combination of text and audio files from the interview. Look for the new InDreama to hit store shelves Oct. 23 on Team Love Records.

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In this week’s column, a look back at last Saturday night’s Fashion Week finale, a review that’s bound to get me in trouble… You can read it in this week’s issue of The Reader or online right here.

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Tonight at fabulous O’Leaver’s The Barley Street Tavern, it’s the return of The Lupines with Baby Tears and St. Louis band Hope and Therapy. The usual $5, the usual 9:30 start time.

Also tonight, traveling troubadour Jake Bellows (ex-Neva Dinova) is playing a set at The New BLK, 1213 Jones St., as part of the Top Coat and Tails II closing party. Jake goes on at 10. According to The NBLK: “No cover. Free drink (until it’s gone, feel free to byob also). We’ll be taking donations to help Jake put a new clutch in the ’71 Datsun for it’s journey back to LA. Come down.” OK, now you have to go…

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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

Just a head’s up today that Ladyfinger is playing tonight at The Sydney with The 87. According to their Facebook invite, Mach and Co. will be playing most of their new record, along with some oldies. $5, 10 p.m.

Also tonight, Anniversaire plays at Slowdown Jr. with Good Weather for Airstrikes and Bear Stories. $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 © 2012 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

While clicking around the ol’ Facebook — and after receiving a message from a reader — I discovered the Facebook fanpage for a new band called Mummy Train. Just who is in this new band? Well, according to their Facebook page, Mummy Train consists of members of Conduits — specifically Jenna Morrison, Patrick Newbery and Mike Overfield. They describe themselves as an “experimental music project” whose influences include Bjork, The Knife, Cat Power, St. Vincent, Fever Ray, Yeasayer and Beck. Sounds intriguing. Mummy Train will make its (second) stage debut next Thursday, Sept. 6, at House of Loom following a Women in Music panel discussion. More info on that event here.

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Last week LA Weekly posted a list of its “20 Worst Hipster Bands” that spread across the Social Media griddle like wildfire, igniting hipster tempers with every viral post. In what likely is a reaction to that article, Prefix Magazine has posted its list of the Five Worst Music Lists.

Coming in at No. 5: Prefix’s own Top 10 Lyrics on Bright Eyes’ Lifted… So is that supposed to be a shot at themselves or at Bright Eyes? The LA Weekly‘s Worst Hipster list came in at No. 3 (by the way, how did the Weekly‘s list of “Top 20 Worst Bands of All Time” (LCD Soundsystem, Raconteurs, Fleet Foxes, Animal Collective and Sex Pistols) not make this list?).

The No. 1 worst list honor went to Rolling Stones magazine’s list of “Women Who Rock.” Sexist? Well, here’s how Prefix‘s Sasha Geffen put it, “Women make very few appearances in the publication’s many hyperbolic lists, which, while purporting to be gender-neutral, insist that the best of most music was made by men. So women get their own list, which is the journalistic equivalent of saying, ‘Yeah, she’s a pretty good musician–for a woman.'” Check out the rest of the Prefix list here.

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Brad Hoshaw plays a solo set tonight at The Barley Street Tavern, opening for Philadelphia singer/songwriter boog and Matt Cox Band. $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 © 2012 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The highlight of my weekend was attending the closing night of Omaha Fashion Week, which I’ll be writing about in detail in this week’s column. One piece of music trivia from that event: Organizers played Icky Blossoms’ chick-mantra “Babes” during one of the walks proving (if there was any doubt) that it’s perfect runway music. Take note organizers of New York’s Fashion Week.

BTW, Icky Blossoms’ debut was sitting at No. 10 on last week’s College Music Journal top-20 radio chart. Check it out.

InDreama, self-titled (Team Love, 2012)

And speaking of bands that Nik Fackler is in, last Friday the folks at Team Love announced that they’ll be releasing the debut album by Nik’s other band, InDreama. You can pre-order the purple vinyl today for $16. Street date is Oct. 23. The entire album is currently being streamed at SoundCloud here or at the Team Love website.

Congrats to Nik, Dereck Higgins and the rest of the band, and to Team Love for putting this out…

Check out the album’s first “single,” Exodus,” below:

InDreama, “Exodus”

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/57425834″ iframe=”true” /]

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Sounds like Desaparecidos blew up Seattle last Saturday night, at least according to this review in the Seattle Weekly. Quotes of note: “So when a band incorporates politics into their songs, we may find ourselves driven to further reading or action–as Oberst directed show-goers to a table for more information about immigration rights–but we ought to still evaluate those songs as stand-alone works of art. And Desaparecidos’ songs fucking rock.” And, “Overall, though, it was a raggedly exhilarating show, with a set list covering all of sole album Read Music/Speak Spanish as well as new material. It should have been a sold-out crowd.”

Indeed. And it looks like (according to their website) that there’s still tickets available to tomorrow night’s Desa show at SF’s Bottom of the Hill.

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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

And so we made it to the last weekend of the year before being engulfed by Husker mania. Let’s make the most of it, shall we?

Tonight at The Brothers Lounge Lincoln band Her Flyaway Manner headlines a show with Dim Light and Dead Wave — two bands with a few common demoninators, one of which is frontman Cooper Moon.  $5, 10 p.m. You should go.

Also tonight, Blue Bird plays at Slowdown Jr. with Orion Walsh and Steps to Mars. $7, 9 p.m.

Tomorrow night (Saturday), Secretly Canadian recording artist Yeasayer returns to The Slowdown. Remember when they played Slowdown Jr. in 2008 with MGMT? This time Daughn Gibson opens, who’s new album All Hell (White Denim, 2012) scored a whopping 8.1 on the Pitchfork meter. Tix are $20 today, $23 tomorrow. Show starts at 9.

Also Saturday night, Millions of Boys returns to fabulous O’Leaver’s with Kite Pilot and St. Joe Missouri band Dsoedean. $5, 9:30 p.m.

Meanwhile, the Filter Kings return to The Sydney Saturday night with Matt D. and the Profane Saints. They’re calling this Lee’s Birthday Extravaganza in honor of the birthday of the Filter Kings’ illustrious frontman. This one should be out of control. No idea on the cover. The fun starts at 9.

There’s also a Cystic Fibrosis benefit at The Waiting Room Saturday night with Rock Paper Dynamite, Witness Tree, Two Drag Club and Vago. $10, 8 p.m.

Dundee Day is happening Saturday night. There’s a shit-ton of lame-o bands (other than Satchel Grande) playing the main stage all afternoon and night ($5 cover). At the same time, Dario Day is happening at Dario’s. Unfortunately, I have no idea what bands are playing this time around. If anyone knows, post it in the comments section.

I almost forgot — Jane’s Addiction is playing at The Orpheum Saturday night with Big Black Delta. Tickets are still available for $45-$65. Show starts at 8:30. 

Finally Sunday (and Monday) night is the reunion of ’70s Omaha band Crackin’ with L.A. Carnival and Les Smith Soul Band at the Om Center, 1216 Howard St. Both shows are sold out. Chris Aponick writes about the reunion in this week’s issue of The Reader, or read it online here.

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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

There was buzz at Saturday night’s Digital Leather/Agent Orange show about what’s going on at Pageturners Lounge, the new bar owned and operated by Conor Oberst and Phil Schaffart located right next to Goldberg’s on 50th and Dodge. Scuttlebutt is that they’ve been hiring staff and are preparing to open very soon. Schaffart confirmed both rumors yesterday, saying they’re hoping for an early-mid September opening, and have indeed done some hiring.

I took the opportunity to try to pin Schaffart down on what style of bar Pageturners will be. Will the menu focus on hoity-toity craft cocktails? Nope. OK, well will you be trying to emulate the style (and success) of Benson’s Krug Park with a million beers on tap? Nope again. More details could be forthcoming when Schaffart and Oberst get back from the Desaparecidos tour, which starts Saturday in Seattle. Until then, click on over to the Pageturners Lounge Facebook page and give it a “like.”

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In the column this week: What do Bob Kerrey and Herman Cain have in common? Both played a role in destroying some very precious teenage food memories. Read about it in this week’s issue of The Reader, or online right here.

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Everyone’s favorite troubadour/singer-songwriter/good guy Jake Bellows (ex-Omahan, ex-Neva Dinova) takes the stage at O’Leaver’s tonight with Sam Martin (Capgun Coup) and Reagan Roeder. Plus, PBR & Grainbelt bottles for a $1. Get messed up and sing along! $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

Did a little bit of bar-hopping last night in Benson. I started out early at The Barley Street for the debut of Killer Blow. The duo of Genie Molkentine on drums and vocals and Todd VonStup on electric guitar came on around 10 and played about 15-20 minutes of sweet guitar garage jams that recalled bands like Oblivians and Urinals. I’m not sure which songs were originals and which were covers because, well, I’m not the most well-schooled in classic garage/punk. Molkentine has a gritty riot grrrl snarl that’s dead-on for this style of music, as much yelp as growl. Plus she’s cute as a button and can play drums standing up while singing (though her drum set only consisted of a snare, tom and crash cymbal). Her drumming at times was kind of shaky, but give her a break — this was their first show. VonStup played guitar with his usual raunchy panache, and together they made a cute team. In fact, they’re married, which made it all that much cuter. Keep an eye on them…

After their set I high-tailed it over to The Sydney to catch Digital Leather. The Sydney crew cleared out the tables and chairs prior to opening to give the room more space, and in fact it felt like a punk show. I got there just in time to catch the last couple songs by (who I assume was) Video Ranger — fun punk that prominently featured trombone, which got me thinking about ska, which they weren’t playing (when I was there). Then on came Digital Leather playing a better-than-usual breakneck set of garage rock that got a few guys doing a circle mosh-step (Were the mosh-dance guys from Agent Orange? I don’t have a clue as I didn’t stick around for their set). It was one of the more high-energy DL gigs in recent memory. The only disappointment was that the set list didn’t vary much from the last time I saw them play (except for the inclusion of “Sponge,” which created a lull in the middle of the set). They’re sticking with the new stuff, which is fine, though I’d love to hear something off one of the earlier albums thrown in for fun. Come on, guys, it’s ’bout time you reintroduce “Please Be Quiet.”

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Danse Macabre Deluxe Edition, The Faint (Saddle Creek, 2012)

Yesterday The Faint and Saddle Creek announced that they’re reissuing the 2001 classic Danse Macabre as a remastered and limited edition offering. According to the press release: “The remastered release, which features six bonus tracks from the era as well as an extensive booklet, will be available on CD in a triple-disc format with a DVD, and on double vinyl that also includes the CDs and DVD. Additionally, the DVD will include archival video footage from the band, live projection videos from that era’s tour dates, the ‘Agenda Suicide’ music video, some live footage, and more. Copies of the physical album will be limited to 5,000 for the 2xCD/DVD package and 3,000 for the 2xLP/2xCD/DVD package.”

Street date is Oct. 30. The band also announced a tour to support the release starting November 8 in Denver that will find the group performing Danse Macabre in its entirety for the first time ever, along with the usual set of old favorites. The tour ends with a show at Sokol Auditorium Dec. 14 with upstarts Icky Blossoms opening. In fact, IB will be tagging along for 14 dates on this tour. I can’t think of a better way to introduce the band to the world.

Some thoughts on Danse Macabre on its 10th anniversary. And check out the remastered “Take Me to the Hospital” right here. You can pre-order the album right here at the Saddle Creek online store.

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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

This being a semi-quiet Tuesday, I’m taking this opportunity to clean out the ol’ in-box. Bear with me…

Despite a release date of Sept. 4, the Saddle Creek Shop down at the Slowdown complex today announced that it’s selling right now copies of Azure Ray’s new CD/LP As Above So Below, very likely to the consternation of the folks at Homer’s Records. The shop also will have the limited edition (of 250) pink vinyl version of the record, only available at the shop or from the Saddle Creek online store. Pricing breakdown: CD – $7; LP – $13, and Limited Edition LP – $19.

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Doom Town Records, in cooperation with Rainy Road Records, says it will be releasing Baby Tears’ first full-length LP, Rusty Years, this Thursday, Aug 24, when all pre-orders will be shipped. The band plans to host a release show Oct. 7 at Barley Street Tavern. Until then, order your copy of Rusty Years right here.

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The Iggy Pop Bobblehead

Drastic Plastic is expanding on its  merch offerings with new a label, Silver Saucer CDs. “Silver Saucer’s mission is to do for CDs what Drastic Plastic Records does for vinyl: ensuring the continued availability and best possible sound for seminal recordings,” quote-eth their press release. “Our first release is Agent Orange’s classic Living in Darkness. The CD features the original LP track list with a limited initial run of 1,000 copies.” Street date is Sept. 18.

In addition, Drastic Plastic records announced the Oct. 2 vinyl-only release of The Gun Clubs’ classic from 1984, The Las Vegas Story, as a remastered, 180-gram, opaque-green vinyl offering limited to just 500 pressings.

And if that wasn’t enough, Drastic is in the bobblehead business with a 7-inch tall Iggy Pop bobblehead. Limited to 1,000, it’s the second in their bobblehead series, with George Clinton and Fulci Zombie slated for the bobblehead treatment in the near future. Street date on the doll is Oct. 9. I’m assuming you’ll be able to pick up all these items down at Drastic Plastic or go to impactmerch.com

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Now onto tonight’s shows, and there’s a ton…

Digital Leather returns from their West Coast swing tonight for a gig at The Sydney in Benson. They open for Agent Orange (now on Silver Saucer CDs), along with Video Ranger. $10, 9:30.

Killer Blow is a new duo debuting tonight at The Barley Street Tavern. Featuring Todd VonStup on guitar (Baby Tears, ex-The Shanks) and Genie Molkentine on drums and vocals, their sound has been described as mix of garage pop and British New Wave. Check out there cover of “Love Rules,” by Pens, below. Also on the bill are Moses Prey and Daikaiju from Hunksville. $5, 9 p.m.

Killer Blow, “Love Rules”

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/51704448″ iframe=”true” /]

Also tonight, ’80s post-wave alternative icons The Fixx plays at The Waiting Room with Lonely Estates. 8 p.m., $25.

La Armada, who just opened for Strung Out last week, plays again tonight at The Sandbox with Living Victim, Bad Vibes and Red Lion. $7, 8 p.m.

Finally, Japanese punk band Mugen Hoso turns up tonight for a free show at The Hideout. Opening is The Big Al Band. Starts at 9:30.

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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.

The Faint at The Slowdown, Aug. 18, 2012.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

What to say about The Faint’s performance last Saturday at The Slowdown other than “same as it ever was”?

Team Faint came on around 11 dressed in normal street clothes — a contrast to the old days when they wore dramatic all-black stagewear. Yes, they’ve given up on the costumes, unless you count Todd Fink’s droopy fishing hat (a tribute to Jack Klugman?) and funky, onesie-style jumpsuit complete with exo fabric wrap around his left knee, which was either a fashion statement or a therapeutic device (I tend to think it was the latter).

Top of mind (at least to me) was how they would sound without Faint ex-pat Joel Petersen on bass. I doubt any of the bouncing sold-out crowd that turned the Slowdown’s dance floor into a giant trampoline noticed a difference. Saturday night Dapose handled bass most of the time when a bass was needed, though Todd strapped on a bass for one song (see above action photo). The Faint use a lot of low-end programmed synth parts, so there’s never a loss for any bottom regardless of a bass being on stage.

Overall, if there was a difference soundwise to this new four-piece version of The Faint it was subtle. There were points where the music sounded slightly less dense. And as a whole, the set was less overwhelming than, say, when The Faint played at The Waiting Room and the low end was so excruciating that every organ in my body turned to guava jelly. I did not feel my organs vibrate with bass Saturday night, but that may have more to do with The Slowdown’s acoustics and/or the sound guy rather than what was happening on stage.

Like I said, most fans won’t notice a difference other than seeing one less person on stage bouncing around like a coke-addled marionette. The Faint sound like The Faint, and that’s what matters. They played all the “hits” from their past albums, i.e., what people came to hear. But unless my Faint knowledge is flawed (and considering that I don’t have an encyclopedic knowledge of all their recordings, it very likely is) they launched their set Saturday night with a new song (“An Unseen Hand”?) that swayed oh so slightly from their typical sound to something more “Manchester-ish” in its rhythm and style. View a bootleg vid of the new song here on YouTube. Very promising.

They closed with a three-song encore of “Glass Danse,” “Victim Convenience” and, of course, “Agenda Suicide.” The crowd wanted more. No doubt many returned Sunday night to catch them again. If there’s a criticism of Saturday night’s show it was that the band seemed more stripped down, less “theatric,” and as a result, less sinister. At their best, there is a darkness to The Faint, a layer of dread that adds depth to everything they do. Hopefully, as they move forward, that dread will return.

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What is the opposite of dread? Why Andrew Bird, of course. And tonight Mr. Bird takes the stage at The Holland Performing Arts Center with Bloodshot/ANTI- artist Kelly Hogan. Tickets are still available for the 8 p.m. show for $33 at Ticket Omaha.

Also tonight, Red City Radio (Oklahoma City, Paper + Plastick) plays at Slowdown Jr. with Dummy Head Torpedo, Arliss Nancy, and Divided Heaven. $8, 9 p.m.

Red City Radio, “Two for Flinching”

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/24465986″ iframe=”true” /]

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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.