by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Rolling Stone yesterday premiered “Truly Freaking Out,” a track from Tim Kasher’s upcoming Saddle Creek release Adult Film (due Oct. 8). You should check it out.

I like this new Kasher album more than his Monogamy/Bigamy solo records. It seems more thought out and complete, more than a refacing of Good Life or Cursive tunes. Kasher’s thrown in a lot of interesting sonic twists. Like RS said, “Truly Freaking Out” is buoyed by “bloopy bass barrels… and fuzzy, escalating synths…” It’s strangely retro. And the keyboards on “The Willing Cuckold” and “Life and Limbo” also shift the usual Kasher melodies to new places. In fact, the keyboards throughout the record are the difference-maker between this and other Kasher-fronted projects.

Lyrically, pretty dark. Kasher — a self-proclaimed atheist — appears to be coming to grips with his mortality, as well as his loved ones’ impending end. Listen too close and you’re in for a bummer of a ride. Regardless, Adult Film is the most satisfying record Kasher has produced since Help Wanted Nights.

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Todd and Orenda Fink have launched a “lifestyle blog” called Hell for Breakfast. Yes, it contains music (the duo perform as Low Angle Eyes), but it also has other cool stuff like art and video and various writings. The latest posted recording is of the duo covering Velvet Underground’s “All Tomorrow’s Parties” during last week’s Saddle Creek Shop / Omaha Public Library event. Go to the website to hear and see more…

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/107357310″ width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

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Speaking of members of Azure Ray…

Maria Taylor, Something About Knowing (Saddle Creek, 2013)

Maria Taylor announced last week that Saddle Creek will be releasing her next solo album Oct. 29, titled Something About Knowing. The record was influenced by “the life-changing joy and newfound responsibility of being a first-time parent.” Maria said she recorded it during her son’s naps and its brimming with “bliss and contentment.” Should be quite a contrast to Kasher’s record, eh? Ol‘ Mike Mogis was apparently behind the knobs on this one, and Andy LeMaster (Hey, whatever happened to Now It’s Overhead?) mixed two songs.

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Since I’ll be out the rest of the week, here are the highlights from the music calendar for the balance of the week and weekend.

Tonight (Aug. 28) Lincoln punk band Tie These Hands headlines a show at Slowdown Jr. with Eli Mardock and Saltwater Sanctuary. $5, 9 p.m.

Also tonight (Aug. 28) Columbus Ohio band Emily and the Complexes play at The Sydney with Saturn Moth. It’s probably $5 and probably starts around 10.

Thursday (Aug. 29) Under Water Dream Machine plays at The Barley Street with Love Technicians and Portland act There Is No Mountain. $5, 9 p.m. While I’m thinking about it, there’s only 12 days left in the Bret Vovk/Nick Carl Kickstarter campaign, and they’re still a few hundred dollars from their target. Help these brothers out…

No Blood Orphan, Top Shelf/Lost Tricks (Ant, 2013)

Friday night (Aug. 30) it’s the return of No Blood Orphan to O’Leaver’s. Consider it a reunion show, with all five classic No Blood Orphan members (Bartolomei, Cox, Esterbrooks, Phillips, Saklar) returning for one special performance. In fact, Mike Saklar emailed to say that in addition to No Blood Orphan, there will be “mini-sets” by: Stephen Bartolomei (Mayday, McCarthy Trenching); Chris Machmuller (So So Sailors, Ladyfinger); McCarthy Trenching (So So Sailors, Mal Madrigal); Lincoln Dickison (Chromafrost); Cricket Kirk/Custom Catacombs (Dirty Fluorescents) and more. Available at the show will be a new clear vinyl 7″ and a dual-EP CD titled Top Shelf and Lost Tricks. This one will be special $5, 9:30 p.m.

Sunday night (Sept. 1) there’s a pretty sweet show going on at O’Leaver’s — Merge Records band The Love Language headlines a show with Pony Wars and No, I’m the Pilot. It’s listed as a 8 p.m. show. Tickets are $7 and are actually being presold right here. A ticketed, early show at O’Leaver’s? Will wonders never cease… You’ve got Monday off, so there’s no excuses for missing this one.

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Have a happy Labor Day. Say goodbye to summer…

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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 © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Oquoa at O’Leaver’s, Aug. 23, 2013.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

A recap of Friday night’s festivities at O’Leaver’s:

Headliner Oquoa, making its world stage debut, had a similar vibe as Conduits (J.J. Idt’s and Roger Lewis’ former band), but was less droning and more tuneful in a Roxy Music or even Pink Floyd sort of way. The band sounds nothing like frontman Max Holmquist’s former folk rock project Great American Desert, though I can’t be certain of any lyrical similarities as (is the case with most live projects) I couldn’t make out the words.

Oquoa moves beyond typical shoegaze to an even denser style of indie rock. Idt’s guitar leads were the essential component — spare, soaring, lean, they breath subtle life into these slow(er) mantra songs. Very David Gilmore. The band’s sound as a whole has a similar dense, delay-heavy push as Conduits, but with more separation between the parts. While Conduits was all about creating atmosphere, Oquoa is about the songs.

If you missed them your next chance to catch them is at Jake’s Block party in a couple weeks, where they’ll be playing alongside Twinsmith and See Through Dresses.

Electric Chamber Music opened the evening with a long instrumental that glowed with vibes that reminded me of early Tristeza. It was about as far away from the cowboy shoegaze of frontman James Maakestad’s former band, Gus & Call. But that style was short-lived, as the band left the stage so that Maakestad could do a couple folkie numbers on his own. When the band rejoined him the sound had transformed back into the G&S rural folk rock that we’re all familiar with, even ending with a slide-guitar fueled southern-fried rocker that took me back to G&S fave “To the Other Side of Jordan,” powered by Daniel Ocanto’s out-of-this-world drumming.

It was one of the biggest crowds I’ve seen at O’Leaver’s in a long time. A real crush mob inside and outside, a testimonial to the intense interest in both these projects.

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Talk about your slow weeks for music, other than Tie These Hands/Eli Mardock at Slowdown Jr. Wednesday, there is virtually nothing going on. It’s a good week to get out of town (which is exactly what I’m going to do)…

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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 © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Happy Friday. Here’s what’s happening tonight and tomorrow night.

Tonight at O’Leaver’s it’s the world premiere of rock band Oquoa (Pronounced o’ ko’ uh; the word apparently is Urdu for R*O*C*K). The new trio consists of former Conduits members Roger Lewis and J.J. Idt, and frontman Max Holmquist (Great American Desert). There’s nothing quite like seeing a band’s stage debut. Also on the bill is Electric Chamber Music (James Maakestad, Aaron Markley, Dan McCarthy, and Daniel Ocanto). This could be a big one. 10 p.m. $5.

There’s also a punk rock show happening at the Sweatshop Gallery in Benson tonight featuring Dumb Beach, Worried Mothers and Austin trio Salted. $5, 9 p.m.

Meanwhile, over at The Waiting Room, Matt Whipkey is re-celebrating the release of his latest album, Penny Park, as he’s making the double-vinyl album available on CD. Matt opens for Witness Tree. Also on the bill is Moses Prey and The Decatures. $7, 9 p.m.

Saturday afternoon the Saddle Creek Shop in the Slowdown complex is hosting another in the “Songs @ Shop” series featuring all-acoustic performances by Laura Burhenn (Mynabirds), Orenda Fink (Azure Ray), Dan McCarthy (McCarthy Trenching) James Maakestad (Gus & Call) and Zack Lagrue. All will be playing songs of the ’60s, as the event is part of Omaha Public Library’s America’s Music summer program. The fun starts at 3 p.m. and is free. More info here.

Saturday night Thunder Power plays at The Barley Street with Holy White Hounds and Mint Wad Willy. $5, 9 p.m.

Meanwhile, over at The Brothers Lounge, No I’m the Pilot opens for Jaw Knee Vee (“LoFi Rawkabilly Punk Blues Trash Boogie Woogie Stomp from St. Paul”). $5, 10 p.m.

And finally Saturday night, The Bishops play at O’Leaver’s with Faded and The Bricks. $5, 9:30 p.m.

Sunday afternoon O’Leaver’s is hosting its “Sunday Social Club,” this time featuring Ted Stevens Unknown Project and the garage-punk duo of Killer Blow. $5 gets you in plus access to the taco bar! Tacos start at 4 p.m., music starts at 5 p.m.

Did I miss something? Put it in the comments section. Have a good weekend!

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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 © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Back to business as usual…

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This was just brought to my attention, though apparently it was published in May: NME published a list of 75 “Ultimate Cult Heroes.” Check out No. 10, chosen by Conor Oberst: Slowdown Virginia — “It was Tim Kasher’s [from Cursive] first band. We started our label [Saddle Creek] ’cos we were all in love with this band and wanted everyone to hear it. We got all our friends to kick in money to make a CD. They were into the Pixies, high energy, amazing melodies. This was in ’93. I was 13. Up until then I wasn’t really playing music, but seeing them, I saw how it was possible.”

BTW, No. 1 was Syd Barrett, chosen by NME’s Liam Cash.

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Jake Bellows yesterday released a video for “I Can’t Wait,” off his just-release Saddle Creek album New Ocean. Check it out:

Jake’s also the “Band of the Day” whatever that means.

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The Yuppies just announced they’re releasing their debut album on Dull Tools Records Sept. 15. Dull Tools is the label run by the guys in Parquet Courts. Check out “Hitchin’ a Ride” from the new album, below:

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And Mr. Sam Martin (of Capgun Coup) today released his solo album Trite Monsters via Bandcamp. The 18-track long player is available for download for $7. Check it out in its entirety here, then buy it. Here’s a zinger of a track called “Email”:

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Tonight at Slowdown Jr., local acts Blue Bird and Brad Hoshaw open for The Giving Tree Band. $7, 9 p.m.

Also tonight, blues rocker Matt Cox plays at fabulous O’Leaver’s with Filligar and TORCHES. $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 © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Maha’s cup overfloweth: A view of the crowd at this year’s festival while the Thermals perform.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

In this week’s column, a recap of this year’s Maha Music Festival. You can read it in this week’s issue of The Reader or online right here. Or heck, why not just read it below?

Over the Edge: At Age 5, the Maha Music Festival Is All Growed Up

Was this year’s Maha Music Festival a success?

The concert, held last Saturday at Stinson Park in Aksarben Village, drew 5,100 people. If that number seems light — especially compared to your typical CenturyLink Arena concert — consider that you cannot hear any of the bands that performed at Maha on your local FM radio. None. They don’t call it “indie rock” for nothing.

Tre Brashear, one of the festival’s organizers, said Saturday’s 5,100 was a 20 percent increase in attendance compared to the 4,300 there last year to see Garbage and Desaparecidos in the rain.

It was a big crowd. In fact the first thing I noticed after walking through the gates was that Maha had somehow made the park shrink. There wasn’t much green space for the crowds between the massive duo stages, the food vendors on Mercy Street, The Globe performance tent and the Bellevue University Community Campus.

Despite that, Brashear said Maha has yet to outgrow Aksarben Village, at least from a music standpoint. “Stinson is large and can hold more,” he said. “Furthermore, parking still continues to be pretty easy and convenient.”

On the other hand, Maha’s vendor space on Mercy Street has become too constrained. “People want more food options, more vendors,” Brashear said, “but we don’t have any place to put them unless we can figure out a way to put more items on the far side of the park.”

But beyond vendor congestion, if Maha ever bags its dream act — Wilco — organizers will have little choice but to look elsewhere, as the band could easily attract well over the park’s 10,000 capacity.

Enough about logistics. Here’s rundown of the bands I saw after arriving midway through the concert.

Saddle Creek Records’ latest recruits, The Thermals, played the straight-forward power-punk the trio is known for, including a number of songs off their latest album, Desperate Ground. The crowd seemed to like it, though they stood like scarecrows holding their beers and nodding their heads to the unchanging straight-four beat.

While The Thermals sounded good on the massive “Weitz Stage,” local boys Criteria sounded even better on the smaller “Centris Stage.” Don’t ask me why, but that junior-sized set-up sounded fuller (and louder) than its big brother, but maybe the band had something to do with it. Criteria, also a Saddle Creek act, boasts more dynamic songwriting vs. The Thermals’ play-and-repeat, one-gear punk style.

None of that mattered when Bob Mould took the main stage and blew them both away. Grinning throughout the set, Mould rifled through a “greatest hits” selection that included favorites off his Sugar albums, new stuff off his lastest solo record, The Silver Age, and classic Hüsker Dü in the form of “I Apologize” off New Day Rising. Bassist Jason Narducy filled out the vocals when Mould couldn’t, adding tasty harmonies throughout the set.

Mould was the highlight of the day for me and for a lot of others I spoke to including Brashear, who said Maha had been trying to book him since the festival began five years ago. As for those who complained that Mould’s set was “too loud,” the term “pussy” comes to mind. It’s Bob frickin’ Mould, folks. What did you expect?

Which brings us to Digital Leather. A few years ago during a lunch meeting I tried to convince the Maha guys to book the band by playing songs off their album, Blow Machine. When the execs heard stand-out track “Studs in Love,” with lines “I like Wrangler butts / I like hairy asses / I like men” they just shook their heads and said, “Maha’s a family event; we can’t have that.”

Cut to last Saturday and there was Digital Leather on stage singing about hairy asses to a crowd that barely noticed. Why would they? Isn’t rock ‘n’ roll supposed to be controversial and/or risky? What’s risky about hairy asses?

The thought that Maha organizers would be offended by Digital Leather seemed ridiculous after Matt & Kim took the stage. The keyboard-and-drums duo that plays cute, shiney indie pop dance tunes spent most of the time between songs yelling profanities at the audience. Every other word out of drummer Kim Schifino began with an F or MF. I guess they needed something to “rough up” their cutesy veneer and all those colored balloons just wasn’t cutting it.

It took about a dozen grips a half hour to get the set ready for festival closer The Flaming Lips. T-shirted stage hands carried huge chrome-plated globes while electricians carefully draped light strings from massive overhead crossbars. A few minutes before the set, out walked frontman/messiah Wayne Coyne in his shiny electric-blue suit, his graying mane blowing in the summer breeze. Coyne climbed atop the mountain of silver embryos and stood like a hipster Jesus grasping a weird fetus doll in his left hand.

If you came for the spectacle, you got it. The Lips’ amazing light show included a huge digital back-screen that blazed with glowing imagery while pin-lights flowed from above Coyne down the chrome mountain and back to the sky like an LED volcano.

Yes, there was plenty of smoke; yes there was confetti. Too bad there weren’t many hits. Coyne and Co. spent the first 20 minutes droning through depressing tonal music indicative of the band’s most recent album, The Terror. They would close out their set with hit, “Do You Realize?” but by then I was pedaling through Elmwood Park on my way home.

So was Maha a success? Artistically, it was the strongest festival they’ve ever put on. Brashear said it was financially successful as well, thanks to strong sponsorships, heavy donations throughout the year, and best-ever ticket sales.

“We definitely made a profit,” Brashear said. “That profit is going to get rolled into making next year’s Maha ‘better.’ What does that mean? We don’t know just yet. Could mean more expensive talent and/or an additional day. It’s too early to tell.”

Over The Edge is a weekly column by Reader senior contributing writer Tim McMahan focused on culture, society, the media and the arts. Email Tim at tim.mcmahan@gmail.com.

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John Klemmensen met his piddly Kickstarter goal of $500, actually exceeded it by a couple hundred dollars. I am among those who donated enough to get JK to do cover. I’m still mulling my choice  — should I select one of my favorite Buckingham Nicks songs or ask John to breath new life into a song by a local artist? Decisions, decisions…

Meanwhile, Bret Vovk (a.k.a. Under Water Dream Machine) and Nick Carl (a.k.a. Kicky Von Narl) just launched a Kickstarter in support of their upcoming 3-week tour of the American Southwest and West Coast. “All the proceeds gathered will go toward the happenings of a successful tour and production of a brand new split LP, available exclusively (for a time) to their Kickstarter backers,” they say. Get in on the action right here.

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Been kind of quiet show-wise since Maha. Not much happening tonight either, except for the next installment of The Record Club @ the Saddle Creek Shop (located in the Slowdown Compound), this time featuring The Beach Boy’s classic Pet Sounds album. The needle drops at 7 p.m. followed by a critical discussion of the record. As always, the event is free.

Also tonight, singer-songwriter Damon Dotson plays at Slowdown Jr. $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 © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Mousetrap at The Waiting Room, Aug. 16, 2013.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Coverage/review of Saturday’s Maha Music Festival will appear in my column in the upcoming issue of The Reader. For the record, it was a heckuva show. Check out the action photos below the Mousetrap review.

Mousetrap was a blast Friday night at The Waiting Room. As was the case last time they played here, the band sounds tighter than back in its ’90s hey-day. No doubt there are some obvious differences that come with 20-odd years of life experiences.

Their sound, while as bracing as ever, at times was cast in more subdued tones. The trio played a couple dark-throb numbers that ebbed and flowed like a tide coming in at midnight carrying a body floating face-down in the bay. Black and grisly and a bit creepy. But then again, there always has been something disturbing about frontman Patrick Buchanan. On stage he comes off like a punk version of a Brett Easton Ellis psychopath. Don’t look directly into his eyes.

Bassist Craig Crawford acts as sort of a buffer/cipher that keeps Buchanan from spinning out of control, though you know if things ever got heavy Craig would say, “Sorry, pal, you’re on your own.”

You can tell they’ve only just begun with drummer Colby Starck. A seasoned veteran, he still needs push it a couple notches to match former drummer Mike Mazolla’s ferocity. That’ll come with time.

My only gripe about Friday night was the set’s length — little more than 20 minutes with a three-song encore (that included a cover of Dead Boys’ “All This and More”). Buchanan promised more new material when Mousetrap returns, probably sometime during the holidays. There’s nothing quite like Christmas with Mousetrap…

Ron Wax was up before Mousetrap and judging by the comments made outside the venue you’d have thought it was the end world. I’ve known Ron Albertson for years both as the drummer of Mercy Rule and as a fine artist (I proudly have three Ron screenprints-on-canvas hanging on my walls). I caught the last two brutal songs of their set. It was loud, raucous, noisy, ham-fisted caterwaul rock, more than a little bit weird. Gritty and unbridled, but what did you expect? My reply to the guy who said he was going to gut-punch me if I called it genius: It ain’t genius, and it ain’t supposed to be.

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Now onto some pictures from the Maha Music Festival this past Saturday…

The Thermals sort of got the crowd going. Theirs is a one-note punk style, but people love it. Those who expected moshing forgot where they were.

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Criteria sounded louder (and better) on Maha’s “second stage” than the Thermals did on the main stage. Might have something to do with dynamics…?

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Bob Mould for me and a lot of people was the cornerstone of this year’s festival. Lots of Sugar and new stuff and even “I Apologize.” What more do you want?

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For the uninitiated, Digital Leather brought a modern garage aesthetic, along with lots of cool noise. 

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Our lord and savior Wayne Coyne doing his thing atop a mountain of chrome embryos, fetus doll in hand. Great lights, droll music.

More on Maha Wednesday, I promise.

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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 © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The top priorities on your music-watching list this weekend should be Mousetrap tonight at The Waiting Room and the Maha Music Festival tomorrow at Stinson Park/Aksarben Village.

You read about Mousetrap yesterday. Opening tonight’s show is Ron Wax (Ron Albertson of Mercy Rule) and Noah’s Ark Was a Spaceship. $8, 9 p.m. See you there.

Also going on tonight…

Gypsy punks Gogol Bordello plays at The Slowdown with Omaha’s own gypsy punk, Solid Goldberg. This one’s SOLD OUT. Starts at 8.

Team Love hip-hop artist Rig 1 (a.k.a. Desaparecidos’ Ian McElroy) is doing his thing at Benson’s Sweatshop Gallery tonight at 10. Opening is the debut of Routine Escorts, featuring Jon Tvrdik (ex-Back When). $5.

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/80978758″ params=”” width=” 100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /].

Tomorrow, of course, is the Maha Music Festival. Save $10 by purchasing your $45 ticket today at mahamusicfestival.com. The DOS price is $55 (kids under 10 are in fer free).

Here’s the Maha schedule:

Noon   Gates Open
12:05  Centris Stage     Purveyors of the Conscious Sound
12:40  Weitz Stage        Millions of Boys
1:20  Centris Stage        HERS w/ Omaha Girls Rock!
1:55  Weitz Stage           Sons of Fathers
2:45  Centris Stage       Rock Paper Dynamite
3:20  Weitz Stage         Thao and the Get Down Stay Down
4:25  Centris Stage       The Millions
5:00  Weitz Stage        The Thermals
6:05  Centris Stage     Criteria
6:45  Weitz Stage        Bob Mould
7:55  Centris Stage     Digital Leather
8:55  Weitz Stage        Matt & Kim
10:15  Weitz Stage     The Flaming Lips
Midnight  Show Over

More details at mahamusicfestival.com. Weather looks grand. This should be a good one.

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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 © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Mousetrap circa 2013, from left, Colby Starck, Patrick Buchanan and Craig Crawford.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

In this week’s column, Mousetrap’s back. You can read it in the current issue of The Reader, online here, or what the heck, read it below:

Over the Edge: Mousetrap’s Back, but Don’t Call It a Reunion

For regular readers of this column, a quick synopsis of who/what is punk rock band Mousetrap:

To use the word “seminal” to describe their impact on the Omaha music scene would be an understatement. Almost every significant Omaha band I’ve interviewed — whether they play punk, hard rock or even singer-songwriter stuff — has name-checked Mousetrap as an influence. That includes all of Saddle Creek Records’ most successful acts.

At the band’s core are bassist Craig Crawford and frontman/guitarist Patrick Buchanan. Their hey-day was in the ‘90s, when they released a couple 7-inch singles followed by their debut full-length Cerebral Revolver in 1993; the follow-up, Lover, in ’94, and their final album, The Dead Air Sound System, in ’95.

How to describe their music? It’s loud, but not macho or “tough-guy” or anything like today’s corporate metal goon-rock bands. Instead, the music is bitter and angry. Its anger is channeled more toward themselves than whatever situation Buchanan and Crawford are howling about. Actually, it’s more pain than anger — not a broken-hearted pain, but an exposed nerve physical throbbing abscessed tooth sort of agony — bright red and pulsing.

Mousetrap’s abrasive, acidic rock is not for everybody, in fact, it’s not for most people. After years of touring — a rarity for local bands in the early ‘90s — Mousetrap eventually faded away by the end of the decade.

And then seemingly out of the blue — the band played a pair of reunion shows at The Waiting Room in 2009 and 2010. And now their back again, but this time it’s different. Mousetrap intends to become an active band, or as bassist Crawford put it, “We’re a functioning band that plans to put out a new album by December.”

Crawford talked via Skype last Saturday in the band’s Chicago practice space. Also on the video-chat were frontman Buchanan, looking as sinister as ever with his mane of black, tousled hair, and new drummer Colby Starck.

Starck, a former Lincolnite who you may remember from such ‘90s bands as Pablo’s Triangle and Roosevelt Franklin, has lived in Chicago for about 12 years, where he made acquaintances with Crawford. He says Mousetrap’s first 7-inch “Wired” b/w “Train,” released on the late Dave Sink’s One-Hour Records, continues to be his favorite single.

“I’ve been a fan for a long time, and Mousetrap has always had trouble with drummers,” Starck said. “Whenever I saw them, I always said, ‘That should be me up there.’” And now it is.

Buchanan wanted to make sure I mention that former drummer, Mike Mazzola, who played with Mousetrap at the reunion shows, is a great drummer and a good friend and that the switch to Starck was a scheduling thing.

“It totally made more sense to have Colby come in because he can invest more time in the band,” Buchanan said. “We want to make this a living, breathing, fully operational band and that requires more time and commitment.”

Becoming a “real band” had been the plan back in 2010, but it obviously never happened. Shortly after the holiday reunion show, Buchanan, who works in advertising, got a job offer in Miami. “It’s the nature of the ad business, if you want to get yourself a raise, you have to move to where the job is,” he said. But it didn’t take long for Buchanan to realize that Miami is “kind of a shithole.” When he got another job offer back in Detroit, he took it. And as soon as he got back, he called Crawford and got the ball rolling again.

By the way, Buchanan said despite the city recently declaring bankruptcy, Detroit isn’t a bad place to live. “I actually love it,” he said, “and I love that the media is so harsh on it. It’ll keep all the hipster douche bags away.”

Back to our story. Detroit is an easy drive to Chicago, which allows the band to get together over the weekends. Word of this reunion leaked back in March. Since then, the band not only has been getting Starck up to speed on the band’s back catalog, but writing new material, including one new song that will be performed at Friday night’s show at The Waiting Room, and Saturday night’s show at The Chesterfield in Sioux City.

Buchanan said Mousetrap’s new material is “pretty dark.”

“It’s driven by the type of vibe that you hear when you listen to Iggy Pop’s The Idiot album, which is the greatest nighttime album ever made,” he said. “Let me explain it in less specific terms: Mousetrap of 1993 was a sawed-off shotgun. Mousetrap of 2013 is more like a sniper rifle. The stuff we’re doing isn’t less violent or abrasive, just extra concentrated.”

Both Crawford and Buchanan said there’s a void for their style of aggressive music. “The formula (in pop music) in the last year has been bands saying, ‘Hey, Ho.’” Crawford said. “I don’t see a lot of bands with balls.”

“You see a lot of dudes with beards strumming acoustic guitars wearing vests and suspenders, old-timely clothes like a frontier pioneer guy,” Buchanan added. “I feel like what we’re doing is pretty fresh right now because it’s not what’s happening. There’s a lot of dance-y electronic music and softer indie-rock stuff, but there’s not a lot of loud, aggressive rock music that’s not metal. There has always been an anti-social streak to us in a musical sense; we’ve always been dark and confrontational, that’s the music we want to make.”

And if no one likes it?

“It doesn’t really matter if not a single person buys our next album,” Buchanan said. “We make music the way we want to make it. We’ve always been musically very selfish. We’re going to do whatever we want to do. If you like it, that’s awesome. If not, there’s the door, get the fuck out.”

Mousetrap plays Friday, Aug. 16, at The Waiting Room, 6212 Maple Street, with Ron Wax and Noah’s Ark Was a Spaceship. Tickets are $8, the show starts at 9 p.m.. For more information, go to onepercentproductions.com

Over The Edge is a weekly column by Reader senior contributing writer Tim McMahan focused on culture, society, the media and the arts. Email Tim at tim.mcmahan@gmail.com.

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And yet another Mousetrap interview right here at hearnebraska.com.

And here’s Mousetrap doing “Superkool” at The Waiting Room in 2010, via the YouTube.

Friday night’s show at TWR should be epic.

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In case you’re wondering what the boys in Criteria have been up to, check out their just-released Love Drunk video for yet-to-be-released song “This Reign Is Ours.” Heavy riffage. Lots of exciting woodworking. You get the idea. BTW, Criteria will be playing the local stage at Saturday’s Maha Music Festival. Get your tix right here and get ready to rock.

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Finally, Omaha’s No. 1 broken-hearted troubadour, John Klemmensen, is getting ready to hit the road on a tour that takes him to the West Coast. The only thing he needs is gas money. And that’s where you come in.

Check out John Klemmensen’s Kickstarter Campaign, where he’s trying to raise a measly $500. Prizes include a candle-lit bubble bath drawn by John himself as he serenades you with one of his slow, sad, sexy ballads…. j/k.

“j/k” stands for Just Kidding. Though John might want to consider adding it to the list. It’s got to be worth $50…

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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 © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Bob Mould, center, with Jason Narducy, left, and Jon Wurster. Photo by Peter Ellenby.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

In this week’s issue of The Reader, my interview with Bob Mould in support of his upcoming performance at Saturday’s Maha Music Festival. I asked Bob about things he said when I interviewed him 15 years ago for The Reader, at a time when he’d just announced he no longer would play “electric” shows because “he couldn’t imagine playing rock music at age 50.” It was quite a scandal at the time.

Mould explained what was going through his head when he made those statements (His hate of alt rock, his struggle with his sexual identity). We also talked about playing rock music at age 52, the current music industry model, Spotify and why he doesn’t pull his music from the service, where his music sits alongside today’s music, if he’ll ever play Black Sheets of Rain again, what he plans on playing at Maha and what’s in store after Maha, and as an extra bonus, Bob’s take on Barack Obama.

It was enough for a 2,700 word story, but I only had space for 800 words in print. BUT, you can read the entire interview transcript by clicking right here and heading to thereader.com.  Go read it now! Then get your ticket for Saturday’s festival at mahamusicfestival.com

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Big Star played to a full house last night, even though that performance was merely a reflection on the big screen.

While waiting for Film Streams to open the door to the screening aud, it felt like being at O’Leaver’s on a Saturday night — lots of familiar faces from the Omaha music scene taking advantage of this one-night-only screening of documentary Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me.

And it was quite a film. While always a fan of Big Star, I’ve never researched the band, who’s heyday was back in the early 1970s. The film’s biggest surprise was how much Chris Bell was responsible for the band’s sound on their early records. I guess I always thought it was an Alex Chilton thing, and he definitely was a central figure. Bell’s story provided the film’s tragic undertow, and when they played the single “I Am the Cosmos,” along with the b-side “You and Your Sister,” I discovered where that amazing sound on Number 1 Record really came from.

Anyway, it’s a good flick, and worth checking out on iTunes or Amazon on demand. Hats off to Film Streams for hosting this special night of music and film. Judging by the turn-out, this kind of one-shot music documentary showing could be a hit for them.

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There’s a free show going on tonight at Slowdown Jr. Headlining is San Francisco dream-pop band Mammoth Life. Joining them is Omaha’s own space-rock band Talking Mountain, and 8-bit rockers The Superbytes. The event also is an art show featuring works by CJ Espargo, Anthony Brown, Cassidy Hobbler, The Mock Turtle and Collin Pietz. Get there early and check out the art. The rock starts at 9.

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Tomorrow: Mousetrap.

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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 © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Big Star, from left, Jody Stephens, Andy Hummel and Alex Chilton.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Film Streams is screening the documentary Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me for one night only tonight.  It’s describes as “a feature-length documentary film about the dismal commercial failure, subsequent massive critical acclaim, and enduring legacy of pop music’s greatest cult phenomenon.”

While I have no idea if the film is any good, I can vouch for its soundtrack, which lately I listen to more than any other Big Star album, but maybe that’s because it’s their most current compilation. Sayeth the Washington Post: “At times, (the film) can get a little insider-y, especially if you’re uncool enough to have never heard of the band, or if you still don’t know that the Bangles’ popular ‘September Gurls’ was a cover of a Big Star song by Chilton. (And no, it wasn’t a hit for them.) This movie is more for converts than neophytes. But if you’re already a believer, it’s like going to church — one with the world’s most awesome choir and a sermon that’s at once uplifting and a little bit sad.”

Yeah, I know it’s in iTunes and Amazon Instant, but if you have a chance to see it on the big screen, why not?

Screening starts at 7. May want to get your tickets online before you go, here at filmstreams.org. Check out the trailer below:

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Since you’re going to be down there already, you may want to check out Ben Taylor (James & Carly’s son) tonight at Slowdow. Our own Brad Hoshaw is opening (could this be Brad’s big break?). $15, 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 © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.