A screen-cap from the film “Loveil” by Annalibera.The band plays at Milk Run tonight…

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Annalibera is a project fronted by Nebraska ex-pat now Des Moines resident Anna Gebhardt. She’s been performing since 2012, but made her first indelible mark on the music world with 2015’s Nevermind I Love You, a dense, soaring 8-song collection of chiming, beautiful indie rock songs you absolutely must seek out (It’s on Spotify, btw).

In a change of direction, Gebhardt followed the album with ambient/noise/experimental cassette called Loveil (Warm Gospel Records) that included a 26-minute companion film shot at her family farm in Nebraska. Available on YouTube or at annaliberamusic.com the art film is haunting in a Warhol-ian sort of way. Gebhardt will be joined by drummer David Hurlin for the July 25 Milk Run show performing songs from Loveil, along with new material.

I caught up with Gebhardt and gave her the Ten Questions treatment:

1. What is your favorite album? 

Anna Gebhardt: To answer this question I go by what album I’ve listened to the most times so it’s between Loveless or Heaven or Las Vegas.

2. What is your least favorite song? 

Kid Rock “Picture,” that song makes me want to crawl out of my skin, always has.

3. What do you enjoy most about being in a band? 

The usual stuff, making music, touring, it’s fun.

4. What do you hate about being in a band? 

Juggling everyone’s schedules, all the marketing and emailing.

5. What is your favorite substance (legal or illegal)? 

Water. So versatile.

6. In what city or town do you love top perform?

Not sure I’ve toured enough for this question. Always great shows in Nashville and Chicago. Recently been thinking about a great one in Gorzow Wielkepolski (Poland), but so far I’ve only played there once. A lot of times those smaller towns make for a magical show (if you go on a weekend).

7. What city or town did you have your worst gig (and why)? 

That’s a toss up between Columbus, OH, or Paris. Long story.

8. How do you pay your bills?

With money, unfortunately. (Freelance writing and teaching piano/voice lessons. Occasionally I am employed to be a backup singer! Can’t pay the bills singing in Des Moines, IA, though).

9. What one profession other than music would you like to attempt; what one profession would you absolutely hate to do? 

I would like to study visual art. I would hate to be in business, law or politics – those are not me. I would feel like an actress every day in my suit.

10. What are the stories you’ve heard about Omaha, Nebraska?

Omaha Nebraska wasn’t good enough for me / always thought i was the roaming kind / with a pocket full of dreams and my one shirt on my back / I left there lookin’ for something to find/ Omaha you’ve been weighing heavy on my mind/ Guess I never really left at all/ I’m turning all those roads I walked around the other way / And coming back for you Omaha (When it’s late and people are passing the guitar around I sometimes play this song, one of my favorites!).

Annalibera performs with Devin Frank Vanishing Blues Band, Sean Pratt & the Sweats and Mike Schlesinger Monday, July 25, at Milk Run, 1907 Leavenworth. Tickets are $7, showtime is 9 p.m. For more information, go to facebook.com/widmestproductionsllc

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Some of the For Against relics at Friday night’s This is Jeff Runnings program at Hi-Fi House. Photo by Stephen Sheehan.

Friday night Hi Fi House hosted an appreciation of the music of Jeff Runnings — former frontman of the seminal ’80s-’90s band For Against — as part of HFH’s new “This is…” series. I was asked the day prior to the event to conduct the interview with Jeff alongside Stephen Sheehan, former frontman of ’80s Omaha ambient-rock band Digital Sex. It turned out to be a quite a night.

Runnings brought a rather sizable archive of For Against recordings, posters and other relics that spanned the band’s career. The interview traced the history of the band, with Runnings filling in a lot of blanks along the way. Sheehan provided insightful questions taken from the vantage point of someone who lived in the rock ‘n’ roll trenches alongside them.

The entire interview was videotaped with professional-looking gear (and technicians). I have no idea when or where this video will be made available. The interview was followed by a “listening” of Running’s new solo album, Primitives and Smalls, released earlier this year by Saint Marie Records.

A bit of news that surfaced during the interview — Saint Marie is planning on reissuing four more For Against albums: Aperture (1993) and Mason’s California Lunch Room (1995), both originally released on Rainbow Quartz Records; Shelf Life (1997) released on World Domination, and 2002’s Coalesced, released by Minneapolis label Words on Music. No word on the exact timing of these releases, but they’ll likely drop sometime early next year. There’s even whispers of a possible For Against reunion (but only for Europe).

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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 © 2016 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.