by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Before you read my column in this month’s issue of The Reader that briefly outlines the recent controversy surrounding Orenda Fink, Noah Sterba and Simon Joyner, this note: I was reticent about writing on this topic for fear that it would only stir the pot all over again.

In fact, I told Orenda Fink when the controversy surrounding Harouki Zombi flared up this past summer to keep a low profile and wait for it to pass. Now here I am writing about it. The reason I moved forward was because of  Joyner’s own lengthy defense of Sterba and Orenda (It’s linked within the column).

So without further ado, here’s the column, which you also can read in the November issue of The Reader, on newsstands now. More tomorrow, including comments from Joyner about his song “As Long As We’re in Danger,” the language he used, and its timing…

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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 © 2017 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Those Far Out Arrows at Slowdown Jr., Aug. 8, 2017. The band plays tonight at O’Leaver’s.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Here comes the weekend.

Tonight at fabulous O’Leaver’s it’s a benefit for DREAMers in the state of Nebraska through Nebraska Appleseed. Your donation ($5 minimum please) not only helps a good cause but gets you in to see four solid bands: Those Far Out Arrows, The Sunks, Megan Siebe & Sean Pratt and Practices. 10 p.m. start time. Do it for the kids.

Tomorrow night (Saturday) it’s back to O’Leaver’s for Denver’s Bud Bronson and the Good Timers. Joining them are The Beat Seekers and Mint Wad Wally. $8, 9 p.m.

Also Saturday night, Benson bars are once again hosting the Omaha Entertainment and Awards Awards Showcase. Participating venues are The Waiting Room, Reverb Lounge, Barley Street Tavern, Burke’s Pub, The Sydney and 402 Collective. You get 40+ bands for $10. Starts at 7. For full band listing, go to the Facebook event listing here.

Is that it? Yeah, that’s it. If I missed your show, put it in the comments section. Have a great 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 © 2017 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Not much happening ’round here. What else is new?

So what have I been listening to lately?

King Krule, The Ooz (2017, Matador)

The new one by Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile, Lotta Sea Lice (Matador Records); The Yawpers’ Boy in a Well (Bloodshot), Cults’ Offering, Angel Olsen, Big Thief, the new Beck, Buzzcocks, King Krule’s The OOZ (True Panther), that weird Ben Gibbard cover of Bandwagonesque, Matt Whipkey’s Driver and this one from Sunflower Bean. Look for 3Q reviews in the near future.

Tonight at Lookout Lounge it’s Long Island punk band Iron Chic (SideOneDummy Records) with KC’s Company Retreat, Omaha’s Hand Painted Police Car and Heatwaves. $12, 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 © 2017 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

The Drums at The Waiting Room, May 1, 2012.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

About that recent signing by Saddle Creek Records…

Saddle Creek executive Robb Nansel said the label’s signing of singer-songwriter Stef Chura was the handiwork of the label’s new A&R rep Amber Carew.

Carew said she discovered Chura via a friend of hers from Houston who sent her Chura’s Bandcamp link.

“At that time, I was working for Anti Records and was considering pursuing her for them,” Carew said. “After a few missed connections between me and Stef over the following year, we finally connected during my transition to Saddle Creek.”

Chura’s debut LP, Messes, already had been on store shelves for some time, and Chura expressed interest in reissuing it. “We really clicked and I trusted her passion and plans for the future,” Carew said. “I felt more confident in her as a fit for Saddle Creek than I did Anti, so I felt compelled to explore that.”

Carew said that beyond Chura’s songwriting and tenacity as a musician, she understands and promotes community-based ethics “much akin to the Saddle Creek spirit — authentic and compassionate. Some artists on the label, like Big Thief, were already fans as well. It just felt right. I thought that Messes was great and deserved another push, so we made it happen.” Saddle Creek will reissue Messes on CD, cassette and LP Feb. 2.

Carew said the follow-up to Messes already has been recorded, produced by one of the hottest new names in the indie world. You’ll just have to wait to find out who that is. Here’s a clue: The producer has performed in Omaha a few times in the past couple years.

Chura and Carew represents one aspect of the continuing expansion of the Saddle Creek empire. Nansel said Saddle Creek also is opening a formal office in Eagle Rock, a section of Los Angeles between Burbank and Pasedena. He and Carew will eventually be joined by a marketing director, which the label currently is seeking, and “we’ll likely be inviting some other music industry friends in to the space to share it with us.”

Now we all have somewhere else to visit the next time we’re in La La Land.

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There’s a good rock show going on tonight at The Brothers Lounge. Oakland’s Night Shapes headlines. They’re described as what would happen if “Yuppies and Nick Cave joined forces.” Opening is Vermont band Box of Stars, New Englander Jake McKelvie and our very own FiFi NoNo. $5, 9:30 p.m.

Also tonight, Brooklyn band The Drums (Anti Records) plays at The Waiting Room with Aussie act Methyl Ethel (4AD). $15, 8 p.m.

That’s not all. There’s an indie punk show tonight at OutrSpaces, 528 So. 24th St. The headliner is TOP Nachos from New Paltz, NY. Also on the bill are NYC’s Dolly Spartans (Noble Media) and Omaha faves Hussies and Magu. $10 donation, 7 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 © 2017 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

The BoDeans circa 2004. The band plays tonight at The Waiting Room.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

God, it seems like forever since I’ve been to a rock show. Maybe I’m just imagining it but it sure feels like things have slowed to a crawl, especially if you’re an indie music fan. There are some fun shows on the horizon, though, including Mogwai Nov. 30, that Whitney show Dec. 1 and Destroyer next February. There’s also a sneaky good Son, Ambulance show scheduled for Dec. 2 at O’Leaver’s. And I’m sure some more dates will fill in.

BTW, for those lamenting the cost of rock shows, this weekend I went to see the new Thor movie and discovered that tickets almost everywhere are $13. It was as if movie prices jumped over night. Just a few weeks ago I paid $10 to see a movie at one of the large theaters.

I bring it up because while rock show prices have gone up, too, you’re still getting a real, live experience for your hard-earned rubles. Unlike movies, where that $13 is going to an army of faceless people you’ll never meet, there’s a certain pleasure knowing when you pay $15 for a rock show the folks you’re watching on stage will see that money (or at least part of it) in their pockets by the end of the night. That $5, you spend to see a band at O’Leaver’s is (for the most part) going to the band that performed for you.

Speaking of rock shows…

Your old friends the BoDeans are back again, this time at The Waiting Room. Can you believe these guys have been doing this for 30 years? Here’s a Lazy-i interview with the band from 2004. No openers. Show starts at 8 and costs $25.

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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 © 2017 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Well, not a whole lot going on this weekend. I guess I should blame the Huskers, though I can’t see how football would impact the draw at an indie rock show, especially this season. Anyway, there’s very little happening this weekend from an indie music perspective. No touring indie shows at all.

Tonight, Lincoln’s Universe Contest hosts a release show for their new one, Get Cot Livin’, at The Sydney. Hear Nebraska has a review of the album right here . Lodgings and Des Moines’ Pets With Human Names opens. This one is free (according to Facebook); show starts at 10 p.m.

That is really the only indie show on the radar this weekend. Since you’re going to be in Benson anyway (and so close) you might as well drip into The Little Gallery before heading to The Sydney and check out our new show, Bart Vargas’ One Year Later: The Trumplings. “Vargas cast the first Trumpling on Inauguration Day 2017 and committed to the goal of casting one Trumpling a day while Trump is in office. All with the ultimate goal, of exhibiting a future installation made up of 1460* Trumplings to memorialize everyday we had to endure this dark time in our history.” They’re pretty creepy. Check it out at The Little Gallery from 6 to 9 p.m. We’re located in the left bay of the Masonic Lodge, across the street and just east of The Sydney. See you there.

Saturday night it’s a step back into the ’90s as The Waiting Room hosts St. Louis ska-rockers The Urge with Clever and Mandown. It’ll be like a mini Ranch Bowl reunion. 8 p.m., $25.

Also Saturday night, Lookout Lounge has Swingin’ Utters with Western Settings Darius Koski and Joystick. Punk it up. $13, 8 p.m.

That’s all I got. If I missed your show, put it in the comments section. Have a great 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 © 2017 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Cursive is reissuing two of their earliest releases.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Yesterday Cursive announced via social media that its label, 15 Passenger Records, is reissuing remastered versions of Cursive’s first two albums, 1997’s debut Such Blinding Stars For Starving Eyes and 1998’s The Storms Of Early Summer: Semantics Of Song in celebration of the 20th anniversary of both albums.

Both releases will arrive in stores Dec. 1, 2017. The vinyl editions will be limited to 2,000 copies and printed on 180-gram, two-color records:

• Stars will be blue with a white starburst pattern;
• Storms will be clear vinyl with a white swirl/smoke pattern

Both were remastered by Ed Brooks (Pearl Jam, Fleet Foxes, Mastodon; The Ugly Organ remasters) from the original tapes. The Stars reissue features a foreword written by Tom Mullen of Washed Up Emo, while Storms features forewords by Ted Stevens and the band’s longtime friend and European tour manager, Oliver Wyczisk.

Pre-orders are being taken here. Like a lot of people, I didn’t get into Cursive until Domestica came out in 2000, and then never bothered to look back at these recordings. The original mastered versions of both are in Spotify. Check ’em out and place your order.

I wonder if the band will perform these live on a special Such Blinding Stars of Early Summer Tour…

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Tonight at fabulous O’Leaver’s it’s The Yawpers, with The Velveteers and Clarence Tilton. You read Yawpers’ Ten Questions interview, now see them perform live. $10, 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 © 2017 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Meet Saddle Creek Record’s latest sigining, Stef Chura.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

This morning Saddle Creek Records announced it signed Detriot singer/songwriter Stef Chura. Chura released Messes this year on Detriot’s Urinal Cale Records. Pitchfork gave it a respectable 7.2 rating. Her sound falls in line with Creek’s past two rather successful signings: Big Thief and Hop Along. Says AllMusic: “Equally influenced by ’90s alternative/indie rock and ’60s-’70s folk-rock, she has a distinctive fingerpicked guitar style and an unmistakable twangy voice.”

More from her AllMusic.com bio: “After moving from upstate Michigan to Ypsilanti in 2009, she began performing solo and releasing demo tapes, quickly becoming a fixture of the local music scene. She put together a band with Amber Fellows and Shelley Salant (both later of Rebel Kind) in 2010, and they released a tape in 2011. She moved to Detroit in 2012, played bass in a few local bands, and released more of her own material on cassette. After meeting drummer Ryan Clancy (Jamaican Queens, Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.) in 2014, the two began playing together. They recorded Chura’s debut studio album, Messes, in 2015 with engineer Fred Thomas, who also played on the album.”

Saddle Creek will reissue Messes on CD, cassette and LP Feb. 2, including a limited run of 150 colored vinyl exclusively at the Saddle Creek store. All this “ahead of new material from Chura in the near future.”

Vinyl collectors will be interested to hear that Messes also came out in limited “glitter and liquid vinyl” editions from Fonoflo.

Of course you can hear Messes now on Bandcamp (below):

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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 © 2017 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.