Digital Leather at The Sydney, Sept. 6, 2019. The band plays tonight at O’Leaver’s.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Fabulous O’Leaver’s is starting a new tradition tonight by hosting one of the hottest Tryptophan-fueled rock shows of the year.

Solid Goldberg is a project that features Omaha legend Dave Goldberg, who takes the one-man-band experience to a whole ‘nuther level. Goldberg, who’s past projects include Sucettes, Rusty Lord, Box Elders, The Terminals, The Carsinogents, Street Urchins and Full Blown, to name a few, creates an audio/visual head trip that must be seen to be believed.

He’s followed by Digital Leather, a project helmed by an Omaha doom-vision electronic music svengali. Beyond what I’ve reported in the past, I know virtually nothing about Shawn Foree other than he’s the only post-wave singer/songwriter actively trying something new in a tired genre dominated by tribute acts and unwanted reunion tours.

Over the past 15 years or so, Digital Leather’s musical style has constantly shifted between electronic No Wave, garage rock/psychedelic and static-powered synth-punk. Prolific, Foree records a record (or two) every year, released on labels like FDH, No Coast, Volar, Goner, Fat Possum and Stencil Trash.

You get both acts for just $7. The fun starts at 10 p.m. Expect your typical O’Leaver’s crowd, which is another way of saying expect the unexpected. And that’s something to give thanks for…

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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 © 2019 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Black Mountain plays tonight at Slowdown Jr.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

I don’t remember there being so many shows on the night before Thanksgiving. With (most) of us off work on turkey day, it makes sense (although who wants to be hungover at the family gathering? Everybody?).

Three shows are on my radar tonight:

Over at the Reverb Lounge, See Through Dresses returns with what I have to believe will be a set that includes a lot of new songs. Locals Hail Varsity opens at 9 p.m. $10.

Meanwhile, just around the corner at The Waiting Room, there’s a slew of tribute acts hitting the stage. Headlining is Control, a Joy Division tribute that features among its players guitarist Mike Saklar and bass player Randy Cotton. In fact, that duo will also be part of Stigmata Martyr, a Bauhaus tribute that comes on right before Control. The evening kicks off at 9 p.m. with 138, a Misfits tribute. $10.

Finally, down at Slowdown Jr. indie metal band Black Mountain headlines. Their new album, Destroyer, was released on Jagjaguwar, a label that’s been releasing their stuff since their self-titled debut back in 2005 — an album that’s still a regular on the ol’ stereo.

At the top of the mountain is Stephen McBean, who’s rock history goes back beyond his previous band, the more laid back Jerk with a Bomb, which merely hinted at the harder stuff to come. On Destroyer, McBean and Co. give us a modern take on Black Sabbath combined with something that’s a lot more funky. Check out “Boogie Lover” to hear what I’m talking about.

I tried getting McBean to do a 10 Questions survey but he wasn’t having it. Instead, here’s seven questions (sort of):

What is your favorite album?

Black Mountain’s Stephen McBean: Rudimentary Peni, Death Church

What is your least favorite song?

Thankfully, I can’t remember.

What do you enjoy most about being in a band?

Playing music with humans & machines.

What is your favorite substance (legal or illegal)?

Oysters.

In what city or town do you love to perform?

The one I’m currently performing in.

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

I like the Philadelphia Flyers.

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

Camp Dump strike.

Opening for Black Mountain tonight is Ryler Walker. This is a Slowdown front room show; tickets are $20; showtime is 8 p.m.

Look for an update tomorrow.

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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 © 2019 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Disq at O’Leaver’s, Nov. 23, 2019.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

It was one of those mid-sized crowds at O’Leaver’s Saturday night. OK, maybe it was a bit smallish. No one was standing in front of the band or crowding along the railing, but there were still 30 or so folks in the house for sets by Disq and Goon.

Disq is a band that released a 2-song single on Saddle Creek Records earlier this year that caught a bit of national attention. A five piece — all quite young — their sound is sort of a combination of influences that range from early Teenage Fanclub to The Kinks and Blue-album-era Weezer. Still, uniquely their own thing, fronted by Isaac deBroux-Slone, with a voice and style that makes him the perfect indie frontman.

I’m a big fan of this band. I saw them in June at Slowdown Jr., and dug them just as much Saturday night. “Communication,” the A-side of the single, is one of my favorite songs of 2019 (and was well represented in their set).

Saddle Creek would be well advised to consider releasing Disq’s full-length, though I’m not sure where the band fits into the Creek roster these days, what with the plethora of singer/songwriters (most of them female) that has dominated their signings over the past couple years (Young Jesus, being an exception). But with its big, fun, guitar-fueled ruckus, Disq recalls the early days of Saddle Creek, and that’s a good thing.

Goon at O’Leaver’s, Nov. 23, 2019.

Goon followed Disq sometime after midnight, playing songs off their latest, Heaven is Humming (2019, Partisan). It’s a tight band with a great rhythm section (drummer Christian Koons is outstanding) playing indie songs that ranged from throttled-back mood pieces to ripping noise rockers.

Frontman Kenny Becker has a high, thin coo of a voice that too-often got lost in the mix — there were times when I wondered why they didn’t just make the song an instrumental, it was pumping along so well on its own. Becker’s voice is more pronounced on the recordings, and kind of reminded me of early R.E.M./mumble-Stipe — another tonal instrument layered within the crisp arrangement.

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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 © 2019 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Disq at Slowdown Jr., June 2, 2019. The band plays at O’Leaver’s Saturday night.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

A busy weekend for a change…uptown, downtown, all over…

Let’s start with fabulous O’Leaver’s, where tonight sees the return of Louisiana duo Ghost Foot. I wrote about them yesterday. I’m told they’ll also be hanging around Omaha this weekend doing some recording. Treat them like locals even though they ain’t. Lincoln’s Universe Contest and The Sunks open at 10 p.m. $5.

Also tonight, Nik Facker’s space-prog-art-rock project InDreama headlines at The Sydney. I’m told Nik and Co. have been working on new material. Go see what they’ve been up to. And How and Jacob James Wilton open at 10 p.m. $5.

Meanwhile, downtown tonight at The Slowdown seminal alt-rockers Helmet brings their 30th Anniversary Tour to the big room. It’s just Helmet playing 30 songs over 30 years. $25, 8 p.m.

Tomorrow night (Saturday) it’s back to O’Leaver’s for Saddle Creek Records band Disq. Their gig this past summer at Slowdown Jr. was one of my favorites of 2019. Disq is opening for LA psych rockers GOON (Partisan Records). This is a very cool show for $7. Infinite Video kicks off the night at 10 p.m.

Reverb’s hosting a very interesting hardcore show Saturday night headlined by NYC act Show Me the Body. Their latest album, Dog Whistle, is as hard and shrill and uncompromising as they come. Urochromes and Jocko are the openers. Things could get heated in Reverb’s tight confines. Bring your Docs. $15, 9 p.m.

On the other end of the spectrum, LA psych-pop band Dreamers headlines at Slowdown Jr. Saturday night. Arrested Youth and American Teeth open at 8 p.m. $18.

Meanwhile, over at The Down Under Lounge, 24 Hour Cardlock headlines a show Saturday night with Wagon Blasters and Korey Anderson. It starts at 9 p.m. and No Cover!

Sunday, of course, is a day of rest.

Did I miss anything? If I did, 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 © 2019 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Listening to albums the way god intended…

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

I’m catching up on a couple columns that appeared in The Reader over the past couple months but only just went online. First is this month’s column. I’ve written variations on this theme a number of times over the past 15 years, this idea that digital music has forever changed the way we listen to music. But this time I include critics.

When I was much younger I used to love to peruse the album reviews in Rolling Stone, SPIN, Option, Magnet and a slew of other printed publications. The only one of the above that still exists in printed form is Rolling Stone, and their reviews are little more than capsule summaries with a star rating. As I say in the column, while I rely on Pitchfork and Stereogum as well as the never-aging grand bard of critics Robert Christgau (you can now subscribe to his writings online here), I’m just as apt to catch recommendations in Facebook and Twitter as anywhere else. In fact, you may recognize a couple people I namecheck in the column as folks whose opinion I value (It wasn’t until after I filed the article that I realized, hey, 99 percent of my column’s readers have no idea who I’m talking about).

Anyway, read the column in the current issue of The Reader, on newsstands now, or online right here.

The October column also is online, which asks the question: “Does the art change once you discover that the artist is an asshole?” Woody Allen, Ryan Adams and Aziz Ansari are subjects of discussion, among others. I have always separated art from the artist. Social media is now making that more difficult, as we all know. And in the end, it might be yet another reason why it’s time to unplug your Facebook account. You can read that column online right here.

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If you’re involved in music at all in Omaha you already follow Ian Aeillo in Facebook and Twitter. If you don’t, you need to. Ian, who is a veteran musician and something of a scene legend, is the sound engineer at The Sydney and also works with bands on occasion.

One of them is Louisiana band Ghost Foot, who will be playing at fabulous O’Leavers this Friday night. Ian shared a new track by Ghost Foot called “Leaving Omaha,” which is destined to join the ranks of other Omaha-themed songs by the likes of Counting Crows, Moby Grape and Desaparecidos.

This one’s less a celebration of our city and more of a sordid snapshot taken by someone who lived to tell about it, with the lyrics:

Leaving Omaha

I’m leaving Omaha
With just my clothes
And all the powder
I put up my nose

I lost my girlfriend
I lost my wife
I lost my billfold
In that great good life

I’m leaving Omaha
Dead sick in my shoes
With a big head
All filled up with blues

I lost a song there
I lost a dream
I gained a nightmare
A few friends and a scene

But the sun
The sun is still shining
And the rain
The rain will still come

Let the bombs
All fall on the big world
As ashes
We all will become

Here’s the track, below. See them sing it live Friday night at O’Leaver’s.

Then there’s Ian’s project Flight School. After photos of Trump’s childlike handwritten notes exploded on the internet like a sad American meme yesterday morning, Flight School took those notes and created “I Want Nothing,” a track that accurately captures this moment in our country’s unfortunate history. As Mr. Trump would say, enjoy:

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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 © 2019 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Future location of restaurant/music venue The Berkley.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The Berkley is a new live music venue / restaurant that’s opening in January at 1901 Leavenworth, the building that used to house Connections and is just a door down from where the first Milk Run was located, with Shuck’s on the opposite end.

It’s the brainchild of Amelia Drake and Deb Sauls. You might remember Amelia from the post-wave duo Drakes Hotel, a band that included her husband, Christopher Yanulis (and if you don’t, here’s a reminder from 2007).

Drake said she and Sauls are going full force on renovating the space, and at the same time, she’s figuring out the kind of music The Berkley will host.

“We’re looking for lower-decibel bands like singer-songwriter or small piece acts,” Drake said. “We are going to be a little different from other venues in town in that we are primarily a restaurant. So, musicians may find performing with us similar to playing a supper club. I’m hoping to attract talent that would be comfortable playing in a coffeehouse circa 1995.”

She’s working with local musician Virginia Kathryn Gallner to book bands. “She’s given me a formidable list of local acts to check out. I’m still making my way through them,” Drake said, adding that she only just moved back to Omaha in June. In addition, she’s reaching out to an Ohio connection who books national acts to try and piggyback on bands passing by Omaha.

Drake said The Berkley will only book music Friday and Saturday nights while it fine-tunes its service. It’ll also host youth acts on weekend days (likely Sunday) “to give young musicians an opportunity to cut their teeth on our stage.”

I think they’ll have no problem finding singer/songwriters to book, but I’m hoping they branch out to more acts like, well, Drakes Hotel. It’ll be interesting to see how the bookings evolve.

No doubt it’s a unique neighborhood to start a business. I remember parking being a bit of a challenge, but I’m told they’re reconfiguring the venue’s back lot for additional parking — who remembers that back lot when the Milk Run was in operation?

To keep track on The Berkley’s progress, follow them on Facebook, here.

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Tonight is the big Wilco show at The Orpheum Theatre. One assumes this is the type of concert Omaha Performing Arts intends to book in the proposed new $109 million music venue to be built next to the Holland.

That said, this show is far from sold out. Tickets were still available — including a ton of $45 balcony and $70 orchestra seats.

Tuomo & Markus, “a Helsinki Finland based musical group founded by renowned Finnish soul artist and jazz musician Tuomo Prättälä and singer/songwriter Markus Nordenstreng from Finnish rock band The Latebirds,” kicks things off at 7:30 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 © 2019 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Relax, It’s Science at Lookout Lounge, April 30, 2016. The band plays Saturday at The Brothers.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

More information yesterday on the proposed $109 million music venue by way of Omaha World-Herald’s Kevin Coffey. Kevin answers 8 questions about the venue. There is no new “news” in the piece; rather it’s Kevin conjecturing as to what it all means.

As this weekend rears its ugly head, let me do some conjecturing of my own:

We don’t need more venues; we need better booking — i.e., better shows featuring better touring bands. Yes, acts are passing Omaha by, but the size and number of venues probably is the least of their reasons.

Here’s some questions: Are bands passing Omaha because no promoter, venue, etc., is willing to gamble on covering the guarantee — the contracted minimum fee paid for performing? How many quality indie bands on tour right now have reached out to an Omaha promoter or venue with an offer only to be passed on? How will that change with the addition of more venues?

I guess you can’t blame the venues and promoters, who have been burned in the past paying top dollar for very cool acts to play in half empty rooms. So let’s build more rooms?

Anyway… there are no touring indie rock shows at any of the major local clubs this weekend. What else is new?

Tonight at The Waiting Room, local roots/rockabilly band The Mercurys headline with The Pink Flamingos. $10, 9 p.m.

That’s it for tonight.

Saturday night, local double-bass-attack rock band Relax, It’s Science plays at The Brothers Lounge with Sioux Falls sludge/psych/instrumental rock duo Articles. Omaha post-hardcore act Mere Shadows opens at 9 p.m. $5.

Local power-pop / American a band The Broke Lose plays at O’Leaver’s Saturday with Lincoln’s Red Cities and Virgin Mary Pistol Grip. 10 p.m., $5.

Finally on Sunday, Omaha indie act The Regulation plays at The B Bar at 4330 Leavenworth. Joining them is Omaha ex-pat Mitch Gettman. Jake Norstadt gets things rolling at 8 p.m. No idea if there’s a cover here…

And 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 © 2019 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Omaha singer/songwriter Joe Knapp.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

A quick note to make you aware of a GoFundMe campaign that’s been set up for Joe Knapp.

Joe recently was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes, a chronic autoimmune condition in which the body attacks its own insulin-producing cells.

As the singer/songwriter behind seminal Saddle Creek Records act Son, Ambulance, Joe is one of Omaha indie music’s elder statesmen. Though the band hasn’t released an album since 2008’s Someone Else’s Déjà Vue (Saddle Creek), they’ve continued to perform sporadically over the years, always rolling out new material, which we can only hope will one day be recorded and properly released.

Needless to say, with this diagnosis, Joe is finding himself with medical bills his ACA insurance isn’t covering, which is where this campaign comes in.

“On the brighter side, I quit smoking. I am eating healthier than ever and practicing regular exercise and yoga,” Joe said. “Type 1 is a ‘self-awareness disease’ and I am more aware of my body than ever before.”

Joe’s nearly halfway to his $3,000 GFM goal. If you’d like to contribute, go to his GoFundMe page, located 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 © 2019 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

The Lupines at O’Leaver’s Nov. 9, 2019.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The Lupines rolled out a new direction to their sound last Saturday night at O’Leaver’s. In fact, they literally rolled it out — a giant upright piano, that is. If you’ve been there before you’ve likely leaned/sat on the behemoth, which usually sits next to the exit to the beer garden. The band grunted it across the floor to the stage area for their set, and then spent a good 10 minutes (or more?) trying to get it properly miked up. Who knew that old-fashioned upright pianos could create so much feedback?

Lupines frontman John Ziegler set down his guitar to twinkle the ivories on a new set of songs that sported a honky-tonk country flair, a bit of blues and folk and rock. The first couple tunes were eight or nine minutes long but seemed to roll on forever thanks to endlessly repeating verses. Ziegler pounded the keys like a modern-day Leon Russell, ending each line with a bluesy flourish, while guitarist Mike Friedman pulled back his usual jittery, frenetic Lupines’ style to something more relaxed and refined, a la David Lindley.

It all came together on the final two songs of the set — one short one, the other, an epic closer wherein Ziegler maneuvered from the piano bench, through the tangle of microphone stands and cords to pick up his Gibson and battle Friedman with guitar riffs.

I’d heard a few weeks ago that Ziegler was going to play piano for this set, so I prepared myself to finally hear one of my all-time favorite Lupines songs — “Hasn’t Failed Me Yet” — a tune I’d been told had never been played live because of its piano-based arrangement. Now there were no excuses. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be as the band only played brand new material. My quest to hear that epic song continues…

Unexplained Death at O’Leaver’s Nov. 9, 2019.

Matt Whipkey and his crew in the form of poli-punk band Unexplained Death didn’t make it to the O’Leaver’s “stage” until well after midnight, ripping through songs off their just-released self-titled cassette.

Always prolific, Whipkey used the occasion to debut a couple more new songs, one of them an angry, fast number built on a golden guitar riff that I’d love to hear again. If this project’s goal was to pull Whipkey away from the Americana format that he’s known for, it’s succeeding. As I’ve said before, Unexplained Death isn’t so much a punk bands as a punk-influenced rock band with a political message ripe for our time. But it won’t be deemed a true success until someone wearing a MAGA hat attacks Whipkey on stage during a performance, ending in arrests by all involved, and the headline MAGA DUDE CHARGED FOR ATTEMPTED MURDER AT UNEXPLAINED DEATH SCENE!!!

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The last time Boston indie rock act Pile played in Omaha it was aboard the River City Star in the summer of 2017. They’ll be on firmer ground when they headline Slowdown Jr. tonight, on tour in support of Green and Gray (2019, Exploding in Sound), album that scored a mighty 7.9 on the Pitchfork scale.

The touring opener is mathy Chicago rockers Stuck. While Omaha’s very own No Thanks kicks things off at 8 p.m. This is a good one, and it’s only $12.

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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 © 2019 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Solid Goldberg at The Barley Street May 13, 2011. Mr. Goldberg returns to The Brothers Lounge Saturday night.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

So… we have, what, a thousand venues with more coming every day and there’s nothing going on tonight — on a Friday night? Well, that’s the deal when it comes to indie music in a town that used to be known for its indie music.

Ah well…

Onward to Saturday night where there’s a couple hot shows.

Down at fabulous O’Leaver’s arguably the best garage rock band in Omaha, The Lupines, plays with Unexplained Death, the new punk-ish project by Matt Whipkey and his band. Minne Lussa (Matt Rutledge singing in French!) opens at 10 p.m. $7.

Meanwhile, over at The Brothers Lounge, Kansas City rock duo Hobbyist plays with the legendary Solid Goldberg. Effluvium opens at 9 p.m. $5.

Sunday night you’ve got a pretty big touring show — Clan of Xymox at The Waiting Room. This band, which recorded on the 4AD label back when it was impressive to be on the 4AD label, is still kicking with at least one original member, frontman Ronny Moorings. Chicago’s The Bellwether Syndicate opens at 8 p.m. $20.

And 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 © 2019 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.