In this month’s issue of The Reader, I ask Marc Leibowitz (One Percent Productions, The Waiting Room), Jason Kulbel (The Slowdown) and Eric Dimenstein (Ground Control Touring) when live music will return to our stages — or at least to the stages at venues I frequent.

The good news our most important stages for indie music seem to be weathering the COVID-19 storm. The bad news is we’ve still got a long ways to go before we’re standing shoulder-to-shoulder at a club watching a touring indie band.

Read the article right here at The Reader website. Or pick up a copy of the printed version wherever you pick up copies of printed stuff.

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This morning our hometown label Saddle Creek Records announced it signed “Philadelphia shape-shifting band” Spirit of the Beehive. The band’s Creek debut LP, Entertainment, Death, is slated for release April 9.

From the press release:

“The newly modified 3-piece (founding members Zack Schwartz and Rivka Ravede are now joined by new member Corey Wichlin), an adjustment that better suits the new record’s musical stylings, engaged in an entirely different writing process than their past records. Where their breakout Hypnic Jerks was recorded in a week, ENTERTAINMENT, DEATH was planned and plotted over the period of four months; a dangerous amount of time for a band whose attention to detail is exceptional, allowing for their most focused and exploratory work to date. ENTERTAINMENT, DEATH is also the first to be entirely self-recorded and produced by the band giving a wider periphery and deeper scope into their intricate pop genius, a view unlike any SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE record that has come before.”

Check out the first single, “There’s Nothing You Can’t Do,” below, and pre-order the LP right 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 © 2021 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.