by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

For Throwback Thursday, a blog entry from 20 years ago… Whatever happened to Beep Beep? Whatever happened to The Goofy Foot?

Beep Beep and a peek behind the Creek; Kyle Harvey says goodbye, The Lepers tonight – Aug. 19, 2004

I guess you can call this extended version of the Beep Beep profile/interview (read it here) a Lazy-i exclusive — The Reader chopped off about a third of the story to make room for ads (I think they also cut my Sebadoh story as well — hey, that’s business). You get an interesting look inside the decision-making process that Creek goes through when they bring on a new band. Beep Beep is the latest expansion team in this successful league of indie rock stars. The fact that the band thinks of itself as the “black sheep” of the label is amusing and fitting and probably appropriate. Creek may not have a “sound” as Jason Kulbel says, but they do have certain boundaries that the bands are comfortable playing within, and Beep Beep breaks through them all. Yeah, Creek doesn’t have a “sound,” and they don’t really have anything like Beep Beep, either. There’s something strange and psychotic about their music, something that borders on violence and voyeurism, an eccentric decadence indeed. The guys in Beep Beep are as curious as anyone as to how their oddity will mesh with the rest of the label’s bands, which seem almost mainstream in comparison. As Chris Hughes says, “The record takes five listens to get the hook. If you give it a chance, you’ll get it.” I just don’t know if indie America (or America in general, for that matter) has the patience or the attention span to listen to anything five times. 

Tonight’s shows: Kyle Harvey “and friends” at the Goofy Foot — it’s being billed as one of his last Omaha performances before he moves to Nashville. Meanwhile The Lepers and Players Club are at O’Leaver’s. Very unlikely that I’ll attend either show as I’m looking at three days in a row starting Friday night. Instead, I might check out the Metallica documentary at The Dundee Theater — I hate Metallica, but I hear this is a good flick. If I go, I’ll pass on a review tomorrow.

Check-in: The Good Life, Album of the Year; The Faint, Wet from Birth.

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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 © 2024 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.