Superchunk plays tonight at The Waiting Room, and it’s not their first Omaha appearance. Like I said in this 2010 interview with guitarist Jim Wilbur written in support of their 2010 appearance at The Maha Music Festival, anyone who grew up loving college rock in the ’90s has a Superchunk album in his/her collection. My first was 1993’s On the Mouth, whose opening track, “Precision Auto,” with its chugging guitar, crash-bash rhythms and barked out lines: “Do not pass me just to slow down / I can move right through you,” fueled way too many reckless two-lane passes in my ’78 Ford Fiesta.
In the article, Wilbur talked about the band’s history and future and even provided some “Wilbur Wisdom” about touring, technology and having never played Omaha up to then. Back then, the band was on the road in support of Majesty Shredding – at the time, their first album in nine years.
For this go-’round, Superchunk is celebrating the 30th anniversary of Foolish, and tonight will perform a set peppered with favorites from the classic 1994 LP.
That said, the band hasn’t been sitting on their asses for the past 30 years. This past January, Superchunk released the “Everybody Dies” b/w “As in a Blender” 7-inch, followed hot on the heels of last year’s Misfits & Mistakes: Singles, B-sides & Strays 2007–2023.
When they played at Chicago’s Lincoln Hall Tuesday night, Superchunk performed a 16-song set with five encores. Check out that setlist here. Tonight’s opening band, Merge label mates Quivers, hails from Melbourne, Australia, and dropped their latest album, Oyster Cuts, this past August. $30, 8 p.m. and surprisingly not sold out… yet.
Picking through some newsy bits I missed in the in-box:
The Fizzle Like a Flood Kickstarter campaign for the new album, Black Walls (which I wrote about here), met its fundraising goal in just 15 days – impressive. The campaign continues through the end of the month, however, so go there and check out the rewards and/or order your copy of the new album.
I’ve always liked Kickstarter as a pre-sales program, though it must be a pain in the ass for the artists who have to do fulfillments!
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Yesterday Neva Dinova, the project from post-Omaha singer/songwriter Jake Bellows, announced a 6-date West Coast tour for December. The band’s latest, Canary (2024, Saddle Creek), stood at No. 154 on the latest College Radio Charts. If you haven’t checked it out yet, you really should. It’s their best album to date (imho).
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What other notable albums are on the latest College Radio Charts?
– Well, Cursive’s latest, Devourer (2024, Run for Cover) stood at No. 74. The band plays two shows this week – Friday and Saturday – at The Waiting Room.
– Bright Eyes’ latest, Five Dice, All Threes (2024, Dead Oceans), currently stands at No. 13 on the charts. The fact that Bright Eyes was taken of the road for the balance of the year due to Conor Oberst’s “vocal problems” no doubt isn’t helping album sales. Bright Eyes’ 2025 tour kicks off Jan. 16 in Phoenix…
– Midwest Dilemma’s self-released album, Searching for the Cure for Loneliness, came in at No. 261, which is impressive considering the band isn’t touring. How does that happen?
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The latest single by Omaha’s favorite alt-country band, Clarence Tilton, features country music icon Marty Stuart on vocals guitar. The song, “Fred’s Colt,” explores the legacy of a Civil War-era Colt Dragoon passed through Tilton frontman Chris Weber’s family.
The band opened for Stuart when he played in Omaha in 2019 and at some point played the song for him. “I loved this song the moment I heard it. It is a breath of fresh air, real writing,” Stuart said in the press release.
Weber said Stuart’s contribution to the song “really blew our minds. What he did was so cool — not just the solo but all the little parts in between. It was a real lesson for us from a real pro who gave our tune his undivided attention.”
The single, which dropped last Friday, will be on Clarence Tilton’s upcoming full-length, Queen of the Brawl, slated for 2025.
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Soak in the next few weeks of shows, because we’re rounding a corner and the road ahead looks rather barren. Like I always said: if you have a chance to catch a touring indie band, catch it, because you never know when the next one will be coming through town.
Here’s the latest and greatest touring indie shows coming to Omaha through the end of November:
Oct. 16 – Mdou Moctar @ The Waiting Room
Oct. 17 – Superchunk @ The Waiting Room
Oct. 18-19 – Cursive @ The Waiting Room
Oct. 20 – Color Green @ Grapefruit Records
Oct. 20 – Jeff Tweedy @ The Admiral
Oct. 20 – Taylor Hollingsworth @ Pageturners
Oct. 22 – Psychedelic Furs/Jesus and Mary Chain @ The Astro
Oct. 23 – Kate Nash @ The Slowdown
Oct. 26 – Porches @ Reverb
Oct. 26 – Griefcat @ The Sydney
Oct. 31 – Lunar Vacation @ The Slowdown
Nov. 4 – quickly, quickly @ Reverb
Nov. 8 – The Ivory Claws @ The Sydney
Nov. 10 – The Sufrajettes @ Reverb
Nov. 11 – Dusk @ Reverb
Nov. 12 – The Rev. Horton Heat @ Waiting Room
Nov. 13 – Sorry Mom @ Reverb
Nov. 29 – VIAL @ Reverb
Am I missing something? Let me know…
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Tonight at The Waiting Room, Nigerian band Mdou Moctar headlines. He’s considered one of the most innovative artists in contemporary Saharan music “His unconventional interpretations of Tuareg guitar have pushed him to the forefront of a crowded scene,” according to his Bandcamp page. The band’s last album, 2024’s Funeral for Justice, was released on indie giant Matador Records and received Pitchfork‘s “Best New Music” designation along with its 8.4 rating. Opening this show is personal fave, Rosali, a band that includes members of our very own David Nance Band. Her sublime new album, Bite Down, was released this year by Merge Records. $25, 8 p.m.
Also tonight, Boston post-punk band Kal Marks headlines at Reverb Lounge (Exploding in Sound Records) with frickin’ four openers: NightoSphere, Missouri Executive Order 44, Nowhere and Western Haikus. Talk about your late nights! 8 p.m. $15.
I showed up at Reverb Lounge Saturday night at around 9 figuring I’d missed the opener when, in fact, there were two opening acts. The door guy said High Curbs already played, and Ultra Q was up next for a short set before Red Pears.
I always try to catch opening acts when possible, at least half their set, anyway. I’d never heard of Ultra Q and was surprised at the crowd’s size (around 100) and enthusiasm. As well as the number of older folks flecked among the kids.
On came Ultra Q. Their website has no bio information, so I was flying blind. In the old days, you’d call their sound “power pop,” just bordering on the edge of emo, but with more straightforward – at time straight-4 – rhythms. The drummer was ultra clean and economic in his approach and drove the whole band. In fact the entire band was well-honed.
Ultra Q at Reverb Lounge, Oct. 12, 2024.
Ah, but the vocalist… while his voice was fine, he had an affected style that clearly sounded as if he was aping Billy Joe Armstrong from Green Day (with the lead guitarist dropping in a few out-of-place hardcore growls).
Looking at the notes I wrote that night: “Bay Area band, great energy, great drummer and guitarist, but… Green Day vocals.” Well, the vocal similarities can be forgiven, because it turned out the lead vocalist was Jakob Armstrong, son of Green Day’s Billy Joe Armstrong. You get a pass if you sing like your dad. Interestingly, the band’s music had more in common with early Cure than Green Day. No songs stood out, but with that talent it’ll be interesting to see where they take their sound.
Maybe that explained the crowd’s demographics (and why all the chairs had been removed from the club)?
The Red Pears had been advertised as a trio, but there were five dudes on stage at 9:40. Listening to their latest album, Better Late than Never (2024, Daycare Records), I couldn’t figure out where the “Latin tinged” came from in the one-sheet, other than the guys’ names (frontman Henry Vargas, bassist Pat Juarez, drummer Jose Corona).
Their sound certainly wasn’t Latin-tinged, more like indie post-punk a la The Strokes, bordering on White Stripes’ psych-rock. Actually, they reminded me of Sheer Mag (“Expect the Bayonet”), and vocalist Vargas even sported a masculine version of Christine Halladay’s snarl.
After a couple songs, one of the five musicians left the stage and the Pears played the rest of the set as a four-piece. And then, four or five songs or so in, Vargas sang some Spanish lyrics. Latin-tinged indeed. Great band.
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It’s back to Reverb Lounge tonight for Advance Base, a project of Chicago singer/songwriter Owen Ashworth of Casiotone for the Painfully Alone. His latest EP, The Year I Lived in Richmond (2024, Run for Cover), is a lonely, sparse collection of quiet, keyboard-accompanied memory songs. Pretty. Joining him is UK singer/songwriter Katie Malco, who has worked with the likes of Laura Stevenson and SOAK in the past. Our very own Jim Schroeder opens this show at 8 p.m. $15.
While undoubtedly indie in nature, MJ Lenderman and his band, The Wind, really have embraced the whole classic rock persona. On stage last night at The Waiting Room they looked like they could have walked right off the back cover of a ’70s-era rock album by your choice of Laurel Canyon superstar. Why, that guy on rhythm guitar looks like he was in Buffalo Springfield! That guy on keyboards and maracas, didn’t he play with Den Felder?
All six musicians were super talented, and I like just about all of Lenderman’s songs, especially off his new album, Manning Fireworks, which will go down as one of the best of 2024. There’s an honesty to his personal lyrics as they lean back on a layer of subtle rock that’s just shy of alt-country (thanks, in part, to that pedal steel, played by a guy who looks like he could have been in the Flying Burrito Brothers).
Lenderman and his band rifled through their hits, and as I stood back by the bar, a guy I know leaned over and yelled, “I thought they’d be more lively than this.”
I responded, “Have you ever heard their albums?”
Lenderman’s music is best enjoyed while driving on a long road trip, the kind of music you can get lost in and sing along to (after you’ve heard it a few times). But on stage it was kind of dull. Ocassionally Lenderman would go into a feedback-driven accoutrement at the end of a song (that went on too long). In a way, he reminded me of Tom Petty, a guy whose music I love, but, live, bores the piss out of me. Or maybe I’m just jaded after last week’s Fountaines D.C. show…
That said, the near-capacity crowd soaked it in, with many up by the stage singing along. But the further back you went, the chattier the crowd became, with people having full-blown conversations back by the bar (actually, I saw a couple women carrying on about their day right up front, yelling at each other over the band).
Ryan Davis and the Roadhouse Band at The Waiting Room, Oct. 10, 2024.
Much more lively was opening act Ryan Davis and the Roadhouse Band. I arrived late, not feeling in the mood for a set of southern or “blues” rock, and ended up kicking myself for it, because Davis and his band had more in common with acts like Silver Jews.
Davis closed out his set with a killer version of the opening track from his 2023 album, Dancing on the Edge, called “Free from the Guillotine,” which I’m listening to right now; an album I’ll likely be listening to all weekend long…
Onto the weekend (and it’s a non-Husker weekend at that!).
Tonight on Slowdown’s big stage Provo folk-rockers The National Parks headlines. The band has grown its fanbase over the years; they’re on the road supporting their latest, Wild Spirit, another album of hand-clap-stomp folk (I’m sure there’s another name for the genre). Elias Hix opens at 8 pm. $25.
Also tonight, ’70s-style heavy-metal punkers Psychotic Reaction plays at The Sydney. Local electronic act Benjamin Gear X opens at 8 p.m. (and remember, this is The Sydney, where 8 usually means 9… or 10). $10.
As mentioned, the Huskers have a by-week, which makes for good timing for Farnam Fest. Running from 3 to 11 p.m. in the parking lot behind Scriptown in the Blackstone District, the live music line-up is:
– 4 p.m. – Minne Lussa
– 5:30 p.m. – Velvet Velvet
– 7 p.m. – Cowgirl Eastern
– 8:30 p.m. – Clarence Tilton
– 10 p.m. – DJ Herricane Cole
$10 entry this year; with food trucks and booze, etc.
Saturday night, Reverb Lounge is hosting garage-rock trio The Red Pears. Hailing from El Monte, California, that band calls their sound “Latin-tinged” and I guess I can hear that, though they have more in common with The Strokes, at least to my ears. They’ve played Coachella a couple time and are a good get for the tiny Reverb stage. Ultra Q + The High Curbs open at 8 p.m. $25.
Also Saturday night, The Sydney is hosting a 4-band bill headlined by Jeff in Leather with Ex-Lover, Public Circuit and Pagan Athletes. $15, 9 p.m.
And (surprise!) there’s a show at fabulous O’Leaver’s Saturday night — metal band Living Conditions with FACE and Spurney’s Hawk. This one’s free and starts at 9 p.m.
Finally, Sunday night it’s back to The Sydney (man, they’re booking a lot of shows!) for darkwave performer Dancing Plague. $12, 9 p.m.
And that’s all I got. If I missed your show, put it in the comments section. Have a great weekend.
Tonight at The Waiting Room, North Carolina singer/songwriter MJ Lenderman headlines with his band, The Wind. Lenderman’s latest album, Manning Fireworks (2024, Anti-), has been at the top of the College Radio Charts for a couple weeks (just above the new Nick Cave album), and is one of my favorites for 2024.
Along with Waxahatchee, Cassandra Jenkins and Wednesday (in which he plays lead guitar), Lenderman is at the forefront of the current folk-rock trend in indie music, one that owes a lot to artists like Neil Young, Jackson Browne, CSN and the ’70s folk-rock acts that came before them.
Based on his past set lists, expect about a 20-song set tonight heavy with tracks from the new record. Lenderman has been rolling out covers of songs by Vic Chesnutt, Lucinda Williams, Wednesday and Smog on this tour. Who will he cover tonight? Opening for Lenderman is Jeffersonville, Indiana, folk rocker Ryan Davis and the Roadhouse Band. $25, 8 p.m.
Also tonight just around the corner at Reverb Lounge, Chicago industrial/dark wave/EBM trio Pixel Grip headlines. LA synth/dance act Madeline Goldstein opens at 8 p.m. $25.
New York singer/songwriter Jeffrey Lewis and his band – Jeffrey Lewis & The Voltage – are doing an in-store performance tonight at Grapefruit Record in the Old Market (1125 Jackson Street). You really should go.
Lewis and his band have played Omaha a few times over the years – way back in 2013 opening for Quasi at Slowdown, and again in 2016 with David Nance at Reverb Lounge – great shows. I spoke with Lewis for that 2016 show — that interview reads like one long, run-on sentence. I’m not sure why I didn’t edit the interview more thoroughly, except for the fact that it took place on the cusp of the 2016 elections, and let’s face it, everyone’s mind was occupied with the disaster that was about to take place at the polls. Sort of like right now.
Lewis’ Rough Trade 2001 debut LP, The Last Time I Did Acid I Went Insane, captures his earliest urban folk storytelling in all its glory. But I think I actually first heard Lewis’ music when Rough Trade released 12 Crass Songs (2007, Rough Trade) –a collection of covers of ’70s English punk band Crass.
Lewis’s story-songs have the same raw, matter-of-fact narrative style and humor as my favorite underground comic book writers/artists, like R. Crumb, Daniel Clowes and Harvey Pekar. And as a matter of fact, Lewis even augments his music career with his own comic book series, Fuff — or at least he did back in 2016. I’m not sure if he still does — a lot has happened since then.
For this tour, Lewis and his band are playing as-yet-unreleased songs from an upcoming 2025 album along with “some old favorites” from his 20+ year career. Joining him tonight are touring band Grasping Straws and our very own Megan Siebe. Tickets are $20, doors at 7:30 p.m.
Though exhausting, last weekend was the best weekend of indie music Omaha has seen in quite a while. It also was a weekend of broad musical contrasts. Let’s start at the beginning…
Based on the publicity and online buzz, I thought Friday night’s Brigitte Calls Me Baby concert at Reverb would possibly sell out before I had a chance to get to the venue (as we had another successful art opening at Ming Toy Gallery earlier that evening that kept me “bartending” ’til 9). To my surprise, the club was merely comfortably full when I arrived.
Brigitte Calls Me Baby at Reverb Oct. 4, 2024.
Looking more like posh ‘80s post-glam Londoners than five lads from Chicago, the band tore into their catalog, which consists mostly of their debut album, The Future Is Our Way Out (2024, ATO), a pointedly retro-sounding collection of rock songs clearly influenced by ’80s “new wave” MTV icons. Pick your favorites: Dream Academy, Roxy Music, Modern English, and yes, undeniably, The Smiths/Morrissey.
Like most of us who grew up in that era, I love those bands and that style of music. The boys in Brigitte must love it as well, as they aped that sound with a capital A. First-rate musicians all, they were honed to recording-quality perfection, no doubt thanks to endless rehearsals and touring.
Frontman Wes Leavins is one of the most talented male vocalists I’ve heard in some time. Flawless. He, along with the rest of the guys on stage in their black suit jackets and big hair, resembled the prom band from your favorite John Hughes coming-of-age flick — a perfect fit for an audience where middle-aged (and older) dudes outnumbered young girls by two-to-one.
But unlike those influential ’80s bands, Brigitte showed zero passion while performing. The gig felt very much like a SXSW industry event where the band shuffles on stage and plays their catalog without acknowledging the middle-aged audience of industry slubs standing in judgement.
These talented hairdressers looked bored and disinterested as they rifled through their set, no doubt wondering what they’re doing in Omaha and where they’re going to eat afterward.
It was like watching a super-tight tribute band, with Leavins playing the Morrissey/Bryan Ferry role without any edge or appeal, though I admit the guy is a serious crooner. He could do a killer Elvis or Roy Orbison impersonation. And as if reading my mind, for their encore the band played a knockout cover of “In Dreams” that would have made Dean Stockwell proud.
You could not draw a bigger contrast to Brigitte’s performance than Saturday night’s killer set by Fontaines D.C. at The Slowdown.
It was the first time I felt like I was at a rock concert since my Civic Auditorium days. Though from Dublin City, they reminded me of ‘90s Madchester acts if only for their looks – frontman Grian Chatten bouncied like Bez in his white sunglasses and black oversized long-sleeved T while the rest of the band looked Euro cool standing back in their own shades.
Fontaines D.C.’s Grian Chatten at Slowdown, Oct. 5. 2024.
Unlike Brigitte’s Leavins, Chatten was the ultimate rock showman, leaning out to the crowd with arms outstretched atop a monitor or dancing a jig with a tambourine in hand. He was magnetic, egging on fans throughout a set that showcased mostly songs off Fontaines’ latest and greatest, Romance (2024, XL) along with a few from 2022’s Skinty Fia.
The band’s albums are some of the best indie rock recordings of the current era, but the songs took on an entirely new life on stage – they were harder, more dynamic, more interesting. Like any band, Fontaines sound owes much to their influences. A fellow musicologist in the audience texted me during the set: “The Fall does London Calling.” A couple songs later I counter-texted: “The Fall does Disintegration” (as the band tore into “Bug”) and moments after that: “The Fall does Trompe le Monde” (as the band ripped into “Here’s The Thing”).
Despite those comparisons, Fontaines have carved out their own timeless sound that places them on the mantle as this generation’s most important Irish rock band.
I thought how lucky we were to see them playing live, in their prime, performing vital new music that will be just as vital 30 years from now when they’re doing their inevitable reunion tour. When that happens, the 20-somethings who made up most of Saturday night’s audience will be the age I am now, and I will be in my 80s, and we’ll both say, “I remember seeing them play Slowdown when Romance came out in ’24. That was one of the best concerts I ever saw.”
B.B. Sledge at Porchfest, Oct. 6, 2024.
Finally, in contrast to the hullabaloo of those two rock shows, Sunday was Porchfest, the 8th annual event where local performers play for small gatherings literally from porches throughout the Gifford Park neighborhood. Porchfest has become a real festival, adding two formal stages to the porch stages, a marketplace and multiple food trucks and vendors.
From the Yates Illuminates stage I caught a set by B.B. Sledge – a band I’ve been trying to see for a couple years. My tenaciousness was rewarded Sunday afternoon as I and around 50 neighbors enjoyed their unique brand of indie folk rock. We also wandered over to the nearby “open mic” porch and caught a few songs by someone who never identified himself but kind of reminded me of an acoustic Graham Parker. What will Porchfest become for Year 9?
Open Mic Stage at Porchfest 2024.
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The rock keeps on rolling tonight at The Waiting Room when Kalamazoo emo trio Saturdays at Your Place headlines. Harrison Gordon and TRSH open at 7 p.m. $22.
It’s a crazy-busy weekend, so let’s get right to it.
Chicago’s Brigitte Calls Me Baby is a throw-back act that sounds like all the ‘80s candy-pop bands you remember from MTV / Breakfast Club soundtrack. They even carry on the vampy post-glam pretty-boy look from that era, or at least frontman Wes Leavins does, affecting a faux accent on songs like “We Were Never Alive” from their ATO Records debut The Future Is Our Way Out (well, he sure doesn’t sound like he’s from Chicago). The band is on the verge, so I’m kind of surprised this show hasn’t sold out tiny Reverb Lounge, yet. Lincoln five-piece Parking Lot Party opens the show at 8 p.m. $18.
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Meanwhile, around the corner at The Waiting Room, London-based modern-post-punk band Hi Vis headlines. Like Brigitte, they also have a sort of ’80s/‘90s MTV sound (to my ears, anyway). They cite Gang of Four, Stone Roses and The Cure as influences, which kind of comes through on their latest album, Blending (2022, Dias Record). They have a new album coming out later this year. Local acts Trucha and Glow own the undercard, which starts at 8 p.m. $25.
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Also happening tonight (Friday), Slowdown has Virginia Beach dream pop band Turnover. Their 2015 album Peripheral Vision, is one of the more popular releases in mid-size indie label Run for Cover Records’ catalog. Phoenix shoegazers Glixen open, along with Texas band Glare. This one’s in the main room and starts at 8 p.m. $30.
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But wait, there’s more going on tonight! It’s the first Friday of the month which means it’s Benson First Friday (#BFF)! That means art galleries and businesses up and down Maple Street will be displaying art from local artists. That includes Ming Toy Gallery (6066 Maple St.), where we’re celebrating the opening of “Drawing the Interior” – – an exhibition of work from Toni Parker, Ariel Carrillo and Emma Geiger. The opening runs from 6 to 9 p.m. Come by, say hi, have a drink and/or snack and enjoy some great art.
One other show tonight worth your time – Lincoln band Estrogen Projection is playing tonight (Friday) at The Sydney in Benson with opener Not My Wedding. $10, 9 p.m.
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OK, moving on to Saturday!
What to say about Fontaines D.C? IYKYK, and apparently a lot of people do as the show sold out a week ago. The Irish band is on a U.S./Canadian tour that brings them to Slowdown’s big room Saturday night, supporting their new album, Romance (2024, XL Recordings), a follow-up to their 2022 breakout album, Skinty Fia. A glance at their setlist from their Sept. 30 Phoenix show indicates a 16-song set heavy on material from the last couple records, followed by a two- or three-song encore closed out by their current hit, “Starburster.”
Opening band, NYC-based Been Stellar, is supporting their debut album, Scream from New York, NY, out via Dirty Hit Records. They just came off a tour supporting The 1975 and a UK headlining tour. This one’s in the main room, starts at 8 and like I said, is SOLD OUT.
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Fontaines isn’t the only big show going on Saturday. Over at The Admiral, LA’s The Airborne Toxic Event headlines. Their new album, Glory, came out last month on Little Tokyo Records. Their biggest “hit” was “Sometime Around Midnight,” from their 2009 debut on Island. Fellow LA band Near Beer opens at 8 p.m.
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But wait, there’s more! Also Saturday night, Marty Amsler, who we all remember from ’90s Nebraska-based breakout act The Millions, has a new band called Mono in Stereo. They’re opening for Omaha band Sons of No One at Reverb Lounge. 8 p.m., $10.
And down the street at The Sydney, New Orleans-based dance-punk band Special Interest headlines. Their most recent album, Endure, came out in 2022 on Rough Trade. Lincoln leather-synth-dance-industrial dude Plack Blague opens this show at 9 p.m. $15.
Also, Indian Caves are playing a set with Notion Club and High School Dilemma at Fontenelle Supply Co., 1414 So. 13th St. $10, 7 p.m., kids and dogs are welcome!
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And if your weekend wasn’t busy enough…
Sunday is the 8th Annual Porchfest – 12 stages including Omaha Mobile Stage at Yates Illuminates, the Gifford Park Neighborhood Market stage, seven house porches, plus poetry, art, and open mic porches! We’re talking 70+ local performers including McCarthy Trenching, Midwest Dilemma, Mitch Gettman, Jeremy Mercy, B.B. Sledge and Tom Bartolomei. It starts at noon and runs all afternoon. The full schedule is here: https://porchfestoma.tumblr.com/schedule . The weather should be awesome, so check it out.
And thats all I got (Whew!). If I missed your show, put it in the comments section. Is it me or do we live in a city that’s feast or famine when it comes to live indie music? Anyway, have a great weekend. .
Who remembers Fizzle Like a Flood, the bedroom project by Omaha singer/songwriter Doug Kabourek?
Turn back the hands of time to November 2000 – just 24 years ago – when Kabourek released what was arguably his masterpiece, Golden Sand and the Grandstand – a tribute to the good ol’ Aksarben thoroughbred horseracing track that used to exist in the area where Aksarben Village currently stands (Think about that the next time you watch a movie at Aksarben Cinema or dine at the Inner Rail food court!).
Kabourek circa 2000.
It was a time when Nebraska and Omaha were just emerging at the center of the indie music universe, thanks to Saddle Creek Records. Kabourek even played a role in the origins of one of the label’s most famous acts.
From a 2000 Lazy-i interview with Kabourek: Kabourek has anonymously played a role in the Omaha and Iowa City music scene for six or seven years, first jamming with the band that would become Norman Bailer (an early incarnation of The Faint). He left Todd Baechle and company after they recorded a cover of Joan Jett’s “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll.” “I didn’t think they’d get anywhere,” he said.
Oh, how wrong you were, Doug.
It was also a time when musicians were just beginning to make bedroom recordings, and Kabourek as Fizzle Like a Flood was a sterling example. The lush, sweeping sounds heard on Golden Sands were all recorded and mixed in Kabourek’s home using a small multi-track recording and a PC – quite a feat at the time.
But even more impressive was the music, which was first released (as a CDR) on boutique cassette label Unread Records, and later on Earnest Jennings. Kabourek had a knack for creating great indie pop reminiscent of acts like Sebadoh and Flaming Lips.
Over the years, Kabourek as Fizzle (and other incarnations) released more music, most only on Earnest Jennings. And now Fizzle Like a Flood is back with a new record – Black Walls and William Hall, a sort of sequel to Golden Sands about the now defunct Mystery Manor, an Omaha-based haunted house that opened in 1984. Kabourek says the “10-song album will create an immersive and positively screamadelic songscape!”
He talks about the new album and its origins on the homepage of his Kickstarter campaign. Kabourek is trying to raise $3,500 to cover the cost of pressing vinyl for the already-recorded album. He’s offering a variety of kooky and cool Kickstarter rewards for patrons, including custom coozies, art prints by Megan Thomas, artifacts from his homemade haunted house, not to mention a copy of the new record on red splatter vinyl.
The Kickstarter campaign runs through the end of the month, and as of this writing, Kabourek was already more than a 1/3 the way to his goal. Head on over and throw some money at this project. Check out a preview track of Black Walls and William Hall below.
A crowd of around 100 mostly young women (teens to early 20s) huddled around the edge of Slowdown’s stage last night and sang along to most of Odie Leigh’s songs. It’s easy to understand why – her lyrics are easy to remember, to memorize while listening driving in your car or sitting in your bedroom or wherever else you’re alone. The words are smart and clever and personal, sometimes sexy, more often filled with melancholy and longing – just the right combination for an audience that’s either going through whatever Leigh was singing about, or remembers what it was like.
Leigh’s music, especially the quiet acoustic songs from her early days (just a few years ago), are semi-healed wounds of memories of past loves, recollections of things that happened (or didn’t happen), and the pain of moving on to whatever comes next.
She opened the evening with upbeat folk rockers from her new album (“My Name on a T-Shirt,” “No Doubt”) that did a good job of showcasing her band. Then Leigh set down her electric guitar and picked up her acoustic for a rendition of waltz-timed “A Month or Two” — one of her early singles about trying to forget something or someone, which ends with the reframe “Give it some time, time, time, time, time, time.”
It perfectly segued into a trio of heart-stoppers – two old ones about heartbreak and betrayal (“Nine Lives,” “Double Shift”), balanced by a new one about longing – “Either Way.” Some songs on her new album, Carrier Pigeon, feel like heartfelt antidotes to the past, testimonies (to the ones that got away) that things are better now, or will be, probably.
Leigh’s songwriting recalls some of my favorite confessional songwriters from the ‘90s — Jonatha Brooke of The Story, Ray and Saliers, Shawn Colvin, Victoria Williams — who themselves were like the progeny of Joni Mitchell. Leigh carries on that tradition.
Realizing she had an eager choir in front of her, Leigh not only encouraged singing along, but also provided directions. Before launching into a song that she’s yet to record, she gave the audience a primer on its chorus. She did this again for the night’s encore, “Take Back,” which resulted in the entire room loudly singing the reframe – an apt ending to great evening.
Valley James at Slowdown, Oct. 1, 2024.
I only caught the last three songs by opener Valley James, and wish I would have caught her whole set. Playing solo with an acoustic guitar, James had one of the purest voices I’ve heard on Slowdown’s stage, sounding like (as one fellow audience member told me) a young Neko Case. You’ll be seeing and hearing more from her…
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