by Tim McMahan,  Lazy-i.com

Last Saturday, Chalis Bristol, Chair of Omaha Girls Rock!’s board of directors, announced via email that the organization’s current programming will end Dec. 15.

“Despite the incredible efforts of our entire OGR community, the reality is that a shifting funding landscape, increased costs, and decreased grant capacity mean that maintaining the organization in this form is neither responsible nor financially possible,” she wrote in the letter.

Bristol goes on to say it’s “not goodbye forever. We are moving forward with the hope that while OGR may no longer be the official organization you have loved over the years, our programming will soon continue with the support of another organization whose mission and values align with our own.”

Who or what that organization will be wasn’t stated. Certainly OGR’s mission would fit in with a number of other local 501(c)(3) organizations, and if they maintained their staff, teaching artists and volunteers, would continue to play an important role in the Omaha music scene. 

A bit of history…

Omaha Girls Rock! got its start back in 2011 by founder Stefanie Drootin, who you may know as the bass player in Saddle Creek Records acts The Good Life and Big Harp and for having played on a number of Bright Eyes albums. Her original vision went well beyond teaching girls how to rock. It was to provide a support system enabling and encouraging girls to design their own futures and to realize those designs.

In addition to teaching girls how to play instruments and be in a band, “the workshops also deal with self esteem, body image, stuff so girls feel confident no matter how they’re treated,” Drootin said in a 2011 Lazy-i/Reader column. “I feel like I was lucky that I had the confidence to be able to deal with a lot of the stuff that goes along with being a girl in a band.” 

Over the years the organization grew, hosting camps and presenting showcases at local clubs and festivals (including the Maha Festival), where camp participants rocked out in front of large audiences. Seems like everyone knows someone whose daughter was in OGR. 

A testimony to the program’s effectiveness: This Friday night, OGR alumni band UN-T.I.L. will perform as part of the Speed! Nebraska Records showcase at Reverb Lounge. The gig celebrates the release of the Speed! Lightning 500 compilation album, which collects new tracks by ten of the area’s finest punk/indie bands, including UN-T.I.L.’s “Radio Love Letters.”

U.N.-T.I.L.’s success is somewhat ironic coming as OGR closes its doors. I was unaware that OGR was in financial trouble. No doubt I and many other past contributors would have opened their pocketbooks if they knew the organization was in dire straits. It would be a real blow to the Omaha music scene if OGR can’t find a new home with another Omaha non-profit…

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A couple shows at the 1% clubs tonight…

Texan by way of Colorado Casper Allen plays at Reverb Lounge tonight. His style is Tom Waits-inspired twangy folk, just your typical cowboy with face tattoos. Opening is Shawn Hess and Trent Browns. $20, 8 p.m.

Also tonight, New York-based emo/ pop-punk band Keep Flying headlines at The Sydney. Blondo and Odd Man Out open at 8 p.m. Sydney Time. $15.

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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.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Regular Lazy-i readers may have noticed that show listings posted on the site for The Sydney typically end with the language “start time, xx p.m., Sydney Time.” I began doing this because whenever I went to shows at The Sydney scheduled to start at, say, 9, they ended up starting at around 10:30, leaving me with 90 minutes to nurse my Rolling Rock and dead-scroll my iPhone. 

Late start times were a normal thing in the pre-COVID days. Most rock shows didn’t start until well after 10 p.m. (and usually closer to 11) in an effort to draw the largest crowd (or sell more drinks). Then came COVID and shows went away. Upon their return a year or so later, venues began to run with strict military precision; specifically The Slowdown, Reverb and The Waiting Room. What used to be three-band bills that began at 10:30 and wrapped up at 1 a.m. have become two-band bills that begin at 8 p.m. and rarely run past 10. It’s a strange but welcome change, especially for old-timers who like to get to bed early. 

The exception, of course, is The Sydney, who has kept operating like the pre-COVID days with late nights and multiple bands. And irregular start times. 

The reason for this enormous preamble: I showed up at The Sydney at 10:30 this past Saturday night (after having drinks with an old pal of mine) to see In Tongues, Housewares and Minne Lussa, figuring at worse I’d miss part of whoever played the opening slot. I paid my $10 and rushed inside only to hear Housewares’ frontman say (paraphrasing): “Good night! Thanks to In Tongues for opening. Minne Lussa is next.” 

For whatever reason, this night The Sydney decided to start the music right at 9 p.m., as advertised, typical “Sydney Time” hi-jinx. 

The good news is I was able to catch an entire set by Minne Lussa, who I’ve seen perform many times over the years, but this night they never sounded better. Dressed in their finest Grand Ol’ Opry outfits I guess for irony’s sake (since they don’t play an ounce of either Country or Western music), the band shimmered both literally and figuratively beneath their Spencers Gifts-quality mood lighting. 

At the heart of their music is the intricate guitar interplay between Matt Rutledge and Eric Bemberger, with Bemberger providing the more fluid, gossamer licks. This will seem uncharacteristic to anyone who only knows Bemberger from his former band, Beep Beep, whose specialty was blaring, angular post-punk. Here, Bemberger weaves his glowing, gorgeous guitar lines with Rutledge’s complimentary counters or rhythms, creating a dense, ethereal soundscape, driven forward at mid-tempo by the ace rhythm section of drummer Eric Ebers and bassist Alan Legge. 

Their songs could hold up as instrumentals, but Rutledge adds warm, grotto vocals throughout, that unfortunately were undecipherable due to the poor vocal mix/PA. Bemberger provided contrasting lead vocals on one very cool song. 

I guess you could call their sound dream-pop or ornate shoe-gaze, comparable to, say more laid-back My Bloody Valentine or (more appropriately) Slowdive. One fan standing next to me said they reminded him of ‘90s Portland instrumental band Pell Mell, which got us talking about Sokol Underground acts like Tresteza and The Mercury Program, though for my money, Minne Lussa is more innovative and interesting.

They closed out their set with a glowing cover of “Alison” by Slowdive, met with a nice round of applause by the 40 or so on hand.  Rutledge said the band enters the recording studio Dec. 7 with producer/engineer Jeremy Garrett. More to come…

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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.

by Tim McMahan,  Lazy-i.com

Onward to the weekend…

Has it really been a year since See Through Dresses played a special benefit show at Benson Theater? The band is back tonight at Reverb Lounge. Will their drummer, post-Omahan now-Californian Nate Van Fleet, be along for the ride? I gotta believe he’s in town for tomorrow night’s Bokr Tov album release show (Nate produced the tracks). It’s been seven years since the last See Through Dresses album, which means (hopefully) they’ll be rolling out some new songs. Joining STD is singer/songwriter Mitch Gettman, who opens the show at 8 p.m. $10.

Also tonight, Midwest Dilemma takes over the Down Under stage (How will they get all 12 of them in that tiny space?). Joining them are Tom Bartolomei and Katie Kasher. $8, 9 p.m. 

As mentioned, tomorrow night (Saturday) Bokr Tov celebrates the release of their sophomore album, The Way a Tree Shakes, at Reverb Lounge.  Geno Beach and Bad Self Portraits are also on the bill. 8 p.m., $15. 

Meanwhile, down the street at The Sydney, it’s the stage debut of Housewares, the new project by Fromanhole’s Doug and Daryl Kiser. The five-piece is rounded out by Jason Koba of Thunder Power on drums, Scott Klemmensen of Reset on vocals, and Andy LaChance on keyboards. Doug described their sound as: “melodic, probably technical, with elements of post whatever, jazz, blues and maybe some country.  There is a lot of counting, that’s for sure.” Sounds mathy! Joining them are Minne Lussa and In Tongues. $10, 9 p.m. (Sydney Time). 

But wait, there’s more…

Mono in Stereo, the new project by The Millions’ Marty Amsler, is headlining a free show Saturday night at fabulous O’Leaver’s. Joining them are The Jericho Strays and Tony LaMar. 9 p.m. start time…

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 © 2024 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan,  Lazy-i.com

Clearing out the ol’ inbox…

Looks like Bright Eyes is back and they’re bringing some close friends with them on the road. The band announced additional North American dates, but no make-up date for the cancelled Omaha show (due to Conor Oberst’s “voice issues”). Will the resched happen? Who knows. 

The band also announced that Cursive will be joining them on the road in April for 18 gigs, including an April 26 show at Val Air Ballroom in Des Moines. In addition, Grrrl Camp 2024 stand-out band, Hurray for the Riff Raff, is touring with Bright Eyes in late February and most of March. 

Now we all wait to see if this tour actually happens….

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Don’t get me wrong. It still rates a “Yes” on the Lazy-i scale, but you have to be in the mood for it…

The Cure, Songs of a Lost World (2024, Universal) — It would be a shame if this winds up being The Cure’s finale as Songs of a Lost World is mostly a dismal rehash of the dense, drone, downer music the band invented with Disintegration. But unlike that landmark album, Songs has no contrasting “Pictures of You” or “Lullaby” or “Lovesong” to counterbalance the endless thundering murmur. 

The closest thing to a deviation from the drone-goth recipe are the crack-bounce “Drone:Nodrone,” which could have been the album’s biggest single, and buzz-saw rocker “All I Ever Am,” which would have been a better album closer than “Endsong,” a 10-minute black-draped snooze that highlights the biggest problem with this record – these songs just seem to crawl on and on. Whereas the 9-plus-minute “The Same Deep Water as You” from Disintegration never bores thanks in part to its sweet, playful lyrics. 

Don’t go looking for anything playful in these odes to doomsday, with lines like “We toast with bitter dregs, to our emptiness” (opening track “Alone”), or “As you hold me for the last time / In the dying of the light” from “And Nothing Is Forever” or “It’s all gone, it’s all gone I Nothing left of all I loved” from album closer “Endsong.” You get the idea. Someone’s feeling old.

So who is the audience for this album? Certainly long-time Cure fans desperately looking to relieve their personal dread from 30 years ago will be satisfied as this is their best effort since 1992’s Wish. And then there’s the new, young fans who will discover The Cure for the first time. For those sad young goths, this may become their Disintegration… Rating: Yes.

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Way back in October, The Red Pears reached out for support for their show at The Waiting Room (reviewed here). I offered the Ten Questions survey. Unfortunately, they didn’t get around to filling it out until after the show had come and gone. I sat on the interview, mainly because the responses were less than forthright, but their publicist keeps asking “where is it?” so here you go, for your reading pleasure:

Ten Question with The Red Pears

These 10 questions inspired by the Pivot Questionnaire (you might remember this from Inside the Actors Studio):

1. What is your favorite album?

The Red Pears’ Jose Corona: There are many to choose from. Something we all definitely agree on are those early releases from the early 2000’s garage/indie bands. The Strokes, Arctic Monkeys, Interpol, and even things from earlier eras like Pixies and Black Sabbath. I wouldn’t say it was one album that changed everything and is above the rest. But it’s a culmination of albums. 

2. What is your least favorite song?

I don’t think there is a least favorite song. I think every song and art is admired in its own ways for its own reasons. And that can change on a day-to-day basis. It’s all in the mood of things. 

3. What do you enjoy most about being in a band?

I think just being able to play music with your friends. Creating art. Sharing that art. And being able to do that across states and regions and countries. And meeting other bands and people that are doing the same thing. I suppose it’s our “job,” but it honestly doesn’t feel like one. Maybe it’s a very cheesy thing that is said, but it’s true. When you love what you do, it doesn’t feel like a job. 

4. What do you hate about being in a band?

I wouldn’t say hate. Hate is a strong word, haha. Things can be tiring and stressful and frustrating, but what isn’t, you know? I feel like when you encounter obstacles and problems with things that you’re not passionate about, it feels like a real chore. That’s when you hate it. But when it’s something you’re really passionate about, you find ways to overcome those obstacles and problems. 

5. What is your favorite substance (legal or illegal)?

Water! Haha, it’s been saving our lives. 

6. In what city or town do you love to perform (and why)?

Hometown shows always hit differently. But it’s also nice to receive warm welcomes when we’re far from home. 

7. What city or town did you have your worst gig (and why)?

I wouldn’t say there’s been a worst gig. Even ones where things go wrong or don’t go according to plan aren’t the worst. They end up more so becoming lessons to learn from. Things can always be worse. 

8. Are you able to support yourself through your music? If so, how long did it take to get there; if not, how do you pay your bills?

We fortunately are able to. It took a lot of years and risks and sacrifices. It still requires risks and sacrifices and just smart financial management. It’s honestly a great feeling to say that this is what we do for a living. That is something that we really cherish. 

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

Hmm…nothing really comes to mind. There isn’t a path that one would say is better. And if the path isn’t the path we’re on, then those are probably the paths that would bring unhappiness and dissatisfaction. 

10. What stories have you heard about Omaha, Nebraska?

Nothing really! I think a nice part about touring is the traveling aspect of it. I believe this is our second time coming to Omaha. The people have been very welcoming and supportive. It’s nice to see sights and meet people that you normally wouldn’t have the chance to if it weren’t for music.

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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.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

A year and a half after its grand opening and Steelhouse Omaha has lost its new-car smell. It’s been replaced with a dank, moist, pot stench that permeated the venue’s foyer and area around the bathrooms at last night’s Modest Mouse concert. 

I’m told by someone “in the know” that Modest Mouse is popular with pot smokers. This is news to me, but then again, isn’t all rock music popular with pot smokers? The pot-funk disappeared once inside Steelhouse’s main hall, but the skunk eventually arrived during the band’s second set. I guess all of us non-tokers who go to concerts better get used to the scent. Imagine how bad it’ll get once grass is legalized? 

That pot musk was the only thing different about Steelhouse since last July’s Fleet Foxes show. Same metal-barn atmosphere; still no place to sit down, though it appears they added new reserved seating off stage left (or I never noticed it before). The section was filled, as was most of the balcony last night, while the main floor was far from sold out (guestimate: 1,200?). 

I caught the last two very low-key songs by opener Black Heart Procession. No earplugs were needed for those guys. That would change when Modest Mouse took the stage. 

Playing as a six-piece with a drummer, percussionist, two guitarists, bass and keyboardist who also played cello (actually, everyone was a multi-instrumentalist), the band was razor sharp and workman-like throughout the evening. As mentioned yesterday, Modest Mouse played their breakthrough album, Good News for People Who Love Bad News, in its entirety and in track order, stopping only once to acknowledge the audience. 

They followed the material note-for-note, rarely swaying from the recorded versions. Frontman Isaac Brock, looking like an older version of Roman Roy from Succession in his blue poly suit, was in perfect voice last night on songs that required more rant than range. His guitar-work was exceptional, but he really shined when he switched to banjo on a few songs starting with “Bukowski” and “The Devil’s Workday.”

I admit to never giving this album the credit it deserves, due mainly to the single “Float On,” which became the soundtrack to a million television commercials. I re-listened to the album while making dinner before the concert and realized, despite being 20 years old, its angst and paranoia has never felt more appropriate as we enter the next Trump Dark Age. Good News marked a shift from MM’s weird, chaotic, uncomfortable noise (that I loved) to more streamlined, commercial rock you might hear over the PA while shopping at your local Kroger’s. Festival gigs followed.

A stirring version of personal fave “Blame It on the Tetons” was the evening’s highlight, along with set-closer “The Good Times Are Killing Me,” which had part of the mostly-staring-still crowd singing along. 

Following a 10-minute intermission, the band returned for an 8-song, proggy second set, with many songs taken from the band’s weird 2009 EP No One’s First and You’re Next, including “Satellite Skin,” “The Whale Song” and “History Sticks to Your Feet.” Unlike the previous night’s audience, we got no songs from my favorite MM album, The Lonesome Crowded West, which was a bummer. 

Another bummer: I guess bands that headline these large-venue shows don’t do encores. I know, I know… in most cases encores are three-song pre-meditated extras tacked on to the main set that the band was going to play no matter what, but there was always something charming about the guys and gals walking back on stage to give a cheering crowd just a couple more. Not in this cyincal age, eh? 

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Tonight at Reverb Lounge, New York-based “queer punk” band Sorry Mom headlines. Among their most popular songs are “I Fucked Yr Mom” and “Molly Sells Molly by the Seashore.” Funny, fun, more pop than punk. Sonya Luxe and Gemini Luxe open at 7:30. $18.

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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.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

My inevitable return to Steelhouse Omaha takes place tonight at the Modest Mouse concert. How has Omaha Performing Arts’ massive “rock club” improved since my last go-round, seeing Fleet Foxes in July 2023? I’ll let you know.

Modest Mouse’s tour celebrates the 20th anniversary of their “breakthrough” album Good News for People Who Love Bad News, and based on last night’s show in Denver (via setlist), they’ll be playing that album in its entiret and in track order. That’ll be followed by a second, 9-song set that includes two songs off their best album – The Lonesome Crowded West. While “Doin’ the Cockroach” and “Trailer Trash” are better than nothing, the band’s epic remains “Styrofoam Boots/It’s All On Ice, Alright” and by decree should close out every MM show. Who knows, maybe they’ll change it up tonight after they read this (haha…). 

It’s hard to describe how wonderfully odd Modest Mouse was when Lonesome Crowded came out almost 27 years ago to the day. The band had a low-fi recklessness and a trailer-park lyrical sensitivity, and were, to some extent, mysterious ‘round these parts. They rarely did interviews, but Isaac Brock agreed to one with me after I kept pestering his publicist. And The Reader published it (thanks, then music editor Curt Grubb), despite the fact that the band wasn’t coming to town and few people knew who they were (including Grubb). You can still read that story online at Lazy-i, here. 

Opening for Modest Mouse at 7 p.m. is San Diego’s The Black Heart Procession. Not sure why they’re on this tour as they haven’t released an album in 15 years. They played a short 7-song set last night in Denver. Modest Mouse goes on at 8, and tickets are still available for $51.

Also tonight,  psychobilly star The Rev. Horton Heat returns to The Waiting Room. Jason D. Williams opens at 8 p.m. $30.  

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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.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

There’s a funky little ’60s-inspired almost alt-country show tonight at Reverb Lounge featuring Appleton, Wisconsin, band Dusk. Their latest, Glass Pastures, was released in 2023 by respectable indie label Don Giovanni, and has a sort of Flying Burrito Brothers vibe to it built on classic harmonies, twangy pedal steel and some rocking solos. 

Opening for Dusk is Velvet Velvet, the solo project of Omaha singer/songwriter Roman Constantino. (Garst). His latest is the self-released Why Try. 

UPDATE: As of an hour ago, One Percent posted that Minneapolis indie rock band Visual Learner has been added to this bill.

8 p.m. $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 © 2024 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Omaha singer/songwriter Carver Jones has already worked with two big-name producers, recorded a song with a known Hollywood actress, and dropped an EP’s worth of catchy new pop music that threads the line between indie and mainstream.

But until a couple weeks ago I hadn’t heard of him. Jones had played some opening slots at Slowdown and at random bars, including his stage debut at, of all places, The Dubliner. And just last week he was scheduled to open for indie musician “quickly, quickly” at Reverb Lounge – a show that ended up getting cancelled. 

It was while researching that show that I discovered Jones’ groovy YouTube videos, including the cool, breezy “Crazy 24’; the guitar-and-vocal jam “Jeans,” and his pretty duet with a film actress I couldn’t quite put my finger on. Each song had deceptively simple arrangements that compliment Jones’ breathy, funky vocals. 

So who is he?

Other than his YouTube videos, there’s not much about Jones online. After clicking around, I found his manager, Drew Kaklamanos, a New York-based A&R guy at Photo Finish Records, who confirmed Jones was, indeed, from Omaha. 

At age 21, Jones has only been making music for a couple years following a successful high school basketball career at Millard North that earned him a scholarship offer from York University, which he turned down. “I decided that wasn’t really what I wanted to do,” Jones said. “So I just kind of dove head-first into music.”

Other than one failed attempt at learning how to play drums, Jones is an untrained musician whose vocal skills were first discovered by his parents, who persuaded him to give singing a try. The story goes that Jones and his guitar-playing buddy Hayden began jamming and writing songs togther, then decided to get in a van and see America via an impromptu busking tour.

While singing on the streets in Oregon they were discovered by Kaklamanos’ younger brother, who put them in contact with Drew. That led to an invitation to play their songs for some industry folks in New York. 

Jones jumped at the offer but his ol’ buddy Hayden instead decided to re-enroll at UNO. So Jones quickly learned how to play the guitar parts so he could do the New York audition solo. Since then, Kaklamanos has become Jones’ trusted advisor and a big part of his early success along with one of Jones’ basketball friends, Alec Allhijjawi, who not only shot and edited many of Jones’ music videos (as Road Runner Productions) but also plays bass in Carver Jones and the American Dreamers.

“Alec and I have been friends since we were 15,” Jones said. “After we graduated, we began creating stuff together. He’s one of the most artistic people I know and was always introducing me to great new music.”

Jones counts Jeff Buckley, Lenny Kravitz, The Strokes and Bob Dylan among his influences along with more modern artists such as Beadabadoobee and Dominic Fike, who Allhijjawi introduced him to.

To round out their trio, they added 19-year-old drummer Max Soderbergh, a recent Blair High School graduate. Over the past year or so, Kaklamanos introduced the band to a couple A-list producers, including Cody Tarpley, who in the past has collaborated with Megan Thee Stallion and Chris Brown, among others. 

“(Tarpley) and Drew came to Omaha and rented an Air B&B for about a week where they brought in all his gear and set it up a studio,” Jones said. “We got a  bunch of ideas down, and then a few months later I went out to LA and recorded a whole bunch more.” The product was three of the five songs on Jones’ first EP, American Dreamers Vol. 1, released this past August.

The EP’s other two tracks — “Crazy 24” and “R U Still Up?” — were recorded in New York with producer Doug Schadt, who produced Maggie Rogers’ breakthrough EP, Now that the Light Is Fading, and her hit “Alaska,” which currently has a quarter-billion plays on Spotify. 

By itself, that’s an impressive career start, but then there’s the McKenna Grace story. Grace is probably best known for playing Callie Spengler, the daughter of Egon Spengler, in Ghostbusters: Afterlife and sequel Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. Grace also is a recording artist, signed to Kaklamanos’ Photo Finish Records.

While on a road trip to drive Allhijjawi’s cousin to Arizona, Kaklamanos suggested the two head to Los Angeles to meet Grace, who had heard some of Jones’ demoes. “We had a writing session and wrote ‘Middle Name’ at her house that day,” Jones said. Grace and Jones later recorded the song with Tarplay, and it’s become Jones’ most popular track, with around 800,000 spins in Spotify.

If you knew Jones only by his videos, you’d think he lives in New York, but the Omahan (who lives still lives with his parents) says he just spends a lot of time there, thanks to Kaklamanos, who offers him keys to his New York home when they’re in town. Allhijjawi has taken advantage of their trips to make their music videos.

That said, the video for their new single, “Hit the Road! (Jack),” was shot in the American Legion Bar in Fort Calhoun. “I invited some Omaha people who are really cool to be part of it,” Jones said. “I want to show that there’s cool stuff going on in Nebraska.”

The track, which premiered today, is part the second volume of Jones’ American Dreamers EP trilogy, with the rest of the EP expected to be out by early spring 2025. All tracks are self-released as Jones remains unsigned (Kaklamanos manages Jones separately from his work at Photo Finish Records). 

“We’ve had a handful of labels reach out who are – or were – very excited about what we’re doing,” Jones said.  “Drew and I have a plan to do the American Dreamers EPs, put them all together and then see where we are. I don’t think there’s any rush to sign a record deal, but I also don’t want to be a small indie artist.”

Jones thinks a record label would probably help him achieve his dream of touring. “At this point, (the band) definitely isn’t big enough to efficiently hit the road and play shows,” Jones said. “I guess that’s where a label could come in, because it’s really hard to just tour and play rooms without knowing if you could sell tickets.”

Jones would love to land an opening spot for a larger touring act that consistently sells out good rooms, “but if not, we’ll probably book what we can in Omaha and try to make some trips to New York and LA and just keep putting our noses down and grinding, making records and playing little things where we can.” 

In the meantime, you’ll get a chance to see Carver Jones and the American Dreamers when they play their first show as headliners Dec. 22 at Reverb Lounge.

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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.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Bit of a rough day for everyone yesterday, eh? Just when you get busy doing something and forget – *bam!* – you suddently remember what happened election night and start all over again.

How about some music tonight to take your mind off things?

Tonight at The Admiral, Pedro the Lion a.k.a. David Bazan, is doing a solo set before City and Colour’s headlining gig. I reversed the order here because I prefer Bazan’s music over Dallas Green’s (he’s the Canadian dude behind City and Colour, who are out supporting their latest album, The Love Still Held Me Near (2023, Still Records). Green’s also known for his work in post-hardcore and Alexisonfire. 

I’d be surprised if anyone who goes to see City and Colour has even heard of Pedro the Lion or Bazan, though anyone who’s been involved in the indie music scene in Omaha throughout the 2000s-2010s knows exactly who he is. He’s played Omaha countless times, from Sokol Underground to people’s living rooms. 

Pedro the Lion’s latest, Santa Cruz, was released by Polyvinyl this past summer. I would not be surprised if he sings the first track, “It’ll All Work Out,” which lyrically sounds like it was written for all of us after the results of Tuesday’s election. Bazan opens this show at 8 p.m. $46.

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Also tonight, Omaha hardcore band Nowhere celebrates the release of their new LP, New Pain, at Reverb Lounge. Joining in the celebration are Nebraska indie punkers Size Queen and Western Haikus. $12, 8 p.m.

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And Iowa City via Chicago singer/songwriter Elizabeth Moen headlines at The Sydney in Benson. Moen is a past Lincoln Calling performer and has had luck placing songs on TV shows like Shameless and Roswell New Mexico, which is impressive considering most of her music appears to be self-released. Opening is Wedding, a new project by Anna Schulte that includes Bokr Tov’s Colby Jenkins on bass, and Zachary Roland on percussion. $15, 8 p.m. (Sydney time).

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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.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

I guess today is Election Day? How did that sneak up on us? 

My intention is to vote this afternoon and then turn off all the media, because after I vote (and you, and you, and you, and you, and you vote), it doesn’t matter. We’ll have done all we could to keep the dot blue surrounded by all this red. There’s no reason to suffer the endless analysis. We (probably) won’t know anything until a day or two anyway…

If you’re looking for somewhere to hide tonight away from the election hoopla, Reverb has a show that might fit the bill. Rootbeer Richie & The Reveille (could the name be any cheesier?) is an 8-piece “soul-swamp” pop band from Denver. It will be entertaining just to see how they all fit on Reverb’s tiny stage. Joining them are local folks Cowgirl Eastern and OJAI. This distraction only costs $10 and starts at 8 p.m., right when the polls close. 

Now get out there and vote!

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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.