By Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com 

This year’s recap was going to be a stark elegy about the end of Omaha’s “Creative Era,” about the noticeable drop-off in the number of local indie bands compared to pre-pandemic days.

To illustrate this, I intended to point toward The Reader’s old Top 20/Next 15 list — an annual wrestling match among the paper’s music writers to define the best Omaha / Lincoln bands from the past year. We used to get into ugly, bare-knuckle brawls over who would make the cut. As a critic / reporter who covered the Omaha “indie music scene,” my list would fight it out with everyone else’s list. Fun, controversial stuff.

Certainly (I thought), with so few active indie bands these day, it would be tough to make such a list. But I quickly discovered, yikes!, there are more indie bands playing around town now than ever before. In fact, here is my Top Bands list for 2024, broken into three categories: 

The Old Guard – Bands and performers who have been at it for over a decade and are still actively performing and recording music:

Simon Joyner
Criteria
Wagon Blasters
Little Brazil
Midwest Dilemma
Matt Whipkey
See Through Dresses
Domestica
McCarthy Trenching
Matthew Sweet
Dereck Higgins
Head of Femur

The Seasoned Veterans – Performers who have established a firm beachhead and – along with The Old Guard – are the backbone of Omaha’s indie music scene:

David Nance & Mowed Sound
Those Far Out Arrows
Leafblower
Uh Oh
Mitch Gettman
Minne Lussa
Las Cruxes
Mike Schlesinger
Clarence Tilton
BIB
Lodgings
Sean Pratt/Sweats
Megan Siebe
Jim Schroeder/Mesa Buoy
Healer
The Broke Loose

The Up-and-Comers – Performers who have emerged in the past few years that are still defining their sound and their audience:

Heavy Clippings
Dream Ghoul
Violenteer
Pagan Athletes
Bad Bad Men
UN-T.I.L.
Vempire
Carver Jones
The Dirts
B.B. Sledge
Cat Piss
Indian Caves
Size Queen
Estrogen Projection
Bad Self Portraits
In Tongues
Western Haikus

That’s 45 indie acts, and I realize some are missing, including bands and performers I’ve either yet to hear or that I simply don’t like.

Perhaps reports of the Creative Era’s demise have been highly exaggerated. 

The problem with the current indie music scene isn’t the number of bands, it’s the number of opportunities for those bands. Most haven’t recorded a new album in years; many aren’t signed to a record label. Even fewer have toured outside the state. Some reasons for this were outline back in my 2019 Music Year in Review column: 

“Never has there been a worse time to be a start-up band. The new music business model: Record an album, upload it to Bandcamp, post a link to social media and get plenty of compliments, but no sales. I heard that story too many times last year from too many artists. Eventually, those artists may post their recordings to Spotify or YouTube, only to earn (if they’re lucky) a few bucks in streaming revenue. Touring for them has become a nonsensical money-losing endeavor especially if they don’t have merch to sell. Even established indie artists are beginning to struggle to make money on tours. That, in a nutshell, is the music industry at the end of the 20-teens decade. Where will it go in the next 10 years?”

Nothing in the above statement has changed since the COVID-19 pandemic, and yet, more people are creating music than ever. Or, as music business economist Will Page, a former executive at Spotify and PRS for Music, said in MusicRadar:

“More music is being released today (in a single day) than was released in the calendar year of 1989.” 

The statement sounds astounding until you consider the reason: The ability to easily record, mix, upload and distribute music is now firmly in the hands of artists and non-professionals. Analysts predict consumer-focused products (computer software) will make recording music as ubiquitous as photo and video creation, with nearly 200 million people recording music by 2030. 

Ah, but no one said any of that music would be any good. For proof, spend an hour listening to DIY music posted on TikTok, but that hasn’t stopped TikTok acts from becoming global superstars. 

The recorded music biz in general has grown continually since the pandemic. According to the RIAA’s 2024 mid-year report, recorded music revenue grew by 4% to $8.7 billion, with the vast majority — 84% — coming from streaming. Physical music formats — vinyl and CDs — made up 11 percent of the revenue pie with around a $1 billion in sales – up 13% vs. the prior year. 

However, digital download sales — a bread-and-butter revenue generator for indie bands – continued its downward trend (for the 14th straight year), with only 2% of the revenue pie – a measly $88 million. 

Another area of declining opportunity for local indie artists comes with a touch of irony. 

I can’t recall when Omaha had more music venues, and yet most of these shiny new concert halls only cater to touring national acts who won’t share the stage with a local band. Steelhouse Omaha, The Admiral and The Astro rarely if ever feature local artists. And midsize and smaller clubs seem to be booking fewer touring indie acts who also don’t want locals on their bill. 

During the city’s indie-music glory days earlier this century, touring indie bands made sure to route through Omaha. Today, Omaha has returned to its “flyover country” — or “route-around country” — status for many touring indie bands because few of them remember those glory days. 

Despite this, a handful of local indie bands are making a living with their music. David Nance and his band Mowed Sound not only released a fantastic album on Jack White’s Third Man record label but also played on Rosali’s last album as well as on Simon Joyner’s recent masterpiece. Nance and Mowed Sound, Rosali and Joyner all toured nationally last year. 

It’s also worth mentioning “Nebraska-adjacent” acts – bands with clear ties to our state though not all band members still live here. Bright Eyes released a critically lauded album last year. Frontman Conor Oberst now (reportedly) spends most of his time in LA, but still has a house in Fairacres, as does Mike Mogis. Members of Neva Dinova, who also released a great album last year on Saddle Creek Records, also live in Omaha (I’m looking at you Megan Siebe). And Cursive, who is still known for their Nebraska roots (though most of the band moved away years ago), released their best album in years.

But that’s it for the success stories. Believe me, it wasn’t always this way. When we had an active, nationally distributed local record label signing local bands — along with a reputation that drew out-of-state musicians “to work and exploit the booming music scene” — our creative class thrived. Today, after hundreds of millions of dollars have been poured into new music venues (with more to come), the focus has shifted from the creative to the commercial. And that’s a shame.

One last comment before we get to the favorites: 

We lost a local hero last year with the passing of John Heaston, editor/publisher of The Reader, Omaha’s only arts and entertainment newspaper. The Reader folded late last year, but despite fighting his own battle with cancer, John fought to keep the paper’s memory alive. He negotiated a deal with Nebraska Public Media to continue to host The Reader’s online content. And beginning next year, The Reader will begin publishing new content supplied by an army of freelance contributors (including yours truly). John would be proud.

Now, onto my top-10 albums of 2024 — the ones I listened to the most last year:

• Cindy Lee, Diamond Jubilee (Realistik) – Laidback psychedelic balladry.
• David Nance and Mowed Sound, self-titled (Third Man) – Dundee-porch acid blues.
• Fontaines D.C., Romance (XL) – This generation’s (smart) U2.
• GIFT, Illuminator (Captured Tracks) – DIIV meets New Order but better than both.
• The Last Dinner Party, Prelude to Ecstasy (Universal) – Ecstatic London rock cabaret. 
• MJ Lenderman, Manning Fireworks (Anti-) – This generation’s Jackson Browne.
• Rosali, Bite Down (Merge) – Folk-rock song-stories backed by a bunch of Cornhuskers.
• Cursive, Devourer (Run for Cover) – The return of the (emo) kings.
• Neva Dinova, Canary (Saddle Creek) – Jake Bellows is God…sort of.
• Simon Joyner, Coyote Butterfly (Grapefruit) – A broken-hearted masterpiece.

Honorable mentions: Kim Deal, Nobody Loves You More (4AD); Charli xcx, Brat (Atlantic); Speed! Lightning 500, various artists (Speed! Nebraska), Real Estate, Daniel (Domino); Adrianne Lenker, Bright Future (4AD); Kylie V, Crash Test Plane (Royal Mountain); Major Murphy, Fallout (Winspear); DIIV, Frog in Boiling Water (Fantasy); The Cure, Songs of a Lost World (Polydor); Hovvdy, self-titled (Arts & Crafts); Waxahatchee, Tigers Blood (Anti-); Savak, Flavors of Paradise (Peculiar Works)

Top Rock Shows 2024

Even though some of the country’s best touring indie bands bypassed Omaha last year, we still got a nice chunk of shows. Of the more than 60 I attended, these were my favorites:

Matthew Sweet Feb. 17 at The Waiting Room – The roaring greatest hits set may be the last time we get to see Sweet on stage after he suffered a debilitating stroke later in the year. 

Color Green March 18 at Reverb Lounge – With two members from Nebraska, they took their Midwestern sound and fused it with ’70s Southern psych rock to create something strikingly beautiful.

The Dirts April 3 at Reverb; Aug. 15 at Slowdown – They’ve become one of my favorite local bands, thanks to their groovy shoe-gaze with great hooks, riffs and trippy arrangements.

Sheer Mag April 25 at The Sydney – Lead singer Tina Halladay sounds like a very young Michael Jackson, but it’s lead axe man Kyle Seely’s guitar that draws the Thin Lizzy comparisons.

Ritual Device May 2 at Reverb – Omaha’s original gutter-groove punkers kicked off a three-day reunion run that gave long-time fans their “hits,” one last time.

Eric Bachmann May 27 at Ming Toy Gallery – Special beyond the fact that it was hosted at our art gallery, Bachmann’s 90-minute performance featured the best Crooked Fingers, Archers of Loaf and solo material.

Whippets June 17 at The Sydney – Highlight: Frontman Bobby Hussy jumped from the tiny stage, dropped his guitar, doused it with lighter fluid and set it ablaze. Rock ’n’ roll!

Roger Daltrey June 28 at Memorial Park – At age 80, Daltrey could still hit (most) of the high notes and was smart enough not to try when he couldn’t. Maybe the best Memorial Park show I’ve attended. 

GRRRL Camp July 22 at Falconwood Park –  With its fantastic indie line-up and Falconwood’s gorgeous facilities, GRRRL Camp’s audience exceeded beyond what the name implied.

Buffalo Tom Aug. 19 at Outlandia Festival – Outlandia signed off (forever) with a golden performance from a seminal act from the ’90s.

Petfest, Aug. 17 behind Petshop Gallery – The Benson-based bacchanal did not disappoint, with a highlight performance by Flamboyant Gods.

WHY? Sept. 24 at The Slowdown – Yoni Wolf’s nasal vocals had a similar hang-dog style as Dave Berman or Stephin Merritt. Magnetic.

Fontaines D.C. Oct. 5 at The Slowdown – Fontaines’ frontman Grian Chatten was the ultimate showman, egging on fans for what felt like an old-time rock concert.

Cursive Oct. 12 at The Waiting Room – The ageless Tim Kasher put his soul into every song whether howling out classics or new ones. He and the band haven’t lost a step in nearly 30 years.

Psychedelic Furs/Jesus and Mary Chain Oct. 22 at The Astro – Both bands admirably played through their catalog of ancient hits inside what is arguably Omaha best-designed new music venue.

Speed! Nebraska Records showcase Nov. 22 at Reverb – A celebration of its long history, bands both old and new showcased the label’s storied past and bright future. 

Simon Joyner Band Dec. 8 at The Waiting Room – Performing Joyner’s Coyote Butterfly in its entirety, the evening was a touching tribute to Joyner’s late son, Owen. Somber, heart-felt and special, it likely will never be repeated.

Finally, the year wouldn’t be complete without giving away copies of the annual Lazy-i Best of 2024 compilation CD! This is the 30th Anniversary Edition. What started as a Christmas mixtape way back in ’94 continues on (seemingly forever) as a collection of the best and brightest bands (local and otherwise) featured here at Lazy-i.com.

If you own a CD player and would like a copy, drop me an email. They’re free, while supplies last. All you have to do is send me your mailing address to tim.mcmahan@gmail.com.

Here’s the track list:

1. Cindy Lee, “Diamond Jublilee,” from the album Diamond Jubilee (Realistik)
2. Sasami, “The Seed,” from the album Blood on the Silver Screen (Domino)
3. Kylie V, “Lucky Streak,” from the album Crash Test Plane (Royal Mountain)
4. Adrianne Lenker, “Sadness as a Gift,” from the album Bright Future (4AD)
5. MJ Lenderman, “”She’s Leaving You,” from the album Manning Fireworks (-Anti)
6. Neva Dinova, “One More Mile,” from the album Canary (Saddle Creek)
7. David Nance and Mowed Sound, “Credit Line,” from the self-titled album (Third Man)
8. Rosali, “Rewind,” from the album Bite Down (Merge)
9. Cola, “Pulling Quotes,” from the album The Gloss (Fire Talk)
10. Cursive, “Dark Star,” from the album Devourer (Run for Cover)
11. The Last Dinner Party, “Sinner,” from the album Prelude to Ecstasy (Universal)
12. Fontaines D.C., “Bug,” from the album Romance (XL)
13. Mannequin Pussy, “I Don’t Know You” from the album I Got Heaven (Epitaph)
14. GIFT, “Wish Me Away,” from the album Illuminator (Captured Tracks)
15. Charlie xcx, “Von dutch,” from the album Brat (Atlantic)
16. Real Estate, “Flowers,” from the album Daniel (Domino)
17. Carver Jones, “Crazy 24,” digital single
18. Kim Deal, Nobody Loves You More, from the album Nobody Loves You More (4AD)
19. Major Murphy, “Fallout,” from the album Fallout (Winspear)

The playlist also is available in Spotify (with the first two songs missing). Simply click this link or search “Tim McMahan” in Spotify, then select Profiles, then Public Playlists. You’ll find it, along with a few from past years.

Next week – PREDICTIONS!!!

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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.