Dent May plays tonight at Slowdown Jr.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Tonight LA psych-pop singer/songwriter Dent May headlines at Slowdown Jr. May’s biggest claim to fame is having been chosen by Animal Collective to perform at the All Tomorrow’s Parties Festival 2011. His latest album, Across the Multiverse (2017, Carpark), has a guest appearance by Frankie Cosmo, and received a middle-of-the-road 6.1 rating from Pitchfork.

May’s music isn’t so much psych-pop as indie yacht rock a la Gerry Rafferty… or Ambrosia, but hey, it’s better than nothing. More interesting is opener Shannon Lay, whose last album, 2017’s Living Water

, was released on Woodsist Records. It’s somber, afternoon music, quiet and withdrawn.

Opening this show is Sioux Falls band Tenenbaums. 9 p.m., $12.

Other than that, things are pretty spotty.

The Brothers is hosting a rock show Saturday night with Lawrence, KS, garage-band JC and the Nuns. Hussies headline this one with Dead on Dust opening. $5, 9 p.m.

And that’s about it.

O’Leaver’s is hosting a pop-punk show tonight and an emo show Saturday.

BEWARE — 1% tonight is hosting a country show in the street outside of the Waiting Room. You may want to avoid the area.

If I missed your show, put it in the comments section. Get out and enjoy this fine, fine weather!

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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 © 2018 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The folks at the Maha Music Festival today announced the schedule for its Aug. 17-18 Festival at Stinson Park in Aksarben Village.

The Friday night gig — a first for Maha, which will be celebrating its 10-year anniversary — is the softer (and cheaper — $35 GA) of the two nights, and starts at 6 p.m.

6 p.m. – Clarence Tilton
6:30 – State Disco
7:20 – Hurray for the Riff Raff
8:15 – Benjamin Booker
9:10 – ZZ Ward
10:30 – TV on the Radio

The Saturday schedule is stacked, and starts at 12:30 p.m. and costs $70 for GA tix.

12:30 p.m. – The Dilla Kids
1:15 – David Nance Band
2 – U.S. Girls
3 – Mesonjixx + Omaha Girls Rock
4:15 – Hop Along
5:30 – Ravyn Lenae
6:30 – Tune-Yards
7:45 – The Kills
9 – Father John Misty
10:30 – Weezer

You can buy a two-day festival pass for $95 and save $10. Prices go up by about $10 per ticket DOS. If you buy your pass by midnight Friday you’ll be entered into a drawing for a free VIP upgrade (we’re talking free pizza and air conditioned potties — what more could you ask for?).

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Dereck Higgins’ monthly residency continues tonight at The Down Under Lounge. Higgins will be playing songs from his just-released album The World Is Burning. Joining him is singer/songwriter Todd Grant, formerly of the band Compost.

For some background on Grant, here’s a 2005 interview/feature/column about the man behind the 1994 album Strangled Soul. Needless to say, a lot has happened to Grant since that column was published.

The show starts at 9:30 p.m., and is free.

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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 © 2018 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Thick Paint at Slowdown Jr., March 30, 2018. The band plays tonight at Brothers Lounge.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The Faint yesterday posted they’re playing the Cloak & Dagger show at LA’s State Theatre Nov. 10. DAF (Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft) — the so-called  “godfathers of techno,” the pioneers of EBM and the forefathers of electropunk — are the headliners.

Also on the bill are She Wants Revenge, HEALTH, Boy Harsher, Tamaryn, BOAN and Black Mare.

When was the last time The Faint played anywhere? Good to see that they’re still alive and kicking. Someone should organize a “warm up” show for them before they head west…

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Speaking of old school musicians, Bill Hoover of The Darktown House Band

and The Short Timers is perhaps better known these days as a fine artist/painter. I hope to some day be able to afford one of his masterpieces.

Well, tonight you can catch Bill as a thespian when he performs in a new play by his bro, Joe Hoover, called Amends. The show is directed by Nils Haaland and also features Joseph Patrick.

The play’s world premier is tonight at The B Side of Benson Theater, 6058 Maple St. (right next door to Virtuoso Pizza). Performances also will be held tomorrow and Friday at B Side. Showtime is 7 p.m. For more information.

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Did you see Minus the Bear is calling it quits? Their Oct. 14 show at The Waiting Room is part of their Farewell Tour. More info at Stereogum.

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I’m listening to the last Thick Paint track released on their Bandcamp page. When are we going to get some new stuff from these folks — and even more importantly, who’s releasing it? You can ask the band yourself tonight when they headline at Brothers Lounge. Joining them is Santa Ana band Media Jeweler and Rogue Moon. $5, 9 p.m.

Also tonight, Pageturner Lounge continues its summer concert series with BiB and KC’s Mentira. 9 p.m. and the usual free!

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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 © 2018 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Rusty Lord at O’Leaver’s, June 23, 2017. They play tonight at O’Leaver’s.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The New Era at Saddle Creek Records continues with yesterday’s announcement that the label signed Portland’s Black Belt Eagle Scout.

The project is headed by singer/songwriter Katherine Paul, who “grew up in a small Indian reservation, the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, surrounded by family focused on native drumming, singing, and arts,” according to the Creek press release.

Her Saddle Creek debut, Mother of My Children, is actually a re-release of an album that came out a year ago. Maybe you caught BBES when they opened for Built to Spill earlier this year? That was around the time when Saddle Creek was considering the band (or so they said. Maybe they’d already made a decision). At the time Mother of My Children was already in Spotify, and I can attest that it’s pretty tasty (It has since been pulled from Spotify, durn).

Anyway, the re-release comes out Sept. 14 and you can pre-order it here.

So let’s see, last month Saddle Creek signed Tomberline; then there’s Young Jesus and Stef Chura signed late last year, not to mention a new Sam Evian album that came out June 1. Holy smokes, what’s next? Saddle Creek is really making year 25 count.

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I may have gotten too clever for my own good with the title of this month’s Over the Edge column: Fable of the Reconstruction. While those of you who followed indie music back in the day will immediately recognize it as a reference to the 1985 album Fables of the Reconstruction, it has nothing to do with R.E.M. Rather, it’s a look at a post-Trump America. It’s never too soon to dream (All it’ll take is for you to get off your ass and vote). You can read online right here or in its printed July issue, on newsstands now.

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Tonight at fabulous O’Leaver’s it’s the return of Quintron & Miss Pussycat. From the Prospect New Orleans website:

Quintron has been making genre-defying noise, soundscape, and house rocking dance music in New Orleans for over 20 years. The majority of his fifteen full-length albums, many created with artist / puppeteer Panacea Theriac (aka Miss Pussycat), have the psychedelic soul of New Orleans party jams as filtered through tough distorted organs and a junk heap of self-made electronic instruments.

Rusty Lord opens (replacing Sucettes). $10, 9 p.m.

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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 © 2018 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Candy Boys at O’Leaver’s July 13, 2018.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Candy Boys is John Klemmensen exorcising his demons with an electric guitar and his candy voice. Glean what you will from the lyrics, which one assumes reflect what he’s been through for the past few years. The interpretation is made easier thanks to the fact that Klemmensen always has been one of the few local singers who actually a-nun-ci-ates — i.e., you can hear and understand every word of his world-worn lyrics.

And while Klemmensen was never one to hold back (remember all that stuff about doing cocaine all night from his debut album?), these new songs are even more confessional though no less personal, or at least that’s my take. One guy said to me after the show, “Classic Klemmesen, funny as ever,” though I didn’t hear much Friday night worth laughing at.

That’s not to say this is downer music. Half the songs have that same Motown-by-way-of-New Jersey quality; the other half felt like a re-imagining of Mould’s Black Sheets of Rain — a record Klemmesen had never heard of, btw. He implied that their style is almost intentionally sloppy. If so, I couldn’t tell. Klemmensen’s guitar work was on point, heavy, soulful; and his band — bassist Vern Fergesen and drummer Daniel Dean Leonard — were perfect complements.

So yeah, Klemmensen is back. But are people listening? I didn’t see many familiar faces in that crowd of about 40 (only one, to be exact). Has his lost years meant also losing an audience he worked so hard to develop?

Not Funny at O’Leaver’s, July 13, 2018.

Opener Not Funny was an acoustic-driven 3-piece whose frontman, Aaron David Wrigley, has a unique vocal style that zigs, zags, squeaks and pops. If I had to draw a comparison I’d say it sounds like a combination of John Darnielle (of the Mountain Goats) with Jim Carrey’s acting career – passionate, but all over the place.

Musically there’s a Mountain Goats / Decemberists/ Violent Femmes thing going on, but with more syncopated riffage (the bass really carries these songs). The drawback was that their set was twice as long as it should have been, and by the end, they cleared the room.

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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 © 2018 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Wagon Blasters at Lookout Lounge April 30, 2016. The band plays tonight at Brothers Lounge.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

It’s been too long since the last Wagon Blasters 7-inch came out — like five years too long. Well, they’re back on vinyl with a new 7-inch, Pandamonium Paradise E.P. (2018, Speed! Nebraska), four geetar-powered tractor punk ditties that are sure to be the soundtrack to the hottest summer on earth.

You can pick up your copy tonight at The Brothers Lounge, where Gary Dean, Jesse, Will and Kate will be rifling through the new songs and a ton of old favorites. The sea-glass vinyl record is limited to 300, so you better get yours quick.

If you can’t make it to the show, you can order one online at the Wagon Blasters’ fancy new Bandcamp page that not only features their full discography by a boatload of Speed! Nebraska merch including new seed caps and super-fast-looking racing-stripe Tees (I need one of those in large, Gary, make it blue).

Joining Wagon Blasters tonight is fellow Omaha act The Broke Loose and Lincoln pals Domestica. $5, 9 p.m.

Also happening tonight is the debut of The Candy Boys — the new band fronted by John Klemmensen (which you read about yesterday) — at fabulous O’Leaver’s. Joining them is Not Funny and Not Ben Shin. $5, 10 p.m.

Saturday night Almost Music in the Blackstone District is hosting an in-store concert with San Francisco jangle-pop summer-of-love band The Love-Birds. Dayton noise act Stress Test opens along with Omaha’s favorite psych-rock troubadours David Nance Band. $5, 9 p.m.

Sunday night Bazile Mills plays at Reverb Lounge with The Ruralists. $7, 5 p.m.

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 © 2018 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

John Klemmensen and the Party at Reverb, May 1, 2015. Klemmensen returns to the stage tomorrow night (Friday) at O’Leaver’s as a member of The Candy Boys.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Hard to believe it was more than three years ago — May 1, 2015, to be exact — that John Klemmensen & The Party hosted their album release show for the LP Party All Night at Reverb Lounge.

The album was a career benchmark for Klemmensen, who had been performing music for more than 20 years both solo, with The Party and in a slew of bands, the most recent having been Landing on the Moon.

But shortly after that album release show, Klemmensen’s world unraveled. Among the lows was when Klemmensen stole a King Kong poster from a King King fast-food restaurant wearing a panda hat — an act that got broadcast on Crimestoppers. It was just part of a downward spiral.

“The underlying story was depression, massive prolonged intake of HARD drugs, overall bad decision making. A lot of self-sabotage, basically,” Klemmensen said.

“I never planned on taking such a long hiatus, but getting myself out of the trouble I had caused myself took some time,” he said.  “I’m still working on being human.”

And among the best parts of his humanity is his music. Klemmensen will return to the stage tomorrow night (Friday) at fabulous O’Leaver’s fronting a new rock band called The Candy Boys. The band consists of Vern Fergesen on bass, Daniel Dean Leonard on drums, and Klemmensen on guitar and vocals.

Klemmensen said it’s “a little more sloppy and loud (on purpose) than ‘the Party.’ I think it’s closer to where I came from, like Reset or Revilo (although I wasn’t in Revilo).”

Tomorrow night’s set will focus on all new music, a reflection of Klemmensen’s new life. “I’m better now,” he said. “Weed, ice cream maybe an occasional shot of whiskey. I’m a good boy now.”

The Candy Boys play tomorrow night (Friday) at O’Leaver’s with Columbus/Omaha punk/folk act Not Funny.

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OK, but what’s going on tonight at O’Leaver’s? Just another stacked bill. Headlining is Oquoa (Max Holmquist and the boys) with Saddle Creek Records band Son, Ambulance. Joining them is Denton, Texas act Claire Morales, whose new record All That’s Wanting

, was released June 29. $5, 9 p.m.

Also tonight, The English Beat, who probably plays more often in Omaha than in their origin city of Birmingham, England, returns to The Slowdown. The Bishops open at 8 p.m. $28.

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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 © 2018 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Dog Party at O’Leaver’s, July 30, 2017. The band returns to O’Leaver’s tonight.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

This past Monday Jason Steady (once of the band Talking Mountain, among others) dropped me a line about a new track he’s recorded — a cover of Gram Parsons’ “One Hundred Years From Now,” which, I must say, is sublime. It marks a new direction for Steady, a sound which I described as “psych-country,” but which Jason calls “outer space cosmic death nature sounds.”

Check it out below and/or download/buy it along with Steady’s cover of George Jones’ “Things Have Gone to Pieces” (and a demo  of the Parsons cover) at his Bandcamp page.

Speaking of new music, David Nance posted that his next record, titled Peace and Slightly Pulverized, will be released Oct. 5 by Trouble In Mind Records. The Chicago label’s roster includes Dick Diver, Paperhead and Ultimate Painting, among others. The seven-song vinyl features Nance backed by his band — Kevin Donahue, Jim Schroeder and Tom May. Nance blew a hole in the wall with last year’s Negative Boogie (Ba Da Bing Records). I can’t wait to hear this one…

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Two shows of note tonight…

Pageturners Lounge continues its summer concert series tonight with a triple-bill: Lupines, Noah Sterba and Rusty Lord. Is this the show that the real-life Rusty Lord finally makes an appearance? Find out. This one’s free and starts at 9 p.m.

Also tonight, Sacramento’s Dog Party — the garage rock duo of sisters Gwennie and Lucy Giles — returns to fabulous O’Leaver’s. Joining them are Mad Dog and the 20/20s and Muscle Cousins. $7, 9 p.m.

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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 © 2018 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Mark Mallman at The Waiting Room, Nov. 29, 2010. He plays tonight at Reverb Lounge.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

I almost skipped posting today and then I saw that Mark Mallman is playing tonight at Reverb Lounge and wanted to make sure you knew.

The Minnesota-based piano-man has put out a lot of great records including career highlight Mr. Serious (2004, Badman Recording Co.) that’s filled with infectious sing-along pop ditties.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Mallman back in 2010 in support of a Waiting Room gig. You can still read the feature article online here, wherein I describe Mark trying to win over an audience at the old Sammy Sortino’s pizza place on south 72nd Street (now long gone). Fans of Christopher the Conquered and Har Mar Superstar will likely dig.

Mallman opens for Detroit garage-pop act Electric Six, probably best known for their 2003 single “Gay Bar,” which I just heard played the other day on Sirius XMU. Starts at 8. $15 (worth it for Mallman alone).

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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 © 2018 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Dereck Higgins’ The World Is Burning includes tracks that date back to his Digital Sex days.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Dereck Higgins has played in dozens of bands over the past 30+ years, but most notably was a member of seminal ’80s band Digital Sex. Higgins is still in at least a half dozen bands, including Son, Ambulance, Skuddar and RAF, not to mention his  solo work.

Last week a new collection of songs and recordings written and performed by Higgins that date back to his Digital Sex days was released by Randy LeMasters, a Pittsburgh-based music entrepreneur who released the last Digital Sex compilation Essence and Rarities back in ’94 as well as a 2012 collection of rarities by The Millions called Poison Fish.

“Randy is a super fan of my music, starting with his discovery of Digital Sex,” Higgins said. “When he traveled to Omaha in 2000 to meet me and see DS play we visited at my house. I played some of the stuff I recorded at home for my own sanity and enjoyment. He begged me to have copies.”

Over the years Higgins sent LeMasters CDs of recordings, which he said were never intended for public consumption. “A few years ago Randy approached me with the idea of releasing some of his favorites of the hundreds of songs I had sent him,” Higgins said. “I was reluctant at first but agreed.”

Titled The World Is Burning, the CD is limited to 300, of which about 100 already have been sold via Higgins’ website

, which is the only place you can buy them locally. “Put simply, if you actually like the music of Digital Sex you will like this,” Higgins said. “Some music is as old as 1984, (with the) most recent likely from the ’90s. I wrote the original music and played all of the instruments on the home recordings, the same recordings from which Digital Sex sprang from — drums, bass, guitars, keyboards and vocals.”

Higgins said the title track reflects our current national state of affairs. “…Things have only gotten worse since I wrote the song,” he said. “It’s a totally topical song about the state of the world.”

You’ll get a chance to hear Higgins perform songs off the new album live at The Down Under Lounge July 19 as part of his residency at the club. The night also will include a performance by Todd Grant of the band Compost whose solo album, 1994’s Strangled Soul, is one of my faves.

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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 © 2018 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.