The Lupines at O’Leaver’s, Jan. 24, 2014.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

I realized while listening to The Lupines Friday night at O’Leaver’s along with about 40 others that I was watching a local “super group” of sorts. John Ziegler proudly carried the banner for local garage rock for years first in the controversially named Zyklon Bees then as Brimstone Howl. New drummer Calvin Retzlaff also was a member of Brimstone. Guitarist Mike Friedman is arguably one of the best guitarists in Omaha, featured prominently in Simon Joyner projects and most recently joining Little Brazil. and Mike Tulis has been a fixture in the Nebraska music scene for more than a decade, going back to Full Blown through a handful of classic Speed! Nebraska bands.

So yeah, taken as a whole, The Lupines are definitely a super group, or better yet, a super garage band. Needless to say they played like the rock veterans that they are on songs that epitomize the style of music that Brimstone was known for — hard, chopping rock songs that balanced Ziegler’s vocals with Friedman’s blazing solos while a tight rhythm section held it all together. It was exactly what you’d expect from a super garage band. What more can I say other than it was a fun night of music and you should go out of your way to find a copy of the new EP, titled Over the Moon and released on the mighty Speed! Nebraska label.

One last thing: There is some exciting things going on at fabulous O’Leaver’s which you may or may not know about and which I don’t know if I can talk about publicly. It’s not a huge deal, just a new opportunity for bands coming through the club. I’ll see what I can say and let you know.

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It’s another quiet week show-wise. In fact, I don’t see anything until Friday, when the ball starts rolling again. And with this cold weather, maybe it’s for the best….?

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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 © 2014 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

The Lupines, Over the Moon (2014, Speed! Nebraska)

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Here we go.

Tonight at fabulous O’Leaver’s it’s a celebration of the release of The Lupines’ debut EP, Over the Moon (Speed! Nebraska Records). The six-song CD features John Ziegler (ex Brimstone Howl) on vocals/guitar, along with Javid Dabestani, drums; Mike Friedman, lead guitar, and Mike Tulis, bass. If you dug Brimstone’s brand of garage rock/punk, you’ll love this one just as much. Read the Hear Nebraska interview with Mr. Ziegler himself. Opening is Bullet Proof Hearts. $5, 9:30 p.m. Check out out opening track “Everlasting Man,” below:

Also tonight, Chicago artrock band Califone (Dead Oceans Records) headlines at Slowdown Jr. William Tyler (Lambchop, Silver Jews, Merge Records) opens. $12, 9 p.m. Check out a preview of Califone’s latest release, Stitches, below:

Tomorrow night The Waiting Room hosts a benefit for Habitat for Humanity Omaha called Band Build. Performers include Millions of Boys, Field Club, The Big Deep and headliner Voodoo Method. $12 Adv/$15 DOS. Starts at 8 p.m.

Meanwhile down in Lincoln, Hear Nebraska hosts Pt. 2 of its Take Cover series at Vega. Same rules as Omaha: Each artist will cover one song by a fellow Nebraska artist as well as play one original. Performers include Eli Mardock, Liz Hitt (The Terminals), Jon Taylor & Heidi Ore (Domestica), Aaron Parker (Gordon), Jon Dell (Universe Contest) and a tons more. $7, 9 p.m. More info here.

Also Saturday night, Lincoln punkers The Killigans play at Slowdown Jr. with Thirst Things Thirst, The Bishops and DJ Dan DeTour. $7, 9 p.m.

Finally on Sunday night Grammy winner Patty Griffin headlines at The Waiting Room with Anais Mitchell. $15, 8 p.m.

Did I forget something? Put it in the comments section. Have a good 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 © 2014 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

In this week’s column, a look at Pandora from the vantagepoint of local singer/songwriter Matt Whipkey, who outlines the steps he underwent to get his music included in the streaming service, and included in the Music Genome Project. You can read it in the current issue of The Reader or online right here at thereader.com, or, since the column is centered around music, you can read it below…

Over the Edge No. 91: Opening Pandora’s Box

Is Pandora the new “radio”?

And by that I’m asking, could digital music streaming services such as Pandora replace terrestrial radio stations, especially after car stereos become “internet ready,” allowing drivers to punch in a website from their dashboards?

While I can’t answer that in this column, I can say that Pandora at least gives unsigned musicians a glimmer of hope that a stranger will find their music, a glimmer of hope that they’ll never get from old-fashioned radio.

That hope is what drove local unsigned singer/songwriter Matt Whipkey to submit his latest album — an ode to the late, lamented Peony Park called Penny Park — to Pandora.

Before we get to that, what is Pandora? The service is a website and a smartphone app that plays music based on an artist’s “station.” For example, when I typed in “Led Zeppelin Radio” the four songs Pandora belched out were Zep’s “Whole Lotta Love,” Pink Floyd’s “Have a Cigar,” Jimi Hendrix’ “Voodoo Chile” and Rolling Stones’ “Beast of Burden” — basically the same thing you’d hear on Z-92.

Where Pandora gets interesting is when it “suggests” songs you haven’t heard before. That rarely happens when tuned into dinosaur acts like Zep; but it happens all the time when tuning into indie band “radio stations.”

Not just any act can get its music in Pandora. Whipkey said bands signed to record labels have a clear path. Unsigned artists, on the other hand, undergo a process that isn’t exactly easy.

Step One: Open an Amazon Marketplace Account and offer a physical copy of your CD for sale. Step Two: Submit two songs from your record to Pandora. Whipkey said it took two months for someone from Pandora to notify him that his music had been accepted. Hooray! Step Three: Fill out a ton of legal forms. Step Four: Send Pandora a complete copy of your CD.

Three months after Whipkey began the process, “Matt Whipkey Radio” was on the air, but more importantly, his music became part of Pandora’s sci-fi sounding “Music Genome Project.”

According to Pandora, every song in the Music Genome Project is analyzed using up to 450 distinct musical characteristics by a trained music analyst. Those attributes capture not only the musical identity of a song, but also the many “significant qualities that are relevant to understanding the musical preferences of listeners.” Pandora does not use machine-listening or other forms of automated data extraction.

I envision a huge warehouse filled with hipsters and tweed-wearing music professors sitting behind row after row of desks like headphoned elves. As they thoughtfully listen to each CD, they check boxes from a long list of descriptions that includes traits such as rhythm syncopation, key tonality, vocal harmonies and displayed instrumental proficiency (i.e, bitchin’ guitar solo).

“By utilizing the wealth of musicological information stored in the Music Genome Project, Pandora recognizes and responds to each individual’s tastes. The result is a much more personalized radio experience – stations that play music you’ll love – and nothing else.”

And nothing else.

So what does Matt Whipkey Radio sound like? In the first hour I heard songs by Delorentos, Second Dan, Boys School, Sissy and the Blisters, Two Cow Garage, Kirby Krackle and Peter Elkas — all artists and bands I’ve never heard of. Whipkey thinks Pandora groups unsigned indie artists with other unsigned indie artists.

Not everything on Matt Whipkey Radio was anonymous. I also heard songs by The Thermals, The Cynics, Gasoline Heart, Maps & Atlases and one of my all-time favorite bands, The Feelies. Pandora lets users “thumbs up” songs they like, and as a result, it learns a listener’s tastes. I “thumbed up” The Feelies, for instance.

As a whole, the music streamed for Matt Whipkey Radio was pretty good and in character with Whipkey’s style of music. I can’t say the same for “Eli Mardock Radio.”

Mardock is one of my favorite Lincoln singer/songwriters whose debut album was released by tiny label Paper Garden Records. An hour of his station included commercial-friendly music by unknown acts Black Lab, Golden Bear, No Second Troy, The Click Five, a Pat Benetar cover (“Love Is a Battlefield”) by Jann Arden, and songs by familiar (but dreadful) artists Blue October and Travis. None of the music bore the unique, sinister quality that makes Mardock’s songs so interesting.

On the other hand, listening to “Little Brazil Radio” (a popular local punk band) resulted in a very satisfying hour of music that included songs by classic indie bands Superchunk, Silkworm and The Academy Is… Cursive Radio was a veritable hit parade of ‘90s indie, with songs by Radiohead, The Pixies, Modest Mouse and Brand New. The groupings oddly made sense.

What would make Pandora really cool? Imagine the thousands of people listening to “Bruce Springsteen Radio” being fed a Matt Whipkey song. Whipkey says it (probably) will never happen, though he’s heard of bands that have become “Pandora famous.”

“Someone listening to Led Zeppelin Radio who was fed an indie band that sounds like Led Zeppelin probably wouldn’t be too cool with that,” he said.

Whipkey said he submitted to Pandora purely for the chance of gaining wider exposure (He never expects to see a royalty check). “When you tell people you’re on Pandora, they think it’s cool,” he said. “It’s kind of an achievement of sorts. They did have to pick me. They won’t take just anything.”

And who knows, strangers might actually hear his music, which is something they won’t hear on the regular radio. Whipkey said he’s done his share of in-studio performances on local radio stations, “but I never understood how my two minutes live on the air is different than putting on one of my CDs and hitting ‘Play,’” he said. “That’s a no-no. They can’t do it. The guys that host the shows say they have to play what they’re told to play, and that’s it. On the other hand, it’s super-cool that they let me come on their shows.”

So is Pandora the new “radio”?

“I think of Pandora as radio,” Whipkey said. “It’s out there, it’s always on my phone, it’s easy. I just hit the button and there it is. That’s kind of cool.”

Over The Edge is a weekly column by Reader senior contributing writer Tim McMahan focused on culture, society, music, the media and the arts. Email Tim at tim.mcmahan@gmail.com.

First published in The Reader, Jan. 22, 2014. Copyright © 2014 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

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Before radio host Dave Leibowitz can chime in with “What about my show, New Day Rising on 89.7 FM The River? We play local music,” I want to point out that Whipkey did mention how much he appreciated Sunday programming on The River. And I’ve written a couple times in my column about Dave’s radio show, which airs from 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday afternoons (In fact, New Day Rising was the subject of the very first installment of my former music column, way back in 2004).

But I don’t think I need to remind Dave that three hours — along with a couple other shows aired on Sundays — do not make up for The River’s abhorrent play list the rest of the week. I explored this topic with Sophia John in my column as well — go here

, and scroll down to the May 9, 2005 entry. The River’s perceived shift in format referenced in that column never happened. The station is still a glowing bastion of growly, Cookie Monster goon-rock, and  likely will remain so until Sophia moves on. Her justification for not changing format: “If I did that, I wouldn’t be doing what’s best for everyone. I want to bring the masses what they really want while opening their minds to something different.”

Argue all you want about the quality of terrestrial radio, it’s not changing. If you like the kind of music The River spins, then you’re lucky; you’ve got an outlet right here in your home town. If you wish a station had a full-time playlist similar to what Dave plays on his show — or for a radio station that spins local musicians regularly — well, you’ve always got Pandora, Spotify and your record and CD collection. Technology will catch up eventually, and you’ll soon be able to tune into that music in  your car as if it were a terrestrial radio station.

This begs the question: Why doesn’t someone create an online radio station that focuses solely on Nebraska music? Keep watching, folks, it’s just around the corner.

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Tonight at The Barley Street Tavern it’s Phanton Scout (featuring Jeremy Stanosheck). Also on the bill, Sacramento band Misamore and Sowers. $5, 9. More info here.

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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 © 2014 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Bob Dylan circa 1975.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

First off, apologies for Monday’s review of last Saturday’s Hear Nebraska Take Cover show. I think I got as much wrong in that review as one could possibly get wrong, from the wrong Bright Eyes song covered by Ian Aeillo to misidentifying the band in which Rachel Tomlinson Dick plays in to not realizing that Landon Hedges was covering a Mousetrap song. The only thing I did get right was that I had a good time…

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Not a lot going on music-wise this week. No shows worth mentioning tonight. That said, One Percent Productions yesterday announced a handful of new shows in the coming months. The national touring shows on my radar:

Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks Feb. 16 at The Waiting Room with Tyvek.
Russian Circles Feb. 28 at The Waiting Room
Marshall Crenshaw March 2 at The Waiting Room
Neutral Milk Hotel March 29 at Sokol Aud (long sold out)
St. Vincent April 1 at Sokol Auditorium
Okkervil River April 7 at The Slowdown
Tokyo Police Club April 19 at The Slowdown
The Black Lips April 28 at The Waiting Room

I was all set to whine about the lack of shows this winter, but the above is an impressive list — at least two don’t-miss shows per month through April. Unfortunately Friday’s Califone show at The Slowdown is the only thing happening from a national indie show standpoint until that Malkmus show in mid February. Looks like we’ll have to soak in some locals over the coming weeks.

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Speaking of music events, tonight’s Record Club at the Shop @ Saddle Creek features Bob Dylan’s seminal 1975 release Blood on the Tracks. Record Club is a chance for folks to get together and listen to an album in its entirety, then discuss it afterward. Fun! The needle drops at 7 p.m. More info here.

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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 © 2014 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Ian Aeillo at Hear Nebraska’s Take Cover at The Waiting Room, Jan. 18, 2014.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

I dropped in on the Hear Nebraska’s “Take Cover Omaha” benefit Saturday night at The Waiting Room and caught a full hour of covers and originals from a handful of Omaha’s finest songwriters.

The rules were the same as last time they did this — the artist comes on stage, usually alone but sometimes with one other person (no bands allowed, as it would take too much time to switch out between performances), where they play one cover and one original.

Performers get to pick their own covers, which makes sense since they’re donating their time — the last thing any musician wants to do is play a cover they don’t like. So as a result, performers tend to pick obscure songs by their friend’s bands, which means there’s a good chance audience members are listening to someone who they don’t know cover a song they’ve never heard before.

And thus was the case when Rachel Tomlinson Dick took the stage. If Rachel announced what she was playing, I missed it. She launched right into her cover followed by one of her songs. Both were lovely and unfamiliar.

Matt Whipkey followed suit, playing a song by his pal, Mike Friedman (The Lupines, Little Brazil), a song very few if any have heard before. That was followed by a song off Whipkey’s Penny Park album. Whip was joined by Korey Anderson on both.

Simon Joyner got help from Megan Siebe of Anniversaire. His cover was a song by Noah Sterba (Yuppies), followed by a Joyner original I didn’t recognize.

Dan McCarthy (of McCarthy Trenching, of course) sat behind a keyboard and played a cover, followed by one of his own.

Landon Hedges at The Waiting Room, Jan. 18, 2014.

My yearning to hear something familiar was finally quenched by Landon Hedges of Little Brazil. With an electric guitar slung across his massive shoulders, Hedges barreled into a tune I assume was his own (turns out it was a Mousetrap cover), but was followed by a fractured take on Bright Eyes’ “Lua” — complete with mid-song apologies that provided a level of vulnerability oddly fitting for a song about someone struggling to get by. Landon stumbled through both songs, accusing himself of “ruining them,” not realizing he was providing one of the most colorful moments of the evening.

I had time for two more performances before we had to head out. Sara Bertuldo of Millions of Boys and See Through Dresses ripped through a Criteria cover on her blazing electric guitar, followed by a song off the recently released STD album. And Ian Aeillo, who plays in Eli Mardock’s band, crushed a cover of Bright Eyes’ “The Calendar Hung Itself” powered by a cool-weird-funky guitar riff played with white-knuckle intensity. It was followed by a song he said he’d written only a few days prior to the show. Aeillo, who I’ve never heard sing before (at least not as a frontman) had a groovy Frank-Black-ian bark on a bitter love song that was nothing less than anthemic. It was a great way to end the evening.

All in all a good night for Hear Nebraska. The Lincoln version of Take Cover is slated for this coming Saturday at Vega, with performances by Eli Mardock, Liz Hitt (The Terminals), Jon Taylor & Heidi Ore (Domestica), Aaron Parker (Gordon), Jon Dell (Universe Contest) and a tons more.

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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 © 2014 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Son, Ambulance at The Waiting Room, Jan. 16, 2014.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Saddle Creek tweeted last night that Son, Ambulance hasn’t performed in five years and “sounds like they’ve been practicing the whole time.” The sentiment was spot on. Joe Knapp stood proudly center stage backed by a four-piece band that included his brother on keyboards. He sounded like he never went on hiatus, his voice a Midwestern cross between Art Garfunkel and Elvis Costello, confidently pounding an electric guitar, shaking blood back into his hands between songs.

They opened with “Paper Snowflakes” off Key, and played a handful of favorites including “Juliet’s Son” off Someone Else’s Deju Vu and oldie “Katie Come True” off the Oh Holy Fools split. Hearing those tunes again was like slipping on a pair of well-worn shoes, comfortable and familiar, then looking at them in a mirror and marveling at how good they still look. Son, Ambulance music has indeed aged well and would fit in with the current mode o’ day of indie music.

The band’s overall sound seemed more straight-forward and less… ghostly than I remember from the old days. Listening to Deju Vu again after the show, I was surprised how much echo and delay they used in the studio on songs like the title track. Last night when Joe and Co. ripped into one of their more upbeat numbers they sounded like early, no-nonsense Marshall Crenshall; the sonic weight of the band felt stripped down and obvious. Nice.

While there might have been more than one new one (certainly there was more than one I was unfamiliar with) Joe introduced the set closer as a new song dedicated to last night’s birthday boy and his mother, the tune a gritty rocker about being a bad seed, a bad boy, a bad man. Sorry ma. Fantastic stuff. Hopefully Joe and Co. have more where that came from and we’ll be seeing a new Son, Ambulance record out on the Creek in the near future.

InDreama at The Waiting Room, Jan 16, 2014.

Prior to Son, Ambulance, InDreama lit the stage on fire with a ferocious performance that saw frontman Nik Fackler crush through the songs off the band’s debut LP. InDreama music dances between personal, quiet love songs and strange other-worldly bombastic head trips, a welcome extreme in contrasts few other bands local or otherwise seem to grasp. Ain’t nothing wrong with dynamics, folks.

I recognized one new song — or at least I haven’t heard it before — it came right after crowd-raver “Reprogram” and was straight-up big-rhythm rock. At their most enjoyable, InDreama strives for pop; at their most ambitious, they reach for epic. Great songs and great performances transport you. Set-closer “Exodus” conjured memories of standing along the Rio Grande River on the Laredo side and looking over at twilight, watching the neon and digital signage in the distance glow through the dust haze like staring at a futuristic third world, new and dangerous. With it’s huge, ominous duo synth tones growling like fog horns and Fackler’s feral yelps “Exodus” sounded like something off the Bladerunner soundtrack, like Vangelis on acid. Epic indeed.

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Onto the weekend.

Tonight’s feature show is at fabulous O’Leaver’s where Pro-Magnum headlines a bill that includes Dumb Beach, Fire Retarded and Coaxed. What’s better than a night of garage punk and mai thia’s? $5, 9:30 p.m.

Tomorrow night (Saturday) it’s the Battle of the Cover shows as two Benson venues host dueling covers nights.

At The Waiting Room, Hear Nebraska presents Take Cover Omaha, their annual fund raiser where a dozen or so Nebraska musicians cover a song by another Nebraska musician of their choice plus perform one of their own. The lineup includes Ted Stevens, Simon Joyner, Landon Hedges, Matt Whipkey, Darren Keen, Dan McCarthy, Sara Bertuldo, Ian Aeillo, Becky Lowry, Vic Padios, John Klemmensen, Rachel Tomlinson, Max Holmquist, Dan Scheuerman and John Larsen. I wonder how many will be doing Bright Eyes covers? $7, 9 p.m.

Meanwhile, down the street at The Barley Street Tavern, it’s Lou Reed Tribute night where (you guessed it) local musicians cover a Reed classic. Performers include Mitch Gettman, John Klemmenson, Ben Sieff and Scott Severin. $5, 8 p.m. Wonder how many are covering “Sweet Jane”?

Also Saturday night, Rainy Road Records is hosting a label showcase at O’Leaver’s with performances by Touch People, Worried Mothers, and Cooper Lakota Moon. $5, 9:30 p.m.

That’s what I know. If I missed anything, 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 © 2014 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Joe Knap and his son, Neal, circa 2001.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Joe Knapp and his band Son, Ambulance are returning to the stage tonight at The Waiting Room after more than four years’ absence. Hear Nebraska has some of the backstory here.

Joe always has been one of my favorite songwriters, local or not. I first met him in the ‘late 90s and first interviewed him in 2001 when Saddle Creek released his split LP with Bright Eyes called Oh Holy Fools. From a songwriting standpoint, Joe stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Conor. But in the end, only one would reach national stardom.

The event is being held in honor of Rob Bass’ 40th Birthday. Also helping celebrate are InDreama and Routine Escorts. $5, 9 p.m. Don’t let the wind scare you…

Also tonight, Detroit band The Rushmore’s are headlining at O’Leaver’s with The Decatures and Michael Wunder and the Uninspired. $5, 9:30 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 © 2014 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

A screen grab from “Let Me Teach You How To Heat,” the latest from The Rev. Horton Heat.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Brad Hoshaw issued a press release Monday announcing he’s releasing a new record with his band, The Seven Deadlies. The album, Funeral Guns, is a collection of new material recorded at The Music Factory Productions in Omaha and mixed by Ben Brodin at ARC Studios. ” Funeral Guns touches on the subjects of Love, Loss and Revenge as well as the death of Brad’s father in 2009,” says the press release.

Hoshaw is self-releasing the recording on CD (though I’m sure digital files will be available). No vinyl. Seems like vinyl is becoming the medium of choice for a lot of other local musicians, though for the life of me, I don’t know how they afford it without label support or a lengthy Kickstarter campaign. Hoshaw, in fact, already hosted a Kickstarter for this release. Ironically, his music is tailor-made for a vinyl LP.

The CD is set to drop Feb. 21 at a release show at The Waiting Room. Opening is Nebraska ex-pat Kyle Harvey, who I’m told will be walking barefoot from his home in Fruita, Colorado. Better get started, Kyle.

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Tonight at The Waiting Room it’s the big-daddy rockabilly stylings of The Rev. Horton Heat. The Reverend, a.k.a. Jim Heath, has a new record coming out on Victory Records next Tuesday called “The Rev.” Check out the first video from the album below. You can bet he’ll be playing it tonight. Opening is Nekromantics & Deke Dickerson. $25, 8 p.m.

Also tonight, Vic Padios of The Brigadiers is doing a solo set along with Vern Fergesen of The Travelling Mercies at MarQ Manner’s Songwriter’s Night at The Library Pub, 5142 No. 90th St. Show starts at 8 and is absolutely free.

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In this week’s column, language-skills smartphone app Duolingo: Will my quest to learn Spanish finally be realized? It’s in this week’s issue of The Reader and online right here at thereader.com.

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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 © 2014 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Llewyn Davis and cat on the move again…

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Well I’m happy you asked. I saw it last weekend at Film Streams. This one won’t drive a resurgence of interest in folk music the way the Coen Brother’s O Brother, Where Art Thou? drove a resurgence in traditional blue grass, because the music heard in the film isn’t much different than modern-day indie folk. I never felt like I was listening to “old fashioned” music. And while Oscar Isaac does a fine job in the lead role (I can’t imagine Conor Oberst playing this part, and in the end, neither could Conor

), nothing about his musical performance stood out. But maybe it wasn’t supposed to, as this is a story about a folk musician struggling to make it during the Greenwich Village folk scene circa 1961, and ultimately failing while others around him (except for the character played by Girls star Adam Driver) were catching fire.

Not so strangely I found a lot of similarities between the ’60s folk world depicted in the movie and the current-day local indie music scene. Both showed musicians struggling to get attention, get gigs, get people to pay attention to their albums. When Llewyn saves a case of his unsold records from a trash bin I couldn’t help but think of all the local acts who have basements full of unsold vinyl and CDs. Throughout the film, Llewyn struggles just to get by, not unlike a lot of musicians I’ve known over the years living on the fringes.

Favorite song in the film is Justin Timberlake and Carey Mulligan doing a cover of “500 Miles.” Best cameo is John Goodman as burned out (and probably dying) jazz man Roland Turner who Llewyn finds himself trapped with on a cross-country trip from NYC to Chicago. Turner has no love for folk music, and his non-stop insults are funny and disturbing. Another favorite scene is Llewyn, Timberlake and Adam Driver recording a novelty pop tune.

Beyond those scenes, there’s a lot of walking around New York and driving from place to place. This is one of those Coen films where nothing much happens. It’s a character study of both a time period and a musician trapped within it, struggling to make a mark while pondering if it’s even worth the effort. It’s a story that’s all too familiar, and definitely worth seeing.

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A footnote to the above: I suffered through what can only be described as the most annoying film-going experience in my life during this screening. Some guy sat right behind me and spent the first half of the film eating something wrapped in a crinkly-crunkly package the noise of which was only drowned out by the sound of his saliva-ocean chomping. Add to that his severe case of halitosis and you’ve got a rather grisly two hours on your hands. Halfway through the film he finished his packaged treat, only to go to the concessions and buy a jumbo tub of popcorn, which he gorged on the remainder of this rather quiet film. Rather than bitch, I moved to the front of the theater.

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Footnote Two: I also saw Her this past weekend and rather liked it. It’s kind of like The Shop Around the Corner or You Got Mail except the main characters never meet each other. I couldn’t get over how much Joaquin Phoenix in this film resembles Omaha artist Justin Beller. We call it “the Justin Beller movie.”

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Footnote Three: Her was directed by Spike Jonze, who had the best three minutes of acting in The Wolf of Wall Street, a film rife with cartoony over-acting. Not exactly Scorsese’s finest moment.

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And now back to our regularly scheduled programming

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One national show tonight for heavy metal fans: Pantera’s Phil Anselmo brings his solo project (with his band The Illegals) to The Waiting Room tonight. Opening is Author & Punisher & Hymns (no idea who this is). $20, 8 p.m.

I like these 8 p.m. start times.

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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 © 2014 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

The Front Bottoms at The Waiting Room, Jan. 12, 2014.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Please note: I knew nothing about The Front Bottoms prior to last night’s show. I got a cold-call email from one of the opening band’s publicists asking if I wanted on the list. It was an early show, so I figured why not? Being the pompous, egotistical prick that I am, I figured if I hadn’t heard of these guys, chances are no one else has. Plus, it was an early show. So what if it’s a Sunday night, why not drop by for a cold Rolling Rock and a quiet, relaxing evening at The Waiting Room?

Well, needless to say, I was wrong again. There was a line to get in when I arrived just before 8. The same ol’ question: Where and how did all these folks (the youngest crowd I’ve seen at TWR in a while) hear about these guys when their music isn’t played on local radio? Oh the power of the Internet.

The Front Bottoms is centered around frontman Brian Sella, who led the proceedings with nothing but an acoustic guitar and his sterling voice. Their sound was reminiscent of some of my favorite humor-inflected bands of the ‘90s and ’00s — Atom and his Package, Fountains of Wayne, Too Much Joy, Mountain Goats, Dismemberment Plan, The Hold Steady, The Decemberists — bands that write smart, funny, self-referential lyrics that anyone can relate to. And Sella’s delivery was completely mumble-free — you could understand every clever word he sang. Needless to say, so did the crowd, which sang every word right back at him.

Despite his acoustic attack, the music was high-energy bordering on emo-punk. Stage diving and crowd surfing were the norm. Stage right looked like a conveyor belt launching kids into the crowd, while a giant blow-up snowman yard sculpture danced in the background, joined by a trio of day-glow “air dancers” — those huge skinny blow-up things you see outside of tire stores.

What more to say about this band other than I liked every song. Sella is a master songwriter and a funny guy who kept the crowd laughing between tunes, stopping once mid-song as a crowd surfer slammed head-first into the stage right in front of his feet. “If you’re going to push someone off you, push them away from me.”

Interestingly, their Bar/None debut full-length — released last May — got no mentions on Album of the Year or Pitchfork

. In fact, there’s little info about Front Bottoms anywhere on the interweb. They’re still under the radar… for now, though they just got a glowing write-up in Brooklyn Vegan and played a sold-out Bowery Ballroom show a few weeks ago.

It’s only a matter of time until the indie press discovers what they’ve been missing. The Front Bottoms could be the next Matt and Kim, albeit with smarter lyrics and better songs (Yeah, I’m not a big Matt & Kim fan, though I respect the energy they put into their live show). Front Bottoms are the sort of about-to-be-discovered act that Maha should look into booking for this year’s festival (which according to their twitter feed, they’ve already booked a headliner for). I have no doubt that everyone at last night’s show would buy tickets to see them again. I certainly would.

The Wild at The Waiting Room, Jan. 12, 2014.

Opening band The Wild was a 5-piece rock band whose emo-esque songs reminded me of Titus Andronicus minus the 8+-minute songs. Instead, their rural punk got a touch of twang via a smokin’ banjo, which I wish they would play on all their songs. Who would have thought banjo could rock so hard?

Second opener You Blew It was pure ‘90s/‘00s anthem/emo, though their sound was harder and less self-absorbed than the schlock I remember from those decades…

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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 © 2014 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.