by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Someone recently called me a weather wuss. He said that I won’t venture out to shows unless the weather is absolutely perfect (This coming from a guy who is a veritable hermit, who rarely ever goes to shows himself).

Regardless, he’s partially right. I typically won’t go to shows when the temps are sub-zero — especially those that require lots of walking from venue to venue, which is why I didn’t go to the OEAA showcase this weekend, nor to any other show. Go ahead, call me a wuss.

That said, it’s easy to be a wuss this week because there’s not much going on until Cursive’s Day 2 event at The Waiting Room Thursday night. Seriously, it’s a dead week for shows. O’Leaver’s bails out the weekend with Pro-Magnum on Friday night and Doneofits Saturday night.  Beyond that, it’s a ghost town, my friend.

Use your spare evenings this week to catch up on your Christmas shopping, compile your year-end best-of lists or simply stay warm and dream about next spring. Hell, it ain’t even winter yet…

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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 © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Cursive at The Waiting Room, Dec. 5, 2013.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The set list of last night’s Cursive show at The Waiting Room was pretty much what you’d expect from a band recording a live record: A large selection from their entire catalog, going all the way back to their first 7-inch single The Disruption released in ’96 on Lumberjack Records (the embryonic precursor to Saddle Creek Records).

In all, the band played around 20 songs in a set that stretched over an hour and ended with an abbreviated version of “Staying Alive” (the closer off 2003’s The Ugly Organ). The gang came back and played a three-song encore that ended (ironically?) with “Big Bang” from 2006’s Happy Hollow. Mixed in there were the usual favorites like “The Martyr,” “From the Hips,” “Art Is Hard,” “The Casualty,” “Sierra” along with a handful that I simply wasn’t familiar with or didn’t remember.

Chris Machmuller of So-So Sailors (see them tonight at O’Leaver’s) helped fill out the horn parts on saxophone next to Cursive perennial Patrick Newbery, while Megan Siebe of Anniversaire played Gretta Cohn’s parts on cello. I forgot how much I missed hearing a cello with this band.

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Cursive’s Ted Stevens, right, takes the lead.

Throughout the evening they played with workmanlike precision, which also was the set’s only drawback. More often than not, it felt like they were trying their hardest to hit the mark rather than let themselves get lost in the moment. It was sort of like watching a band play on television — you can feel their every effort to do it “just right.” If your chief criticism is that the band played every song flawlessly, you don’t have much to complain about.

But it does beg the question: What makes a good live album? Personal favorites that come to my mind are At Folsom Prison, The Band’s Last Waltz, Frampton Comes Alive, Stop Making Sense,

Under a Blood Red Sky and, of course, Cheap Trick at Budokan. Not surprising, none of those are less than 30 years old. I can’t think of one good “indie” live album (I don’t count Nirvana Unplugged because it was recorded in a studio and came out on Geffen and it just doesn’t feel like a live album to me).

What makes those classic live records classic is the sense that you’re hearing something special being captured almost by luck. There’s a unique energy that embodies the performances, a momentum that carries through to the final crowd fade, and a one-of-a-kind quality to each song as if they’re being reinvented on the spot, effortlessly, by musicians caught up in the moment playing strictly by their gut.

And, of course, the off-the-cuff introductions and asides. Cheap Trick’s Budokan wouldn’t be as special without the intro: “I want you to want me!”

Well there wasn’t much “off-the-cuff” going on last night as Cursive pounded through the set list one song after the other, intently focused on the finish line. Frontman Kasher provided little if any give-and-take with the audience — a quality that makes for memorable shows. Maybe the lack of snappy patter was first-night jitters and the fact that they know they have two more Thursday nights to try to capture that perfect moment. If you’re lucky you’ll be there when it happens.

* * *

Let’s get to the weekend, the frigid cold weekend…

Will the Arctic blast keep people away from tonight’s mammoth Omaha Entertainment & Arts Awards Nominees Showcase going on throughout Benson? We’re talking 50 bands playing at six venues. In years past it was fun to jaunt between clubs throughout the night, but will it be as fun when the windchill is five below? Let’s find out. The OEAA schedule is online right here. If I go to this tonight, it’s unlikely I’ll stray from The Waiting Room, which has the most solid line-up:

7:00-7:35 – The Electroliners
7:50-8:25 – All Young Girls Are Machine Guns
8:40-9:15 – Conchance
9:30-10:05 – Matt Cox Band
10:20-10:55 – Steve Raybine
11:10-11:45 – The Whipkey Three
12:00-12:35 – Josh Hoyer and The Shadowboxers
12:50-1:25 – John Klemmensen and the Party

As per usual $10 gets you into all six clubs. Plus, Benson First Friday also is happening tonight. Expect crowds and parking issues (don’t forget Larkin Parkin’ across the street from Jake’s).

If you want to avoid the Benson cluster, head over to fabulous O’Leaver’s for So-So Sailors with Des Moines band The River Monks and Brad Hoshaw. $5, 9:30 p.m. Check out some River Monks below:

Also tonight, Saturn Moth plays at Slowdown Jr. with Congruency, Andrew Baille and Diana Arp. Show starts at 9 and is absolutely free.

Saturday evening Almost Music Records in Benson hosts the first in its concert series, performed in the adjoining Solid Jackson Books space. Headlining is Omaha legend Dereck Higgins, with Luke Polipnick Esoteric Trio and Rake Kash (featuring Lonnie Methe). Start time is 7 p.m. and tix are $5.

And then Sunday prog rockers Midlake headlines at The Waiting Room. The Denton Texas band’s new album, Antiphon, was released on ATO Records. Opening is Sarah Jaffe. $13, 9 p.m.

Also Sunday night, The Pines play at Slowdown Jr. with Brad Hoshaw. 8 p.m., $8 Adv./$10 DOS.

Stay warm, people…

* * *

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 © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Cursive’s three-night stand at The Waiting Room begins tonight. They’re calling it a “residency,” though it’s really just three dates booked at the club to record a possible live album. Let’s face it, there will have to be something releasable after three nights, right? I’m told Megan Siebe (Anniversiare) and Chris Machmuller (So-So Sailors, Ladyfinger) will be joining them on stage playing cello and saxophone respectively. I’m not sure exactly what we’ll hear tonight or how it will proceed, but it should be a lot of fun. Kevin Coffey has some detes here at OWH.com.

For those who can’t afford $30 for the three-day pass or separate cover for three shows, the prime question is which show to attend. Tonight’s ain’t a bad choice. InDreama is Nik Fackler’s (Icky Blossoms) psych rock project that includes renowned bass-slinger Dereck Higgins. Every InDreama show is a unique experience; tonight’s should be no exception, especially considering the band hasn’t played live in months.

The other opener, Lightning Bug, is a post-punk band in the Modest Mouse vein . Check a track out below.

Tickets to tonight’s show are still available for $12 (and you can still buy that 3-night pass for $30 and save!). Show start at 9. Bundle up and head out.

* * *

Pitchfork today reviewed Bright Eyes, A Christmas Album, giving it a respectable 7.0 rating. Read the review here. The nut sentence: “(The album) often sounds like a field recording from chilly church basements or the dark, flat expanses of the Midwestern plains, barren, frozen, howling winds in the distance and the occasional flicker of light coming from Christmas decorations.” Pretty much sums it up for me, too. I got a copy of this CD when it was first released in 2002. It’s a fun novelty, but not something I’d play at a company Christmas party. There’s something slightly depressing about indie rock Christmas records, and this one is no exception…

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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 © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Yesterday Spotify launched a new section on its website tailored to artists that attempts to explain their royalties/compensation system once and for all. It’s outlined in semi-detail right here under the headline How Is Spotify Contributing to the Music Business?

It’s a long document, but in a nutshell, Spotify declares they’re sticking it to the pirates and offering a way to get paid when “the majority of music consumption today generates little to no money for artists.”

Spotify says its paid out more than $1 billion to date and $500 mil in 2013 alone. There’s a lot of charts and graphs, among them one that shows Spotify’s growth (no surprise), the amount the average music listener spends per year on music (only 45 percent of the population buys music at all), and of course their royalty pay outs.

It starts to get interesting when they go into the royalties breakdown — who gets what, etc. A key sentence: “Once Spotify has paid a rights owner the total royalties due for their accumulated streams, that label or publisher pays each artist according to that artist’s contractual royalty rates.”

So I guess it comes down to the deal you made with your label, right? The page goes to great lengths to throw a blanket over the whole “pay per stream” concept. Or as they say “...we personally view ‘per stream’ metrics as a highly flawed indication of our value to artists for several reasons.

”

That’s where I get lost.

But my favorite part is Specific Payment Figures, where they break down actual pay outs to unnamed artists. In July, something called “Niche Indie Album” was paid $3,300, while “Breakthrough Indie Album” was paid $76,000.

You have to wonder what the “Niche Indie Album” was, because I’ve never heard anyone getting a check that large from Spotify. Maybe they do and they’re just not telling anyone, though there’s a plethora of articles online (such as this one) where sizable indie bands outline the pennies they’ve received for their “niche indie albums.”

And what was that “Breakthrough Indie Album” that came out in July?

Expect an avalanche of responses to Spotify’s explanations, most starting with the phrase, “Show me the money…”

The hard truth is Spotify and streaming services are here to stay, and they’re effectively killing income for small indie bands who have no choice but to make their music available on the service, because as Bob Mould says, “Sometimes you have to sleep with the devil because that’s how you get your music heard.”

Spotify paints a rosy picture of what will happen when they take over the world. It sounds like the basic cable model that Saddle Creek’s Robb Nansel brought up back in 2011. But beyond the royalties issue, streaming services are having an even more insidious impact on artists… more on that later.

In the face of all this comes word that Rough Trade just opened a huge-ass new record store in Williamsburg, NY. Read the Times article here, and a detailed piece from CNET, here (both brought to my attention by Mike Fratt’s Facebook page).

People must still be buying CDs and records or they wouldn’t be laying out that kind of jack on a new store in Brooklyn (Let alone the fact that we have four record stores here in Omaha selling new vinyl)..

* * *
Tonight at The Waiting Room it’s John Klemmensen and The Party with a slew of artists including Underwater Dream Machine, Travelling Mercies and Robo Dojo (no idea who that is). $7, 9 p.m.

And did anyone else notice that One Percent just booked Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks at TWR in March? Sweet!

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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 © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

See Through Dresses at The Waiting Room, Nov. 30, 2013.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

I guess I should have bought a copy of See Through Dresses’ debut album at last Saturday night’s CD release show because I can’t find it online anywhere. Their Bandcamp page

doesn’t offer downloads or even album streaming (except for two songs). And they don’t have a “proper website” (fewer and fewer bands do these days). Savvy marketing? Maybe (though I’m probably just missing the link).

Without a copy of the record to relive the memory of Saturday night’s show at The Waiting Room, I’ll just have to listen to Dinosaur Jr. and the most recent Thurston Moore solo album. Or maybe pull out dusty records by The Church or Dream Academy — all bands that STD’s sound resembles.

The band isn’t exactly bashful about their influences. Co-frontperson Sara Bertuldo introduced one song by saying (and I’m paraphrasing here), “Here’s one that will remind you of the mid-2000s,” and two more by saying “These ones sound like the ’80s, a time when I just barely existed and Nate didn’t exist at all.” Or something like that.

No doubt rock music by its very nature constantly eats itself. For about a year every new local band sounded like the second coming of The Cure or Pavement. Recently Sonic Youth has (again) become a favorite for emulation. The difference is that STD doesn’t sound like any one band, but rather like a band influenced by an era, which makes their music both unique and familiar. Their heroes are easy to spot, though See Through Dresses’ sound is purely their own.

And it rocks. Most of the vocals are handled by Matt Carroll, who has a soothing croon that lies somewhere between Thurston and J. Mascis. It’s countered by Bertuldo’s twee, childlike voice that’s straight out of K Records territory. It’s easy to bury Sara in the mix, but the sound Saturday night was pristine enough so that the (estimated) crowd of around 120 could catch every note. Nate Van Fleet’s throaty drumming was another highlight, as was Robert Little’s bass work (a little bird tells me Little is leaving the band).

Now if I could only get a copy of their CD…

* * *

Speaking of Bertuldo, that’s her on bass in this just-released Love Drunk video for Tim Kasher song “A Raincloud Is a Raincloud,” shot (ironically?) at Countryside Community Church.

* * *

The early head’s up for this week’s shows:

John Klemmensen and friends Wednesday at The Waiting Room.

Cursive Thursday at The Waiting Room.

OEAA Showcase Friday in Benson.

So-So Sailors and Brad Hoshaw Friday at O’Leaver’s.

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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 © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

In this week’s column, an explanation born out of a discussion about cassettes and that weird noise heard at the end of each side. You can read it in this week’s issue of The Reader, or online right here…or (because it’s music-related) below:

by Tim McMahan

We were sitting around a table at The Barley Street Tavern waiting for the band to get its shit together when the discussion turned to the weird bleep-bloop sounds recorded at the end of pre-recorded cassette tapes.

“I think those are some sort of signal to tell you it’s time to turn the tape over,” said the guy sitting with us, a music legend (of sorts). But I knew he couldn’t be right. The noise that tells you it’s time to turn the tape over is the low whine of the motor followed by a loud “Thuck!” of the tape deck clicking off. And besides, just about every tape deck made after 1980 was auto-reverse. Were tape makers trying to tell us that the motors were about to go in reverse and play Side B? Come on…

It just dawned on me that you younger folks are scratching your heads wondering what the hell I’m talking about. What sound on the end of the cassette tape? And what’s a cassette tape?

The sound is a series of electronic tones from low to high each lasting a split second, strung together like a ladder of noise, like a sonic rainbow. The tape manufacturers didn’t start putting it on tapes until later in the life cycle of cassette tape technology, and only for a brief sliver of that technology’s history.

The tones recently made a cameo appearance in modern times. Arcade Fire includes them as an ironic statement about technology on their new album Refecktor at the end of track 7, “Joan Of Arc,” which also happens to be the end of the first CD in the double-disc package (but you wouldn’t know that if you were listening on Spotify).

I always thought the bleep-bloop sound was an audio check, kind of like a TV test pattern for your hi-fi system or car stereo, but what standard was it supposed to be checking against? Or maybe it was an early version of an audio product logo, like the rousing orchestral tone you hear when you fire up your Apple computer, a congratulations heard every time you turn on your MacBook that you wisely chose an Apple product over a Windows PC.

Still, our friend insisted it was intended to tell you to turn your cassette over, like those old children’s books that came with a 45 rpm record that had a recorded tone to tell you when to turn the page.

When I got home later that night I turned to Google for answers and typed in the phrase “weird audio tones at the end of cassettes.” The first thing returned in the search engine was a link to the Wikipedia entry for “XDR (audio).”

According to the anonymous author who wrote the entry, “XDR (eXtended Dynamic Range, also known as SDR (Super Dynamic Range)) is a quality control and duplication process for the mass production of pre-recorded audio cassettes.” XDR boasted a higher dynamic range, “up to 13 decibels greater.”

It didn’t matter that the typical factory-fresh DELCO cassette deck that came pre-mounted in your brand new 1978 Ford Fiesta couldn’t reproduce that range with its 4-inch paper-cone dash-mount speakers, or that even if they could you wouldn’t be able to hear it over the traffic noise or the annoying person sitting next to you.

The Wiki entry went on about tape duplication processes and how EMI / Capitol Records and PolyGram were among the labels that fell for the XDR hustle. It wasn’t until later in the entry that it got to the part about the bleep-bloop noises.

The XDR process included “recording a short test tone burst at the beginning and end of the program material on the cassette, to detect for any loss of audio frequencies in the audio spectrum. The tone burst consists of 11 tones about 0.127 seconds in length (with 0.02 seconds of silence in between each tone), from 32 to 18,000 Hz.”

The entry doesn’t include any dates. The first time (I think) I heard them was on my brother’s Duran Duran Rio cassette, which came out in 1982, or maybe it was his Red Rider Neruda cassette, released in 1983. It couldn’t have been much later than that because I remember buying my first compact disc, The Fixx’s Shuttered Room, at Kmart in 1982. Before long, CDs would be the only format that I or anyone else would buy, and cassettes, along with vinyl, would become relics of the past like the 8 Track tape.

So there it is.

If you go to YouTube and search for “Cassette Tones,” you’ll find a 13-second video that reproduces the bu-bu-bu-bu-bleep! noise in all its hissing glory. For those of us who lived through that era it’s like an audio lighthouse from a kinder, gentler time, before computers and the internet and iPods and smart phones, when “high fidelity” meant gigantic, ugly home stereo systems, ridiculous car stereos with 6 x 9 speakers and twinkling-light equalizers, and cassettes that ended with a rainbow of sound.

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

First published in The Reader

Nov. 27, 2013. Copyright © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

* * *

Happy frickin’ Thanksgiving. Here’s a run-down of the weekend’s hottest shows.

Tonight at The Waiting rom it’s the return of Poliça. The band just came through this past April. Read the review of that show here. The conclusion: “The set held a gorgeous, sexy vibe, like a deep-night strut laced with shot-gun echo, with Leaneagh leading the way through the pitch-black tunnel, holding your hand.” Whew, sexy indeed. Not so sexy is opening act Minneapolis noise band Marijuana Deathsquads — laptops, drums and yelping vocals. $14, 9 p.m. Check out some live MDS below:

Meanwhile across town at fabulous O’Leaver’s it’s the mighty Dumb Beach with Mr. & Mrs. Sprinkles (featuring Jim Schroeder of UUVVWWZ). This one’s free and starts at 9:30.

For reasons I can’t fathom, there are no shows on Thursday night…

And then Friday, or should I say BLACK FRIDAY. And the mandatory Black Friday show is, of course, at O’Leaver’s featuring Talking Mountain, M33n Str34t and Video Ranger. Expect the unexpected. $5, 9:30 p.m.

The Waiting Room also has veritable house band Satchel Grande Friday night.

Saturday night’s highlight is the See Through Dresses CD release show at The Waiting Room. Opening is The ACBs and Places We Slept. $7, 9 p.m. Check out the band’s hot new Love Drunk video for “You Get Sick Again,” taped at Almost Music / Solid Jackson Books in Benson:

Also Saturday night, Eli Mardock and Low Long Signal open for Guilty Is the Bear at Slowdown Jr. $7, 9 p.m.

While back at O’Leaver’s it’s Dim Light Saturday night with experimental KC act Be/Non. $5, 9:30 p.m.

Gobble gobble…

* * *

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 © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Cat Power’s Chan Marshall alone at the piano, The Slowdown, Nov. 22, 2013.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

A leftover thought about Cat Power that didn’t make it into yesterday’s review, which just happens to be one of the most read Lazy-i blog entries this year. Clearly people love Chan Marshall and love her music and are concerned about her and her well-being. Or they just wanted to read a description of a (perceived) train-wreck of a show.

Anyway… one final thought about that show, and it’s this: Is anybody looking out for Marshall’s best interests? Who thought it would be a good idea to send her on the road alone, barely able to play her music, and then nod approvingly at the idea of a two-plus-hour set?

Very few are the artists that can keep the attention of a crowd for more than two hours unaccompanied. Springsteen is the only one that comes to mind. I’m sure there are a few others. But not Marshall. I like Cat Power music, but it can become monotonous by its very nature. Marshall doesn’t do much to change it up from song to song, and her best albums achieve variety thanks to the backing musicians (The Greatest, where she surrounded herself with Memphis soul musicians). You quickly realize this after the first hour of the same three-chord progressions.

All she needs is one musician to join her. Just one to play piano. How much could that cost? And then limit her set to 45 minutes, an hour tops. That’s it. She might even be able to pull off an hour without that additional player — an hour of her best music, well-rehearsed. That’s all anyone really wants.

Where is Matador in all this? Is it the record label’s responsibility to provide some feedback? No. They put out the records; they don’t manage their artists’ live shows. Still, it must be like being a parent watching his/her troubled daughter go out every night to succeed or fail on her own.

By the way, reviews of Cat Power shows have been somewhat consistent. The Chicago Tribute review of the Cat Power show the night before ours described Marshall as “out of gas and running on fumes.” While a Consequence of Sound review of her Nov. 14 D.C. show called it “suspenseful.” Both mentioned her fragile condition.

* * *

I’m looking for shows and can’t find any tonight. Looks like the weekend starts tomorrow with POLIÇA.

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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 © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Cat Power at The Slowdown, Nov. 22, 2013.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

It would be easy to make fun of last Friday night’s Cat Power show at The Slowdown except for the fact that there obviously was something wrong with Chan Marshall.

Throughout the two-and-a-half hour solo performance Marshall looked anxious and irritated, clearly struggling with either an illness or a serious case of anxiety, stage fright or just not being prepared, all the while constantly being distracted by someone in the crowd who was baiting her from the edge of the stage (whether that person realized it or not).

Marshall came on late at around 11 with an electric guitar, which she played for the first hour of the marathon performance, banging out older material along with a cover of the Stone’s “Satisfaction,” which was sublime. But it was later in that hour that the cracks began to show, as she struggled to remember the chords while marching in place to an internal beat, often leaning over and coughing off microphone.

At the end of the first hour she began talking to herself or someone off stage, trying to figure out something with her guitar before hastily putting it down and walking over to the massive upright piano that stood to her left. She sat down and played one song after another for another 90 or so minutes. I use the term “played piano” loosely, as the arrangements were sparse and somewhat cryptic. One song featured Marshall poking out a series of triplets only with her left hand while agitatedly fidgeted with her right.

About halfway through the set I recorded a song with my iPhone — “The Greatest” off the album of the same name. I watched the video just now. There sits Marshall with her back to me, agonizing over the barely recognizable chords, skittishly playing like a piano student sight-reading the music for the first time — unsure, unsteady, halting, then playing the wrong chord, stopping, quickly playing a run-though of all the chords to try to remember the progression (with the crowd yelling encouragement) before starting again. It was disturbing.

The song eventually wandered away without really ending as Marshall switched to something else entirely and the crowd half-ass clapped realizing that was the end of that one.

Moments later, Marshall became unglued. As mentioned, throughout the performance someone — likely an adoring fan — kept trying to talk to Marshall. In response, Marshall would kind of carry on a conversation with her or respond to whatever was being said, mostly off microphone. Some of the baiting remarks resulted in Marshall launching into a babbling monologue about some inanity.

Finally Marshall got exasperated and began yelling at the fan . “What you’re doing is really f—-ing annoying,” she said (I’m paraphrasing here). “It’s not funny. It’s annoying.” And so on. Marshall would later apologize for the outburst, but that didn’t stop whoever it was from talking to her from the front of the stage.

It went further downhill from there. Before one song, Marshall fiddled around trying to figure out the chords for a full 30 seconds, talking to herself the entire time but then, ultimately, she figured them out. She called for opener Nico Turner to come out. “Is Nico in the house?” A few minutes later Nico walked across stage, but then exited without playing. She would call for Nico later, who likely now was standing off stage, watching.

Marshall finally got tired of the piano and slung her guitar back on at around 12:30. By now she was clearly fractured, disturbed, slightly confused and excessively jittery. It probably didn’t help that she had downed two mugs of coffee that sat on her piano throughout the performance and had a stage person bring out a third.

As 1 a.m. rolled around, Marshall declared that she could keep going, though by then the once-full floor was nearly half empty, and I was sitting alone along the railing next to empty seats. She ended up playing another 20 or so minutes before exiting with a salute, a chest pound, a kiss to the audience.

Here’s the funny part: Throughout the entire monotonous ordeal, Marshall’s voice was, well, remarkable. Her amazing voice never gave up on her. I realize after reading Chris Aponick’s interview that she can’t afford to bring a band on the road any more, but it was obvious after that show that she can’t afford NOT to have a band backing her. Marshall needs to push away from the piano, set the guitar down and let someone else worry about the instruments, and simply focus on her gorgeous vocals.

* * *

Last Friday Hear Nebraska launched a Kickstarter campaign to help fund their upcoming Vol. 2 compilation album. The 10-song collection is going to be pressed on vinyl and is the perfect time capsule of Nebraska’s music scene circa 2013.

The album’s lineup:

SIDE A

1. Universe Contest | “The Day the Earth Took Pills” from the upcoming full-length, We Are the Rattlesnake
2. Pleasure Adapter | “Everything Has Been Erased” from the band’s self-titled EP
3. Noah’s Ark Was a Spaceship | “Caucasian Meditation” from the LP You Need You
4. Millions of Boys | “Dudcats” from Competing for Your Love
5. Tim Kasher | “American Lit” from the Saddle Creek Records release Adult Film

SIDE B

6. Skypiper | “Even If” from the Troubledoer EP
7. Conchance | “The Dead Daylight,” previously unreleased
8. McCarthy Trenching | “29” from a Love Drunk Session
9. Lloyd McCarter | “Big Time” from Tired of Being Me
10. Simon Joyner | “Javelin,” recorded live at Hear Nebraska’s An Evening event

Hear Nebraska is positioning the campaign as an album pre-sale. $20 gets you a slab of vinyl and a download code, but there are plenty of other cool options available, including signed posters and copies of the record. Check it out. As of this morning they were nearly a quarter of the way toward their $4,000 goal.

* * *

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 © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

I saw Cat Power play at Sokol Underground a decade ago. Here’s what I wrote about that show:

Live review: Cat Power April 19 at The Sokol – April 20, 2003

Chan (pronounced “Shawn”) (By the way, she should just change her name to Chan Pronounced Shawn Marshall and save the typesetters and copy editors all the trouble of adding it to their stories. Someone at The Reader actually added the explanation to mine. I hadn’t included it in my draft, figuring no one was dying to know how to pronounce Ms. Marshall’s first name and it seemed unlikely that they’d ever get a chance to use that correct pronunciation. I was dying for someone last night to yell at the top of his/her voice “Chan, we love you!” but pronounce it like the surname of the famous Chinese detective, then being shamed by everyone with “It’s Shawn, not Chan, stupid!“) Marshall didn’t blow up on stage last night. There was no car wreck. In fact, the cars just seemed to zip around the track at their usual languid pace. And I think I was the only one disappointed.

I showed up apparently four songs into her set. I talked to a guy back by the cash register smoking cigarettes near the soundboard who said, “Yeah, she’s on her fourth song, but it sounds like she’s been playing the same song for 20 minutes.”

From the April 2003 Sokol Underground show. That’s Chan on the lower left. Man, I miss Sokol Underground shows.

I grabbed a beer and pushed my way through the cramped, sold-out crowd, making my way to my usual spot along the wall stage right. Adoring fans were sitting on the edge of the stage, next to the old upright piano that someone had placed up there (I imaged poor Marc and Jimmy — our faithful promoters — struggling with the 2-ton monstrosity). I figured the women sitting with a guitar in the middle of the stage was Chan, and began snapping some pictures. But when the song ended, the crowd applauded and she and the rest of the band went off stage. In fact, Chan was about three feet from me, hidden behind the oak soundboards of the piano, where she stayed for a medley of four or five songs, played end-to-end without pause, while the doe-eyed crowd stared in silence and awe.

Most crowds at Sokol Underground are, shall we say, respectful. But this one was particularly reverent, worshiping at the temple of Chan. For the first time since maybe Bright Eyes, there were more girls than boys in the crowd, flying single or with other girls. One innocent-looking girl standing right against the stage wore a T-shirt that said “Rockandroll Motherfucker” and clearly was entranced by everything Chan did.

Speaking of Entrance, the opening band canceled, apparently last minute, and Landon Hedges a.k.a Fine Fine Automobiles, opened the show. I missed it, of course, but was told it was one of his best performances.

Anyway… after her solo piano numbers, Chan turned around on her stool and grabbed a guitar, did a couple numbers before the rest of the band joined her on stage for the best part of the set, where things became suddenly electrified and all full of fire verging on psychedelic. As always, I don’t know the names of the songs and don’t have a set list to share. I’m told a couple were covers, but I recognized a few from Moon Pix and the new CD. If there was a time where Chan could possibly have burst into flames in her legendary, ritualistic sort of way, it would have been when her band member’s guitars cut out completely during one song. I could see his face, laughing and shaking his head in sort of a “who me?” sort of way. Moments later, though, the guitar was up and running again and Chan played on with her eyes pressed shut.

No theatrics, no tears, no screaming, no back-turned-to-the-audience. And no encore, by the way. As she walked off stage, she shielded her eyes with her forearm while she waved to the crowd with her index finger, sort of in Redrum fashion or as if she were spraying the audience with a magical, imaginary spray bottle. And that was the last we saw of Chan Pronounced Shawn Marshall for the evening.

I suspect tonight’s concert at The Slowdown will be similar to that Sokol Undeground show. And if Chris Aponick’s interview with Chan is any indication, we could hear many of the same songs. Chan is flying solo and not playing anything from her most recent album, Sun

(Matador, 2012). It could be why tickets are still available (for $25, get yours here), though I wouldn’t be surprised if it sells out before the 9 p.m. start time. Opening is LA native Nico Turner, and based on this Matador Records blurb

, she could join Chan on a few numbers.

That’s not the only show going on tonight.

Down at O’Leaver’s, The Sons of O’Leaver’s are opening for The Travelling Mercies tonight. Joining them is Lincoln band Weldon Keys. $5, 9:30 p.m.

And at the Sweatshop Gallery in baumy Benson it’s Swearin’ (members of Waxahatchee) headlining with Flamboyant Gods and Coaxed (who I thought were called Co-Axed, at least that’s how it’s spelled on the cassette). $7, 9 p.m. Check out some Swearin’ below

Tomorrow night (Saturday) it’s back to O’Leaver’s for Fullerton, CA punk band The Audacity (Burger Records, Suicide Squeeze).  Touring with them is Brooklyn PA band Hunters (Mom+Pop Records). Our very own Video Ranger opens. $5, 9:30 p.m. Check out some Audacity below:

Also Saturday night, Slowdown Jr. is hosting Madison band Phox, who just got off the road with Blitzen Trapper. Lot Walks opens. $8, 9 p.m.

The weekend closes out Sunday, once again at O’Leaver’s, with Goon Saloon, John Klemmensen and the Party and Self-Evident. $5, 9:30 p.m.

Did I forget something? Add it to the comments section. Stay warm, Omaha…

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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 © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com