Tennis at Slowdown Jr., Feb. 22, 2012.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Tennis (the band, not the sport) epitomizes the whole idea of bands coming through a town again and again, slowly building up a following each time. When they played here to 2010, there was maybe 50 people at Slowdown Jr. despite the fact that the band had already been reviewed in Pitchfork and other publications. The crowd grew when they returned last year. And then… last night. There was well over 200 people at Slowdown Jr. — it was packed.

Now a four-piece, Tennis came on a little after 10 and played about an hour’s worth of what can only be described as roller rink rock — cute, punched-up sock hop music with a 2-1 back beat. Most of the evening, tiny Aliana Moore with a waist no larger than a coffee can stood behind her keyboard and sang while her hubby bounced around next to her riffing on electric guitar. A third guy switched between guitar and a second keyboard. Their music was pleasant and hookless, easy to listen to and easy to ignore. Maybe that’s the appeal, though the band had its share of listeners doing a half-hearted grind near the stage.

So what explains the big crowd? Someone said it was a Pitchfork effect, which doesn’t quite work because Pitchfork 

gave their new Patrick Carney-produced album only a 6.3 (the debut garnered a 6.2) — well below the hipster must-see radar. They don’t have anything that you could mistake for a “hit,” and I’ve never heard their music used in a commercial or movie. The only explanation that I can come up with is the model in which all bands build their dreams — constant touring. That said, there are countless stories of local non-Saddle Creek bands (and a few Creek bands, too) that have toured consistently for years and still play to empty rooms (though they haven’t been reviewed in Pitchfork). Who knows, maybe Tennis also is hearing its share of crickets on the road, though I doubt it.

* * *

For those of you who are wondering, my new column launched in The Reader two weeks ago. The latest installment came out in today’s issue, and takes you on a wondrous journey through fabulous Crossroads Mall. Pick up a copy at your favorite bar or convenient store.

* * *

Tonight Brad Hoshaw and Travelling Mercies play at The Side Door Lounge, 3530 Leavenworth. Also on the bill are traveling folkies I Hate You Just Kidding, who count among their influences Mayday’s Old Blood album. 9 p.m., absolutely 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 © 2012 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The Saddle Creek SXSW game plan is beginning to take form. We now know that The Mynabirds and Big Harp are both going to Austin this year. Glancing at their Saddle Creek tour calendar, Creek’s newest recruits, Icky Blossoms, is slated to play at Austin’s Waterloo Records March 15 as part of a showcase. And PUJOL was invited to SXSW a long time ago.

On the other hand, we know that Cursive won’t be there. Neither will Bright Eyes after last year’s appearance. Still, Creek’s presence is pretty strong, and who knows who else will join the party. The label has yet to announce if it will be hosting an actual showcase (though I assume it will).

Another familiar face, former Omahan Jake Bellows, tweeted that he’s headed to SXSW. And local band Blue Bird continues to be in the running for a SXSW spot as part of this promotion. Beyond that, I can’t see anyone else from Omaha making the trip this year… so far.

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Looks like Kansrocksas has gone belly up, for now. Organizers are saying (here) that they’re taking a year off while the Kansas Speedway undergoes a construction project, and that they’ll be back better than ever in 2013. I’ll believe it when I see it. Rumor has it that their “successful inaugural” year lost north of a million dollars.

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Tonight at Slowdown Jr., it’s the return of Tennis. The band first came played the Slowdown Jr. stage in August 2010 (review here

). That was the couple’s third show ever. They returned in February 2011 (interview here). And now they’re back again supporting a new album, Young & Old, produced by Patrick Carney of The Black Keys. They’ve lightened their retro jukebox sound for something more streamlined and indie. The result (at times) is reminiscent of The Sundays (or at least Aliana Moore is beginning to sound like Harriet Wheeler). Betsy Wells opens. 9 p.m. $10.

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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 © 2012 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

It’s funny and sad where we’ve come in terms of generating interest in indie music. Just a decade ago, finding the best new music was something of a challenge; and if you lived in Omaha, it was practically hidden from sight. Today, everything’s at our fingertips. All you need is someone to point the way.

Unfortunately, from an indie music standpoint, that someone continues to be Pitchfork. As it’s been for a few years now, a review in Pitchfork can help make or break an indie band. For a new band, it can mean the difference between having your music heard and people coming to your shows… or being unheard and unseen. For more established bands like Cursive, Pitchfork won’t break them to a new audience as much as: 1) support a listener’s already-formed notion about their music, or 2) cast doubt on the listener’s own taste.

For Pitchfork‘s review of I Am Gemini, posted yesterday, the effect is the latter. The 4.7-rated review opens with this salvo: “Credit where due: I Am Gemini is Cursive’s weakest record by a disheartening margin…” The opening sentence of the next paragraph gives you a footing as to the reviewer’s past experience with Cursive: “…even while Cursive’s Domestica and The Ugly Organ remain some of the most purposefully narcissistic albums to ever bear the emo tag, their lyrical acts of emotional martyrdom understandably inspired an intense cult.” Yikes…

But it’s not all negative… or is it? “Conceptual tomfoolery aside, the music aligns with Kasher’s increasing tendency to sand off the edges of his prickly attitude and serrated vocals, and I Am Gemini is by far Cursive’s most playful record and almost fun at points.”

The review concludes with: “At one point on ‘Wowowow,’ Kasher sings in puns taken from Cursive titles, and this kind of meta exercise makes a sad kind of sense within the context of I Am Gemini’s impenetrability. After all, main characters like Cassius, Pollock, Young Cassius, Young Pollock, and the Narrator are all voiced by the same guy the same exact way, a more concrete way of essentially pointing out that the whole of I Am Gemini is Kasher talking to himself.”

After reading that, Cursive should be happy to have received a rating as high as a 4.7. Keep in mind that the rating will be the only thing non-fans will ever see. Only Cursive fans will read the entire review, because no one reads Pitchfork reviews anymore, they just look at the number. I take that back. People will read a Pitchfork review if the rating is as low as 2.0 or high as 8.0. Anything in the middle is ignored.

Upon hearing the review, I can imagine Tim Kasher shrugging and saying, “Hey, whattaya gonna do?” There’s nothing you can do about a bad review other than bite down and move on. Kasher knew he was taking a risk with this one; people are either going to get it or they won’t. And in fact the record has received its share of accolades. Drowned in Sound gave the album an 8 out of 10, calling it a “monumental return for Tim Kasher…” adding “This beautifully dark fairytale of a concept album is as heavy as the Cursive of old, ingenious, and just as lyrically surreal as you could hope for.”

Paste Magazine gave the album 7.8 out of 10 with the comment: “Musically, the band is at their most adventurous, albeit not their most accessible,” and recommending repeated listenings — good advice, but will anyone take it in this ADD/Spotify age?

AV Club gave it a “B,” calling it a “forceful, a demanding rock-driven opus…”

On the other hand, the Boston Phoenix gave it 2.5 stars out of 4. The reviewer, who can’t seem to get over the loss of Gretta Cohn, called the record “the most musically conventional record they’ve ever made; it also bears the burden of putting across Kasher’s most preposterous story ever.”

But in the end, it’s the Pitchfork review that carries the most weight if only for the fact that a high Pitchfork rating could have been enough to get a non-fan to check out the record on Spotify or whatever subscription streaming service they use. Not that it matters, because despite the fact that the record dropped today, I Am Gemini is not available in its entirety on Spotify, and may not be for a while…

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I almost forgot to mention: Tonight at the Shop at Saddle Creek it’s the second meeting of the Record Club @ Shop. Tonight’s record to be played in its entirety: Neutral Milk Hotel’s classic In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. It all starts at 7 and will be followed by a short discussion afterward. For more info, go 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 © 2012 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

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Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks at The Slowdown, Feb. 17, 2012.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

We got there early for last Friday’s Stephen Malkmus show at The Slowdown so we could sit along railing, but as 9 o’clock began to roll around and opening band Nurses took the stage, I realized that this would probably be another in a series of disappointing turn-outs for an act who’s following is anchored by his past in a classic ‘90s band. Malkmus has been doing his own thing for a decade now, putting out solo albums along with his backing band, The Jicks, that can hold their own with anything Pavement released (or at least released toward the end of their run). He’s made a name for himself, but he still can’t sell out The Slowdown, or even draw a crowd large enough to require opening the balcony.

Or maybe everyone was just arriving late. Nurses came on just after 9 playing to a half-filled floor.  We sat around after their set trying to figure out who they reminded us of. The consensus: Vampire Weekend meets Tokyo Police Club with the vocalist from Band of Horses. There was nothing terribly unique or striking or identifiable about their sound, other than it epitomizes the same sort of “vibe” music that was popular a couple years ago (and I guess still is today, at least on Sirius XM).

Malkmus and Co. hit the stage at their scheduled 10:15 start time. Despite being in his mid-40s, he still looks and acts like a guy in his late 20s, early 30s fronting a northern California indie rock band in his worn T-shirt, jeans, Adidas and winged, fly-away haircut. He opened with “Jenny and the Ess Dog,” a song he had waited until the encore to play the night before in Denver. And other than “Tigers” and “Gorgeous Georgie” off the new album, I couldn’t tell you the names of many of the other songs he played, though they all sounded familiar and good. Live vs. recording, Malkmus takes short songs like “Tigers” and “Senators” and “Baby C’Mon” and stretches them into longer jams that lean heavy on his own slinky guitar solo prowess. With three backing Jicks, the songs sounded lean and mean, with plenty of room to breathe.

By the end of his set, I’d noticed the floor was now completely filled. He came back and did a couple more songs including a loose, half-ass version of “Wild Thing” that reflected the loose, half-assed — and above all — fun vibe of the entire evening, a casual set of music played by one of the better indie songwriters of his generation.

* * *

Do you think in this day and age that anyone will ponder whether The Faint “sold out” by licensing the use of their 2004 song “Desperate Guys” for use in a new Kohl’s commercial (above)?

My take: Who in the hell cares? How do you expect anyone to make a living making music these days when you can’t sell your CDs and Spotify “pays” you 1/100th of a penny each time someone streams your songs? The Kohl’s commercial is no more or less tasteful than your typical music video, and how else is the band going to get their music heard, especially since they no longer perform live (or at least have no plans to in the immediate future)?

With the music industry on life support, licensing is one of the last bastions of income for bands, and even that will eventually go away when Madison Avenue realizes that bands will pay the advertisers to use their music in commercials. Better get in on it while you still can. Instead of their fellow musicians pointing an accusing finger and saying “How dare you,” they’re more likely to ask “How did you?” or “How can we?”

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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 © 2012 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

I blogged this because it’s too long to post in Facebook and the story isn’t online at Rollingstone.com

There’s an interesting interview with Saddle Creek’s Robb Nansel in the new Rolling Stone (with Paul McCartney on the cover). The article focuses on the inevitable death of the Compact Disc, and opens with Robb and Laura Burhenn trying to find a John Prine CD in Leesburg, Virginia, for Laura’s step father. They come back empty handed. Nansel then goes on to talk about how Saddle Creek always debates whether or not to press CDs when it comes to put out a new release.

What the story forgets to mention is that Nansel and Saddle Creek just opened a new record store that focuses on vinyl (the Shop at Saddle Creek). That would have made for a clever twist on what turned out to be a rather dire article that predicts the end of the CD within five years.

Anyway, look for it in the news section of the new Rolling Stone. And look for a full  review of last nights Malkmus show at Slowdown right here on Monday, with a couple photos. (Spoiler alert: It was a great show).

I’m still debating whether to go to The Brothers or The Sydney  tonight…

* * *

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 © 2012 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

So here’s the plan:

Start out early tonight with beers at House of Loom, where the guys who run The Antiquarium Record Store will be spinning sides from 5 until 8. Very chill.

Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, Mirror Traffic (Matador, 2011)

After that, head over to The Slowdown for Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks. The band’s new album, Mirror Traffic, was one of my favorites last year. In addition, a couple weeks ago I got my first release from the Matador Records “Singles Going Home Alone” 45-inch record club. The debut is SM&tJ doing a sweet cover of L.A. Guns’ “Wheels of Fire.” The flipside is a L.A. Guns’ cover of “Gorgeous Georgie” from Mirror Traffic. If you’re not in the club, you can join for $45 for a year’s subscription (six singles). Which brings up this question (again): WHEN WILL SADDLE CREEK START ITS OWN SINGLES CLUB? Get on it, folks.

Anyway… Opening tonight’s show is Nurses. The Dead Oceans artist just got off the road with Mountain Goats. You can check out their latest video on vimeo, here

:  $18, 9 p.m. See you there.

After Malkmus and Co. wrap things up, get your nightcap at O’Leaver’s, where Lightning Bug is playing with Bear Stories, Lindsay Donovan and Dojorock. $5, 9:30 p.m.

Also tonight, Underwater Dream Machine and Ragged Company are playing at The Barley Street Tavern with The Fucking Doneofits and Tenderness Wilderness. $5, 9 p.m.

Tomorrow night’s much less hectic.

Davey & the Dicks are headlining a show at The Brothers with Dirty Talker and The Lupines. I don’t know who/what this Davey/Dicks is. Are they associated with the original Dicks hardcore punk band? That Davy didn’t have an “e” in his name. Anyway, I can tell you that The Lupines features John Ziegler (Brimstone Howl), Mike Friedman, Mike Tulis and Javid Dabestani. Here’s a review of their debut show at O’Leaver’s last November. 9 p.m., $5.

Also Saturday night, The Filter Kings return to The Sydney in Benson with School of Arms, $7, 9 p.m.

* * *
The new full length by Digital Leather, Modern Problems, is just beginning to get the raves it deserves, like this review from Germany’s Musik Magazin Medienkonverter. I can’t read German, so I thought I’d drop the review into Yahoo’s old Babel Fish translator. Here’s what I got on the other side:

The output of Digitally Leather alias Shawn Foree is enormous – published alone 2011 a EP, a single and tape, follow now already a new album: Decaying of Problem is produced the successor of the 2009 published LP Warmly Bread ago and contrary to its predecessor still more consistently, taken up with a tape recorder in Foree’s bedroom, coly-ordinated to only few takes. 

You get the drift. Babel Fish don’t translate so well. Regardless, the review is still better than anything on Pitchfork.

* * *

Finally, you may have noticed that the Bad Speler remix of Whitney’s “How Will I Know?” posted on Lazy-i Tuesday became “unavailable.” Darren Keen, the bad boy behind Bad Speler, said he received notification from Soundcloud telling him that the track “infringes on someone else’s copyright,” and hence, they pulled it from their site. That said, you can still download Darren’s remix at the Illegal Art website, where they’ve been posting a new Bad Speler remix on a weekly basis. Check it out

(just don’t tell Whitney’s people…).

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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 © 2012 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Twin Sister, In Heaven (2011, Domino)

Tonight’s show at The Waiting Room kind of sneaked up on me. Long Island band Twin Sister may fancy themselves as shoegaze, but to me they’re more of a dream-pop band. Their 2011 debut full length In Heaven (released on Domino), is gorgeous, lush, female-fronted pop that’s impossible to ignore. Synth-heavy with the occasional glowing guitar line, its disco beats and audio mood lighting would be right at home at a Loom-tastic dance club. Songs like “Bad Street” seem equal parts influenced by Tom Tom Club and latter-year dance-dub Factory Records (see Quando Quando/New Order). For those keeping score, Pitchfork gave the album a 7.8 (here), which instantly put them on the indie radar (of course). Get ready to dance (if you want to). Coney Island dreamers Ava Luna opens. $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 © 2012 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

No doubt you’ve been hearing the buzz about last week’s Lincoln Exposed festival. The shockwaves are still being felt throughout the Unicameral. Lincoln Exposed major domo Jeremy Buckley gave me the post-mortem on this year’s event. He organized the event with Dub Wardlaw from Duffy’s and Josh Hoyer from the Zoo bar.

“For the four-day weekend we had about 1,700 people (or 425 a day) paid, not including about 280 band members that got all-access passes, and about 50 other guests (media, volunteers, etc.),” Buckley said. “Venues were easily more crowded than they ever are for any given local show from 6 p.m. until the last note of the night. Best year yet, we even got the mayor out to check out Kill County and The Betties.”

He said most of the venues (Bourbon Theater front room, Duffy’s,  Zoo Bar) were close to capacity Friday and Saturday nights. The weekend’s biggest draw: Universe Contest, a band that Buckley said gets compared to Modest Mouse. “(They) used to be Gooses, couple different members,” he added. Eli Mardock was the biggest draw Wednesday night.

What’s the coolest thing about Lincoln Exposed other than the music and the booze? Like every other Jeremy Buckley production, every one of the 60+ bands and performers got paid. I know the idea of actually paying bands seems alien and strange to most of the organizers of local “festivals” held in Benson and other clubs around town, but Buckley somehow manages to get it done.

In fact, Buckley said more than $7,000 was paid out to performers and $1,500 was paid to sound personnel. Let’s review: The bars get paid, the support folks (soundmen, etc.) get paid, and the bands get paid. Everybody gets paid, including Buckley and his team. Is paying bands to play really that difficult to do? Next time you pay your $10-$20-$30 for a wrist band at local festival that doesn’t

pay the bands, ask yourself where at that money went…

Fact is, paying the bands is one of the reasons Buckley is able to attract the best local bands to participate at his festivals.

So what’s the next Jeremy Buckley production? The 9th Annual Lincoln Calling Festival, coming to the streets of Lincoln in mid-October.

* * *

Finally, it was impossible to ignore the passing of Ms. Whitney Houston this past weekend. Her career touched many lives, not the least of which includes our very own Bad Speler a.k.a. Darren Keen, who in the depths of his grief created an amazing  remix of “How Will I Know?” It was a fitting tribute… until Darren decided to attach his remix to this Vimeo video featuring Brent Star of sexyman.com. Whitney lovers may want to skip it and instead check out the remix on Soundcloud, below:

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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 © 2012 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The final count on my Omaha Entertainment and Arts (OEA) awards predictions: 5 for 15. Not bad. Actually, that’s appalling, but it accurately reflects my knowledge of the Benson music scene. Last night’s big winner was Galvanized Tron, who took home the Artist of the Year and Best Hip-Hop awards. I’ve never heard GT’s music before. In fact, I haven’t heard seven of the 14 winners’ music. Pleasant surprises were Conduits (best indie) and Icky Blossoms (best DJ/EDM), two bands whose music I have 

heard (and enjoyed) and who recently signed big fat record deals with a couple national indie labels we’re all familiar with. Least surprising: That Bright Eyes’ The People’s Key took home Album of the Year. To the best of my knowledge, Conor skipped the ceremony. Here’s the rest of last night’s OEA Award winners:

Best New Artist: Snake Island
Best Artist: Galvanized Tron
Best Cover Band: Yesterday & Today
Best Ethnic: The Bishops
Best Progressive/Experimental/Funk: Satchel Grande
Best Jazz: Jazzocracy
Best Blues: Kris Lager Band
Best Hip Hop:  Galvanized Tron
Best Soul/R&B Gospel: Lucas Kellison
Best Country/Americana: Matt Cox
Best DJ/EDM: Icky Blossoms
Best Indie: Conduits
Best Hard Rock: Broken Crown
Best Adult Alternative/Songwriter: AYGAMG
Best Album: Bright Eyes, The People’s Key

* * *

In other awards show news, legendary Omaha producer Tom Ware of Warehouse Studios went home empty handed from last night’s Grammy’s, as his work with Lady Gaga was overlooked by an academy that was “gaga” for Adele. It was fun watching Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon awkwardly accept the award for best new artist. Said Vernon at the podium: “It’s also hard to accept because when I started to make songs, I did it for the inherent reward of making songs, so I’m a little bit uncomfortable up here.

” So were we, Vernon.

A still from the Chipotle commercial.

The rest was business as usual. I watched every second of last night’s Grammy’s broadcast and the most impressive moment was an animated Chipotle commercial about organic farming featuring Willie Nelson singing a cover of “The Scientist” by Coldplay. I “rewound” and watched the commercial three times.  You can check it out here.

The broadcast had an amusing ending when KMTV cut off the evening’s big finale featuring Paul McCartney and a stage filled with famous guitarists (Bruce Springsteen and David Grohl among them) so we could get an accuweather update. Apparently no one at the station pays attention to their own programming. Yet another shining example of KMTV’s rock solid commitment to becoming the worst network-affiliated TV station in Omaha. Keep it up, guys, you’ve got KPTM and the run!

* * *

If you weren’t up at the crack of dawn Sunday morning you missed NPR’s feature on Simon Joyner that aired as part of Weekend Edition. The piece featured Simon talking about his music and his life in Omaha, and included comments from Conor Oberst and myself. So if you’ve ever wondered what my voice sounds like, here’s your chance to find out as the audio story is now online. Nice work, Clay, though there’s the issue about the spelling of my last name…

* * *

Denver’s Westword has a review of Sunday night’s Cursive show at the Larimer Lounge online here. From the review:

“‘I don’t know why we don’t come here more often,’ Kasher chuckled and complimented the crowd. The rock elder statesman looked genuinely bashful as he paid his audience the largest possible compliment. ‘You guys are awesome. You should go to Omaha and teach those guys how to rock!‘” 

Really, Mr. Kasher? REALLY?

By the way, you can now hear Cursive’s latest, I Am Gemini, streamed in its entirety right here at rollingstone.com.

* * *

Tonight is officially metal night at The Waiting Room as ’80s thrash metal band Testament takes the stage with Omaha’s own metal masters, Bloodcow. $25, 9 p.m.

* * *

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 © 2012 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Well it’s that time of year again for the Benson Music Awards, uh… I mean the Omaha Entertainment and Arts Awards (OEAs).

Look, I’m so far out of the loop regarding the OEAs since I resigned as an “Academy Member” back in 2010 that I no longer get any correspondence from the organization. And I mean absolutely nothing, which is strange, because I still write about music here at Lazy-i.com and The Reader (who (I think) is still an event sponsor).

Oh well. If you want to know my gripes about the OEA’s, read my public resignation, published in my column two years ago, right here.

Nothing has changed. In fact, the whole thing has become even more incestuous. Most of the area’s best talent continues to be ignored, while bands and performers willing to “rally their fans” to vote in the “open voting” portion get nominated. Yes, I know Marq, there’s a whole process for selecting nominees that go beyond the open voting. Still, somehow the OEA’s managed to overlook some of the area’s best talent, including Darren Keen, Simon Joyner, Digital Leather, Ideal Cleaners, Skypiper, Yuppies, Depressed Buttons, McCarthy Trenching, Back When, Baby Tears, It’s True, Con Dios, Peace of Shit, Capgun Coup, Thunder Power, and on and on.

There are politics in everything, including music.

Anyway, the OEAA’s annual awards banquet is Sunday night at the Hilton downtown. And as I do every year, here are my thoughts for each music category on: 1) who will win, and 2) who should have won:

Best New Artist:
Who will win: We Be Lions
Who should have won: Icky Blossoms

Best Artist:
Who will win: Matt Cox
Who should have won: Bright Eyes

Best Cover Band:
Who will win: Secret Weapon
Who should have won: Secret Weapon

Best Ethnic:
Who will win: Donnybrook
Who should have won: The Turfmen (too bad they weren’t nominated)

Best Progressive/Experimental/Funk
Who will win: Satchel Grande
Who should have won: InDreama

Best Jazz
Who will win: Steve Raybine
Who should have won: Steve Raybine

Best Blues
Who will win: Kris Lager Band
Who should have won: no idea

Best Hip Hop
Who will win: Galvanized Tron
Who should have won: Conchance

Best Soul/R&B Gospel
Who will win: Lucas Kellison
Who should have won: Second Chance

Best Country/Americana
Who will win: Filter Kings
Who should have won: Filter Kings

Best DJ/EDM
Who will win: Somasphere
Who should have won: Depressed Buttons (also not nominated)

Best Indie:
Who will win: So-So Sailors
Who should have won: So-So Sailors

Best Hard Rock:
Who will win: Mitch Gettman
Who should have won: Ideal Cleaners (also not nominated)

Best Adult Alternative/Songwriter
Who will win: Mitch Gettman
Who should have won: Tim Kasher (not nominated)

Best Album
Who will win: Bright Eyes, The People’s Key
Who should have won: Bright Eyes, The People’s Key (Something tells me Conor won’t be there to accept his award).

Details about Sunday night’s event are available at http://oea-awards.com/

* * *
Hey, the Grammy’s are Sunday night, too. Who cares?

Well, despite the fact that The Grammy’s have turned into an extended episode of American Idol and The Voice, I’ll be watching if only to see if Omaha legend Tom Ware picks up a Grammy for his work on Lady Gaga’s Born This Way, which is up for Album of the Year. Keep your fingers crossed, though I think Adele will ultimately take home the trophy.

The closest thing to an indie category at The Grammy’s is “Best Alternative Album,” where it’s Bon Iver, Radiohead, Death Cab, Foster the People and My Morning Jacket. My money is on Bon Iver, because he sure as shit isn’t going to win in the other categories he’s nominated in.

* * *

So what’s happening this weekend?

Lincoln Exposed continues in Lincoln tonight and tomorrow. Details here.

Last week’s Slumber Party Showcase at the Saddle Creek Shop that got cancelled due to the snow has been rescheduled for this Saturday afternoon starting at 3 p.m. The lineup: Jasong Mountain (of Talking Mountain),  Andy Cubrich (of Family Picnic), Sam Martin (of Capgun Coup), and Bobby Rubalcava (of The West Valley/The Benningtons) and more. Come on down, it’s free.

Saturday night Dirty Flourescents, Comme Reel and Techlepathy light up O’Leaver’s for a night of midwestern punk. $5, 9:30 p.m.

And then Sunday night Hear  Nebraska is hosting a show at Loom featuring Bad Spele (Darren Keen), Machete Archive and more. 9 p.m., $5. More details here.

And finally, Slowdown Jr. is hosting an OEA after party featuring Snake Island and BASSthoven. 9:30, $5 or free if you can prove (willing to admit) you were at the OEAs.

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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 © 2012 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.