by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Happy Monday. How about a slice of pop candy to brighten up your home offices (or whatever)…

Last week See Through Dresses’ drummer Nate Van Fleet released another two-song EP from his band Big Nope. Recorded by Nate and STD bandmate Mathew Carroll last fall, listen for the Benson shout-out in A-side “Kid I” and enjoy the party slacker vibe of flip-side “Throwaways.” Both tracks are here. So when are we going to see Big Nope on stage? Hey, when are we going to see anyone again on stage?

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Last week Pitchfork published an article about Apple Music’s $50 million COVID-19 fund and what it means for indie labels. Apple’s program offers interest-free loans against future royalties to indie labels and distributors that earn more than $10,000 through Apple Music per quarter and have a deal with Apple.

While it seems like a generous officer, the details can get rather complicated as to who qualifies. And let’s face it, this isn’t a grant, it’s a loan, so while Apple may be waiving interest on that $50 mil, we’re talking about a company with $207 billion in free cash on hand.

Among those quoted in the Pitchfork article is Saddle Creek label exec Robb Nansel, who said he doesn’t plan on taking advantage of Apple’s generosity.

“I’m interested to see what the terms are. It’s not like they’re just giving you free money.” Nansel is quoted as saying in the article. “They have a lot of cash and if they can help some people out that can be cash-strapped, it seems like it could be a good thing.”

That said, the last thing struggling labels need right now is to get further in debt.

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Speaking of Saddle Creek Records, the label has declared April the “Month of the Album” and is offering a 15 percent discount on its entire catalog with the offer code: SUPPORT. It makes it as good a time as any to finally pick up a copy of that Beep Beep album you’ve always wanted… Find out 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 © 2020 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Ugh, there’s not a lot of music news to pass along, and the few things I do have you probably already know or heard, but this being Friday and the space where I usually recommend live shows for the weekend, I feel obligated to pass along something.

Despite the lockdown I continue to get 30 to 40 emails a day from promoters and labels about new music. It continues to keep coming, god bless it, even though there’s nowhere for these bands to play these days. If I were a band I’d probably postpone my release, however the other argument is that you’ll never have such a captive audience as the ones stranded in their homes for the next month or so (that’s right, I have doomed us all to quarantine until at least May 10 (if we’re lucky)).

Supermoon, Half Country (2020, Bandcamp)

Among the music to cross my screen is the new lyric video for Supermoon’s “Come to Learn,” which dropped last Tuesday. Supermoon is a project featuring Jake Bellows, who you remember not only as a one-man songwriting phenomenon but also frontman to Saddle Creek Records act Neva Dinova. Singing alongside Jake and making up the better half of the duo is Morgan Nagler of Whispertown. This campfire lullaby begs you to sing along, too.

And thus, the entire album was released: “The debut album ‘Half Country’ was recorded to half-inch tape and produced by Nik Freitas, who also contributed on drums, bass, and keys. In the surreal soup of the Covid-19 Pandemic wild west, the band has decided to release the album April 7, 2020’s biggest Supermoon, (the Pink Supermoon) in the hopes of shining a little light in the dark.”

Here it is, via Bandcamp.

It would be great to get these two and Mr. Freitas came to Omaha after the cloud of contaminants has lifted.

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I’ve been consuming in 30- to 40-minute chunks the 4-hour Henry Rollins podcast via KCRW called Cool Quarantine. It’s Henry playing records (lots of hardcore punk but also rock and other stuff) and telling stories and I love the format, but it’s hard to have on while you’re trying to do something (other than drive or run or work out) because it’s so distracting. Check it out below.

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Speaking of online content, Phoebe Bridgers is doing some sort of livestream via Pitchfork’s Instagram today (Friday) at 3 p.m. CT. She dropped a new video last and has a new record coming out soon.

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As you may or may not know, the Mars Bar located way out in West Omaha closed its doors for good weeks before COVID struck and shut down everyone else. Despite the setback, proprietor Brent Malnack hasn’t lost his love for live music, and thus created Live from Mars House

, a new live stream performance program that debuts tonight at 7 p.m. via Twitch.

Brent is promising a three-camera shoot with a 24-track live mix. The first guests are N8 M Sic and Sarah Brandt, two musicians I’m not familiar with. That said, Malnack said future guests will include a lot of past performers at Mars Bar. Here’s the link. https://www.twitch.tv/livefrommarshouse

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Let me leave you with something I’ve been listening to for the past few weeks. It’s the new album by Lewsberg called In This House

(12XU Records). Think Lou Reed meets Silver Jews meets your favorite Rotterdam deli. As good a soundtrack as any for these times we live in.

That’s all I got. If you hear anything worth passing along, send it my way. 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 © 2020 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The folks behind the Maha Music Festival today announced that they’re canceling the 2020 festival, scheduled for Aug. 7-8, because of COVID-19 concerns. Is anyone surprised by this?

No doubt we’ll be well out of quarantine by August, but everything else surrounding the festival depends on planning and faith in the unknown, from whether booked acts would continue to be available to organizing volunteers to sponsorships.

“Lacking confirmation that a festival of this scale will be considered safe by public health officials in August, cancellation arose as the most viable option to preserve the annual event and organization as a whole,” said the Maha press release.

Executive Director Lauren Martin said if Maha had been forced to cancel after ticket sales started they might be in a position where they’d have to refund tickets after having spent the money. “Canceling now helps ensure that Maha can return in 2021, and for years to come

,” Martin said in the press release.

No word on if Maha already had booked the festival’s acts, though you’d have to believe everything was all in place by now. The 2020 line-up will remain one of those great mysteries. Was this the year that Maha finally got Wilco or LCD Soundsystem or Arcade Fire or Bright Eyes? We’ll never know…

The news is just one more bummer in a list of COVID-related bummers knee-capping the Omaha music scene. Yes, it sucks that Maha isn’t happening, but it’ll be back next year. Maha is an established brand with a track record that any sponsor would be proud to support.

At this point I’m more concerned about the financial well-being of our local musicians, venues, recording studios and the rest of the creative ecosystem. What will be left when we emerge from our houses and apartments in late May/early June?

One thing we know for certain is that the nation will be in a fairly deep recession. For a lot of people, money will be tight. Not everyone is going to get their jobs back right away. And let’s face it, more than one of your favorite businesses and/or restaurants / bars won’t reopen.

The good news is there will be a new appreciation for live music, for bars and restaurants, for having fun as part of a community. The year 2020 is going to remembered as a dark, soundless void, but 2021 could emerge like spring after a long winter.

One last Maha-related thing: Omaha Lit Fest is still slated for the Blackstone District Aug. 5 & 6, and Maha has not ruled out the possibility to launch alternate programming later in 2020, as COVID will allow. I foresee a large fundraiser in the organization’s future…

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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 © 2020 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

A screencap from The Cog Doc.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Ah, the Cog Factory documentary. Filmmaker Kyle Benecke has created a 41-minute ode to an Omaha music scene landmark, and it’s a scorcher — extremely entertaining and engrossing.

The film traces the all-ages music club’s origins, highs, lows and the bathrooms, and includes a fine selection of live footage taken at dozens of shows interspersed with interviews from founder Robb Rathe and club mainstays, fans, volunteers and musicians who performed on its stage, including Todd Fink (The Faint), Gary Dean Davis (Frontier Trust), Matt Baum (Desaparecidos), Jason Ludwick (Bombardment Society) and a ton more.

As a film, the documentary is well-shot, well-edited, as good as (or better than) what I’ve seen at Film Streams or on Netflix, which makes me wonder why it couldn’t have gotten a more elaborate World Premiere than a post on Facebook, but times being what they are… I’m hoping when the COVID lock-down is lifted that the folks at Film Streams figure out a way to do another premiere, preferably at the Dundee Theater (and somehow get Rathe there for a Q&A).

Until then, enjoy it in whatever bunker you’re hunkered down in:

There’s a documentary website at thecogdoc.com that includes more performance video, flyers, photos and whatnot as well as a “tip jar” that connects to a gofundme page. I don’t know what Kyle will do with the money, but it would be cool to see this get more exposure and entry into film festivals, etc., and that costs money.

Seems like I remember back in the day there always was a benefit show going on to help pay for the Cog Factory’s bathrooms. I can’t remember if it was a city code thing to what.

I only went to the Cog a couple times over the years, including once to interview Frontier Trust for a publication out of Lawrence called The Note. When it was going full blast I was in my late 20s and spent most of my time at clubs like The Capitol, The Howard Street Tavern and, of course, Sokol Underground.

If you want more info about the Cog Factory, read my ’98 interview with Robb Rathe, written about his leaving Omaha and the Cog Factory. Also, an interview with Chris Harding, who took over the reins for a time.

Wish I had some show announcements to pass on for the weekend. Hang tight, folks. We’ll all be back in the clubs before you know it.

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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 © 2020 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Chapel Hill band Mipso has been booked at The Slowdown June 5.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

I received notification via Facebook today that Chapel Hill band Mipso has been booked to play at The Slowdown for June 5, and it got me wondering whether things will even be back up in running by June 5.

That Mipso gig is not the first show back for Slowdown. The club currently has Against Me! booked to play May 7 with Baroness. The Waiting Room is even more optimistic, booking Jeremy McComb for May 1 (though Domino recording artist Night Moves is the first booking of interest for me, and that one’s currently slated for May 22). O’Leaver’s earliest current booking also is May 1.

Gov. Ricketts said yesterday that despite current state orders, there could still be restrictions on bars after April 30, though he doesn’t know what they’ll be. No one really knows for sure when COVID will peak in Nebraska and begin to recede, which will determine when the gov is going to allow us back into the bars.

But even when they give an all clear, it’ll be interesting to see who shows up that first week after the pseudo quarantine is lifted. Would I go to a rock show right after the all clear? Yeah, probably, if I liked the band. But you better believe I’ll be super careful about how close I stand next to total strangers (and to known dirt-bags at places like fabulous O’Leaver’s).

After the reopenings, getting past the stigma that comes with COVID will be the next big hurdle for clubs that are already feeling extreme pain. Every time they book a touring act it’ll be a gamble knowing some folks will still be too afraid to show up. That COVID hangover could last deep into the summer months, and a pessimist might say well beyond.

I, on the other hand, am the eternal optimist. I think we’ll all be invited back to the clubs by mid-May, though band tours are going to be all screwed for the rest of the year.

Imagine trying to book a tour for this summer or fall not knowing which state will be allowing people into clubs and which will still be dealing with COVID. And then not knowing how many people will be willing to stand in a crowd after thousands of people have died.

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I’ve been been sitting on this new single by The Sunks for about a week and now is as good a time as any to share it with you. Look for the full record this spring (Hey, it’s spring right now!).

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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 © 2020 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Rebecca Lowry performs during the Social Resonance Vol. 1 stream March 27.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Technically and artistically, what Ian Aiello and his team pulled off last Friday night at The Sydney will stand as the benchmark by which live streamed performances will be judged, and I don’t mean just local ones.

Multiple cameras, pristine audio and two fine performances in an empty bar in Benson, except for the crew that made it all work, last week’s Social Resonance Vol. 1 represents what can be done with the technology that will be spoon-feeding us live musical performances at least for the next two or three months while COVID does its thing.

You, of course, can see for yourself via this link, which will take you to the performance’s recording hosted in YouTube. Ian said about 250 watched live at any one time and a total of around 450 people viewed the live stream. Since its broadcast, the recording has had just under 1,200 views. Not bad.

Rebecca Lowry with an electric guitar (the last time I saw her perform she held a ukulele) belted out a number of songs a la Bonnie Raitt, while Mike Schlesinger, wearing a John Denver T-shirt, preferred to use an old acoustic guitar for his set of low-slung heart-breakers. Schlesinger is a Nebraska treasure who deserves to be discovered by this great, big COVID-infected world.

The stream defined the phrase “intimate performance.” With multiple cameras and perfect sound, there was utterly nowhere for these two to hide as every breath, every note was stream-ified. Guts. Confidence.

Despite its “Vol. 1” title, Ian said this was a one-shot — there will be no Vol. 2, which is a shame considering Vol. 1’s success. It truly was appointment viewing and gave us all somewhere to meet on a Friday night, even if it was just in front of our computers.

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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 © 2020 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Social Resonance is live streaming tonight at 9:30 from The Sydney.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Think about all the rock shows we had to choose from just a year ago from this week. Phoebe and Conor’s Better Oblivion Community Center was playing a sold out show at The Slowdown; Wild Powwers was playing at O’Leaver’s, Black Moth Super Rainbow was at The Waiting Room as was The Nadas, ADULT. was at Slowdown Jr., and a slew of local bands including Gerald Lee Jr., Minne Lussa, The Natural States and Death Cow were playing clubs all over town.

This weekend all we got is a bunch of live streams and our record collections to keep us going. Look, this COVID thing isn’t going to last forever, right?

Well, one thing to look forward to is happening tonight in your living room. Social Resonance is a live streaming project coming at you tonight at 9:30 from a closed-up Sydney in Benson. Produced by Ian Aeillo with the help of some local technical wiz kid, the show will include performances from singer / songwriters Rebecca Lowry and Mike Schlesinger and probably a few other surprises.

It’s streaming via YouTube from this link: https://youtu.be/xPa5hWnBKkQ If you click on the link in the YouTube app you can send it to your SmartTV, which Ian implores you do for maximum viewing pleasure. If you don’t have a SmartTV (or a TV) just watch it below:

I plan on sitting back with an ice cold Rolling Rock and some of my favorite take-out and enjoying the whole show in my living room. I’d love it if performers and venues were able to do more of these kind of scheduled streamed rock shows, at least until things get back to normal…

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 © 2020 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Bright Eyes today premiered “Persona Non Grata,” the first new song by the band in nine years.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Just under 2,000 people listened in live to the world premiere of the new Bright Eyes song, “Persona Non Grata,” on YouTube this morning.

To me, what sets Bright Eyes songs apart from other Oberst-related music is the dense, fog-lit production by way of master craftsman Mike Mogis — keyboards, drums, bag pipes and Oberst at his quivering-voice best singing about heartbreak of one kind or another to a waltz-time beat. And is that Phoebe Bridgers I hear adding harmonies? Maybe, maybe…

The band said in a letter via the press release that they will be releasing a new album “this year no matter what,” though they are now reassessing touring plans. COVID-19 strikes again, eh?

All in all, it was a pretty successful song premiere. But they did have a captive audience, as we’re all trapped at home with nothing better to do. Dead Oceans (or whoever was behind the premiere) did it right by pre-announcing the exact time and sending out links via social media. There’s a lesson to be learned there.

A lot of artists are now live-streaming performances via Facebook, Twitch, YouTube, etc., but in a lot of cases (for me, anyway), people trip over them after the fact. It’s not a big deal if you’re someone like Bright Eyes, who has a fan base looking for the song, but for the rest of you, well, a little head’s up would be kind of nice.

And it’s as simple as treating your live streams like any other live show performance — i.e., create a Facebook event invitation. It’s how a lot of us keep track of upcoming performances, just like we used to for live shows (Anyone remember live shows?).

For example, the fine folks at The Sydney created a Facebook event invitation for this Friday night’s live stream featuring Mike Schlesinger and Rebecca Lowry. Now the gig will show up on my Facebook events list, just like any other live event. Take a look.

While it’s nice that folks are creating lists of live performances, like this one from NPR, who remembers to go back and look at those?

Yes, I know we’re all home anyway (as someone told me who was arguing against the idea), but the fact is even at home we’re bombarded with a million things to do. Make your live stream performances “appointment watching.”

AND, if I catch wind of your live stream – and you create a Facebook Event listing for it – it’s very likely I’ll also list it in the daily Lazy-i update. Just sayin’…

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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 © 2020 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

The reissue of Silkworm’s In the West are among the recordings available from Bandcamp.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

This is usually the spot where I tell you who’s playing where this weekend and which shows you absolutely, positively shouldn’t miss. It may be a long time until I get to do that again.

Last night I watched Kurt Vile on the Luck Reunion ‘Til Further Notice live Twitch stream. Live streamed performances are about all we’re going to get for the time being. A lot of local musicians already are getting into the swing of live streaming, judging by the number of people on Facebook sitting in their basements or bedrooms with guitars in their laps.

There are a couple of sources for lists of these live music performance streams. Kevin Coffey at the Omaha World-Herald has compiled a list, which you can find right here on the OWH website. And L. Kent Wolgamott of the Lincoln Journal-Star also has compiled a list, available somewhere on the Journal-Star website (though I can’t find it) and also here on Facebook. Check them out and put money in the digital money boot/hat to help keep these musicians going until COVID-19 goes away.

What else…

I got an email from FDH Records (the label put out a number of Digital Leather recordings, among other things) that said both FDH and Suicide Bong tapes are halting production of physical copies of new releases.

“We hope that once the dust settles we will be able to pick operations back up and get back to our main love of physical copies of music on vinyl and tapes. In the meantime we still plan on working with artists to keep new music coming digitally in these uncertain times.”

Just how bad are labels getting smacked in these Days of COVID? If their bands can’t be on the road selling albums, does it make sense to keep pressing? And how are record stores doing when entire states (California, for example) are now on lock down?

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Which makes this a good time to remind you that today (March 20) Bandcamp is waving its revenue share on sales. And a ton of labels are also giving 100 percent of revenue to the artists. “For many artists, a single day of boosted sales can mean the difference between being able to pay rent or not,” says Bandcamp. Check out the list of Artist and labels offering donations, special merch and more for this COVID-19 Fundraiser. (BTW, it appears to be a popular promotion – the Bandcamp servers are slooooow and keep locking up, Keep trying).

Among the recordings:

Mal Blum, Pity Boy (Don Giovanni) – They were slated to play at Reverb in the coming weeks. It was while doing research for that show that I first discovered them, and they’ve become one of my recent favorites. Here’s hoping they can reschedule their Omaha gig.

Porridge Radio, Every Bad (Secretly Canadian) – Some folks classify it as shoegaze but it’s poppier and in a lot of ways reminds me of Garbage. This record is going to be a classic.

Lantern on the Lake, Spook the Herd (Bella Union) – Newcastle band’s latest is sweet and haunting and pretty.

Silkworm, In the West (Comedy Minus One) — This is the definitive reissue of the beloved Chicago band’s second album, remixed from the original 2″ tape by Steve Albini, who engineered the original recording.

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And that’s all I got. Stay in this weekend and listen to some music. Before you know it, this will all be over…

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 © 2020 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

I’ve got a few musician / fan resources to pass along, but first…

Simon Joyner released a new album today. Some Only Let the Jukebox Hear Them Weep (Live in Phoenix 2014) is an 11-song collection recorded in a living room with professional equipment. On this recording Simon’s band, The Ghosts Trio, consists of Kevin Donahue, Megan Siebe and Michael Krassner. You can buy a limited edition CDR of the set, in a screenprinted sleeve, right here via Bandcamp.

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BTW, Bandcamp is waiving its share of revenues on purchases made at the site tomorrow, March 20, so you may want to wait to order your copy or anything else via Bandcamp.

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From Saddle Creek Records: “We have gotten a lot of questions about how you can support artists who are being directly impacted by the current pandemic. One way to support artists is purchasing physical releases.”

To help, through the end of March Saddle Creek is offering a 15 percent discount on all orders (except preorders) with the code SUPPORT. Check it out here. That info came in an email that included links to organizations that help musicians in need. Here’s the list. Donate if you can.

— Musicares – https://www.grammy.com/musicares/get-help
— Sweet Relief – https://www.sweetrelief.org/covid-19-fund.html
— American Federation of Musicians – https://www.afm.org/covid-19/

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Seattle radio station KEXP has a handy Guide for Artists and Fans to Support Music During the COVID-19 Outbreak. Lots of good resources, lots of tips for what you can do to help. Check it out.

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Kevin Coffey has a story in today’s Omaha World-Herald on COVID 19’s impact on local venues that includes some words from Slowdown’s Jason Kulbel and 1%’s Marc Leibowitz, check it out here.  Says Jason Kulbel in the story: “It’s just thing after thing after thing. We can’t wrap our heads around it. We’re just scrambling.”

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Stay home, order take-out, help out if you can. We’ll get through it.

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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 © 2020 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.