by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

I’m back from my short vacation – spring ball in Clearwater Florida. Not much to say music-wise except I experienced a plethora of music styles (primarily Latin/dance/retro hip-hop) while riding in various Ubers/Lifts in and around Tampa. Can you imagine climbing into an Uber and the driver is playing The Faint? 

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Speaking of The Faint, the band’s frontman, Todd Fink, has been doing a media tour of sorts in support of the “deluxe” rerelease of Blank-Wave Arcade and Wet From Birth (and the band’s upcoming tour). Among the articles:

• Todd lists his 5 albums he can’t live without, in SPIN. No surprises here. 
• Stereogum’s Ian Cohen says there’s no better time to assess the Faint’s legacy, and Todd weighs in. Read it here. From the article: “Todd Fink basically invented Indie Sleaze and all he got was a public nudity charge.” A fun read.
• Todd tells BrooklynVegan the 5 songs that influence Blank-Wave Arcade. Again, no surprises, except for maybe The Tear Garden. Read it here. 

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At least know The Faint won’t be playing this year’s Maha Festival (because they’re already playing a sold-out April 3 show at The Waiting Room). 

But tomorrow we find out who will be headlining the Aug. 2 event. Other disqualified bands and my guesses as to what might be announced is right here. I’ll let you what I think of the line-up…

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You can also take the following bands off any “Maha guess” list, as they’ll be riding through town in the coming months. Here’s my updated list of touring indie bands headed our way. Get yer tickets before they’re gone. 

• – The Velveteers, March 27 at The Slowdown
• – The Faint, April 3 at The Waiting Room -SOLD OUT
• – Marlon Funkai, April 3 at Reverb
• – Jack White, April 5 at Steelhouse – SOLD OUT
• – Lady Lamb, April 7 at Reverb
• – The Criticals, April 10 at Reverb
• – Black Ends, April 12 at The Sydney
• – Bob Mould Band, Craig Finn, April 14 at The Waiting Room 
• – MSSV, April 21 at Reverb
• – Cryogeyser, April 25 at Reverb
• – Vazum, April 25 at The Sydney
• – Ty Segall solo April 26 at Scottish Rite
• – MURS, April 26 at Reverb
• – Bright Eyes, April 27 at The Astro
• – Bad Nerves, April 27 at The Waiting Room
• – Nada Surf, April 30 at The Waiting Room
• – Husbands, May 1 at Reverb
• – Season to Risk, May 3 at The Sydney
• – Future Islands, May 7 at The Admiral
• – Julien Baker & Torres, May 12 at The Admiral
• – Being Dead, May 13 at Reverb
• – Black Country, New Road, May 14 at Slowdown
• – Spellling, May 15 at The Waiting Room
• – Friko, May 20 at Reverb
• – Florist, May 24 at Reverb
• – Southern Culture on the Skids, May 27 at Waiting Room
• – Samantha Crain, June 17 at Reverb
• – Holy Fawn, June 25 at Reverb
• – Hurray for the Riff Raff, July 15 at Slowdown
• – The Avett Brothers, July 17 at The Astro Amphitheater
• – Rilo Kiley, Sept. 17 at The Astro – SOLD OUT
• – The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Sept. 23 at Slowdown
• – Swans, Sept 28 at The Waiting Room

Whatwho am I missing? Put it in the comments section. 

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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 © 2025 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

I’ll be out of town through this weekend, so Lazy-i will be on a short hiatus, back early next week.  What will I miss while away? Only one big show comes to mind, and it’s Sunday night at Reverb Lounge.

El Paso’s Lesser Care is a post-punk shoe-gaze band who gained some national attention when they toured with Chicago post-punk act French Police back in 2023. Their latest LP, Heel Turn, was released in 2024 and I can’t find a single review of the album anywhere online. Regardless, listen to the track below and make up your own mind. Omaha’s Ex Lover opens the show at 8 p.m. $15.

That’s all I’m seeing in my indie-scope. If I missed your show, put it in the comments section. Have a great weekend.

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2025 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Yesterday, the fine folks who run the Maha Music Festival said they will announce the headliner for their Aug. 2 one-day event next Wednesday, March 19, with tickets on sale the following Friday, March 21. 

Make your guess at the headliner. I ran down my list of guesses – topped by The Pixies, followed by St. Vincent, Black Key and Spoon – in this write-up that also discusses who won’t be headlining. 

In addition the new RiverFront location, another change to this year’s festival appears to be a shift in how Maha approaches volunteers. In year’s past, the Maha Festival was buoyed by an army of volunteers – 800 volunteers helped put on the last festival in 2023. 

However, a couple days ago, someone shared an email they said was mailed to past volunteers saying day-to-day operations for this year’s festival will be outsourced to a professional production company.  The question, of course, is how far the message traveled down the volunteer food chain. 

Maha volunteers did things as simple as answer questions, direct people to vendors and bathrooms, even help them understand how to recycle their garbage. I’d be surprised if Maha didn’t ask for at least some volunteers. Then again, were there volunteers at last year’s Outlandia Festival, which was run by the same folks running this year’s Maha Festival?

Volunteer networks do more than just provide helpful hands. They also get the word out about the festival itself, perhaps convincing friends and relatives to buy tickets. That brings up the whole question of how they’ll market this year’s Maha Festival. They’ll have to do more than rely on social media marketing, whose use and affectiveness appear to be on the decline…

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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 © 2025 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Onward to the weekend…

There’s a sneaky good show going on tonight (Friday) at The Sydney in Benson. Finom is the Chicago duo of Sima Cunningham and Macie Stewart. They used to go by the name OHMME, but changed their name for legal reasons in 2022. They’ve been releasing albums on respected mid-size indie label Joyful Noise since 2020; their latest is the soaring 2024 LP Not God. They usually have a drummer in tow, so expect a full sound. 

Also on the bill is Nashville-based project Brother Bird. Fronted by singer/songwriter Caroline Glaser, the band lists Mazzy Star, Cranberries and Big Thief among their influences. Their latest, Another Year, was released in 2024 on Easy Does It Records. 

Wedding, a.k.a. Anna Schulte, opens the show at The Sydney at 10 p.m. $15.

That’s a late start time, probably to give folks time to enjoy the art during Benson First Friday (BFF)! Galleries and businesses up and down Maple Street are hosting art openings, including Ming Toy Gallery, 6066 Maple St. We’re hosting “The Space Between,” by artist Josephine Langbehn – large-scale interpretations painted in acrylic of cherished and forgotten images. The show runs from 5:30 to 9 p.m. Come by, see some great art, and have a drink on us!

Also tonight, Pageturners Lounge in Dundee is hosting former Nebraskan now New Yorker Stathi and Friends. Stathi’s latest album is Live at Bowery Ballroom, recorded last April when he opened for (and played with) Conor Oberst at the famous NYC venue. Show starts at 8 p.m. 

Saturday’s big event is the annual GoatFest celebration at Scriptown Brewery in the Blackstone District. In addition to tapping their Goatsmack seasonal beer, they host live music starting at 3 p.m. by bands Velvet Velvet and Cowgirl Eastern. Best of all, real live goats will be parked out back for your viewing and petting pleasure. Food by Lazy Buffalo BBQ. Runs from noon to 6 p.m. This is always a good time and, imho, should be hosted at Scriptown on a monthly (weekly?) basis. 

And that’s all I got. If I missed your show, put it in the comments section. Have a great weekend!

PS: It’s Bandcamp Friday! If you’ve been hankering to buy some new music (like the fantastic new albums by Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory or Horsegirl), now’s the best time as Bandcamp is passing along all proceeds to the bands and their labels (many of which also are passing the cash along to the bands). Get out there and buy some music!

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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 © 2025 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Well, I was beginning to think Saddle Creek Records was becoming a purely nostalgia-based label. 

For the past couple months our hometown record label has solely announced reissues. First were The Faint reissues of classic albums Blank-Wave Arcade (originally released in 1999) and Wet From Birth (2004), both out March 14. And then the Rilo Kiley announcements – the April 25 reissue of The Execution of All Things (originally released in 2002) and a new “greatest hits”-style collection, That’s How We Choose to Remember It, out May 9. Of course both bands will be on limited national tours. 

Then yesterday Saddle Creek announced it signed singer/songwriter Dean Johnson, described as a “longstanding Seattle underground gem-turned-rising Americana star.” In 2023, Johnson released his debut full-length, Nothing for Me, Please, at the age of 50. “Dean’s songwriting reminds us why music matters, offering proof that a song can be more than the sum of its parts,” says the Saddle Creek one-sheet. 

Saddle Creek begins its relationship with Johnson with the April 11 release of “Blue Moon” b/w “Lake Charles” 7-inch as part of their Document singles series. Preorder here. The A-side, which you can hear below, is an original, while the B-side is a Lucinda Williams cover. 

Johnson heads out on a European tour in April, followed by a few Pacific Northwest dates. “Expect more music & news from Dean Johnson this year,” says Saddle Creek. 

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Omaha ex-pat singer/songwriter/poet Kyle Harvey emailed to say he has a new collection of ambient soundscapes out today called Holographic Topographies. It’s his fourth full length under the moniker When Light.

Says the one-sheet: “Inspired by the strange, overlapping nuances of quantum physics, consciousness, technologies, astronomy, and science fiction in popular culture, Holographic Topographies was composed on a small eurorack modular system. Each track on the album was recorded in stereo as a live, single-take performance.” Order your copy here. It’s also on Spotify. Kyle also has a new book of poetry called There Without Being There, which you can order here. 

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Here’s some other new stuff that’s been playing in my earbuds that escaped the delete key:

Thalia Zedek of the legendary bands Come and Live Skull has a new album out May 23 called The Boat Outside Your Window on Thrill Jockey. Known for her heavier-than-hell approach, the track “Tsunami” manages to have a sing-along melody without sacrificing the usual Zedek grit and feedback. The band plans to tour “extensively” in 2025, though no dates have been announced. 

Maha Festival veterans (2018), Tune-Yards dropped new single “Limelight” from their forthcoming album Better Dreaming, out May 16 on 4AD. The track has a sweet bass line, but what did you expect from a duo who sounds like this generation’s Tom Tom Club? They also announced a limited East Coast tour. 

Another Maha Festival vet (twice!), Car Seat Headrest yesterday released single “Gethsemane” from their new album, The Scholars, out on Matador May 2. The double-album is described as “a bold new rock opera.” The single itself is 11 minutes long! 

Finally, Los Angeles shoe-gaze act Shunkan dropped the first single from their upcoming album, Kamikaze Girl, out May 6 on Rite Field Records. Fronted by Marina Sakimoto, the record was produced by Alex Newport (Death Cab, At the Drive-In, Bloc Party). 

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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 © 2025 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

I only knew Jeff Runnings through his life in music and the music itself. Some of my favorite memories of Jeff were actually our conversations over Facebook instant messenger. Jeff would usually start it, writing about something he was working on musicwise or telling me about some new album he heard that he had to share. He was remarkably opinionated – able to make his thoughts known in words of love or damnation. 

It was probably because of this relationship and our past interviews conducted for local papers that Jeff asked me to lead a discussion with him in front of an audience at the now defunct Hi-Fi House – a home-away-for home for people who loved music on vinyl – way back in the summer of 2016.

Because some readers may not know who Jeff was, below are the biographical notes put together to introduce Jeff at that event, that summarized his career up to that point. 

• Let’s start with For Against. A Lincoln band, the trio of singer and chief songwriter Jeff Runnings, guitarist/keyboardist Harry Dingman III and drummer Gregory Hill, combined droning, chiming guitars, buzzing synths, and machine-precise percussion with Runnings’ hollow, ghostly voice.

• In their heyday back in the late ’80s and early ’90s, For Against didn’t exactly fit into a Lincoln scene that included bands like Mercy Rule and Sideshow. While SST-style punk was all the rage in Omaha and Lincoln, For Against was making 4AD/Factory Records-style Euro-pop that bordered on today’s version of electronic dance music. Their sound was directly influenced by ’80s and ’90s-era European post-punk from bands like Durutti Column, Joy Division, Gang of Four and Kitchens of Distinction, more modern acts like Interpol, Editors and The Faint.

• More recent comparisons would to be bands like DIIV, Echo Lake, Wild Nothing and Weekender.

• The trio began performing in Lincoln in 1985. After self-releasing a 7-inch, the band signed with Independent Projects Records (IPR) and released their debut full-length, Echelons, in 1987. The music criticism website All Music said of the release: “Balancing an at once crisp, brisk pace and just enough dreaminess in the guitar work, Echelons is a work of nervous tension throughout.”

• For Against went on a brief US tour — which was a bit of a novelty for Nebraska bands back then. They recorded their follow-up, December, in 1988, which critic Andy Kellman called “…their best, one of the most powerful dream pop releases of the late ’80s.” If you look up For Against in All Music, this is the album they select as the band’s finest, giving it 4.5 stars.

• That said, shortly after its release, For Against unceremoniously broke up, just as things were getting interesting. Capitol Records was interested in the band, but it wasn’t to be as Hill left the band. Dingman went on to join The Millions with Hill before he and his wife eventually moved to Ft. Collins, Colorado. 

• Jeff continued For Against with new personnel, releasing four more records:

• 1993’s Aperture. Mason’s California Lunch Room in 1995, both on Rainbow Quartz, followed by Shelf Life in 1997 on World Domination Records.  Coalesced would be released in 2002 on Minneapolis label Words on Music, who also reissued Echelons and December, and Marshes, a 10-inch originally released by Independent Projects in 1990

• Then in 2003, Dingman and his wife returned to Lincoln. Jeff said he and Dingman  had barely spoke to each other in 16 years. Eventually, Dingman found himself in Runnings’ living room, and the two decided that For Against should live again.

• But a funny thing happened in their absence. For Against had quietly become big… in Europe. The song ‘Amen Yves’ that only came out on vinyl, had become a hit with DJs throughout Europe, who had been playing it for years.

• In 2008 Words on Music released Shade Side, Sunny Side, For Against’s 7th studio album, and the first one to feature Dingman since December. PopMatters gave the record a 7 out of 10 rating, saying “It’s good to know they’re out there, getting better with age, staying true to their sound despite geographical isolation and maybe even (we can hope!) tricking some kids into picking up some post-punk the next time they’re looking for Against Me! or Rise Against.“

• The band toured Greece in spring 2007 and played Spain’s Tanned Tin Festival in Castelló, thanks in part to Spanish label Acuarela Discos. A full European tour was slated for early ’08. “Europe is simply where our fan base is,” Jeff said. “We’ve had offers to play in Rome, Berlin, Amsterdam, Athens and all points in between.”

• In 2008 For Against released their ninth album, Never Been, again on Words on Music, which would be the last release with Harry Dingman. 

It was here that I asked Jeff to fill in what happened over the next eight years, which he did. Somewhere there’s a videotape recording of our talk, likely sitting on a shelf in some videographer’s closet. 

One reason for the Hi-Fi House event was the release of Primitives and Smalls on Saint Marie Records. Unlike a lot of dream pop, the record wasn’t intended to function as a polite soundtrack for idle daydreaming. It was vengeful and acerbic, and cut deep. It showcased Jeff’s mastery of the post-punk sounds he’d been creating since the ’80s.  

Jeff never quit creating music. Most recently, he was excited about his new album, Piqued, slate for release on Independent Project Records (IPR). The first single, “Batman Forever,” (Batman is the nickname for Runnings’ husband, Sean Applegate), was released at the end of January, and casts the same haunting spell heard on the best For Against albums. Jeff recorded the track, as well as the rest of the album, from his home. It’s a collection I know he’s proud of.

Our last correspondence – via email – was Jeff telling me that the US/Europe press agent for IPR was going to conduct a call with him and Bruce Licher of IPR about the “promotion machine” for the new record. He told me to stay tuned. 

All of this was happening while Jeff continued treatment for the cancer that ended his life yesterday.  He was more than a friend in music; he was a good person with a razor-sharp sense of humor and a heart of gold. I’m going to miss him.

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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 © 2025 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

There’s not a lot of information about tonight’s headliner at Reverb Lounge, Buffchick. In fact, you’ll have to dig around on the internet to find any information, but after clicking through various Google pages, I discovered her BMI profile from 2023, which said Brooklyn’s Buffchick is New Jersey-born singer/songwriter Erin Manion, who counts among her influences Pinegrove, Modern Baseball and Soccer Mommy. 

Certainly it’s the last one – Soccer Mommy – that her music most resembles. Her self-released 2024 album, Showtime, has that same mid-tempo acoustic-guitar-driven indie sound that you’ll recognize from the Boygenius team (Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus, Julien Baker). Spotify shows she has just shy of 30,000 monthly listeners, so someone is checking out her pretty indie folk rock. 

Tonight’s show at Reverb is a four-band bill according to the 1% website, consisting of all unsigned acts – ambitious for a Monday. Opener Peter Groppe’s claim to fame is having performed on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.  Also playing are Three of Cups and Omaha’s Madeline Reddel. $18, 7 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 © 2025 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Here comes the weekend. There’s nothing on the show radar tonight.

Tomorrow night (Saturday), the weekly free concert series continues at fabulous O’Leaver’s with Mono in Stereo and The Mudpuddles. Mono in Stereo is the new project that consists of frontman Charles McNeil (Brian Jones Was Murdered); bassist Marty Amsler (legendary ’90s Lincoln act The Millions), guitarist James MacDougall, and drummer Joe Eichoff (The End in Red). It’s scheduled to start at 9 p.m. and like I said, it’s FREE. 

Sunday night, Clem Snide headlines at Reverb Lounge. The project of singer/songwriter Eef Barzelay, the band is supporting its new album, Oh Smokey, which came out last November but is now being released on vinyl May 2 via Foreign Leisure Records. .

“There’s, for sure, a soon-to-be-divorced energy in some of the themes,” Barzelay says about the record. “But mostly, I like to think of the songs as clumsy, well-meaning attempts at prayer by a lapsed Atheist raised by godless Jews.” That’s a lot. Akron’s Rye Valley and Nashville’s The Bedrock open the show at 8 p.m. $20. 

And that’s all I got. If I missed your show, put it in the comments section. Have a great weekend. 

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2025 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

A quick note to pass along a few new tracks that caught my ear. Like I’ve mentioned before, I probably get 100 email submissions a day. These are the few that managed to avoid the delete key…

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I never listened to Ben Kweller much over the years, but his latest song, “Dollar Store,” is a straight-up banger. It was recorded with Waxahatchee’s Katie Crutchfield and is the first new music from Kweller since the death of his 16-year-old son Dorian Zev in 2023. The track is from his new album, Cover the Mirrors, out May 30 via The Noise Company. BTW, Kweller’s closest pass to Omaha on his upcoming tour is Minneapolis April 28.

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I almost skipped right over this email when I saw the band’s name was Smut, figuring it was just another metal act. But Smut is a Chicago-based shimmer-gaze band that recalls acts like The Sundays, but with a bigger punch. “Dead Air” is conventional-sounding indie rock that borders on alt, but… pretty; driven by front woman Tay Roebuck. This comes from an upcoming yet-to-be-announced album.

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Urban “anti-folk” folkie Jeffrey Lewis has a new album coming out called The EVEN MORE Freewheelin’ Jeffrey Lewis, due March 21 on Don Giovanni Records. It was recorded in four days in Nashville by Roger Moutenot (Yo La Tengo). “Just Fun” is the second single/video, which came out Tuesday.  

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No local band has worked an album harder than Clarence Tilton is working their latest, Queen of the Brawl.  Seems like they’ve dropped a new single every two or three weeks for the past few months. “Bongos” is the fourth single, released Feb. 14. The one-sheet doesn’t say when the whole record comes out, which is kind of a head-scratcher…

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Finally, for #TBT, here’s a review from 20 years ago. Just your typical night in Omaha, featuring Shelterbelt and The Golden Age. Whatever happened to those guys?

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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 © 2025 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The announcement that early-aughts indie act Rilo Kiley has been booked to play The Astro in La Vista Sept. 17 (tickets went on sale this morning) has spurred speculation as to who will be headlining the 2025 Maha Music Festival. RK had been one of the front-runners.

The last time Maha hosted a festival back in 2023, organizers announced the line-up the last week of February. However, Outlandia Festival organizers — now part of the Maha Festival team — didn’t announce their 2024 festival until the end of March.  

So far Maha Festival organizers have only said that the one-day festival is taking place Aug. 2 at the new RiverFront Park in downtown Omaha. I was told the headliner was booked months ago, and rumors continue to float among the “indie illuminati” as to who it is.  A friend of mine who says he’s “in the know” but wouldn’t give me a name told me the headliner is a well-known band that hasn’t played here in a very long time, although several of its members have played here over the years in various side projects. That’s rather broad.

Don’t ask me, I’m out of the loop, but I can make some educated guesses based on a few factors: 

1. As mentioned, Maha “combined forces” with the Outlandia Festival after Outlandia’s demise in 2024. That mean’s Maha’s original four founders – Mike App, Tre Breshear, Tyler Owen and Mike Toohey – are back in some capacity. What that “capacity” is, I’m not certain. These guys are all Gen X’ers and love legacy indie acts. 
2. The production company that worked with Maha in the past and that used to produce the Outlandia Festival – 1% Productions – also will be back to produce this year’s Maha Festival. For you younger readers, 1% is a big reason Omaha became nationally known for its indie music scene in the early part of this century. And while they’ve expanded their booking focus to more mainstream pop, R&B and C&W acts for their venues (which include The Waiting Room, Reverb Lounge, The Astro and The Admiral theaters), 1% still has an immense network of indie music contacts.
3. Before making any guess, eliminate acts that are either already booked for Nebraska shows, nearby festivals or have played here in the past year. So strike a line through festival favorites Jack White, Future Islands, Rilo Kiley, Bright Eyes, The Faint, Gregory Alan Isakov, Bob Mould, Hurray for the Riff Raff, Bob Dylan, Mannequin Pussy, Lord Huron, Real Estate, Cursive, Black Country, New Road, Indigo Girls, MJ Lenderman, Fontaines, D.C., Of Montreal, Orville Peck, Flaming Lips, The Head and the Heart , The Lumineers and Lana Del Rey. 
4. Also eliminate bands that are either not touring or are already playing gigs Aug. 2. This tougher list includes Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Arcade Fire, Beck, Wet Leg, Nation of Language, Phoebe Bridgers, Jamie XX, Adrianne Lenker, Nine Inch Nails, GBV and Wilco.

So who does that leave? 

• – Well, on top of my list is The Pixies, who are playing the Palace Theater July 31 and Aug. 1 in Minneapolis and have the next day off on their tour. The band would be quite a get for the first Maha Fest down at the much larger RiverFront Park, and I know the Outlandia guys love them some Pixies.

• – Next on the list: St. Vincent. She’s played a number of sold-out Omaha shows in the past and has an Aug. 30 date at Chicago’s Soldier Field.

• – The Black Keys, who cancelled a national tour a year or so ago, are back and are playing a spring/summer U.S. Tour followed by a European tour that wraps up in mid-July, followed by an Atlanta festival in mid September. For some reason, they’re an Omaha favorite.

• – And then there’s our old pals Spoon. The band reportedly has a new album coming out this year and begins a national tour at the end of August that so far doesn’t include Nebraska. This Maha Festival veteran would be a great draw.

Here are a few additional guesses that are more like wishes:

• – LCD Soundsystem – The band that keeps touring despite having broken up a few years ago is playing gigs throughout the spring and early summer, but are likely out of Maha’s price range. 

• – The Hard Quartet, the new band from Pavement’s Stephen Malkmus with Matt Sweeney, Jim White and Emmett Kelly. Their debut album came out last year on Matador and they’re touring the US and Europe throughout the spring and summer.

• – Waxahatchee – The indie folk act has managed to avoid Nebraska on all its tours, including their next U.S. tour, which kicks off in March and continues through September. 

• – Perfume Genius – They’ve got a hot new album coming out on Matador Records and their June tour skips Omaha. 

• – Sharon Van Etten – She also has a red-hot album out now on Jagjaguwar, but her early summer tour skips Omaha. 

• – Horsegirl – Too small to headline a festival, the band played Outlandia two years ago, but their new album is a critical smash and could make them this year’s Wet Leg. 

Also-run possibilities: Japanese Breakfast, the ever-present Father John Misty, Youth Lagoon.

One last clue about Maha’s festival line-up: I’ve been told by a couple organizers that “I’ll like some of the bands but not like others.” So what else is new? Isn’t that the way with any festival?

Who do you think Maha’s headliner will be? For now, we wait…

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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 © 2025 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.