by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

In this week’s column, the story of Unread Records and why the label, which is celebrating its 19th birthday this Saturday with an 11-band concert at the Sweatshop Gallery, continues to release (primarily) cassettes. It’s in this week’s issue of The Reader, and online right here…

And heck, since the column is music-related, online below.

by Tim McMahan

Every year right around now, I put my Mini Cooper convertible in storage and replace it with a ’96 Geo Tracker. My Cooper has virtually no ground clearance, which makes it useless in any measurable snow, while the Tracker not only stands high above the ground but also is four-wheel-drive, making it virtually unstoppable.

The downsides of my Geo: It’s beginning to rust. The driver’s side door handle is broken. The rims are the wrong size, so the tires have a habit of deflating overnight. It smells like my dogs.

The upside: It has a cassette deck. There’s something particularly awesome about digging out a mixtape from the summer of 1994 and listening to forgotten bands like Uncle Joe’s Big Ol’ Driver or Morphine or The Wedding Present or Game Theory.

But for Chris Fischer, the label executive behind Unread Records, cassette tapes are more than just a nostalgia trip. The motto on the homepage of unread-records.com: “Creating homemade tapes from empty aluminum cans since 1994.”

Fischer used to live in Omaha. The Lancaster, Pennsylvania, native, now living in Pittsburgh, was wooed to our city in the late ‘90s by none other than Conor Oberst after Fischer set up a show for him in Lancaster back in the early Bright Eyes days.

Back then, Fischer’s Unread Records was part of the underground world of cassette-tape-only record labels. Now 19 years later, it still is, even though super-cheap digital music technology should have made cassettes obsolete. Instead, Unread boasts a catalog of 148 cassette tapes by artists such as Charlie McAlister, Ramon Speed, Spirit Duplicator and Omaha’s own Simon Joyner.

Those artists will join seven more from the Unread Records roster for Junkfest #19 — a concert at the Sweatshop Gallery in Benson this Saturday at 6 p.m. Fischer said the event, which celebrates the label’s 19th birthday, will be “a great show, very bizarre, an experience.”

When I interviewed Fischer back in 2000, the central question was: Why cassettes? Not so strangely, the question remained at the forefront when I talked to him last Saturday. He admitted cassettes have inferior sound quality, degrade faster and are more expensive to mass produce than CDRs. And if you thought finding a turntable was hard, finding a cassette deck means scouring eBay, Craig’s List or your local pawn shop.

Fischer said his love of cassettes is a product of growing up idolizing tape labels of yesterday like Shrimper, Catsup Plate and Omaha’s Sing! Eunuchs. “Cassettes are more artistically attractive to me,” he said. “It’s a mechanical thing, a physical object. It feels better to hold a cassette. It jangles around a bit. It has screws. It’s not that I’m anti-technology, there’s nothing wrong with CRSs, they just don’t look as attractive, and I don’t understand how they work.”

Plus, like vinyl records, cassettes have two sides. “Everyone now just wants to purchase a song off iTunes or just buy increments of music as opposed to a whole album,” Fischer said. “There’s nothing better than listening to an album — the A side, the B side, hits or no hits, I like to hear it all for what it is.”

Over the years, Fischer has gone from a production process that involved plugging tape decks together to dub six tapes at a time to using professional dubbers. He dubs between 50 and 150 tapes per title, depending on how well he thinks they’ll sell, then gives half of them to the artists. Not a total Luddite, Fischer said if an artist provides the master on CD, he makes the tracks available for digital download. But it’s the cassettes that are the cool, collectable thing, not the downloads.

Simon Joyner, who ran Sing! Eunuchs with Chris Deden, said cassettes became an important medium in the late ‘80s into the ‘90s because everyone had a cassette player and recorder at home. “So, people who wanted to create music could do it very easily and inexpensively. They could try anything they wanted because no studios were necessary, no label was necessary. Out of this, labels formed around this DIY concept that artists were everywhere and here’s the music, cheap and accessible.”

But Bandcamp and other digital music file-sharing sites have made cassettes unnecessary. “What’s going on now is fetishistic, econo-chic,” Joyner said. “There is nostalgia around the cassette medium because so many great, important artists and bands started out that way, during that time when it was the cheapest, easiest way to get music out there. (Today) most people releasing music on cassette are feeding that population of cassette fetishists while also releasing the same music in other ways, having their tape and eating it, too.”

Joyner said when he was putting out tapes, he “longed for vinyl, and that hasn’t changed.” Fischer agreed, and Unread has released a number of vinyl records. “I would love to do a lot more,” Fischer said, “but 80 percent of my catalog is cassettes only because of cash flow. If I won the lottery, I’d do more vinyl.”

But even if he did, there would still be a fascination for cassettes. “Nowadays, cassettes are cool and retro,” Fischer said. “A friend of mine approached me to put out a cassette and didn’t have the first idea how they worked or what they were. It blew my mind.”

Joyner, who never liked the “low-fi” label placed on him early in his career, accepted tape hiss as an unavoidable product of recording limitations.

“You should only love that sound if the music in the foreground is good,” Joyner said. “Then as now, a lot of music released on tape is no good, and having it on tape doesn’t change that fact. But when it is good, there is something nice about the hum and hiss as I drive around the city in my decrepit Ford Escort just to hear it.”

Or in my Geo Tracker.

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 Omaha Reader, Nov. 6, 2013. Copyright © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

The latest mysterious message about O’Leaver’s Black Friday event…What could it mean?

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Village Pointe Cinema is hosting a special screening of Made of Stone: The Stone Roses. The documentary by covers the Manchester band’s 2012 and 2013 reunion tours, which culminated with a headlining spot at the 2013 Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in California. The screening is scheduled for 7:30.

* * *

OK, now O’Leaver’s is just playing with us. This showed up on the email right before lunch. Can you decipher its meaning?

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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

It’s Halloween which is usually a night to avoid the bars for obvious reasons, not the least of which is that most clubs celebrate with bad cover bands and costume contests. Thankfully, most of that took place last weekend, and as a result, there’s actually some fun stuff happening tonight that doesn’t involve dressing up like a zombie (Show of hands, who’s getting sick of the zombie bullshit? That’s what I thought. “Zombie walks” are this generation’s renaissance fairs).

Tonight, House of Loom is hosting “Solid Plackout” — a show featuring Digital Leather, Lincoln geek-rocker Plack Blague and the incomparable Solid Goldberg. Added to the bill is Superstar + Star, a one-man dance explosion (check out the video below). All for $8, or $5 with Facebook RSVP (go here for that). The fun starts at 9.

I’m told by promoter Chris Aponick that you’re not required to wear a costume to attend the Loom show. Chis is calling it a “can’t be bothered with costumes” event. On the other hand, if you feel the need to wear a costume, Chris tells me that none of the bands will make fun of you from stage. I will go in my traditional costume — off-duty cop.

Also tonight, ’80s MTV icons Living Color plays at The Waiting Room. You remember “Cult of Personality,” don’t you? How could you forget? The song was on heavy rotation on rock channels and MTV for about five years (along with Aerosmith’s “Love in an Elevator” — often played back to back). Voodoo Method opens. $25, and don’t be surprised if it sells out because Omaha loves its legacy acts.

There also are parties at The Sydney and Barley Street, and Boo Goo (with M34N ST33T) at The Slowdown.

Whatever you do, remember it’s amateur night. And expect cops…

* * *

In this week’s column, a look at what’s involved with making a local independent film from the viewpoint of a producer. You can read it in this week’s issue of The Reader or online right 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 © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Congratulations to the Omaha World-Herald on its relaunch of its Go section.  They’re calling it “Go Magazine” now, though the  print format is no different than the paper’s old Go section. According to the article explaining the change, the section will include more quick reads because, “We know you’re busy and don’t always have time to read longer stories,” and “more of you,” which means they’re soliciting reader input via social media channels, because we all want to read what the person in the cubical next to us thinks about the latest Tom Hanks movie.

Those changes are inconsequential compared to the fact that the section appears to have more music coverage. They worked Kevin Coffey like a mule for this inaugural relaunch issue, and it shows especially with this fun story where people recount memories of bands playing Omaha before they made it big. The Nirvana stories are particularly interesting. The section’s music calendar is probably the best design improvement in the printed version of Go.

Unfortunately, the Go website (like the OWH website in general) continues to de-emphasize the content for the benefit of the horrific pop-up advertising. But maybe their strategy is to get you so infuriated with their lousy website that you’re forced to buy a printed copy of the paper to read the articles. Who knows. The OWH has never had a good website.

Regardless, here’s hoping Go continues to maintain its heavy music focus. You cannot have too many music news resources in a market the size of Omaha.

* * *

Meanwhile, in this week’s issue of The Reader (in addition to this Desaparecidos story), I’m characterized as a “naive lib,” and also talk about Lee Terry, heathcare.gov, the Goth Ball, The Book of Mormon, Avoli Osteria and Dundee’s impending parking problem. Like I said, it’s in this weeks issue of The Reader or you can read it online right here.

* * *

Tonight at fabulous O’Leaver’s Twinsmith kicks off a sweet little Midwest tour. Opening is their pals Routine Escorts. $5, 9:30 p.m.

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The story of Almost Music, the vintage record store that just opened at 6569 Maple St. in Benson, is the story of a guy who escaped a life caged in a cubicle to pursue a dream he’s held for 20 years.

Brad Smith got into the record business way back in 1993 at age 20 when he joined the staff of the legendary Antiquarium Record Store in the Old Market. Tucked away in the basement of a massive bookstore on Harney Street, The Antiquarium was the touchstone of the Omaha music scene throughout its heyday in the mid-‘90s.

Smith joined a staff that included Chris Deden, singer/songwriter Simon Joyner and The Antiquarium’s legendary frontman, Dave Sink.

“Dave was the mouthpiece, the spokesperson,” Smith said. “That’s what he liked to do — drink coffee, smoke cigarettes and BS with people. Chris and I actually worked really hard because we had to make up for the fact that Dave didn’t.”

While Smith, Deden and Joyner broke their backs keeping the shelves stocked, Sink stood behind the counter and shared what he knew about the music business (and baseball) with young bands, young record labels and, yes, young music journalists. Sink and the store played a central role in creating a scene that spawned Saddle Creek Records and bands such as Bright Eyes and Cursive.

Technology eventually drove Smith out of The Antiquarium in 2000. He and Deden had set up a website called Starsailor Records and began selling rare albums on a new online marketplace called eBay. Smith said Sink viewed the Internet as a passing fad.

“Dave’s quote was, ‘This is the new CB radio. It’s hot right now, but you’re wasting your time.’ The whole idea of cyberspace was a hard concept for someone Dave’s age to grasp.”

As you might guess, a career selling records isn’t exactly lucrative. Smith said his years at the Antiquarium brought in just enough to pay the rent. “I was single and so were Chris and Dave,” he said. “It was enough to make a meager living for a single person. I would have made a better living if I hadn’t spent so much on my own record collection.”

Needless to say, things changed when Smith had his first daughter, Matilda, in 2001. Now with a child to support, he felt he needed a more substantial career, one that actually supplied health insurance. Smith had earned a degree in Business Administration from UNO while working at The Antiquarium, which helped him land an insurance job and eventually a credit analyst position at Hewlett-Packard in 2007. By then he’d met his current girlfriend, Sarah Gleason, who had two kids of her own, Nora and Jack. Together, the couple had Dorothy, who just turned 3 and a half.

Even with a “regular job,” Smith said there was no real security at H-P. Shortly after he joined the company, the bottom fell out of the economy and the layoffs began. “We went from four floors of employees to two,” Smith said. “We had waves of layoffs every nine months. I survived four of them.”

His number finally came up in April of this year. By then, he already had the idea of opening Almost Music. “I knew a record store could be successful if I did it right,” Smith said. “Even before I got laid off, Sarah said, ‘You have to do it.’ She knew I hated sitting in a cubical all day. Once I got laid off, there was no excuse not to.”

Smith already had begun accumulating inventory when the storefront became available. Located a few blocks west of the heart of Benson, Almost Music shares the space with Solid Jackson Books, a satellite location of Jackson Street Booksellers. The bookstore’s name is an homage to ‘90s rock band Solid Jackson, which released a record on a label run by Deden and Joyner.

“I really wanted to do something like The Antiquarium, where it’s not just a retail shop, it’s a place to hang out and have discussions and have a cup of coffee,” Smith said. “That wasn’t feasible without the bookstore.”

Open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 6, Almost Music sells an eclectic mix of vinyl — everything from high-end collectables (a Sun Ra album from 1968 is priced at $350) to clean, cheap copies of albums by bands like The Go Go’s and Fleetwood Mac.

“I try to make it a well-curated selection,” Smith said. “The Antiquarium did the same thing. We had our cheap section and kept the good stuff separate. Ninety-eight percent of our albums is really clean and in nice shape. You don’t have to check the condition.”

On a trip to Almost Music last weekend I picked up a rare copy of a Smiths 12-inch single (“Barbarism Begins at Home” b/w “Shakespeare’s Sister”) and Richard Thompson’s Hand of Kindness LP, while Teresa snagged Claudine Longet’s debut album and Queen’s The Game, both for $2.

It’s only been open three weeks but the shop is already doing well. Smith said the store isn’t the couple’s only source of income. Sarah also has a part-time job, and they both intend to take advantage of insurance available through the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare).

Still, was opening the store scary?

“Oh yeah,” Smith said. “I kept looking for a job I couldn’t say ‘no’ to. It never happened because my heart was never in it. My heart was in this.”

Almost Music and Solid Jackson Bookstore celebrate their official Grand Opening this Saturday, Oct. 19, from 7 to 10 p.m. . Festivities include live performances by Simon Joyner and Noah Sterba of The Yuppies. Come on down, have a cup of coffee and listen to some good music.

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, Oct. 17, 2103. Copyright © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

* * *

The bar-hopping begins tonight at Lincoln Calling as the festival will be in full multi-venue mode with acts performing at six venues throughout the Star City.

Here’s tonight’s Lincoln Calling sched:

Bourbon Theatre
Early show
Huntress
Ezra
Gallows Majesty
Haggard Mess
6 p.m., $5 for 21+, $7 for 18-20

Late show
Desert Noises
Rock Paper Dynamite
The Kickback
Skypiper
9 p.m., $8 for 21+, $10 for 18-20

Duffy’s Tavern
Masses
The Whipkey Three
Tie These Hands
Ouqua
8 p.m., $5 for 21+, $7 for 18-20

Zoo Bar
The Renfields
John Klemmensen and the Party
Christopher the Conquered
Brad Hoshaw and the Seven Deadlies
Tsumi
Jack Hotel
The Bottletops
5 p.m., $5, 21+

Yia Yia’s Pizza
Burning Down the Villager
Domestica
10 p.m., no cover, 21+

Mix Bar and Arcade
Bass Invaders w/
Bassthoven
Wrekafect
Trill Ferrell
9 p.m., no cover, 21+

Fat Toad
DJ JAB
Nick the Quick
9 p.m., no cover, 21

For more info go to lincolncalling.com.

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Also tonight, Rig 1 headlines at The Waiting Room. The hip-hop project is led by Ian McElroy of Desaparecidos fame. Backing him as part of Rig 1 is Clark Baechle (The Faint) and Dustin Bushon (FVTHR^). For a taste, check out “Walking Zombie” from the North of Maple release. Openers are Nuit and Touch People. $7, 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 © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

…from the This Charming Charlie Tumblr…

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

With no local music news to speak of today, I thought I’d chime in on the latest Morrissey controversy. Morrissey fans already are aware of the “This Charming Charlie” Tumblr, which marries some of Morrissey’s best lines to Peanuts cartoons. Well apparently the blokes at Universal and Johnny Marr tried to take the site down with a copyright claim. Morrissey chimed in from his unofficial website True To You.

“Morrissey is represented by Warner-Chappell Publishing, and not Universal Music Publishing, (who have allegedly demanded that the lyrics be removed).  Morrissey is delighted and flattered by the Peanuts comic strip with its use of Morrissey-Smiths lyrics, and he hopes that the strips remain.”

And remain they do. It apparently came down to a question of “Fair Use” vs. copyright claims. Both Marr and Morrissey control the Smiths’ songs’ copyright, so either can license others to use the lyrics. With Morrissey’s approval of Charming Charlie, the litigation threat, it appears, went away. Read the details (and learn a little about Fair Use) at the Tumblr site and then enjoy some Charming Charlie…

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In this week’s column, why I listen to Magic 1490 AM, the new all-oldies renegade station. You can read it in this week’s issue of The Reader or online right here.

* * *

Tonight at Slowdown Jr., Saturn Moth takes the stage with Hussies and Manic Pixie Dream Girls. $5, 9 p.m. Check out some MPDG 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 © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Tim Kasher, Adult Film (Saddle Creek, 2013)

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

And here’s Pt. 2 of the Tim Kasher interview. Pt. 1 was posted yesterday. Both parts are in this week’s issue of The Reader. Pick up a copy at your local news rack or bar or coffee shop or convenient store today.

Over the Edge: Leftover Kasher

Like the headline says, here’s some leftover wisdom from Tim Kasher that didn’t make it into the feature story.  I thought it would be a shame to leave it on the cutting room floor.

For example, nowhere in the feature story did I explain the title of Kasher’s new album, Adult Film, and the origin of its hideous cover art. Hopefully Eric in production has a copy of the artwork to include with this column so you can see just how repulsive it truly is. So gruesome is the cover that I almost dropped the CD’s jewel case when I took it out of the promo mailer’s envelope.

The artwork is actually quite simple — it’s a nude head-and-shoulder photo of Kasher covered in some sort of greasy, slimy substance, as if a giant woman-thing gave birth to him full-grown only moments prior to the shoot. Mixed in with the shiny, viscous substance are bits of what look like shit or placenta or snot balls. Even Kasher’s well-combed hair lays flat like it hadn’t been washed in a couple weeks. The photo is just straight fucking gross; so ugly you can practically smell it.

The art is made all the more disturbing by the placement of the words ADULT FILM in yellow all-caps on top of a black bar that blocks out Kasher’s eyes, as if to hide his identity even though his name appears right above his head.

Creepy. Needless to say, there had to be some sort of meaning behind it.

“There’s not a ton to it, and I feel like I suffer when I explain it,” Kasher said sheepishly. “I just quite simply saw the two words ‘adult film’ in my head and I separated them from what they’ve come to mean in our society. I tend to play around with words, and it occurred to me how odd those words were together. They’ve come to mean ‘pornography’ and nothing else. but if they had never been used for pornography they would conjure this gross thought; this film that people collect that gets wrinkled and corse as it goes old and untouched.

“I think (in that context) it’s fitting for the album’s subject matter. That meaning casts a wide net. It’s a catch-all for mortality and getting older, but also about career and dating and aging and whatever pursuit you happen to be in.”

He said said he’s “a little uneasy with the porno aspect” of the title. As for the guck, “It’s Vaseline and dirt; potting soil and some mulch and some green dye to give it a bit of a sheen.”

Aren’t you glad I asked?

At one point during our interview I also asked Kasher about his vocals on the album’s roaring, rolling opener “American Lit,” and told him it reminded me of something from Slowdown Virginia, one of Kasher’s first bands from way back in ’93 that some say was a starting point for what would become the Saddle Creek scene.

“That’s a relief to me,” Kasher said. “I sing lower almost always now. I’ve been having vocal issues over the last four years. I write in low registers just in case. I just can’t stay on top of it. I don’t know when it’s going to go out next, with bronchitis or something.”

That was a surprise. So was Kasher’s comments about Help Wanted Nights. I mentioned that Adult Film was my favorite Kasher album since that classic 2007 album by his other band, The Good Life. It turns out that Help Wanted Nights also was notable to Kasher, but for a different reason.

“It was the first time that I got bad reviews,” he said. “It knocked me down for like two days, and then for the next few records I watched (the reviews) a little bit more than before. It became a sick curiosity, and I got a little obsessed.”

Kasher said he eventually got past his preoccupation with critics. “I’m not going to do that anymore,” he said. “It’s not that I’m against critics, it’s that they’re not the ones who I should be writing for.”

Help Wanted Nights was actually a sort of soundtrack to an unproduced script of the same name. Written a few years prior to the album’s release, it was the first script Kasher tried to get produced, catching the interest of a handful of Los Angeles money people. Still, six years later, the script remains unshot.

“I set it aside just before I began working on (The Game of) Monogamy (Kasher’s 2010 debut solo album). It had some renewed interest for a few months.”

Kasher hasn’t given up his silver-screen dreams. “I have another script being worked on to go into production,” he said. The new one is about couple swapping — ironic, considering the title of this new album.

Kasher said the movie business is “a hard game with a lot of money involved I keep writing and handing stuff out, and here and there get reactions. I’ll cautiously kind of let it play itself out and see what happens.”

One last thing I forgot to mention in the feature: Adult Film doesn’t come out until next Tuesday, Oct. 8, on Saddle Creek Records (of course). You should pick up a copy when you go to see Kasher and his band celebrate its release at The Waiting Room Saturday night. Whatever you do, don’t judge the record by its cover.

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, Oct. 2, 2103. Copyright © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

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One of the biggest shows of the month takes place tonight at Slowdown Jr.

Some of you may not be old enough to remember Quasi and the Portland band’s seminal 1998 album Featuring “Birds,” but it was one of the defining albums of the late ’90s and the high water mark this band. Frontman Sam Coomes had just left two pretty successful bands — Donner Party and Heatmiser, a band that also featured Elliot Smith — to form this band with Sleater-Kinney’s Janet Weiss. Featuring “Birds” came out of nowhere and was a critical smash thanks to ultra cool songs like “I Never Want to See You Again,” “The Poisoned Well,” and of course “California.” Heck, every track is good.

Six more albums followed, including their just released Mole City, which came out Tuesday on Kill Rock Stars. Tonight’s show kicks off their tour in support of that album.

Joining Quasi is Jeffrey Lewis, who’s album End Result (2007, Rough Trade), is one of my faves. Lewis has recorded with Kimya Dawson and most recently with Peter Stampfel. Our very own See Through Dresses opens. You get all three for a mere $15. Starts at 9. GO!!

Also tonight, Louisville, KY singer/songwriter Cheyenne Mize (Yep Rock Records) plays at fabulous O’Leaver’s with Eli Mardock and Blue Bird. $5, 9:30 p.m.

And The Waiting Room is hosting another Songwriter Death Battle featuring 40 or so local singer/songwriters passing around John Klemmenson’s beat-up acoustic guitar for one song apiece. Hear Nebraska has the line-up info right here. $5, 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 © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

I was on the list and everything for last night’s Orenda Fink / Simon Joyner show and just plain didn’t make it and I feel guilty about that. Another super-early morning kept me out of the clubs. There are  trade-offs in life, it seems…

I have tomorrow off so there’s nothing stopping me from hitting the big Burgerama Caravan of Stars Tour 2013 at Slowdown Jr. tonight. Burger Records is a red hot DIY punk / indie/ noise label. The SF Weekly called the label “contingent somehow within and decidedly apart from the indie rock sphere, boasting followers from all walks of life and similarly branded offshoots springing up throughout the land.” I’ve read that three times and I still don’t know what it means.

Anyway, the label’s biggest stars are on the road together and have finally made it to Omaha. The headliner is California act The Growlers. They call their sound “Beach Goth,” which also happens to the be name of their limited edition cassette-only 2012 Burger release. Their last formal album came out on FatCat this year.

Also on tonight’s Burgerama fightcard: Cosomonauts, Together Pangea, Gap Dream, White Fang with Colleen Green, and The Memories. All for $13. Show starts at 8. Why go to a festival when the festival can come to you?

Check out the story of Burger Records:

And here’s some samples from tonight’s bands:

Also tonight, punk band The Vibrators return to The Brothers Lounge with Bullet Proof Hearts, and Officially Terminated. $5, 9 p.m.

* * *

In this week’s column, I get cold-called by Springfield, Missouri band The Gardenheads in the form of their new vinyl release Growing Season. Album of the year? Maybe, maybe.. You can read it in this week’s issue of The Reader or online right 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 © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Joan of Arc at O’Leaver’s, Sept. 18, 2013.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

As much as I like their music, I don’t keep up with Joan of Arc. I lost track of them after 2008’s Boo Human, which was (probably) the last time they came through Omaha. For last night’s prime set at O’Leaver’s the band consisted of frontman/guitarist Tim Kinsella with drummer Theo Katsaounis and bassist Bobby Burg.

Rounding out the 4-piece was vocalist Melina Ausikaitis who added a Winter’s Bone-style June Carter twang to Kinsella’s usual muted vocals. Ausikaitis — hands thrust in pockets, slouched in rolled up blue jeans, red Converse high-tops, well-worn T-shirt and suspenders — was strangely magnetic, especially singing two a cappella numbers while the band fiddled with their various tuning devices.

They played a few songs off their just-released EP Testimonium Songs, including the insanely intricate, “The Bird’s Nest Wrapped Around the Security Camera” — a stuttering stop-and-go of the most complex math equations. Just as vexing was “I’d Expect Babies Should Fly, If Not At Least Float Away” — both songs models of precision rhythms and perfect instrumental choreography.

It wasn’t all experiments in synchronicity. The band threw in a few straight-forward rock songs as well as a fine version of “Shown and Told” off what Kinsella called “The Album of the Year.”

“It’s all about timing, at least that’s what they say,” Kinsella said, referencing either his songs or his set list, which, he said, was a purposeful ebb-and-flow contrast between the simple and the complex.

The set ended with a duet version of “Life Force” (Cut each other’s strings) off Life Like, that Kinsella said was the exclamation point to an evening of music that was way too short for the 40 or so on hand.

Joan of Arc at O’Leaver’s, Sept. 18, 2013.

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Busy busy busy slate of shows happening tonight.

The marquee I suppose is Best Coast at The Waiting Room. The band has a new album apparently produced by Jon Brion (Aimee Mann, Magnolia, Fiona Apple). I haven’t heard it, but based on this Hear Nebraska interview, the Brion connection helped push them away from their surf-rock style, which has me curious. Opening is LA band Bleached (Dead Oceans). $20 9 p.m.

Also tonight back at fabulous O’Leaver’s, Worried Mothers headlines a show that showcases their new album. Also on the bill are Fort Collins’ Sour Boy, Bitter Girl and Cooper Lakota Moon (Dim Light). $5, 9:30 p.m.

Meanwhile, the hot-and-bothered show of the evening is at Pageturners where Johnathan Rice (Jenny and Johnny) and Laura Burhenn (The Mynabirds) are doing a free show. I predict a crammed room, so if you’re going, get there early and start drinking (heavily). Starts at 10.

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In this week’s column, how saving Bo Pelini not only will save the Husker program but will improve my golf game. You can read it in this week’s issue of The Reader or online right 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 © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

One of the area’s longest running local music festivals, Lincoln Calling, announced the preliminary line-up for its 10th Anniversary festival slated for Oct. 15-19 in 10 venues throughout the Lincoln metroplex.

Organizer Jeremy Buckley says this year’s program features more than 100 bands and DJs from all over the country and world (but mostly from Nebraska). Confirmed so far:

The 4onthefloor (Minneapolis)
The Big Deep (Omaha)
Bonehart Flannigan (Lincoln)
The Bottletops (Lincoln)
BOY (Hamburg)
Brad Hoshaw and the Seven Deadlies (Omaha)
Carolyn Wonderland (Austin)
Christopher the Conquered (Des Moines)
Cowboy Indian Bear (Lawrence)
Cowboy Winter (Madison)
DEERPEOPLE (Stillwater)
Desert Noises (Provo)
Dirty Talker (Lincoln)
Eli Mardock (Lincoln)
A Ferocious Jungle Cat (Lincoln)
Freakabout! (Lincoln)
Genders (Portland)
Gordon (Omaha)
Guilty is the Bear (Lincoln)
Halfwit (Lincoln)
The Highest Order (Toronto)
Homegrown Film Festival (Lincoln)
Jack Hotel (Lincoln)
Jeazlepeats (Lincoln)
Jeremy Messersmith (Minneapolis)
John Klemmensen and the Party (Omaha)
The Josh Hill Band (Akron)
Josh Hoyer and the Shadowboxers (Lincoln)
The Kickback (Chicago)
Masses (Lincoln)
The Mezcal Brothers (Lincoln)
Oquoa (Omaha)
Orion Walsh and the Rambling Hearts (Lincoln)
Pleasure Adapter (Omaha)
Powers (Lincoln)
Red Cities (Lincoln)
The Renfields (Lincoln)
Rock Paper Dynamite (Omaha)
Rusty Maples (Las Vegas)
Saturn Moth (Omaha)
Snake Island! (Omaha)
Tie These Hands (Lincoln)
Too Slim and the Taildraggers (Nashville)
Tsumi (Lincoln)
Twinsmith (Omaha)
Universe Contest (Lincoln)
Whipkey Three (Omaha)
White Mystery (Chicago)
Wiping Out Thousands (Minneapolis)

This is the best selection of up-and-coming (i.e. “emerging”) talent in the area, highlighted by Gordon, Eli Mardock, Pleasure Adapter (now featuring Matt Maginn on bass), Oquoa, Twinsmith, Halfwit and (of course) Universe Contest. Lacking are any Saddle Creek bands (so far), but the omission (for whatever reason) doesn’t seem glaring.

So is this last year for Lincoln Calling? Buckley, who puts the whole thing together, is co-owner of Vega, a new music venue/bar/restaurant being built in the Pinnacle Bank Arena complex. No doubt he’ll be too busy managing and booking the new 500-capacity performance space to organize this annual monster. I asked Buckley if this was, indeed, the last year for Lincoln Calling. His response: “No comment?”

For the latest on LC10, go to lincolncalling.com or follow the event at https://www.facebook.com/LincolnCalling.

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In this week’s column, Omaha’s great inferiority complex and who gives a shit what anyone thinks of us? You can read it in this week’s issue of The Reader or online right 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 © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Maha’s cup overfloweth: A view of the crowd at this year’s festival while the Thermals perform.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

In this week’s column, a recap of this year’s Maha Music Festival. You can read it in this week’s issue of The Reader or online right here. Or heck, why not just read it below?

Over the Edge: At Age 5, the Maha Music Festival Is All Growed Up

Was this year’s Maha Music Festival a success?

The concert, held last Saturday at Stinson Park in Aksarben Village, drew 5,100 people. If that number seems light — especially compared to your typical CenturyLink Arena concert — consider that you cannot hear any of the bands that performed at Maha on your local FM radio. None. They don’t call it “indie rock” for nothing.

Tre Brashear, one of the festival’s organizers, said Saturday’s 5,100 was a 20 percent increase in attendance compared to the 4,300 there last year to see Garbage and Desaparecidos in the rain.

It was a big crowd. In fact the first thing I noticed after walking through the gates was that Maha had somehow made the park shrink. There wasn’t much green space for the crowds between the massive duo stages, the food vendors on Mercy Street, The Globe performance tent and the Bellevue University Community Campus.

Despite that, Brashear said Maha has yet to outgrow Aksarben Village, at least from a music standpoint. “Stinson is large and can hold more,” he said. “Furthermore, parking still continues to be pretty easy and convenient.”

On the other hand, Maha’s vendor space on Mercy Street has become too constrained. “People want more food options, more vendors,” Brashear said, “but we don’t have any place to put them unless we can figure out a way to put more items on the far side of the park.”

But beyond vendor congestion, if Maha ever bags its dream act — Wilco — organizers will have little choice but to look elsewhere, as the band could easily attract well over the park’s 10,000 capacity.

Enough about logistics. Here’s rundown of the bands I saw after arriving midway through the concert.

Saddle Creek Records’ latest recruits, The Thermals, played the straight-forward power-punk the trio is known for, including a number of songs off their latest album, Desperate Ground. The crowd seemed to like it, though they stood like scarecrows holding their beers and nodding their heads to the unchanging straight-four beat.

While The Thermals sounded good on the massive “Weitz Stage,” local boys Criteria sounded even better on the smaller “Centris Stage.” Don’t ask me why, but that junior-sized set-up sounded fuller (and louder) than its big brother, but maybe the band had something to do with it. Criteria, also a Saddle Creek act, boasts more dynamic songwriting vs. The Thermals’ play-and-repeat, one-gear punk style.

None of that mattered when Bob Mould took the main stage and blew them both away. Grinning throughout the set, Mould rifled through a “greatest hits” selection that included favorites off his Sugar albums, new stuff off his lastest solo record, The Silver Age, and classic Hüsker Dü in the form of “I Apologize” off New Day Rising. Bassist Jason Narducy filled out the vocals when Mould couldn’t, adding tasty harmonies throughout the set.

Mould was the highlight of the day for me and for a lot of others I spoke to including Brashear, who said Maha had been trying to book him since the festival began five years ago. As for those who complained that Mould’s set was “too loud,” the term “pussy” comes to mind. It’s Bob frickin’ Mould, folks. What did you expect?

Which brings us to Digital Leather. A few years ago during a lunch meeting I tried to convince the Maha guys to book the band by playing songs off their album, Blow Machine. When the execs heard stand-out track “Studs in Love,” with lines “I like Wrangler butts / I like hairy asses / I like men” they just shook their heads and said, “Maha’s a family event; we can’t have that.”

Cut to last Saturday and there was Digital Leather on stage singing about hairy asses to a crowd that barely noticed. Why would they? Isn’t rock ‘n’ roll supposed to be controversial and/or risky? What’s risky about hairy asses?

The thought that Maha organizers would be offended by Digital Leather seemed ridiculous after Matt & Kim took the stage. The keyboard-and-drums duo that plays cute, shiney indie pop dance tunes spent most of the time between songs yelling profanities at the audience. Every other word out of drummer Kim Schifino began with an F or MF. I guess they needed something to “rough up” their cutesy veneer and all those colored balloons just wasn’t cutting it.

It took about a dozen grips a half hour to get the set ready for festival closer The Flaming Lips. T-shirted stage hands carried huge chrome-plated globes while electricians carefully draped light strings from massive overhead crossbars. A few minutes before the set, out walked frontman/messiah Wayne Coyne in his shiny electric-blue suit, his graying mane blowing in the summer breeze. Coyne climbed atop the mountain of silver embryos and stood like a hipster Jesus grasping a weird fetus doll in his left hand.

If you came for the spectacle, you got it. The Lips’ amazing light show included a huge digital back-screen that blazed with glowing imagery while pin-lights flowed from above Coyne down the chrome mountain and back to the sky like an LED volcano.

Yes, there was plenty of smoke; yes there was confetti. Too bad there weren’t many hits. Coyne and Co. spent the first 20 minutes droning through depressing tonal music indicative of the band’s most recent album, The Terror. They would close out their set with hit, “Do You Realize?” but by then I was pedaling through Elmwood Park on my way home.

So was Maha a success? Artistically, it was the strongest festival they’ve ever put on. Brashear said it was financially successful as well, thanks to strong sponsorships, heavy donations throughout the year, and best-ever ticket sales.

“We definitely made a profit,” Brashear said. “That profit is going to get rolled into making next year’s Maha ‘better.’ What does that mean? We don’t know just yet. Could mean more expensive talent and/or an additional day. It’s too early to tell.”

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.

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John Klemmensen met his piddly Kickstarter goal of $500, actually exceeded it by a couple hundred dollars. I am among those who donated enough to get JK to do cover. I’m still mulling my choice  — should I select one of my favorite Buckingham Nicks songs or ask John to breath new life into a song by a local artist? Decisions, decisions…

Meanwhile, Bret Vovk (a.k.a. Under Water Dream Machine) and Nick Carl (a.k.a. Kicky Von Narl) just launched a Kickstarter in support of their upcoming 3-week tour of the American Southwest and West Coast. “All the proceeds gathered will go toward the happenings of a successful tour and production of a brand new split LP, available exclusively (for a time) to their Kickstarter backers,” they say. Get in on the action right here.

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Been kind of quiet show-wise since Maha. Not much happening tonight either, except for the next installment of The Record Club @ the Saddle Creek Shop (located in the Slowdown Compound), this time featuring The Beach Boy’s classic Pet Sounds album. The needle drops at 7 p.m. followed by a critical discussion of the record. As always, the event is free.

Also tonight, singer-songwriter Damon Dotson plays at Slowdown Jr. $5, 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 © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.