This is (sort of) the first part of a two-part feature/interview with Tim Kasher. Pt. 2 appears in this week’s column, which is essentially outtakes from Pt. 1. Look for that tomorrow. In the meantime…

Tim Kasher’s Adult Film

The Cursive frontman celebrates the release of his second full-length solo album.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

There’s a lot of death on Tim Kasher’s new album, Adult Film.

On the record’s first single, “Truly Freaking Out,” Kasher wrestles with the idea that his friends and family will all die some day, and he isn’t too happy about it. He bleakly points out over rolling keyboards: “I know, I know, I know the end is near / I know, I know it’s all downhill from here. / We’re all cascading to our graves / Tugging back at gravity’s reigns.”

At age 39, has Kasher, a staunch atheist, finally come to the realization that dead means dead, and there’s no coming back?

“I touch on it a lot it seems throughout the record,” Kasher said via cell while walking to Logan Square in his newly adopted hometown of Chicago. “There’s this kind of sobering that comes with age that anyone of us experiences who has gotten older and on the other side.”

One of Kasher’s dreams in his youth was to be a jazz drummer when he retires. “I wanted to be the cool guy that plays at a bar down the street,” he said. “Now that I’m turning 40 next year, I’m putting that aside. You start having sober realizations of how much time you have left. I also know that so much time has been nicked off, trimmed, shorn from our existence. I don’t feel like I’ve wasted time. I want to keep having more time, if anything.”

He may never become the next Buddy Rich or Joe Voda, but if the clock quits ticking for Kasher, he would leave behind an impressive list of other musical accomplishments that his loved ones would be proud of.  Kasher is arguably one of the best personal songwriters to come out of Omaha in the past 20 years, alongside his old pal Conor Oberst and local folk legend Simon Joyner.  Since ’97 he’s written and produced 12 full-length albums both as a solo artist and with his bands Cursive and The Good Life, almost all of them released on indie label Saddle Creek Records.

An entire generation of Nebraska singer/songwriters credits Kasher both as an influence and a survivor. In a time when musicians are being strangled by the economics of a financially crippled music industry, Kasher has continued to make a living doing nothing but music, though he’s beginning to diversify.

Last year he became partners in one of Omaha’s most notorious bars — O’Leaver’s on South Saddle Creek Rd. Kasher is a co-owner along with Cursive bandmates Ted Stevens and Matt Maginn, and long-time O’Leaver’s manager Chris Machmuller, lead singer of Saddle Creek band Ladyfinger.

“It’s hard to consider it my bar,” Kasher said. “It’s really their bar, but I’m glad to be able to contribute monetarily.”

While portfolio diversification was the main reason for joining the partnership, “the first reason was because Matt was interested in buying it,” Kasher said. “We’ve been working together forever and he’s always wanted to diversify but wanted to do it in a way that seems enjoyable. Who wants to buy a paper company because he hears it’s a good investment?”

Kasher said eight or so years ago when Cursive and The Good Life were at a financial peak, people just assumed he was “living high off the hog. I’m basing this on people I run into in other states who have lofty concepts of my success that don’t even remotely match reality,” he said.

“When someone writes a book, you figure ‘Well now, they must be loaded. They wrote a book.’ But in reality they’re actually a struggling teacher. These days most people think that I should have another job. I’m pretty much off the radar; nothing I do elicits some kind of suggestion of a lot of success, but I manage to do okay anyway. My career, at this point, has some girth to it.”

It also helps that Kasher does more than one musical project at a time. “A lot of why music is still a full-time job is because I tend to do it about twice as much as other musicians in that I release under multiple monikers” he said. “I always knew that (Cursive and The Good Life) kept each other afloat. When I set The Good Life aside it was like I had stopped my bar tending job. The money dwindled.”

Not for long. Kasher began releasing solo work with 2010’s The Game of Monogamy and its follow-up, 2011’s More Songs from the Monogamy Sessions EP.  The perennial question with every release is how Kasher decides which material will go toward which project. Cursive music tends to be harder, faster and more acidic than the lighter, more melody-driven tunes heard on Good Life albums. The music for Adult Film falls somewhere in between.

Recorded at Steve Albini’s Electrical Audio Studio in Chicago and mixed by John Congleton at Elmwood Recording in Dallas, Adult Film is the most tuneful Kasher project since The Good Life’s Help Wanted Nights in 2007. Songs like failure anthem “A Raincloud Is a Raincloud,” breakup drama “The Willing Cuckold,” and the pounding “A Looping Distress Signal” are as close to straight-up rock songs as Kasher can probably get.

Never has keyboards played such a dominant role in one of his productions. From the pounding organ on “Life and Limbo” to the wonky rolling synth on the aforementioned “Truly Freaking Out” that sounds like a Kubrick-ian nightmare to the piano-tightrope walk on “Where Your Heart Lies,” keys are on almost every song.

“We had that in mind from the onset,” Kasher said, pointing to collaborator Patrick Newbery who is credited with organ, keys, synths and horns on the recording. Newbery is joined on the record by Sara Bertuldo (bass, vocals), Dylan Ryan (drums) and a handful of other musicians caught in Kasher’s orbit.

So why were the songs on Adult Film used for a solo album?

“It’s just what I’m doing right now, and it’s logical,” Kasher said. “I want to get my own name off the ground a bit more. We’re all getting older and if I were to continue to do any of this, it’ll be easier to lean on just myself to put out an album.”

That said, there’s little doubt about Cursive’s future. Last year the band released the full-length I Am Gemini on Saddle Creek Records and spent a good part of the year on the road. Saddle Creek Records said the album had U.S. Soundscans of 10,379 and more than 430,000 track streams on Spotify. Kasher said he was satisfied at how well that record performed.

“It gave us (Cursive) a lot of vigor, we had a great time being together and felt good about the finished product,” he said. “We got a chance to play the songs every night to a lot of people who were crazy for it. It was a lot of fun. In the largest sense we’ve become a niche band. We’re kind of a small posse, but a good community.”

The future of The Good Life, however, is more in question. “I feel that all the projects are still alive. Some are more dormant than others,” Kasher said. “The Good Life is very dormant now, but we still chat and think about it. I still try to look at my schedule long-term and think where I might do this or that band. In my head, it’s not dead at all. My impression is that we’ll all get back together in time.”

Even if that time is running out. While there is a looming sense of despair on his new record, Kasher said, “We’re still living in a good age. There’s a lot of joy everywhere. Everyone is having babies. We’re on the edge between getting joyful phone calls that someone is in labor and getting calls that someone is in the ICU.”

Tim Kasher plays with Laura Stevenson and The Brigadiers Saturday, Oct. 5, at The Waiting Room, 6212 Maple Street. Showtime is 9 p.m.. Admission is $11. For more information, go to onepercentproductions.com.

First published in The Reader, Oct. 2, 2103. Copyright © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

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Tonight at O’Leaver’s, composer, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Marisa Anderson takes the stage. According to her online profile, Anderson’s second solo record, The Golden Hour (Mississippi Records 2011), features “12 improvisations inspired by Delta blues, West African guitar, vintage country and western, gospel, noise, rhythms, cycles, mortality, and praise.” Grapefruit Records, the label run by Simon Joyner, is releasing Anderson’s next album in December. Opening for Anderson is Rake Kash (Lonnie Methe’s latest project) and Zach LaGrou. $5, 9:30 p.m.

Marisa Anderson from De Kreun

on Vimeo.

Also tonight, Chris Carrabba of Dashboard Confessional’s new band Twin Forks plays at Slowdown Jr. with Matrimony and Skypilot. $15, 8 p.m.

* * *

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

Bob Mould, center, with Jason Narducy, left, and Jon Wurster. Photo by Peter Ellenby.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Yes, this is a rerun, sort of. A portion of this interview was printed prior to the Maha Music Festival in The Reader. The entire transcript is being posted here so it can be found online in the future. While the transcript also was posted at thereader.com, who knows how long it will be online? Whereas lazy-i.com will live forever, just like me.

The interview explains Mould’s electric-music retirement announcement from 15 years ago, and also covers playing rock music at age 52, the current music industry model, Spotify and why he doesn’t pull his music from the service, where his music sits alongside today’s music, if he’ll ever play Black Sheets of Rain again, what he plans on playing at Maha and what’s in store after Maha, and as an extra bonus, Bob’s take on Barack Obama. Enjoy…

Bob Mould Speaks

This isn’t the first time I’ve interviewed Bob Mould. Here’s the lead from my 1998 interview:

“What is there to say about Bob Mould? Either you know his music or you don’t. I’m not going to even try to recap his career, except to say that his music – whether it was performed with Husker Du, Sugar or as a solo performer – is among the most influential in modern music. I’m not overstating. Bands from Nirvana to the Pixies revered Mould and Hüsker Dü as the virtual inventors of post-hardcore alternative rock.”

The only thing that’s changed since that story ran is the number of bands influenced by Mould, including Foo Fighters, Jimmy Eat World, Green Day, the list goes on and on. At the time of that ’98 interview, Mould had just announced that he was giving up playing with an “electric band.”

“I’m getting to the point in my life where it’s time to start thinking of doing other things, whether it’s focusing more on the acoustic performances or putting together something else… I don’t want to be up there at 50 trying to rock out, with a band or something, and have people say, ‘I remember seeing him when he was really great.’”

Now at age 52, Bob Mould is in a band again. His trio, featuring Jason Narducy (Verbow, Split Single) on bass and Jon Wurster (Superchunk, Mountain Goats) on drums, will be among the bands playing at Saturday’s Maha Music Festival at Stinson Park in Aksarben Village. You can be sure, based on his amazing album Silver Age (Merge Records, 2013), that he’ll be rocking as loud as he ever has.

He explained the 1998 announcement and what happened afterward from his home in San Francisco:

Bob Mould: It was a time when you couldn’t step out of the house without three alternative rock bands jumping on your front yard playing. I’d grown pretty tired of that style of music at that point. I’d spent 19 years of my life touring around in a band as a guitar player and singer in some iteration of a punk rock band or rock and roll band, and I was living in New York City and hadn’t really taken any time for myself, mostly in not having much of an identity as a gay man. I’d given all my life single-mindedly to music. So I think the landscape of millions of alt rock bands combined with personal frustrations of wanting to take some time for myself led to that rather grand announcement I made back then.

Fast forward 15 years, a lot has changed in my life. I spent a number of years living as a gay man in New York City as opposed to being a punk rock guitarist living in a van. So that mission got accomplished. Those millions of alternative rock bands either went away or started making other kinds of music.

Fast forward to 2012, out celebrating a record I had made 20 years prior (Sugar’s Copper Blue) that helped to sort of define that genre that I learned to hate. It’s funny how life does that. We always think we’re going down a straight path, sometimes you circle back and that’s what happened. So, I’m a liar (laughs).

I discovered you through Workbook, and then discovered Hüsker Dü afterward. When you play festivals like Maha, what do you suspect your younger fans know about your career? Just the last couple records?

Mould: There are 20 year olds that come to the show with their 45-year-old punk rock dads, and there are young people who I’m presuming (know) the entire body of work and not just one record. I don’t think there’s a lot of kids that go ‘Wow I heard “Star Machine” or “I saw people talking about it on 4chan.” I’m guessing it’s the entirety of the work, and they want to see the person who’s done this work. I sort of doubt with the younger audience that it’s any one specific thing, other than me.

Do you think they identify you with Hüsker Dü:

Mould: They might. They might identify me with Workbook (Mould’s first solo album from 1989). When I talk to people after shows people always invariably mention their entry point in the body of work, whether it’s Workbook or Zen Arcade (the landmark 1984 Hüsker Dü album) or Beaster (Sugar’s 1993 EP) or whatever it might be. I think most younger people I talk to it’s just “I heard about your work.” “I heard about you through the Foo Fighters movie.” “I heard about you because Green Day talked about you.” “I heard about you because Jimmy Eat World talks about you.” So it’s a lot of that kind of thing too.

How do you think your music fits in with what’s going on today, at least from an indie standpoint? Do you wonder if kids who are into Arcade Fire or Of Montreal or M83 will identify with your new album?

Mould: Can’t tell. I don’t do that kind of research. Right now I’m guessing my audience is older. The challenge is always to reach a younger audience. As far as the bands you just mentioned, M83 probably being the youngest and hippest of those three, I love that band, but I don’t know if many of their fans love my music. (laughs).

The short version of what’s going on is once I got the autobiography (See a Little Light: The Trail of Rage and Melody, 2011) out of the way and got back to writing songs, touring around with the Foo Fighters and back with Jason and Jon making Silver Age and revisiting the Sugar stuff, it’s all real easy, it’s real natural. When I’m back in that environment where I seem to do my most natural work, it’s pretty easy. And we’re enjoying it right now because, as I think you or anyone who’s followed me for a while knows, things can take a right turn at any moment. We’re just enjoying the fact that we’re kicking the collective ass right now, we’re just sort of having fun with that.

How has performing changed for you at age 52? Is any of it physically trying?

Mould: Hell yeah. It’s been physically trying since I started. All the natural things, you lose a little bit of your speed, you lose a little bit of your voice, as the years go on it’s little harder to sing as I used to. But I was just in the gym for an hour and a half. I think I’m in better shape than most guys my age. I think I’m in better shape than most bands I’ve seen play. So as far as being on stage and being confident about how I carry myself, I feel real good about that.

The travel doesn’t get any easier. I’m sure anybody who gets older will tell you that. It’s just the way things are. As far as the creative part, what is that thing ‘Youth is wasted on the young’? We do all these stupid, crazy things when we’re younger, but when we get old you have all this wisdom but you don’t sometimes have the tools to use it. Well I actually think I’m in a pretty good spot right now. I think I’m beating Father Time pretty well at the moment.

It’s funny, I went to see The Who when they were coming through on the Quadrophenia tour. How old is Townsend now, almost 70? (he’s 68). You wouldn’t know it, would you?

I saw them recently and Daltrey’s voice was shot that night, but he might have been sick.

Mould: I will always give someone like Roger the benefit even if it’s shot, it’s still Roger Daltrey,  you know? And Quadrophenia is a pretty fucking hard record to sing at any age.

In that article from 1998 you predicted a lot of changes in the music industry that came true, specifically how the internet would impact music distribution. But you didn’t predict Spotify. What do you think of the service and its business model?

Mould: I wish they would pay the musicians, but that’s not their model, is it? Labels aren’t making any money. The distributor is usually the one that makes the money in anything and yeah, Spotify makes a lot of money putting the entire recorded history of music up. Most of the online streaming services are trying as hard as they can to avoid paying any kind of penny-rate royalty for playing an artist’s music in order to gather a database that they can then exploit, sell and advertise to. We don’t see any of that. We’re just the raw materials in the equation.

Then why don’t you pull your music out of Spotify?

Mould: Sometimes you have to sleep with the devil because that’s how you get your music heard. It’s not like there’s three radio stations and five tactile record stores (in every city). The landscape has changed so much trying to reach your core audience, let alone build a new audience in this day and age. Unfortunately the records become — in the market place — a billboard for other things you can sell — tickets, t-shirts, stuff like that.

So what are we going to hear at Maha?

Mould: I can tell you what the shows have been like: A fair amount of Sugar stuff focusing on Copper Blue. I enjoy playing that record quite a bit. We’re not playing the whole thing again, that’s for sure. We sure enjoy playing a good chunk of Silver Age every night, that’s a pretty easy record to play live. The response to those songs seems to be as strong if not stronger than the Copper Blue stuff. And there’s stuff from the Hüsker Dü era that is fun to play. I haven’t been playing a whole lot of the solo records. It’s not where we’re at as a band right now. The three of us have got a way that we’ve found (to) play well together, so we’re going to stick to that motif right now – the louder, faster pop stuff seems to be our strong suit, so that’s what we’re doing.

Will you ever do Black Sheets of Rain again?

Mould: Funny, we pulled out “Hanging Tree” (from the album) in Cleveland the other night only because I was walking around before the show talking to people, I walked over to the record store, and it seemed like three out of four people came up to me and said (passionately) “Black Sheets of Rain!” And so two thirds of the way through the set I stopped and looked at the crowd and said, “This is sort of a Black Sheets type of crowd isn’t it?” Loud pop, and then I just looked at Jason and Jon and said, ‘Do you guys know “Hanging Tree”?’ Jason knew it, Jon just said “Huh?” So I said, “Let’s just play it.” We hadn’t played it in four years and Jon worked his way through it fine and people loved it. It was just out of nowhere. It was just that vibe. People had talked about it all day. It would have been very selfish of me not to play one of those songs.

You’re playing with the Flaming Lips at Maha, I don’t know if you know anything about those guys.

Mould: We’re good buds from way way back. Wayne (Coyne) and I have known each other since ’86 when we played together in Oklahoma City. And then Matt and Kim and I fucking love The Thermals, we’ve played together before. It’s gonna be really fun. I like Omaha. It’s a great town and good people so it’s gonna be a fun time.

What are you going to do after Maha?

Mould: We have a handful of festivals and I think there’s talk about going to South America in October. I should know more about that in the next several days. Nothing’s confirmed. If we ever get off the road I hope we start to look at the next record, get some more recording done. The autobiography is coming out in soft cover form Oct. 15. We haven’t really fully exploited the See a Little Light documentary (a Mould tribute concert performed at Walt Disney Concert Hall in LA in 2011 and featuring, among others Dave Grohl, Craig Finn and Ryan Adams). We’re trying to figure out a way to get that in front of people again as the holidays come up. Still DJing a fair amount. It seems like I keep looking for time off and I don’t seem to find any.

Seeing as I could be holding up this article to you in an interview in 15 more years, what predictions do you have for 2028. You’ll be 67.

Mould: Probably, if everything still works, it’ll just be more of the same. Like I said, ‘97 ‘98, I was pretty sick of the alt rock and wanted to find my gay identity, which I never bothered to do. Now that alt rock is framed a little more properly at least in my mind, and my gay identity is framed properly in my mind, that sort of wipes all that out to me. I get up every morning and work on music, I try to keep myself in good shape to get on stage, and I take it very seriously, but I have a lot of fun with it. It’s pretty much all I do, so why not keep doing it?

One final question… because our last interview ended with a question about politics and the Monica Lewinski controversy that was brewing at the time, what do you think about Obama and the job he’s doing?

Mould: I think Obama’s done really good. I can’t remember in my lifetime as much obstruction being placed in front of one person as has been placed in front of our current president. It’s pretty fucking un-American what these conservatives are doing to this president. It really is. It’s really sort of a shame. And piece by piece that little empire that they built on greed and divisiveness and skin color is going to go away soon and they’re not going to be left with anything except memories of how they couldn’t stop time and progress and momentum and people just wanting to get on with their lives. They can throw all the roadblocks they want, it’s not going to work.

They’ve made it really really difficult for Obama to get anything done. I think he’s a pretty brilliant president. I think he’s very methodical. I know in the gay community there was a lot of outrage about EDNA and DOMA and gay marriage that he didn’t act soon enough. He acted when the time was right. Everybody wants everything now. He had a country to rebuild, you know? In case nobody looked when the Republicans left town, they pretty much took the silverware with them.

I think he’s a good man, I think he’s an honest man, He’s an incredibly well-educated man. I wish the obstructionists would just get the fuck out of the way so that all of us that would like to make this country a better place for everybody can get back to work. And I think even conservatives are coming around to it. They’re starting to see that they’re really in a mess and they’ve got to start acting like adults and start acting like reasonable people.

Portions of this interview were first published in The Reader Aug. 14, 2013. Copyright © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

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Sweet show at Benson’s Sweatshop Gallery tonight. Local punks Worried Mothers headlines a four-band bill that also includes No Thanks, Slut River and Black Panties. $5. Probably starts at 9…

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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.

Mousetrap circa 2013, from left, Colby Starck, Patrick Buchanan and Craig Crawford.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

In this week’s column, Mousetrap’s back. You can read it in the current issue of The Reader, online here, or what the heck, read it below:

Over the Edge: Mousetrap’s Back, but Don’t Call It a Reunion

For regular readers of this column, a quick synopsis of who/what is punk rock band Mousetrap:

To use the word “seminal” to describe their impact on the Omaha music scene would be an understatement. Almost every significant Omaha band I’ve interviewed — whether they play punk, hard rock or even singer-songwriter stuff — has name-checked Mousetrap as an influence. That includes all of Saddle Creek Records’ most successful acts.

At the band’s core are bassist Craig Crawford and frontman/guitarist Patrick Buchanan. Their hey-day was in the ‘90s, when they released a couple 7-inch singles followed by their debut full-length Cerebral Revolver in 1993; the follow-up, Lover, in ’94, and their final album, The Dead Air Sound System, in ’95.

How to describe their music? It’s loud, but not macho or “tough-guy” or anything like today’s corporate metal goon-rock bands. Instead, the music is bitter and angry. Its anger is channeled more toward themselves than whatever situation Buchanan and Crawford are howling about. Actually, it’s more pain than anger — not a broken-hearted pain, but an exposed nerve physical throbbing abscessed tooth sort of agony — bright red and pulsing.

Mousetrap’s abrasive, acidic rock is not for everybody, in fact, it’s not for most people. After years of touring — a rarity for local bands in the early ‘90s — Mousetrap eventually faded away by the end of the decade.

And then seemingly out of the blue — the band played a pair of reunion shows at The Waiting Room in 2009 and 2010. And now their back again, but this time it’s different. Mousetrap intends to become an active band, or as bassist Crawford put it, “We’re a functioning band that plans to put out a new album by December.”

Crawford talked via Skype last Saturday in the band’s Chicago practice space. Also on the video-chat were frontman Buchanan, looking as sinister as ever with his mane of black, tousled hair, and new drummer Colby Starck.

Starck, a former Lincolnite who you may remember from such ‘90s bands as Pablo’s Triangle and Roosevelt Franklin, has lived in Chicago for about 12 years, where he made acquaintances with Crawford. He says Mousetrap’s first 7-inch “Wired” b/w “Train,” released on the late Dave Sink’s One-Hour Records, continues to be his favorite single.

“I’ve been a fan for a long time, and Mousetrap has always had trouble with drummers,” Starck said. “Whenever I saw them, I always said, ‘That should be me up there.’” And now it is.

Buchanan wanted to make sure I mention that former drummer, Mike Mazzola, who played with Mousetrap at the reunion shows, is a great drummer and a good friend and that the switch to Starck was a scheduling thing.

“It totally made more sense to have Colby come in because he can invest more time in the band,” Buchanan said. “We want to make this a living, breathing, fully operational band and that requires more time and commitment.”

Becoming a “real band” had been the plan back in 2010, but it obviously never happened. Shortly after the holiday reunion show, Buchanan, who works in advertising, got a job offer in Miami. “It’s the nature of the ad business, if you want to get yourself a raise, you have to move to where the job is,” he said. But it didn’t take long for Buchanan to realize that Miami is “kind of a shithole.” When he got another job offer back in Detroit, he took it. And as soon as he got back, he called Crawford and got the ball rolling again.

By the way, Buchanan said despite the city recently declaring bankruptcy, Detroit isn’t a bad place to live. “I actually love it,” he said, “and I love that the media is so harsh on it. It’ll keep all the hipster douche bags away.”

Back to our story. Detroit is an easy drive to Chicago, which allows the band to get together over the weekends. Word of this reunion leaked back in March. Since then, the band not only has been getting Starck up to speed on the band’s back catalog, but writing new material, including one new song that will be performed at Friday night’s show at The Waiting Room, and Saturday night’s show at The Chesterfield in Sioux City.

Buchanan said Mousetrap’s new material is “pretty dark.”

“It’s driven by the type of vibe that you hear when you listen to Iggy Pop’s The Idiot album, which is the greatest nighttime album ever made,” he said. “Let me explain it in less specific terms: Mousetrap of 1993 was a sawed-off shotgun. Mousetrap of 2013 is more like a sniper rifle. The stuff we’re doing isn’t less violent or abrasive, just extra concentrated.”

Both Crawford and Buchanan said there’s a void for their style of aggressive music. “The formula (in pop music) in the last year has been bands saying, ‘Hey, Ho.’” Crawford said. “I don’t see a lot of bands with balls.”

“You see a lot of dudes with beards strumming acoustic guitars wearing vests and suspenders, old-timely clothes like a frontier pioneer guy,” Buchanan added. “I feel like what we’re doing is pretty fresh right now because it’s not what’s happening. There’s a lot of dance-y electronic music and softer indie-rock stuff, but there’s not a lot of loud, aggressive rock music that’s not metal. There has always been an anti-social streak to us in a musical sense; we’ve always been dark and confrontational, that’s the music we want to make.”

And if no one likes it?

“It doesn’t really matter if not a single person buys our next album,” Buchanan said. “We make music the way we want to make it. We’ve always been musically very selfish. We’re going to do whatever we want to do. If you like it, that’s awesome. If not, there’s the door, get the fuck out.”

Mousetrap plays Friday, Aug. 16, at The Waiting Room, 6212 Maple Street, with Ron Wax and Noah’s Ark Was a Spaceship. Tickets are $8, the show starts at 9 p.m.. For more information, go to onepercentproductions.com

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.

* * *

And yet another Mousetrap interview right here at hearnebraska.com.

And here’s Mousetrap doing “Superkool” at The Waiting Room in 2010, via the YouTube.

Friday night’s show at TWR should be epic.

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In case you’re wondering what the boys in Criteria have been up to, check out their just-released Love Drunk video for yet-to-be-released song “This Reign Is Ours.” Heavy riffage. Lots of exciting woodworking. You get the idea. BTW, Criteria will be playing the local stage at Saturday’s Maha Music Festival. Get your tix right here

and get ready to rock.

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Finally, Omaha’s No. 1 broken-hearted troubadour, John Klemmensen, is getting ready to hit the road on a tour that takes him to the West Coast. The only thing he needs is gas money. And that’s where you come in.

Check out John Klemmensen’s Kickstarter Campaign, where he’s trying to raise a measly $500. Prizes include a candle-lit bubble bath drawn by John himself as he serenades you with one of his slow, sad, sexy ballads…. j/k.

“j/k” stands for Just Kidding. Though John might want to consider adding it to the list. It’s got to be worth $50…

* * *

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.

Eli Mardock and wife, Carrie, in the studio. Photo by Joe Teplitsky.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Dirty Dancing: Singer/Songwriter Taps into the Power of Porn

To say the video that feature’s Nebraska musician Eli Mardock’s song “The King of the Crickets” is NSFW (Not Safe for Work) would be an understatement.

Titled “Double the Pleasure,” the video opens with the sound of Mardock’s somber piano chords as two young women in bikinis — Francesca and Caprice — nuzzle on a cushioned wicker beach chair sipping cocktails. As they kiss, an MTV-styled song-credit graphic appears in the lower left-hand corner of the frame that includes Mardock’s website address (elimardock.com).

By the 30-second mark, both “actresses” are topless. By two minutes, one is completely nude as Mardock’s music fades away, replaced with canned ocean sound effects and moaning.

From there, well, let the video’s producer, X-art.com, describe it for you:

“X-Art features beautiful, explicit, HD erotic videos that will absolutely blow your mind! Over 100 gorgeous girls-next-door and fresh-faced fashion models getting f***ed in HOT, explicit sex scenes all shot in crystal-clear 1920×1080 Super High Definition Video!”

As the video comes to a proverbial climax, the models are performing an act that cannot be described without using the words “acrobatic” and/or “flexible.” In the afterglow, Mardock’s music fades back in, as the video fades to black.

There are those who will find Mardock’s decision to license his music for use in the soundtrack of hardcore pornography not only distasteful and offensive, but a tacit endorsement of an industry some consider misogynistic.

“People can say whatever they want,” Mardock said. “I will say that I think suppression is unhealthy. And often, people who have a problem with pornography also have problems with sex. You know, they’re wracked with guilt and self-disgust. They battle all their lives to suppress, control and deny the impulses within them which are fact. And it’s a huge waste of energy. Of course, obsessing about sex and watching porn all the time is a huge waste of energy, too. I don’t advocate either — both suppression and overindulgence will fuck with your head.”

Mardock said he was introduced to X-Art by a friend who runs a boutique advertising/television/film/music licensing company in New York City. “It was immediately clear that music is one of the most important elements in their videos — so I was intrigued,” Mardock said. “The plan was to compose original music specifically for a couple of their videos. But they had so much enthusiasm for the early demos of my solo material that I sent them (as examples) that we decided to go with that instead.”

To take full advantage of the video’s promotional power, Mardock timed the June 2012 release of his EP, NE Sorrow Is Born, with the online release of the video, and it worked… probably.

Mardock said his digital-only release, available in 111 countries via 80+ retailers and through his website, has been downloaded more than 7,500 times, while sales of the EP’s single, “Cut Me Open,” (also used in an X-Art video) has clocked more than 11,000 downloads. But how much of that download traffic was due to X-Art? Mardock isn’t sure.

Keep in mind, he’s had some success long before he dabbled in dirty movies. Mardock has toured in the United States and Europe both as the frontman of his former band, Eagle Seagull, and as a solo artist. He is arguably one of the area’s more successful local indie rock musicians, so it’s hard to directly credit the porn videos for his music sales.

“Judging from the numbers of views/comments on YouTube, etc., it’s definitely had an impact,” Mardock said. “But, at the same time, I’ve had promotional campaigns going in both the U.K. and the U.S. that have generated a lot of press/interest.”

The licensing fees and exposure were both factors in his decision to sell music to X-Art. So was the quality of X-Art’s past videos. “I wouldn’t be interested in working with a typical adult site,” Mardock said. “That kind of stuff just isn’t appealing to me.”

X-Art’s director, Brigham Field, is a professional fashion and beauty photographer based in Los Angeles whose work has been published in a number of magazines, including GQ and Maxim in Spain, according to his website.

“Brigham is amazingly talented,” Mardock said. “He’s an artist. And, it’s female friendly. He co-founded X-Art with his wife, Colette. You know some people will say it’s all the same and blah blah blah and that’s alright. But for me, there is a huge difference between (typical porn and X-Art), and believe it or not I’m really very picky about who and what I would want to be associated with.”

But at the end of the day, it’s still hardcore pornography. And there are those who will question whether someone who’s “enjoying” a porn video would care enough about the music to track down the artist and buy the song. “I’m sure there are,” Mardock responded. “But, there’s no doubt it’s had a positive impact on sales.”

And, apparently, no negative impacts, or so he says. But though he described the experience as being “overwhelmingly positive,” music from Mardock’s latest EP, Hamburg, which was released Feb. 14, will “probably not” be used in future X-Art videos.

Is he having second thoughts? Not likely. Whether or not you agree with Mardock’s experiment in the flesh industry, it’s hard not to admit it gave him some exposure he wouldn’t have received elsewhere. And in an era when the indie music industry seems to be on permanent life support, any creative solution to getting your music heard is probably a good one, whether you can watch it in the office or not.

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, Feb. 14, 2013. Copyright © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

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Happy Valentines Day, there’s no indie shows tonight in Omaha, so drive to Lincoln and check out Day 2 of Lincoln Exposed.

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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.

The men of Ladyfinger, from left, are Pat Oakes, Dan Brennan, Chris Machmuller and Jamie Massey.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Love and Aliens: Ladyfinger Releases Errant Forms

The evolution of Ladyfinger can be heard from the first track of the band’s new Saddle Creek Records release, Errant Forms.

“Renew” opens with brittle, electric guitar chords before the rhythm section of drummer Pat Oakes and bassist Dan Brennan slides beneath warm keyboards, Jamie Massey’s smokey, twirling guitar and frontman Chris Machmuller’s cool growl.

You could say Machmuller also sang on the band’s 2006 debut, Heavy Hands, but not like this. These days Machmuller really sings, confident on the ghostly, glowing high notes that follow the song’s prophetic line, “I will grow old.”

If it sounds “pretty” compared to the howling noise of Ladyfinger’s early years that’s because it is. Still, the music is no less bracing or powerful, just easier to grasp in its clarity.

Or as Machmuller put it, “There’s more space between the parts on this record.”

A brief history: Ladyfinger (also known by the legal restriction Ladyfinger (ne)) formed in 2004 out of three other bands: Massey from Race for Titles, Machmuller from Bleeders for Treats, and Oakes and bassist Ethan Jones from Putrescine The original foursome produced two albums, Heavy Hands and the 2009 followup, Dusk. After that, Jones left Ladyfinger to be replaced with “new guy” Brennan, formerly of rock band The ’89 Cubs.

Ladyfinger, Errant Forms (Saddle Creek, 2013)

Back to the present: Better singing means understandable lyrics. Good thing Machmuller knows how to tell a story. On Errant Forms‘ first single, “Dark Horse,” he spins a non-autobiographical yarn about a wild, irresponsible party hound who’s “looking for a road I ain’t ever gonna find” but finds it when he discovers his wife or girlfriend is carrying his baby. Coincidentally, Machmuller discovered his wife was in a “family way” shortly after writing the song.

Then there’s “Galactic” — also not auto-biographical…probably. The brutal rocker describes a guy who picks up signals in his head — numbers and images — obviously messages about an alien coup, which he explains with the line: “I’m a space invader and I think I can save this planet from galactic destroyers from space.” Rush’s 2112 has nothing on these guys.

Like their previous albums, Errant Forms was recorded by their old pal Matt Bayles, whose track record includes working with Mastodon, Minus the Bear, Pearl Jam and fellow Saddle Creekers Cursive.

Working with such an accomplished producer puts pressure on the band, Oakes said, especially when the band isn’t sure it’s ready to enter the studio.

“This record seemed like it was pieced together out of random parts more than the last ones,” Oakes said. “When we went in for Heavy Hands, we knew exactly what we wanted to do, and had played those songs a million times, but for this one, we asked ourselves, ‘Are we ready to record? What if this whole thing falls apart?’”

When it comes to working with Bayles, uncertainty could spell trouble. “Matt does not indulge you,” Machmuller said. “He refers to our sessions as ‘abridged.’ He’s used to having six to 12 weeks in the studio. We only had two weeks (at Omaha’s ARC Studio) to track 13 or 14 songs.”

“He’s very thorough, very meticulous, and that’s what makes him a good producer and engineer,” Oakes said. “If you push back, Matt will stand his ground and be a dick about it. He knows that time is of the essence, and he’s not going to negotiate with you.”

Good thing he likes these guys.

“He doesn’t do our records to make money” Massey added. “He’s been good to us when he didn’t have to be. He bends for us and we appreciate it.”

While the way they make records hasn’t changed much, the way the band and label sells them has. In the old days bands simply released records and hit the road, hoping college radio and good reviews piqued people’s interest.

These days marketing is all about online placement and social media. “The social network sphere is completely different than when Dusk came out,” Oakes said. “As a result, we’re seeing things happen with this record that have never happened before.”

Things like first single “Dark Horse” being selected as the “Daily Download” at rollingstone.com, where readers can listen to and download the track for free. Massey credited Saddle Creek’s Jeff Tafolla, in charge of licensing and new media, for the increased exposure, including Errant Forms being available as a digital stream from taste-making music blog AbsolutePunk.net.

But these new-fangled sales methods go beyond blogs. Tafolla suggested Ladyfinger launch a Twitter account (@ladyfingerne) as well as a Facebook page (@facebook.com/ladyfingerne).

“All four of us have access to these accounts and can do what we want with them,” Oakes said, “but it gets complicated.”

“I’ve been signed up to six brand new things that I have to figure out,” Machmuller said. “I’m worried about keeping all the passwords straight.”

With fans now able to hear the entire album from their computers for free, some of the “specialness” that comes with buying an album has faded. That’s one reason Errant Forms is being offered on vinyl in addition to digital download. “We considered going the vinyl route with Dusk,” Machmuller said. “Vinyl has become less of a novelty and more of a collectible. We saw the trend even back then.”

Saddle Creek says Ladyfinger’s combined sales for their past two releases was somewhere north of 1,200 units, far from what’s needed to make a living. All four band members have day jobs. Brennan, 34, is a sound engineer at The Slowdown when he isn’t on the road working sound for bands like Cursive. Massey, 37, is an art director at Turnpost Creative Group and proprietor of The Sydney in Benson. Machmuller, 32, launched Workers Take Out and now runs O’Leaver’s Pub, while Oakes, 35, is a production manager at Ink Tank Merch, a custom screen printing company owned by Saddle Creek.

With families to support and a music industry in decline, why keep putting out records?

“At the end of the day, for me, it’s all about playing shows,” Oakes said. “And if we sell more albums, that could mean playing bigger shows.”

“None of us have never not been in a band,” Machmuller said. “I love hearing things in my head and hearing them become recorded music. That’s the best part.”

Ladyfinger plays with The Seen and Hussies this Friday, Feb. 1, at The Waiting Room, 6212 Maple St. Tickets are $8. Show starts at 9 p.m. For more information and tickets, go to onepercentproductions.com.

First published in The Reader. Copyright © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

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More Ladyfinger… The fine folks at Love Drunk today released the new video for Ladyfinger’s “Away Too Long.” If you ever wondered what Saddle Creek Records’ world headquarters look like, here’s your chance to get a peek. Check it out below:

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The Thermals, Desperate Ground (Saddle Creek, 2013)

Saddle Creek Records announced via Pitchfork (Who needs to issue a press release when you’ve got Pitchfork?) that the label signed (former) Sub Pop act The Thermals. The details, from the actual press release issued by the band:

“The Thermals are pleased to announce they have signed to Saddle Creek, a label the band has known and admired for many years. The Thermals and Saddle Creek have a long history of sleeping on floors together: The Thermals have toured with Cursive and Ladyfinger, and Hutch and Kathy organized the first Bright Eyes show in Portland way back in 1999.

“The band formed in 2002 and has released five records and toured 15 countries. The Thermals’ sixth LP and debut for Saddle Creek, Desperate Ground, will be released April 16 and is available now for pre-order at the Saddle Creek Online Store. The album was produced by John Agnello (Dinosaur Jr, Sonic Youth) in Hoboken, NJ. Agnello and The Thermals completed the record and evacuated the studio just hours before Hurricane Sandy ravaged New Jersey, a fate quite fitting when you consider the product. Desperate Ground is a true scrappy and scratchy return-to-form for The Thermals, with all the raw power and unhinged adolescent energy that made their early LP’s so insanely enjoyable.

“Lyrically, Desperate Ground is a brash and irresponsible ode to human violence, a black celebration of the inevitability of war and death. A dark and yet joyous affair, Desperate Ground tells the (murky) tale of a lone rogue in the night. One man, one path, one sword. An unceasing urge to destroy. A never-ending battle against the forces of nature. A destiny impossible to avoid.”

The signing could be good timing for Saddle Creek, as Sub Pop announced last week that it’s reissuing the band’s first three albums on vinyl. “On March 5, fans can own limited-edition, colored vinyl copies of 2003’s More Parts Per Million, 2004’s Fuckin’ A, and 2006’s The Body, the Blood, the Machine. The triple-reissue (which also includes the rare “No Culture Icons” 7″) comes on the 10th anniversary of the release of More Parts Per Million.”

The only Thermals album I’ve owned was More Parts… which reminded me a ton of Superchunk. I haven’t heard their last couple of albums. After 2008’s “Returning to the Fold” single, the band jumped ship from Sub Pop (or was pushed) and landed at Kill Rock Stars for two more LPs, the last of which was Personal Life in 2010.

The Thermals are no strangers to Omaha stages. They last played in Omaha at The Waiting Room in May 2011. Before that, they played Slowdown Jr. in April 2009, and before that, Sokol Underground with Thunder Power back in November 2007.

Hey Maha, here’s another band for you to consider for this year’s festival…

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The Whipkey Three opens tonight for touring Columbus, Ohio band Red Wanting Blue (Fanatic/EMI/Caroline) at The Waiting Room. $10, 9 p.m.

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

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

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Greg Loftis

Greg Loftis is something of a local legend. Maybe “local legend” isn’t the right word. How ’bout urban legend?

I first interviewed him in 2006 for my column where Loftis talked about his new band An Iris Pattern as well as his association with Idlewild, Greg Dulli and Tommy Hilfiger (read it here). Shortly thereafter, Loftis’ band became Malpais. And then I lost track of him. He went off somewhere out east I believe. Now he’s back — tonight to be exact, when Malpais headlines a show at The Waiting Room.

Says Loftis via Facebook: “We have been held up rehearsing and make our re-debut at the grand reopening of (The Waiting Room). We are sounding exponentially better than we ever did and have plans to tour, record and release this year.”

But in addition to Malpais, Loftis has a new band with Bret Volk (Underwater Dream Machine) and Nick Carl called LVC Underground. “It is a fantastic harmony-drenched Americana-esque affair with leanings toward Simon and Garfunkel, Ryan Adams, Nick Drake (but sonically denser), The Twilight Singers, The Beach Boys and The Brian Jonestown Massacre!!! In short, it rules.”

You can see LVC Underground’s stage debut tonight as well, as they’re opening at The Waiting Room along with Moses Prey.

While both of those stories are interesting, leave it to Loftis to outdo himself with talk of his solo record, which he says, he’s been recording at Levon Helm’s home studio, “The Barn,” over the last few months and includes contributions from Chris Robinson of the Black Crows, Steve Earle and members of The Band.

Wait, what?

“Steve lives three miles away so it’s kinda cheating,” Loftis explained. “The assistant engineer up there works with the Crows, who did a disc up there. The crazy legends that just pop in and out to say ‘Hi,’ honestly just desensitized me after a while.”

Loftis said Helm had just passed a few weeks before he went up to record, “so it was a divinely spiritual time to be recording at his house. He was most definitely there… I became a REAL singer up there honestly, and I know for CERTAIN I owe that to Levon. I was just terrified to do my first vocal takes and I swear I felt this enormous hand on my back and heard a raspy ‘Relax and sing your song, son’… and I could do no wrong after that. Ripping through 3-5 part harmonies in 1 to 2 takes a piece. Stuff I never in my life could approach doing before. Then singing with those guys around … You get a nod from a Black Crow about your Americana-styled singing and you know you can feel alright about it. They know something about it. That hippy Chris has a set of lungs that just bellow. He has all the gears.”

Loftis said he plans to return to The Barn to mix, overdub and do a couple more songs. But right now, he’s back in Omaha, and specifically, in Benson, and he couldn’t be happier.

“I am just so fantastically happy/excited/euphoric about Benson. BENSON!!! Woo!!! It was our dream before I left that it would live,” Loftis said. “I am so glad it needed not a damn thing from me to grow and come alive!!!… I feel like I left the town that was empty and on the backside of the ‘Saddle Creek national high’… and returned to find this epic, diverse creative wonderland I am sooooo down to get lost in for an extended period of time… at least get a few baby records gestating within Benson’s belly!!! Watch em’ pop out of her in the summer!”

If you think Loftis sounds exciting in print, wait ’til you see and hear him tonight at The Waiting Room. The show is sponsored by Shiner Beers, which means it’s only $3. Starts at 9.

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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.

King Khan and BBQ Show at The Slowdown, Nov. 28, 2012.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

I never got my free booze at last night’s King Khan and BBQ Show concert at The Slowdown, but it’s not Sailor Jerry’s fault. The booze maker, who sponsored the event, had a converted Streamliner camper parked on the curb outside the club with blinking lights and signs and such. I didn’t bother to climb inside, and found out later that’s where they were distributing drink tokens. Kind of a weird deal, but there’s probably some sort of law that prevented them from setting up a table right inside Slowdown. Or something. I didn’t want to go back outside so I skipped it. I’d already bought my Rolling Rock anyway.

The “free” element was an ongoing riff played on by the KKBBQ duo, who kept prodding the rather large crowd about the freebies. “How’s your free booze?” said a smirking Mark Sultan sitting behind his two-piece drum kit, almost accusatory. Odd. Sultan, playing drums, guitar and singing (simultaneously), and King Khan on guitar and vocals were dressed in Mardi Gras-quality royal attire, complete with capes and feathered chapeaus. Glittery and cool. So was their music, a combination of garage, punk and sock-hop doo-wap, Chubby Checker meets Elvis meets Jack White meets the cast of Treme. They prodded the crowd to dance, and got a few to do a half-assed Frug.

Digital Leather at The Slowdown, Nov. 28, 2012.

Digital Leather opened the show with their usual grinding garage attack. I’ve seen these guys a hundred times and they never fail to bring it, but were especially on point last night. As I was sitting there wondering how many times I’d heard this set (or a slight variation), Shawn Foree and Co. threw out a golden nugget I thought I’d never hear them play again — “Studs In Love,” the homo anthem from Blow Machine re-engineered from an electronic hump fable to a roaring, spitting metallic confession. Foree launched it with a full-on riff attack aimed directly at the rhythm section of bassist Johnny Vrendenburg and drummer Jeff Lambelet (the best bass & drum duo in Omaha) settling into a tense, unrecognizable grind before barking out the line “I’m a man’s man / I don’t need no bitch.” F*** yes! They closed out their set with another classic — “Styrofoam,” from 2008 album Sorcerer.

I accepted years ago that Foree considers Digital Leather’s garage-rock stage presentation to be a completely different animal than the band’s electronic, proto-New Wave music heard on the recordings. I get it. But I’m beginning to wonder how long it will be until he breaks down and breaks out the Korg on stage once again. Maybe never. And that’s fine as long as he keeps putting out great records. Again, if you’ve only heard Digital Leather on stage over the past couple years, check out their recordings for a whole different take on their music.

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Below, for your reading pleasure, is this week’s column, which also is printed in the current issue of The Reader. I include it here instead of merely providing a link as I usually do because of the topic. Saturday night’s Millions show definitely is worth the trip to Lincoln for any Millions fan, as there’s a good chance you’ll never hear this band play again.

The Millions, circa 2012. Photo by Ted Schlaebitz.

Column: A Million Reasons Why

Marty Amsler, like some of us, lives two lives.

Most know him as the mild-mannered “creative” at Nebraska advertising agency Bailey Lauerman. He’s a Mad Man ad guy who heads a team of Mad Men ad people that do some of the best creative work in the country. I know because I’ve seen it first hand in my “other life” at Union Pacific.

(To this day, I still meet people who think I make a living writing this column for The Reader. These are the same people who watched Sex and the City and thought Carrie Bradshaw could afford her cool Manhattan apartment and countless pair of $300 Manolo Blahnik shoes on what she made writing her weekly column in some faceless newspaper…)

Aside from Bailey Lauerman, there’s Marty’s main gig — his wife, Julia, and their son, Truman.

And then there’s The Millions, the band Amsler started way back in the late ‘80s in Lincoln with guitarist Harry Dingman III that included vocalist Lori Allison and drummer Greg Hill. Over the course of about six years, The Millions lived the rock ‘n’ roll dream. They generated a large following playing local gigs, got signed by Smash Records (a subsidiary of major label Polygram), quit their day jobs and recorded and released their debut album, M Is for Millions in July 1991. They toured, and then released their second album, Raquel, in September 1995. They toured some more. And then broke up and went their separate ways, leaving behind some great music and fond memories.

And now, just like that old rock ‘n’ roll story always seems to go, they’re getting back together again, for one night only — Dec. 1, 8 p.m., at Lincoln’s Bourbon Theatre. Well, at least three of them are, anyway. Greg Hill no longer plays drums and doesn’t want to. Drummer Brandon McKenzie will be sitting behind the drum kit that night. So can you really call this a “Millions reunion”?

“Lori, Harry and I don’t look at this as a ‘reunion’ show,” Amsler said. “Just old friends getting together again to play some songs we wrote a while ago to help some other old friends release a project they’ve worked tirelessly on.”

The Millions, Poison Fish (Randy’s Alternative Music, 2012)

The project is Poison Fish, a collection of lost, unreleased Millions recordings that capture the unbridled spirit of the band before they got signed.

The collection (under the name The Millions NE, because a different band now controls “The Millions” name) is being released by Randy’s Alternative Music, a record label run by Randy LeMasters, a Pittsburgh-based music entrepreneur who said the Millions’ music “turned my world upside down.”

LeMasters has spent nearly a decade working with the band and Millions’ fan Malcom Miles piecing together tracks heard on the new release from remastered cassette tapes, as the original master tapes (apparently) no longer exist.

Despite the frustration of spending years trying to track down those original masters, LeMasters says the release’s timing couldn’t have been better. “The band might not have gotten together for the CD release show in years past due to commitments with family and careers,” he said. “The time is right.”

And the timing may be right for other reasons. There’s a resurgence of interest in the post-punk, pre-Nirvana, “first wave” bands that influenced The Millions, such as REM, Throwing Muses, Cocteau Twins, Kate Bush and The Sundays. Some of the best new music released this past year, from indie darlings like Twin Shadow, Wild Nothing and DIIV, are revising the post-punk new wave sound for a new generation of listeners who may also discover something new in The Millions.

And if you’re wondering, no, LeMasters isn’t doing it for the money. “I’ve never been in the music ‘business’ to make money,” he said. “I do it for the love of the music and for my passion to get music into the ears of other fans. Other than the love one gets from family and friends, I believe there is no greater pleasure than sharing music with willing, eager ears.”

For Amsler, playing with his pals in The Millions again fills a void he didn’t realize he had.

“I have a very fulfilling career in advertising,” he said. “I get to spend my days working with some of the most talented people in the industry. I have great clients and more creative opportunity than I know what to do with.”

And though he gets the same creative fix from working with his B-L team, “I didn’t realize how much I missed just playing a song together – being super ‘cops-show-up (which they did) loud,’ getting in the zone and drowning all else out,” he said. “It’s so powerful, perfect and precarious. I didn’t realize how much I missed that — or them.”

Motivation to strap on his bass again also came from his family. “They see how much I’m enjoying it,” he said. “I get to share a side of me that neither of them knew.”

So I had to ask Amsler, the way the music industry is these days, would he do it all over again?

“That’s something I’ve thought about during the years,” he said. “Looking back, I’d have killed for the internet, e-mail, downloads or a damn cell phone (imagine being on the road for six weeks without one). That certainly would have made our lives easier on many fronts. But there was something about the music scenes when you had to be an active participant (not optional/digital) that was pretty amazing. I also think we were the last generation to get the big ‘quit-your-day-job’ record contract. Obviously, it wasn’t all that it was cracked up to be, but for a while, recording, touring and playing WAS our day job. That was pretty cool.”

The Millions play this Saturday, Dec. 1, at The Bourbon Theatre, 1415 ‘O’ St., Lincoln. Tickets to the all-ages show are $10 adv.; $12 DOS. Show starts at 9:30 p.m., with no opening bands (so get there on time). For more information and tickets, go to bourbontheatre.com.

First published in The Reader. Copyright © 2012 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

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Here’s one that was flying under the radar: Tonight at The Waiting Room is the listening party for this year’s Christmas for Pine Ridge compilation.  The CD includes tracks by So-So Sailors, The Whipkey Three, Gerald Lee Jr. (Filter Kings) and a bunch more. The music starts at 8 p.m. Consider it a warm up for Saturday night’s benefit show, also at The Waiting Room.

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2012 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Nik Fackler

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

As mentioned before, I typically point you to my weekly column in The Reader on Thursdays because the topics generally aren’t music related, but when I do write music-related column, like this week’s interview with Nik Fackler, I’ll go ahead and include it here (as well as point you to The Reader‘s website). So here you go:

The filmmaker and musician is about to take another turn.

by Tim McMahan

Who exactly is Nik Fackler?

He used to be known as a filmmaker who wrote and directed Lovely, Still, the independent feature film starring none other than Martin Landau, Ellen Burstyn and Elizabeth Banks. If you haven’t seen it, you’re not alone.

But after the film failed to garner national distribution, Fackler changed careers. These days, he’s a rock star (whatever that means in the post-music industry era). In fact, this column was targeted to support the debut vinyl release by his band InDreama, which takes place this Saturday at The Slowdown in what surely will be an orgy of weirdness and delight performed (and viewed) through sweaty Halloween masks. Fackler would have it no other way.

But InDreama is just one slice of this musician’s life. Our interview for this column took place less than 24 hours after Fackler returned from a two-week tour playing bass with nationally known indie pop band Tilly and the Wall. Fackler talked via cell phone while driving from band practice with InDreama and heading to another band practice for dance/grind/vibe rock band Icky Blossoms, where he plays guitar. For those of you keeping count, that’s three bands, simultaneously.

So I guess Fackler is committed to being a musician, right?

Well, no. While all this was going on, Fackler completed his second feature film, the documentary Sick Birds Die Easy, and submitted it for consideration to the Sundance Film Festival. He’s keeping his fingers crossed that the movie will have its world premier there in January.

And then… what?

“Right now I feel overwhelmed,” Fackler said. “I would hope that I can do music for awhile, and if none of it succeeds, I’ll always have filmmaking waiting for me. It’s mostly filmmaking and storytelling that’s calling me, but music is a much easier way to express yourself. It’s more fun and it’s cooler than filmmaking, even though I think I’m better at filmmaking…”

Such is his conundrum. It’s not that Fackler is confused as much as exasperated. He says making films is really more about the business of selling a project. “You have to make the most beautiful package possible — here’s a great script, great actors, great music — it has to be something they can’t say ‘no’ to.”

“They” are the money people who will finance it all. The plan was to ride the success of Lovely, Still to his next film project. “I didn’t touch a guitar for two and a half years during Lovely, Still,” he said. “I was ready to be a filmmaker. And then Lovely, Still wasn’t successful. I’m proud of it and hope over time more people get to see it, but it didn’t go anywhere. It came out in 2007 when every (film) distribution company was closing its doors. The film sat there and waited for the economy to pick up and was forgotten.”

Meanwhile, Fackler’s disillusionment about the filmmaking process only grew. “I got to the point where it was time to write a new script, and that time passed me by,” he said. “I felt constricted. I hoped Lovely, Still would blow up and I could make another film right away. When it didn’t, I had to start over. I knew it would take years to make another film, so I picked my guitar back up because I needed an immediate release of creativity. If I don’t have that, I feel like I’m being choked.”

InDreama, self-titled (Team Love, 2012)

Fackler became a wanderer. He didn’t have a job, he slept on couches, he traveled. “I fell off the grid,” he said. And all the while, he wrote songs and recorded them on his MacBook using GarageBand. After a year, he had completed 15 songs, which he played for Ashley Miler, a Kansas City music producer with a “far out psychedelic mind” who helped pull it all together into a cohesive package.

The final product is a very strange, very personal musical document of Fackler’s lost year that listeners will either “get” or won’t. He hopes it’s the former but is okay if it’s the latter. “If people like the music, that’s awesome. If not, I’m not paying attention.”

While all that was going on, Fackler finished his next script, tentatively titled We the Living, which he said combines mythology and religion with a science fiction aspect. But before he figures out how he’s going to make it, he has to go on tour with both InDreama and Icky Blossoms before (hopefully) heading to Sundance to screen and promote Sick Birds...

So who exactly is Nik Fackler?

To me, he’s the same 19-year-old mop of hair that I remember meeting at his parents’ diner back in 2005. Goofy, smiling, bleary eyed and happy. Now 28, he never seems to age, but he’ll tell you he has.

“It gets harder as you get older,” he said. “No one is expecting anything from me, but I’m expecting more from myself. As I get older, it gets weirder. I own a house and am in debt to banks and don’t have health insurance (and probably should). Should I be worried about this? I’ve got all sorts of lives to live beyond this one.

“I would love to say I have a direct vision to my path, but I don’t,” he said. “I’ve really let go as an artist. I jumped off the path and don’t see it anymore, and something inside me tells me that’s okay.”

* * *

Join Fackler on his pathless journey this Saturday at The Slowdown for the Freaks of the Night: Halloween Costume and Dance Party a.k.a. the InDreama record release show. Also on the bill is Icky Blossoms, Lincoln freak show performer Plack Blague and Places We Slept. Tickets for the 9 p.m. performance are $6.66 in advance or $8 day of show.

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.

* * *

I’ve been listening to Philly dreampop band Sun Airway most of the morning. The publicist describes their music as “Touches of ELO and New Order brush up against hints of modern sounds like M83 and Radio Dept., carried by the subtle breeze of Bjork’s Homogenic,” which  pretty much sums it up. There’s definitely a heavy M83 dreamgaze thing going on. Pitchfork gave their last record, Soft Fall

(Deep Ocean), a dazzling 7.3 rating

. Check out their video for “Close,” below. Opening is Kite Pilot, who is on a bit of a local tour with four show slated in as many weeks. $12, 9 p.m.

Meanwhile, over at O’Leaver’s, those boot-scootin’ sumbitches The Filter Kings are headlining a show with Reno Divorce and Ground Tyrants. $5, 9:30 p.m. Don’t forget your cowboy hat!

Finally, down at The Slowdown, it’s the return of Jakob Dylan and The Wallflowers, with Trapper Schoepp and the Shades. $30, 8 p.m.

* * *

Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2012 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

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Desaparecidos, from left, are Conor Oberst, Matt Baum, Denver Dalley, Landon Hedges and Ian McElroy. Photo by Zach Hollowell.

The Politics of Thrashing

Desaparecidos is back and angrier than ever.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Also published in The Reader, Aug. 9, 2012.

In the on-again off-again world of indie rock band Desaparecidos, when Conor Oberst calls you drop what you’re doing and run to his side, right?

Not at all says Desaparecidos guitarist Denver Dalley. “Well, maybe to some extent, but it’s not like anyone abandoned any commitments.”

Over the phone last week, Dalley quickly ran down what the rest of the band’s been up to. Guitarist/vocalist Landon Hedges is busy with his band, indie powerhouse Little Brazil. Keyboard player Ian McElroy has been in New York working on hip-hop project Rig 1 “but I don’t know how close he is to releasing new material,” he said.

Drummer Matt Baum has been vacant from the drum kit. “Before we started back up again he said he had an itch to make music,” Dalley said. “He’s done a lot of podcasts for his comic book world (called The Two-Headed Nerd).”

As for Dalley, he’s been bouncing between homes in Omaha, Nashville and Los Angeles. When not touring as part of dance-rock project Har Mar Superstar, he’s been finishing recording his own project, Statistics, as well as a score for a feature film about the Joplin, Missouri, tornado. “I also went to massage therapy school last year,” he says, though he doesn’t know if he’ll ever actually apply those new skills.

And then there’s Conor Oberst. But we all know what the Bright Eyes frontman has been up to.

“Marikkkopa” b/w “Backsell” 7-inch, Desaparecidos (2012, self released)

Just two years after the last time Desaparecidos got together for the Concert for Equality concert, all their schedules have aligned and the boys are back in town. And judging from their new single, “Marikkkopa” b/w “Backsell,” they’re better than ever.

The single’s A side continues the band’s attacks on anti-immigration xenophobes by taking on Arizona’s Joe Arpaio, sheriff of Maricopa County, the king of racial profiling who has earned the title “America’s Worst Sheriff” by the New York Times. If you’re wondering what Arpaio is all about, just listen to the song’s lyrics, which paint the portrait of a racist rounding up illegal immigrants in a style that recalls the worst of Nazi Germany or The Klan.

Oberst has never been one to pull punches when it comes to his politics, so it’s a good thing the rest of the band shares his beliefs. “Fortunately, we all agree on these things,” Dalley said, “but we do discuss them ahead of time.”

For example, Dalley said there was some back-and-forth over the use of the word “spic” in “Marikkkopa,” in the line “These spics are brave and getting braver.”

“The whole song is written from the perspective of this person who is really anti immigration,” Dalley explained, “but we didn’t want it to come across in the wrong way. We thought about it and decided there is a time and a place and a context where (that language) is appropriate. This song is supposed to be controversial and make people think. Not to compare ourselves to them, but songs like Lennon’s ‘Woman is the Nigger of the World,’ and Dylan’s ‘Hurricane’ prove that there’s a point in using that kind of language.”

Considering that most of Desaparecidos’ fans already share their politics, isn’t the band merely preaching to the choir? Dalley said songs like “Marikkkopa” stoke the flames when the fire dies down after the headlines are forgotten. “It gets the conversation going again,” he said. “After we started streaming the songs yesterday (Aug. 2), we watched the Twitter feed and some people thought it was dead on while some said we’re lumping too many things together.”

Then there’s that sizable portion of the audience who doesn’t care about the lyrics, the ones who just want to rock out. “I’m guilty of that myself at times,” Dalley said, adding that he loves it when the crowd gets revved up over the message “but there’s a line you don’t want to cross. There’s a way to bring (issues) up, and a point when someone gets carried away.”

So when Oberst spends too much time on his soapbox, whose job is it to tell him to shut up and play? Dalley laughed. “Knock on wood we haven’t had to deal with that,” he said. “Maybe one night he’ll get on a tear and we’ll have to play him off, like on The Oscars.”

Good luck with that one.

Despite the politics behind the band’s message, Dalley said Desaparecidos (for him at least) is more about having fun, just like it was when the band first started in the early part of the last decade. Though 10 years have passed since the band’s only album, Read Music/Speak Spanish, was released, little has changed.

“It’s shockingly the same in the best possible way,” he said. “I was excited about the idea of practicing and the hi-jinx and laughing with the guys, and it really has been like that.”

There is a nostalgic way in how Dalley describes not only the band’s reunion, but the entire Omaha music scene. He compares the heyday of Saddle Creek Records circa 2001 like being in high school.

“There was a point afterward where everyone went off to college and got married or whatever,” he said. “Now it’s like people are returning from college and going back to their old stomping grounds, where they find a new, younger generation. I could go to a Cursive show back in 2000 and name everyone in the crowd. Now I only know a handful, and that’s great. I still feel like part of something. It’s different, but it’s the same.”

Desaparecidos is slated to play only a half-dozen shows after this Saturday’s Maha Music Festival. Dalley is unsure what will happen after that.

“There’s no plan as of now,” he said. “I think Conor has a handful of solo dates this winter, so as of now there’s nothing scheduled, but we’re all kind of open to whatever and hoping something happens.”

But only “as long as it’s still fun,” he added. “One of the reasons we went on hiatus was because there was starting to be expectations and it was getting stressful. It got away from being dudes having fun playing the music that we love. We’re all focused on that now.”

* * *

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Seems like only yesterday instead of 11 years ago that I was drinking coffee with Denver at the 13th St. Coffee Shop where he broke the news about his new band for this story. We all expected big things from Desaparecidos, and we got them. Desa was destined to be Saddle Creek’s counterpunch to Cursive’s uppercut — a brash, in-yer-face punk band pissed off at the suburbia that would become its fan base. Oberst was and is at his best when he’s political, and Desa provides that outlet in a time when this country desperately needs his voice. It would be a shame if he and the rest of the band put away the boxing gloves after this brief reunion tour.

Speaking of which, Desa kicks off that tour tomorrow night at the infamous 400 Bar in balmy Minneapolis before they head back to town to co-headline the Maha Music Festival at Stinson Park Saturday night. Tix are still available for $35 at mahamusicfestival.com, where you can also check out the full festival line-up, schedule and other pertinent info. I’m told this is the fastest selling concert in Maha’s brief history.

* * *

Tonight at Slowdown Jr., it’s the return of Big Harp with Gus & Call and Field Club. $7, 9 p.m. Get your weekend started on Wednesday!

* * *

Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2012 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Simon Joyner (the one in the hat) and his band. Photo by Zach Hollowell.

Simon Joyner: The Ghosts in the LP

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Also published in The Reader, Aug. 2, 2012.

Singer songwriter Simon Joyner would very much prefer that you listened to his new double album, Ghosts, as it was intended to be heard: Played on a record player.

Unlike other artists who over the past few years have made their recordings available on vinyl as a sort of kitschy gimmick or nod to a hipster scene that prefers analog over digital, Joyner wrote Ghosts, which comes out Aug. 14 on Sing! Eunuchs!, as four sides contained in a one gatefold sleeve, its dark themes ebbing and flowing from the dissonant chaos of Side One to depths of guilt, confusion and regret on Side Two to the grim, bleak darkness of Side Three to a deceptive pop relief on Side Four. The time it takes to get up and turn the record over gives listeners a brief respite between waves of desolation.

“There’s a lot of death on this record,” Joyner said. “Our guitarist, Mike Friedman, said that it was so heavy that he listened to the first record and then took a couple hours off before he listened to the second one.”

Simon Joyner, Ghosts (Sing, Eunuchs! 2012)

It’s hard to imagine listening to a digital version of Ghosts on an iPhone in shuffle mode while jogging, and stumbling across a song like the piano-and-guitar dirge “Swift River, Run” with its lines: “I’ve seen the levee burst / Seen fences devoured by the sun / Should the giant redwood burn / The ash will darken everyone.” Taken out of context sandwiched between, say, KC and the Sunshine Band and a Twin Shadows track, the slow, dismall song could seem almost comical. Taken in its proper place with the rest of the album, and it’s sobering darkness before the dawn.

Is it too much to ask a generation of distracted iPod-slinging youth to listen to and experience all four sides of Ghosts in their entirety? “I don’t think so,” Joyner said Saturday over the phone.

“I really don’t appreciate what that convenient form of listening has done to the album as an album. It’s kind of ruined it in a lot of ways,” he said. “There’s been some damage done to the album as a work of art in the new media, but I think there will always be serious appreciators of music who want the whole experience and not just convenient and quick entertainment. But it’s always been comparatively few.”

Joyner said he created the song arc on Ghosts in an attempt to make the listeners feel like they’ve “been through something and come out on the other side, whatever it may be.”

“Especially with a double record, the middle can get really deep into it. The songs work in a way where you’re kind of getting through the mess of what’s being worked on thematically.”

Side One opens with “Vertigo,” a violent, psychedelic, psychotic blues song that’s a crash of noise and fear. “(The song) announces some of the (album’s) themes: Escape and entrapment,” Joyner said. “Musically speaking, it sets the tone as far as the jagged, dissonant qualities of a band doing jagged, dissonant songs. It lets people know that this is going to be something different.”

“Different,” as in a change from Joyner’s usual style, though there’s nothing “usual” about a Simon Joyner album. Joyner began playing intelligent, personal coffee-shop-style folk back in early ‘90s, releasing his first cassette of songs, Umbilical Chords, when he was just 17. Since then, he’s recorded a dozen albums that range from the static folk of his landmark 1994 release The Cowardly Traveller Pays His Toll to the droll, bleak Heaven’s Gate (1995) to the afternoon balladry of ’99’s The Lousy Dance to the midnight acid blues of ’06’s Skeleton Blues to the somber beauty of ’09’s Out Into the Snow. Though the albums vary in their own ways, the common thread always has been — and continues to be — Joyner’s personal lyrics that provide dark and sometimes uncomfortable glimpses into the way he views life and death and all the stuff in between.

Ghosts continues those themes, but with more death than usual. It’s not so much a collection of eulogies as much as elegies to his own life and the lives of friends now gone. Side Two highlight, “Cotes Du Rhone,” for example, is about singer songwriter Vic Chesnutt, an old friend and musical influence who took his own life on Christmas Day 2009.

“I wrote (the song) in a Vic way, describing things in sort of a goofy, poetic way that I associate with him,” Joyner said. “I tried to write a Vic Chesnutt song about Vic Chesnutt’s death.”

The rock incantation “If It’s Alright With You (It’s Alright with Me),” which bridges Sides Two and Three, also is a tribute to Joyner’s friends who have passed. One verse, for example, repeats “If it’s alright with Jessica / It’s alright with me.” Joyner said he’d read a book about the Viet Nam War with a section about soldiers marching through the jungle chanting a similar recitation for their fallen comrades.

“It was a way of preparing themselves for death, trying to strengthen themselves for what’s going to happen,” Joyner said. “It got me thinking of the people I had lost over the last couple years and how it was weighing on me, and this idea of cataloging them as a way of respecting the dead. The more you deal with and interact with the difficult things in life, the better you will be in actually confronting these things. It’s not always a celebration.”

If it sounds depressing — and it certainly can be — there are plenty of breaks in the clouds, like the Side Four gem “If I Left Tomorrow,” which could be mistaken for a pop song. “It’s hopeful in its own way lyrically,” Joyner said. “It’s saying even though this thing is probably going to end, it’s not just wasted time, we didn’t compromise anything.

“Sometimes a tornado will take a house and will leave a staircase, that’s a hopeful thing,” Joyner said, referencing a line from the song. “There are disasters and rough stuff we go through, but there’s usually some exit, something provided that allows you to make it through another day. And whether it’s in a relationship or just whatever various things that life presents, that’s where the hope comes through.”

Simon Joyner and his band will celebrate the release of Ghosts with Solid Goldberg, Lightning Bug and Sun Settings Friday, Aug. 3, at The Sydney, 5918 Maple St. Showtime is 9 p.m. Admission is $5, or purchase the album for $20 at the venue and admission is free. For more information, call 402.932-9262 or visit thesydneybenson.com.

* * *

There’s a second part to this interview with Simon Joyner that appears in print as this week’s column in The Reader. It talks about record labels and Kickstarter and that sort of thing. I’ll link you to it tomorrow.

* * *

Conor Oberst picked The Huffington Post to debut and explain the new Desaparecidos single “MariKKKopa,” which you can read and hear right here

. It’s a darn good punk song laser focused at Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Ariz. Once again, Conor proves he’s not afraid to name names to give his message some teeth. The single and its b-side “Backsell” (streamed at Alt Press) features (as the article says) “Oberst adopting the voice of anti-undocumented immigrant groups.”

Also from the article:

“As far as paying for public services for these new Americans — although I believe their participation in the economy would do so — I’d recommend cutting our military budget in half. We’d have more than enough money for all the basic public services we all require. I’ll never understand how we allow public health and education to suffer here at home while we spend endless amounts of money overseas fattening the purse of defense contractors.”

Tell it like it is, Mr. Oberst. Something tells me he’ll have even more to say when he takes the stage at The Maha Music Festival next Saturday night at Stinson Park.

* * *

Tonight at The Waiting Room it’s Manchester UK producer/DJ Star Slinger with LOL Boys and Touch People (Darren Keen, ex-The Show Is the Rainbow). $12, 8 p.m.

* * *

Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2012 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.