Noah's Ark Was a Spaceship

Column 311: Smells Like Noah’s Ark

Noah’s Ark Was a Spaceship runs a golden mile.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The scene is O’Leaver’s on a Saturday afternoon. How could a bar so fun and full of life in the evening look so bleak and frightening in the daylight? Flat, winter-afternoon sun glared through the dirty windows, cutting the darkness where a handful of faceless people sat stooped over the bar drinking and watching college basketball. The room’s tiny “stage” in daylight was a patch of dirty carpeting behind a couple tiny monitors that I pushed out of the way while dragging a chair up to the table where the boys of Noah’s Ark Was a Spaceship sat drinking a variety of tallboys.

Guitarist vocalist Andrew Gustafson was late arriving from a luncheon with his family. We bided time talking about how the band’s music has been influenced by a handful of acts that these guys are way too young to have heard when first released.

“I was in third grade when I first heard Nirvana,” said drummer Rob Webster. “I had a friend whose older brother was really into that shit.”

Guitarist vocalist John Svatos explained how a friend had made a VHS mix tape of “super ’90s bands” that introduced him to Smashing Pumpkins. While bassist Ricky Black professed to being “super into Weird Al. I’m not as cool as these guys.”

Once Gustafson arrived the interview became chaotic, with everyone talking at the same time, made all the more confusing when the jukebox erupted into Thin Lizzy so loud that I couldn’t hear what anyone was saying. I warned them that I was going to get the story wrong, but they didn’t seem to mind.

Noah's Ark Was a Spaceship, Hanga-Fang (Slumber Party, 2011)

The thumbnail sketch of the band’s history: Gustafson met Svatos during art class at Creighton Prep in 2002. “He had a Nirvana patch on his backpack and was already in (local metal band) Paria at the time,” Svatos said. “We were both into Sonic Youth.”

With bassist Black, the trio played their first gig on the under card of a local metal show at The Ranch Bowl. Drummer Rob Webster didn’t join the band until the winter of 2006, when he was Svatos’ roommate. Back in the old days, Noah’s Ark Was a Spaceship was an instrumental noise band, very much influenced by Sonic Youth. It wasn’t until Black returned from the University of Iowa that the band added vocals, which changed everything.

Their discography includes a 7-inch on local Dutch Hall Records and an EP on Slumber Party, the record label that’s releasing their debut LP, Hanga-Fang, at an album release show this Friday night at The Waiting Room. I say “album release” because there will be no CDs — just digital downloads and $15 slabs of 180 gram orange vinyl.

You can get the drift of Hanga-Fang

‘s post-punk by playing it on your computer speakers, but you’ll enjoy it much more by dropping it on your Technics turntable hooked to your Harman/Kardon stereo and a pair of beefy Boston Acoustic speakers — or at least wearing headphones — where you can pick up subtle hints of Sonic Youth, Nirvana, Husker Du and Fugazi beneath layers of densely packed guitars and crisp, cracklin’ drums.

Noah’s Ark does more than emulate. They reinvent that ’90s facade in a modern setting without taking their eyes off the past. Their sound reminds me of the Lawrence scene circa 1993 (think Vitreous Humor or Zoom) — noise rock taken to slacker extremes born under a lonely, empty sky.

The album was recorded last spring by long-time Noah’s Ark engineer Mark McGowan at his Suitcase Recording studio, and mixed by AJ Mogis at ARC Studios.

The band pressed 500 copies under the Slumber Party moniker. We talked about the logic of only pressing vinyl, and how they couldn’t afford a distro deal. Money is not high on their priority list. “I encourage bootlegging,” Gustafson said, though I couldn’t talk him into allowing me to post the download link in this article.

Their next step is heading east and south on a tour with pals The Yuppies, followed by a western tour this summer that Black has yet to book. They’ve become renowned locally for their live show, but there also have been miscues, like playing Laslo’s Brewpub last summer, a restaurant where Webster was a cook. He warned them.

“We played to kids and grand parents,” he said. “When we got done, you could hear a pin drop.”

“The guys from Oxygen played after us,” Gustafson said. “They told us, ‘We really love your hard-edged sound.'” Webster quit Laslo’s shortly afterward, and the band never did get paid.

But they made up for it opening for Cursive at a sold out New Year’s Eve gig in Chicago that they nearly missed due to an ice storm. “We almost ran over a cop about a half hour outside of Iowa City,” Webster recalled.

For the band, the best part of the job is touring, and discovering weird new places, like Fairfield, Iowa, “America’s capital for transcendental meditation,” Svatos said, though none of the band knew that when they booked the gig.

Gustafson said Fairfield and that tour stop could be summed up by a conversation between him, a local girl and a guy who had just arrived in the U.S. “We were standing on top of this building, and the foreign guy asked, ‘What is medicine?'” Gustafson said. “I told him it’s like a pill that you take when you’re sick. The girl gave me a stern look and said, ‘NO IT’S NOT.’ And then she pointed at a bird that was flying over and said, ‘Medicine is that.'”

“That turned out to be the best show on the tour,” Svatos said.

* * *

Again, Noah’s Ark Was a Spaceship’s album release show is tomorrow night at The Waiting Room with The Answer Team, Ideal Cleaners and Yuppies. $7, 9 p.m.

* * *

Unknown Mortal Orchestra at The Waiting Room, Feb. 23, 2011.

Smith Westerns’ current hype caught my attention, but it was opener Unknown Mortal Orchestra that got me to The Waiting Room last night for what turned out to be a well-attended show (150+?, maybe). UMO was a trio featuring two Portland guys and a frontman from Auckland (who pronounced the headliners’ name “The Smith Way-sterns” — Frodo would be proud). Marketed as a psych-rock band, their sound was a ’70s throwback (one guy compared them to Love), but with enough throaty rhythms to make me think of Manchester in the ’90s. They were at their most interesting when they went all proggy on their relatively straightforward songs, and broke down the tempos while adding frontman Ruban Nielson’s intricate and sometimes strange guitar lines, before shifting gears into a groove that The Kinks would respect. Virtual unknowns, keep an eye on these guys.

Smith Westerns at The Waiting Room, Feb. 23, 2011.

As for Smith Westerns — I liked their pop-’70s revival stuff more than their pop-’60s surf revival stuff, mainly because of Best Coast and every other band doing that ’60s shtick. When they moved up a decade, and filled their sound with gorgeous, glammy electric-soar guitars and much-needed keyboards, it was like listening to a Titan Records tribute band (more Gary Charlson than, say, Boys) combined with Sweet or T. Rex. They even had some falsetto vocals thrown in for good measure. As for stage presence, it was dominated by frontman Cullen Omori’s tit-length black hair that hung in front of his face throughout the set (a la Joey Ramone), distracting him as much as it distracted the audience. When he pulled his hair back, he looked like a masculine Sarah Silverman. The evening’s highlight was an orgiastic version of “All Die Young,” which would have been a mega-hit in 1974, and hopefully will be the style of song that points their way to the future.

And what’s the deal with no encores these days?

* * *

Tonight at the Waiting Room it’s Minneapolis indie band Tapes ‘n’ Tapes with Oberhofer. $12, 9 p.m.

* * *

Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2011 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Pete Yorn at The Whiskey Roadhouse, Feb. 19, 2011.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The Omaha Rollergirls All Stars did something that Pete Yorn could never do — they sold out a 3,200-capacity half-Mac Center arena Saturday night for a match that I almost didn’t get a chance to see.

We showed up at the MAC Center in Council Bluffs at around 7:30, figuring we could walk right up to the ticket window and buy a pair of tickets, and still have time for a couple hotdogs before the roller derby action began. Wrong. The line for tickets snaked from the MAC Center across the walkway and beyond the forest of Kanekos. And though it had been unseasonably warm earlier that day, the north wind had picked up considerably. An army of families with little kids wearing nothing but T-shirts stood shivering as they waited for the snail-paced line to slowly move, powered by only two open ticket windows. By the time we got our tickets, the first match had already begun. Before entering the MAC, I looked back to see that the line had grown twice as long, filled with people destined to be turned away when the match sold out.

Obviously the folks who run the MAC Center hadn’t expected this kind of a turnout.

Roller Derby action at the MAC Center, 2/19/11.

Once inside, I knew the general admission seating was going to be a hassle, but we lucked out with a pair of fold-out chairs at the top of the first section. Down below, the teams were skating on a taped-off portion of the concrete arena floor — no fancy inclined wooden skate deck for this event, a la “Whip It.” The crowd didn’t care, though, as they watched The Road Warriors — Lincoln’s No Coast Derby Girls B Team — annihilate Omaha’s Rollergirls B-Team in the opening match. When I finally got up to go to the concession stands, I discovered they were out of hot dogs, popcorn, even warm cheese for nachos. Get it together, MAC Center!

Anyway. We hung around for the first half of the main event — The Omaha Rollergirls All Stars vs. The Fox Cityz Foxz. Needless to say, the quality of the action was much higher than the opening match — you could actually follow what was going on, and the hits were massive. Unfortunately, the Foxz weren’t much competition for the Rollergirls, and by half-time Omaha was up by well over 100 points. As cool as it all was, we’d seen enough and headed over to The Horseshoe Casino for Pete Yorn.

If you’ve wondered how Council Bluffs can afford all the public art that seems to dot every open median around town, step inside one of the casinos on a Saturday night. It was a tidal wave of human malaise surrounded by a soundtrack of ear-piercing slot machine twitch-noise and chaos. From the front doors we made our way through the crowd of half-lit weekend amateurs losing their mortgage money at the tables while an army of tit-push costumed waitresses fed them watered-down mixed drinks to keep their wallets well-oiled.

And then there is the smell. If you ever for even a moment reminisced about the “good old days” when smoking was allowed in Omaha bars, well, just step inside The Horseshoe for one night. Though smoking is only allowed on the casino floor, there’s no hiding from the omnipresent stench that you know is permeating your clothes, your hair, your soul.  There is no escape.

We got there late enough to avoid the opening band and a Ben Kweller solo set and just in time for Yorn, who took the stage inside the casino’s Whiskey Roadhouse lounge. I had been told that it was a small room, and it indeed seemed that way even with the divider walls pulled out to make room for the sold-out crowd of around 600. Like Harrah’s Stir Lounge, the stage felt like an afterthought to the bar’s design, as if pushed into a vacant corner of the Casino where they couldn’t get any crap tables or slots installed. That said, the sound was OK, and Yorn (wearing a goofy hat) was in a rocking mood, belting out tunes from his new album backed by a three-piece band. I’d like to tell you that I was enthralled, but there was something lackluster — if not flat — about the performance, as if Yorn was phoning it in. We made it through about five songs before heading back over the river.

* * *

Tonight at Slowdown Jr. it’s Barsuk Records band Say Hi (formerly Say Hi to Your Mom), with Blair and Midwest Dilemma. $10, 9 p.m.

* * *

Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2011 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Best Coast at The Waiting Room Feb. 11, 2011.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

In the battle last Saturday night between Wavves and Best Coast at a sold-out (and packed) Waiting Room, it was Wavves that walked away the victor (at least in my humble opinion).

Both bands are sharing headlining chores over the course of their tour, and both bands are smoking hot right now, though I have to admit having heard little of either of their music before this show (I did hear snippets of Best Coast on NPR).

Wavves rolled out of the gate sounding like a morph of modern post-punk, low-fi, garage and So. Cal surf music. I was reminded of The Pixies, The Ramones, Descendants, Nirvana, Buzzcocks and Jay Reatard. One guy mentioned Dead Milkmen, another mentioned British ’80s punk. The trio blazed through its set with frontman Nathan Williams burning like a San Diego skate-punk. While there was an obvious similitude to their short, sharp, shock numbers, there also was an undeniable knack for melody that kept the set from becoming ho-hum. Certainly the throngs of Omaha youth were enthralled as they leaned against the stage while all the older folks (and there was a surprisingly large contingent of them) watched from the back of the room. Loud, fast, fun.

Best Coast had better songs, but were a downshift energy-wise. Cutie-pie frontwoman Bethany Cosentino’s sweet girlie voice rang out like Belinda Carlisle meets Liz Phair, backed by another guitarist and a drummer (and no bass). While the music was forcibly low-fi with tinges of surf and garage, there was more depth below the surface melody-wise, but not so lyrically, as the songs leaned toward banal Go Go’s rather than confessional Phair. Cosentino made a point of saying she had roots in Omaha, even calling out her family who were standing somewhere in the mob off stage left, presumably near Congressman Lee Terry who I’m told was in the house.

The fact that the kids (a lot of the staged-pressed crowd looked under 21) are getting into faster, funner, punkier music is a sign of hope, especially after the last few years of droning, lifeless schlock like Animal Collective. Too bad they just stood there and stared at the bands like hypnotized cows. I saw only a couple young groovies doing a shag in the back of the room. Nothing wrong with letting loose once awhile, kids…

* * *

Be the first in your neighborhood to own a copy of Bright Eyes’ The People’s Key by attending tonight’s pre-release party down at Slowdown. Copies of the CD will be on sale for $10; vinyl for $18. They’ll be spinning the disc starting at 8 p.m. and giving away pizza.

And then tomorrow, the bomb goes off…

* * *

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 © 2011 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Interpol at The Slowdown, Feb. 9, 2011.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

As I was leaving last night’s sold-out Interpol show at The Slowdown I ran into someone who also was at the 2003 Interpol show at Sokol Underground. His comment: “You’ve seen one Interpol show, you’ve seen them all.” Last night, it seemed, was proof of that.

The band didn’t sound or look much different than when I saw them all those years ago, though that first show had an excitement factor that can’t be replicated. There were obvious differences, of course. I had a much better vantage point to see the band this time around, standing just below stage left (I was way in the back of the room at that Sokol show). And then there were the lights. Interpol uses a battery of powerful, dazzling LED panels along with synchronized spots (mounted at ground level) to give them a haunting man-who-fell-to-earth sort of vibe. Unfortunately, where I stood the LED’s and floods burned right into my retinas, blinding me through most of the show — I wound up pulling a Corey Hart and slapped on my Ray-bans. Those lights were the most exciting part of the band’s stage presence, as the well-dressed lads kind of stood there and played in the glare and fog, though guitarist Daniel Kessler (looking like a young Noah Wyle) did break into some edgy, kicky dance moves on occasion.

Add their flat stage presence (and no between-song patter) to Interpol’s interesting though one-dimensional songwriting and you’ve got a recipe for a pretty static show once you get past the first three songs. The good news is that their new material stands up well next to the old material. The bad news is that it all sounds the same. I got the feeling after Kessler and Banks’ somber guitar-vocal duet halfway through the set, that it would be right back to business as usual, and it was. With an early wake-up call this morning, I took off my sunglasses and headed home before the encore.
* * *

It’s True, a.k.a. Adam Hawkins and whoever he’s playing with these days, announced a CD release show yesterday on Facebook

. The new disc is called Another Afterlife, and the show is April 1 at The Waiting Room with the Haunted Windchimes, Noah’s Ark was a Spaceship, and Cowboy Indian Bear. It’s good to have you back, Mr. Hawkins.

* * *
Speaking of talented singer/songwriters, tonight Brad Hoshaw is headlining a gig at Slowdown Jr. with Lincoln Dickison, SAS and Michael Wunder. $7, 9 p.m.

* * *

Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2011 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Column 309: Here it comes, that heavy love…

CD Review: Bright Eyes, The People’s Key

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Bright Eyes, The People's Key (Saddle Creek, 2011)

Bright Eyes’ new album, The People’s Key, comes out Feb. 15 on Saddle Creek Records. Conor Oberst’s publicist tells me that the band, which had just started rehearsals, has put all press inquiries on hold for the time being. Maybe when Bright Eyes gets ready for his June 4 show at WestFair we’ll get Conor’s perspective on the album, but until then, you’ll have to settle for mine in this review.

NPR.org, who has been streaming the album in its entirety for the past few weeks, came right out of the gate declaring it the “best record Bright Eyes has ever made. In fact, it’s the best record the band’s frontman, Conor Oberst, has ever been a part of.” Only time will prove if NPR is right, though I don’t know how you could declare any album as being an artist’s “best.” It might be your favorite, but “best”? Come on…

I will say this: I like The People’s Key much more than Oberst’s last solo album and his Monsters of Folk material, and that’s somewhat concerning to me as I’ve always said that all this talk about this being “Bright Eyes final album,” was pure silliness since Bright Eyes at its core is Oberst. However, there’s no denying that Oberst is a different man when it comes to Bright Eyes. From both a musical and lyrical standpoint, Bright Eyes records just hold together better, like reading a great novel as compared to a collection of short stories. The thematic essence of Bright Eyes albums is more consistent and, well, satisfying than what he’s produced under his solo banner.

The album keeps with the Bright Eyes tradition of starting with a spoken-word audio clip. For Cassadaga, Bright Eyes’ last album, it featured a (presumably) big-haired southern woman talking about spiritual centers that attract “believers,” like the Florida town the album was named after. This time it’s “Shamanic” vocalist Denny Brewer of the band Refried Icecream doing an L. Ron Hubbard-esque spiel about spaceships and lizard men at the beginning of the world. Brewer occasionally sticks his head in between songs, sounding like Will Ferrell imitating Harry Caray. For long-time fans, this eccentric touch is part of what you come to a Bright Eyes album for, though later on you’ll find yourself figuring out ways to cut out those opening two and a half minutes so you can get right to the first song.

In this case, that song is “Firewall,” a simple melody draped in dread built upon a sinister, circular electric guitar line. Oberst spits out his vision of talking ravens and artificial theme parks before getting to his own artificial reality and his escape from it via jump ropes and slit wrists. Breaching the “firewall” opens the melody to the glorious heavens, before it comes back down.

If there’s a theme that ties the album together its Oberst’s dwelling on the inevitability of death. Every song has an allusion to death or dying, a theme approached now with resignation, though it’s something (based on earlier Bright Eyes material) that Oberst figured out long ago.

That theme is most obvious on the album’s ultimate downer number, “Ladder Song,” with its subtle opening lines:

No one knows where the ladder goes

You’re gonna lose what you love the most

You’re not alone in anything

You’re not unique in dying

Mournful piano and Conor at his most quivering. In the old days, this would have been a song about a broken heart or a strung-out night spent in Manhattan. My how things change as you get older. And unlike, say, Prince’s song about a ladder, there’s no salvation or hope at the end of this one. About to turn 31, Conor seems too young to be dwelling on death, but then again, there were those who wondered if he’d even live to see 30.

The People’s Key might be Bright Eyes’ most consistent album from a songcraft perspective. There is a straightforward quality here that is undeniable; everything seems self-contained, pulled together and kept from going on tangents. The end product is an even line from beginning to end. Predictable, and for a lot of music-goers, that can be very satisfying.

But there is something missing. On every other Bright Eyes album, there was one perfect moment that jumped off the disc, unique and demanding a rewind, the perfect song for the mix tape. From I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning it was “Lua.” From Cassadaga it was “I Must Belong Somewhere.” From Lifted, it was “Nothing Gets Crossed Out” and “Lover I Don’t Have to Love” and “Bowl of Oranges” and  “You. Will. You. Will? You. Will? You. Will?” and “Waste of Paint” — a song that you can’t turn off or skip over after it’s begun.

I’ve been listening to this album for a couple weeks and that song hasn’t jumped up and waved its arms at me yet. Maybe it will later, I don’t know. Maybe it’s more than I should expect.

That’s the thing about Bright Eyes albums. Those of us who have followed the band since the days when Conor wore glasses expect every release to be a masterpiece. And maybe that’s what separates Oberst’s solo work from his Bright Eyes efforts — that he and cohorts Mike Mogis and Nate Walcott also approach each album as if it were something more than just a collection of songs.

Time will tell if The People’s Key was a just a collection of songs or a “masterpiece” or a “best” or just a favorite. Right now it’s just a good album.

* * *

So my rating for The People’s Key is a firm “Yes.” Let me echo Omaha World Herald

music guy King Kevin Coffey and ask, “Will it top the Billboard charts when it’s released next week?” I don’t see much standing it its way. There are new ones coming out by Sonic Youth (Hey, MAHA, now there’s a band to consider), P.J. Harvey, Mogwai and Drive-By Truckers, none of which are a threat to Conor and Co.

It doesn’t take much anymore to top the charts. Decemberist’s awesome The King Is Dead was a Billboard No. 1 only needing to move 94,000 copies during its debut week to mount the summit. It helps when the mp3 download is only $7.99 at Amazon (or in Arcade Fire’s case, as low as $3.99 during its release week). How low will The People’s Key be offered on Amazon (or iTunes)? If it’s a $3.99 download, look out.

But what do I know about the music business? When it comes to these sorts of discussions, I always turn to Mike Fratt, who runs Homer’s Records. Mike is more skeptical. He doesn’t think The People’s Key will top the charts. “Because the Soundscan week includes the Valentine’s weekend (historically a good week for music sales) and the week post-Grammys (2/13) I don’t think Bright Eyes will hit No. 1,” Fratt said. “I do think it will achieve top 5, but at a lower number than 2007’s Cassadega.”

He thinks Arcade Fire, Mumford & Sons, Eminem, Taylor Swift and Katy Perry all will chart higher than People’s Key, helped along by Grammy performances. “Looking at this week’s Soundscan, Conor & Co. may have to generate at least 30 to 35(000) to make top 5,” Fratt said. “I’d be surprised if they make that, although the album sounds good.”

Cassadaga logged in at No. 4 on the Billboard charts with first-week sales at just slightly north of 58,000. And 11,000 of those sales were digital downloads — around 19 percent. If Amazon offers The People’s Key at $3.99, you could see downloads grab a bigger percentage this time ’round.

Fratt predicts total first-week sales to be around 27,000, and he hopes a ton of those are bought at Homer’s, where they’re guaranteeing the album will be in stock through Feb. 27. “We bought a lot, but if we run out (Saddle Creek) will drop some off vs. us having to reorder through ADA or a one stop.  CD = $9.99  LP = $19.99! through 2/27.” Get your ass to Homer’s, people.

* * *

Pitchfork reported yesterday that Titus Andronicus has been added to a few Bright Eyes dates, which should make for an entertaining evening considering how Titus frontman Patrick Stickles’s vocals are forever being compared to Conor Oberst’s vocals. Here’s what Stickles told me last September when I asked him about the Oberst comprisons:

“I’ll tell you because you rep the Omaha readership,” Stickles said. “I think it’s a little short-sighted. The constant comparisons to anyone gets old, even if it’s Jesus Christ. Doesn’t everyone want to be themselves? Don’t we all want to blaze our own trail, though I know this is rock and roll, and there’s not too much under the sun? But it seems kind of like, uh, cheapening slightly to say that if you’ve heard one guy you can pretty much guess what this guy is going to sound like. After awhile it feels like a feedback loop, a house of mirrors, like sometimes (reviewers) get these things to sound so similar that I’m reading reviews of other reviews. But maybe that’s me being a self-righteous, entitled type. Even if it were true, is it helpful? Who’s to say? It’s not in my control. As I put my art out into the world, it’s out of my hands. History will judge.”

It will indeed.

* * *

It’s going to be cold outside but oh so hot inside The Slowdown tonight for Interpol. Opening is School of Seven Bells, who came through The Waiting Room last September. Here’s the review from that show:

The best moments came when guitarist Benjamin Curtis was allowed to run wild run free. His tone was amazing; it reminded me of every great soaring guitar solo of ’80s post-New Wave/dream rock era. The Deheza sisters sounded like what you’d imagine Azure Ray would sound like fronting a dance band. Unfortunately, too often the vocals were buried in the mix and sounded limp, like an afterthought. As with the opener, the sound would have benefited from more bottom end (no bass again). The 70 or 80 people on hand spent the night huddled by the stage, but few if any danced, except for one girl who spent the evening with her arms in the air. Maybe that’s why they didn’t come out for an encore after their 45 minute set concluded. A pity. I could have listened to them for another hour.

Get there early and get out of the cold. See you at the show…

* * *

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 © 2011 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Little Brazil at The Sydney, Feb. 4, 2011.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The big news: Megan Morgan, Oliver’s wife, has joined Little Brazil. At first I wondered if that was a good idea. There’s the whole Yoko thing to think about. Do wives and girlfriends belong with the band on the road? But then I realized that Megan has kind of been a part of this band for years. She’s certainly rode all the ups and downs with the rest of the band. She knows what it’s like to tour having been a member of Landing on the Moon (Oliver’s “other band”) for years (though they haven’t toured nearly as much as LB). How the band will pull off a full-out fall or spring tour in support of a new album when Megan has a “real job” as a teacher I do not know. That’s a question that’ll have to wait until the obligatory interview that always takes place before the album release show.

And that won’t be too far off. LB played seven new songs, presumably tunes that will be on their next LP. It was before the second number that Megan was called to the stage as “the newest member of Little Brazil.” The addition of keyboards has done exactly what you’d expect them to do — forced LB to focus more on melodies, and as a result, the new material has more of a ballad lilt to it, it’s more tuneful, less punk, more anthem, and for a band that’s been around as long as they have, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Megan’s keyboards are not front-and-center, they’re a a colorful garnish that doesn’t get in the way of the band’s core sound, which continues to hinge on frontman Landon Hedges’ After School Special vocals, a combination of adolescent high-end and 20-something going on 30-something meloncholy. The music remains that familiar mix of Superchunk and late-’90s early 2000’s emo a la Weakerthans, Sorry About Dresden, Get-Up Kids, and my favorite comparison, Polyvinyl band Sunday’s Best (circa 2000’s Poised to Break

), who they’ve always most resembled (to me, anyway). It’s too early to say if this is the album that pushes them over the hump or merely pushes them along.

LB’s performance was part of the Hear Nebraska Launch Party at The Sydney Friday night, and the crowd pushed the bar to its capacity — at least from a service standpoint. Getting a beer wasn’t easy, and I almost gave up until LB started playing and a tiny space opened at the bar. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen a show at the Sydney, and despite having a pool table right in the center of the floor, it could become a great place for live music if it wanted to be. After a few tweaks during the opening number, the room and PA sounded pretty good. But judging from their gig calendar, the folks at The Sydney (wisely) have decided to make shows a distant secondary attraction to garnering a regulars-style drinking club, and who can blame them?

* * *

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 © 2011 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

The Show Is the Rainbow at The Waiting Room, Jan. 28, 2011. Photo by John Shartrand.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Friday night, to an audience of fewer than 100 at The Waiting Room, Darren Keen, a.k.a. The Show Is the Rainbow, had a message he delivered just before launching into a set of all new material from an album that’s yet to be recorded. The message boiled down to this (and I’m paraphrasing here): The best work Keen’s done was when he was doing it for himself, and the worst work he’s done was when he was trying to impress all the wrong people. Well, now Keen’s through trying to impress anyone, as he hits the road for eight months on a self-booked tour with his girlfriend in tow.

Keen sounded like a man who had come to some sort of self-realization that no matter how hard he tries to control his future, his life, his career, he’s powerless in the face of a world, of an industry, that never knew and never cared. Which is a long-winded way of saying that now he’s doing it for himself. And that’s a pretty good message.

And with that, he tore into a set of abstract, art-damaged polyrhythmic “songs” that examined his view of the world around him. The themes: paying the cover, faux indie angst, learning how to think, learning how to (literally) grow, his love of dope, and his love of love. It sounded like hippie stuff, and maybe it was. As a one-man act, he sang the tunes over prerecorded keyboard tracks that were a dizzying kaleidoscope of circus arpeggios and electronic beats. Did I say sing? Most of the songs featured Keen doing a sing-song rap delivered from the floor instead of the stage while he performed an interpretive dance bare-chested, pants-sagging, sweat glistening off his fat rolls.

When TSITR first started all those years ago, Keen was criticized for being a home-grown version of Har Mar Superstar by people who had never actually listened to or heard Har Mar or Keen. The only thing those two had in common were a love of dance music, a willingness to take off their shirts and ivory white bellies. These days, thanks to his ginger beard and habit of improvising at the keyboard (and his “keen” wit), Darren could be compared to a young Zack Galafianakis, though only the most demented minds like my own would ever come up with that comparison.

The other thing that went through this demented mind Friday night was that Keen may be onto something. His set was fun and “in your face,” with just enough edge to be considered subversive. There is an aggression boiling just below the surface, a strange unnerving tension that could erupt at any moment. And though the music is less “dancy” than his earlier material (which may change after he fills it out in the studio), it’s no less engaging. Let’s face it, it’s impossible to be bored at a TSITR show, which is more than I can say for 90 percent of the indie bands that come through town. And for those folks who will stumble onto Darren by accident as he and his girlfriend criss-cross the country over the next eight months, he could be a revelation or at least one helluva conversation piece.

Opening the evening was Machete Archive, who has steadily become the most interesting instrumental-only band I’ve seen on stage since Mogwai (who they in no way resemble). Beyond the music, which is borderline metal balladry, is the headbanging performance itself. In addition to having insane dance moves, bassist Saber Blazek is a marvel on the fretboard, maybe the best bass player in Nebraska. But the only way that claim could be proven is if Hear Nebraska

or Omahype or The Reader hosts another long-needed “bass off” among the state’s best four-stringers. The gauntlet has been thrown.

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You can now stream Bright Eyes’ new album The People’s Key in its entirety at NPR.org. Here’s the link. My first impression is that the biggest by-product of the Monsters of Folk tour is that Conor now writes and records music that sounds like M. Ward tunes. You be the judge.

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People are already rescheduling things in the face of what could be one of the more brawny storms to hit the city since… last year. Something tells me even if the storm gets here before 9:30, tonight’s show at O’Leaver’s will carry on as planned. The headliner is the amazing Dim Light, with Nature Boys and The Prairies. $5, bring a shovel…

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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 © 2011 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Cursive at the Waiting Room, 1/18/11

By Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The chatter in the crowd: How old were you when this album came out? Me, I don’t remember. What I do remember is interviewing the band a decade ago in the back room of the USA Baby store just east of 72nd on Dodge St. where Tim Kasher’s mom worked. Kasher had just moved back to Omaha. Ted Stevens had just joined the band. They were a tight, fun, happy bunch singing bitter, angry songs about Kasher’s broken heart. Cursive’s Domestica was the ultimate break-up album, whose cover art featured a young couple in strange, awkward embrace — a couple played by a cute young girl who would become the keyboardist/vocalist of Fortnight (and who looks as cute as ever) and a young guy who would become a Grammy Award winning CD sleeve designer. Domestica would eventually become recognized as Cursive’s epic masterpiece, and songs like “The Martyr” and “The Casualty” would become a permanent part of their set list for the next 10 years.

It didn’t matter if Kasher messed up the opening line of “The Casualty” or if he even remembered the words, because the SRO crowd at The Waiting Room last night spent the evening singing along like an indie rock Greek chorus — a happy soccer mob chanting anthems that have become part of their lives. The set honestly didn’t sound much different than when they first played the album top-to-bottom at Sokol Underground a decade ago. Kasher’s voice certainly hasn’t changed… much. The guitar interplay between Kasher and Stevens — the most distinctive element of the album — was as playfully distorted as ever.  As much as the songs themselves, it was that guitar style that I remember most about that album.

So yes, they played all the songs in order with no pauses or stage banter in between, and that’s just the way the crowd wanted to hear it. It’s a slim set — just a little over a half-hour — and that brevity has helped it age well. But while I have to admit that Casualty/Martyr are one of the best one-two punches in indie rock history, Domestica is not my favorite Cursive album, not anymore. That honor goes to 2003’s The Ugly Organ (which hopefully we’ll hear in its entirety in 2013). Regardless, Domestica is the band’s most important album. It’s the one that pushed them to the next level of national attention, at a time when everyone around the country was just beginning to whisper about what was happening in Omaha.

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The folks at the MAHA Music Festival announced this year’s dates/location — August 13 at Lewis and Clark Landing. The festival remains a one-day event, which makes it more of an all-day concert rather than a festival. Regardless, their growth won’t be contingent on the success or failure of the Red Sky Music Festival, but rather their willingness to take risks and go out on a limb with a line-up that will attract the gaze of the world outside of our city limits. Will they be successful? Come back tomorrow for the final part of this year’s 2011 music predictions and find out…

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And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for: Here are the winners of the Lazy-i Best of 2010 CD sampler:

Elizabeth A. Toepel, Morse Bluff, NE
Adrian Mejorado, Edinburg, TX
Cami Rawlings, Omaha, NE

Congratulations! And thanks to everyone who entered the drawing. See you next year!

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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 © 2011 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

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Peace of Shit at O'Leaver's, Jan. 14, 2011.

by Tim McMahan,

Lazy-i.com

How good is the new Peace of Shit cassette? Well, really good, actually, though it sounds (appropriately) like shit in my ’99 Tracker. The poor sound quality has as much to do with my standard-issue cassette player (which makes everything sound like shit) as it does the overblown, tin-can rattle recording. But no matter how dirty it sounds, you can’t keep a song as good as “Out of Our Heads” hidden beneath all the filth, nor can you ignore a line as good as, “I can only do one thing, and that’s drink, without you.” Sounds like frontman Austin Ulmer has had a little of his Digital Leather experience rub off, both in his vocal style and his song structure. Consider this the more punk, less New Wave version of DL (closer to the live DL sound). But amidst all the anger and angst and panic in the streets, there’s room for a ringing little pop song like “Slumber Party” that will have you doing a drunken twist with your chained-up gimp down in your personal basement torture room. Don’t have a cassette player? Doesn’t matter. You should still buy a cassette from the Rainy Road Records website, or from The Antiquarim if the band ever gets around to dropping some copies off down there. It comes with a download code so you can add the digital files to your portable listening device. Those files provide more pristine versions of these songs, but I still prefer the fuzzy, shitty versions coming from my Tracker’s 6 x 9s.

As you would expect, the live version of POS is a different animal than the cassette version. Frontman Ulmer had his paws wrapped around a couple microphones while he mmrrwwrrred the lyrics backed by a 5-piece punk band. Unlike, say, a Shanks show (I went to a fight and a rock show broke out) all the energy was focused directly on the music. Though they’ve only been around for a few months POS has somehow already floated to the top of the punk-rock toilet bowl as one of the best collections of local hard music talent in Omaha. It’s like they’re stars already, sort of. OK, maybe not stars, but a band that deserves more exposure. That is if their name doesn’t hold them back. It’s Ceelo Green all over again. Maybe they should change their name to the less offensive Peace of Poop.

Uh, maybe not…

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Tonight at The Waiting Room, Cursive performs their landmark album Cursive’s Domestica top-to-bottom, beginning-to-end, in honor of the 10-year anniversary of its release. No more needs to be said, except that they performed Domestica in Chicago on New Year’s Eve (review of that show here) and that tonight’s show has been sold out for quite a while now. Lightning Bug opens, show starts at 9 p.m.

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Lazy-i Best of 2010

This is it, the last day for entering the drawing for a copy of the Lazy-i Best of 2010 Sampler CD. Considering the number of entries received so far, your chances are pretty good this year of getting a copy. Just send an e-mail to tim@lazy-i.com with your name and mailing address. Tracks include songs by Arcade Fire, Jenny and Johnny, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, Belle and Sebastian, Titus Andronicus, The Mynabirds, A Weather, Zeus, The Black Keys, Pete Yorn and more. Full track listing is here. If you’re lucky enough to win, you’ll also get the new limited edition Lazy-i Sticker to stick on something. Deadline is TODAY. Do it.

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2011 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Cold/flu/something kept me from the hearnebraska.org fund-raiser at O’Leaver’s Saturday night. I’m told by HN head dude Andy Norman that the turnout was solid. O’Leaver’s, I do miss you so…

Before the sickness took over, I was able to check out Anniversaire Friday night at  The Waiting Room. The set-up: Keyboard, cello, bass, percussionist. Any time you see a music stand on stage, well, it’s never a good sign. Unlike their photo in The Reader, three of the four members wore glasses on stage, including the drummer, who also wore a vest and necktie, and lip-synced to every song.  A fifth person eventually rejoined the band — a slight girl in glasses holding a violin.

Frontman Aaron Jordan looked like a young Rivers Cuomo seated behind his keyboard; while his high, breathy voice reminded me of Jesse Otto from Shelterbelt, and some of their music even reminded me of Shelterbelt’s more down-turned moments. Despite all the percussion, it all seemed very formal. It was lush chamber pop, but a very serious brand of chamber pop. There was nothing funny about what was happening on stage, nor was there intended to be. The sound was gorgeous and dense, floating brightly on those strings. It took a discussion with the sound guy after the show before I figured out why I could hear that cello so well — there was no guitar on stage, and without an electric guitar crowding the middle, there was room for that cello to sing.

Pretty stuff, but after listening to the album a few times and watching them live, I still couldn’t tell you what any of their songs are about, except that the subject matter is probably dire and serious, no doubt personal, and “very, very important.”

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Lazy-i Best of 2010

Need I remind you that there’s a little over a week left for you to get your entry in for the the drawing for the Lazy-i Best of 2010 sampler CD? Just send me an e-mail to tim@lazy-i.com with your name and mailing address. Tracks include songs by Tim Kasher, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, Belle and Sebastian, Titus Andronicus, The Mynabirds, A Weather, Jenny and Johnny, Zeus, The Black Keys, Pete Yorn and more. Full track listing is here. And not only do you get a CD, you also get the new limited edition Lazy-i Sticker, suitable for any car bumper. Enter right now. Deadline is Jan. 18.

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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 © 2011 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.