The Whipkey Three at Stir at Harrah's, May 12, 2012.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

I’m looking over my notes from Friday night’s debut performance by Cooper Moon’s new band, Dark Wave, a band we’ve all heard about for months. Well, the build-up worked, as the Barley Street was respectfully packed with curious music lovers wondering what exactly Cooper and this other band, that includes Tom Barrett (also in DM), Chad Gregerson and Mike Ivers, have been up to.

The answers (for me, anyway) and general impressions were typed into my iPhone in the following order:

Deep, dark well.
Cooper strangling the mic.
Barrett’s keyboard = dark electronic.
First song pure Joy Division.
Bauhaus dance party.
S&M bondage club. Should be played in a black hole bar.
Kill the Christmas lights, kill all the lights.
Goth played by bikers. Biker goth.

Dead Wave at The Barley Street Tavern, 5/11/12.

Any time a new band hits the stage, the first thing anyone does is draw the inevitable comparisons. Mine included Joy Division, Bauhaus, Peter Murphy, The Chameleons and The Church, and on the opening song, Joy Division. I’m not sure why Barrett referenced The Jesus Lizard the other night. After the brief six-song set, one well-schooled local musician/music fan compared them to early Christian Death, which may be too poppy for this rather dark dance stew. That same person pointed out that the one cover song played during the set was a very obscure Echo and the Bunnymen song that Cooper told him had only been played once by John Peel and was never captured on a “session,” but rather was a bootleg recording that Cooper, an avid Bunnymen fan, just happens to have.

That’s enough background to give you an idea where this band is coming from. Other than the post-punk, goth metal inflections, the highlights were Barrett’s keyboard textures and Cooper’s vocals, which were more “musical” than his Dim Light vocals — more range and more sustained moments. Cooper cannot merely bark the lines with this stuff, he has to use his voice to provide another texture layer, and a rather course texture at that. It’s taken almost a year to get them to play one six-song set, which concerns me as other bands in similar situations disappeared after one show. Let’s hope that isn’t the case with Dead Wave.

* * *

As Matt Whipkey said from the Stir “Live and Loud” stage Saturday night, I guess all the press worked, as the club was full during the opening of his two 45-minute sets, when he played many of the songs off his new LP, Two Truths, including personal favorite, “Maria.”

It was your typical Whipkey show, as Omaha’s best haircut made all the right moves to get his crowd of loyal followers (as well as a handful of hardcore gamblers) eating out of the palm of his hand.  In that context, he’s something of a throwback to a simpler time, before the advent of slumped-shouldered, indifferent indie hip-stars who go out of their way to ignore the audience with dollops of you’re-lucky-we’re-even-performing contempt. Whipkey, on the other hand, is the ultimate stage performer, not satisfied if even one crowd member isn’t “into it,” whether it’s on Stir’s tiny lounge stage or at Stir’s mammoth Concert Cove amphitheater. Whipkey was born for an arena, whether he ever makes it there or not.

* * *

Tonight will be the fourth time that I’ve seen St. Vincent. The first time was at The Waiting Room in July 2007, where I said Annie Clark was going “to be bigger than PJ Harvey. Maybe bigger.” Two months later she played a solo set opening for The National on Slowdown’s big stage. The last time was almost two years ago on June 3, 2009, when Clark and her band played at Slowdown Jr. It was fantastic.

Tonight we get her again on the Slowdown big stage, this time with her band. No tix? That’s a shame, because tonight’s show is sold out. Opening is the amazing Shearwater, who has recorded for Misra, Matador and with their latest, Animal Joy (2011), Sub Pop. The fun starts at 9.

* * *

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Before we dive into the weekend, a big thank you to Conduits front woman Jenna Morrison for the sweet shout-out in her recent interview in Ghettoblaster Magazine

(Check out the answer to No. 18). I think that’s the first time anyone has said something nice about the website in print! Keep a lookout for some Conduits performance news very, very soon…

* * *

And now, the weekend…

I’ve been hearing about Dead Wave for what, over a year? The new band features among its players Cooper Moon and Tom Barrett of Dim Light. Between sets at Wednesday night’s TWR show, they told me that Dead Wave will finally make its stage debut tonight at The Barley Street Tavern. Their style: a cross between Joy Division and The Jesus Lizard, says Barrett. Now I got your attention. Also on the bill are Minnesota band Daymoths and Chromafrost (featuring Lincoln Dickison). Debuts are always special. Don’t miss this one. $5, 9 p.m.

Also tonight, Millions of Boys returns to O’Leaver’s stage for the first time since front woman Sara Bertuldo got back from a rather lengthy tour of duty with Conduits when that band opened for Cursive on their last tour.  Also on the card, Everyday/Everynight, Love Songs for Lonely Monsters and Howard. $5, 9:30 p.m.

Saturday night’s big event is The Whipkey Three CD release show

at Stir Live and Loud at Harrah’s in Council Bluffs. Opening is The Big Deep. $7, 9 p.m.

Also Saturday night, Landing on the Moon plays at fabulous O’Leaver’s with The Kickback and The Seen. $5, 9:30 p.m.

Meanwhile, over at The Barley Street, Snake Island plays with Madison band Tiny Riots. $5, 9 p.m.

And then Sunday night it’s the return of Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s, with Dinosaur Feathers and Whispertown, featuring Omaha expat Jake Bellows (Neva Dinova). Whispertown’s front woman is featured in a funny new video on Will Ferrells Funny or Die website called “Get to Know…Morgan Nagler,” that also features a lot of familiar faces, including one Omaha golden boy. Check the out video here and make sure you rate it “Funny.” $12, 9 p.m.

* * *

Universe Contest at The Waiting Room, May 9, 2012.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Maybe 40 on hand for last night’s Omaha debut of Universe Contest, which is either evidence of how hard it is to get people out on a Wednesday night or the dominance of this week’s Big Omaha event (though I doubt any of those techno-nerds would have come to this show anyway).

By 10 first opener Ideal Cleaners already had cleaned house. Second opener Dim Light came on next and blazed through a set of minor key tribal rock dirges sung in a style that got my mojo risin’ (Get it?). One of Omaha’s most magnetic (and cool) frontmen, Cooper Moon laid down his vocals with dollops of delay like a 10-foot-tall biker vampire performing an exorcism on an abandoned Stuckey’s. His guitar was bright and bluesy, but it’s the rhythm section of bassman Tom Barrett drum legend Boz Hicks that cannot/will not be ignored.

Next, Universe Contest. The Lincoln five-piece (two guitars, bass, keyboards and drums) has had comparisons to early Modest Mouse hung around their necks thanks to their recordings. The resemblance is hard to ignore, but on stage, the Modest Mouse comparisons don’t wash. UC is more calculated. More backwoods. More proggy. And, yeah, more tuneful.

The Modest Mouse thing comes from the wonky, scratchy vocals a la Isaac Brock, who (regretfully) smoothed it out on MM’s more recent records. Take away the Modest Mouse overhang and they’re harder to pin down. As the name implies, they’re spacey, but not shoegaze spacey or Bowie spacey. Spacey like a group of Midwestern hillbillies who got ahold of a stack of Popular Science

magazines and figured out how to build their own spaceship from abandoned grain silos, Case tractors parts and the cockpit from a hollowed-out ’73 Maverick. I can see them now sitting on the launchpad in their overalls, their hippie hair sticking out of their gold-painted football helmets. 10.9.8.7…

Best moment of the night was the set closer with the almost whispered line “…breaks my heart.” It sounded like a weird, spacey, bluesy combination of Uriah Heep and Soundgarden, and nothing at all like Modest Mouse. They finished their short set by midnight to cries for more. If they can get past the Modest Mouse thing, watch out.

* * *

In this world of instant media; does it really matter who says what first? Who has the scoop? Who tweets it first? Or rather, does it matter who says it better? That’s the essence of this week’s column in The Reader, which you can read online right here. I’ve been trying to find a better name for the column than “Beyond Lazy-i,” which was the publisher’s idea. So I’m trying a different name every week until something sticks. This week it’s called The Moleskin Diaries. Who knows what it’ll be called next week. I’m open to your suggestions.

* * *

Tonight at Slowdown Jr. it’s the psychobilly sounds of Koffin Kats with The Hooten Hallers, The Blacktop Ramblers and Video Ranger. Early 8 p.m. start time. $12.

Also tonight, Skypiper plays at The Waiting Room with Betsy Wells and I Heard a Lion. $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 © 2012 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

The Whipkey Three

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Matt Whipkey takes compliments with suspicion.

When told that the new Whipkey Three album, Two Truths, sounds like “a Whipkey record,” he immediately raised an eyebrow.

“Is that a negative thing? Does that mean it’s stagnate? That there’s been no development?” he said over Sunday morning coffee at Caffeine Dreams.

It’s only after it’s been explained that having a distinctive style — like Springsteen or The Rolling Stones or Tom Petty — is a good thing that he begins to get the gist of the comment.

“My girlfriend was digging on me last night about how I take criticism,” Whipkey said, “but I think it’s different for musicians.”

He better get used to it. Very few Nebraska artists have such a well-defined musical style and unique voice as Whipkey. Within a few measures of any song, those familiar with his material instantly recognize the booming, golden-hearted power chords touched with a hint of twang, and Whipkey’s Nashville-by-way-of-Benson “southern” drawl that injects each phrase with his big-sky, Heartland roots.

It’s a style that he’s been defining for more than a decade as a solo artist and leading man in a handful of bands including The Movies, Anonymous American and now The Whipkey Three, a band whose name is more of a misnomer. Defined as Whipkey on guitar, vocals and harmonica along with veteran drummer Scott “Zip” Zimmerman and bassist Travis Sing, the new record also features producer J. Scott Gaeta on Hammond B3, piano and keyboards on almost every track. So when The Whipkey Three takes the stage for their CD release show Saturday night at Stir in Council Bluffs, skip the head count.

“If it was up to me, I’d have six guys on stage,” Whipkey said. “The songs work well as a three piece, but in the studio I felt free to indulge, and that can be your own worst enemy. There’s no more than 24 tracks on any given song. We didn’t bring in a Baptist choir.”

The Whipkey Three, Two Truths (self-released, 2012(

But most of the album simply highlights the trio, with Gaeta’s whirling Springsteen-esque Hammond glowing in the background on songs like high-flying rocker “Wasn’t Thinking” and CD-closing back-beat ballad “Reagan Era.” Always at the center is Whipkey’s pure rock sensibility distilled from years of listening to American FM radio. He may be a true indie artist (the album is being self-released), but there’s nothing indie about his style. Whipkey’s songwriting is unapologetically straightforward, un-ironic and ultimately familiar to anyone who grew up listening to arena rock.

At age 31, he says his career goals haven’t changed since his early solo days. He’s managed to make a sizable mark on the local music scene, but has only rarely strayed outside the state lines, despite his efforts to break through to a bigger market.

“I’ve done the college radio thing. It’s a joke,” Whipkey said. “But what else do you do? I wish someone could tell me. I’m back to handing flyers to people I meet. Maybe that’s the best thing you can do. Is it all about who you hang out with? I think it is. I don’t know. Someone tell me. I know how to write songs and perform them, and we do it very well.”

He also knows how to teach, augmenting his income with a day job giving private guitar lessons at Dietz Music. When asked if he still harbors dreams of being as big as Ryan Adams he says, “You have to,” but quickly adds, “You can let those ideas destroy you, because they can make you feel like a failure.”

Instead, Whipkey’s content letting it all hang out on stage and making his own records, right down to meticulously hand-stamping and constructing the cardboard holders for his new CD. “If I give you one, you better listen to it,” he said. “We’re not getting 1,000 jewel-case copies. We pressed 300, and we’ll sell them all.

“This is what I do, it’s who I am,” he said. “Between teaching and playing and performing, it’s my livelihood, my career, and I take it very seriously. I get more out of making music now than I ever did.”

The Whipkey Three plays with The Big Deep Saturday, May 12, at Stir Live and Loud, 1 Harrah’s Blvd., Council Bluffs, Iowa. Showtime is 9 p.m. Admission is $7. For more information, call (712) 328-6499 or visit harrahscouncilbluffs.com

.

* * *

In other news…

If you didn’t pick up your ticket for The Faint’s return show at The Slowdown Aug. 18 at The Slowdown you’re out of luck, because it’s already sold out.

* * *

One of the reasons I’m checking out Universe Contest tonight at The Waiting Room (actually thee reason) is that the band is managed by Jeremy Buckley.

Buckley is the guy behind the annual Lincoln Calling Music Festival. Needless to say, he’s seen and heard just about every decent local band in the area. The fact that he’s chosen to take on the rather thankless job of managing Universe Contest is a testament to his confidence that they have what it takes to become big, fat rock stars. To my knowledge, UC is the only band that Buckley ever managed. You can check out their new four-song EP at their website, universecontest.com. Something tells me these guys have a few Modest Mouse albums loaded on their iPods.

Opening for Universe Contest are local heroes Dim Light and Lincoln proto-punkers Ideal Cleaners. All for a mere $7. Show starts at 9.

Also tonight, Brad Hoshaw is playing at The Barley Street Tavern with Ashley Raines. $5, 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 © 2012 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

It would be easy to pile on to the mountain of complaints about this year’s Red Sky Music Festival.

Held at the massive Ameritrade Ballpark and launched with so much withered promise a year ago, Red Sky announced three of its four headliners yesterday over the lunch hour.

MECA, the folks behind Red Sky, is like a group of out-of-touch parents planning a senior prom.

Scratch that. Try again.

Unveiling the Red Sky lineup is like unwrapping a Christmas gift from your grandmother.

OK, waitaminit…

MECA, contemplating Red Sky...

The Red Sky lineup has about as much artistic merit as a Thomas Mangelsen ‘Bad Boys of the Arctic’ polar bear photo.

Hold on…

Red Sky is so ugly…

Look, I could go on all day with the metaphors.  The fact is MECA’s underwhelming choices should be a surprise to no one.

The combination of Brad Paisley, Rascal Flatts and Def Leppard is about as far away from a “progressive concert lineup” as anyone could imagine. I get carsick just thinking about it. But here’s the thing. As crappy as those bands are, each night of Red Sky easily will outsell the amazingly diverse Maha Music Festival. Easily.

It’s not about art. It’s about commerce. As I’ve said so many times in the past: You could add up every album sold by every artist on Saddle Creek Records and it wouldn’t equal the sales of one Paisley or Leppard or Rascal Flatts album. Indie music is more interesting, more intelligent, more artistic, more daring than anything produced by this year’s RS bands, which is exactly why it’ll never be as popular.

So let Red Sky be Red Sky. They were never targeting you in the first place. They were targeting your parents or your boss or your typical Lee Terry voter. Conservative. Dry. Old-fashioned. Boring. Visionless. You weren’t invited, but that’s OK. You didn’t want to go to their party anyway…

* * *

Hey MECA, there’s still room for one more Red Sky headliner, and I can’t think of anyone more straight-laced and conservative than Bloodcow. When these guys aren’t doing volunteer work at the local VA, they’re busy leading bible study classes and hosting Republican party get-togethers at Applebees. Their style of wholesome, feel-good pop music is exactly what your typical Red Sky ticket buyer is looking for. Don’t believe me? Then check them out tonight when Bloodcow headlines at The Waiting Room with Bible of the Devil, Leeches of Lore and The Matador — nice, upstanding Christian boys one and all. $7, 9 p.m. Bring the kids!

* * *

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.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Last year the Maha Music Festival was something of a sausage party. No matter what organizers tried, they couldn’t book a main stage band with even a single female member let alone a frontwoman. This year, Maha is practically a Midwestern Lilith Fair, with co-headliner Garbage (with frontwoman Shirley Manson) and now the all-woman Sub Pop post-punk rock band Dum Dum Girls, announced last night along with Delta Spirit and Eli Mardock. Add to that Icky Blossoms headlining the local stage featuring the sultry vocals of Sarah Bohling (along with rumors of another female-fronted band on the local stage) and holy moly it’s Maha Girls Rock.

So did Maha go out of its way to book a more diverse lineup?

“It wasn’t our overarching concern, but it certainly was a focus,” said Maha main stage organizer Tre Brashear. “(We) wanted to make sure we secured some female performers at the beginning of the lineup process so we didn’t end up getting burned like last year with unavailability when it came time to finish out the lineup. I know it sounds simplistic, but last year the list of available performers that came back from our inquiries didn’t have as many females. This year, there were more choices that we thought would be appealing to Maha fans.”

Yesterday’s announcement also adds diversity from an age demographic perspective. Maha was on the verge of becoming an indie legacy festival, with Guided by Voices and Superchunk in years past and Garbage and Desparecidos this year — a veritable tribute to past decades. Yesterday’s announcement changes all of that. Dum Dum Girls, who will be coming off an appearance at this year’s Lollapalooza Fest, and Rounder recording artist Delta Spirit, are among the hotter new indie acts on tour, while Icky Blossoms is an emerging post-punk-dance-rock dynamo.

Fans seem to like the lineup, if strong early ticket sales are any indication. “We are running 80% ahead of 2010, so, yes, very strong considering that we have traditionally gotten 10-20% of our sales on the day of show,” Brashear said. “VIP tickets are also going well, especially with the out-of-towners. (We) sold one in Australia last Friday.”

For Maha to “sell out,” it would need to nearly double last year’s attendance. “We will treat ourselves as sold out at 6,000 GA tickets,” Brashear said of Stinson Park’s capacity. “(We) could likely sell more for that space, but don’t want to overwhelm ourselves and want to make sure that we create a good experience for everyone attending with space to spread out, parking, etc.” Tickets to the Aug. 11 concert, held at Stinson Park, are $35 and available at mahamusicfestival.com.

Maha announcements aren’t over yet. Look for one more announcement in the near future to round out the festival’s lineup. Can the multi-million dollar Red Sky Festival match up to Maha? Guess it all depends on how much you like C&W and hair metal. MECA just announced three of its four headliners: Brad Paisley, Rascal Flatts and Def Leppard. Yee-hawwww!

* * *

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.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Very quiet weekend. No national shows worth mentioning. The highlight likely will be tonight, when Icky Blossoms plays at Slowdown Jr. with Video Ranger and Mellow Mic. With no other notable shows going on this evening, has IB grown to the point where they could sell out the frontroom virtually by themselves? We’ll find out tonight. $7, 9 p.m.

Tomorrow night, Sun Settings is playing at The Sandbox with Betsy Wells, Video Ranger and Sea Wife. According to this Facebook invite, start time is 7:30, and the show is $6.

Finally Sunday night, traveling troubadour Jeremy Quentin a.k.a. Small Houses plays Slowdown Jr. with Field Club and Howard. $7, 9 p.m.

And that, my friends, is all show wrote.

One more thing: The Maha Music Festival will announce more of its festival lineup Sunday at 9 p.m. This could wind up being the most balanced tickets in the festival’s history (and maybe its best).

Maha beats Red Sky to the punch once again, as MECA intends to announce the Red Sky lineup on Monday. What are my predictions? Well, as I said on an Omahype Facebook thread, I’m pretty sure we’ll see Sharon Van Etten, Spiritualized, Justice, Screaming Females, Wilco, The Oh Sees, M83, The Weeknd, A$AP Rocky, Nora Jones, Bob Mould/Sugar, and the reunited Smiths.

And Poison.

Do I really need to say “just kidding?”

* * *

R.I.P. Beastie Boys’ Adam Yauch a.k.a. MCA. We’ll miss the humor, the beats, the music, the man…

* * *

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.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The Love Drunk storm team is spending one last night in Omaha before the crew heads to the East Coast for their 2012 Tour. In addition to Tuesday’s announcement, you can read all about the tour and its fearless leader, Django Greenblatt-Seay, in my column in this week’s issue of The Reader, or read it online at The Reader‘s website, right here.

Before they hit the road, The Sydney in Benson is hosting a fundraiser tonight to help cover some of the tour’s costs. Featured bands are Honeybee and Hers, Jasong Mountain (Talking Mountain) and Bazooka Shootout. $5, 9 p.m. More info here.

And as part of this last day in Omaha, Love Drunk also is asking local bands and businesses to donate CDs, T-shirts and other promo material that they can distribute to each band they shoot on the tour, “providing just one more reason to add Nebraska cities to their tour schedule, and helping to build ties across the country.”

Bands and businesses can drop their shit off at The Sydney tonight after 6 p.m. More info about the merch collection here.

The fundraiser isn’t the only thing going on tonight.

Down at Slowdown Jr., Red House Records artist The Pines plays with Midwest Dilemma and Matt Cox. $8, 9 p.m.

Meanwhile, over at The Barley Street Tavern, Millions of Boys plays with The ACBs and Ghosty. $5, 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 © 2012 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

The Drums at The Waiting Room, May 1, 2012.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Just how big was Record Store Day last weekend for Homer’s. Let’s just say sales were at “historic” levels, said Homer’s General Manager Mike Fratt. “We are extremely thankful for all the customer support and all the excitement they create,” he said. “It’s very enjoyable to see fans come out in such large numbers.”

RSD has become a marketing phenomenon of unequaled proportions. The only thing you can compare it to is, say, Black Friday or when Apple launches a new iPhone. It’s huge, not only for Homer’s but for every independent record store in the country. “But with that comes considerable risk as purchases of RSD exclusive product can amount to tens of thousands of dollars, and it’s all sold one way. No returns,” Fratt said. “It is amazing how big an event Record Store Day has become, and it continues to spread internationally. Europe, Asia, South America, Australia. And the indies did this. It dominates Google trends in the week prior, is covered by all major media, and generates positive karma for music and the music business.”

To give you an idea of the enormity for Homer’s: “We brought in more product this year than the last three years combined,” Fratt said. “(It) freaked us out how much we bought, but it turned out well. We sold 66 percent of what we brought in, and have been able to reload on some titles we sold out of since then.”

Among the huge sellers was The Flaming Lips’ Heady LP, which Fratt said not only sold out quickly in Omaha, but sold enough copies that it would have charted in the top 40 on the Billboard charts, and we’re talking about a vinyl release. The key phrase in the last sentence is “would have,” because Fratt said Soundscan somehow didn’t properly report sales on RSD.

“Soundscan showed many cities reported none (of the Lips record) sold (including in Omaha), although we sold all 30 of ours,” Fratt said. “In LA, Soundscan showed just 183 sold when all stores there reported selling all they had, which would have sent the number into the hundreds. Soundscan showed sales in Detroit of negative 400.” Yeah, you read that right.

“Not only did it damage reporting on the three or four titles that would have hit the charts, it also ends up unreporting total impact of RSD, by probably enough to push overall weekly sales up another percent or two — a significant achievement on the part of the indie sector.”

It’s a fuck-up literally of national proportions at a time when the record industry — and indie music stores — can ill afford one. But was Soundscan’s misreporting just a one-time thing or a symptom of a systemic problem? Fratt said the indie music coalition is meeting in LA next week to address the problem. “We are not only concerned about RSD, but ongoing reporting errors,” Fratt said. “Could this loss of reporting move the total national year to date sales up 1 or 2 percent? That is significant if true. No one really knows yet.”

Regardless, there’s no denying that last weekend was wildly successful. Cold hard cash does not lie. “The Indie Retail community saw a 40% increase from last week,” Fratt said. “The overall business conditions were up 3% from last week – which is cool because mass merchants were about even and digital scans were down about 4%.” If that isn’t proof that vinyl is making an impact, nothing is.

While I have your attention, Fratt wanted to pass along some upcoming special events at his store, including in-store performances by My Darkest Days on May 22 and Tech n9ne on May 27, along with listening parties for Beach House and Best Coast May 14 and Sigor Ros May 28.

* * *

online pharmacy wellbutrin no prescription pharmacy

online pharmacy order desyrel online with best prices today in the USA

Craft Spells at The Waiting Room, May 1, 2012.

Briefly… I am a sucker for ’80s electronic music a la Factory Records bands such as Joy Division and New Order. So last night’s show at The Waiting Room clearly was right up my alley.

Opening band Part Time set the mood with a micro-set that lasted less than a half hour. So shortcthat it was hard to absorb what they were doing on stage. Add to that the fact that they seemed to just want to get it over with didn’t help matters.

They were followed by Craft Spells, who sounded like, well, a cross between New Order and Joy Division. It was all there in the oh so familiar guitar lines, synth parts and up-tempo rhythm section that was straight off of Brotherhood. It’s one thing to be derivative of a style, it’s another to wholly embody it. There’s no question what these guys were trying to do, and they did it well, though I couldn’t tell you a word of what the frontman was mumbling into the microphone during their short set. I can tell you they were the best band on stage last night.

Here I was thinking I might get home by 11, but The Drums put on a long, if not adventureless, performance. With a sound that undoubtedly has its origins in the ’80s, it hinted at something slightly more modern (as in The Strokes). Blond frontman Jonny Pierce spent most of the set sashaying around the darkened stage vocally emulating Bono. In fact, their music tried to harken back to very early U2, but lacked that band’s anthemic hubris.

Watching Pierce skip and sway through his set without engaging the audience made me remember what made Bono such an incredible frontman back in U2’s glory days — he brought his audience along with him on every song. He was mesmerizing, nearly confrontational, determined to make everyone in the audience care about what he was singing about. Pierce could have been singing words out of a telephone book, which is a shame because The Drums lyrics deserve more effort than that.

* * *

Snake Island headlines a show tonight at The Waiting Room with Lightning Bug, Dim Light and  Swamp Walk. $5, 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 © 2012 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Ah yes, it’s that time of year again when Django Greenblatt-Seay (G-S for short) and his band of merry pranksters heads out across the wilderness to capture the best and brightest up-and-coming indie bands livin’ and lovin’ along the Eastern Seaboard.

Of course I’m talking about the Love Drunk 2012 Tour.

The map and list of bands are right there at the top of your screen. We’re talking 17 days, 14 cities, 8 people in one very smelly van.

The Love Drunk Team, photo by Daniel Muller.

Actually, the trip has been split into two tours of duty, with four of the eight splitting time between two legs of the tour. It breaks down like this: G-S, Ben Semisch and The Normans (Angie and Andy, the dynamic duo behind Hear Nebraska) will be along for the full tour. Matt Hovanec and Andrew Roger will be on for the first leg. At some point they will be swapped out with Brendan Greene-Walsh (of O’Leaver’s/So-So Sailors fame) and superstar photographer Daniel Muller (who I refer to as Omaha’s Anton Corbijn).

Like last year, I haven’t heard of many of the bands they’re filming on the road, which G-S said he found via friends, friends in bands and “Facebook trolling.” However, we all know that Cymbals Eat Guitars just got off the road with Cursive; and Spinto the Band opened for Basia Bulat at Slowdown a couple years ago. Beyond that, G-S tells me that Laura Burhenn of The Mynabirds suggested Jukebox the Ghost. Sarah of Millions of Boys suggested Nelsonville. And Spinto came by way of Love Drunk regular Arrah and the Ferns.

So what’s Love Drunk? It’s a live, one-shot music video project that’s featured a number of the better indie bands from around Omaha, including It’s True, Little Brazil, Conduits, Digital Leather and so on. The videos are housed at lovedrunkstudio.com

, of course. Read this 2011 column that outlined last year’s tour. Or read my new column about Love Drunk, which will appear in this week’s issue of The Reader

.

Love Drunk continues to see its viewership grow. The site’s 73 current videos have been getting a total of 18,000 views per month so far this year, about a 25 percent bump over 2011. Not bad. But we all know imitation is the greatest indicator of success; and just a few weeks ago the Omaha World-Herald began their own version of Love Drunk called Guest List, created by paid staff rather than volunteers. G-S ain’t worried. He says there’s room for two (or three or four) different music video projects in Omaha.

Speaking of money, this year’s Love Drunk Tour is being funded by a couple sponsors — Proxibid and Havana Garage. They’re ponying up much of the $5k needed to make thing work. But G-S still wants more, which is why The Sydney in Benson is hosting a fundraiser for Love Drunk Thursday night featuring Honeybee and Hers and Bazooka Shootout. It’ll be your last chance to say goodbye to the Love Drunk team, as they’ll be hitting the road on Friday…

* * *

The boys in Desaparecidos announced a few more tour dates this morning, including Minneapolis, Portland, Seattle and SF, all in mid- to late-August. Check out the sched at their website. Will there be a new vinyl release soon? Keep your fingers crossed.

In addition, Conor Oberst announced some solo dates, including a string in late July out east. Those dates are listed here on his website.

* * *

Finally, Red Sky announced today via its Facebook page that it will name names for its 2012 “festival” next Monday, May 7. Ho-boy, can’t wait for that one…

* * *

Tonight red hot Brooklyn band The Drums plays at The Waiting Room with Craft Spells and Part Time. $15, 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 © 2012 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.