by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Hey, I’ve got an idea: How ’bout we never use the phrase “They’re killing it” ever again in Twitter/Facebook/anywhere? What do you say? The only phrase more annoying is “No worries.” What are we, in the Outback? STOP IT.

Thursday always has been when I’ve posted my weekly column. I figured this was a good time to explain last week’s column to those who didn’t “get it,” and there were quite a few of you. At least a half-dozen people have asked me what exactly did I mean by “the end of my first column and the beginning of my second.”

Here’s the translation: My music column in The Reader folded last week. That was it. Kaput. Over. End of story. EOL. For those who missed it, you can read the reason for that column’s demise, here.

Next week I begin writing a new column for The Reader. I don’t know what it’ll be called, but it won’t be called Lazy-i. This new column will not be dedicated to indie music, as Lazy-i was. It’ll be a general topic column focused on arts and culture and anything that I can come up with by knocking together the two rocks rolling around in my head. That new column will launch in The Reader next week, and will be exclusive content in the paper and at thereader.com — it won’t be posted here.

This website will continue in its current direction. Nothing will change. It will have the same indie/Omaha music focus that it’s always had and will be updated each weekday over my lunch hour, as it has for the past 1,000 years.

Furthermore, I’ll continue to write feature articles and interviews with bands that will appear both in The Reader and in Lazy-i. In fact, I just did an interview with Tim Kasher last night for an article that’ll be in print in an upcoming issue of The Reader, and also will be posted on this website (along with any extra interview content that wouldn’t fit in The Reader‘s article).

Again, I’d like to thank all of you for reading the printed version of Lazy-i in The Reader over the years. A couple people seemed genuinely upset about its demise, telling me “It’s the only thing I read in The Reader,” and “I’ll never pick up that paper again.” To this I say: “Thank you. I appreciate your kind words. I’m always surprised when I hear that anyone read my column (whether in print or online). But please, keep picking up The Reader. Flip through its pages. If there’s something that you’d like them to cover, interviews you’d like them to conduct, please let them know. Email the editor, John Heaston (john@thereader.com) and tell him what’s missing and what you’d like to see in his pages (which are really your pages, because you’re the customer, and the customer is always right, right?). John will listen. He has to. The only way printed newspapers are going to survive is if the folks producing them listen to their readers and provide the content that they ask for along with the content that the editor thinks they need (Quick, someone write that down and send it to every friggin’ newspaper in the country).”

Another reason you need to continue to pick up The Reader is because MY NEW COLUMN WILL BE PRINTED IN IT! But I don’t want to sound like the egotistical prick that I am. Just saying’ (there’s another phrase that should be abolished).

As I said last week, there will be some (maybe a lot) of overlap between my new column and the old one. I’m not going to avoid music topics, but I’ll also no longer avoid non-music topics. I’ve been wanting to write about local art, music, food, theater, literature, people, dogs, cops, robbers, trees, politicians, boobs, pricks, glass houses and empty buildings for years and have held back because it didn’t fit the Lazy-i format. Now I can. And with that, I’ve just given you a sneak preview of next week’s inaugural column, which remains unnamed. If you have any ideas, pass them my way.

* * *

And speaking of my continuing music coverage in The Reader, yours truly will again be covering South By Southwest in Austin. Originally, it didn’t look like I was going, but things have changed and I’ll be reporting from Austin again this year, posting daily for thereader.com and Lazy-i.com. Let’s hope the weather is better than the last time I went two years ago, when it was cold and rainy and miserable. Please, pray to your gods.

* * *

Lincoln Exposed continues tonight. Early report from Mr. Jeremy Buckley is that crowds at yesterday’s shows were at record levels. If you’re in the Capital City tonight, you should go, because there ain’t jack shit happening in Omaha tonight. Full schedule is here (in Facebook).

* * *

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

I’ve been espousing this premise about the future of music and entertainment in general for the past year. It’s this: As music becomes more accessible and virtually free via Spotify/Rdio/Rhapsody (and eventually iTunes) bands won’t be vying to get you to buy their music as much as simply take the time to listen to it. With all the distractions from all the media bombarding us like radiation every second of every day, just finding time to listen to new music, and really consider it, is a precious thing, because no one wants to waste their time listening to your music if it’s shitty.

I think this future I’m describing is already here.

Last night’s inaugural meeting of the Record Club at The Saddle Creek Shop was a salvo aimed directly at this idea. The club’s concept: Sit and listen to an entire record album uninterrupted, and then afterward, talk about it. It seems simple enough, until you ask yourself when was the last time you sat and listened to a complete album uninterrupted, beginning-to-end without surfing on the net or updating your Facebook page or driving around town or shopping at Whole Foods. Just sit for 43 minutes and listen. To the whole thing. No skipping around. Top-to-bottom. Who has the time to do something like that anymore?

Believe it or not, back in the old days before the iPod, people used to do it all the time. At record stores like The Antiquarium, they sat around, smoked cigarettes, listened to records and talked about them. That’s what Creek chief Robb Nansel remembers. That’s what he’s trying to recreate at his new record shop (but without the smoking). That’s the concept behind this club. In some ways, it’s a noble if not extravagent idea.

So there we were last night at 7 at the shop, all six of us, listening to Cursive’s I Am Gemini one side at a time. And afterward, we talked about the record. Did we like it? Did we hate it? Where does it rank among the band’s discography? What the fuck does it mean? Will “kids” have the patience to listen to a concept album and “get it”? Can any of the tracks survive in isolation, out of context? Whether Nansel wants to admit it or not, it was kind of like a focus group consisting of music fans, though I’m not sure if anyone felt comfortable enough to say if they thought it sucked in front of Nansel and the record store guy (there were only three “civilians” there). But the fact is, anyone who would trek out on a snowy Tuesday night to listen to this record is probably pre-disposed to like it.

Creek is marketing this as “the best Cursive album since The Ugly Organ.” Am I the only person who liked Mama, I’m Swollen and Happy Hollow? Like I said yesterday, Gemini is a return to Such Blinding Stars-style Cursive, but that wasn’t the consensus last night, as none of the three had heard that album before (or Domestica, for that matter).

Eventually, the topic shifted to the record’s format. I love the idea of Saddle Creek releasing everything on vinyl with a CD tucked in the sleeve. Why would anyone want just the CD when you can get the vinyl and the CD for just a few dollars more? Well, that also wasn’t the concensus last night, as none of the three had a turntable, have no plans on buying one and wouldn’t know what to do with the record. They’d rather spend $10 and just get the CD. So what do I know?

Then the topic shifted to Spotify. Everyone likes it, everyone uses it, but they use it differently. I listen to full albums on Spotify. A few only listen to playlists and never listen to full releases. Then the discussion shifted to how anyone makes any bloody money from Spotify.

And so on for more than an hour. The point is, I went into this thinking it might be a long night filled with awkward and forced “conversation,” when it was actually interesting and fun. When was the last time you just sat around and talked about music?

They’re doing it again in two weeks with Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. Will more than three people show up? Who knows. But let me leave you with this thought:

I’ve heard for years local music fans and bands suggest how great it would be to figure out a way to get together and talk about music outside of a bar setting. No one’s ever figured out a way to pull it off. Here’s an opportunity to not only listen and discuss new or classic music, but to talk about what’s going on with music during a time when the very nature of how we listen to music changes every day.

And it wouldn’t kill you to listen to stop for an hour and listen to a complete album. It’s certainly worth the investment… in time.

* * *

Tonight is the kick off of the annual Lincoln Exposed festival in, uh, Lincoln. The festival runs through Saturday at three venues: The Bourbon Theatre, Duffy’s and The Zoo Bar, and features performances by some of Lincoln’s best bands.

Tonight’s line-up:

Bourbon Theatre
8:30 p.m. Strawberry Burns
9:30 p.m. Professor Plum
10:30 p.m. Sputnik Kaputnik
11:30 p.m. Powerful Science
12:30 a.m. Aren’t We All Dead

Duffy’s Tavern
8 p.m. Dean the Bible
9 p.m. Pharmacy Spirits
10 p.m. Eli Mardock
11 p.m. Orion Walsh
12 a.m. Foam_Form

Zoo Bar
6 p.m. Dr. John Walker
7 p.m. Tijuana Gigolos
8:15 p.m. Sons of 76
9:15 p.m. Hangin’ Cowboys
10:15 p.m. Lucas Kellison
11:15 p.m. Ghost Runners
12:15 a.m. Omni Arms

Cost is $6 per night to get into all three clubs, or $20 for the full week! The full schedule is on their Facebook page, here. Hey, I’d go if I lived there…

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Cursive, I Am Gemini (2012, Saddle Creek Records)

Since it’ll be discussed tonight at the event at the Shop at Saddle Creek, I figured I might as well share my initial thoughts/questions about Cursive’s new release, I Am Gemini, which comes out in two weeks, but will be available for purchase at tonight’s event.

Here they are: Can a concept album this tightly drawn, where each song is dependent on the other to tell a cohesive story, be successful in this singles-driven iTunes era we live in? Can the songs on I Am Gemini stand on their own, out of context, without the rest of the album? And how will a random, isolated track sound sandwiched between Lana Del Rey and Andrew Jackson Jihad during shuffle mode?

And does anyone even care about lyrics anymore?

Tim Kasher must think they do. The album comes with a “playbook” — basically a script of a play whose dialogue and direction are the lyrics of the album, so you can follow along as you sit down and listen to the album, presumably in its entirety, just like we used to back in the days before iPods.

By now you’ve already heard the album’s “plot:” identical twins — one good, one evil — separated at birth reunite at a house that they’ve inherited.  Along the way there’s angels and devils, Siamese twin sisters joined at the head, alternate-mirror realities and other assorted oddities. In the end (Spoiler Alert) the house blows up along with the main character(s). Many nods to Greek tragedies abound (thank god Tim wasn’t reading Beowulf). Some of you youngsters may want to keep your Google prompt on screen when you come across references to Sisyphus, Dionysus, Cassius, dead albatrosses and other literary tidbits.

I think there’s a Black Swan sort of dual-personality-destroying-your-evil-other thing going on. Only Kasher knows for sure, and I’m sure he’s going to get sick of having to explain it interview after interview after interview as the band tours the globe this year and next. Look, I minored in English (okay, it was at UNO) and I’m still not sure what all of it means. And in the end, does it matter? Will your typical teenager or 20-something give a shit or will they merely be entranced by the album’s meaty riffage? What you’ve heard is true about this being the hardest Cursive album since Domestica. It is brutal, but even more than that, it’s proggy — proggy enough to make the members of King Crimson and Roger Waters blush. At the very least, it’s an about-face from the apparent convergence of Cursive and The Good Life music-wise. There aren’t a lot of sing-along pop songs in this collection.

But there are indeed songs that can stand in isolation from the rest of the record (though lyrically, they don’t make a lot of sense). “The Sun and Moon,” taken completely out of context, can be read as a love song of sorts. “A Birthday Bash”  has one of the better guitar riffs Cursive’s ever put down on tape. That said, there are a few songs that seem to act as bridges between ideas, such as “The Cat and Mouse,” which aren’t so successful by themselves.

I’m going out on a limb here guessing that the band intends to play this album in sequence on tour, just like it was recorded. Maybe they’ll also pass out playbills at every gig. Maybe there will be costumes and a live angel/devil choir.

Anyway, I’m still figuring it out. A full review will come later (probably). In summation, it’s a modern-day indie rock opera more so than a rock musical. It’s also a message to the record-buying public that albums — rather than singles — still make sense and can still provide a holistic, theatrical experience if you’re willing to invest the time and keep your twitchy fingers off the shuffle button for just 43 minutes.

Hear it and decide for yourself tonight at 7 at the Saddle Creek Shop.

* * *

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

Strange start Friday night at O’Leaver’s. Amidst the noise and chaos I didn’t get the memo as to why a guy was sitting on stage during New Lungs’ set wearing swim trunks, sun block and sun glasses reading a copy of the OWH. Irony? Maybe, considering the impending snowstorm. A living advertisement for the Men of O’Leaver’s 2012 calendar? I good idea, except I don’t think the guy is actually in the calendar (which you should check out if you haven’t, especially you ladies and you gay and/or bi-curious fellows). Unless you were in front of the mob or off to the side by the head (as I was) you never saw the guy anyway. Yeah, it was that crowded. The biggest crowd I’ve seen at O’leaver’s in a long time.

New Lungs is a fantastic band that lives off the soul of a ’90s West Coast SST hassle-core punk vibe mixed with its own Midwestern ’90s punk heritage. As cliche as it sounds, they get better and better every time I see them. Frontman Danny Maxwell is gaining more confidence with every performance. Call it swagger. Call it hubris. Call it I-don’t-give-a-fuck moxie. I like it, along with the band’s bone-rattling energy. I’m told the band has been working with Matt Carroll at his Little Machine recording studio putting down tracks for a debut album. How long must we wait for this?

So crowded was the room that I eventually found my way by the soundboard in the back, where you can move around and get a fresh Rolling Rock as needed, but behind the grand mob that stood in front of the band. As a result I heard rather than saw Digital Leather perform what (to me) was one of their longest sets, conceivably to work out the kinks before they head off on the road tomorrow for a West Coast/Texas tour.

I’m not sure what’s left to say about Digital Leather that I haven’t already said a dozen times. As a recording entity, Shawn Foree creates some of the best modern rock music heard out of Omaha (or anywhere, for that matter). I spent Sunday listening to my copy of Infinite Sun (which I finally got Friday night). Seven guitar- and keyboard-fueled rock songs that turn their back on the futility of living in these days when an infinite sun seems only to cast long shadows before dusk. That music, along with the songs on just-released cassette, Sponge, and the couple new songs off Modern Problems (which I didn’t buy Friday as I ordered a copy from the label’s website a few weeks ago — a mistake, apparently), have a playful post-apocalyptic groove that are lively and deceptively upbeat.

On recordings, Digital Leather casts an electronic sheen with the addition of synths. Live, DL is a punk three-piece — all leather, no digital. This has startled a few people who are only familiar with the recordings, me among them. But I’ve since seen the error of my ways. Last November on his It’s a Digital World blog (http://itsadigitalworld.blogspot.com/), Foree explained once and for all the difference between recorded and live Digital Leather (the lowercases are his, or as they say in the trades, “sic”):

“when you put on a record or play an mp3 or tape it’s a one on one situation: you and the artist. that’s why i make my recorded sound more intimate. when i play live, there’s a different dynamic. the music becomes a dialogue between a living audience and myself. therefore, these two sides of music, while having comparable aspects, will always contrast, rather (than), complement each other.“

But the real difference to me is the addition of the rest of the band. DL is a different sort of monster when its powered by the rhythm section of bassist Johnny Vrendenburg and drummer Jeff Lambelet. It’s a clean, powerful, breakneck sound that let’s Foree spread out on guitar and vocals in a way that he couldn’t if he were trapped behind a keyboard like he used to be. I never could hear those keyboards live, anyway, no matter who played them. There’s a reason why Foree has stuck with Vrendenburg and Lambelet over the years, a very good reason.

Anyway, I’ve been indoctrinated in the difference between the recorded and live Digital Leather. And as the band continues to tour, more and more people will be as well, but until then, there’s going to be a certain amount of shock, surprise (and disappointment) by those who have listened and loved the records and expect to hear those synths on stage. In fact I was texted by someone who was watching them play in Chicago late last year, asking me where the fuck were the keyboards. I told him that this is what you get with live Digital Leather. Suck it up, and listen.

* * *

Point of CLARIFICATION regarding tomorrow’s launch of Saddle Creek Shop’s new series called “Record Club at Shop.” I said last Friday that Cursive would be there. Cursive will not be there. Let me repeat: Cursive will not be in the house.

I thought I was supposed to moderate a Q&A with a member(s) of Cursive. In fact, the Club’s concept is for music fans to get together and talk about a specific album, in this case, Cursive’s I Am Gemini. To be honest with you, I’m not exactly sure what my role is. Maybe to just sit and listen. Regardless, we’ll all find out tomorrow. The event starts at 7 p.m. with the playing of I Am Gemini in its entirety inside The Saddle Creek Shop. Discussion will follow afterward, and copies of the album will also be available for purchase — two weeks before its street date! If anything, just go there to pick up a copy of the vinyl, which I’m told is spectacular.

* * *

Over the weekend, O’Leaver’s announced a special last-minute show that’s going on TONIGHT. It’s the long-awaited return of Ladyfinger to the house that booze built, along with Great American Desert. $5, 9:30 p.m. Call in sick tomorrow and go.

* * *

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

My suggestion to you: Get your rock in tonight folks, because if the forecast is correct, we ain’t doing nothing on Saturday night except drinking and staring out our windows, which is a shame because there are a couple good shows that will likely get hurt by the weather.

But let’s start with tonight…

The marquee event of the weekend is at fabulous O’Leaver’s tonight when Digital Leather kicks off its “Tour” tour that will take them to the West Coast and Texas through mid-February. I’m not sure which album they’re supporting on this run since they’ve released a couple since their last road shot, but I suspect we’ll be hearing songs off their new cassette, Sponge

, as well as tunes off the upcoming full length, Modern Problems (FDH Records). Opening tonight is New Lungs (D-Max of Little Brazil) and Worried Mothers. $5, 9:30 p.m.

Also tonight, Craig Finn of The Hold Steady drops by Slowdown in support of his new solo album, Clear Heart, Full Eyes. Don’t count on hearing any Hold Steady tunes, rather only the solo stuff, which is rather hit-and-miss (to say the least). Check out the Kevin Coffey’s OWH interview with Finn right here. Opening is Mount Moriah. $12. 9 p.m.

Saturday starts early with the “Songs at Shop” series, featuring Slumber Party Records. The instore concert held inside the Saddle Creek Shop at the Slowdown complex features acoustic performances by a handful of Slumber Party artists including Jasong Mountain (of Talking Mountain), Andy Cubrich (of Family Picnic), Anna McClellan (of Howard) and Sam Martin (of Capgun Coup). Performances run from 3 to 5 p.m. and are free. Buy some vinyl while you’re down there. And stay tuned for details about another very special Shop event next Tuesday…

Speaking of free shows, there’s another one later Saturday night at Mojo Smokehouse in Aksarben Village. Little Brazil, The Filter Kings and Ideal Cleaners will be blowing things up starting at 9 p.m. Fantastic line-up!

Finally, Blue Bird is headlining a show Saturday night down at Slowdown Jr. that includes Skypiper, Lawrence, Kansas, band Cowboy Indian Bear and El Valiente. $7, 9 p.m.

The only thing left to add: Snow, snow, go away… and… Go Giants!

* * *

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

This is it, the last installment of my first column for The Reader.

It began Dec. 2, 2004. I had been suggesting to editor John Heaston, literally for years, that he needed to integrate columns into The Reader, that all good newspapers included an opinionated voice willing to speak his or her mind without fear or concern of offending. The music scene needed a voice like that even more. During a time when Omaha was glowing from national praise for its burgeoning indie music scene (by then, the bloom was already off the rose), it woefully lacked a critical voice in print. Some might say it still does.

I’d already been writing music criticism on my website for years. Lazy-i.com launched in 1998 as a work-around tool. Here’s the deal: After publicists line up interviews with their bands or send out album previews, they demand “tear sheets” of what has been written – some tangible proof that they hadn’t wasted their time. Those requests would be forwarded to The Reader, where more likely than not, they’d be forgotten or ignored among the paper’s more pressing needs of the day, leaving me to handle tear sheets myself.

Instead of wasting envelopes, postage and trips to the post office, I got the idea of posting the stories and reviews online (The Reader didn’t have a website back then). I would then e-mail links to stories to the publicists. Satisfied that I was actually doing something, they would keep me (or add me) to their record label’s distro lists, resulting in dozens of manila envelopes filled with CDs landing in my mailbox every week. Because, really, it’s always been about the free CDs, right?

It didn’t take long for me to realize that I could bolster Lazy-i’s readership by adding a daily entry or web log – I guess you could call it a “blog.” My column in The Reader would simply be a natural extension of those web logs, along with original content. After much prodding, Heaston finally agreed to give it a try. Column No. 1 featured an interview with singer/songwriter Willy Mason, who had just signed as the second act to the horribly named Team Love Records – a just-launched sister label (of sorts) to Saddle Creek, owned and operated by Conor Oberst and his business partner, Nate Krenkel.

Seven years and 360 installments later, Lazy-i as a column has run its course. Heaston has suggested that Lazy-i is redundant as it appears in The Reader because most people read my music column online at Lazy-i.com. He’s wrong, of course. Regardless, given the choice of either sunsetting my website or sunsetting my column, I chose the latter.

Part of it has to do with age, I suppose. I am 46 years old, and I’m still writing about music after doing it for 25 years. I find nothing wrong with this, but there are those who have suggested that rock music (and especially new music) is only for young people, and why would a teen-ager/twenty-something give a shit what a guy in his 40s thinks about a new band or new album? Maybe they’re right, but it hasn’t stopped me from doing it, and (apparently) from people reading it.

And here’s something else – as I’ve gotten to the age where I was old enough to be the father of the bands I was interviewing, I’ve never felt awkward talking to these musicians about their music and their lives. I’ve never felt as if they were patronizing me. And while some people feel odd going to rock shows where they’re surrounded by people half their age, I’ve never felt out place. I still don’t. I don’t think I ever will.

Fact is, most people over the age of 30 have a hard time listening to new music. They’re more comfortable listening to the music they grew up listening to.  I guess I’m lucky I get as much of a thrill listening to good new music as I do listening to the hits of the ‘80s. And when I hear something I really like, I enjoy telling others about it (Because let’s be honest, writing about music is as much about ego as it is about getting free CDs).

And what’s the old saying – if you’re involved in music after you reach age 30, you’ll be involved in music your entire life. I think that’s true. Just ask Robert Christgau, who will turn 70 on April 18 and continues to write insightful, witty and relevant music reviews.

So despite the end of this column, Lazy-i.com will live on. I’ll continue to write about music every weekday, I’ll continue to review CDs and rock shows, but I’ll do it on my website. I’ll also continue to interview bands, but that writing will also appear in The Reader when space allows (because things are getting tough for the printed page, my friends. If you value printed newspapers, keep reading them. And then go to the businesses that advertise in them, and after you’ve bought something, tell the businesses you saw their ads in the paper. Do this, or else in the very near future, there won’t be any printed newspapers).

So what’s next? Like I said at the beginning of this piece, this is the last installment of my first column at The Reader. I’m going to take a week off (which I haven’t done for seven years) and then I’m going to write the first installment of my second column for The Reader.

Thanks to all of you for reading Lazy-i over the years. Thanks to John for printing it. Thanks to all the bands and labels and clubs and publicists and promoters and friends who helped make it happen. I couldn’t have done it without you.

I’ll talk to you again in a couple weeks.

* * *

That’s the big announcement I mentioned yesterday. If you read this blog regularly, not much will change. In fact, probably nothing will change, though you won’t be seeing my new column here. It’ll be exclusive to The Reader. Considering how much time I spend at shows, however, there’s bound to be some overlap whether I (or John) likes it or not. Some might say untethering myself from music in my column writing should be liberating. In fact, it’s frightening, but if you’re not taking risks, you’re not living…

* * *

Blind Pilot at The Waiting Room, Feb. 1, 2012.

Now where was I…

Blind Pilot had a triumphant return to Omaha last night. Triumphant in that it looked like they nearly sold out The Waiting Room — a huge crowd that was backed up past the sound board. I got there as they went on stage just past 10:30 (I’m loving these early weekday shows, 1%).

Their sound is a sort of watered-down version of the Avett Bros. fronted by a guy who sounds like he grew up listening to his dad’s Jackson Browne or (more likely) Gomez records. The songs were pretty enough, though none of them had a hook that stood out. At least they were short. Looking at the track listing of We Are The Tide, their latest on unknown Expunged Records, shows eight of the 10 songs are under the four-minute mark, with one coming in under three minutes — just short enough to keep you from getting tired of them. Hey, don’t knock the value of short songs, especially when you have virtually no stage presence. Strangely, as the set wore on, the songs seemed to get longer, long enough to bore, probably because there wasn’t much going on up there.

The solid six-piece is fronted by Israel Nebeker, who played acoustic guitar throughout except when he lugged out a big lap accordion for one song. The rest of the band augmented the middle-of-the-road folk rock sound with vibes, trumpet and banjo. Like I said, pretty.

Other then their appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman last month, I’m baffled as to where this massive crowd had heard these guys before. But they knew them well enough to sing the words back to Nebeker throughout the entire set. Someone told me last night that the popularity stems from Pandora, how that happens, I don’t know. Did people who set up Avett Bros or Gomez channels in Pandora get fed this as part of the mix? Ah, the mysteries of becoming a rock star in the 21st Century. While I was listening to their rather safe, unadventurous but subtly catchy music; I wondered how many more bands are out there like this, filling in the gaps for a generation who doesn’t remember the fleet of MOR bands that preceded them. Probably hundreds. Maybe thousands. And, truthfully, Blind Pilot is better than most, which is why they’re breaking through to a larger audience.

* * *

I’d be remiss in not mentioning yesterday’s announcement that Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band are releasing (via Team Love) an outtakes album along with a DVD documentary about the band directed by the band’s road manager (and Con Dios frontman) Philip Schaffart. You can get all the details here. Release date is May 15. Will this mean that MVB will get together for a brief support tour? Who knows. Rumors abound that another of Conor’s old bands may be planning a reunion tour, and in this harsh political climate, it never made more sense.

* * *

Indie folk troubadour Cass McCombs drops in tonight at The Waiting Room. Opening is folk revivalist Frank Fairfield. $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 © 2012 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

A few notes on a quiet Wednesday:

I heard back from the two Kickstarter artists I called out in yesterday’s blog entry. Both said they haven’t forgotten me. One is going to come through with some vinyl at O’Leaver’s on Friday. So maybe Kickstarter is the new model, eh? Without the data on the number of artists actually fulfilling their Kickstarter promises, it’s hard to say, though things seem to be pointing in that direction.

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Neil Young and Walt Mossberg.

Interesting interview with Neil Young at the Dive Into Media conference of All Things D (right here). Neil talks about his mission to “try to rescue the art form that I’ve been practicing for 50 years.” He’s talking about the inferior quality of mp3 files and how he wants to see the quality improved. “You can’t associate poor quality with convenience.”

Young said it’s all about creating a new device that will play high-quality music files, sort of a high-end iPod. And he says he was working on such a device with Steve Jobs, but that not much has happened with the project since Jobs’ death. “Steve Jobs was a pioneer of digital music,” Young said. “His legacy is tremendous. But when he went home, he listened to vinyl. And you gotta believe that if he lived long enough, he would have eventually done what I’m trying to do.”

As for music piracy, says Young: “I look at the Internet as the new radio. I look at radio as gone … Piracy is the new radio, that’s how music gets around.”

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I listened to the new Lana Del Rey album this morning on Spotify. Her voice lands somewhere between Stevie Nicks, a Perry/Aguilera-esque pop starlett and Lili Von Shtupp of Blazing Saddles (I don’t buy the Nico comparisons). It’s been fun reading the unbridled hate for this young lady throughout the blog-o-review-o-sphere. I guess you could argue that she would have been better served staying under the radar rather than appearing on SNL, but a few million dollars gained from the exposure is a few million dollars, I suppose, especially if you manage to hold on to some of it after your nova-bright star burns out. It’s a shame that her producers allowed her to use her kitty-cat voice so much on songs like “National Anthem.” It’s not so much that you feel embarrassed for her as much as you feel embarrassed for yourself for listening to it. Conversely, the three singles that preceded the full-length release — along with a couple others — are striking. She could have been the next big thing, and she may still be, but after hearing this full length, I doubt it… unless she can pull herself away from the big-label handlers… People seem fixated by her past, which I couldn’t give two shits about. That said, imagine how differently her music would have been perceived if Del Rey was a sexy, dirty, strung-out musician living on the fringes. Imagine if Courtney Love had released a couple of these songs a year or so after Kurt’s death, before she cleaned up…

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Tonight at The Waiting Room it’s up-and-coming Americana indie band Blind Pilot with Midwest Dilemma. $12, 9 p.m.

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Tomorrow: A special announcement about Lazy-i and its future. Don’t miss 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 © 2012 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

A follow-up on the item posted a couple weeks ago about Simon Joyner’s Kickstarter campaign… It only took Simon a few days to reach his $6,000 goal to help fund the final recording, mixing and manufacturing expenses for his 13th full-length album. With 19 more days left in the campaign, Simon is now pushing $9,000 in pledges and there are still tons of cool awards left for those of you who haven’t pledged (and even for those of you who have). Check it out.

There’s been a lot written about Kickstarter, both positive and negative. When you see results like this, it’s hard to criticize it as a business model. That said, this is the third Kickstarter campaign that I’ve contributed to, and I have yet to see results from the first two. I pimped Digital Leather’s Kickstarter campaign on Lazy-i way back in April 2010, and put my money where my mouth was, pledging (along with 100 other people) to support the band’s campaign. If they met their goal (and they did) I was promised a free download of their next album along with a limited edition vinyl copy of the record. Two albums later and I’m still waiting to receive both. Then in August 2010 I pledged cash via Kickstarter to help finance a local production of a short film. To the best of my knowledge, shooting on that film wrapped over a year ago, and I haven’t seen a frame of it, nor have I received the promised copy of the film’s “soundtrack.”

Yeah, I guess you could say that I got screwed, but to be honest, I never expected to get anything from those two pledges other than a chance to help the artists involved. I gave because I supported the cause, and if in the end they were able to pass along the promised rewards for my generosity, that was cool. If not, well, I was only out a few bucks. That said, I know I don’t speak for the majority of people who make pledges on Kickstarter. They expect to get their booty if the campaign reaches its goal. What could be a cool thing could easily turn into a dead albatross hung around the artists’ neck along with a lot of bad PR. If my track record with Kickstarter reflects a national trend, I can’t see its popularity lasting very long.

But if my experiences have been the exception to the rule, Kickstarter could become the ultimate method for artists to allow their fans to “pre-order” their next record, effectively generating money needed to cover production before the record ever hits the store shelves.

Who knows, maybe Digital Leather and that film producer will fulfill their Kickstarter commitments… eventually. I know Simon will.

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Saddle Creek band Big Harp joined the legions of acts that have recorded a Daytrotter session. Theirs went online today, right here. The duo of Chris Senseney and Stef Drootin-Senseney sing three songs from their White Hat debut, plus “Other Side of the Blinds.” It’s been awhile since I stopped in at Daytrotter. I hadn’t realized that they’d begun a “membership” model, and I can’t say I blame them. Doing what they do isn’t cheap. Becoming a Daytrotter member is a mere $2 a month, and well worth it. But you can check out Big Harp’s session for free with a trial membership.

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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.

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Eli Mardock at O'Leaver's, Jan. 28, 2012.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

It’s been about a month since I last visited O’Leaver’s. I don’t remember it being quite as bright as it was Saturday night. I blame the strings upon strings of white twinkle Christmas lights hung along the ceiling, turning the club into a trailer park wonderland. When I mentioned this to the soundman, he said, “Don’t worry, it won’t be long until half of them are burned out, and it will look like the same ol’ place” yes, but with strings of ugly dead Christmas lights in the ceiling. That’s the O’Leaver’s I remember, friend, that’s the O’Leaver’s I so dearly crave. Other than the Christmas lights, nothing has changed (thankfully). No matter how screwed up your world becomes, you can always depend on O’Leaver’s to bring you right back to 2004 (or whenever it turned into a rock club).

Onstage upon my 11:15 arrival was traveling band The Bears of Blue River, your run-of-the-mill jangly indie folk band with loveable hippie frontman. Pleasant enough. But I came to see Eli Mardock, who I’d been told had grown his live trio into a full-blown 5-piece band. Sure enough, there was Mardock backed by his lovely wife on keyboards, two guitarists/bass players (One of which was Ian Aiello of The Golden Age) and a drummer. You could argue that this was a natural re-evolution of Eagle*Seagull, and you’d be wrong. Mardock as a solo band seems more focused, more rocking than E*S ever was, though there are some obvious similarities in songwriting style.

The biggest change (to me) is Mardock himself. His singing no longer has that lilt, that awkward, alien affectation that had a way of overshadowing everything that E*S was doing. Mardock now sounds like a normal citizen of this country singing rock songs about love and death and art. The first three or four songs featured him on acoustic guitar while the guys handled the bass, but after halftime Mardock switched to bass for numbers with a more definitive swing, while the guys shared rhythm and leads (though, really, it was Mardock that was leading with his bass).

With this band, Mardock finally has gotten past E*S once and for all. His other incarnations — whether it was Beauty in the Beast or his trio — seemed like incremental stages on the way to something else, half-formed with residue from the past and blueprints for the future. Now his sound is fully formed and ready for a next step that is firmly outside (but next to) the shadow of E*S.  He’s pushed this band into the top level of Nebraska indie projects, and who knows how far he’ll go from there.

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One more note about O’Leaver’s: While things seem to be slowing down elsewhere, O’Leaver’s looks to be gearing up its bookings. They have nine shows scheduled through March, including this Friday night’s Digital Leather tour kick-off, which should be a surreal experience.Check out O’Leaver’s Facebook events calendar.

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Tonight at Slowdown Jr., Skypiper is hosting what it’s calling a “Mini-apolis invasion” featuring Twin Cities bands Tarlton and Zoo Animal. Opening is Omaha’s I Am the Navigator. It should be a night of Decemberists-style chamber/indie/pop. $7, early 8 p.m. start.

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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.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Weekend. Go!

Tonight at The Barley Street Tavern it’s The Killigans with Death of a Taxpayer, Whipkey/Zimmerman and Andrew Bailie. $5, 9 p.m.

And that’s about it for Friday night.

You actually have some choices on Saturday night.

Over at O’Leaver’s Saturday it’s Eli Mardock with Chicago bop-folk artists The Bears of Blue River, The Betties and Dastardly. If you haven’t seen Mardock in a while, he’s now sporting a full backing band, which I’ve been told is rather impressive. I suspect we’ll be hearing songs off his forthcoming solo album, Everything Happens for the First Time

, a preview of which you can hear at his Facebook page

. $5, 9 p.m.

Also Saturday night, Hear Nebraska is celebrating its one-year anniversary with a show featuring UUVVWWZ, Howard, and the Wayward Little Satan Daughters. The location: DP Muller Photography, 6066 Maple St in the heart of Benson. 9 p.m., no idea if there’s  a cover.

And th-th-th-that’s all, folks…

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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.