by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

A few after-holiday tidbits today…

Coyote Bones frontman, proprietor of CoCo Art Records and former Omahan David Matysiak has once again put together his annual holiday compilation. Roam for the Holidaze3 features tracks by InDreama, Icky Blossoms, Dust Bunnies, Dereck Higgins, Brainworlds, Sam Martin and 18 more artists. The best part: You can download it free from the CoCo Art page, right here.

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Songwriters Tara Vaughan and Edge of Arbor’s Jessica Errett are playing tonight at The Waiting Room. $7, 9 p.m.

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Tomorrow: The 2011 Music Year in Review (with my top-10 list) and details about how you can win a copy of the Lazy-i Best of 2011 CD comp…

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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

Here are a few odds and ends of interest that have been cluttering up my in-box:

Who remembers what the first title was in Sub Pop’s Singles Club back in 1988? Why it was none other than “Love Buzz,” the debut single by a little ol’ band that went by the name Nirvana. The Singles Club worked this way — for a subscription price you received one Sub Pop single per month by mail — awesome.  Sub Pop has done two more Singles Club series since then, the last one in 2008. Who knows if they’ll ever do it again.

In the meantime, our old friends at Matador have launched their own singles club. Titled Singles Going Home Alone, the Matador club is offering six 7-inch singles to be distributed throughout 2012.  The first of the bi-monthly releases features Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks and L.A. Guns, with the former covering the latter’s “Wheels Of Fire” and Tracii & Co. tackling “Gorgeous George” by The Jicks. Following that, releases are set to come from OBN III’s (March) and The Men from New York City (May). Subscriptions are $45. That’s quite a chunk of cash, but you also get a tote bag, 10% off the Matador store all year and a “secret surprise” (and BTW, copies of that limited-press Nirvana Singles Club offering are now fetching more than $2,500 on ebay). Check it out at Matador. Now when is Saddle Creek going to get off its tired ass and put together a Singles Club?

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Speaking of Matador and end-of-year lists, the label recently published its contributors’ annual end-of-year lists right here

. I usually skip down to the end to see what obscure shit that label guy Gerard Cosloy is listening to these days. Of note: Digital Leather’s “Mind Eraser” made Steve Glauber of Matador Direct’s list of favorite tunes in 2011.

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Speaking of Digital Leather, their song “Young Doctors in Love” is featured at SPIN.com’s “First Spin” page, where you can download it for free. The song is from DL’s forthcoming LP Modern Problems, slated for release on FDH Records Feb. 14. It’ll also be included on another year-end comp that will be announced in the coming days (can you guess who’s?)…

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Speaking of album previews, our old Eagle Seagull pal Eli Mardock is offering an online preview of his upcoming album, Everything Happens For The First Time, right here. No street date or label info was passed along with this bit of news other than we’ll be seeing it sometime in 2012.

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Finally, kind of interesting is the return of D.C. post-punk band Q & Not U.  John Davis and Chris Richards recently performed together and intend “to keep working on songs and, hopefully, playing more shows,” according to this story in the Washington City Paper. Mynabirds fans may recall that Davis was half of Georgie James with Laura Burhenn.

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And so we enter the Christmas weekend where as per usual, there’s not much going on. You know, Christmas is for families, and all that jive. That said, tonight there’s a “Holiday Hootenanny” going on at The Sandbox featuring a plethora of rockabilly bands, including Snake Island, St. Christopher, Th’ Empires, Rumble Seat Riot and Gerald Lee Jr. or The Filter Kings. $10, all ages, show starts at 7.

Also tonight, Two Drag Club and Witness Tree are playing at The Barley Street Tavern. 9:30, probably $5. And Satchel Grande, is playing again tonight at The Waiting Room, where they’re practically becoming the house band (and why not?). $7, 9 p.m. Finally, Ragged Company is playing a set this afternoon down at House of Loom with cellist David Downing. 5 p.m. and free.

And that’s it for the weekend. Here’s hoping you get a brand new guitar for Christmas.

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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.

Column 355 – Final Score: A Look Back at the 2011 Music Predictions

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Because many of you (most of you) center your lives around my annual music predictions (and why wouldn’t you?) I’m starting the process early this year by scoring last year’s predictions. Look, if I haven’t got it right yet, I’m not going to in the next two weeks (Hang in there, Courtney). So with that, let the scoring begin:

2011 Music Prediction: Apple will announce that iTunes now lives “in the cloud.” All your iTunes music will be available on any Mac, PC or iPhone/iPod with 3G/4G or Wi-Fi connectivity.

Reality: It’s called iCloud.

2011 Prediction: Music no longer will be sold in units, but in subscription format — all the music in the world on your speakers or earbuds for just $10 a month.

Reality: Say hello to Spotify.

2011 Prediction: This new music subscription format will mark the end of illegal downloading.

Reality: Too early to say, but one recent report said that in Sweden, the number of Spotify users surpassed the number illegal music downloaders in a mere three months after the service was launched.

2011 Prediction: Artists no longer will be paid based on album or singles’ sales, but on how often online services play their music. Record “labels” will become full-time promotion companies whose goal is to get their artists’ music streamed as much as possible.

Reality: The dream of CD revenues hasn’t lost its luster.

2011 Prediction: Publishing rights fees paid for music used in TV commercials or movies and TV will dry up. Instead, artists will begin to pay producers to get their music used in commercials and movies just to gain exposure.

Reality: It ain’t happening…yet.

2011 Prediction: The death of terrestrial radio as a music promotion tool will mean the rebirth of music videos.

Reality: Despite a lack of television or cable outlets (MTV died as a music channel years ago) more bands are making videos than ever, thanks to grassroots production companies like our own Love Drunk and Ingrained studios providing content to Vimeo and YouTube.

2011 Prediction: Big-league commercial artists will post their playlists online or in Rolling Stone to spotlight new or unknown artists.

Reality: Unfortunately, that ain’t happening.

2011 Prediction: CD prices will drop below $10, resulting in a brief resurgence in record stores. However, the audience for cheap CDs is dying off, literally. And the last kick in the crotch will be when automakers quit offering CD players as standard equipment.

Reality: CDs dropped in price, but not that much; and carmakers continue to offer CD players, though autos are becoming more 3G/4G connected. Watch out.

2011 Prediction: Artists we’ll be talking about this time next year: Bright Eyes, Deathcab for Cutie, Justin Timberlake, U2, Cat Power, Beastie Boys, Madonna, Tilly and the Wall, Decemberists, Commander Venus, Noah’s Ark Was a Spaceship, Dismemberment Plan, Beck, Radiohead, Animal Collective, Conduits and Grasshopper Takeover.

Reality: About 50/50 correct. We’re still waiting for those Commander Venus and Grasshopper Takeover reunions.

2011 Prediction: Artists we won’t be talking about next year: Lady Gaga, Kanye, Eminem, Ke$ha, Susan Boyle, Arcade Fire, The Beatles, Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Bruno Mars, M.I.A., Wavves, Best Coast, The National, Sleigh Bells, Vampire Weekend, Sufjan Stevens and The Faint.

Reality: Direct miss.

2011 Prediction: All of Courtney Love’s problems will be solved once and for all.

Reality: She’s still kicking.

2011 Prediction: The Red Sky Music Festival’s ticket sales will fall below their projected target in its first year.

Reality: It’s safe to say that the festival was a financial (and artistic) disappointment, but it’ll be back in 2012.

2011 Prediction: MAHA will take fewer chances for fear of messing up all the good it accomplished in 2010, and ticket sales will suffer.

Reality: Though a solid line-up (headlined by GBV), it wasn’t very risky, and ticket sales were flat compared to 2010.

2011 Prediction: With the surge of local online music news outlets, a couple will fail to catch traction and will quit updating content. One will emerge as the true winner.

Reality: Hearnebraska.org, Omahype.com and TheReader.com are boiling to the top, while old-timer slamomaha.com continues to decline.

2011 Prediction: At least one local over-the-air radio station will commit to a CMJ-style indie rock format.

Reality: Uh, no.

2011 Prediction: Another long-time local music venue will be gobbled up by a developer.

Reality: O’Leaver’s will outlive us all.

2011 Prediction: Homer’s Records will have one of its best years in recent memory and will consider opening a new storefront in Benson.

Reality: The Homer’s chain was reduced to a single storefront in ’11.

2011 Prediction: Saddle Creek Records will add another local band to its roster.

Reality: In fact, the Creek passed on two of the city’s hottest acts – So-So Sailors and Conduits.

2011 Prediction: Another band will emerge from Linoma and attract national attention, and it won’t be a Saddle Creek act.

Reality: Can we count Emphatic?

2011 Prediction: An enterprising young local businessperson will launch a new subscription-based vinyl records club, like Grapefruit Records.

Reality: No subscription label, but Rainy Road and Doom Town emerged as new vinyl playas.

2011 Prediction: A new band will emerge consisting of the progeny of members of a classic local ’90s-era band.

Reality: What about Omaha Girls Rock!?

2011 Prediction: A new live music venues will open along Maple Street in Benson. Another will open as the first serious live music venue west of 72nd Street since The Ranch Bowl.

2011 Prediction: The City of Omaha will get behind the return of a “youth concert” in Memorial Park.

2011 Prediction:  Lady Gaga will return to Nebraska, for her wedding.

2011 Prediction:  Bright Eyes will get nominated for a Grammy.

No, no, no and no. So the final count (by my skewed math) is around 11 for 25. Not, uh, good. But check back in three years and see how many come true. And look for my 2012 predictions in a couple weeks.

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Other than maybe the first night, tonight’s episode of Gus & Call’s December residency at Slowdown Jr. may be the best lineup with the biggest draw. Each night of the residency has a theme, and tonight’s is “Light It Up” — make of that what you will. It features a return of two Saddle Creek Records bands that haven’t been on an Omaha stage in a long time. Lincoln act UUVVWWZ sort of disappeared after Creek re-released their debut album (which first appeared on Darren Keen’s It Are Good Records) back in 2009. I’m told that they’ve been writing new material and performing it on Lincoln stages. Now us lowly Omahans will get a chance to hear it.

Also on tonight’s bill is the return of Ladyfinger, who have been kind of dormant since frontman Chris Machmuller began focusing on his other band, So-So Sailors. Who knows what Ladyfinger will unveil tonight. Also on the bill, of course, is Gus & Call, and apparently there will be some comedy as well. With a lot of us having tomorrow off, this one could be huge, folks. $7, 9 p.m. Be there.

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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

When it comes to rock shows, these indeed are the holiday/winter doldrums, especially this year. No holiday reunion shows. No big national indie shows to speak of, and very few for the foreseeable future. The only national indie shows I’m looking forward to are Har Mar Superstar Dec. 30; Craig Finn Feb. 3, Tennis Feb. 22, and Cursive March 3. That’s it. Yeah, I know Lemonheads are coming, but I’ve always thought they sucked.

A Lazy-i reader recently e-mailed asking if I thought there was an unnatural downturn in national shows coming through Omaha.  He pointed out that Cults, Magnetic Fields, Zola Jesus, M83 and Neon Indian are all coming through the area but routing past Omaha. I told him I didn’t know, but that I doubted it. We always experience a lull in touring indie shows during the winter months. A glance at touring indie shows I went to last year at this time: Cursive played Domestica last January, followed by Interpol, Best Coast/Wavves, Pete Yorn and Smith Westerns all last February. Not much else.

We get spoiled in the warmer months with fantastic national touring shows almost every weekend. So spoiled, in fact, that some of the best ones go virtually unattended. I went to a number of shows this past fall that had terrible attendance despite the quality of bands (Future Islands and Milegras come  to mind). I’ll say what I said back then: If you want to continue getting cutting-edge indie bands at our clubs, you need to go to the shows, and when possible, buy tickets in advance. As things warm up, hopefully we’ll begin to see more bands coming through. In the meantime, continue to support our local heroes, who continue to work throughout the winter months…

A few other news and notes on this boring Wednesday…

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

Pitchfork posted its annual list of the top-50 albums last week.The one band missing is also missing from a lot of other year-end lists: Bright Eyes. The People’s Key didn’t make the Pitchfork top 50.  Or the Rolling Stone top 50  or the SPIN top 50  or the Filter Top 20  or even the Paste top 50.

In fact, the only lists I’ve found that included The People’s Key are Magnet‘s top 20 (where it was No. 7),  American Songwriter‘s top 50 (No. 22),  BBC‘s top 25 (No. 25)  and Drowned in Sound‘s top 50 (No. 8). Disappointing? Probably, though I doubt Conor and Co. give a shit. Is the lack of inclusion a reflection of Bright Eyes’ waning popularity or was The People’s Key a misfire? The only thing that matters is how well the album sold and if Bright Eyes continues to draw crowds to concerts. So did The People’s Key make it on the Lazy-i Best of 2011 list? You’ll just have to wait and see.

By the way, you can find almost all of the year-end lists at the fantastic Album of the Year website.

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Tomorrow: Predictions Pt. 1: Looking back at last year’s predictions. Yikes.

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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

Steve Bartolomei returns to Omaha and brings the rest of Mal Madrigal with him for a showcase performance tonight at The Waiting Room for his Bocca Lupo label, which is celebrating two new releases: Orenda Fink’s “Mighty Mist” b/w “New Life” 7-inch and the duo of Kevin Pike and John Kotchian’s Pulse/Flow LP.

Each copy of the Orenda Fink 7-inch (limited to 150) includes original, unique handcrafted artwork by Fink and comes with a free download code. The Pike/Kotchian LP comes numbered in hand silkscreened jackets, featuring original art by New York painter and illustrator Lui Shtini. You can order both online here, but you can probably pick them up at tonight’s show, which features everyone on the Bocca Lupo label: Fink, Pike/Kotchian, Mal Madrigal and Before the Tea and Toast. $7, 9 p.m.

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

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

I got bupkis for this past weekend’s shows. In fact, the only thing I got this weekend was a massive headcold that kept me out of the clubs, so I missed the Baby Tears CD release show and the return of Little Brazil. If anyone was there and has any data they want to share, please post it at the end of this blog entry or on the web board.

I am feeling better now, by the way. Thanks for asking. So much so, in fact, that I may (that’s may) make it to tonight’s show at House of Loom — a bash in celebration of Reader music scribe Chris Aponick’s birthday. In addition to live performances by Cymbal Rush, All Young Girls Are Machine Guns, Howard and Snake Island, DJ Aponick will be spinning his favorite sides from inside the Loom music cage. Show starts at 9 and is absolutely free.

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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

Baby Tears, "Homeless Corpse" 7-inch (Rainy Road)

Lots happening this weekend, starting tonight at O’Leaver’s with Baby Tears 7-inch release party (that I thought was last week at The Sandbox). Their single, “Homeless Corpse” b/w “She Sells Eggs” is out on Rainy Road Records and will be for sale at the show for just $5. It’s a rough, rough ride. You can check out the track and even download a copy right here.

Baby Tears also put their entire Rusty Years album online at Soundcloud for stream and download before the Doom Town cassette release in 2012. You can check that out right here.

Opening tonight’s show at O’Leaver’s is The Fucking Party, who are headed out on a six-date tour with Yuppies starting Dec. 26 (Baby Tears will join The Fucking Party on the road Jan. 4). $5, 9:30 p.m. See you there.

Also tonight, Mitch Gettman is hosting a CD release show at Slowdown Jr. for his new album, We Are the Mad Ones. Opening is red hot punkers Snake Island! and The Big Deep. Your $7 cover gets you a copy of Gettman’s long player. Show starts at 9.

There’s a pretty sweet benefit show slated for The Sandbox tonight featuring Capgun Coup, Howard, Sun Settings and Places We Slept. $5, 9 p.m. More info here.

Finally, The Filter Kings are playing a free show tonight over at The Sydney. Let the good times roll. Starts at 9.

Tomorrow night (Saturday) it’s Little Brazil’s first show since early summer at The Waiting Room when they open for The Envy Corp along with InDreama and Great American Desert. $8, 9 p.m.

Also Saturday night, Qing Jao play at O’Leaver’s with Ideal Cleaners and Techlepathy. $5, 9:30 p.m.

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

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The STNNNG at The Sandbox

Column 354: Red Light Special: Inside the Sandbox

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

I could see the blue-and-red strobe lights erratically pulsing in the distance as I drove down Leavenworth Street Saturday night looking for a place to park my POS Geo Tracker where it wouldn’t get gutted. Four, maybe five police cruisers had surrounded a convenience store just down the block past the building that houses The Sandbox. I tried not to look as I slowly glided by the hysteria, but couldn’t help myself. The cruisers were parked in a semi-circle, another parked at the corner. I expected to see some shirtless redneck or meth-head with his torso buried in the sidewalk ice, hands behind his back, plastic cuff bands biting into his wrists, trying desperately to breathe as a cop pushed his face onto the cold concrete. But instead, nothing. Just the flashing party lights signaling the drama going on inside.

I thought about turning around and going home. Instead, I drove around the block and coasted to the curb right in front of the place. A guy was standing on the sidewalk smoking, and I asked if it was okay to park there. “I don’t see any ‘no parking’ signs,” he said. I figured the small army of hookers that make this part of Omaha their home would never consider rummaging through my SUV here, where the street lights were so revealing. Still, I made a mental note to check the back seat before heading home up St. Mary’s.

When I was a teenager back in the ‘80s, we used to drive around this area and hassle the working girls, one night even giving two of them a ride in my buddy Ross’s Capri. “You boys are a little young for this sort of action,” said the younger of what we were told was a mother-daughter team. “Maybe you could buy us some Old Milwaukee.” Instead, we let them out of the car by Kountze Memorial. Ross played it cool, but I was scared shitless. Being scared is part of the fun.

I told that story Saturday to a guy who said a hooker had rolled up to him on the way to the show that night and asked if she could “play his banjo.” He told me I was lucky I didn’t get killed back then. I said we were too young and stupid for something like that to happen, but now, 20-some years later, I realize he was right.

I write the above because The Sandbox could be an amazing music option if it wasn’t located in such a seedy part of town. It’s the kind of place that Omaha has needed since the concrete bunker known as The Cog Factory — located just a couple blocks down the street — closed its doors for good. The room is a large open loft space covered in graffiti and spray paint with a makeshift stage constructed along a back wall. Couches surround the perimeter beneath windows that overlook the street below. In one corner sits a homemade bar with a small refrigerator filled with Pabst and BOXER, a beer that resembles beer only in name. Walk toward the back of the room and the floor ramps downward to a large dock door that opens into a back alley where people smoke, talk and piss. The Sandbox has a functioning bathroom, but it’s more like a bathroom you’d find in a college kid’s apartment than in a place of business. Bath towels were piled on the floor as if someone had just taken a shower in the bathtub that was concealed behind a mildewed curtain. A peek behind it revealed a patchwork of mold, filth and shampoo bottles. Later that evening, someone would take a dump in there.

Turns out The Sandbox isn’t really a venue at all, but someone’s home, and that this “show” was really just another in a series of house parties. There was probably a kitchen hidden somewhere, maybe behind the huge plastic tarp that blocked off an area near the stage. Whatever the Sandbox is, it’s a fun place to see a rock show – very laid-back despite looking like a squatters’ flat. In the crowd of 50 or so I recognized a lot of faces from nights at O’Leaver’s and The Brothers, midtown punks and rockers away from their usual haunts to support a trio of great bands: Baby Tears, The Blind Shake and The STNNNG.

Lucas Wright of Black Heart Booking books parties at The Sandbox, which turns out to be his pal Joe Benson’s apartment (and The Faint’s old practice space, The Orifice). Wright books larger punk shows at The Waiting Room and Slowdown, and uses The Sandbox for small gigs. Anal Cunt played there in April. So did Nappy Roots. And local band Snake Island! is hosting its CD release show there New Year’s Eve.

“A lot of people like the place,” Wright said. “The sound is usually pretty good (depending on who’s running it), the atmosphere is very casual and the space is just plain rad. It’s a nice alternative to the other spots in town, and all shows are all-ages with no notary BS to worry about.”

True, but what kind of parents would let their kids go to Whoreville to see a show late on a weekend night? I guess the same kind of parents that let kids go to the Cog Factory back in the day. Actually, what kid asks his parents permission to go to a punk show in the first place?

Despite its rep, there’s no reason to fear “Destination Midtown.” Probably. Besides, being scared is part of the fun.

By the time I left the Sandbox at around 1 a.m., the cops that had surrounded the convenience store were long gone. But like cockroaches hidden in the shadows, I’m sure the hookers were still out there in the cold, looking for someone’s banjo to play.

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Tonight at fabulous O’Leaver’s it’s James Leg a.k.a. John Wesley Meyers of Black Diamond Heavies out on a solo tour in support of his latest album, Solitary Pleasure

, released in April on Alive Records. Check out “Drowning in Fire” below:

Show starts at the usual 9:30 and will run you $5. O’Leaver’s lists no other artist on this bill but Leg…

Also, it’s the third night of the December Gus & Call residency at Slowdown Jr. Tonight’s theme: Carmina Novum. Joining Gus & Call on the small stage are Dim Light, Laura Burhenn (of The Mynabirds) and Howard. $5, 9 p.m.

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

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

During this rather off week for music news, here are some loose thoughts after the recent fake-death publicity stunt pulled by Omaha hip-hop artist Breathless. You can read all about it in Jose Loza’s coverage in the Omaha World-Herald

(here).

But before we get to that, over the weekend a local musician walked up to me at a show and said he could provide a ton of music news for Lazy-i if I promised not to use his name on the blog. I told him that people have sent me information under similar conditions in the past, information that turned out to be utter bullshit (and that I never published). He told me that wouldn’t happen, and I told him I’d keep his name off the website, but that I was still going to verify that his info was legit before I ran it.

Anyway, my point is that the Breathless stunt wouldn’t have gone anywhere if people first verified reports of her death. Instead, it was being repeated over and over on Facebook, Twitter and websites without anyone bothering to find out from someone like, oh I don’t know, her parents, whether she was dead or alive.

So I guess, score one for Breathless, right? So what if she pissed off close friends and fans who weren’t in on the joke. They’d get over it while the rest of the world buzzed…

The problem, of course, is that while people were talking about Breathless the last couple days, no one was talking about her music. Other than the fact that she’s a hip-hop artist and that this was a stunt in support of a new CD, you wouldn’t even know this story was music-related. Which makes it an EPIC FAIL.

Look, desperate times in the music industry call for desperate measures, and I like stunts as much as the next guy, but if you’re going to risk pissing off all your fans, friends and family, the least you can do is pull a stunt that will force people to listen to your music.  I don’t know how you do that, but somehow figure out a way to get your music played (loudly) at an inappropriate time or event that will make news. Just get your music heard.

Which brings us to the biggest reason why Breathless’ stunt is a failure. For a publicity stunt to really be effective it must attract the attention of people who have never heard of you before. Fact is, the only people who cared that Breathless was dead were people who already know her — her friends, family and fans. If I’ve never heard of Breathless why would I care that she’s dead? And why would her death (or better yet, her being unveiled as a fraud) provoke me to seek out her music?

* * *

Tonight at O’Leaver’s Lincoln singer/songwriter Ember Schrag headlines a show with Eugene L (Lonnie) Methe, David Kenneth Nance and Zach La Grou. $5, 9:30 p.m.

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Tomorrow: A night at The Sandbox.

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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 © 2010 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

There will be a more in-depth review of Saturday night’s Doom Town show in this week’s column in The Reader. For now, here are some pics from that show and Friday night’s So-So Sailors EP release show at The Showdown, along with some brief comments.

So-So Sailors at Slowdown Jr. Dec. 9, 2011.

If there’s a criticism to be leveled at So-So Sailors, who enjoyed a packed house at Slowdown Jr. Friday night for their EP release party, it’s that their music sounds rushed when performed live, at least compared to the recorded versions. Slow it down, boys. In addition, the Sailors played a number of songs that aren’t on the new EP, including a set opener that was a straight-up pop song. And if you had any doubt about their pop leanings, Machmuller and Co. closed with a dead-on cover of “Give Me Just a Little More Time,” by the Chairmen of the Board that smoked.

Baby Tears were first up at The Sandbox Saturday night. This view gives you a bit of perspective from the back of the room.

I was told after their set that Saturday night’s show at Sandbox wasn’t actually Baby Tears’ official release show for their “Homeless Corpse” 7-inch. That’s going down this Friday night at O’Leaver’s with The Fucking Party; a show that will also mark the beginning of that band’s tour with The Yuppies. Baby Tears will replace The FP for the second leg of that tour starting Jan. 4 in Kansas City.

Blind Shake at The Sandbox Dec. 10, 2011.

Minneapolis The Blind Shake practically burned a hole through The Sandbox’s homemade stage with their brutal punk and double-barreled vocals.

The STNNNG at The Sandbox Dec. 10, 2011.

The Doom Towm comp and ‘zine release show closed with a blazing, groping set by The STNNNG that ended with Chris Beringer wearing a plaid paperboy hat a la Brian Johnson for a couple grinding AC/DC covers.

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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 © 2010 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.