by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The music calendar has been rather bare the past few days. In fact, I had today off from work and would have loved to go to a show last night, but there was nothing going on.

Not so tonight. The big event is the reunion of The Jazzwholes. The show is being held at House of Loom, which has been working in live music gigs into their regular DJ programming on a weekly basis. I have yet to visit the venue, but have been told that it’s rather cozy, especially for a show like this one that probably could have packed Slowdown’s big room. That’s a long-winded way of saying that if you plan on going, get there early. $3, 8 p.m.

Back in Benson, The Barley Street Tavern is hosting its annual canned food drive tonight. Curated by bluesman Matt Cox, the evening’s “in the round” performances include Cox, Brad Hoshaw, Cass Brostad, Kyle Harvey, Sarah Benck, Justin Lamoureux, Rebecca Lowry, Matt Whipkey, Lash LaRue, Ashley Rayne Boe, Bret Vovk, Dylan Davis and Reagan Roeder. It’s a smorgasbord of Benson singer/songwriters. Admission is two cans of food. Show starts at 9 p.m.

Meanwhile, up the hill at The Waiting Room, it’s Zep trib band Song Remains the Same with Pixies trib band Surfer Rosa. $7, 9 p.m.

Finally, Outlaw Con Bandana is playing a set at La Buvette, 511 So. 11th St. in the Old Market, with Zach Lagrou and “Lute wizard” Kenneth Be. This is being billed as a “So Long” show for OCB. Starts at 9, donations accepted.

* * *

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Sting 25 App

A post script to yesterday’s item about record labels leaving Spotify and other music streaming services: The story reminded me of an item that appeared in Billboard last week where Sting gave his vision of the future of recorded music.

When asked if he’ll do another album, Sting said: “It’s hard to know what the new model is. I think the app is the new model. People are going to stop buying CDs. People are going to stop selling and making them, so I am looking for different ways to get music to people, and the application at the moment seems to be the favorite.”

By “application,” Sting means smartphone applications, like his free “Sting 25” app for the iPad, which includes photos, handwritten lyrics and journal entries, interviews and concert footage, as well as 360-degree zoomable views of his signature instruments. It doesn’t, however, include any actual music. It only plays music stored on your iPad or crappy iTunes preview clips. In other words, it’s a way to get people to buy Sting music from the iTunes store.

According to Cult of Mac, Sting ain’t alone in his app love. Bjork released an app alongside her last CD, and Pink Floyd is doing a “this day in history” style app for fans.  Neither contains any actual music.

Says Cult of Mac: “It makes sense. The more you stop and think about it, the more apps feel analogous to albums: a self-contained work by an artist, a thing they can put together over a period of months or years and then sell to fans. Many of today’s youngsters don’t see why they should pay for music – but they’re perfectly happy to pay for apps.”

While I agree that “youngsters” will pay 99 cents to download Movie Cat or Angry Bird or whatever new game winds up in iTunes, I don’t think they’re going to download or buy an app that merely offers to sell them music. Sting’s vision of the future is merely iTunes repackaged, which is no vision at all.

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If I don’t see you here tomorrow, Happy Thanksgiving.

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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

This will be remembered as the year music went to the cloud, with Amazon, Google, Spotify and most recently, iTunes Match presumably changing the landscape in terms of how we listen to new music.

With that in mind, last Friday Wired posted this story with the headline: “200+ Labels Withdraw Their Music From Spotify: Are Its Fortunes Unravelling?” In it, Wired reported that music distributor STHoldings, which represents more than 200 labels, was withdrawing its entire catalog from Spotify, Napster, Simfy and Rdio.

Sayeth STHoldings in the article, “As a distributor we have to do what is best for our labels. The majority of which do not want their music on such services because of the poor revenues and the detrimental affect on sales. Add to that the feeling that their music loses its specialness by its exploitation as a low value/free commodity.”

The Wired article pointed to this item in Digital Music News with the headline “Study: Spotify Is Detrimental to Music Purchasing…” that quotes a study from NPD Group and NARM (National Association of Recording Merchandisers) that seems to state that a percentage of consumers were satisfied with merely having access to music, and not owning it. Translated, they listen to their music on Spotify and then don’t buy it.

I saw this exact situation played out right in front of my eyes a month or so ago when Big Harp played at Slowdown. A guy who was a friend of a friend said after Big Harp played, “I love their music. I should probably buy a copy of their CD, but I already have it on Spotify.” I, of course, preceded to call the guy a cheap bastard and tried to guilt him into going to the merch table, to no avail.

Spotify responded to STHoldings in the Wired article by saying artists are receiving “substantial” revenues from Spotify. “Spotify is now the second single largest source of digital music revenue for labels in Europe (IFPI, April 2011) and we’ve driven more than $150 million of revenue to rights holders (ie whoever owns the music, be it artists, publishers or labels) since our launch three years ago.”

It should be noted that I didn’t recognize any of the labels that STHoldings represents (read the list here). Just how significant is their withdrawal beyond being a touch point for articles like this one? Who knows…

But let me add this to the mix: Since I began using Spotify (a couple months ago?) it’s been most effective in steering me away from making (what I assume are) bad purchases — i.e., I can now conveniently listen to just about any record that Pitchfork has given a rating of 8 or higher and decide for myself if it’s worth buying or not.

The ultimate downside to all this: I’m now less likely to give a record the second or third “listen” that I would have given it had I purchased it (or received a promo copy). In other words, music no longer is given a chance to “grow on you.” Some of the best records can take weeks and months of listens to sink in. With Spotify and the other services, artists are given one shot to impress the listener before they move onto something else, never to return.

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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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Mousetrap at The Waiting Room, Dec. 29, 2010.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Usually by now there has been at least one “holiday” reunion concert announcement centered on the fact that expatriate band members are back in town for Christmas visiting their families. Last year it was the Slowdown Virginia/Polecat reunion show at Slowdown Dec. 23 and Mousetrap at The Waiting Room Dec. 29. The year before it was Mousetrap and Mercy Rule (with a Conor Oberst performance thrown in the same week). Two years ago it was a pair of Faint concerts at Sokol Aud.

So far this year, nothing. But it’s not even Thanksgiving yet. There’s plenty of time for something to be pulled together — will someone please get in touch with Tim Moss and the rest of Ritual Device? That reunion is long overdue. Or how about a Fullblown

or Cactus Nerve Thang or Commander Venus reunion? Come on, guys…

Anyway, there was a holiday concert announcement last week, though it doesn’t involve any reunions. Omahype is celebrating the completion of its one year anniversary with its second annual “Holiday Throwdown” at Slowdown Dec. 11. The lineup for the show, which begins at 5 p.m., includes Honeybee & Hers, Laura Burhenn (of The Mynabirds), McCarthy Trenching, Brad Hoshaw, All Young Girls Are Machine Guns, Great American Desert, Jasong Mountain, James Maakestad, Sean Pratt, April Faith-Slaker and more. There will also be a rock shop, comedians and food. More info here at Omahype

.

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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

No national shows going on this weekend of note, but there are lots of local shows, including many featuring bands that I’ve never heard of!

Tonight at Slowdown Jr., Lincoln heroes Her Flyaway Manner has a CD release show with Omaha punks The Fucking Party and Dads. $7, 9 p.m.

Meanwhile, over at The Barley Street Tavern, Well Aimed Arrows opens tonight for Millions of Boys and St. Joseph Missouri band Dsoedean. $5, 9 p.m.

While over at fabulous O’Leaver’s it’s Bear Stories and Swamp Rock with Flesh Eating Skin Disease. $5, 9:30 p.m.

Tomorrow night (Saturday), Rock Paper Dynamite headlines a show at The Waiting Room that includes Dim Light, Snake Island! and Moses Prey. $7, 9 p.m.

While over at The Barley Street Saturday night it’s Great American Desert (formerly South of Lincoln) with Not a Planet, Betsy Wells and Low Horse. $5, 9 p.m.

Finally, close off the weekend at The Sandbox Sunday night when Yuppies headline a show with Supersonic Piss, The Liz, Weakwick, T’Bone and Servus. $6, 8 p.m. Find out more here.

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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’ve read the description of Cursive’s new concept album, I Am Gemini

, a half dozen times and it’s still disturbing. The story: Twin brothers separated at birth, one good and one evil, have an unexpected reunion that “ignites a classic struggle for the soul, played out with a cast of supporting characters that includes a chorus of angels and devils, and twin sisters CONJOINED AT THE HEAD” (The all-caps are mine, although I would suggest the fine folks at Cobra Camanda Publicity use all-caps in future press releases, if only for effect).

Maybe someone can explain why the first thing to pop into my head was the classic Star Trek episode, “Let That Be Your Battlefield,” which featured Frank Gorshin, more famous for his role as The Riddler (maybe because I’m a nerd?). So combine that with the best parts of Angels in America, Ordinary People, Stuck on You and Erasurehead, and you’ve got a first-rate concept album.

Seriously though, this sounds like Cursive’s most ambitious concept album since, well, their last concept album. Just the idea of making a concept album seems ambitious in an age when young listeners are more likely to download a single track rather than an entire album. But you have to remember that frontman and primary songwriter Tim Kasher also is a playwright, and judging by the press release, approached this one with a story in mind, having “wrote album lyrics in a linear fashion, in order, from song 1 to song 13.”

We’ll all have to wait until Feb. 21 when Saddle Creek Records releases the album to hear how it all worked out, unless of course Cursive does a “secret show” somewhere around town as a warm-up for the support tour, which kicks off in Denver Feb. 12. You have to wonder if the band will perform the entire record as a rock opera, a la The Who’s Tommy or Styx’s Paradise Theater

. Imagine Ted Stevens and Matt Maginn in full drag playing the entire set forehead-to-forehead. OK, now that’s entertainment.

* * *

Tonight at The Waiting Room it’s our old friends The Appleseed Cast, with Hospital Ships and local chamber rockers Skypiper. $12, 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

Well, well, well… Looks like Matt Whipkey’s old band, Anonymous American, has taken the Slowdown / Replacements challenge and will be among those performing after the screening of Color Me Obsessed… at The Slowdown Nov. 30 (See yesterday’s blog entry for band search details). Whipkey, Wayne Brekke and the rest of the band are a perfect fit for this showcase.

There’s room for more.

I was thinking it would be cool to see one of the young, dirty O’Leaver’s punk bands also play this gig, say, a Rainy Road, Doom Town or Grotto Records band. After all, their take-it-to-the-edge no-bullshit garage aesthetic is in synch with The Replacements’ early days of punk excess.

But then it dawned on me that those guys may not have even heard of The Replacements. The band’s heyday was between ’81 and ’84 — that’s 30 years ago, folks — and they technically broke up in ’91. So while songs like “Fuck School” and “Dope Smokin’ Moron” off Stink or “Hangin’ Downtown” and “More Cigarettes” off Sorry Ma, I Forgot to Take Out the Trash would fit nicely in the current-day garage punk milieu, they could also be viewed as “old people’s music.” Let’s hope not. For those of you who were around in the ’80s, what did you think of music from 30 years prior to that time, music from the ’50s? Say no more…

* * *

Mates of State have a new album out called Mountaintops (Barsuk) that is a right turn from the calliope keyboard sound that I remember from their Polyvinyl days. When I interviewed the band in 2002 (the story is still online here), their two-piece keyboards-and-drums approach was rather innovative, if not grating taken in large doses — you could only stand so much of that whirling organ. These days their sound, especially on this new record, is more fleshed out and approachable. When they played on Letterman in early October (watch it here), the duo was backed by a couple more musicians. Who will they have in tow tonight when they play The Waiting Room with The Generationals? Find out. $13, 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

The fine folks at The Slowdown are looking for bands that dig The Replacements as much as they do to perform after a screening of Color Me Obsessed: A Film About the Replacements, which is happening at Slowdown Nov. 30.

The evening will start with a screening of the film followed by a brief Q&A with its director, Gorman Bechard. After that, a number of local bands will take The Slowdown’s small stage to perform their favorite Replacements tunes.

The only things missing from this grand scheme, however, are the actual bands.

You got a band? Do they love The Replacements? Then The Slowdown wants you. If interested in performing Nov. 30, send a quick email to info@theslowdown.com with your band’s name and the two or three Replacements tunes that you want to play. The folks at The Slowdown will sort out the rest. What will you get for playing beyond the dying admiration of everyone in the audience? I’ll leave that for you to negotiate with the club (though, in true Replacements fashion, it’ll probably involve free booze).

Bonus points for the band that plays “Die Within Your Reach.”

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One of America’s 50 best new bands (according to this article in The Boston Phoenix), Omaha’s own Baby Tears, is playing tonight at the Side Door Lounge, 3530 Leavenworth. Headlining is Pennsylvania band Br’er; also on the bill are The West Valley, Brothers Family Temple and Daniel Dorner. Show starts at 8, and is free. Looks like Baby Tears may play first, so get there early.

Here’s a taste of Br’er in the form of “Heavenly”:

And in honor of the Leavenworth Neighborhood Association, here’s “Homeless Corpse” from Baby Tears. Enjoy:

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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.

Brad Hoshaw and the Seven Deadlies at The Waiting Room, Nov. 12, 2011.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

A couple weeks ago, Brad Hoshaw “released” a new collection of songs titled Spirit of the Lake via his Bandcamp page (You can find it here). The recordings are homemade demos that capture the bare essence of Hoshaw’s latest songwriting output. Last Friday night we got to hear a number of those songs “fleshed out” with his band, the Seven Deadlies, and it’s safe to say Hoshaw could have another hit on his hands if he’s ever able to scratch together enough money to get his band into a studio to make a “proper” recording.

Case in point: “New Tattoo,” a desperate, downright creepy song about the aftermath of love gone wrong that Mr. Cash would have been proud to perform during his darker days. On the home recording, Hoshaw comes off lonely and broken as he sings the lines, “So tell me how you think you’ll feel / When I carve your name beneath my heel.” But on stage with his posse at The Waiting Room Saturday night, the song turned into a blistering, angry threat, a pointed finger of redemption made bold and bloody by a band lost in the same homicidal red-mist as Hoshaw. It was, indeed, a perfect moment.

As satisfying as his ’09 debut album was, I was afraid Hoshaw might be a one-and-done flash in the pan whose flash was never seen much beyond our city limits. The fact that that album never reached the audience it deserved is one of the great tragedies of our local music scene, though in all honesty, I don’t know who else to blame other than Hoshaw and an industry that, despite technology that makes almost any music available to a global audience, is unable to find and expose the greater talent to the greater masses.

The way his debut was left to languish in obscurity, one couldn’t blame Hoshaw if he decided to hang it up and walk away from his dreams. Instead, he’s created another stellar collection of songs, which are almost hidden in those home recordings but are completely realized when performed on stage by his full band. Maybe instead of wasting thousands of dollars in a studio, he and his cohorts should simply polish these chestnuts to a fine sheen and record them live from The Waiting Room stage. Or maybe it’s time for Hoshaw to head to Nashville with these songs in his pocket and see if any of the current C&W elite will bite. He and his songs certainly deserve better than they’ve been getting hanging around here.

Hoshaw was followed by the show’s headliner, Lonely Estates, who was celebrating the release of their new CD by giving away copies to anyone who came through the door (a business plan that seems rather… flawed, though I’m sure they’re happy just to get the music in people’s hands).

Frontman Braden Rapp was an inspiration — how he stands up there and does what he does is amazing to me. First, the vocal lines are as vein-poppingly high-reaching as anything Stephen Pedersen sang in Criteria. He’s going to have to stay young if he’s going to hit those notes in 10 years. Then there’s his stage presence. Alone with only a microphone to lean on instead of a guitar, Rapp seemed completely exposed, forced to fill the space with dance steps and hand gestures, and yet he pulled it off. He is, indeed, a portrait in courage.

Lonely Estates’ music is well-crafted indie pop performed with almost formulaic perfection, every corner perfectly rounded, every direction well charted. Like all good radio music, you know exactly where each song is headed, almost as if you’ve heard them all before. I compared them to Little Brazil in my writeup last week, but their influences likely are more commercial. About halfway though the set, the band did a spot-on cover of Cutting Crews’ “(I Just) Died in Your Arms Tonight” that tipped their hand and made me think they’d make a great cover band (I was later told that some of the musicians are part of the city’s premiere cover band, Secret Weapon). The standout was guitarist Phil Reno, who put on a clinic with his solos and riffs that placed him on the summit with the area’s most talented musicians.

* * *

Speaking of frontmen, remember how I gushed about Samuel T. Herring of Future Islands when his band played at The Waiting Room a couple weeks ago (here)? Now you can see for yourself what I was talking about in this HearNebraska Live video shot by Andrew Norman and Daniel Muller the night of the show. Check it out.

* * *

Who else heard the snippet of Cursive’s “The Radiator Hums” last night during NBC’s Sunday Night Football? The song came on as Al Michaels was going to commercial; I had to rewind it a few times on my DVR before I figured out what I was hearing. Something like that probably means nothing if it were to happen to a Bieber, Gaga or American Idol winner (loser), but for a band like Cursive and its fans, the five-second snippet is a very big deal indeed.

* * *

Tonight at The Waiting Room, it’s the return of Merge recording artist Crooked Fingers with Strand of Oaks. $10, 9 p.m.

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

The Lupines at O'Leaver's, Nov. 10, 2011.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

First up last night was the screening of The Adventures of Prince Achmed to what looked like a more-than-half-filled crowd at Film Streams. Jake Bellows, Ryan Fox and Ben Brodin set up shop in the first row of the facility’s big auditorium, where amps glowed just under the screen. I’m happy that I remembered to bring earplugs. It was loud. Not painfully loud, but loud for such an enclosed space.

It also was trippy. Very trippy. The images by themselves were a psychedelic head-trip without Bellows & Co’s innovative “score,” which glided between somber ambient tone shifts, electro-dance mantras, space-folk feedback and chord-driven mountain rock. I wouldn’t say the styles seamlessly matched the screen, but most of the time I found myself lost in Achmed’s weird Eastern netherworld filled with wizards and monsters and proud people doing magical things.

BTW, next up in the Silents in Concert series Dec. 1 is the 1966 surf classic The Endless Summer, featuring music by Matteah Baim, whose ’09 album, Laughing Boy (Dicristina Records), got a 7.2 at Pitchfork.

* * *

Next, it was off to beautiful O’Leaver’s for the debut of The Lupines. While writing this before work this morning, I listened to Brimstone Howl’s Big Deal

 album, trying to ascertain the “differentiators” between that band and this, John Ziegler’s new project. There were obvious similarities, not the least of which was Ziegler’s big-shouldered vocals delivered with its familiar dead-pan snarl on garage rock songs that dwell on the downside of love.

If you like Brimstone, you’ll like Lupines. The real difference (to me) was Mike Friedman’s guitar. Friedman has always been a secret weapon in any band he’s played in — one of Omaha’s best unheralded guitarists. The “unheralded” status may be at risk now that he’s in this band, especially once people hear his freak-out solos and their interplay with Ziegler’s own frenetic guitar style. Holding it together was Iron Mike Tulis’ rock-steady bass lines and  Javid Dabestani’s forward-leaning drums.

If anything, The Lupines seem less campy and more punk than Brimstone ever was, and at the same time (ironically) more serious and more refined. For a debut performance, they were tight as tics and sounded ready to enter a studio, but I guess that’s what you’d expect from this band of rock veterans.

Openers, Detroit rockers Gardens, were a by-the-numbers garage band with brief forays into psych rock and a gift for between-song gab. “We just drove from Denver,” said the drummer. “There was nothing to see. Not even any trees. Just cow concentration camps. This next one’s a big kiss for Omaha.” Unfortunately I didn’t see any of the dozen or so people on hand puckering up.

* * *

Busy, busy weekend.

On top of the list tonight is, of course, the Speed! Nebraska 15th Anniversary rock show at The Brothers Lounge, which you read about yesterday. On the bill: Ideal Cleaners, The Wagon Blasters, Domestica, Techlepathy and The Filter Kings. Show starts at 9 and will run you $5. This one should be a hoot.

Also tonight being held at clubs throughout Benson is the OEA Nominee Showcase. The $10 entry fee gets you into The Waiting Room, Burke’s Pub, Benson Grind, The Barley Street Tavern and PS Collective all night. For the full run-down of bands, go to http://oea-awards.com/

Also going on tonight in Benson (but not affiliated with the OEA event) is the Down with the Ship CD EP release show at The Sydney with Arrah and the Ferns (Philadelphia, Pa.) and Bazooka Shootout. $5, 9 p.m.

Also tonight (but not in Benson) is Ragged Company’s CD release show at The Side Door Lounge. 9 p.m. and absolutely free.

And jeeze… did I almost forget Depressed Buttons are performing down at House of Loom tonight? Brent Crampton opens. $5, 10 p.m.

On Saturday night the decisions become even tougher.

At The Waiting Room, Lonely Estates has its CD release show for their new self-released album The Invertebrate. Lonely Estates is former members of Malpias (minus Greg Loftus) and includes David and Luke Backhaus, Phil Reno, Scott Evans and fronted by Braden Rapp, The album was recorded by AJ Mogis at ARC Studios. I’ve been listening to it off and on for the past couple of weeks and would say its sound is huddled under the same indie rock umbrella as Criteria and Little Brazil. Big, soaring anthems with big, soaring vocals and guitar solos and lots of harmonies. Worth checking out. Opening the show is Brad Hoshaw and the Seven Deadlies, New Lungs and Blue Bird. Quite a lineup. $8, 9 p.m.

But…

Over at O’Leaver’s Saturday night it’s the return of Digital Leather — and I’ve never seen a bad O’Leaver’s Digital Leather show. Add to that Noah’s Ark Was a Spaceship and you’ve got another solid rock bill. $5, 9 p.m.

Can I go to both shows? No, I can’t.

Also going on Saturday night, Lincoln instrumental rock trio Machete Archive plays at The Sandbox with Fetal Pig, Super Invader, Class M Planets and 13th Year. $8, 9 p.m.

Meanwhile, over at The Barley Street Tavern Saturday night, Jake Bellows breaks away from his work at ARC studio to perform along with The Betties and one more band. $5, 9 p.m.

The weekend ends Sunday night at The Slowdown when City and Colour takes the stage with Hacienda and David Romano. Tickets are $22/$25 DOS (and I hear they’re going fast). Show starts at 9.

* * *

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

The Speed! Nebraska posse circa 2006, from left, are Mike Tulis, Gary Dean Davis, Jesse Render and LIncoln Dickison. Photo by Bill Sitzmann.

Column 349: Speed! Nebraska Turns 15

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

When the invitation went out via Facebook for this Friday night’s Speed! Nebraska 15th Anniversary rock show at The Brother’s Lounge, the first thing that went through my mind was: Has it really been five years since we did that Speed! Nebraska 10-year anniversary cover story in The Reader?

That story, published June 28, 2006, recapped the history of the vinyl-loving record label that’s home to a handful of the area’s best local bands, including Ideal Cleaners, The Filter Kings, Domestica, The Third Men, Students of Crime and label chief Gary Dean Davis’ band, The Wagon Blasters.

In that article, Wagon Blasters drummer (then Monroes drummer) Jesse Render declared that it was The Golden Age of Speed! Nebraska Records. Five years later and Davis says that Golden Age continues.

“Not much has changed,” Davis said over the phone, while one of his three precocious children made noise in the background. “At that time I was feeling good about the fact that there were a lot of bands on the label. The amazing thing is that in five years, that’s continued.”

In many ways Davis and his label cohorts have always been ahead of their time. Since its first release — a 7-inch by long-defunct band Solid Jackson called “Fell” b/w “In a Car” — the label has focused on releasing vinyl. Except for punk fans and audiophiles, vinyl was viewed as a novelty and a waste of money… back then. Today, almost every mid-major indie band — along with a number of major-label superstars — releases music on vinyl as CD sales continue to decline.

“Vinyl may be back, but it never left for us,” Davis said.

Regardless, he added that the so-called “vinyl renaissance” hasn’t had much of an impact on Speed! Nebraska’s sales. “If you can get a turntable into someone’s home, that’s in our best interest,” he said, “but I don’t know if it’s filtered down to what we do.”

But it’s never been about sales. Having music released on vinyl is “the musicians’ dream,” Davis said. “Talking to the guys in our bands and others who have not had vinyl releases, it’s the ultimate. Elvis put out records. Johnny Cash put out records. In a sense having a record puts you on the same level as those guys. The reason you got involved with music was from listening to records.”

He pointed out that today, fewer people are even releasing CDs thanks to the impact of digital downloading. “If you’re going to do a release and make it download-only, you could put out a new record every day, right?” Davis said. “It’s a watering down of what it means to be a musician. The time involved with putting out a record — recording and mixing and mastering and sending it to the plant and waiting for them to come back and then doing the cover — there’s a lot of stages to that finished project vs. the general immediacy of the times we live in.”

Davis equated it to the difference between getting a letter in the mail and receiving an e-mail — or between receiving a birthday greeting on your Facebook wall and getting hand made birthday cards from his students at St. Stanislaus, where he’s the principal. “A Facebook happy birthday is nice, but a handmade card — I mean, I keep those,” he said. “Someone spent time and thought enough to do it. There’s something more special about that.”

So don’t even bother asking Davis about Spotify. He doesn’t know what it is and doesn’t care enough to find out. It isn’t because he’s some sort of neo-luddite anti-technology snob; he just thinks making vinyl records is, as Wilford Brimley used to say, “The right thing to do.”

And keep doing it he shall. This past year, Speed! Nebraska released a new CD by Ideal Cleaners, Far As You Know, and the tasty 10-inch vinyl compilation Speed! Soapbox Riot 300, which included a song by every band currently on the label’s roster. Davis said future plans include a possible 7-inch by The Filter Kings, more by Ideal Cleaners, and a full-length by Domestica, while Davis’ own band, The Wagon Blasters, is currently writing songs, though they’re in no hurry to put something out.

“Playing in a band is still fun and a nice thing to do, but if I have to do something with the kids…” Davis said. “All the guys in the band understand. We do this because it’s fun. There’s never any tension about it. Once we have enough songs, we’ll go into the studio.”

I ended that 2006 cover story by asking Davis where Speed! Nebraska will be in 2016. So it just made sense to ask him again if he thought the label would be around in five years.

“Oh yeah, definitely, whether I’m playing in a band or not,” he said. “I want to keep doing the label in some capacity, whatever it looks like. As long as we continue to have something to say in our records and music and the aesthetic and presentation, we’ll continue to do it.”

The Speed! 15th Anniversary Celebration is Friday, Nov. 11, at The Brothers Lounge, 38th & Farnam St., featuring performances by Ideal Cleaners, The Wagon Blasters, Domestica, Techlepathy and The Filter Kings. Show starts at 9 p.m., cover is $5. If you go, consider bringing Davis an anniversary card, preferably one that’s hand made.

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Debut performances by bands are always special events. And none more so than the one taking place tonight when The Lupines trot onto the “stage” for the first time at fabulous O’Leaver’s. The band consists of some local heavy hitters: John Ziegler of Brimstone Howl, the legendary Mike Tulis of The Third Men, Mike Friedman, who’s played alongside Simon Joyner, and Javid Dabestani of Bright Calm Blue and Broken Spindles. Opening the show is Detroit garage/psych/grit band Gardens (Alive Naturalsound Records). $5, 9:30 p.m.

Also tonight, down at Film Streams, it’s a screening of silent film The Adventures of Prince Achmed with a new original score performed live by Jake Bellows (Neva Dinova), Ben Brodin (Before the Toast and Tea, Mal Madrigal) and Ryan Fox (1989 Chicago Cubs, Our Fox, The Good Life). Tickets to the 7 p.m. screening can be purchased from the Film Streams website: $8 for Film Steams members, $10 for students, and $12 for the general public. Go!

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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.