Smashing Pumpkins at The Slowdown, Oct. 11, 2011

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

I have to start this review by saying that I’m not the biggest Smashing Pumpkins fan in the world. I do have a copy of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness around here somewhere, along with a copy of Siamese Dream that I bought used at Pickles a few years after it was released. So I can’t tell you if the first hour of songs were taken from earlier or later albums or not. All I know is that I didn’t recognize many of them, not until the end, when we got a half-assed, perfunctory version of “Bullet With Butterfly Wings” that featured Ol’ Baldy looking as if he was told to play it. I wonder if the crowd was expecting an hour of Billy Corgan’s personal jams when they hustled in front of their computers two Saturdays ago to “win” their tickets. Probably not.

I will say this in Corgan’s defense — just because he continues to fly the Smashing Pumpkins banner at his shows instead of simply going on the road on a solo tour (that likely wouldn’t sell out quite as quickly, but would still sell out a venue the size of Slowdown) doesn’t mean he’s required to play the “hits” that he penned 15 or more years ago. Read Kevin Coffey’s Q&A with Corgan that appeared on Omaha.com (here). Corgan implies that he’s moved on, but is still reticent to drop the name. After all, it’s his band. “The question then becomes, ‘Why continue under The Smashing Pumpkins name?‘” he says in the Q&A. “A, I want to play Smashing Pumpkins music. B, I want to make new Smashing Pumpkins music. And C, Who are you to tell us who The Smashing Pumpkins are?” I guess the answer to C is “We’re the fans.”

The unfortunate by-product of touring as Smashing Pumpkins and not playing Smashing Pumpkins “hits” is that you’re going to disappoint the fans that paid to hear them. Corgan obviously could care less. And the fans have no room to complain. They knew the line-up, and they’ve (presumably) heard the recent, rather flat SP output. Whenever you pay to see a legacy band with less than half of its original members that is still recording new music, you’re taking a risk unless the band flat-out says it’s going to play the oldies. Is Corgan milking the Pumpkins name for profit? Who are we tell him?

Which brings us to the actual performance. Though most of the rock riff-based material was unfocused and lacked a central melody, you have to admit it was well played. Corgan’s new band is remarkably proficient — good players all. His classic Chester Cat-in-heat voice was as good as it was back in the day. And the sound was huge; painfully huge. As always, I had my earplugs. I pity those who didn’t, as the gear stacked on either side of the stage looked powerful enough to fill a good-sized theater instead of humble ol’ Slowdown. You felt the bass.

And then there were the lights. I was situated in my usual perch behind the rail along stage left, a space that affords a good view of the band (but for whatever reason, is never crowded). With all the gear stacked along the side, I couldn’t get a glimpse of the drummer. Instead, I was in the direct line of a pair of blazingly bright stage lights, like looking into the heart of a thousand suns. Imagine someone popping a flash bulb directly into your eyes, all night long. Toward the end of the set, I had moved to the back of the room and discovered that a different set of painful strobe lighting was shooting directly into the crowd from the back of the stage. A lot of people in the crowd were shielding their eyes. Fun!

Because I couldn’t watch the stage a lot of the time, I watched the audience — a mob of 30+ white people who looked mesmerized by the performance, though they never seemed terribly engaged. A few held up their hands during high points. Most just stood and squinted. After the first 30 minutes of nondescript riffage, things began to get boring, and I began to realize I wasn’t likely to hear “Tonight, Tonight,” “1979,” “Today” or Corgan growl the endearing opening line “The world is a vampire.” But toward the end, I recognized a couple songs from Siamese Dream

, and my vampire wish came true during the two-song encore. The true, die-hard fans got their money’s worth.

* * *

Busy week. Lots going on tonight.

Over at The Waiting Room, Portland psych-pop band Portugal. The Man (formerly of Fearless and Equal Vision Records, now with Atlantic) is playing with Alberta Cross. $15, 9 p.m.

Meanwhile, over at O’Leaver’s, Capgun Coup is headlining a four-band bill with Cartright, Paleo and Honeybee & Hers. $5, 9:30 p.m. More info here.

While downtown at Slowdown Jr., Well Aimed Arrows and The Prairies open for The Dead Ships. $7, 9 p.m. More info here.

And finally, down in Lincoln, the first full night of Lincoln Calling kicks off with a hum-dinger of a lineup that includes McCarthy Trenching and So-So Sailors at Duffy’s. The full schedule is here.

* * *

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

Billy Corgan

What’s worse than hearing someone go on and on about what a fantastic time they had on their vacation? Hearing someone go on and on about the fantastic vacation they’re about to go on. Especially when you’re stuck in this landlocked town with no money and no escape.

So I guess it doesn’t do you any good to hear about tonight’s Smashing Pumpkins show at The Slowdown when it’s very likely you don’t have a ticket. The concert sold out in about one minute flat when the $50 tickets went on sale a couple weeks ago. That said, ticketexpress.com still lists tickets available for $55 (plus fees). What you’ll get for your money is Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan surrounded by three strangers playing SP hits along with new new(er) material. One could argue that it’s not Smashing Pumkins at all; one could also argue that Corgan IS Smashing Pumpkins. Regardless, it’ll still be special to hear a classic ’90s performer in a space as intimate as Slowdown’s big room.

Openers are Fancy Space People, a glitter rock band on the Star Tone label (owned by Smashing Pumpkins producer Kerry Brown), and LA by way of Chicago band Light FM. 8 p.m. start time.

If you’re going to the show (or even if you’re not going to the show), stop by the Slowdown complex early for the McCarthy Trenching in-store at Saddle Creek Shop at 7 p.m. Dan’s new album, Fresh Blood (Slumber Party Records) will be available for your purchase. Check out McCarthy Trenching’s new video for “Oh Nancy” here at the Love Drunk website.

And let’s not forget that Lincoln Calling kicks off this evening. For details, go to lincolncalling.com or read my write-up from a couple weeks ago.

* * *

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.

Head and the Heart at The Waiting Room, Oct. 9, 2011.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

If last night’s sold out The Head and the Heart show at The Waiting Room taught us anything, it’s that in this age of endless “vibe” bands, people are thirsting for songs that they can sing to.

I mean, seriously, who wants to sing along to Animal Collective or Toro Y Moi or Neon Indian or Girls or Grizzly Bear or even St. Vincent? The current wave of indie is more about setting a mood than songwriting. So when a band like The Head and the Heart comes along and creates simple songs with simple lyrics about simple things like love and loss and longing — all sung to super catchy choruses and refrains — well, people just can’t help themselves but join in. And that’s exactly what they did during last night’s show.

The six-piece band was joined by a chorus of a few hundred who sang along to almost every song, sounding like a warm ocean lapping gently on the shores of the band’s acoustic folk. I haven’t heard so much singing since Dashboard Confessional circa 2003, only these songs weren’t cheesy heartbreak anthems sung by children. Instead the crowd was mostly in their mid-20s, with more women mixed in than I’m used to seeing at typical indie rock shows. Credit the nature of their music, which is more soothing than rousing, though it had its moments of exultation.

I leaned over and asked one music pro in the crowd if this was the coming of the next Arcade Fire. He said more like the next Mumford and Sons. I think they meet somewhere in between, with enough modern touches to please Arcade fans, and those song-along choruses for the Mumford crowd (but, thankfully, without the brogue and side order of Gouda). Where they go next is anyone’s guess, but who knows what happens after they perform on Letterman Oct. 28.

By the way, word going ’round last night before the show was that the band had a little meltdown the night before in Minneapolis, where one of the guitarists/vocalists walked off stage in anger, forcing the band to finish without him. Maybe last night was a “healing set” for them.

Fizzle Like a Flood at The Barley Street Tavern, 10/8/11.

I said last week that we wouldn’t be hearing my favorite song from the new Fizzle Like a Flood record, “Cutters,” performed at the CD release show as it was recorded. And I was right. Instead, we got a Pixies version of “Cutters” played by Doug Kabourek’s other band, At Land. As much as I enjoyed hearing acoustic Fizzle Like a Flood, the revved up and rocking version was more fun.

When he’s out there with just his guitar, Kabourek channels John Darnielle a.k.a. The Mountain Goats, though Doug’s songs are less story telling and more emoting from the heart. When he’s behind the drum set with At Land, Kabourek pushes the songs closer to territory heard on records, though nothing can compare to those multi-tracked marvels. Despite that, my favorite moment of Friday night’s CD release show, played to only about 20 people at The Barley Street, was Doug solo singing “Believe in Being Barefoot” from his watershed release, Golden Sand and the Grandstand, an album that has still yet to get its due.

* * *

It’s going to be a very tiring week for yours truly and anyone else who loves going to rock shows. It started last night, it continues tonight with Melt Banana at The Waiting Room with openers InDreama and Flesh Eating Skin Disease. $12, 9 p.m.

Then it’s Smashing Pumpkins tomorrow, Portugal. The Man Wednesday, The Matt Bowen Benefit Thursday, and MEN (members of Le Tigre) on Friday. I’m going to need an IV drip to make it through work this week…

* * *

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

Fizzle Like a Flood, Choice Kills Response (Nectar & Venom, 2011)

It appears that my column has been a week early for the past two weeks. This week focused on Lincoln Calling, which ain’t until next weekend. Last week’s focused on Fizzle Like a Flood’s CD release show, which is tonight. Blame it on The Reader, who dictated those deadlines. So if you missed it, here’s my column/interview from two weeks ago with Doug Kabourek a.k.a. Fizzle Like a Flood, and if that’s not enough for you, Kabourek is the special guest on the latest episode of the Worlds of Wayne podcast, which you can listen to here. And if you’re still wondering what Fizzle’s new music sounds like, check “Cutters,” my favorite track from Choice Kills Response, embedded below:

Too bad it won’t sound like that tonight at The Barley Street (if he even plays it at all), because Kabourek will be performing solo without a band or backing tracks, despite my incessant pleading that he do otherwise. Oh well. Opening for Fizzle is The Whipkey Three,  At Land (Kabourek’s other band), and Underwater Dream Machine. All four acts for a mere $5. Show starts at 9.

Also tonight, Saudia Arabia (the band formerly known as The Dinks) is playing at O’Leaver’s with Kansas City’s Dead Ringers and Swamp Walk. Come on down and get stinkin’ drunk. $5, 9:30 p.m.

Down at Slowdown Jr. Gerald Lee Jr. (The Filter Kings) opens for Michael Lee Firkins. $8, 9 p.m.

It’s another Husker football Saturday night, which means slim pickin’s show-wise. Slowdown Jr. has local indie slackers Family Picnic with Cymbal Rush and Dads. Show starts after the game and will run you $7. Meanwhile, at the Barley Street Tavern, Big Al Band is headlining a 5-band bill that starts at 9 (no idea on the cover).

Finally, Sunday night Sub Pop band Head and the Heart plays a sold-out show at The Waiting Room with San Francisco’s Thao with the Get Down Stay Down (Kill Rock Stars) and  SLC’s The Devil Whale. 9 p.m.

* * *

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

Column 344: Does Size Matter? Lincoln Calling Pt. 8

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

We live in a culture where “bigger” is always perceived as being “better.” Some might argue that this concept is The American Way.

Well, Jeremy Buckley, the impresario behind the annual Lincoln Calling Music Festival, isn’t concerned about getting “bigger.” On the surface, one might look at this year’s festival — the 8th Annual, an achievement in and of itself — and say that it’s a step backward. There are no significant national touring acts on the 100-plus-band 16-DJ (so far) roster whose schedule is spread over five nights at 10 venues in downtown Lincoln. Financial support was cut in half for ’11, thanks to a tsunami that not only devastated Japan, but also washed away sponsorship dollars from Toyota. But a glance at the schedule shows (which you can view at lincolncalling.com), this year’s event may be the best ever.

Buckley, as you can imagine, agrees.

“Each year is a different beast,” he said between football games last Sunday afternoon. “Last year the sky was the limit. We had an assload of money from sponsors and a perfect storm of national touring bands that just happened to be coming through at the right time. This year it was doing what we could with what we had, and I think we put together something great.”

Though the festival’s organization falls exclusively on Buckley’s shoulders — and that’s the way he wants it — this year he loosened the reins oh so slightly and got input from folks who asked to be part of the fun. The result is a more varied lineup that spreads the festival’s genres beyond its usual indie-only focus.

“I guess I tried to put an emphasis on making other people do my work,” Buckley said. “Quite a few aspects of this year’s festival came from people asking to help out.”

For example, Buckley received a Facebook message from Corey Birkmann asking why so few punk and metal bands were involved in the program. Buckley’s reply: “I don’t know much about punk or metal, so I don’t know the difference between the good and bad bands.” Birkmann offered to help by booking a show a day at The Spigot that was metal and/or punk-oriented.

“So I said, ‘Roll with it.'” Buckley quipped.

As a result, 12 Lincoln punk and/or metal acts are booked Thursday through Saturday at The Spigot, including Dust Bled Down, Ten Dead and Beaver Damage. “So this year, metal and punk are getting some love,” Buckley said.

KZUM talent Hilary Stohs-Krause, host of radio show “X-Rated Women in Music,” asked Buckley if she could curate a showcase that featured women musicians in an MTV Unplugged-style setting. “I told her to roll with it,” Buckley said. The two-hour Friday afternoon program will take place in the art gallery above Duffy’s. Called The Parrish Project, it will feature student artists from the LPS Arts and Humanities Focus Program under the tutelage of Mezcal Brothers’ Gerardo Meza.

Then there’s music website hearnebraska.org (which Buckley helped develop), that will host a Saturday afternoon program that includes musicians merch booths at The Bourbon Theater. And DJ Spencer Munson a.k.a. $penselove, who pulled together a posse of DJs who will perform at clubs throughout the festival, including the all new Mix Barcade, a venue in the old Bricktop space that will debut as part of Lincoln Calling.

While all that help is “making things a lot less stressful” for Buckley, the festival’s primary attraction continues to be its overall line-up. No, Lincoln Calling didn’t attract any Saddle Creek bands this year, but it did draw the cream of the crop of the non-Creek acts, including Ideal Cleaners, Conduits, Digital Leather, Eli Mardock, Gus & Call, Icky Blossoms, McCarthy Trenching and Pharmacy Spirits, The Show Is the Rainbow, So-So Sailors, UUVVWWZ, Machete Archive, Talking Mountain, Son of 76, The Whipkey Three, Matt Cox, and even some out-of-towners. They include the always amazing The Photo Atlas, poorly named Gauntlet Hair and Nebraska adoptees Cowboy Indian Bear.

Glancing at the line-up, there were a lot of acts that I flat-out didn’t recognize. Buckley even has an answer for that in the form of a massive 47-song digital download available for free from the Lincoln Calling website.

Like like every real festival, all bands are receiving some sort of compensation, whether it’s a guarantee, a cut of the door or an all-access pass to all five days of the event. Helping defray costs were donations from the Downtown Lincoln Association, Guitar Center and Lincoln’s Young Professional Group.

The particulars: The festival kicks off Tuesday, Oct. 11, with the Homegrown Film Festival at The Bourbon Theater at 8 p.m., a listening party at Duffy’s at 10 p.m. and an acoustic open mic night at The Zoo bar at 9 p.m. The real stuff gets rolling Wednesday, Oct. 12, and runs through Saturday, Oct. 15. All access passes for the full festival are $30, one-day passes run $10 to $12, or you can pay the door at each venue, which runs from free to $8.

So no, Lincoln Calling isn’t as big as it was in 2010, “and I’m OK with that,” Buckley said. “I know there are 5,000 people who will go to this and have a good time, and the bands will have better crowds than on any given Friday night.”

That said, Buckley’s already thinking about the 10th Annual Lincoln Calling in 2013, and for that one, size will definitely matter.

* * *

If Steve Jobs is remembered for anything, it will be that he was a great judge of talent and had a terrific eye for design. Even more than that, Jobs inspired greatness in others.

No, Jobs didn’t design the iMac, iPod, iPad, iPhone or any other modern-day Apple product. Jon Ive and his design team did. Jobs didn’t write the code that makes those devices operate – in fact he didn’t know how to code. That was the work of his programmers. And Jobs didn’t come up with the phrase “Think Different” or write the words spoken by Richard Dreyfuss in that amazing commercial. Ken Segall and his team at TBWA\Chiat\Day did that.

Last night when I heard about Jobs’ death, I clicked around on the ‘net and eventually wound up at folklore.org, a website that compiles stories about the making of the first Macintosh by those who were actually involved. Their stories cover everything from the computer’s initial design to programming, construction, marketing, you name it. Through it all, Jobs was an insufferable task master. He put a boot up everyone’s ass that worked at Apple, and if that boot didn’t fit, he fired them. He made insane demands and never accepted “no” for an answer.  He added his two cents to every decision, and expected perfection from everyone.

So no, Jobs didn’t do a lot of what he’s being credited as doing in the endless stream of requiems. Instead he did something that was just as important — he made decisions, he inspired innovation, he recognized good ideas and demanded their implementation. And yes, in the end, he represented all those products and ideas as a bigger-than-life icon as indelible as the Apple logo itself.

Jobs was a perfectionist and had impeccable taste. It seems unlikely that his successor, Tim Cook, has those qualities at the same levels Jobs did  (or if anyone does, for that matter). Cook’s ability to inspire greatness remains in question, along with the future of Apple as an innovator.

* * *

Another aside: Ironically, Jobs will be remembered by some as the guy who helped bring down the music industry as we knew it, when in fact iTunes came along two years after Napster and was designed to help protect the industry in the face of widespread music-file piracy.

* * *

Tonight at The Waiting Room it’s the return of Dick Dale. I interviewed the “King of Surf Guitar” way back in 1998 (which you can read here) and was happy that he was still alive and rocking. Now at age 74, Dale is still alive and still rocking. With Speed! Nebraska band The Mezcal Brothers. $20, 9 p.m.

* * *

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

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Wild Flag at The Waiting Room, Oct. 4, 2011.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Wild Flag may be the first super group whose former-band baggage is actually a disadvantage.

Without a doubt there likely wouldn’t have been the 150 or so people at The Waiting Room last night if not for the band’s famous pedigree. The average audience-member age was late-20s/early-30s, and consisted of people like me who grew up listening to Helium and Sleater-Kinney. But if those folks thought they were going to hear a medley of songs by those bands sandwiched between new material, they were in for a surprise (but not disappointment).

Wild Flag’s sound is wholly rooted in the now. The 4-piece has as much creative energy as any band of young upstarts currently touring a successful debut album. So it’s deceptive to go into a Wild Flag concert with a preconceived notion as to what you’re going to hear based on, say, Helium’s output. They don’t sound like Helium, however there’s no denying Mary Timony’s wonky vocal style, heard on more than half the material. Her quirky, swirling voice has all the swagger of a young Iggy Pop (but in a sparkling dress), countered by Carrie Brownstein’s more direct, straightforward vocals that come off like punk Chrissie Hynde. There’s nothing girly about the music, but when all four sing, it can conjure memories of The Go-Go’s.

Ten minutes in and I doubt anyone was interested in hearing any old S-K or Minders songs anyway. “Glass Tambourine,” a driving, almost tribal rocker played early in the set was a psychedelic, feedback-fueled head trip, with Timony playing her guitar above her head. Live, the 5+ minute song (on record) stretched out over 10, and no one wanted it to stop.

If Brownstein played the roll of sonic bedrock (with impressive high kicks), Timony was the demure rock star. Her simple guitar lines and solos broke though on every song. Musically, their style vacillates between garage, art punk and modern psychedelic. Through it all, there’s always something familiar that holds it together, though it’s never what you expect. For example, it’s impossible to listen to Timony’s guitar line in the middle of “Short Version” and not be reminded of the middle section of Deerhunter’s “Nothing Ever Happened.” Set highlight “Racehorse,” which came toward the end of the evening, went from a jagged riff rocker into blinding groove stretching forward on Rebecca Cole’s glowing keyboards and Janet Weiss’ seismic drums. Huge. Top-five? Probably. The band came out for a two-song encore that included a very loose-grooved version of “Beast of Burden” before calling it a night.

Opener YellowFever was a quirky guitar-and-drum duo that filled out its sound thanks to drummer Adam Jones also playing a synth/keyboard. Each song began with Jones punching out a rhythm along with a bass line on the keyboard (set to repeat) while guitarist vocalist Jennifer Moore proceeded to chop away at the bass strings of her ax. When Moore added her pretty chirp it became pure art rock. Think early punk B-52s meets Micachu. Fun stuff.

* * *

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

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Wild Flag, self titled (Merge, 2011)

We’ve all heard of super groups, but how about an all-female supergroup? Actually, does it matter that all the members of Wild Flag are women?

I’d like to be able to say in this enlightened age of acceptance, tolerance and equal rights that it doesn’t, but let’s face it, it does. If it didn’t, we wouldn’t need groups like Omaha Girls Rock to nurture young female talent and keep it from going unheard. Rock ‘n’ roll continues to be perceived by many as a guys’ game, when in fact some of the best talent in rock ‘n’ roll is (and always has been) women.

Wild Flag is an obvious example.

Conisisting of of Carrie Brownstein (vocals, guitar, member of Sleater-Kinney), Mary Timony (vocals, guitar, member of Helium), Rebecca Cole (keyboards, backing vocals, member of The Minders) and Janet Weiss (drums, backing vocals, member of Quasi, Sleater-Kinney, Bright Eyes), Wild Flag released its first full length on Merge this past September, garnering a mighty 8.0 from online indie-bible Pitchfork, which I guess gives it immediate respectability.

But even without Pitchfork

‘s nod, Wild Flag is like a heroes’ guild of classic indie rock talent that glows white-hot on the debut album. It’s as much a modern approach to indie as it is a nostalgic nod toward ’90s college rock.

This show should have sold out faster than Smashing Pumpkins, but as of right now, tickets are still available for a mere $14. Opening is YellowFever, who Brownstein described as “haunted house surf music” and whose debut also received a 7.2 from Pitchfork

. Show starts at 9. 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 © 2011 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Did you get your ticket to Smashing Pumpkins Saturday morning? If you didn’t, you’re not alone. According to One Percent Productions, customers snatched up available tickets within a minute after they were made available online (with all sales final within 20 minutes). No surprise there. The $50 GA tickets to the Oct. 11 show at Slowdown are now being offered at TicketExpress for $125 each. How high will they go on eBay?

* * *

Tonight at The Waiting Room, Matt Cox and The Willards are performing as part of the 2nd Annual Booze, Blues and BBQ event, sponsored by Food & Spirits Magazine. Your $15 will get you barbecue from 10 area restaurants, while the money will go toward helping provide scholarships to students at the Institute for the Culinary Arts at Metro Community College. Dining starts at 6, music starts at 7:30.

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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

Lot’s going on this weekend, so let’s get started…

There’s a kinda/sorta interesting gig going on tonight down at Slowdown. Barsuk band Maps & Atlases opens for former Equal Vision (now Atlantic) band Circa Survive along with States. M&A’s 2010 album Perch Patchwork got a respectable 7.4 from Pitchfork. Circa’s latest album, Blue Sky Noise, was produced by David Bottrill, who worked with Peter Gabriel, King Crimson, Tool, and Silverchair. $20, 9 p.m.

Across town at O’Leaver’s, Shawn Cox’s new band, Dirty Flourescents, is playing with Comme Reel (Marc Phillips (Students of Crime, ex-Carmine, ex-Carsinogents) on drums and bass and Chris Esterbrooks (Mal Madrigal, ex-Philharmonics, ex-Carsinogents) on bass and keyboards, along with frontman Mike Saklar (No Blood Orphan, ex-Ravine, ex-Ritual Device) on guitar, vocals, bass and pedals) and The Butchers. $5, 9:30 p.m.

While fun-punk trio Millions of Boys (Sara from Honey & Darling) are playing over at the Barley Street Tavern with Full Bloods and Cymbal Rush. $5, 9 p.m.

Also tonight, Mitch Gettman is hosting a listening party for his new CD at The Sydney from 6 to 8; while Travelling Mercies and Matt Cox are playing at Stir in CB at 9.

It’s a Husker Saturday, and whether you want to believe it or not, that does (did) affect the show calendar, even though the game should be over in plenty of time to get to a rock show. The Slowdown is combining things Saturday with a football party in the early evening followed by a free rock show featuring Capgun Coup, Feral Hands and Video Ranger in the Jr. room, starting whenever the game ends…

Ideal Cleaners, As Far As You Know (Speed! Nebraska, 2011)

In Lincoln, Ideal Cleaners is having its CD release show at The Bourbon with Sputnik Kaputnik and the Cherry Mashers and Her Flyaway Manner. The Cleaners are one of the hardest but least-heralded bands in the Nebraska scene. I have yet to hear the new disc, As Far As You Know, but have a feeling it’s just like the last one — blistering hot. Show starts at 9. No idea on the cover.

The weekend is capped off with a last-minute Ladytron DJ set at House of Loom featuring Reuben Wu & Mira Aroyo. The deal: $5 entry before 11 with RSVP to info@houseofloom.com, otherwise, it’s $10. Wu/Aroyo will follow sets by Brent Crampton and Enfant Coma a.k.a. Jacob Thiele. Things get rolling at 9 p.m.

* * *

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

Doug Kabourek, a.k.a Fizzle Like a Flood, circa now.

Column 343: The Return of Fizzle Like a Flood

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Doug Kabourek didn’t look much different than when I first saw him slumped like a homeless college student in the back of Sokol Underground during a Her Space Holiday show, circa 1999.

I had just begun going to rock shows alone — a big step for me, but one I knew I’d have to take if I wanted to continue seeing the indie bands I loved. I realized after finding Kabourek rolled up like a bum on the floor that others were in the same boat as myself, though he had an excuse for being alone — he’d just moved to Bellevue from somewhere in Iowa, and didn’t know anybody. I wouldn’t discover until months later, when I interviewed him about Golden Sand and the Grandstand that he was the local musician who went by the odd, awkward name Fizzle Like a Flood.

Now here we were, 12 years later, talking about music over a basket of tortilla chips on the outdoor patio of Agave in Dundee. Pop hits of the ’80s (Huey Lewis & the News, The Outfield, Phil Collins) blared from hidden speakers as Kabourek slowly built a crystal wall of empty margarita glasses on the table. The reason for the reunion was the pending release of Choice Kills Response (Nectar and Venom Records), the first new Fizzle Like a Flood CD since 2005’s Love LP, which kind of/sort of marked the departure of Kabourek as Fizzle.

Now available for download via his former record label, Ernest Jenning (home of O’Death, The Black Hollies and Chris Mills, among others) Love should have been Fizzle’s next step. “It was my most impressive record, and it took the most amount of time to make,” Kabourek said. “It was supposed to come out on Valentines Day 2006. But I was paying for everything; the label was only providing distribution. I couldn’t afford the $7,000 needed to actually release it.”

But more than financials pushed Fizzle Like a Flood into an unplanned hiatus. “I never quit,” Kabourek explained. “It’s just that no one ever reacted to anything I did. I wanted it to ‘just happen,’ and it doesn’t ‘just happen’ in Omaha. You have to really try to make it happen, and even then it doesn’t happen.”

Oh, there were a few write-ups, including an All Music Guide review that called Golden Sand “consistently aurally engaging.” The smattering of press caught the eye of Ernest Jenning, who rereleased that album in ’05 with new artwork by Frank Holmes, who did the art for Beach Boys’ Smile. But for the most part, the winsome, multi-layered one-man head trip — an homage to the demolished Aksarben horse track — went unnoticed. But no more so than its followup, Flash Paper Queen (The 4-Track Demos), with its parenthetical joke title that no one (including Pitchfork) got.

After recording the Love LP Kabourek moved on to other things, including The Dull Cares, a project whose music was modeled after “Earth Angel”-style ’60s pop, and At Land, a power trio featuring longtime friends Travis Sing (Black Squirrels) and James Carrig (Sarah Benck and the Robbers).

“At Land recorded at Baseline, but never released anything,” Kabourek said. “I was drunk at every session. It was going to be sloppy, old-man rock, even though we knew we weren’t old yet.”

While those projects kept him busy (and anonymous), Kabourek kept writing Fizzle Like a Flood music. “I finally got an itch to make this record this past winter,” he said. “Some of the songs go back to 2005.”

Fizzle Like a Flood, Choice Kills Response (Nectar & Venom, 2011)

Choice Kills Response is a return to form for Kabourek, and another example of his home-studio recording — and songwriting — prowess. The killer tracks are the ones that depart from his typical heart-on-his-sweater-sleeve approach, like the roaring, hollow-hearted rocker “Cutters.” It is equal parts Pixies and early Weezer, along with an excuse for Kabourek to use the word “masturbation” in his lyrics.

“‘Cutters’ was written for At Land, which to me is a ’90s tribute band but with our own songs,” Kabourek said. “(The song) is about the frustration of not having sex for a long time, which is the perfect theme for every ’90s song. Every big hit from 1994 had ‘masturbation’ in the lyrics.” Other tracks, like opener “Balcony” and “Great,” are Fizzle fixtures with crunching guitars and Kabourek’s trademark bells, while the unpronounceable “Ö[Æ]à[=]É” is a modern surf rocker, complete with horror-movie organ. Kabourek skimps on nothing on this recording, but since he now refuses to use backing tracks on stage, we’ll never hear it performed this way live.

Not bad for a guy who at 38 says he’s fallen out of the music scene. “I’ve gotten to the age where this is my music — the ’90s — I love that stuff,” he said. “If someone plays me something new, that’s fine, but I have enough old music to keep me happy.”

He says he hasn’t been to Pitchfork.com since 2006. “I watched the Grammy’s two years ago,” he said. “What was the band with a thousand members and none of them play anything remotely catchy? Arcade Fire? I don’t get it. It’s OK, but I don’t like their stuff. And Radiohead on SNL last night? What I heard sucks.”

In fact, you’re not going to find Kabourek hiding in the back of rock clubs these days. “We like to go sing karaoke,” he said. “It’s more fun than going to a show.”

Except for his show, of course.

Fizzle Like a Flood’s CD release party is Oct. 7 at The Barley Street Tavern with The Whipkey Three, At Land and Underwater Dream Machine. The show starts at 9 p.m. Cover is $5.

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Tonight’s red hot ticket is Conduits at The Waiting Room with Outlaw Con Bandana, Thunder Power and Wayward Little Satan Daughters (Rachel Tomlinson Dick of Honeybee & Hers). The burning question on everyone’s mind is when (or if) Conduits is going to release their debut album, which has been in the can since early this year. One assumes they’re still looking for a label with decent distro. It’s easy to say a label ain’t necessary in this era of electronic distro, but let’s be honest, you’re almost always better off if you can get on a recognized label rather than just putting the CD out yourself, selling copies to your local fans and hoping someone out there (someone with influence) notices. Unless your band is on a known label or is newsworthy or happens to catch the ear of an influential national blogger or celebrity, it will remain unnoticed and unheard, no matter how good it is. It’s a harsh reality that hasn’t changed despite the rise of the Internet era.

Anyway… Show starts at 9, cover is $7.

Also tonight, Steve Bartolomei of Mal Madrigal

is playing at The Barley Street Tavern with Mike Saklar and Ben Brodin. $5, 9 p.m. Good times.

And finally, Cloven Path is playing a last-minute show at O’Leaver’s tonight. 9:30, $5.

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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.