by TIm McMahan, Lazy-i.com

MAHA Music Festival organizers named the first three main stage acts for this year’s event, slated for Aug. 13 at Lewis & Clark Landing — Guided by Voices, Cursive and Matisyahu. Sayeth the MAHA press release:

Recently reunited with its “classic 1993-1996 lineup,” Guided By Voices is universally regarded as one the greatest indie bands of all time.  The band’s 1994 album Bee Thousand was ranked number one by Amazon on its list of the “100 Greatest Indie Rock Albums of All Time,” Spin magazine listed the record as one of the “Top Records of the Past 25 Years” and Paste magazine named Guided By Voices’ frontman, Robert Pollard, as one of the “100 Best Living Songwriters.”

Named the “most intriguing reggae artist in the world” by Esquire magazine, the Grammy-nominated Matisyahu will be the final performance of MAHA 2011 so that his performance will occur after sundown and comply with his devout religious beliefs. Last, but certainly not least, the inclusion of local favorite Cursive continues MAHA’s tradition of featuring artists responsible for creating the indie music scene for which Omaha is now internationally recognized.

Tix are just $30 and go on sale Saturday…

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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.

Kite Pilot at Stir Lounge, Council Bluffs, April 23, 2011.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

I don’t know the backstory behind last Saturday night’s Kite Pilot gig at Harrah’s Stir Lounge in Council Bluffs other than it wasn’t some sort of one-off reunion. In fact, if you were among the 30 or so in the bar hoping to hear “Tree Caught the Kite” or “On My Lips” from their amazing debut EP or maybe “Lucid Lights” from their debut LP Mercy Will Close Its Doors, you would have been sorely disappointed. Instead, the four-piece that features husband-and-wife team of Todd and Erica Hanton, guitarist/vocalist Austin Britton and drummer Jeremy Stanoschek played songs from their never-distributed 8-song EP (“released” just prior to their breakup in May 2007) as well as a couple new tunes presented rather matter-of-factly. In other words, Kite Pilot has picked up right where it left off without blinking. As you might guess (or hope), their sound is “the same as it ever was” — and yes, that’s a veiled reference to early Talking Heads. KP continues to proudly hoist a New Wave/Post Punk banner in style and songcraft. Their new songs have the same angular-pop sound that defined them back in the mid-aught years. The only downer other than not hearing those classic songs off the EP is that Todd played trumpet on only one song. Like a superhero “reboot,” Kite Pilot seems determined to look forward with only a moment’s glance toward its past. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

* * *

Today at 10 p.m., the fine folks behind The MAHA Music Festival will be releasing the initial line-up for this year’s event, which is slated for Aug. 13 at Lewis and Clark Landing. Yes, I know the names of the three bands that will be announced. No, I’m not going to let that information slip. You’ll know soon enough, especially if you follow MAHA on Facebook or Twitter. And even if you don’t, you’re bound to see it somewhere. I will say this: They’ve done a masterful job in the face of some staunch competition for touring bands this summer.

* * *

Tonight at The Waiting Room, it’s the return of The Black Lips with Vivian Girls and Solid Goldberg. Chris Aponick has an interview with Lips’ guitarist/vocalist Cole Alexander in the current issue of The Reader, where he talks about working with Amy Winehouse / Duran Duran producer Mark Ronson on their upcoming album (Check it out here). $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.

The So-So Sailors at The Waiting Room, April 21, 2011.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

I doubt that very many people were at The Waiting Room last night specifically to see The So-So Sailors. In fact, I ran into an old friend who was sitting in the back booths during their set as if no band was playing at all, ignoring them altogether. I can’t say that I blame him as he had no idea who they were or why he should be listening. He was there for the Pornos. Still, he missed out on the most interesting part of the night, to me anyway.

The New Pornographers at The Waiting Room, 4/21/11.

Don’t get me wrong, New Pornographers were pretty special. Presented as a 7-piece with uber-star Neko Case along for the ride looking like she just got back from the Laundromat in her hoodie and wind-blown red witch hair. Even without makeup and with tired, older eyes she still looked good to me. And she sang good, too, even though she didn’t own the spotlight (that was leader Carl Newman’s job). You can’t beat Neko being “only” part of your band, no stronger or weaker then the other six members who reached back for some oldies but played what you expected from Together. They sounded terrific, just like they do on their records, and the sold-out crowd dug it.

So-So Sailors, who played right before them, will never be as big as New Pornographers. Probably not, though I admit to enjoying their short, 30-minute set just as much (or more) than what I saw of NP’s. Frontman Chris Machmuller sat behind a keyboard backed by Dan McCarthy who sat behind another keyboard backed by Ben Brodin who sat behind yet another keyboard. And they were backed by the incomparable Alex McManus on guitar. Standing dead center (and the center of attention, whether he deserved it or not) was bass player / backing vocalist Brendan Greene-Walsh, with Laura Burhenn to his left  (just back from touring with Bright Eyes) and Dan Kemp on drums. That’s all of them. And what you got with three keyboards is a very organic, very earthy sound, augmented by Mach’s brassy warble and his occasional alto sax solo. The music really is unlike anything being played around here. It sounds humble. It sounds soulful. It sounds very Sunday afternoon after a long Saturday night. A song like the amazing “Young Hearts,” which was the centerpiece of their set, can’t be compared to anything that I can think of. Mach said that they’ve finished recording their debut album, but he didn’t know when it was coming out. Hopefully sometime soon, and hopefully on Saddle Creek or some other label with its reach, though I’m not holding my breath.

The Rural Alberta Advantage at Slowdown Jr., 4/21/11.

Anyway… after the first eight or nine songs by New Pornographers, I got a text from one of my Reader colleagues saying that Lord Huron had just finished at Slowdown and that Rural Alberta Advantage was up next. So I trotted  out to my car and onto Radial Highway and made my way down to Slowdown. I got there just in time to catch RAA’s entire set. The show wasn’t sold out, but it was plenty full with a crowd whose average age was a good 15 years younger than what I’d seen at TWR. New Pornographers are the vets; RAA are the up-and-comers. I’m not going to compare the two and declare a victor in this Canadian invasion, but I will say I was happy I made the trip downtown. For the first time I started “to get” RAA and what they’re about.

A thin trio, here’s a band that glows in an intimate setting like Slowdown Jr. rather than on an outdoor stage like their gig last June in Slowdown’s parking lot. Frontman Nil Edenloff pushed every inch of his life into his vocals as he viciously strummed his acoustic guitar. Meanwhile, pixie-ish beauty Amy Cole performed a plate-spinning act as she sang, played keyboards and punched out a bass line with her feet on her Moog Taurus III bass pedals. I asked her last week if they ever would consider getting a bass player and she said no way. But while I liked what she was doing, I still think they could use an extra set of strings. They played a number of songs from their new album, Departed, including a rousing version of my personal fave, “Tornado ’87.”

Halfway through the set, Edenloff thrilled the crowd with a surprisingly earnest acoustic solo version of Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger.” I think a lot of people knew it was coming as the song got raves when they played it at SF’s Bottom of the Hill last week. If there was a weak spot in their game it’s that too many of their songs sound alike, and after a half-dozen, they begin to blend together into one extended, rousing ballad.

* * *

Easter weekend is never a good weekend for shows, and this year’s is no exception.

The highlight is tonight’s red-hot rock show at The Waiting Room. But first at 7 p.m. at TWR is an early show — The Found Footage Festival, a collection of seriously bad but funny commercially developed videos gathered from VHS tapes collected at various garage sales and thrift stores. Check out foundfootagefest.com for more info. $10. The late show starts at 9 p.m., headlined by Back When and featuring Little Brazil, Talking Mountain and Self Evident, all for just $7.

Meanwhile, down the street at The Barley Street Tavern, The Yuppies are headlining a show with Baby Tears, High Diving Ponies and Death of a Tax Payer. $5, 9 p.m. Saturday night, John Klemmensen and the Party are playing at The Barley Street with Tina Sparkle and Traveling Mercies. $5, 9 p.m.

Also Saturday night, Honey & Darling are playing at O’Leaver’s with The Empty Spaces and Blue Lights Shine Bright. $5, 9:30  p.m.

And that’s just about it for the weekend. Except, of course, for Big Al’s annual “Free Music Festival,” being held tonight through Easter evening at The Hideout, 320 So. 72nd St. As the name implies, there’s no cover charge. Line-up / info here. Shows start at 8:30.

ADDENDUM: I almost forgot one of the most interesting shows of the weekend: The long-awaited return of Kite Pilot, opening for Thunder Power at Harrah’s Stir Lounge Saturday night. $5, 9 p.m. 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.

The Rural Alberta Advantage

Dodging Traffic and Tornadoes with The Rural Alberta Advantage

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The Rural Alberta Advantage’s keyboard player, Amy Cole, had every reason for sounding distracted.

You try riding through road-rage fueled traffic on Interstate 5 in Los Angeles in a van pulling a trailer while the rest of your band is shouting directions in the background — the same silver 2003 Dodge Caravan, incidentally, which carried The Rural Alberta Advantage to Omaha for the first time two years ago.

Now just two years later, the band was headed to Coachella to kick off the festival’s outdoor stage. “It’s really important to us,” Cole said of Coachella. “We’re excited to be on the bill with all these other artists. It’s crazy to us that we’re allowed to be part of it.”

Amy Cole

Her modesty is somewhat out of place, especially when you consider that the band’s first album, Hometowns, was lauded with an 8.0 by indie tastemaker Pitchfork, who called them “the best unsigned band in Canada before Saddle Creek snapped them up.” The trio’s sophomore effort, Departing, released just last month on Saddle Creek, is even more thoughtful, more tuneful, more refined than its predecessor.

Something tells me the hip Coachella crowd is going to drink up their whirling-dervish-on-the-verge-of-spinning-out-of-control stage vibe. Cole said she hadn’t thought much about Coachella. “We’ve been on tour,” she said. “We’ll probably talk about the set list tonight.”

Just the night before the band finished the second of two sold-out nights at the 350-capacity Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco, one of the bay area’s most famous clubs. If there’s a difference between ’09 and now, it’s the number of shows The RAA now plays and the number of people turning out for them. “Everything is increasing, but it doesn’t feel different,” Cole said. “The energy feels the same.”

Just then a muffled shout of “He’s standing right there” came from someone else in the van, maybe RAA frontman Nils Edenloff or drummer Paul Banwatt. Cole broke off the interview for a moment, explaining that they we’re trying to pick up her boyfriend from in front of a hotel. Confused noise ensued. Doors opened and shut. And then, muted laughter.

“OK I’m back, what did you ask me?” I got the feeling I was getting in the way of a long-awaited reunion, loving hugs and much-needed catching up. Instead, here was Cole having to “deal with” some music writer in Omaha. I probably would have just hung up on me.

Instead, she talked about how life on the road is the worst part of being in a band. There’s no question that you’re going to miss a lot when you play a couple hundred shows over the course of two years.

“Being away from your friends and family is hard,” she said. “You’re missing out on the stuff that other people get to do, but at the same time, not everyone gets to do this. It’s never 100 percent fun all the time, but we still enjoy what we’re doing, playing songs for people.”

The Rural Alberta Advantage, Departing (Saddle Creek, 2011)

We abruptly switched gears. Cole told me that making the new album was in some ways similar to making their debut. Producer Roger Leavens again was along for the ride. But unlike that first album, where they had four months to record it with no set deadline and no label breathing down their necks, Cole said they had to consider getting something to Saddle Creek.

“This time we did a lot more writing and recording simultaneously,” she said. “Whereas Hometowns had already been written, and we’d been performing the songs for years (before entering the studio). This time people are hearing the songs for the first time.”

One exception is “Tornado ’87.”

“That one we’ve been playing live a long time,” Cole said. “It was a keyboard-driven song that we tried to record before, but it never sounded right. Then one day we tried it on guitar…”

The song was inspired by a freak F5 tornado that struck Edmonton on July 31, 1987, killing 27 people and laying waste to 300 houses. Over simple acoustic guitar, Edenloff croons, “Oh Lord I lost you I held you tight / Oh I will hold onto your love in the night / And the black sky will come before our eyes / Oh I let’s lay down in the basement tonight.” And then Banwatt cracks out rifle-shot drums, as Cole lays on keyboards and her own wind-swept vocals.  The song has RAA’s trademark dust-devil sound that’s garnered comparisons to Neutral Milk Hotel and Deer Tick, among others.

Cole said the once dreaded song has become a favorite of hers, and is especially meaningful in places like Nebraska, which are susceptible to just such meteorological occurrences. Unlike RAA’s home of Toronto.

There certainly was no chance of any tornadoes striking Indio, California. “We rented a house and plan on spending the whole weekend at the festival,” Cole said, “at least when we’re not lounging around the pool. It’ll be nice to stay in one place for awhile.”

The Rural Alberta Advantage plays with Lord Huron and Gus & Call Thursday, April 21, at Slowdown Jr. Tickets are $10. Show starts at 9 p.m.

* * *

The New Pornographers and The Rural Alberta Advantage — two highly acclaimed Canadian bands — are playing separate shows tonight in Omaha’s two primary indie rock performance establishments. Surely there was a good reason why these two shows weren’t joined together as one gigantic Canadian Invasion Rock Show. Instead, Omaha’s small and rather exclusive indie music audience will be split between the two shows, with The New Pornos getting the lion’s share of the crowd — that show, which is being held at The Waiting Room, has been sold out for awhile now. Meanwhile, tickets are still available for The RAA show at Slowdown Jr. Combining the shows would have given some much-needed exposure to The RAA, but like I said, I’m sure the organizers had their reasons. Each band knows that the other is playing somewhere else in the city (thanks, in part, to me), though Cole thought that the Pornos show was being held at Slowdown in a different room!

Anyway, the details are these:

The New Pornographers play tonight at The Waiting Room with The So-So Sailors at 9 p.m. The show is sold out.

The Rural Alberta Advantage plays tonight at Slowdown Jr. with Lord Huron and Gus & Call. Tickets at $10 and the show starts at 9 p.m.
I intend to be at both shows at the same time. I still haven’t figured out how to do it, but there must be some technology that can make it happen.

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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

Omaha Reader music critic/reporter B.J. Huchtemann has been writing her “Hoodoo” column, which specializes in blues and roots music, for more than a decade. Like me, Beej wrote for the Lawrence, Kansas, music publication The Note before The Reader was even born. Simply put: No one — and I mean no one — knows more about the scene, style and genre than B.J. Her column is required reading for anyone who is into blues, jazz, R&B and good ol’ rock and roll.

At the beginning of this month, her Hoodoo column got cut back in The Reader from weekly to bi-weekly (hopefully, it’s just a temporary thing). So B.J. did what any other music writer would do — she took her words to the Internet and launched the Hoodoo Roots & Blues blogspot (check it out here). It’s the same content as her Hoodoo column, but updated more frequently, including photos from recent live shows.

My comments about modern blues acts being little more than cover bands has never gone unnoticed by B.J. “The scene that I’m involved in and the bands that are popular with the bulk of the audience are bands doing ORIGINAL music,” she wrote in an e-mail reply to a few questions. “Like any band, they may throw in a cover or two, but most of the bands on the local scene are invested in writing and performing original music…the same goes for the national players.”

Still, she said there’s no question that some people seem to naturally recoil when they read the term “blues” and as a result, she changed the name of her column last year. “I made the change about nine months ago trying to NOT scare the new generation with the word ‘blues,’ as it seems to me they will LIKE ‘blues’ and related genres if you don’t use the word blues,” she wrote. “And I write about everything from the weekly blues shows of note to the Sunday Roadhouse Americana series to funk and soul like Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears recent show or Curtis Salgado’s upcoming May 14 show in Lincoln.

“It seems more and more that the word ‘blues’ gets a stereotypical rap from folks who are not already fans, yet the sounds of the blues are so popular within contemporary music. Take Black Joe Lewis or Lukas Nelson, Willie Nelson’s son, as examples of blues-infused roots music.”

So what’s the current state of the local blues scene? B.J. said it’s a mixed bag.

“On the national scene, the shifting landscape of clubs closing (like Blues on Grand in Des Moines) and the specter of higher-than-ever gas prices this summer make it tough for the national bands to keep touring as they have in the past,” she said. “Blues festivals continue to be the place where musicians can get better pay and fans can get their music fix.”

However the more established bands are staying busy. “And younger bands, like Omaha-based Kris Lager Band, are rolling up their sleeves and making a name for themselves with aggressive touring in the Midwest region and beyond, so it can still be done,” she said.

Despite that, she said, the local scene is in transition. “After seven seasons, the extremely popular Playing With Fire blues concert series is winding down…dropping from four concerts last year to only one show (on July 16) this year, due to lack of a major sponsor to support the costs of doing a high-caliber concert stage with national acts down on the riverfront,” B.J. said.

In addition, Blues Society of Omaha president and longtime blues venue operator Terry O’Halloran is transitioning out of the scene.

“He’s sold his club The New Lift Lounge, which is now called The 21st Saloon,” B.J. said. “The venue has been the site of an extremely successful weekly 5:30 p.m. Thursday show that features some of the best in touring acts and up-and-coming acts.”

So far, the new owners are continuing to host the show with O’Halloran doing the booking, but the long-term status of the series depends on audience support, which has been great so far. “Ultimately O’Halloran hopes to relocate, probably to Austin, Texas, which will leave a big hole in the local scene, losing a knowledgeable booker who is truly interested in supporting the artists and the music,” she said.

“It’s a big time of transition for local blues and roots, but if the audience keeps coming out to support the music the way they have in recent years, I think Omaha will continue to be a bright spot.”

You can keep up with it all at Hoodoo Roots and Blues. Check it out, and let B.J. know what you’d like to see her cover. And hopefully her column at The Reader will be back to its usual weekly schedule in May.

* * *

Tomorrow: The Rural Alberta Advantage, and the night Canada invaded Omaha…

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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 Decemberists at The Holland Performing Arts Center, April 17, 2011.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

At one point I closed my eyes and thought to myself, “This is all a dream…”

Things were getting out of hand down in the pseudo pit that formed just to the right of the DVD rack, next to the cut-out bin. Two of the Homer’s guys huddled together behind the cash register and wondered out loud if maybe it was time to call the cops. But it was too late for that. The mob had taken over 20 minutes earlier, pushing aside the heavy CD and record bins to make room for more more more people who kept pushing through the door like desperate strangers trying to get into a fallout shelter seconds after the bomb went off. I tried to ignore the chaos and focus on the turntables, but I couldn’t take my eyes off the crowd — hundreds of people — all ages — bouncing in unison to the downcast Smog track that only fanned the flames I had innocently ignited with my latent skills. No one had expected anything like this. Just a moment earlier during the Justin Warfield track (“K Sera Sera”) they had coaxed me to the top of the counter waving their arms and yelling in unison “Jump Jump Jump…” And that’s exactly what I did, falling into their outstretched arms that glided me over their heads, around the T-shirt rack and above the “smooth jazz” section. I looked up at Mike Fratt, the one who had gotten me into this, and he just shrugged his shoulders. He was as shocked as any of us when a small group of the topless women blacked-out the windows and mounted the strobes to the walls, creating a makeshift disco. Things had gotten out of hand all right, but the real shock didn’t come until I pulled back a corner of the black vinyl film window covering and looked outside and saw Howard St. filled like a soccer stadium — thousands of people with their hands in the air bouncing to the music that was piped into the street. Music that I had “selected.” Me. The DJ. Aponick, tears in his eyes (but smiling), croaked over and over “I didn’t know. I didn’t know. I didn’t know…” No one did, I said as I pulled him from his knees… No one did….

Actually, my DJ stint as part of Homer’s Record Store Day this last Saturday wasn’t quite that exciting. The fine folks at the store set me up behind the counter next to a CD player and a couple turntables supplied by DJ Kobrakyle, who had “spun” earlier in the day. I brought in a bag of records and CDs and played songs for a little over an hour to a crowd of at least 20 people, none of whom knew or cared who I was. I did get a couple “bites” from listeners who asked about a few songs (“Saturn” by Evil Tambourines, “Woman King” by Iron & Wine, “Step Off” by El Fino Imperials (Mousetrap)). In my defense, I had asked before I started if it was OK to play “adult material” — stuff with cussing in it. Aponick said, “Sure, play whatever you want.” So I went ahead and played “Please Be Quiet” by Digital Leather, whose pseudo-refrain is “Shut the fuck up.” After about 30 seconds of that I was told nervously that maybe we should switch songs. So I played Yo La Tengo’s cover of Sun Ra’s “Nuclear War,” having forgotten about the choir of children who chanted, “It’s a mother fucker.” Store manager Eric kindly asked if I had any songs that weren’t laced with obscenities, but he didn’t ask me to cut it (after all, it’s a classic).

Fratt told me that RSD was a huge business day for both the downtown and Orchard Plaza stores. It’s impossible not to recognize how successful RSD has become for music retailers — it’s starting to gain a “Black Friday” vibe, at least among collectors. That said, I’ll ask the same question that I asked after last year’s success: How do you make RSD last all year long; how do you keep the fever high week after week? I think it could be done, but it’d take extreme coordination between the retailers, the labels and the artists. Too bad labels couldn’t move their national release day from Tuesdays to Saturdays, helping create a weekly RSD…

* * *

I don’t know if Sunday’s Decemberists show at The Holland ever finally sold out. The day before, One Percent had posted on Facebook that they were just 50 shy of a sell-out. I assume the problem was the $35 price point. I can tell you that the show was worth every penny, and this comes from someone who’s not a big Decemberists fan. In fact, the only album of theirs that I own is the new one, The King Is Dead. I’ve listened to their breakthrough, The Crane Wife, a few times and just didn’t feel it. Live, the music was transformed…

The show began dead-on at 8 p.m. when Justin Townes Earle strolled on stage in front of the Decemberists’ band set-up with an acoustic guitar and a violin player and proceeded to play 30 minutes of amazing honky-tonk style acoustic country. The guy has an incredible voice, as did his violin player. He also had a handful of personal stories, many centered around his drug history, that got the crowd laughing.

I should point out here that Earle and Decemberists were the best sounding shows I’ve heard at The Holland. From my perch in front of the first balcony, the mix was unreal it was so good, and that hasn’t always been my experience at The Holland.

Decemberists’ frontman Colin Meloy is a pure entertainer in addition to a helluva singer and songwriter. He had the crowd in the palm of his hand throughout almost two hours of music, which included most of the songs off the new album and plenty of old stuff from Crane Wife. My favorite moment was when the band brought out drums and banged along to “The Rake’s Song” lit by blood red stage lights. But that moment was eclipsed during the first encore,  “The Mariner’s Revenge Song,” where the audience was prompted to scream as if being eaten by a whale, and actually did. By then, the crowd had come to its feet, a few songs after Meloy had chided them for sitting in their seats, which he said (and I’m paraphrasing) were “paid for with insurance money.”

Should the crowd have stood up the entire show, especially at a place like The Holland? If Meloy expected/wanted them  dancing, he should have returned to Sokol Underground or taken it Slowdown. It just wasn’t going to happen at The Holland. I wasn’t about to stand up and block two rows of middle-aged people sitting behind me who paid $35 a ticket to sit down and enjoy the show.

Meloy and Co. finished the night with a second encore of “June Hymn” and a standing ovation. Top-10 show of 2011…? Maybe…

* * *

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.

Conduits at The Slowdown, April 15, 2011.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

When it comes to the four-band record release show at Slowdown Friday night, instead of dwelling on the one unfortunate negative, let’s instead dwell on the positives. Positives like the big crowd (+200?), the impeccable sound quality and, most of all, the performances.

Touch People at Slowdown 4/15/11.

Touch People started off the evening at the stroke of 9, playing to an empty floor in Slowdown’s big room. On stage, a costumed Darren Keen played a small stack of technology veiled two ways — one, behind a curtain that hid him from view, and two, behind a mask and hood, though everyone knew that only one person in the Nebraska music scene bears his stature. Just as unmistakable is Keen’s sound. Even though this project stands at a distance from his main gig — The Show Is the Rainbow — there were distinctive Keen-isms that dotted a sonic landscape littered with enormously loud bass lines, jittering break beats and trippy synth tones. Touch People is the most experimental of Keen’s projects, and as a result, the most challenging to the listener. The music isn’t so much an attempt to get people dancing as to get them to step into whatever dimension Keen is occupying over the course of the 40-minute set. The music was as entrancing as it was disjointed and, at times, disturbing, which I have believe is just the way Keen wanted it.

InDreama at Slowdown, 4/15/11.

It only got trippier with InDreama, In this, their third live performance and perhaps their most ambitious, frontman Nik Fackler and company navigated through a mine field of technical problems to take yet another step forward in crafting their sound and vision. And what a weird vision it’s turning out to be. Fackler is at his best when he’s crafting songs with specific melodies and ideas, such as the track from the single, “Reprogram,” (which he opened with) and the set’s closing two numbers. In between were shades of Jim Morrison and Jim Carroll. Fackler has said that his goal is to create a new persona on stage. At this point, that persona is still only half realized, though no less entertaining.

Icky Blossoms at Slowdown 4/15/11.

By the time Icky Blossoms hit the stage at around 11, the crowd had arrived. The floor in front was mostly filled and jumping. Of all of Derek Pressnall’s projects including Tilly and the Wall, this one is the most satisfying and the one with the most promise. I got the feeling that there was nothing stopping the band from hitting the road tomorrow and getting any out-of-town crowd to become fans. Yes, the music is that good — a modern take on straight-up dance rock with an ’80s flair. Of the four bands, Icky Blossoms is easily the most commercially embraceable of the bunch. They’re also the most fun.

Conduits closed the night with grand aplomb — just an absolute wall of sound — thick slabs of droning feedback, subtle synth tones, and throbbing, tribal rhythms a la Slowdive, MBV and all the other shoe-gaze masters that obviously influenced their style and that we all know and love. The beauty of Conduits is its sonic dynamics. The Achilles heel may be its lack of rhythmic variety — one mid-tempo song after another. Frontwoman Jenna Morrison couldn’t be more statuesque in beauty and style. She has amazing tone that cuts through the dense layers of sound. But somewhere in the morass she’s become merely another instrument. I could not understand a word she was singing (how much is the soundman’s fault, I do not know). It’s an advantage Icky Bossoms had over all four bands — you could understand just about every word Pressnall was singing, and that made his songs that much more interesting (and easy to sing along to). With Conduits, all you get is beautiful, beautiful drone. When you think of a band like Low, you can hear every heart-breaking word that comes out of Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker’s mouths. Those words are what help make their music that much more memorable. I know there are words underneath Conduits’ music as well, I just need to find out what they are.

And now that one negative I mentioned earlier — one thing was missing that is crucial to the success of any record release show — the records themselves. I don’t know if there was some sort of production problem that kept the delivery from happening, but there was no product on hand to sell. Instead, the band was selling “pre-orders” of the single, with a promise that a member of the band would hand deliver the record when it arrived (you also received a free download). How many people took them up on the offer, I do not know. I do know that they had 200 or so people on hand that wanted to buy a copy and who went home empty handed, myself included. Maybe they should have another record release show, but this time in Lincoln (and with records to sell).

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Things are running a bit long here today. I can’t expect y’all to sit through 3,000 words of copy. So come back tomorrow for my take on Record Store Day and my first “DJ” gig, as well as a look at last night’s Decemberists’ show, which was “all that” and more.

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Nik Freitas is kind of a big thing around these parts. But despite that, he’s the opening act tonight at The Waiting Room for a band that I’ve never heard of — The Submarines. The $12 show starts at 9, so you better get there early.

Also tonight, Dim Light plays with Slow Skate at O’Leaver’s. $5, 9:30 p.m. And Pharmacy Spirits makes a trip from Lincoln to play at Slowdown Jr. tonight with Cat Island, Dangerous Ponies and Shipbuilding Co. $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

Tomorrow is the day all you vinyl lovers have been waiting for – Record Store Day! You can read my recap of what Homer’s has in store for this celebration of music right here. This cold April rain should end by tomorrow morning, which means you will be high and dry while waiting in line to get first dibs on the really exclusive, limited-edition stuff. In fact, the Homer’s Orchard Plaza store will open a half-hour early tomorrow at 9:30 a.m., giving you time run your shaky hands through their vinyl bins before hysterically driving downtown to the Old Market store opening.

And don’t forget The Antiquarium and Drastic Plastic also will have a selection of RSD vinyl on sale tomorrow. RSD is kind of like a treasure hunt — you don’t know exactly what you’re going to find, and product will vary from store to store, though I know Antiquarium’s selection will likely lean heavily toward major indie labels like Matador, Sub Pop and Merge.

To help commemorate the occasion, Homer’s is featuring a few highly sought-after DJ’s tomorrow afternoon at the Old Market Store. DJ Kevin “King” Coffey will be behind the turntable at noon, followed by Gunkmeister DJ Kobrakyle at 1 p.m. while yours truly will take the rear at 3 p.m., long after the RSD excitement has worn off. As an homage to High Fidelity, perhaps I’ll play “Dry the Rain” by the Beta Band… more likely you’ll hear a collection of crusty old vinyl and new mp3s. I still haven’t figured it out yet.

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Some impressions of last night’s Bright Eyes’ performance of “Beginner’s Mind” (above) on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno:

— A trench coat in LA? A smart fashion statement, yes. Teresa’s comment: “He sure has big feet.” Indeed he does, and we all know what that means.

— Who was the guy behind the drum kit? I thought Clark Baechle of The Faint was playing drums for this go ’round of Bright Eyes. Whoever it was, he sounded terrific. In fact, the drums dominated last night.

— I wonder if everyone could hear themselves in the studio, because there were a few vocal bloopers which may or may not have been intentional.

— Leno’s comment as he went to shake Oberst’s hand after the song ended: “I missed you on the bus.” Not sure what that meant because I DVR’d the show so to fast-forward past Leno’s natterings.

— Overall, an interesting BE performance that rates up there with the rest of the band’s and Oberst’s network appearances, which you can see right here at twentyfourbit.com.

* * *

There are outstanding shows every night this weekend.

Tonight at The Slowdown is what I’m calling the “Fantastic Four” showcase (which you read about here yesterday) featuring (in this order) Touch People, InDreama, Icky Blossoms and headliner Conduits. Get there early for Touch People (the show is slated to begin at 9 p.m.). And make sure you get a copy of the duo single as sort of a pre-Record Store Day vinyl purchases. Judging by the listing at theslowdown.com, this appears to be a “big room” show. Tix are $7.

For you Lincolnites, tonight is the second night of Omaha Invasion. Check out the schedule at the bottom of this blog entry.

Meanwhile, Brad Hoshaw is doing a set tonight at O’Leaver’s with Ashley Raines and the New West Revue. $5, 9:30 p.m.

Speaking of O’Leaver’s, tomorrow night the “bar that time forgot” is hosting a benefit show for Love Drunk Studio, the red-hot video production company that began taking the scene by storm late last year. The Love Drunk team is headed on the road the first couple weeks of May for a tour of central and eastern United States, where they’ll be creating videos for bands they meet. Details of the excursion are right here. Help support the cause by going to tomorrow night’s show, which features The Photo Atlas, The Answer Team, Masses and Ketchup and Mustard Gas. $5, 9:30 p.m.

Also tomorrow night, Beat Seekers headline a show at The Barley Street with Blue Bird, and Travelling Mercies. $5, 9 p.m.

Finally, Sunday, it’s the big Decemberists show at The Holland. Tix are still available for $35 right here at ticketomaha.com. I suspect it’ll be one for the record books. Opening is Justin Townes Earle. Show starts at 8 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.

Conduits

Column 318: Four bands, two slices of vinyl, one distinctive sound.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The dim, squalid confines of The Underwood Bar are a fine place to drink yourself into oblivion while playing a game of pool or pinball. They’re not such a fine place to conduct an interview, especially with four bands simultaneously. But that’s where Conduits drummer Roger Lewis decided would be the best place for what would turn into chaos.

Crammed between the pool table and glowing digital jukebox in the back of the bar sat Lewis and Conduits band mate Jenna Morrison; InDreama frontman Nik Fackler with his bandmate — legendary bass player Dereck Higgins; Icky Blossoms mastermind Derek Pressnall, and the hardest working guy in local music, Darren Keen, the genius behind Touch People. If you go to The Slowdown this Friday night you will hear all of these musicians and their band mates perform together on one bill, maybe for the one and only time (though there’s talk of repeating the line-up sometime in Lincoln).

Darren Keen a.k.a. Touch People

The occasion for this grand collective is the release of a duo 7-inch split — one song from each band on two vinyl records. Morrison said J.J. Idt, who plays in both Conduits and Icky Blossoms, came up with the idea, and then “one link led to another.”

It sounded like a great story, but somewhere before Lewis bought me a second Rolling Rock and after one of the fat, bearded locals plugged the jukebox and began belting out lines to Vanilla Fudge’s “You Keep Me Hanging On,” I realized that it was all going to get lost in the noise and confusion of trying to reign in six people talking from six different angles.

And that the project’s real story centered around the music, anyway. The recordings break down like this:

“Misery Train” by Conduits is a perfect slice of the band’s trademark dream-pop sound, dim and faraway, with Morrison’s angelic voice burning through the mist like a distant beacon, safe and familiar and strangely comforting in its ghostly beauty.

Icky Blossoms’ “Perfect Vision” is a pop gem, a mid-tempo hand-clapping slacker anthem that’s a combination of Jesus and Mary Chain and Love & Rockets, with Pressnall standing right in the middle of it all, singing presumably with eyes half closed lines like “Nothing to do but get high in the afternoon.”

InDreama

Opening with icy synth tones, InDreama’s “Reprogram” evolves into proggy electronic drunk-funk. As much an art piece as a rock song, the track defines Fackler as a Midwestern version of Beck, unafraid to reach out and try something different for difference’s sake, but never losing sight of the melody.

Finally, there’s Touch People’s “Sound Expression,” a cacophony of electronic noises and break beats tethered to an uneven foundation of shifting chords and tones, with Keen’s voice emerging strangely through the floor boards with lines like “Sometimes a sound is just a sound.”

Side-by-side, each song is starkly different, and yet somehow there’s a sonic thread — a dreamy vibe — that binds all four together into a cohesive whole. These four bands stand at the vanguard of a new direction of Nebraska music, a clear departure from the singer-songwriter fare that so brazenly defined the scene over the past decade.

In fact, all the bands are second-generation outgrowths of former projects. Icky Blossoms was born out of Pressnall’s Flowers Forever (which was a side project of Tilly and the Wall); InDreama is a bastard child of Fackler’s The Family Radio; Conduits includes veterans of Eagle Seagull and Son Ambulance, while Touch People is a third concurrently functioning incarnation of Darren Keen, who’s better known for his persona as The Show Is the Rainbow.

Derek Pressnall of Icky Blossoms

The duo splits are an introduction to all four bands, which despite their obvious differences make sense collectively. Consider these singles as a crossroads where all four meet before spinning off once again in their own directions. We can expect to hear full lengths or other recordings by all four at some point later this year. But for now, they’re all together, at least for one night.

“This scene is more accepting of general weirdness,” said Keen, who despite frequently playing in both Lincoln and Omaha has always been viewed by some as an outsider. “Omaha and Nebraska music has evolved from its labels. Now it’s like any other cool city. Seattle, for example, is more than just grunge.”

“We’re in a period in Omaha music where there are so many kick-ass bands out there,” Lewis said. “It’s a kick-ass-band overload!”

Fackler, who is more well known as the writer and director of indie film Lovely, Still, said seeing Conduits perform “genuinely inspired me. I got that feeling again to put a band together.”

“We all are just friends,” Pressnall added, “and while this hasn’t exactly been thought out, we’ve all been very inspired by each other. When I see these bands, I just want to go home and push myself creatively.”

From there, the conversations rose to a fever pitch and I started to lose my balance. Like a wise Jedi master or an all-knowing Buddha or what he really is — the veteran of some of the area’s most important legacy bands —  Dereck Higgins simply looked at me, smiled and summed it all up perfectly. “Can you feel it?” he asked quietly between three conversations. “Can you see how all of us are connected? There’s something going on here.”

Conduits, Icky Blossoms, InDreama and Touch People play Friday, April 15, at The Slowdown. Tickets are $7, show starts at 9 p.m.

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Minneapolis chamber-folk band Dark Dark Dark is at Slowdown Jr., tonight with Honey & Darling. Check out Chris Aponick’s interview with the band if The Reader (here). $8, 9 p.m.

Also, tonight is the first of two nights of the Omaha Invasion Festival in Lincoln. $6 per night or $10 for a 2-day pass. Here’s tonight’s sched:

Thursday – April 14th – Duffy’s Tavern

08:40 – 09:20PM – Kyle Harvey

09:40 – 10:20PM – Lonely Estates

10:40 – 11:20PM – Down With The Ship

11:40 – 12:20AM – All Young Girls Are Machine Guns

12:40 – 01:20AM – Midwest Dilemma

Thursday – April 14th – Bourbon Theatre (Rye Room)

08:20 – 09:00PM – Underwater Dream Machine (Bret Vovk)

09:20 – 10:00PM – Vago

10:20 – 11:00PM – Dim Light

11:20 – 12:00AM – Conchance

12:20 – 01:00AM – Matt Cox

Also, according to Saddle Creek, Bright Eyes is on Leno tonight. Set the DVR for stun…

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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 New Pornographers

Full-time Pornographer

New Pornographers’ Kathryn Calder is more than a fill-in

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Early in the interview with New Pornographers vocalist / keyboard player Kathryn Calder I figured I’d try a bit of a joke.

Calder said she was recovering from a solo show played the night before in Duncan, a small town an hour north of her home of Victoria, British Columbia. While people mostly know her from her New Pornographers role, she said a few also remember her work with former band Immaculate Machine, as well as from her solo album, Are You My Mother?, released last fall.

“I haven’t done many solo shows yet,” she said. “I’ve planned a little tour in a spot when I knew New Pornographers weren’t going to be doing anything. It makes it easier.”

It was here that I suggested that if Calder needed more time to nurture her solo career, she could always hit up fellow New Pornographers vocalist Neko Case to fill in on her parts while she was gone, which resulted in Calder’s good-hearted, if not polite, laugh at my rather lame joke.

Kathryn Calder

It’s a joke because part of the reason Calder was asked to join New Pornographers in 2005 was to fill in for Neko Case when Case is away doing a solo tour. Calder first began working with the band on ’05’s Twin Cinema album. “I wasn’t really in the band yet,” she said. “The reason they invited me in was to see how well I’d fit in with the sound. I guess we were recording in early 2005 for Twin Cinema and in June I had my first five dates with the Pornographers. That was the trial period, and I guess they were happy with it clearly. In August they just started to invite me along.”

Calder is credited with back-up vocals and piano on that album. By the time 2007’s Challenger was released, she was a full-blown Pornographer, having spent the past two years touring with the band. “Carl (Newman) gave me a more prominent role of that record,” she said.

Calder plays an even more prominent role on the band’s fifth album, Together. Released last May on Matador Records, the album was a departure from the New Pornographers’ more inward-sounding, intimate recordings, to something more, well, robust. Opening track “Moves” launches with a guitar-and-cello riff that would feel right at home on a latter-day Zeppelin album before it lets go into a piano bounce and frontman Newman’s familiar, groovy summer-time vocals. Neko Case takes over for track two, the swinging “Crash Years,” while Dan Bejar’s sinister snarl is front and center on big-pop rocker “Silver Jenny Dollar.” Mixed among it all is Calder’s sweet vocals, giving the band its distinct harmonic sound.

“I was more involved in this one than any other record,” Calder said, adding that she spent a lot of time at Little Blue recording studio in Woodstock, NY. “We hadn’t heard the songs before I arrived at Woodstock. You get played these songs and have to jam them out.”

It wasn’t until after the recording that Calder discovered that the album would be dedicated to her mother, Lynn Calder. “She had just passed away in July 2009,” Calder said. “We went to record in September. The songs were written by that point and I was still reeling obviously and they dedicated it to her, and I thought that was nice.”

The New Pornographers, Together (Matador, 2010)

More than any other New Pornographer’s album, Together is a mix of the band’s generous vocal talents. “Carl even said that it’s the first album where he thought he was singing the least,” Calder said. But having that much talent means that — like Calder and Case — everyone has side gigs. As A.C. Newman, Carl Newman had something of a hit with 2009’s Get Guilty (Matador Records), and Bejar is known as much for his other band, Destroyer, as for New Pornographers, having released arguably one of the best albums so far this year with Kaputt, on Merge Records.

Because of all these side projects, you never know who you’re going to see when New Pornographers rolls into your town. For next Thursday’s show at The Waiting Room, Neko Case will be along for the ride, while Bejar most likely won’t be, Calder said.

“We have various incarnations for all eventualities,” she said of the ever-changing line-up. “We have the ability to play as a 6-piece, 7-piece and as an 8-piece. On our last big tour we were a 10-piece.”

With Bejar gone, Calder said the band will “just fill in his parts and won’t play that many of his songs. We can also play some of his songs with Carl singing Dan’s parts. It’s just how it has to be.”

With Case along on this tour, Calder said the two will be doing a lot of singing together. “Carl is very clever when he arranged it,” Calder said. “I play piano and play the same thing whether she’s there or not. I’m always doing my thing anyway. She sings her songs and I sing with her, and we’ll sing at the same time, providing a powerful female assault.”

Calder said expect a 7-person line-up at The Waiting Room “and there will be lots of singing and foot stomping, and I’ll even bring out my accordion for one song. It’s going to be a lot of fun.” And that’s no joke.

The New Pornographers plays with The So-So Sailors, Thursday, April 21, at The Waiting Room, 6212 Maple St. Showtime is 9 p.m. Tickets are $22 adv. / $25 DOS. For more information, visit onepercentproductions.com.

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I’m a bit surprised that this New Pornographers show hasn’t sold out yet. What’s up with that, Omaha?

* * *

An addendum rather than a correction to yesterday’s Poster Child item: Jeremy Buckley e-mailed to say that he has two partners in his new business — Dub Wardlaw and Scott Hatfield from Duffy’s. Regardless, there’s no question that Buckley is “all in” on this one: As part of the deal, he no longer works for The Bourbon Theater, though Poster Child is booking shows for the venue. When will we begin to see Poster Child-produced shows in Omaha?

* * *

Tonight at The Waiting Room it’s Jersey guitarist / instrumentalist / one-man band Delicate Steve (real name: Dave Marion), who’s new album, Wondervisions, was released on Luaka Bop, a label created by Talking Heads’ David Byrne. AMG compares him to Animal Collective (not quite) and Dirty Projectors (getting closer). Opening is Bad Speler (a.k.a. Darren Keen) & DVH (a.k.a. Dereck Higgins). $8, 9 p.m.

Meanwhile, down at Slowdown Jr., Lightning Bug is headlining a show that also includes I Was Totally Destroying it, Cashes Rivers, and what I believe is the stage debut of Pony Wars, a new band featuring Craig Korth (Oil, Brave Captain). $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.