Serena-Maneesh at The Waiting Room, Sept. 26, 2010.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Slowdive. Ride. My Bloody Valentine. I never saw any of them perform live on stage. I can only imagine how those godfathers of shoegaze would have sounded during their early-’90s heyday. But after last night’s Serena-Maneesh show, I think I might have a little better idea.

As I bought my usual jar of Rolling Rock, I was asked by the kindly barkeep if I’d brought my earplugs. “Why, yes,” I said. “Why ever do you ask?” Because, he replied, S-M’s soundcheck was the loudest he’d ever heard in The Waiting Room, and he’s been there since the doors first swung open in 2007.

I had plenty of time to ponder his warning as S-M didn’t hit the stage until 9:45. I don’t know if it was the loudest show I’ve ever heard at TWR (actually, that distinction goes to The Faint’s first show there, which I think cracked a few ribs), but it was still pretty freakin’ loud, not so much in a deep-bass boom, but a shattered-glass sort of way. It was a relentless, ferocious roar of which there was no escaping, driven by two guitars, a keyboard, drums and a lovely 7-foot-tall blond bass player, who I couldn’t actually hear but could clearly see.

Fronting the band was Emil Nikolaisen, who, wearing a headband and hooded jacket, looked like an elf from The Lord of the Rings. No elf ever played guitar like Emil, however, who spent most of the 45-minute set torturing his axe along with a second guitarist who during one song, slammed the strings and held his guitar out in front of him as if it were a dead fox that he just trapped and was about to skin. There was a slightly frightening, almost tribal air about the entire band.

Musically, their style shifted between a morphine drip, slow and slurred and hazy, to an amphetamine rage. In either case, the drums cut through the layers of heavenly sound and were the centerpoint that kept the music from becoming completely unhinged — always sharp, sometimes rapidfire, always a necessary guidepost through the malaise.

Their live set was much more violent and dissonant than their recordings, much more of an adrenalin release, and every second, mesmerizing.

It was nearly 11 before Wovenhand came on stage. Looking like a ’70s-era Howard Hessman in his Panama-ish hat and mustache, frontman David Eugene Edwards unfurled a couple mesmerizing minor-key dirges before I had to head home (deadlines!).

* * *

Tonight at Slowdown Jr., Darren Keen’s breakbeat/noise/drum & bass project Bad Speler headlines his monthly weeknight concert series called Good Speakers. Along with Bad Speler on tonight’s bill: Grab Ass and Bassthoven. $5, 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 © 2010 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Land of Talk at Slowdown Jr., Sept. 23, 2010.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

There was a modest, loving and patient crowd at Slowdown Jr. last night for Land of Talk. Modest, as in fewer than 100 people. Loving, as in the response to every one of their songs. Patient, as in putting up with long delays. Actually, not everyone was patient…

I showed up in time to catch the very tail-end of Conduits, just long enough to snap a picture and hear Jenna Morrison stretch out one final heart-breaking note over a closing crescendo. Along with So-So Sailors, this is the newest local band to keep an eye on.

Suuns were amazing. The Montreal combo killed on a set of very modern, very well-crafted rock songs that cleverly used electronic noises along with the usual guitar/bass/drums set-up to create a sound with an entirely new sense of urgency. Both edgy and trippy, the highlight was closer “Sweet Nothing,” an odyssey that grew from synth noise, sirens and a simple drum beat to a shredding conclusion before receding to nothing.

Suuns would eventually come back as the backing band for Land of Talk. I say “eventually,” because the set was delayed for more than a half-hour while frontwoman Lizzie Powell searched for a missing bag (or so she said from stage). And while the wait was worth it, this was my third night in a row of shows, each of which was followed the next morning by a 6 a.m. wake-up call. In other words, I was running out of gas, and no amount of Powell sweetness was going to keep me awake much longer.

Once she got the ball rolling, Powell cranked out a set of the best from her latest album. On recordings, Land of Talk is a great pop band with catchy songs reminiscent of bands like The Sundays, Cranberries, even Fleetwood Mac. But with Suuns added, everything got a little darker, a little grittier, a little more on edge. It’s territory that I’d love to hear Powell and Co. continue to explore. Unfortunately, about a half-hour into their set, Powell began fiddling with her Gibson SG between songs, tuning and retuning, then snapping on a capo than retuning again. This went on for about five minutes, and then she asked the audience if someone would give her a new guitar. Silence. “I take that as a ‘no,'” she said, while she continued fiddling with the tuning knobs. Finally she gave up, and grabbed another SG from a rack of guitars, strapped it on, and began the whole process again. I looked at my watch, noticed it was past 12:30, and headed to the door with my eyes half closed…

* * *

It’s been a helluva week for shows, and I have to tell ya, I’m exhausted. But the fun ain’t over yet. Tonight at Slowdown Jr. it’s the return of Little Brazil. A re-energized, recently relocated (back to Omaha from San D.) and just-married Landon Hedges is back tonight with the rest of the miscreants and a slew of new songs. Opening is the red-hot So-So Sailors and Honey & Darling. $6, 9 p.m. It could be a madhouse.

Tomorrow night, David Dondero returns to The Waiting Room with Darren Hanlon. $8 adv./$10 DOS. Show starts at 9.

And, of course, Sunday is Wovenhand (ex-16 Horsepower) with amazing opening band  Serena-Maneesh.  $12, 9 p.m.

When am I going to get some  sleep?

* * *

Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2010 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Serena-Maneesh

Serena-Maneesh: From the Abyss

Serena-Maneesh uncovers layers of sound.

Norwegian noise-pop band Serena-Maneesh dug deep for its latest album, literally.

For Serena-Maneesh 2: Abyss in B Minor, released this past March on 4AD Records, mastermind Emil Nikolaisen recorded tracks in a cave located outside of Oslo, Norway.

“It was an interesting journey, at times rough, at times inspiring,” said Nikolaisen via cell during a sound check at a concert hall in Harleem, The Netherlands, where the band performed last Sunday night. “I wanted to put myself and my collaborators in an interesting new spot with new sounds and find new universes where there were no preconceptions of any kind, like a little kid trying to find new spaces in the world to discover.”

But don’t go listening to the album expecting echoing, cavernous noises. Instead, Serena-Maneesh music is an odyssey of beats and dense, layered noise that covers — and then slowly uncovers — melody upon melody. There are moments on the nearly 8-minute opening track, “Ayisha Abyss,” where the intensity of sound is so overwhelming that you’ll feel like you’re stumbling through utter darkness, finding your way by touching the wall with your fingertips, lost in a maze of noise and whispers.

Even the album’s poppier moments, like the soaring “I Just Want to See Your Face,” glisten through layers of guitar sheen, snare drum and cacophony. What you’ll hear the first time through isn’t necessary what you’re going to hear the next time you listen, and that’s just the way Nikolaisen wants it.

“It’s like when you hear a band next door in the basement or behind walls — when you open the door and enter the room, the music reveals itself in a more… boring way,” he said. “You thought it was more mystical or intriguing when you didn’t hear it so clearly. I try to apply that principal to what I’m doing — so that the more you zoom in, the more the mysteries of the chords and the overtones and the new harmonies appear.”

Serena-Maneesh, Serena-Maneesh 2: Abyss in B Minor (4AD Records)

The band’s style of revealing melody beneath countless layers of noise often brings comparisons to shoe-gaze masters My Bloody Valentine. Nikolaisen acknowledged that he loves MBV frontman Kevin Shields’ pop songs. “I grew up on a lot of stuff that’s clearly in the music that I’ve been pushing,” Nikolaisen said. “There was a time when no one was talking about My Bloody Valentine and these bands, and we were doing it. And suddenly, there’s a lot of these types of bands popping up here and there.”

But there’s more to Serena-Maneesh’s music than MBV comparisons. Nikolaisen said that through his music, he’s trying to find a place where “symphony and Stooges meet.”

“On one side, I love rock, and on the other side, I love symphonies,” he said. “If you can integrate the mysterious, subconscious sounds of strings into something that’s more immediate, that’s a really valuable thing. The idea is that the 10th time you hear it, you still feel like you’re on an interesting journey, you’re still hearing new sounds and (discovering) things that are not exposed right away. That’s the journey that I’ve spent many years of my life trying to refine.”

Joining him on that journey has been a number of collaborators, including American indie icon Sufjan Stevens, who played vibraphone, flute and piano on the new album. “I get sick of myself and my own ideas,” Nikolaisen said about his collaborations. “You might be able to play everything yourself, but I’m depending on other people for perspective — different souls gathering on many different levels.”

And while Serena-Maneesh has toured Europe and Australia with bands that include Oasis, Nine Inch Nails and The Dandy Warhols, Nikolaisen said Nebraska has an exotic quality of its own. “To us, Nebraska is extremely exotic,” he said. “I have these portraits in my mind of Nebraska that I’ve seen from childhood. I wonder if it’s translatable to the people there. Are they really any different from iconic New York or European minds, or are they fully redneck or fully California sunshine?”

He’ll find out next Sunday when his five-piece band rolls into The Waiting Room to open for Wovenhand. Nikolaisen said fans should expect them to “push the melodic perspective in a really loud context.”

“(The concert) is almost a physical experience with pristine melodies carved through,” he said. “Our songs need to be translated slightly different than on the recording, so we’re not just repeating or imitating it. It’s really important to give listeners a new perspective on the songs and the story. We keep it elastic in a way that’s really meant for the moment, and try to portray something different every night.”

Serena-Maneesh plays with Wovenhand Sunday, Sept. 26, at The Waiting Room, 6212 Maple St. Showtime is 9 p.m. Admission is $12. For more information, call 402.884.5353 or visit waitingroomlounge.com.

* * *

Menomena at The Waiting Room, 09/22/10.

Suckers last night at The Waiting Room: There’s just something about Frenchkiss bands. They’re always entertaining. And they all seem to have a head spazz that anchors the onstage antics, provides the energy and gives the audience something to look at while quietly pondering such things as “What’s wrong with that man?” “Are those jerky movements a side-effect to whatever drug he’s taking?” “Is he dangerous?” And so on. The spazz in The Suckers was a headband-wearing beardo on lead guitar and primary vocals who switched between a pained howl and a classic Prince falsetto throughout these hazy, hash-fueled art-damaged tunes that owed a lot to Talking Heads — both early noisy and later dancey Heads. In fact, countering the grinning headband was a stand-up-straight second guitarist whose rigid stance and lilting voice reminded me of David Byrne. The band was filled out by a bass player/percussionist/trumpet player and a drummer/keyboardist (like Box Elder’s Goldberg, there were moments when he played both at the same time), and everyone provided harmonies, which was sweet. And when headband guy just plain sung, he was dynamite — he had an earthy growl that felt good to hear, especially on their last song. I will be searching out their music in the very near future.

Suckers at The Waiting Room, 9/22/10.

Menomena had a fourth member with them last night, apparently a guy from the opening band that I missed. They sounded more mainstream — more smoothed out and fluid — then I remembered them from a couple years ago. The entire set seemed less arty, or maybe I was still buzzing from Suckers, who were just flat-out more entertaining (and had better songs). There was nothing wrong with Menomena, they were just kind of boring. That said, they broke through to me every time their lead guy picked up that Bari sax and crushed out a melody. Otherwise, the music was dominated by their rhythm section (quite a contrast from the previous night, when neither band even had a bass player). The bass and drum were huge, which is enough to carry you through the first 10 minutes, but becomes one-dimensional thereafter.

Last night’s crowd was twice the size of the crowd there Tuesday for School of Seven Bells. Maybe 200? The draw might have had something to do with Menomena having the No. 8 album on the college charts, according to the latest issue of Rolling Stone. More likely it might have something to do with being around for so many years. Still, I was told that last night’s Menomena show drew a few less people then when the band came through two years ago — when they didn’t even have a charting album. Add the fact that ground breakers School of Seven Bells drew less than 100 and you have to wonder what’s going on. Maybe it’s the lack of radio. Or maybe Omaha isn’t as hip as it thinks it is.

* * *

Tonight at Slowdown Jr. it’s Saddle Creek Records band Land of Talk with Montreal band Suuns (formerly Zeroes). Sayeth Chicagoist: “Much like ‘70s bands Can and Suicide, the heartbeat of the Suuns’ music thumps out in pulses of electro-synth that rolled in the dirt with a few Fenders.” Having listened to their new album, I concur. Get there early for Omaha’s own drone adventurists Conduits (Jenna Morrison, Roger Lewis members of Eagle Seagull). $10, 9 p.m.

* * *

Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2010 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

A capture from Land of Talk's video for "It's Okay."

Column 289: Government Issue

Paying for Land of Talk’s work of art.

It was at least six months ago, maybe longer, that I stumbled across the video for Land of Talk’s song “It’s Okay.” It was being hyped on Saddle Creek Records’ website, the band’s label.

I grew up watching videos. I remember when MTV was fresh and new and actually played music videos. And though the videos being produced in the late ’80s weren’t exactly masterpieces of cinematic art, they were entertaining and fun and a good way to kill time between classes or hangovers. Well, time, as it’s been known to do, marched on, and videos became passé, especially when the MTVs and VH1s of the world set them aside for plague-like reality-TV programming.

So I’d long ago given up on music videos as being anything more than expensive, dopey commercials. And then along came that Land of Talk video. It opens with a close-up of a masked warrior whose long black hair — more of a mane — is floating overhead as if underwater while the song’s opening notes pulse forward on a cushion of beats. From there, the mini film is a pastiche of slow-motion black-and-white images of gravity-defying science-fiction landscapes, crows soaring above floating mountaintops, flaming wolves darting through misty forests, and always at the center, the masked, horse-mounted warrior with hair flowing for miles overhead, creating a star-specked sky cutting through the daylight. Finally, horse and rider come to the edge of the earth and leap slowly into space before igniting into flames. This wasn’t your typical five-guys-and-a-camera-doing-goofy-shit video; it was a visualization of a nature myth set to a modern beat. View it on YouTube here.

The video blew my mind and made me reconsider not only the song but the album and the band. Sure, I knew about Land of Talk; I’d listened to Some Are Lakes, and thought it was a pleasant, soft-pop indie-rock effort, nothing more. But after watching the video, I dug through my iTunes to find the album and listen to it again with fresh ears. And isn’t that what videos are supposed to do? It turns out I wasn’t alone in my admiration. The 5-minute masterpiece was nominated for “Video of the Year” at the 2010 Juno Awards — sort of the Canadian version of The Grammy’s — and was chosen as one of the five best music videos of 2009 by Time Magazine.

So how did a little label like Saddle Creek, and an under-the-radar band like Land of Talk, afford to make such a video? Its combination of live action and special-effects animation must have cost a fortune.

“Going in, I was very disenchanted with the whole idea of making a video,” said Land of Talk frontwoman Lizzie Powell Monday night while driving to Chicago on a tour that will bring them to The Slowdown this Thursday, Sept. 23. She said videos had become “fast-edited, sexy, nonsensical shit. And I was protective of that song and never wanted anyone to interpret it in video form.”

But when “It’s Okay” was chosen by production company WeWereMonkeys for the video treatment, Powell had little choice but to relinquish control to director Davide Di Saro. “It turned out to be one of the best creative relationships I’ve ever had,” she said, adding that when she saw the final product, “We were floored, we were speechless, it brought tears to my eyes. I was so proud to be a part of it.”

So who fronted the cash to make it happen? None other than the Canadian government through the Department of Canadian Heritage and a program called FACTOR, The Foundation to Assist Canadian Talent on Recordings. Powell said FACTOR and other government-sponsored arts organizations are vital to every independent Canadian band’s’ survival.

“All of these organizations are there to support independent artists,” she said. “Land of Talk would not exist without the government. It’s at the core of our band and most of the Canadian bands touring out there to the states and abroad, from Broken Social Scene to Arcade Fire — any bands that have not signed away their masters abroad.”

Without that government grant money, we probably wouldn’t be seeing Land of Talk Thursday night. “We wouldn’t be able to tour in a 15-passenger van and go out for three weeks,” Powell said, adding that the financial support goes beyond what a record label can provide. “Record labels are screwed now with the transition to the digital age.”

In fact, she doesn’t know how independent bands in the U.S. do it. “What you have in the States is not sustainable,” Powell said. “I feel horrible for bands with talent and skill that can’t get off the ground and get on the road. It’s heartbreaking, and at the same time, it makes me proud that we can afford this, but I’m not completely waxing Canada’s car right now.”

That’s because arts funding has been cut back under Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Powell said. “Harper’s government is spending more money on military than arts and eduction,” she said. “It’s something we’re trying to save and protect; it’s a wonderful thing to defend. Cutting funding for arts and culture is very short-sighted.”

Are you listening State Senator Gwen Howard? Howard plans to introduce a bill in the Unicameral that will suspend Nebraska’s “1% for Art” program. Talk about short-sighted.

Powell said if Land of Talk doesn’t win any more grants, we probably won’t be seeing videos like “It’s Okay” for songs off the band’s new album,Cloak and Cipher. But if it programs like FACTOR are eliminated, we may not see any more bands like Land of Talk.

* * *

School of Seven Bells at The Waiting Room, Sept. 22, 2010.

Last night at The Waiting Room felt inspired by The Cure. In fact, the opening band, Active Child, sounded so Cure-like that I thought Robert Smith was in the house. I only caught their last two songs (I missed out on the harp solo): the first song was a pure Cure rip; but the last one featured falsetto vocals a la The Temper Trap and was… pretty. Still, just keyboards and guitar. No drums, no bass, and they could have used that bottom end.

School of Seven Bells was a four-piece — a guitarist, two women vocalists (one on keys/synth, the other sometimes adding a second guitar), and real live drums supported by electronic beats/handclaps. The music was dreamy dance stuff, with both girls adding angelic harmonies. Their slower numbers again owed a lot to the Cure’s later lush music. By now Disintegration has become a sort of benchmark album for so many bands. Just a few years ago, it seemed everyone sounded like Pavement. Before that, it was the Pixies. But a certain cadre of today’s bands seem enamored with Smiths, The Cure and MBV (see tomorrow’s interview). And there’s nothing wrong with that.

The best moments came when guitarist Benjamin Curtis was allowed to run wild run free. His tone was amazing; it reminded me of every great soaring guitar solo of ’80s post-New Wave/dream rock era. The Deheza sisters sounded like what you’d imagine Azure Ray would sound like fronting a dance band. Unfortunately, too often the vocals were buried in the mix and sounded limp, like an afterthought. As with the opener, the sound would have benefited from more bottom end (no bass again). The 70 or 80 people on hand spent the night huddled by the stage, but few if any danced, except for one girl who spent the evening with her arms in the air. Maybe that’s why they didn’t come out for an encore after their 45 minute set concluded. A pity. I could have listened to them for another hour.

* * *

So the City Council approved the CVS pharmacy. Goodbye, 49r. Here’s the WOWT coverage

.

One last thought on CVS… I can say as a resident of the Memorial Park neighborhood, which abuts Dundee, that other than the cursory walk-through upon its grand opening, I will never step foot in that CVS store. Never. And judging from neighbors and other Dundee residents, I won’t be alone. A hollow threat? You don’t know Dundee very well. Very clannish; very grudgeful; some might say angry. This isn’t like when Wal Mart moved in at the expense of The Ranch Bowl, where people vowed to never shop there. I knew that wouldn’t make a stitch of difference. Wal Mart attracts every bit of human trash in every city it inhabits, people who wouldn’t care if Wal Mart ran a white slavery ring out of its appliance department, as long as they could still buy their 10 cubic foot bricks of toilet paper. CVS, well, that’s another matter. It has zero competitive advantage over Walgreens. It won’t even be convenient to access. And now they’ve pissed off the neighborhood in which it resides, a neighborhood that has a long, long memory. I do not wish them luck.

* * *

Tonight at The Waiting Room, Portland experimental rockers Menomena returns supporting a new album on Barsuk Records. This is what I said about them when they came through way back in June 2007:

Though not nearly as crowded as the prior evening, there was a large draw to see Menomena (pronounced Men-Naw-Men-Naw — like phenomena — not as I stupidly pronounced it, Men-Oh-Meen-uh). The trio featured a drummer/vocalist, keyboard/guitarist/vocalist, and frontman/vocalist/guitarist/saxophone player. Huge sound for a trio. Everything seemed keyed off the drums, which were big and brawny, the kit set up at the front of the stage so all three members could watch each other throughout the set. Trying to think of what they sounded like, the guy next to me said, “Man, it’s like early Peter Gabriel.” Bingo. Especially when the drummer sang the leads, the keyboards were in loop and the frontman added harmonies or played an odd line on baritone sax, it was 1980 Melt-era Gabriel all the way. Other times, when the keyboardist held the vocal spot, Menomena resembled early Death Cab or a more conventional indie band. They were at their best when being unconventional, however, which was most of the evening

Opening the show tonight is Williamsburg band Suckers (Frenchkiss Records) and Tu Fawning. $12, 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 © 2010 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

An e-mail went out today from Voice Omaha focused on today’s Omaha City Council meeting that will decide the fate of The 49’r and (some say) the fate of Dundee as a residential neighborhood if the council approves plans to build a CVS pharmacy at 49th and Dodge. Voice Omaha is a “non-partisan group dedicated to creating a more inclusive, just, transparent, sustainable and culturally vibrant Omaha by actively supporting leaders, policies and projects that advance this vision.” The CVS pharmacy proposal apparently doesn’t fit into that vision, as the e-mail asked readers to not tolerate a “corporate-run Omaha.” The letter said:

“Not only were the New York developers unwilling to negotiate to create a structure more suitable for urban neighborhoods, they took to veiled threats and coercion to get the job done. One of the more active opponents of the development was contacted by the principal developer and told ‘we know where you work and we know where you live.’ City Council members were told CVS would pull plans for additional sites, including the location at 72nd and Maple already in process, if the 49th and Dodge location is blocked.”

Strong stuff. While I’ve heard rumor of the above-mentioned threats, I haven’t seen it stated in print, until this e-mail arrived. The Voice Omaha letter went on to ask readers to contact Ben Gray, Thomas Mulligan or Franklin Thompson and urge them to vote against CVS. I guess they gave up all hope on changing bitter ol’ Garry Gernandt’s mind (Rosenblatt is dead, Garry, let it go).  You can read the entire letter online at the Voice Omaha website.

My guess is that the two votes — one to reconsider the previous vote and the other to approve the CVS proposal — will be handled as promptly as possible just so the council members can get the issue behind them. After all, there’s no public hearing on the matter, and it’s clear that everyone has made up their minds. Still, if you want to go down there and be seen (but not heard), the circus starts at 2 p.m.

* * *

There are two shows worth your time tonight:

At good ol’ Sokol Underground it’s a benefit concert for the new Hole in downtown Benson. Money raised presumably will go toward fixing up the new location, which is in the basement of the building just east of 60th St. on Maple. Headliner is NYC punk band Star Fucking Hipsters, while the undercard includes Eastern Turkish, Youth and Tear Gas and Bombs Blast. The $10 show starts at 6 p.m. Here’s some more background on the new Hole.

Also tonight, School of Seven Bells plays at The Waiting Room with Active Child. $10, 9 p.m.

* * *

Tomorrow: Land of Talk

* * *

Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2010 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

T’was a quiet weekend. The only music of which that I did partake was watching Cass Brostad record a song at The Waiting Room yesterday afternoon during the all-day recording marathon for the Lash LaRue Pine Ridge Live recording. Cass and her band (a guitarist and drummer) belted out a sweet Americana-flavored folk-rock song again and again and again. I left during the third take. I’m told that was the SOP throughout the day — each act was given a handful of takes, performed from TWR stage, which Jim Homan recorded from the soundboard, while over the bar the Bears and Chiefs games were blaring on the flat panels (with the sound off, of course). I’m looking forward to hearing what got laid down when the CD becomes available this holiday season.

* * *

There’s a good selection of shows going on for a Monday night this evening.

On top of the list is the second sold-out Cursive show at The 49’r. I didn’t go last night and won’t be going tonight, seeing as I was out of town when the tickets went on sale, and they got snapped up rather quickly. Opening tonight’s show is Noah’s Ark Was a Spaceship. This could be the last chance to pull together the troops before tomorrow’s City Council Meeting, where the fate of the 49’r will be decided. It would be a good time for frontman Tim Kasher to give a fire-and-brimstone speech from the Niner stage, asking folks to show up at the meeting in a dramatic show of force. Will it make a difference? I doubt it, but at this point in the battle, there’s not much left to do. There has been talk of a potential lawsuit against the city, but that would require some cash that no one seems to have. The only other option is to let Councilman Ben Gray know that his actions will result in a sizable, organized effort to campaign against him when it comes time for his re-election. When the wrecking ball finally swings, it’ll be Gray who will be remembered and blamed for aftermath.

Also tonight, LA-based Funk/Soul/Afrobeat band Orgone is playing a show at the Studio Gallery, 4965 Dodge Street. Brought to you by the Loom crew and uber DJ Brent Crampton, it promises to be a sweaty good time. 8 p.m., $7.

And finally, downtown at Slowdown Jr., Olympia-beat hip-hop act Christmas plays with Sam Martin (Capgun Coup) and The Yuppies. $7, 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 © 2010 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

online pharmacy https://tandempsychology.com/wp-content/uploads/bb-plugin/icons/ultimate-icons/zestril.html with best prices today in the USA

Titus Andronicus at The Waiting Room, Sept. 16, 2010.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

How would I describe last night’s Titus Andronicus show at The Waiting Room? I wouldn’t say it was “epic” as much as an attempt at being epic. You could describe Titus’ music as tuneful anthem punk — the songs usually start off as quiet indie ballads that slowly build and explode into pounding riffs, sing-along lyrics and the occasional Celtic-flavored melody. It’s a lot of territory to cover, and that means some pretty long songs. And though I was exhausted at the end of their 90-minute set, I felt like I just saw what could become an important band at a pivotal moment in its history.

They’re still just starting out. While Titus has gotten a lot of national press and attention (including some late-night network chat-show airplay) for a band that’s only been around only a couple years, it’s still very much flying under the radar, judging by last night’s draw of only a couple hundred, many of whom came to see pop opener Free Energy. In fact, at the end of the set, Titus did the ol’ “We’re looking for a place to crash tonight” spiel from stage. They’re definitely living out of the van these days, but judging by last night’s performance, they won’t be for long.

The band is centered on frontman Patrick Stickles, who looks like your typical indie rock beardo but sings like a man trying to exorcise his own evil spirits. He’s both a crooner and a howler, and as I said in yesterday’s feature, has often been compared to Conor Oberst vocally. You could hear some of that last night, and Stickles even acknowledged it about four songs into the set, saying that though the band has never been to Omaha, they’ve been plagued by a certain Omaha singer/songwriter, and then went on to say that his next song’s self-loathing nature (“No Future Part Three: Escape From No Future”) would showcase this. And that’s exactly what it did. We got the bray, we got the shrill screams, but they weren’t a central part of his vocal style, and when he flat out sang, he didn’t resemble Oberst at all.

Beyond the countless anthems, the highlight was the ironically named “Theme from ‘Cheers'” (my fave from their latest album) and their cover of The Misfits’ “Where Eagles Dare.” Stickles has a great band behind him these days (Titus has gone through a number of personnel changes over the past couple years), but the most entertaining addition is guitarist/violinist Alexi Crawford, whose constant pogoing — bouncing around the stage — was infectious, especially to the crowd up front. She’s the kind of person anyone would want in their band because in addition to being an amazing musician and having a sweet voice, she is intensely “into” every song — you get the sense that she feels like the luckiest person on the face of the earth to be on stage performing with this band.

If Titus has a drawback, it’s in their lack of editing. There were just too many anthems, too many attempts at heroics with each song. One can only stand so many epic closers before they begin to wear on you. It’s hard to fault a band that is just trying to entertain the best way it knows how — and with large portions. But sometimes you have to push yourself away from the table and say “no more” (but this comes from a guy who has zero interest in sitting through one of Springsteen’s legendary four-hour marathon concerts — an hour is more than enough of the Boss). I think Titus is still trying to figure out the right balance, and when they do — both on stage and on their recordings — they’re going to find themselves sleeping in the Hilton downtown instead of on somebody’s floor.

Free Energy at The Waiting Room, Sept. 16, 2010.

Lots o’ hype about opening band Free Energy, and like I said, they were the reason a large portion of the crowd was there. And while I like pop rock as much as the next guy, I just wasn’t feeling it. Sure, they know their way around a good ’70s-style rock song, but frontman Paul Sprangers (following in a long tradition of frontmen who don’t play an instrument on stage) is no Robin Zander or Phil Lynott (or Julian Casablancas, for that matter) when it comes to cock-rock stage presence (if anything, he reminded me of Evan Dando). But that may come with time, along with some better songs. One of their set’s biggest crowd-pleasers was when members of Titus joined them on stage for a cover of Springsteen’s “I’m Going Down” that made me wonder why more people don’t cover that song.

* * *

On the radar screen this weekend

Tonight at The Waiting Room, Appleseed Cast returns. As interesting as the headliner are opening bands Lawrence’s Cowboy Indian Bear and new Omaha shoe-gaze flavored rockers Conduits. $12, 9 p.m.

Down at Slowdown, Ember Schrag returns. Opening is The Chiara Quartet and Noah Sterba & The Cocktails. $7, 9 p.m.

Meanwhile, this year’s Nebraska Pop Festival continues (it’s been going on in Benson for the past few days) at PS Collective. On the bill is Lincoln’s Floating Opera along with Omaha’s Thunder Power and a slew of out-of-towners. The full line-up is here. 7 p.m., $5.

Tomorrow night punk superstars/deviants Bloodcow celebrates its 10 year anniversary at The Waiting Room with Filter Kings and Saudi Arabia (The Dinks). $7, 9 p.m.

Meanwhile, down at O’Leaver’s Saturday night, it’s a Speed! Nebraska mini showcase with Wagon Blasters, Ron Wax (Ron Albertson of Mercy Rule) and Students of Crime. $5, 9:30 p.m.

Then Sunday night, it’s night one of two nights of Cursive at The 49’r. Opening is So-So Sailors. Starts at 9, SOLD OUT.

Finally, at The Waiting Room Sunday night, it’s the Pine Ridge Live Recording session for a benefit CD that will be sold later this year to generate cash for Lash LaRue’s annual Toy Drive. Slated to perform: Kyle Harvey , Jake Bellows, Dustin Clayton, All Young Girls Are Machine Guns, Son of 76 , Platte River Rain, Korey Anderson, Vago, Matt Cox, Noah’s Ark Was A Spaceship, Brad Hoshaw, Josh Dunwoody, LL Dunn, Mariachi San Juan, Cass Brostad, Brad Thompson and more. The show starts at noon and runs ’til closing, and is absolutely free.

* * *

Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2010 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Titus Andronicus

Our Civil War

Titus Andronicus’ music addresses the battle within ourselves.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

A caveat before reading further: Titus Andronicus’ frontman Patrick Stickles’ comments came under the influence of having not slept in 26 hours, after he and the rest of the band drove over night from Toledo to St. Louis to play on a hot Saturday afternoon at LouFest.

“I guess ‘Lou’ is short for St. Louis,” he said, adding that the band was playing “smack in the middle of seven or eight bands. Broken Social Scene is the headliner.”

It was just two years ago that Titus Andronicus, which hails from Glen Rocks, New Jersey, began to break through the oversized, amorphous cloud that is the U.S. indie music scene with their XL Records debut The Airing of Grievances, an LP that captured their rowdy, raucous anthem-punk style.

“A lot’s happened since then,” Stickles said. “We went through a couple guitar players and made this whole other record. We’ve pretty much wildly exceeded our expectations.”

Titus Andronicus, The Monitor (XL Records)

The “other record” is sophomore effort The Monitor, released by XL this past March. While it continued in the same rambunctious fashion as their debut, the album is sprawling — more than an hour long with half the songs over seven minutes in length, and one clocking in at a whopping 14 minutes.

“I’ve never been too good at editing myself,” Stickles said. “At the time we were theorizing these songs, I guessed all would be three or four minutes long. What we ended up recording is a byproduct of me having poor temporal reasoning skills. We always strive for a level of grandiosity, but even I couldn’t have predicted that we’d go that far.”

The recording also expanded on the band’s low-fi punk sound, adding new instruments (bagpipes, fiddle, trombone, cello) that elevated these epic, drunken, Celtic-flavored sing-along ballads to a level as grand as the album’s so-called Civil War theme, which Stickles said shouldn’t be taken too literally.

“The music is set in modern times. The Civil War is only used allegorically; I thought it would be an apt metaphor,” Stickles said. In fact, the lyrics on The Monitor (named after the Civil War-era battleship) are both self-flagellating and confrontational, with slogan-like lines “Baby we were born to die,” “You’ll always be a loser,” “I was born to die like a man,” and most central to the album’s theme: “The enemy is everywhere.” Booze provides a lyrical counterbalance to desperation and hostility.

“The point is that we’re all complacent in our various societal ills,” Stickles explained. “All this stuff about the enemy being everywhere, just as often it’s inside us, our own bodies, our earthly prisons. We as individuals have to be willing to take responsibility for our own happiness and fulfillment. There seems to be a tendency of humans trying to pass the buck for their unhappiness, and say, ‘If other than xyz, I would have the life of Riley.’ To me, it’s a defense mechanism at best. It’s quite possible to achieve peace and happiness on this crazy planet, but we have to allow that to come from within rather than look for external reasons.”

Heady stuff, but beyond their deeper meaning, all those angry lines make for some amazing sing-along moments. Stickles agreed. “They tend to make the best rock and roll songs,” he said, acknowledging how much the band loves it when the crowd shouts the lines back at them. “Their enthusiasm has a way of quickly creating enthusiasm on stage.”

Stickles said the band has never played in Omaha, but heard that the city’s punks “like to rock out in the basement.” He also said he and his high school pals grew up listening to Saddle Creek Records, which opened the door to the next line of discussion.

There are probably 100 reviews of The Monitor online and in print, and I venture to guess that at least half of them compare Stickles’ rambunctious vocal style to Omaha’s very own Conor Oberst, from the overdriven screams to that distinctive Conor bray.

Stickles said he admires Oberst’s honesty. “He doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who’s too scared to lay it on the line,” he said, “though his last two records kind of left me cold.”

As for the comparisons, “I’ll tell you because you rep the Omaha readership,” Stickles said. “I think it’s a little short-sighted.

“The constant comparisons to anyone gets old, even if it’s Jesus Christ. Doesn’t everyone want to be themselves? Don’t we all want to blaze our own trail, though I know this is rock and roll, and there’s not too much under the sun? But it seems kind of like, uh, cheapening slightly to say that if you’ve heard one guy you can pretty much guess what this guy is going to sound like. After awhile it feels like a feedback loop, a house of mirrors, like sometimes (reviewers) get these things to sound so similar that I’m reading reviews of other reviews. But maybe that’s me being a self-righteous, entitled type. Even if it were true, is it helpful? Who’s to say? It’s not in my control. As I put my art out into the world, it’s out of my hands. History will judge.”

It will indeed. Now go get some sleep.

Titus Andronicus plays with Free Energy Thursday, Sept. 16, at The Waiting Room, 6212 Maple St. Showtime is 9 p.m. Admission is $10. For more information, call 402.884.5353 or visit waitingroomlounge.com.

* * *

An addendum to yesterday’s CVS Pharmacy item: There’s an organized protest taking place today at 4:30 p.m. on both sides of Dodge Street outside The 49’r. It’s called “The Rally to Preserve the Integrity of Dundee.” Find out more at the event’s Facebook page. Will it make a difference? Who knows… it couldn’t hurt…

* * *

So, tough choice for tonight: The Pixies or Titus Andronicus? I grew up listening to The Pixies and love all of their albums. I consider them to be among the most influential indie bands in the last 30 years. And tickets are still available in the $35 to $65 range. The show is at The Orpheum and starts at 7:30. I guess since it starts so early, there’s no reason to not go to both shows…

Opening for Titus Andronicus at The Waiting Room tonight is Free Energy, a hot hot hot new indie pop band from Philly that sounds influenced by ’70s arena acts like Cheap Trick, The Knack and yeah, Thin Lizzy, along with a healthy dose of Pavement. 9 p.m., $10.

* * *

Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2010 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

I went to the new Worker’s for lunch. The line was out the door. The Italian Beef was delicious, though next time I need to remember to order it “dry.”

Column 288: New Beginnings

The Hole moves to Benson; Worker’s Takeout reopens downtown.

When the all-ages music venue The Hole opened in its new location in February, there was hope that it could become this generation’s Cog Factory — the legendary ’90s-era bunker where kids (and some adults) saw national touring punk and indie bands perform alongside their local heroes. It was a tall order for The Hole’s owners Anna and Donny Diederich, and booking agent Lucas Wright. But as summer leaned toward fall, it looked like they were onto something. The Hole had regular bookings, was attracting good audiences, and was beginning to gain a national reputation as a viable all-ages option for touring punk bands.

But it all ended last Friday when the landlord that owns the building where The Hole was located at 712 So. 16th St. (the old Diamond Bar) changed the locks and told them to get out. The eviction was easy, since the Diederichs had never signed a lease on the building.

The reasons were… sketchy. The landlord had completed refurbishing apartments above the venue, and wanted to move in, said Anna Diederich. “At first he told us we could only do shows on weekends.” Then there was the dispute over the building’s basement, which Donny and some of his friends cleaned out and fixed up. “(The landlord) said by doing that we devalued the property, and that we threw things away that we shouldn’t have,” Anna said.

The eviction had come with little warning. “He gave us a week to get out,” Anna said. “We tried to renegotiate, and he gave us a couple days extension, but when Friday afternoon came around, he called and said the locks had been changed and that we could come back later for our PA equipment.”

It didn’t matter to the landlord that Wright, who goes by Black Heart Booking, had touring bands booked at The Hole Friday night. Wright and Deiderich both said the landlord feared that the final show would turn into an orgy of destruction, even though both had been very clear that nothing like that was going to happen. At the last minute, Wright moved the show to a local house. And that looked like the end of The Hole.

But it wasn’t. Anna said Monday that The Hole will reopen in a new location in downtown Benson. “We just made the deal today, and can move in in a couple days,” she said. “We just need to come up with the deposit.”

The new location is in the basement of a building located on Maple Street just east of the Subway sandwich shop. “It’s right across the street from the Community Center and catty-corner from the thrift store,” Anna said. “The door to the venue is in the alley off 60th St. It’s a back-door entrance only, which is kind of cool.”

Anna said the first step will be to clean out the 2,000-square-foot space, decorate and then add the stage. The couple, who also ran the Convicted skate shop, which had moved to the Diamond Bar building a few months ago, said they also intend to have a small skate shop in their new Benson location. “We want it to be more like a venue that sells skateboards,” Anna said. “We’ll start off small with just boards, trucks and wheels. We kept the signs from the old store — Convicted is not going to die, that’s for sure.”

To help pay for their initial start-up costs, a benefit show for the new Hole is being held at Sokol Underground Tuesday, Sept. 21, headlined by NYC punk band Star Fucking Hipsters, and featuring local punk acts Eastern Turkish, Youth and Tear Gas and Bombs Blast. The $10 show starts at 6 p.m.

Like before, The Hole will be booked primarily by Anna and Donny with help from Black Heart and whoever else wants to book the room, Anna said. It will remain an all-ages venue, designed as a place where kids can come and hang out. “All-ages venues end up being non-profits,” she said. “You’re not making money off alcohol; you’re doing it just for the music, and that ain’t easy.”

* * *

Speaking of new beginnings, it was only this past June that Worker’s Takeout, located next to O’Leaver’s on south Saddle Creek Rd., went out of business. The shop, owned and operated by Ladyfinger and So-So Sailors frontman Chris Machmuller, had gained a reputation for its amazing pressed Cuban pork roast sandwiches and other hot and cold treats, but it wasn’t enough to keep the doors open.

Then out of the blue, Worker’s reopened at 16th & Dodge in the ground floor of the former First National Bank downtown headquarters. Worker’s is sharing the space with Scooter’s Coffee, so now you’ll now be able to grab a latte with that Hot Italian Beef or Chicago dog. Machmuller said the shop will be open 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekdays; but there will be no weekend hours. The menu will stay as it was “with a few enhancements.” Can downtown delivery be far behind?

* * *

One final bit of good news: I got an e-mail Monday afternoon via Facebook from Craig Crawford, bass player for legendary Omaha punk band Mousetrap. “It looks like mousetrap 2010 will happen at The Waiting Room on Dec. 23 (again), with a possibility of a show in Lincoln as well,” Crawford said. “Same line up, with a possibility of some deep cut songs.” Last year’s line-up included frontman/guitarist Patrick Buchanan (of course) and drummer Mike Mazzola, and was arguably one of the band’s best performances in its 20-year history. Can they top it? Stay tuned…

* * *

It’s not all good news.

Yesterday Omaha City Council meeting, Councilman Garry Gernandt supported Ben Gray’s motion to reconsider the building of a CVS Pharmacy at 49th and Dodge, the site of The 49’r Bar, which means the proposal will be voted on again at next Tuesday’s City Council meeting, without a public hearing.

In addition, The Omaha World-Herald reported this morning in this article

that Gray will flip his original vote against the proposal and will now support the CVS proposal. No real reason was given by Gray in the article other than to say that his first vote “was not consistent with what I normally do,” which makes it sound as if Gray had an argument with himself when he got home after the first vote:

“So what did you do?”

“Well, I voted against it.”

“What!? Are you stupid? Do you know what that could do to economic development in Omaha?”

“I… don’t know. I guess I didn’t think…”

“You’re damn right you didn’t think.”

“Look, I’m sorry. There were all those angry people at the meeting, staring at me. I mean, I shop at Walgreens. I guess it was not consistent with what I normally do, but what’s done is done.”

“Well then you better undone it.”

“What do you want me to do?”

“You’ll get on that phone right now to Channel 7 and tell them that you’ve had a change of heart and want to change your vote.”

“But… It’ll look like someone from CVS got to me and made me change my vote by threatening to pull out of Omaha if the Dundee proposal isn’t passed. It’ll make me look like a pussy.”

“I don’t care what it makes you look like. You’re going to get on that phone right now and get the ball rolling.”

“Yes dear…”

There are countless more diabolical (and reasonable) theories as to why all of this is happening, but they all boil down to the same thing: economic coercion by CVS — you’ll either allow us to build at 49th and Dodge or we’re stopping construction on the 72nd and Maple CVS location. That’s certainly what was implied in this WOWT story that appeared online yesterday.

If that threat was indeed made to any City Council member, it was an empty one. Any “economic development” by CVS will come at the expense of Walgreens or other pharmacies (such as Kohll’s). I think I can speak for most of the people I know when I say Omaha already has too many pharmacies. If CVS decided to take their ball and go home because the City Council wouldn’t approve their Dodge St. plan, no tears would be shed. Even if CVS had vindictively stopped construction at 72nd and Maple (which is highly unlikely) the worst thing that would come of it is that an already vacant corner would remain vacant.

Does any of this matter? Not really. It’s obvious that the City Council is now going to vote yes to what amounts to an invasion of CVS stores throughout Omaha, supposedly centered around a “flagship” store on 49th and Dodge that will be the least profitable of the bunch. Regardless of the “Old Lincoln Highway” argument or the “ruining the neighborhood feel of Dundee” argument, it’s just a bad location to build a pharmacy – an area with poor foot traffic next to a major throughway that will make access difficult. They’ll see.

And while there will be no public hearing on the matter, there’s nothing stopping those who oppose CVS from showing up at next week’s City Council meeting as a show of numbers against the proposal. Even though it probably won’t make a difference.

* * *

Landing on the Moon once again returns to O’Leaver’s tonight with Millions of Boys (Sara from Honey & Darling), Tina Sparkle and Jared Grabb. $5, 9:30 p.m.

* * *

Tomorrow: An interview with Titus Andronicus where Patrick Stickles talks about all those comparisons to Conor Oberst. Oh boy…

* * *

Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2010 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

online pharmacy buy doxycycline no prescription online pharmacy

Jenny and Johnny at The Waiting Room, Sept. 11, 2010.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

I’ve got some interesting good news, but it’ll have to wait until tomorrow’s column. For now, here’s a belated review of last Saturday night’s show at The Waiting Room.

Opener, Sub Pop band Love as Laughter, was a trio of Brooklyn guys who spent the first 15 minutes of their set playing the same flat, mid-tempo song over and over (well, at least it sounded like it). But about four songs in, they shifted gears to more conventional indie rock (one song even had an uptempo, boogie vibe). Overall, the songs were consistently too long, but at least it became a little less boring by the end. A couple little girls (little girls made up most of the sold-out audience) even danced a grind to the last couple songs.

Now more than 10 years after the first Rilo Kiley EP was released, Jenny Lewis continues to be one of the cutest indie rock performers on stage. She’s got a sweet voice and a killer smile, and that combination can take you far in this business. It’s apparently taken her to the “tour bus” level, or at least I assume that giant bus parked right outside TWR was hers. I thought those monsters were reserved for arena/casino-sized artists, but apparently Warner Bros. has high hopes for this new album. And while the songs on I’m Having Fun Now (the Jenny and Johnny WB debut) are kinda catchy, none of them hold a candle to the songs on either of her first two solo albums. But what do I know about music marketing?

So who got the better deal out of this merger? Hands down it was Johnathan Rice, whose singer/songwriter fare I’ve always found to be somewhat droll. With Lewis and this band behind him, he ratchets up the rock to new levels (for him, anyway); while Lewis comes away relatively unscathed, but no better off than where she started.

The band’s secret weapons are their lead guitarist (who looked like he was 17 years old), and drummer Jason Boesel, who Lewis fans remember from Rilo Kiley. As a whole, it was worth it so see Lewis in a smaller setting (rather than the Slowdown’s big stage or Scottish Rite). If she ever starts earning that tour bus, you won’t get another chance to see her in such an intimate setting again.

* * *

Tonight at The Barley St., Kyle Harvey shows off his fine art skills, along with his musical skills. Joining him will be Nicole Le Clerc, Lincoln Dickinson, and Michael Trenhaile. 9 p.m. (no idea on the price).

Also tonight at The Sydney, Bear Country plays a show with Sam Martin (Capgun Coup) and Toronto band Wooden Sky. $5, 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 © 2010 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.