Young Love's Erica Quitzow and Gary Levitt.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Column 283: Love and Records

The dynamic duo behind Young Love…

Oliver Morgan of local indie band Landing on the Moon described them this way (and I’m paraphrasing because it was after a long night at O’Leaver’s): They each do their own thing, completely, separately, and it’s obvious when you listen to their bands, but there’s no mistaking that they’re together in everything — their music, their business, their lives.

Oliver was talking about Gary Levitt and Erica Quitzow, the owners/operators of Young Love Records, the label that signed Landing on the Moon earlier this year. But in addition to running a label and a recording studio, the couple also each has his and her own band that the other plays in — Setting Sun and Quitzow. And the two couldn’t sound more different.

Setting Sun, Levitt’s project, is low-fi, mainly acoustic, neo-psychedelic indie rock reminiscent of Neutral Milk Hotel, The Decemberists, even a bit of Arcade Fire. The single “Driving” off the just-released Fantasurreal chugs like a tidy indie freight train, while “Make You Feel” is as psychedelic as you can get with a trumpet playing a counter melody. Levitt played most of the instruments on the album, but Quitzow added backing vocals, bass, violin and cello.

Then there’s Quitzow, Erica’s sassy, sexy dance project, whose only goal is getting the audience to forget about their dreary lives for a little while and have some fun. Juice Water, her just-released second album, is a synth-driven dance-floor ass-shaker, thick with beats, bass and Quitzow’s snarling, cooing, barking vocals. Levitt produced the record and added some percussion and bass.

“I mixed both the records, but we mostly write by ourselves, though we do help each other in bits along the way,” Levitt said.

“Gary has the studio days, and I work through the night,” Quitzow said. “I ask him for feedback sometimes and he brings a lot of fantastic ideas, particularly for arrangements. Sometimes he’ll play a bass or percussion track. After tracking, he brings the production magic to the records. He’s an obsessive studier of sound technology and can make things sound however I want.”

The couple first met playing music together, eventually becoming collaborators on more than just music. “We’re not married and we really don’t relate to the idea, though we fully respect anyone who does,” Quitzow said. “Marriage doesn’t fit in with our approach to life, we’re either together or we’re not. I don’t participate in any other religious institution, so why this one? Ultimately, music brought us and keeps us together, it’s our biggest passion.”

So I guess it only made sense for them to start a record label, which Levitt quipped was a “really smart career move.” They formed Young Love in 2004 as a musicians’ collective — they now have four bands on the roster, rounded out by Seattle band Skidmore Fountain.

So how did a label based out of New Paltz, New York (just outside of Poughkeepsie) discover and sign a band located halfway across the country? “We knew Oliver through his brother and played together in Omaha,” Levitt said. “We also hung out and housed Little Brazil and Ladyfinger when they played in New York. I can’t remember which came first, but we hit it off and fell in love. We love their music and hard working spirit and also their genuineness.

“Each band on Young Love Records is part of a family,” Levitt added. “If a brother or sister does well, they help their siblings along the way. This interview is probably a case in point. I’m not sure you’d be talking to us right now if it weren’t for Oliver Morgan and Landing on the Moon.”

True, but then again, without Landing on the Moon, it’s unlikely that the bands would even be coming to The Waiting Room Thursday night. Pulling from everyone’s resources seems an obvious recipe for success, and one of the only reasons to be part of a label in this age of record industry decay. Unless, of course, your label is Merge.

“It would be great to become as influential as Merge Records,” Levitt said. “I would still want to record bands all the time, but it would be a dream come true to own some more great gear. If we sold as many records as Neutral Milk Hotel or Arcade Fire, I could probably get that Fairchild 670 I dream of.”

With their label having just signed a deal with distributor Red Eye (Kill Rock Stars, Barsuk, Warp), that two-channel compressor just might be a little more within reach.

“Success is defined in many ways for us,” Quitzow said, “by people coming to our shows knowing the music because they downloaded it for free, or when people sing along and dance at a show, but financial success may continue to come primarily from licensing. Oh how I fantasize about BMI checks.”

She also fantasizes about being alone, something that rarely happens when you’re on the road with the guy who isn’t your husband. “Right now I’m on tour and exhausted from connecting,” she said. “I’ve been connecting so intensely with people at shows and people who we stay with. The music is a vehicle for conversation and sharing experiences, and I’m pretty tapped from meeting so many shockingly like-minded people. I want to be in a padded room or a stimulation-deprivation tank for like 10 days.”

Stimulation-deprivation tank? All I can say to that, Erica, is welcome to Omaha.

Setting Sun and Quitzow play with Landing on the Moon, Thursday, Aug. 12, at The Waiting Room. Showtime is 9 p.m. Admission is $7.

* * *

Tonight at The Waiting Room, it’s a trio of superstars: Ted Stevens

(Cursive, Mayday, Lullaby for the Working Class), The Bruces (Alex McManus) and The So-So Sailors (indie rock supergroup extraordinaire) all take the stage for one night only. $7, 9 p.m.

Down at Slowdown Jr., Chicago indie-pop band Netherfriends (Emergency Umbrella Records) performs with Sam Martin (Capgun Coup). $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.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

What, no show reviews from this past weekend? The reason: I just got back from vacation since last Wednesday, in cool, dry Breckenridge, CO, one of the few places in the world where there is no good music — not in the bars, not on the mountains, not on the radio. Which made me thank my lucky stars that the GTI is equipped with a satellite radio. We spent the weekend listening to XMU, the indie satellite station, which I have to believe is becoming as important as Pitchfork even though their playlist is woefully narrow.

After overdosing on Arcade Fire for a few days in the row (it was as if XMU was sponsored by the band), Teresa insisted on Sirius “80s on 8” for the drive home — that meant nine straight hours of ’80s pop music. Why not? It’s been awhile since I dipped myself into the Reagan Era, music-wise.

Every once in a while, someone will tell me that he thinks his parents’ music was better than the music from the current era. Well, if his parents’ music is ’80s pop, I’m not sure that’s true. Was there a more flamboyant, more excessive era in pop music? Believe me, I know. I grew up in the ’80s with MTV and hair metal and the disco hangover. Listening back now, I have to believe all that excess was fueled by nose candy in the sort of opposite way that downers and pot influenced music in the droopy, drowsy ’60s.

By contrast, the ’80s was speed, glitter, rainbows and more more more. I can imagine high-dollar recording studios booked by rich rock bands for months at a time and helmed by zoned-out record producers who spent their time trying to figure out how they could squeeze more sound effects into every track. “I think we should add some zinger effects right here – zing zing zing

,” says the mustached former Sabbath roadie as he desperately tries to keep his elbow from knocking over the mountains of cocaine piled along the top of the sound board.

How else do you explain a song like “The Reflex,” by Duran Duran? It’s as if the band and producer were trying to put every inane sound effect into every spare second of the song. Go back and listen to it again. It’s the most idiotic, cartoonish-sounding recording you’ll ever hear.

It had to be the coke that made them want everything bigger, right? Take drums. Back in ’85, your typical pop song couldn’t use regular analog drums. Not big enough. Every song had to use sampled electronic explosions – crash, crash, crash

! Every beat was a bomb going off. Thirty years later, those bombs sound both big and hollow at the same time.

And then there were the egregiously narcissistic guitar solos — the staple of ’80s macho rock, so drenched in testosterone they wreaked of Brut and body odor. Sure, there were guitar solos in the ’70s, but they generally fulfilled a purpose, they at least tried to enhance the music experience. Not in the ’80s. Every hair metal song had to give 20 seconds (which felt like two minutes) to the lead ax man so he could pull down his leather pants and let everyone know how good of a guitarist he thought he was. But instead, those solos almost always just got in the way.

But more than hair metal, which was Cro-Magnon dumbshit music for a white-trash nation, the ’80s, specifically the mid-’80s, brought on the emergence of gay American dance music — post-disco good-time synth pop that was more effeminate than anything in the past. People point to Bowie’s androgyny in the ’70s, but to those who weren’t “in the know,” Bowie and the glam crowd were just a bunch of clowns who discovered their girlfriends’ make-up kits. “Gay” to them meant “Look at me, I’m a freak.”

That wasn’t the case on the dance floor in the ’80s. There was no mistaking the intent. Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Pet Shop Boys, George Michael, these guys weren’t wearing crazy orange Bowie wigs or dresses, but there was no mistaking where they — and their music — were coming from. Sure, they were coke heads too, and were among the most guilty when it came to excess in their music arrangements. Add the calliope of sound to the late nights, the colored strobes, the sweat and the poppers, and the ’80s for them became a glorious blur that would, eventually, end tragically.

But before that, the gay culture had never so permeated popular American culture. Before long, even ’70s legends were trying to update their sound and style to fit the era. How else do you explain Born in the USA-era Springsteen? The guy who used to look like a skinny, greasy mechanic, suddenly emerged post-workout, with tight jeans, tight shirt and headband, he couldn’t have looked more gay. And “Dancing in the Dark” — with its tooting synths — couldn’t have sounded more un-Springsteen-ish.

So that’s what went through my head after listening to “80s on 8” for seven hours. We eventually couldn’t take it anymore and had to change it back to XMU, where I discovered something about the ’80s and what’s wrong with today’s indie music. No matter how excessive or overindulgent ’80s pop music was, you almost always could find the melody to every song, and after just one time through. They were songs that, after a couple spins, you could  sing along to, whether you wanted to or not.

Try that with most of today’s indie rock. Listen to the “Barricade,” the new track by Interpol, then afterward, try to hum the melody. When was the last time a melody by Spoon stuck in your head (other than the one used in the commercial)? Can you sing one line from a Deerhunter song? When it’s not singer/songwriter fare, indie music is drama and effect, an emotional tone poem or soundscape with a few lines of poetry thrown in. There aren’t a lot of indie “songs.”

And these days, there aren’t many good pop songs, either. We listened to XMU Hits or whatever its called and got an hour of Katy Perry and the rest of the current tribe of girly girl artists who all seem to be singing the very same, proudly misogynistic songs that no woman over the age of 25 (and certainly no straight man) would take seriously. Do not compare them to Madonna.

Hmmm… in retrospect, and considering that it also marked the birth of indie, maybe the ’80s was a better era after all…

* * *

Tomorrow: An interview with Young Love Records artists Setting Sun and Quitzow. Be there.

* * *

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.

Festival season continues Saturday with Farnam Festival at the corner of 40th and Farnam Sts. starting at 3 p.m. The goal: To raise $50k to help turn Farnam into a two-way street between 36th and 42nd. How this will help the businesses along that street, I’m not entirely sure, other than the fact that they’ll be getting traffic from both directions instead of one. I personally can’t imagine a two-way Farnam (especially in front of The Brothers), but what the heck, right? I assume money raised will go toward, what, construction to make the street two-way? Isn’t that a job for the City of Omaha? Does the money go to the City? More likely it’ll go to the Midtown Business Association who is spearheading the effort. Maybe they need it to pay for lawyers and architects? Look, I don’t know and it’s not spelled out on their website.

Regardless, what it means for the rest of us is an afternoon and evening’s worth of music by a handful of local bands (most of whom are Benson regulars) for a $10 admission. And, of course, a beer tent also will be set up. The sched:

3:15 p.m. – Normandy Invasion

4:25 – Brad Hoshaw and the Seven Deadlies

5:30 – The Third Men

6:35 – Sarah Benck

7:45 – Thunder Power

9:00 – Midwest Dilemma

10:15 – Southpaw Bluegrass Band

BTW, this thing is supposed to become an annual event.

* * *

Meanwhile, the North Downtown district (sadly nicknamed “NoDo”) is having a block party this Saturday. You can read about all the festivities here, but the music part of the gig is an open house at Slowdown starting at 7 p.m. The line-up is Bear Country, Talking Mountain and the mysterious KISS-loving DJ known as Tyrone Storm. The cost, absolutely free.

* * *

There’s more to this weekend than festivals and block parties.

Friday night Noah’s Ark Was a Spaceship plays at The Barley St. with Why Make Clocks and the Ketchup and Mustard Gas. $5, 9 p.m.

And, The Mynabirds are playing at the Stir Lounge Saturday night with opener Jake Bellows. $5, 9 p.m.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Readership of this-here blog has been off the hook the past couple of weeks. I guess it has something to do with the coverage of both MAHA and ConorFest. So to readers new and old, thanks for coming. Just a reminder, there’s a comments section at the bottom of each blog entry, and lately it has been getting plenty o’ action, so make sure you scroll down past the copyright mumbo-jumbo for your opportunity to voice your own opinion, or you can always go to the webboard. Just one rule: Play nice.

* * *

Tonight at The Waiting Room Miniature Tigers (Modern Art Records/ILG)  drops by on their first headlining tour as they head to Lollapalooza. Opening is The Spinto Band and The Delta Mirror. $10, 9 p.m.

Meanwhile, it’s a night of laid-back folk at Slowdown Jr. with Desert Soap, Platte River Rain and Cass Fifty and the Family Gram. $7, 9 p.m.

And finally, at fabulous O’Leaver’s it’s McCarthy Trenching, Jake Bellows and Phil Schaffart — all for the usual $5 at the usual 9:30.

* * *

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.

Gillian Welch and David Rawlings at The Concert for Equality, July 31, 2010.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Here’s my “official review” of last Saturday’s Concert for Equality that runs in today’s issue of The Reader, presumably with a handful of photos (Pt. 1 ran here Monday). The whole day felt like a small-town street dance, a gathering of a community for what will be remembered as one of the most important indie music concerts in Omaha history. If you missed it, well, you can always relive it on YouTube.

Column 282: Live Review: Concert for Equality

Breaking down another language barrier.

It was supposed to be a protest concert — the Concert for Equality — but it will likely be remembered as a Saddle Creek Records music festival with an underlying, almost subliminal message about the evils of local laws designed to discriminate against immigrants.

A good message, no doubt, but how could it compete with this concert’s line-up? When was the last time that the three crown jewels of Saddle Creek Records played in Omaha in the same week? A decade ago? Ever?

With The Faint playing the previous Saturday at the MAHA Music Festival, and now Bright Eyes and Cursive playing at the Concert for Equality, we were seeing it happen again. Add performances by Desaparecidos and Lullaby for the Working Class, and you’ve turned the clock backwards 10 years, to a time when Omaha music mattered to the nation.

But even that line-up wasn’t enough. The buzz in the crowd all day was that Neil Young was going to drop by for a couple numbers at the $50-per-ticket concert at The Waiting Room following the outdoor show. Yes, Neil Young. Why stop there? Why not Bono or Springsteen or a reunited Led Zeppelin or the ghost of John Lennon? If there ever was a secret special guest lined up, it probably was Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy or another of concert organizer Conor Oberst’s music buddies like M. Ward or Jim James, who had showed up unannounced for the Obama rally at the Civic a few years back. But even those two seemed like a long-shot now that the Fremont anti-immigrant law that got the ball rolling was unlikely to be enacted anytime soon.

For every line of copy and sound bite in the local news that amplified Oberst’s message of both indignation and tolerance, there was a hate-quote from cave-dwellers like NAG (Nebraska Advisory Group) calling Oberst a racist and suggesting that he be deported. The media was bracing for a protest, but if there was one, no one saw it on Maple Street. Word spread that a handful of flag-waving crazies had set up camp near the Walgreens on Radial Highway. They might as well have been in Lincoln.

Nothing was going to stop this concert, anyway. After three warm-up bands — Flowers Forever, Vago and The Envy Corp — Bright Eyes took the stage exactly at 7:15 and played a too short set that included “Bowl of Oranges” and “Road to Joy,” along with new Oberst number, “Coyote Song.” The Bright Eyes line-up was core members Oberst, Mike Mogis and Nate Walcott, along with Clark Baechle on drums and Cursive’s Matt Maginn on bass. Like the MAHA second stage, it was hard to watch their performance while a blinding sun burned just above the lighting rigs, forcing everyone’s left hand in front of their eyes, while their right held a cold tall-boy.

After years of watching a sullen, almost depressed Conor Oberst scowl throughout his concerts, it was a pleasure to see him smiling and energized, as if the crowd of mostly like-minded fans had lifted the weight of the world from his tiny shoulders. He seemed almost… happy.

The sun retreated behind one of Benson’s broken buildings as Gillian Welch and David Rawlings began their set of acoustic finger-picking folk that wound up being a highlight of the day. When Cursive launched into pain-howl ballad “The Martyr” it didn’t matter if any Benson resident had bought a ticket — they heard Tim Kasher screaming in their living rooms. I cannot understate how loud it was — earplug loud from down the street at Benson Grind. Cursive matched the volume with an intensity that was violent, angry, amazing.

And then came Desaparecidos — Landon Hedges, Denver Dalley and the rest of the crew all on stage, all growed up playing the best set of the band’s disjointed history. Watching Desa brought on a wave of both nostalgia and lost opportunity. If ever there was a project that Oberst needed to be part of right now, or for that matter, during the Bush years, it was Desa — the perfect vehicle for his bitter temper tantrums, a rallying cry against cynicism for a disinterested, privileged suburban generation. A pity that the Desa set would only be a one-off.

As would the Lullaby for the Working Class reunion. Ted Stevens and his crew countered a day of anger and noise with an evening of acoustic serenity — soothing, soaring melodies that have aged well over the past decade.

In the end, Neil Young stayed home. There would be no “special guests” at The Waiting Room for the “Deluxe” ticket holders. The “hootenanny” consisted of Welch and Rawlings, joined by members of Bright Eyes followed by more Desaparecidos, and then the finale — everyone joined in on a song by David Dondero with a chorus that ran close to the tune of Bright Eyes’ “Land Locked Blues,” but with the lyrics:

They’re building a new Berlin Wall
From San Diego to Texas, so tall.
Don’t they know that they can’t stop us all?
But they’re building a new Berlin wall.

Oberst did his best to rally the troops behind a sentiment that I’m still not sure any of them clearly understood. I know I didn’t. The message sounded like: We don’t need any borders… at all. Would the suggestion still make sense the next morning, after the sing-along fever-buzz wore off? Oberst and his followers could work to get rid of all the localized, backward-thinking immigration laws that are destined to pop up like kudzu across the country, but they still had a federal crisis to deal with. I wonder if Conor or Dave can figure out a lyric that rhymes with “feasible, sensible national immigration policy.”

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

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Mercy Rule at Duffy's during last year's Lincoln Calling Festival, Oct. 3, 2009.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Jeremy Buckley yesterday announced the initial line-up for this year’s Lincoln Calling Festival, which starts Sept. 29. Below is the preliminary list of bands. Presumably more will be added (Do they really need more?), with a final confirmed list slated for Sept. 1. As always, this is a very solid collection of local bands with a few notable nationals sprinkled in. Buckley can pull this off because he actually pays his bands to take part in the event. The nine venues participating this year are The Bourbon Theatre, Duffys Tavern, the Zoo Bar, 12th St. Pub, The Alley, Marz Bar, Fat Toad, the Bricktop, the Black Market and the rooftop of Sandy’s (actually, that’s 10). Buckley said ticket prices will be announced next week, and you’ll get a substantial discount if you buy way in advance.

Here goes:

The Allendales (Lincoln) http://www.myspace.com/theallendales
Bandit Sound (Lincoln) http://www.myspace.com/banditsounds
Bear Country (Omaha) http://www.myspace.com/bearcountry
Brimstone Howl (Omaha/Lincoln) http://www.myspace.com/brimstonehowl
Capgun Coup (Omaha) http://www.myspace.com/capguncoup
Christian Mistress (Olympia, WA) http://stereogum.com/399492/christian-mistress-home-in-the-sun-stereogum-premiere/franchises/haunting-the-chapel/
Conchance (Omaha) http://www.myspace.com/conchanceallcity
Cowboy Indian Bear (Lawrence) http://www.myspace.com/cowboyindianbear
Deerpeople (Stillwater) http://www.myspace.com/deerpeople
Honeybee (Omaha) http://www.myspace.com/honeyhoneybee
The Hood Internet (Chicago) http://www.myspace.com/therealhoodinternet
Ideal Cleaners (Lincoln) http://www.myspace.com/idealcleaners
The Kickback (Chicago) http://www.myspace.com/thekickback
Life of a Scarecrow (Lincoln) http://www.myspace.com/lifeofascarecrow
LookBook (Minneapolis) http://www.myspace.com/lookbookmusic
Loom does Lincoln Calling (Omaha) http://www.myspace.com/loomgathering
The Love Language (Raleigh, NC) http://www.myspace.com/thelovelanguage
Manny Coon (Lincoln) http://www.myspace.com/mannycoon
Mercy Rule (Lincoln) http://www.speednebraska.com/independent_bands/mercy_rule.php
Mezcal Brothers (Lincoln) http://www.myspace.com/themezcalbrothers
Noah’s Ark Was a Spaceship (Omaha) http://www.myspace.com/noahsarkwasaspaceship
Patrick Park (Los Angeles) http://www.myspace.com/patrickpark
Poison Control Center (Ames) http://www.myspace.com/thepcc
The Prids (Portland) http://www.myspace.com/theprids
Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers (Phoenix) http://www.myspace.com/azpeacemakers
Sea Wolf acoustic (Los Angeles) http://www.myspace.com/seawolf
Sera Cahoone (Seattle) http://www.myspace.com/seracahoone
Shaun Sparks and the Wounded Animals (Lincoln) http://www.myspace.com/compoundshaun
The Song Remains the Same (Omaha) http://www.myspace.com/songremainsthesame01
Talking Mountain (Omaha) http://www.myspace.com/talkingmountain
Techlepathy (Omaha) http://www.myspace.com/techlepathy
Third Men (Omaha) http://www.myspace.com/thirdmen
Thrones (Salem, OR) http://www.myspace.com/thronestour
Those Darlins (Murfreesboro) http://www.myspace.com/darlins
Thunder Power! (Omaha) http://www.myspace.com/thunderpowermusic
Turbo Fruits (Nashville) http://www.myspace.com/turbofruits
Union Line (San Juan Capistrano) http://www.myspace.com/theunionline
UUVVWWZ (Lincoln) http://www.myspace.com/uuvvwwz
Wagon Blasters (Omaha) http://www.myspace.com/wagonblast

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Tomorrow: Another take on The Concert for Equality…

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

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The official review of Concert for Equality goes online Wednesday as this week’s column. For now, here are pictures and some general impressions of the show, some of which you already saw if you followed me on Twitter.

The first hint that there might be trouble was eight blue porta-potties standing in a row along Military Ave. That, I thought, would never be enough for 2,000 serious beer drinkers. Would the lawns of Greater Benson glow with a sickly-sweet odor on Sunday morning? Then there was the crazy-long line just to get into the metal-fenced compound. And then there was the burning sun and heat. But in the end, it all worked out, almost perfectly. The only fuck-up was the 45-minute wait forced upon those who had purchased “Deluxe Tickets” to see the hootenanny afterparty, and its “special guests.”

The crowd looking back from near the Concert for Equality outside stage.

Military Ave., it turns out, is the perfect place to hold this kind of concert — the street is wide and the buildings create a natural barrier. Booze tents were set up in a couple places, and there was even a temporary taco/burrito restaurant thrown together in one of the building’s garages (that would make a great permanent addition to Benson). People crowded the ACLU information booth where they were giving away t-shirts when they signed up for their literature. So did the kids learn more about the issues? Who knows? Maybe, probably.

From a performance standpoint, the biggest surprise (for me) was Gillian Welch and David Rawlings. I’d never heard them live before or own any of their records, and was blown away by their music — really incredible stuff. We got a double-dip of the duo when they showed up for the hootenanny later that night.

Bright Eyes at The Concert for Equality, 7/31/10.

As for the rest: The Envy Corp played a set of generic indie rock to an already sizable crowd at 6:30 consisting mostly of people jockeying for position for Bright Eyes. The outdoor stage had the same problem that hampered the MAHA Festival’s second stage — the setting sun was painful, and probably at its worst during Bright Eyes’ set, as you can see  from the above photo. Depending on where you stood, you couldn’t see a thing on stage without shielding your eyes, but the sound couldn’t be any better. BE’s setlist was a best-of selection:

Trees Get Wheeled Away

Bowl Of Oranges

We Are Nowhere And It’s Now

Four Winds

Old Soul Song (For The New World Order)

Lover I Don’t Have To Love

Coyote Song

Road To Joy

He played “Eagle on a Pole” and “Lua,” (with Welch/Rawlings) at the Waiting Room after party. The set list looks longer than the actual performance felt. I guess Oberst was saving it for the Desaparecidos set later that night. While Oberst did spout some issue-based rhetoric from stage, he wasn’t preachy — after all, he would have been almost literally preaching to the choir.

Cursive at The Concert for Equality, 7/31/10.

We left the compound right after the BE set to get something to eat. I stepped outside of Benson Grind to be assaulted by the opening chords of Cursive’s “The Martyr” — like a bomb going off. It was earplug loud, and if there were any complaints about this concert this morning from the locals, it’ll be about the noise level. Cursive was over-the-top loud, especially when you consider the concert was essentially being conducted in a residential neighborhood. That said, for us concert-goers, it was pure bliss. They rolled out some of their most brutal material, and the shear anger level couldn’t have been higher.

The Casualty

The Martyr

Some Red Handed Sleight of Hand

Art is Hard

The Recluse

Butcher the Song

Driftwood: A Fairy Tale

A Gentleman Caller

Sierra

Big Bang

Staying Alive

I’m told at one point Kasher jumped into the swarming crowd. I couldn’t see it from my vantage point behind the soundboard tent. But even from that distance I could see that he was locked inside some sort of manic adrenaline-fueled zone.

Dave Dondero at The Concert for Equality, 7/31/10.

Meanwhile, inside the Waiting Room, David Dondero, in a sporty Tommy Bahama shirt, was playing a solo acoustic set backed by Craig D on a snare drum in front of maybe 100 people who were taking a respite from the noise and heat. Dondero would be back again later that night with what would end up being the concert’s signature song.

The dueling stage concept — while a good idea on the surface — didn’t work out, for me anyway.  The sets overlapped too often. I wanted to see So-So Sailors, for example, but didn’t want to miss Bright Eyes. Going back and forth wasn’t a problem from a security standpoint — your bracelet got you right back into the compound. The problem was that I had a full Bud Light tallboy that I didn’t want to toss away and couldn’t bring with me (and couldn’t slam — those days are over).

Desaparecidos at The Concert for Equality, 7/31/10.

Desaparecidos was the last “outside band” of the evening, and who were what most people I spoke to came to see. Back in the day, Desa played every few weeks and each show was train wreck of sloppiness. I never saw a good Desa show (and who remembers their debut at that echo chamber of a high school auditorium?). Years later, on a serious pro stage, we got the Desa set that we’d been waiting for — easily the best they’ve ever sounded, performed in front of their largest crowd. If this is their swan song, it was at a peak. Maybe it’s because everyone in the band is older and wiser, but other than a few glitches (a couple songs sounded like half the band was in the wrong key), it was powerful stuff. The setlist:

Greater Omaha

Man And Wife, The Former (Financial Planning)

Mañana

Man And Wife, The Latter (Damaged Goods)

Mall Of America

Happiest Place On Earth

Survival Of The Fittest

$$$$

Hole In One

As I say in Wednesday’s write-up, it was good to see Landon Hedges and Denver Dalley and the rest of them on stage again, and it’s a shame that this is probably a one-off because Desa is the perfect place for Oberst to spit out his pent-up venom. Instead, he’ll probably head back to the more passive, FM-friendly confines of Monsters of Folk after the next Bright Eyes album is released sometime in the future.

Lullaby for the Working Class at The Concert for Equality, 7/31/10.

We’d been told that we were going to get our money’s worth buying the $50 deluxe ticket instead of the $20 general admission. For fans of Lullaby for the Working Class, the statement may be true. Ted Stevens and company (including Mike and AJ Mogis) played a flawless set in front of a few hundred inside The Waiting Room. I never saw this band in its heyday, and now I’m sorry I missed them back then. It was gorgeous stuff, backed by some of the area’s finest musicians.

As for the hootenanny, well, there were no special guests that we hadn’t already seen earlier in the day. Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings came out for a few quiet songs. Then Conor joined them before being joined by the rest of Desaparecidos. And then came the finale with David Dondero singing a song written especially for the occasion, apparently called “They’re Building a New Berlin Wall,” whose chorus follows the same melody of Oberst’s “Land Locked Blues.” Oberst led the audience singing the chorus before saying goodnight at 2 a.m.

So ended the Concert for Equality. A success? Depends on how you define it. They certainly raised a lot of money. Did people walk away energized about the issue of immigrant rights in Nebraska? Probably not. Did they see what will be considered an historical show from a Nebraska-music standpoint. Without a doubt.

More Wednesday…

* * *

Conduits at Slowdown Jr., July 30, 2010.

I don’t want to forget another show that happened this past weekend — the debut of Conduits at Slowdown Jr. Friday night. The band, fronted by vocalist Jenna Morrison and featuring Roger Lewis and members of Eagle Seagull are equal parts punch and drone, a chiming, building sonic adventure like nothing else around here. Morrison, who was anonymous as a member of Son Ambulance, owns this frontwoman position with grace and power that I frankly didn’t think she had. She’s got an amazing voice that is only going to get stronger the more this band performs. She had the strength to keep her voice above the waves as the slow-build ambient rock hit tidal-wave crescendos. They don’t play pop songs, more like cinematic set pieces that would work well played in succession with no breaks — a sonic experience. You’ll be hearing more from this band.

We also said goodbye Friday night to Our Fox. Frontman Ryan Fox is headed to Portland, and though they won’t say they’re breaking up, their future is obviously uncertain. All dressed in sailor whites, they did themselves proud. I’ll miss these guys.

* * *

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.

Happy Birthday at The Waiting Room, July 29, 2010.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

I almost didn’t go see rock band Happy Birthday last night at The Waiting Room. I got a text from someone at the show who said no one was there. And it was $10. And I was tired. But then I thought to myself, dammit, I should go to this if only because I don’t want to be part of the reason why One Percent quits booking these kinds of bands — touring Sub Pop bands, bands that should be drawing crowds of people who like indie music.

So I went. And sure enough, there was maybe 10 people there (and 10 people at TWR looks like no people). But it didn’t matter. Happy Birthday put on an amazing show. Their set was a half-hour of buzzing indie goodness, sort of a modern version of Dinosaur Jr. but poppier, funner, and sung by a guy with a witchy voice who looked like a shaggy version of Derek Pressnall. Sure, it ended up costing me about a $1 per song, but it was worth it.

So how can we get more people to come out to see young touring bands like this? It’s always been a problem. I remember when Retsin came through Sokol Underground and played for five or six people (talk about an empty-looking venue when fewer than 50 were there). That had to be 10 years ago. I felt as embarrassed for Omaha then as I did last night. But beyond embarrassment, if the promotors can’t get people to come to these shows, they’ll have little choice but to quit booking them. So if you want to see your favorite Sub Pop or Merge or Matador band come through Omaha, you better start going to shows, whether you’re tired or not.

* * *

Here’s the burning question from many of the patriots who plan on attending tomorrow’s Concert for Equality: Where do I park? The answer: It’s every man for himself. Benson isn’t exactly designed to handle an influx of 2,000+ people from a parking standpoint, so if you’re driving and intend to show up right before the 5 p.m. start time, expect to do some hiking from your car to the concert site just outside of Jake’s on Military Ave. As someone pointed out last night, there isn’t much parking at Sokol Auditorium, yet people always seem to find a place to park in the surrounding neighborhoods for sold out shows of 1,400 people. Me, I intend to walk from my house, a little over a mile away. It should be an adventure.

Conor Oberst was on the local NPR news this morning talking about the concert and the issue surrounding it. Kevin Coffey’s article in the Omaha World-Herald came out this morning, right here, where Kevin references one of Oberst’s personal motives behind his activism:

“And he’s outraged at the situation of a close family friend who came to the United States illegally from Mexico decades ago. She recently returned to Mexico so she could come back here legally, and though her three daughters and husband are citizens, she can’t return to the U.S. for 10 years.“

This paragraph begs for more explanation. If the “family friend” is married to a U.S. citizen, how is it that she’s not able to return to the United States for 10 years?  I don’t know much about immigration law, but I always thought that if a citizen of another country married a U.S. citizen, that person also becomes a U.S. citizen. That, apparently, isn’t the case. A quick search at WikiAnswers brought this back: “If the person was illegally in the country for more than a year, than he or she is barred from ever coming back for 10 years (known as the “10-year-bar”) The only way to overcome having the 10-year-bar is by the US citizen spouse filing a petition for a waiver of the bar.”

I’m sure there’s even more to the story. And that’s the problem when a celebrity becomes the center of a cause such as this one — there’s a pretty good chance that you’re going to confuse more people than you convince. Immigration law is complicated. It’s multi-faceted and multi-layered, with jurisdictions inside of jurisdictions. The issue that seems to be impacting Oberst’s family friend is a federal immigration issue. The Fremont immigrant law is a local issue that resides within a federal framework. Do the kids who will be rocking out to Desaparecidos know or care about any of this? Very unlikely. All’s they’ll know is that the Fremont law is “a bad thing.” Do they need to know more than that?

That said, it’ll be impossible for those young fans to ignore the hate groups that will be set up along the parameter of the concert. If those fans thought they lived in a world free of racism, they’re in for a sobering civics lesson tomorrow afternoon. And maybe that shot of reality alone will make this concert worthwhile.

* * *

There are a lot of other shows going on this weekend other than Conor-fest.

A brand new band is being unveiled tonight at Slowdown Jr. Conduits is a supergroup of sorts. The line-up: Guitarist J.J. Idt (Eagle Seagull), guitarist Nate Mickish (Kite Pilot, The Golden Age), bass/keyboardist Mike Overfield (Eagle Seagull), drummer Roger L. Lewis (The Good Life, Our Fox), and vocalist Jenna Morrison (Son, Ambulance). The band describes its sound as “moody, atmospheric, shoegazey, drone pop.” Headlining is Our Fox, who are going on hiatus after this show, and the always amazing Jake Bellows. $6, 9 p.m.

Meanwhile, down at Sokol Underground, its Fat Possum band and critics’ darlings Heartless Bastards. This show has been flying under the wire, probably because it’s not being presented under the One Percent banner. Also on the bill are Builders and the Butcher and Peter Wolf Crier. $12, 7 p.m.

The Sydney is hosting a little pre-Conorfest party tonight with Statistics frontman and Desparecidos guitarist Denver Dalley doing his thing on the turntables. Starts at 10 and no cover.

Tomorrow night, of course, is the Concert for Equality. Watch my Twitter feed for updates and photos throughout the afternoon and evening (Yes, I’m a “deluxe” ticket holder).

Here’s the schedule for Saturday’s concert, by way of One Percent Productions:

Outside:
Flowers Forever – 5:00-5:30
Vago – 5:45-6:15
The Envy Corps – 6:30-7:00
Bright Eyes – 7:15-8:00
Gillian Welch – 8:15-9:00
Cursive 9:15-10:00
Desaparecidos – 10:15-11:00

Inside:
Fathr^ – 5:00-5:40
Simon Joyner – 6:00-6:40
The So-So Sailors – 7:00-7:40
Conchance – 8:00-8:40
David Dondero – 9:00-9:40
Closed from 10:00 – 11:00
Lullaby for the Working Class – 11:30-12:15
Hootenanny – 12:30-2:00

And finally, Sunday Tokyo Police Club returns to Slowdown with Freelance Whales and Arkells. $15, 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

Looks like Conor’s doing press for Saturday’s Concert for Equality in Benson. KETV posted an article and video yesterday (right here) where a newly bearded Oberst is interviewed and basically repeats what he’s already said about the Fremont immigrant law — “It’s a human rights issue,” “It’s un-American, it’s unconstitutional and it’s immoral,” and so on. They never get to the actual reason why Conor is involved in this cause. Oberst explaining his real motivation would give all of this a strong emotional anchor that it’s currently lacking. Maybe Kevin Coffey of the OWH will get the real story when his interview with Conor goes online “later this week” at Omaha.com. KETV also spoke with Susan Smith of the Nebraska Advisory Group, who supports the Fremont immigrant legislation. The report says that she’ll be at the concert, protesting. But unless she and her followers bought tickets, I’m skeptical that they’ll be “at the concert.” Maybe outside the concert… It’s easy to discount people with signs that read “Deport Conor Oberst” as a bunch of loons, but these days, with the Internet, a bunch of loons can turn into a movement. Just look at the Tea Party.

* * *

Spinner yesterday posted a nice review of Tim Kasher’s solo set at Tonic Room Tuesday night. TK apparently ran through a number of songs off his forthcoming solo album The Game of Monogamy

. Said critic Anna Deem: “Utilizing only trumpet, keyboard, drums, bass and violin, Kasher’s new songs were more reminiscent of his previous records with the Good Life rather than the more hard-hitting sound of Cursive. As always, his commanding howl was the real fixture of the hour-long performance, resounding throughout the entire bar with force.

” She said Tim ended the performance saluting the audience with, “You’re a bunch of sweet ass motherf—ers.” Nice. Read the whole review here. The new record comes out Oct. 5 on Saddle Creek.

* * *

Tonight at The Waiting Room, Sub Pop space-rock trio Happy Birthday is playing along with LA pop rockers Residual Echoes (Holy Mountain). $10, 9 p.m. Meanwhile, at fabulous O’Leaver’s, Noah’s Ark Was a Spaceship headlines a show featuring Mumfords, Utopia Park and Adam Robert Haug. $5, 9 p.m. And The Sydney is doing a rare during-the-week show tonight with Down with the Ship. According to the recently redesigned Sydney website, the other bands on the bill are Where Astronauts Go to Hide, and OK Hemmingway. On the other hand, SLAMOmaha’s calendar says the undercard is Minneapolis band Holyoke and Cass Fifty and the Family Gram. Either way, it’s $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.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

And now, the final word on the 2010 MAHA Music Festival. Even though it was only a few days ago, it already seems like it was last year, especially with the next big music event looming on the horizon.

Column 281: Review: MAHA Music Festival

Better the second time ’round.

It's True at the MAHA Music Festival, July 24, 2010.

Year two of the MAHA Music Festival already was a success by the time the first band took the main stage, even though things had gotten off to a rocky start.

A giant bitch of a storm named Bonnie had taken its toll on the airlines. Main stage artist Ben Kweller had tweeted at 2 a.m. Saturday that his flight had been canceled, causing a loud, low groan from the collective mouths of everyone involved with the festival. Cell phones lit up like hand grenades, and Kweller found himself driving by car from one airport to another, desperately trying to find a connection to Omaha. He made it, as did fellow main-stager Superchunk, who also got caught in the same shitstorm of flight cancellations.

As a result, the entire MAHA program was pushed back by more than an hour. City officials gave an OK to let the party run ’til midnight. Kweller and Old 97’s swapped stage times and everybody won.

When I arrived at around 2:30, It’s True already was on stage, playing to a smallish crowd that was downright monstrous compared to last year’s tiny gathering for Appleseed Cast’s afternoon set. It was the second to last stage appearance by It’s True, the band on the verge of a nervous breakdown only a few months after releasing its debut full-length and just as a nation was beginning to take notice. No one knows for sure why frontman Adam Hawkins, who now lives in central Iowa, wanted out, and no one had the courage to ask.

MAHA limbo contest winner Betsy Wells was up next on the festival’s pseudo “second stage,” which was nothing more than a stack of amps set up on a wall adjacent to the main stage. After last year’s debacle, there was talk of moving the second stage to somewhere more “fan friendly,” so that people could watch bands without having to stare into a burning hot sun. But that never happened. A bigger problem: The second stage sounded louder than the main stage, with the overdriven stack at the perfect height to shear the eardrums off anyone stupid enough to stand in front of it without earplugs. A couple girls in hot pants leaned over and held their ears as they shuffled away in their flip-flops.

I didn’t pay much attention to Old 97’s, who sounds like a thousand other bands that play that style of easy-to-ignore alt-country-pop. But isn’t that the way with festivals? You can’t love them all. The hippies dancing jigs to Old 97’s were going to be making phone calls during Superchunk.

Landing on the Moon, another MAHA battle-of-the-bands winner, played a solid set on the ear-splitter stage. Then things began to really heat up. MAHA organizers trotted out a grinning Mayor Jim Suttle to declare, “This is what we mean by quality of life in Omaha. Music tonight, tomorrow, forever!” The crowd reacted with a smattering of disinterested applause, only to lock in when Ben Kweller was introduced.

Ben Kweller at the MAHA Music Festival, July 24, 2010.

Wearing crazy-clown red pants and a Panama hat, a sleep-deprived Kweller looked like Flying Tomato Shaun White as he launched into a set of singer/songwriter Americana backed by drums and bass. The stage crowd — probably the same people there to see Old 97’s — dug his grinning, folky hick-rock.

By now the crowd had ballooned to a few thousand, and the Lewis and Clark Landing was beginning to look like a music festival. Cheap fold-out lawn chairs formed wall fortresses around dirty tasseled stadium blankets. A walk from the entrance to the stage meant finding your way through the maze of encampments without being scowled at for stepping on someone’s shit. By the end of the day, the little tent city near the stage would be pushed aside as the crowd took over.

The Mynabirds, who along with Satchel Grande managed to avoid humiliating themselves at a “contest” to get their second stage slot, played a confident set while the sun blazed over cute frontwoman Laura Burhenn’s shoulder.

Superchunk at The MAHA Music Festival, July 24, 2010.

The last of the afternoon light was spent on Superchunk. I looked at my iPhone afterward for notes but didn’t find any — I had been too enraptured by the band. For me and the rest of the crowd in their 30s and 40s standing in front of the stage, Superchunk were conquering heroes playing for their first time in Nebraska. This was our Perfect Moment, and we were soaking it in.

Then, The Faint. Despite becoming their own tribute band these days, since they no longer write new music, their set was what festival goers will remember about MAHA II. The crowd was at its peak, and dancing — it was the kind of spectacle that MAHA organizers had dreamed of.

Headliner Spoon came on at 11 p.m. and never caught hold, but by then, it didn’t matter. MAHA already had gone into the books as a success. MAHA organizer Tre Breshear said scanned ticket attendance was just over 4,000, slightly below their target but a big improvement over year one.

Spoon at The MAHA Music Festival, July 24, 2010.

In retrospect, this year’s main stage roster was a tip o’ the hat to ’90s-’00s indie — the kind of music that the organizers grew up listening to (presumably). Old ’97s, Superchunk, Spoon, The Faint, even Ben Kweller had his best music in the earlier half of the ’00s. The festival will garner a younger audience if it tries to book more up-and-coming acts next year, such as Sleigh Bells, MIA, Wavves, The National, Foals, Band of Horses, New Pornographers, along with the usual legacy acts. If they want to extend this event to two days, they’ll need to book a couple huge bands — one to anchor each day. And I mean Pixies/REM/Wilco huge. That’s pricey. And risky. There also are those who think the line-up should be more diverse stylewise. Bottom line: They’re never going to please everyone, and they’ll only fail if they try.

* * *

The schedule for Saturday’s Concert for Equality has been announced, but first, the news…

The Associated Press

reported last night (right here) that the Fremont City Council voted unanimously to suspend a voter-approved ban on hiring and renting property to illegal immigrants. “The council also unanimously decided to hire Kansas-based attorney and law professor Kris Kobach, who drafted the ordinance and offered to represent Fremont for free to fight the lawsuits. Kobach also helped write Arizona’s new controversial immigration law,” the AP story said.

The story went on to say Fremont faces lawsuits from the American Civil Liberties Union and the Mexican American Legal Defense & Educational Fund, which both expected to ask a federal judge today to temporarily block the ban from taking effect.  ACLU of Nebraska said it and the city will ask the judge to block the ordinance pending a final court resolution.

So despite the fact that the law has been suspended, the lawsuits will go on, which makes the Concert for Equality just as relevant from a fund-raising standpoint as ever. The court battle could drag on for years.

With that, here’s the schedule for Saturday’s concert, by way of One Percent Productions:

Outside:
Flowers Forever – 5:00-5:30
Vago – 5:45-6:15
The Envy Corps – 6:30-7:00
Bright Eyes – 7:15-8:00
Gillian Welch – 8:15-9:00
Cursive 9:15-10:00
Desaparecidos – 10:15-11:00

Inside:
Fathr^ – 5:00-5:40
Simon Joyner – 6:00-6:40
The So-So Sailors – 7:00-7:40
Conchance – 8:00-8:40
David Dondero – 9:00-9:40
Closed from 10:00 – 11:00
Lullaby for the Working Class – 11:30-12:15
Hootenanny – 12:30-2:00

If there are any “special guests,” they’ll likely be showing up during the “Hootenanny” portion of the program. Rumors are rampant as to who those special guests would be. So… where do we park? I’ll pass on more info about the show as I get it.

* * *

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.