New Silkworm (sort of), Alex Orange Drink (w/Oberst); Lincoln Exposed kicks off tonight…
by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com
Everyone has their bucket list of bands, and Silkworm was certainly on mine. I’ve been told the Chicago post-punk band did play at The Cog Factory one night in the ‘90s. But alas, I wasn’t there. Throughout that decade they released a handful of great albums, including Libertine, Firewater, Blueblood and Italian Platinum (which actually came out in 2002).
Then as the story goes, drummer Michael Dahquist was killed July 14, 2005, in a car accident, and that was the end of Silkworm. Two of the band’s primary dudes, Tim Midyett and Andy Cohen, would go on to form Bottomless Pit, and members of Silkworm did reunite last July for a benefit concert for Steve Albini, who engineered a number of their albums.
And now the band’s fifth album, Developer, originally released in 2005 by Matador, is getting a remastered, expanded, vinyl+CD-only edition that includes five Japanese-only bonus tracks. Unlike, say, a DIrector’s Cut of a film, this expanded edition brings back all the tracks the band didn’t want to include in the original release because they thought they were too conventional.
“If you want to hear the catchiest songs we recorded at that time – aside from Never Met A Man I Didn’t Like – they’re all on the extra record,” says Midyett on the album’s one-sheet, adding that the original version was Albini’s favorite Silkworm album.
Anyway, the new expanded version comes out Feb. 21 on Comedy Minus One Records. Order your copy here. Here’s one of the additional tracks:
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Conor Oberst’s new record label, Million Stars, continues to grow its roster with the addition of Alex Orange Drink, whose new album Victory Lap (#23), drops May 9 (preorder here). Alex Orange Drink is Alex Zarou Levine, singer/songwriter for The So So Glos, and the album was recorded while he was undergoing treatment for a rare form of cancer. The first single, the super-druggy “Queen Victoria,” features Oberst. Check it below.
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The Lincoln Exposed Festival kicks off tonight. The good news for concert-goers: This snow will be out of the way before the first band plays. The bad news: Windchills are expected to be well below zero for the balance of the festival. This would have been fun fest… in March or April.
Ah, but if you live in Lincoln, who cares, right? All the clubs are located on the same block. I thought about going Thursday night, but if the temps and winds are as bad as they say, my attendance is questionable.
I previewed the festival last week, here, and included an embedded player and links to a Spotify playlist. For regular Lazy-i readers (i.e., indie music fans) who are still scratching their heads over who they should check out, here’s my list of must see’s after spending a few hours with that playlist: Domestica, Floating Opera, Vempire, Sweats, Her Flyaway Manner, Josh Hoyer, Estrogen Projection, Thirst Things First, Head of Femur. Minor Movements, Goosehens, LaPerm, Verse and the Vices, Ghostlike., Slow, Pioneers!, Obscurants, M.A.N., Vera Devorah, Social Cinema and The Credentials. I know there are a ton I missed as that Spotify playlist was far from complete. Bundle up and check it out. All the festival info including schedules is right here.
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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2025 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.
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