by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Funny thing about going to SXSW, one day back at the office and it’s like it never happened. So what happened when I was gone?

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Well… It looks like The Anchor Inn is relocating inland. According to this story in the Council Bluffs Nonpareil,  the venue will occupy a 4,800-square-foot space just south of 72nd and Q Streets. The bar’s owners will appear in front of the Omaha City Council today for a liquor license hearing. The bar is slated to open in its new location April 6. Among those quoted in the article was One Percent Production’s Marc Leibowitz, who said he wasn’t sure whether promoters would be interested in booking touring bands at the new location. “If they have an infrastructure and it fits in the right niche, then maybe,” he said in the article.

I have to admit, the two times I went to the Anchor Inn I had a blast. It was a prime location right next to the river, with plenty of space to roam. I hated to see it go. I can’t imagine the new location will have near the appeal, and for me, the only attraction at the new location will be its bookings (which I guess was the only reason I went to the original Anchor Inn in the first place). Wonder how it will impact Stinson Park’s concert opportunities…

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Baby Tears, Rusty Years (Rainy Road, 2012)

Baby Tears’ album Rusty Years, which became available as a free digital download last December, will be released on vinyl in the late spring/early summer of 2012, courtesy of Rainy Road Records. The LP release will include screen-printed cover, black vinyl, and photocopied insert. Limited to 200 copies. It should be a brutal slab of plastic. Pre-order, download, and stream the LP here from the Rainy Road website.  Just $10!

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Tonight at O’Leaver’s, celebrate the release of Conduits’ new album (which came out today on Team Love Records) when the band plays with So-So Sailors. $5, 9:30 p.m. Expect a crush mob!

Also tonight at Slowdown Jr., it’s experimental duo Talkdemonic with Barsuk band Cymbals Eat Guitars. $7, 9 p.m.

Meanwhile, over at The Waiting Room, Texas psych band The Night Beats play with The Growlers and Snake Island. $8, 9 p.m.

Is it too soon after SXSW to go to a show? Hell no…

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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 © 2012 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The good ol’ OWH has done a pretty good job of reporting on the permanent closure of The Anchor Inn, though we’re still waiting to get comments from the business owners who probably don’t have a whole helluva lot to say about the matter, anyway. If you missed the story, the Anchor Inn got swept away in last year’s Missouri River floods. And now the city isn’t going to let them rebuild because the area is in a floodway. The first thing that came to mind after reading about this was what’s going to happen to The Surfside Club and The Cottonwood Marina in Blair and all the other businesses that saw their livelihoods washed away last year. Do they have to deal with similar ordinances?

The irony of the Anchor Inn disaster is that I’d only discovered the place over the past couple years, when Bright Eyes and Jenny Lewis played there (even though they’d been hosting biker/metal/rock concerts for years). I remember talking to the owner during Bright Eyes and how excited we was about the possibility of doing more indie-type shows. So was One Percent. It was a terrific venue, and I’m going to hate to see it go.

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Yesterday At the Drive In announced that it’s getting back together after more than a decade of being broken up. ATDI was a sonically dangerous, groundbreaking act back in its day. Sparta and The Mars Volta, not so much. Rereading a review of their 2000 show at Sokol Underground, I remembered the overwhelming tension in the room throughout that entire night. We hadn’t seen anything quite like the Cedric Bixler before. Now, a decade later, do we really want to see him again? Count me in if they book a show at The Waiting Room.

Among ATDI’s gigs is a performance at this year’s Coachella Festival, whose schedule was announced yesterday and which everyone is going ga-ga over. Lots of talk about a fIREHOSE reunion there, as well as Radiohead, Pulp, God Speed! and Mazzy Star being on the bill. It’s a real Who’s Who of indie rock, and probably the most important U.S. festival going. But it’s hard for me to get too excited about a festival that I know I won’t be attending. And something tells me if I want to see any of the acts perform this year beyond Coachella I’m going to have to do some traveling.