Jason Meyer in Talking Mountain.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

I first met Jason Meyer back in 2010 for this article that was also published in The Reader. It was an interview with his band Talking Mountain that focused in part on my love of their song “The Abominable Abdominal Snowman,” arguably one of the best songs ever produced by any Nebraska band. Arguably. Look, any song about a snowman obsessed with weight lifting is going to be on that list.

My only regret having seen Talking Mountain at least a dozen times over the course of their short existence was never buying one of their muppet-like fur masks worn during performances (though I can only imagine how it would have smelled).

After Talking Mountain came the first iteration of Feel Tight, a self-proclaimed (in this article from August 2014) “black-prog-stoner-doom” rock band. Around the same time, Meyer was in psych-rock band Calm Fur (seen here from December 2014).

Now comes a new iteration of Feel Tight, or The Feel Tight, as Meyer referred to it in a recent email, which stated that “...a new/first album is well underway with a whole new line-up…” Included in the email was a link to the following rather bizarre video.

Who’s going to be playing alongside Meyer in this new interation of The Feel Tight is still a mystery, though we have an idea how it’ll sound: “(The band is) taking on a pretty cool Krautrock, proggy feel. My old roommate Dan turned me on to Neu!, and that influence is very much there, but heavier.”

Sounds like the new album will include some interesting guests that Meyer has crossed paths with on his trips to Oklahoma, which makes sense since to me, Meyer has always been Omaha’s version of Wayne Coyne.

Check out where he’s evolved to now…

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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 © 2016 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Dumb Beach at O’Leaver’s, Feb. 21, 2015. The band returns to O’Leaver’s tonight.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

We can all rest a little easier knowing that the British people now know about O’Leaver’s. And The Waiting Room. And The Barley Street. And Duffy’s…

About a month ago, an editor from British Airways online publications reached out and asked me to write 500 to 600 words about the fabled Nebraska music scene, listing the music venues for Brits to visit while in Nebraska. It’s part of their “50 States in 52 Weeks” series featured on British Air’s High Life website (an amazingly appropriate name considering the patrons who hang out at our clubs). A bunch of bands are name-checked, too…

The British Airways piece went online a few days ago; you can read it here. Note: I wasn’t  involved in the page layout, design or photo selection.

NOTE TO webmasters of the clubs’ websites: Brace yourselves for the torrential traffic wave bound to hit your servers at any moment…

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Calm Fur, the latest project fronted by Jason Meyer (Talking Mountain) has a new four-song EP out today called The Collection of Human Energy to be Used for Evil.

Sez Meyer: “We just played Denver Psych Fest and this was a little EP we put together just for that. Minimal physical copies exist, along with minimal fanfare for release. We’re working on a proper record and sort of treating this as a… demo. A sneak. A peek.”

Calm Fur is playing Duffy’s backlot show on Aug. 29 with Deerpeople and Universe Contest before going into hibernation to finish their new record. Check out the EP below…

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Tonight at fabulous O’Leaver’s it’s the return of Dumb Beach. They open for Brooklyn garage rock trio Sharkmuffin and New Yorkers Lost Boy? $5, 9:30 p.m.

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2015 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Digital Leather at Reverb Lounge, March 13, 2015.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

What a weekend for sold out shows. Friday afternoon Icky Blossoms sold out its Slowdown Jr. gig — no surprise there. Then on Saturday afternoon, Criteria’s Reverb show that evening sold out. Again, not a surprise when you consider the capacity of the Reverb’s small performance space.

I ended up at Reverb Friday night for Digital Leather and White Mystery. First up was Jason Meyer’s latest creation, Calm Fur. First time I saw them a few months ago at Barley Street it was a gritty, noise-rock set — quite a contrast to Friday night’s set, which sounded more streamlined and pop-oriented. The band has tightened up everything, and the result is sublime. Meyer recently posted on Facebook that he’s no longer involved in his other project, Feel tight. Does that mean he’s dedicated his services to Fur?

There was a song about halfway through Digital Leather’s set that was a departure from their usual synth punk debauchery. The tune was, dare I say it, downright groovy, with a huge central hook. I tracked down one of the band members afterward, who told me the song was called “Gary…” off the band’s next album (I didn’t know they were working on a new record, but is DL frontman Shawn Foree ever not working on new music?).

White Mystery at Reverb Lounge, March 13, 2015.

DL rolled out a brand new song to start their set, something they said they wrote that afternoon — it was typical of their usual rough-hewn garage rock, bracing and hard. The rest of the set was selections from the last few records and were played with the usual DL panache. Keyboardist Todd Fink, who everyone thought would be a temporary piece of the DL puzzle, now fits in like just another one of the boys, adding backing vocals on a few songs. Is DL Fink’s main focus with The Faint apparently in limbo?

The set ended in classic fashion with a brutal version of “Studs in Love,” played by request from one of the band’s biggest fans (and it wasn’t me). Foree’s said before that he doesn’t like playing the song anymore. He was doing it for the fan. “Studs in Love” has become a staple of Digital Leather’s live set; I’ve heard at least three different arrangements of the song over the past couple years. Each time it gets a little more powerful.

White Mystery closed out the night. The brother-and-sister guitar-and-drum duo of Alex and Francis White roared through a set of monolithic garage-rockers. Who needs a bass player, anyway?

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Of Montreal at The Waiting Room, Nov. 2, 2013.

Tonight at The Waiting Room it’s the return of Of Montreal with opening band Deerhoof. From the review of the Nov. 3, 2013, Of Montreal show at The Slowdown:

Theatrics did abound. Three “extras” made stage appearances in a variety of costumes, most resembling blobs or giant wadded up pieces of paper. When they weren’t stumbling around in bulky costumes, the extras slipped into place in white body stockings, unfolding umbrellas that reflected targeted projected graphics (see the eye-popping skull above).

What kind of pageantry are you in for this time? Here’s what the band played Friday night in Chicago, I recognize at least one favorite. Tickets are $20 and the show starts at 9.

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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 © 2015 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Calm Fur at the Barley Street Tavern, Dec. 5, 2014.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

I found the buzz and howl of Calm Fur to be rather sublime — a psychedelic cascade of noise and color and sound that blended every ’60s arena rock acid trip with the post-modern noise of, say, Sonic Youth to create a wholly new and cumbersome thing.

It didn’t come easy; it took awhile for the band to get into a groove.  Wearing a white-fur jacket (epitomizing the band’s name) frontman Jason Meyer has emerged as Omaha’s version of Wayne Coyne, a colorful, arty dude who isn’t happy with just playing shows. Instead, his gigs are audio-visual-powered “happenings.” Think back to one of those notable Talking Mountain shows (one of Meyre’s other bands) where smoke broiled out the club’s doors and audience members wore sun glasses to protect their eyes from blazing LED light rigs.

Meyer shows always involve special effects panache, even if it’s just a couple guys wearing furry Muppet-style masks. For Calm Fur, the enhanced experience involved two overhead projectors set up on either side of the Barley Street stage, along with an assortment of markers, glitter and confetti. Audience members were invited to come up during the set and let their creative spirit run wild, but no one did, at least not until about halfway through their set when a young women began scribbling with a marker which washed out over the band. Psychedelic, man.

Give credit to Meyer. Nothing is more boring than watching a bunch of guys slumped over their instrument, hardly moving. Meyer doesn’t want to fall into that sanguine trap, though no special effects were necessary to make Friday night’s set interesting… or at least different.

Like I said, it took awhile for the band to get things going. When they started out, I wondered why Meyer wanted that keyboard to fuss up the sound. By the third song I was thinking ‘That keyboard really makes this work.” I don’t know who keyboardist “Jesy” is, but her simple tones and style (and voice) were the perfect complements to Garrett Schmelzel from Snake Island’s acidic 12-string electric guitar and Meyer’s ever-droning bass. By the fourth or fifth song, the band hit its stride and even had me buzzing. They followed it with a couple shaky covers that featured the next performer, Slushy.

Slushy is former Omahan (and Talking Mountains guy) Chris Kramer doing his rendition of Nuggets-era pop songs sung alone over pre-recorded tracks, karaoke style. Kramer’s choice of music and his aerobic-styles performance made for a fun set, at least for the first 15 minutes. I’m told that Kramer has a working band he plays with in Chicago. Someone needs to get those folks out here.

Lupines at The Barley Street Tavern Dec. 5, 2014.

Finally sometime after midnight The Lupines took the stage, basking in the full intensity of Barley Street’s fancy new digital lighting system, which cast them in eerie electric blue. What more to say about Lupines that I haven’t already said, other than you need to check them out if your thing is blistering garage rock. It was a great way to cap off what turned out to be a looong night.

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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 © 2014 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.