by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

I was up late last night watching Iron Maiden: Flight 666 on Palladia. The 2009 documentary follows the band on its Somewhere Back in Time Tour — 50,000 miles by way of Ed Force One — a retrofitted Boeing 757 flown by the band’s lead singer Bruce Dickinson. Talk about your Spinal Tap lifestyle. Man, they love their Maiden in South America.

Anyway, during a commercial break on comes a familiar song — Bright Eyes “First Day of My Life” — selling Zillow.com, the online real estate website. Very tastefully done. You can view the commercial above, or on  YouTube here.

As far as I know (other than movie trailers) this was the first time a Bright Eyes recording was used in a TV commercial. In the old days upon seeing an ad like this indie music fans would jump on top of their milk-crate book cases, rip off their flannel shirts and self-righteously pound their chests screaming “SELL OUT!” at their TV screens.

But today, with the music industry drying up like last summer’s drought-baked crops, selling the rights to one of your songs for a TV commercial not only is grudgingly accepted, it’s recognized as just another necessity if you want to feed yourself by making music. In fact, having your music used in a commercial can even be something to be proud of as long as it’s not selling mundane products like baby-back ribs or maxi pads.

I don’t know anything about Zillow, but the company must be reputable or Oberst (probably) wouldn’t let one of his songs be used to sell it. Conversely, Zillow’s ad agency must be hyper-aware of Conor’s past highly vocal political stands and is leveraging that rep not only to attract a late-20s/early 30s demographic who grew up with his music but who also know that Oberst wouldn’t sell a company that screws people. If Conor says Zillow is OK, it must be OK, right?

Needless to say, Conor wasn’t thinking of Zillow when he wrote one of my favorite songs off I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning, a song that according to Wikipedia also has been used in in the 2007 film Elvis and Anabelle and was featured in an episode of NBC’s Chuck. Should artists only be concerned solely about the original intent of their art and wash their hands with how it’s used beyond that original intent? I don’t think that they can be so cavalier. But in an era when most listeners are stealing music online or listening to it on sub-penny-per-play streaming services like Spotify, artists have little choice but to turn their heads when it comes to how their music is used in “secondary markets.” They gave birth to the child; they can’t be responsible for what it does after it leaves the nest…

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In this week’s column, an account of the Corporate Cup from the back of the pack. It’s in this week’s issue of The Reader, or you can read it online right here.

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Fantastic show tonight… in Lincoln. Swans is playing at the Bourbon Theater. One of the most important post New Wave noise bands ever will be performing songs from their latest album, The Seer. Expect ear-bleeding volumes. This should be a fantastic show, too bad it’s in Lincoln and I have to work tomorrow morning. Opening is Xiu Xiu and Vverevvolf Grehv (Dapose from The Faint). $25, 9 p.m.

For those of us stuck here in Omaha, Built to Spill returns to The Slowdown. Doug Martsch and Co. should be named honorary Omahans considering the number of times they’ve played here in the last few years. Opening is Helvetia and Sister Crayon. $20, 9 p.m.

Meanwhile over at The Barley Street Tavern the Electroliners headline a show with Fizzle Like a Flood and Jessica Errett. $5, 9:30 p.m.

Last but not least, old school punk maniacs The Vibrators are playing at The Hideout, 320 So. 72nd St., with local old-school punkers Cordial Spew, SVS, The Shidiots and Barley and Hops (ex shaken babies). $8, 9 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 © 2012 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The June cover, June 1993

Sorry for the lack of updates this week. I’ve been on the side of a mountain on the outskirts of Breckenridge, Colorado, since last Sunday. Without WIFI, there was no way to update the blog. But really, when you’re on vacation, aren’t you supposed to set aside such menial tasks and try to reconnect with what’s important in life? Or at least drink as much as possible?

While gone, it was reported that Larry Boehmer, the man who turned The Zoo Bar in Lincoln into a national blues destination, passed away on Tuesday at the age of 65. There’s no denying the role Larry played in

Behind Bars, pg. 1, The Note, June 1993

Lincoln’s and Nebraska’s music scene — as well as the national blues scene — for decades.

Click on the three thumbnail images on the left side of the page (and then click on the images two or three more times to magnify the scans) to read a cover story about Larry and the history of The Zoo Bar written for The Note waaay back in June 1993 to mark the 20th anniversary of the bar. Read more memories of Larry here at hearnebraska.org and the obit in the Lincoln Journal Star. He will be missed.

Behind Bars, pg. 2, The Note, June 1993

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Also while I was gone, I got an email from Phil Schaffart saying that Pageturners, the new bar he’s launching with Conor Oberst, will open its doors for the first time at 4 p.m. today, Friday, Sept. 7. Pageturners the bar is located where Pageturners the bookstore used to be, just west of 50th Street on Dodge (right next to Goldberg’s). Expect a crush mob, paparazzi and plenty of happy drunks. Will Conor and Phil (and Roger) be standing next to the taps slinging drinks? Will someone pull out a guitar and belt out a few bars of “How Dry I Am” or “If Winter Ends”? As that song goes, “And so I drink to stay warm / And to kill selected memories…” Don’t we all? Now we all have a new place to do it…

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In this week’s column, a look at how Big Red mania engulfs everything in its path, and how we still don’t know what happened to UNO’s football team, or why it went down like it did. You can read it in this week’s issue of The Reader, or online right here.

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Let’s get  into what’s happening tonight and this weekend. Looks like I got back in town just in time…

It’s another “First Friday” in Benson. Look for art stuff happening along Maple Street throughout the evening. For details, go here.

While your stumbling around Benson gawking at all the art, drop in at The Sydney for Lightning Bug and Conchance. $5, 10 p.m.

Another hot ticket tonight is Toxie at The Brothers Lounge. Toxie (Goner Records) is a Memphis four piece with two guys and two girls playing endearing garage indie.. Check it out for yourself. Also on the bill are The Lupines and Solid Goldberg. $5, 9 p.m.

It’s back to Benson tomorrow night (Saturday) for a show I’ve been looking forward to for a few months. I’m not talking about Jake’s “Because We Can” block party, which is happening outside at 62nd and Military and features Satchel Grande, Noah’s Ark Was A Spaceship, Rock, Paper, Dynamite, Dim Light and Millions of Boys starting at 7 p.m. No, I’m talking about Twin Shadow at The Waiting Room.

Twin Shadow is Dominican-born George Lewis Jr. whose album Confess (4AD) is a dizzying trip back to ’80s electro-pop with a sound that recalls everything from General Public to Fine Young Cannibals to New Order to Peter Gabriel. For what it’s worth, Pitchfork gave it an 8.2 rating. It’s also one of my favorite albums so far this year for the sheer fun of it. Twin Shadow is one guy, so I have no idea what he’ll bring to the stage. For a gig last month in Seattle, Twin Shadow performed as a three-piece. Tickets are $12 today, $14 tomorrow. Opening is Sub Pop synth band Niki and The Dove. Starts at 9.

Twin Shadow, Five Seconds (4AD, 2012)

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/51888563″ iframe=”true” /]

If all that ’80s synth pop just ain’t your thing, check out the return of Peace of Shit to fabulous O’Leaver’s Saturday night with Killer Blow (Genie Molkentine on drums and vocals, Todd VonStup on guitar) and Mosquito Bandito. $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 © 2012 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

There was buzz at Saturday night’s Digital Leather/Agent Orange show about what’s going on at Pageturners Lounge, the new bar owned and operated by Conor Oberst and Phil Schaffart located right next to Goldberg’s on 50th and Dodge. Scuttlebutt is that they’ve been hiring staff and are preparing to open very soon. Schaffart confirmed both rumors yesterday, saying they’re hoping for an early-mid September opening, and have indeed done some hiring.

I took the opportunity to try to pin Schaffart down on what style of bar Pageturners will be. Will the menu focus on hoity-toity craft cocktails? Nope. OK, well will you be trying to emulate the style (and success) of Benson’s Krug Park with a million beers on tap? Nope again. More details could be forthcoming when Schaffart and Oberst get back from the Desaparecidos tour, which starts Saturday in Seattle. Until then, click on over to the Pageturners Lounge Facebook page and give it a “like.”

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In the column this week: What do Bob Kerrey and Herman Cain have in common? Both played a role in destroying some very precious teenage food memories. Read about it in this week’s issue of The Reader, or online right here.

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Everyone’s favorite troubadour/singer-songwriter/good guy Jake Bellows (ex-Omahan, ex-Neva Dinova) takes the stage at O’Leaver’s tonight with Sam Martin (Capgun Coup) and Reagan Roeder. Plus, PBR & Grainbelt bottles for a $1. Get messed up and sing along! $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 © 2012 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Desaparecidos, from left, are Conor Oberst, Matt Baum, Denver Dalley, Landon Hedges and Ian McElroy. Photo by Zach Hollowell.

The Politics of Thrashing

Desaparecidos is back and angrier than ever.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Also published in The Reader, Aug. 9, 2012.

In the on-again off-again world of indie rock band Desaparecidos, when Conor Oberst calls you drop what you’re doing and run to his side, right?

Not at all says Desaparecidos guitarist Denver Dalley. “Well, maybe to some extent, but it’s not like anyone abandoned any commitments.”

Over the phone last week, Dalley quickly ran down what the rest of the band’s been up to. Guitarist/vocalist Landon Hedges is busy with his band, indie powerhouse Little Brazil. Keyboard player Ian McElroy has been in New York working on hip-hop project Rig 1 “but I don’t know how close he is to releasing new material,” he said.

Drummer Matt Baum has been vacant from the drum kit. “Before we started back up again he said he had an itch to make music,” Dalley said. “He’s done a lot of podcasts for his comic book world (called The Two-Headed Nerd).”

As for Dalley, he’s been bouncing between homes in Omaha, Nashville and Los Angeles. When not touring as part of dance-rock project Har Mar Superstar, he’s been finishing recording his own project, Statistics, as well as a score for a feature film about the Joplin, Missouri, tornado. “I also went to massage therapy school last year,” he says, though he doesn’t know if he’ll ever actually apply those new skills.

And then there’s Conor Oberst. But we all know what the Bright Eyes frontman has been up to.

“Marikkkopa” b/w “Backsell” 7-inch, Desaparecidos (2012, self released)

Just two years after the last time Desaparecidos got together for the Concert for Equality concert, all their schedules have aligned and the boys are back in town. And judging from their new single, “Marikkkopa” b/w “Backsell,” they’re better than ever.

The single’s A side continues the band’s attacks on anti-immigration xenophobes by taking on Arizona’s Joe Arpaio, sheriff of Maricopa County, the king of racial profiling who has earned the title “America’s Worst Sheriff” by the New York Times. If you’re wondering what Arpaio is all about, just listen to the song’s lyrics, which paint the portrait of a racist rounding up illegal immigrants in a style that recalls the worst of Nazi Germany or The Klan.

Oberst has never been one to pull punches when it comes to his politics, so it’s a good thing the rest of the band shares his beliefs. “Fortunately, we all agree on these things,” Dalley said, “but we do discuss them ahead of time.”

For example, Dalley said there was some back-and-forth over the use of the word “spic” in “Marikkkopa,” in the line “These spics are brave and getting braver.”

“The whole song is written from the perspective of this person who is really anti immigration,” Dalley explained, “but we didn’t want it to come across in the wrong way. We thought about it and decided there is a time and a place and a context where (that language) is appropriate. This song is supposed to be controversial and make people think. Not to compare ourselves to them, but songs like Lennon’s ‘Woman is the Nigger of the World,’ and Dylan’s ‘Hurricane’ prove that there’s a point in using that kind of language.”

Considering that most of Desaparecidos’ fans already share their politics, isn’t the band merely preaching to the choir? Dalley said songs like “Marikkkopa” stoke the flames when the fire dies down after the headlines are forgotten. “It gets the conversation going again,” he said. “After we started streaming the songs yesterday (Aug. 2), we watched the Twitter feed and some people thought it was dead on while some said we’re lumping too many things together.”

Then there’s that sizable portion of the audience who doesn’t care about the lyrics, the ones who just want to rock out. “I’m guilty of that myself at times,” Dalley said, adding that he loves it when the crowd gets revved up over the message “but there’s a line you don’t want to cross. There’s a way to bring (issues) up, and a point when someone gets carried away.”

So when Oberst spends too much time on his soapbox, whose job is it to tell him to shut up and play? Dalley laughed. “Knock on wood we haven’t had to deal with that,” he said. “Maybe one night he’ll get on a tear and we’ll have to play him off, like on The Oscars.”

Good luck with that one.

Despite the politics behind the band’s message, Dalley said Desaparecidos (for him at least) is more about having fun, just like it was when the band first started in the early part of the last decade. Though 10 years have passed since the band’s only album, Read Music/Speak Spanish, was released, little has changed.

“It’s shockingly the same in the best possible way,” he said. “I was excited about the idea of practicing and the hi-jinx and laughing with the guys, and it really has been like that.”

There is a nostalgic way in how Dalley describes not only the band’s reunion, but the entire Omaha music scene. He compares the heyday of Saddle Creek Records circa 2001 like being in high school.

“There was a point afterward where everyone went off to college and got married or whatever,” he said. “Now it’s like people are returning from college and going back to their old stomping grounds, where they find a new, younger generation. I could go to a Cursive show back in 2000 and name everyone in the crowd. Now I only know a handful, and that’s great. I still feel like part of something. It’s different, but it’s the same.”

Desaparecidos is slated to play only a half-dozen shows after this Saturday’s Maha Music Festival. Dalley is unsure what will happen after that.

“There’s no plan as of now,” he said. “I think Conor has a handful of solo dates this winter, so as of now there’s nothing scheduled, but we’re all kind of open to whatever and hoping something happens.”

But only “as long as it’s still fun,” he added. “One of the reasons we went on hiatus was because there was starting to be expectations and it was getting stressful. It got away from being dudes having fun playing the music that we love. We’re all focused on that now.”

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The more things change, the more they stay the same. Seems like only yesterday instead of 11 years ago that I was drinking coffee with Denver at the 13th St. Coffee Shop where he broke the news about his new band for this story. We all expected big things from Desaparecidos, and we got them. Desa was destined to be Saddle Creek’s counterpunch to Cursive’s uppercut — a brash, in-yer-face punk band pissed off at the suburbia that would become its fan base. Oberst was and is at his best when he’s political, and Desa provides that outlet in a time when this country desperately needs his voice. It would be a shame if he and the rest of the band put away the boxing gloves after this brief reunion tour.

Speaking of which, Desa kicks off that tour tomorrow night at the infamous 400 Bar in balmy Minneapolis before they head back to town to co-headline the Maha Music Festival at Stinson Park Saturday night. Tix are still available for $35 at mahamusicfestival.com, where you can also check out the full festival line-up, schedule and other pertinent info. I’m told this is the fastest selling concert in Maha’s brief history.

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Tonight at Slowdown Jr., it’s the return of Big Harp with Gus & Call and Field Club. $7, 9 p.m. Get your weekend started on Wednesday!

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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.

Simon Joyner (the one in the hat) and his band. Photo by Zach Hollowell.

Simon Joyner: The Ghosts in the LP

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Also published in The Reader, Aug. 2, 2012.

Singer songwriter Simon Joyner would very much prefer that you listened to his new double album, Ghosts, as it was intended to be heard: Played on a record player.

Unlike other artists who over the past few years have made their recordings available on vinyl as a sort of kitschy gimmick or nod to a hipster scene that prefers analog over digital, Joyner wrote Ghosts, which comes out Aug. 14 on Sing! Eunuchs!, as four sides contained in a one gatefold sleeve, its dark themes ebbing and flowing from the dissonant chaos of Side One to depths of guilt, confusion and regret on Side Two to the grim, bleak darkness of Side Three to a deceptive pop relief on Side Four. The time it takes to get up and turn the record over gives listeners a brief respite between waves of desolation.

“There’s a lot of death on this record,” Joyner said. “Our guitarist, Mike Friedman, said that it was so heavy that he listened to the first record and then took a couple hours off before he listened to the second one.”

Simon Joyner, Ghosts (Sing, Eunuchs! 2012)

It’s hard to imagine listening to a digital version of Ghosts on an iPhone in shuffle mode while jogging, and stumbling across a song like the piano-and-guitar dirge “Swift River, Run” with its lines: “I’ve seen the levee burst / Seen fences devoured by the sun / Should the giant redwood burn / The ash will darken everyone.” Taken out of context sandwiched between, say, KC and the Sunshine Band and a Twin Shadows track, the slow, dismall song could seem almost comical. Taken in its proper place with the rest of the album, and it’s sobering darkness before the dawn.

Is it too much to ask a generation of distracted iPod-slinging youth to listen to and experience all four sides of Ghosts in their entirety? “I don’t think so,” Joyner said Saturday over the phone.

“I really don’t appreciate what that convenient form of listening has done to the album as an album. It’s kind of ruined it in a lot of ways,” he said. “There’s been some damage done to the album as a work of art in the new media, but I think there will always be serious appreciators of music who want the whole experience and not just convenient and quick entertainment. But it’s always been comparatively few.”

Joyner said he created the song arc on Ghosts in an attempt to make the listeners feel like they’ve “been through something and come out on the other side, whatever it may be.”

“Especially with a double record, the middle can get really deep into it. The songs work in a way where you’re kind of getting through the mess of what’s being worked on thematically.”

Side One opens with “Vertigo,” a violent, psychedelic, psychotic blues song that’s a crash of noise and fear. “(The song) announces some of the (album’s) themes: Escape and entrapment,” Joyner said. “Musically speaking, it sets the tone as far as the jagged, dissonant qualities of a band doing jagged, dissonant songs. It lets people know that this is going to be something different.”

“Different,” as in a change from Joyner’s usual style, though there’s nothing “usual” about a Simon Joyner album. Joyner began playing intelligent, personal coffee-shop-style folk back in early ‘90s, releasing his first cassette of songs, Umbilical Chords, when he was just 17. Since then, he’s recorded a dozen albums that range from the static folk of his landmark 1994 release The Cowardly Traveller Pays His Toll to the droll, bleak Heaven’s Gate (1995) to the afternoon balladry of ’99’s The Lousy Dance to the midnight acid blues of ’06’s Skeleton Blues to the somber beauty of ’09’s Out Into the Snow. Though the albums vary in their own ways, the common thread always has been — and continues to be — Joyner’s personal lyrics that provide dark and sometimes uncomfortable glimpses into the way he views life and death and all the stuff in between.

Ghosts continues those themes, but with more death than usual. It’s not so much a collection of eulogies as much as elegies to his own life and the lives of friends now gone. Side Two highlight, “Cotes Du Rhone,” for example, is about singer songwriter Vic Chesnutt, an old friend and musical influence who took his own life on Christmas Day 2009.

“I wrote (the song) in a Vic way, describing things in sort of a goofy, poetic way that I associate with him,” Joyner said. “I tried to write a Vic Chesnutt song about Vic Chesnutt’s death.”

The rock incantation “If It’s Alright With You (It’s Alright with Me),” which bridges Sides Two and Three, also is a tribute to Joyner’s friends who have passed. One verse, for example, repeats “If it’s alright with Jessica / It’s alright with me.” Joyner said he’d read a book about the Viet Nam War with a section about soldiers marching through the jungle chanting a similar recitation for their fallen comrades.

“It was a way of preparing themselves for death, trying to strengthen themselves for what’s going to happen,” Joyner said. “It got me thinking of the people I had lost over the last couple years and how it was weighing on me, and this idea of cataloging them as a way of respecting the dead. The more you deal with and interact with the difficult things in life, the better you will be in actually confronting these things. It’s not always a celebration.”

If it sounds depressing — and it certainly can be — there are plenty of breaks in the clouds, like the Side Four gem “If I Left Tomorrow,” which could be mistaken for a pop song. “It’s hopeful in its own way lyrically,” Joyner said. “It’s saying even though this thing is probably going to end, it’s not just wasted time, we didn’t compromise anything.

“Sometimes a tornado will take a house and will leave a staircase, that’s a hopeful thing,” Joyner said, referencing a line from the song. “There are disasters and rough stuff we go through, but there’s usually some exit, something provided that allows you to make it through another day. And whether it’s in a relationship or just whatever various things that life presents, that’s where the hope comes through.”

Simon Joyner and his band will celebrate the release of Ghosts with Solid Goldberg, Lightning Bug and Sun Settings Friday, Aug. 3, at The Sydney, 5918 Maple St. Showtime is 9 p.m. Admission is $5, or purchase the album for $20 at the venue and admission is free. For more information, call 402.932-9262 or visit thesydneybenson.com.

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There’s a second part to this interview with Simon Joyner that appears in print as this week’s column in The Reader. It talks about record labels and Kickstarter and that sort of thing. I’ll link you to it tomorrow.

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Conor Oberst picked The Huffington Post to debut and explain the new Desaparecidos single “MariKKKopa,” which you can read and hear right here. It’s a darn good punk song laser focused at Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Ariz. Once again, Conor proves he’s not afraid to name names to give his message some teeth. The single and its b-side “Backsell” (streamed at Alt Press) features (as the article says) “Oberst adopting the voice of anti-undocumented immigrant groups.”

Also from the article:

“As far as paying for public services for these new Americans — although I believe their participation in the economy would do so — I’d recommend cutting our military budget in half. We’d have more than enough money for all the basic public services we all require. I’ll never understand how we allow public health and education to suffer here at home while we spend endless amounts of money overseas fattening the purse of defense contractors.”

Tell it like it is, Mr. Oberst. Something tells me he’ll have even more to say when he takes the stage at The Maha Music Festival next Saturday night at Stinson Park.

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Tonight at The Waiting Room it’s Manchester UK producer/DJ Star Slinger with LOL Boys and Touch People (Darren Keen, ex-The Show Is the Rainbow). $12, 8 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 © 2012 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

I’ve been under an avalanche of Reader deadlines the past couple days and am just now lifting my head above the waves. Needless to say, you’ll be reading a lot about Simon Joyner here and in The Reader this week. He’s got a vinyl release show Friday night at The Sydney, and the hype meter is definitely off the charts.

In other news… Conor Oberst has been lighting up The Google the past few days after Omaha’s Golden Child played The Newport Folk Festival. Jambands.com — I site that I practically live at (no, really… not really) — reports that Oberst performed with Dawes and Jackson Browne the Friday prior at Newport’s Pickens Theater. You can watch the Conor Browne performance on the YouTube here. Have the Eagles ever sounded so good?

In addition, The Conor performed a couple new numbers during a gig in Fairfield, CT, last Thursday. That’s also online at YouTube, right here.

In other Saddle Creek news, your old pals Tilly in the Wall released the first track from their new one, Heavy Mood, which comes out Oct. 2 on Team Love. You can hear “Love Riot” via SoundCloud below. It definitely has that familiar Tilly shout stomp vibe:
[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/51157829″ iframe=”true” /]

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Speaking of vibes, Orgone returns to Omaha tonight at The Waiting Room. The L.A. project’s sound draws form soul, funk and Afrobeat. Satchel Grande is opening. $8, 9 p.m. Wanna taste? Check out “Lookout” via SoundCloud below:

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/4122936″ iframe=”true” /]

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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

No rock shows for me this past weekend. The only rock-related experience was seeing Well Aimed Arrows tear up the KETV sound stage with their performance on the station’s Sunday morning chat show. I doubt the host nor the show’s audience was quite prepared for what they heard. The gig was in support for this week’s Nebraska Pop Festival, which starts tomorrow. More on that later.

* * *

The Ottawa Sun had a write-up on Conor Oberst’s solo performance on Bluesfest’s Main Stage last Friday. Sounds like Conor and the band — guitarist David Rawlings, bassist Macey Taylor and drummer Jay Boesel  — played solo stuff to a smallish crowd, as well as a number of Bright Eyes tunes, eventually trotting out Gillian Welch for a surprise guest vocal on “Lua” and “Classic Cars.” Ah, but the best part was how he ended the set. From the write-up:

“The pair also coined a new verb —  ‘Skrillexed” —  ‘which means when you’re playing one stage, and a band on the other stage is ten times louder than you. We’re about to get Skrillexed by whoever that is over there,’ said Oberst, pointing to the culprit, Arkells, on the adjoining River Stage.“

I’d like to see Arkells try to “Skrillex” Desaparecidos…

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Tonight at The Waiting Room it’s British folk-pop duo Graffiti6 (Capitol Records) with our very own Matt Whipkey. $12, 8 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 © 2012 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

According to our friends at the Omaha World-Herald, Phil “Con Dios” Schaffart and Conor Oberst got the OK from the Omaha City Council yesterday afternoon for the liquor license for Pageturners, their proposed bar at 5004 Dodge St., but with a couple weird provisions. Among them: They can’t sell single-servings of off-sale drinks, which I guess means I won’t be able to go there to pick up my nightly 40 of King Cobra. The story also quotes Super Attorney of the Stars Sean Kelley saying that there would be no “loud live music,” and that the room’s capacity will only be 50. Fifty? That’s a tiny friggin’ bar. To put it in perspective, I think Conor traveled with more than 50 musicians during his White Tuxedo Tour of 2002. Just glancing through the front window, there’s got to be more room in there than that.

Dundee Theatre

Speaking of new and improved Dundee establishments, check out my column in this week’s issue of The Reader (online here) with details about the top-to-bottom renovation of the Dundee Theatre, including returning the theater’s original live stage, last used during the vaudeville era. That’s right, The Dundee Theatre will host live stage performances in addition to movie screenings. If you’re like me and have been going to flicks at the Dundee for the past 30-odd years, news of its renovation is a big deal. Read about it here, and congrats to Denny Moran and wife Janet for making it happen.

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Looks like this year’s free Memorial Park concert June 29 will feature the King of Wonder Bread rock, Huey Lewis & The News — big step down from last year’s Cheap Trick show. Ah well, at least all the old folks in the neighborhood will be thrilled.

* * *

Night Two of Big Al’s Free Music Fest features Gerald Lee, Jr. (Filter Kings), John Klemmensen and the Party and two bands I’ve never heard of. Like the name says, it’s free and starts at 9 at The Hideout, 320 So. 72 St. More info here.

Also tonight, Des Moines band Bright Giant plays at Slowdown Jr. with Lightning Bug. $7, 9 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 © 2012 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

I feel an obligation to explain the cryptic message at the end of yesterday’s blog. The message: “One more thing: Omaha peeps keep a close eye on the various and sundry social media sites late today and into the early evening. More than that, I cannot say…”

A few days ago I received an email notifying me of a secret show that was to take place at O’Leaver’s last night. The catch: If too many people find out before-hand, the band will cancel the gig, so don’t tell anyone until the night of the performance. Then yesterday at around 6, I got a text that said the show was off. Too many people had heard about it, so the band canceled.

I can’t tell you who the band is because doing so could jeopardize other future shows by this unsaid band. Of course, most people who live in Omaha and read this blog regularly know exactly who I’m talking about, and understand why this band lives under a paranoid veil of secrecy. Or maybe they don’t. I certainly don’t. What is the point of telling people that you’re doing a secret show, and then canceling the show because too many people know about it? And how many, exactly, is “too many people”? And how do you figure out that people are talking? Was a secret poll conducted of people huddled around Smoke Genies throughout the Dundee/Benson bar district?

“The numbers are in, boss. Thirty people confirmed knowledge of the show, with a high concentration located around Jake’s.”

“Fuck it, the show’s off. They knew the rules. I will not be defied.”

The whole sitch was the cause of much mirth at O’Leaver’s last night, where we came up with a new name for the band which combines the first eight letters of the band’s name followed by the word “pussies.” You do the math. I suggested that all this secrecy could hamper the band’s upcoming tour of national secret shows.

“Guys, I just cancelled Chicago. Way too much chitter-chat. And Minneapolis is in jeopardy. When I say ‘No talking,’ I mean no talking. They better learn: I WILL CANCEL EVERY SECRET SHOW ON THIS TOUR IF THEY KEEP IT UP. Now someone go text that…”

It sounds like I was one of the few people that got the 6 p.m. text saying that the show was canceled. I talked to a number of people in the large crowd at O’Leaver’s last night that didn’t find out until after they arrived. Well, at least they were treated to a fine set by McCarthy Trenching.

* * *

Speaking of secrets. A couple weeks ago someone tipped me off that Conor Oberst and Phil Schaffart were planning on opening a bar at 5004 Dodge Street in the old Pageturners storefront. Like the dutiful journalist I am, I emailed Phil and asked if it was true.

His response. “Yes, Conor and I are opening a lounge in the old Pageturners bookstore on Dodge st. We’re still in the planning stage but we hope to be open by mid summer. I appreciate your interest but was hoping you could please refrain from mentioning this in print for the time being? We have yet to be granted our Liquor License and we’d rather not draw any extra attention. Once all the dust has settled, I’d be happy to give you the details on the space and and what we’re planning for it.”

So what do you do? I could easily have ran with my information without contacting Phil. I already verified it via public filings. But I thought it would be better to get it from the horse’s mouth. And once I got Phil’s email, I felt obligated to sit on it until Phil said it was OK to run. I didn’t want to fuck up their plans.

Well, last night city councilman Pete Festerson tweeted about the bar, including its location. Moments later I got an email from Phil saying that The Omaha World-Herald was about to publish a story confirming the information. “I apologize if the OWH is able to print this info before you as you were indeed the first to inquire.”

Oh well.

So here’s what I know. The place will be called Pageturners Lounge and will open in late summer. And that’s about it. I haven’t been able to talk to Phil, who is on tour right now with M. Ward. But when I get details, I’ll pass them along.

Again, this wasn’t exactly a well-kept secret. Someone else had told me about it earlier yesterday evening, and I just nodded my head, knowingly. That person asked if Conor and Phil plan on doing live music at their new bar. I said I did not know. Having looked at the space myself, I could tell him that it’s a long, narrow room with a full basement.  Coffee-shop style performances might work; but I couldn’t imagine seeing a band there, but who knows (other than Phil and Conor, who presumably is sequestered inside a bunker deep within his Fairacres mansion)? I said I had a feeling that they may follow the Krug Park model, which so far seems to have been wildly successful at drawing a crowd by simply serving fantastic beer. Time will tell.

This morning’s OWH article seems to confirm my assumptions. I think you can tell by its tone that Phil wasn’t too eager to talk about the project.

* * *

Cowboy Junkies at The Slowdown, April 19, 2012.

There were around 200 on hand for last night’s Cowboy Junkies show at The Slowdown, which turned out to be a “sit-down” affair. Rows of folding chairs were placed in the area in front of the stage, apparently to appease an older crowd. And I do mean older; I practically felt like a spring chicken. But in their defense, old people know what’s good and definitely know what they like, and there was a lot to like about last night’s performance.

Margo Timmons and the band came on at 8 and preceded to play two one-hour sets and an encore. The stage felt intimate in the dim light, with Margo seated out front next to a vase filled with red roses. If you’re a fan of this band and were there, you very likely were entranced. At times their set had that same hushed, haunted feel heard on their early records; at other times, they pulled back the lid and rocked. Timmons has a fantastic, even, ethereal voice on haunted songs about haunted lives. To their credit, their new album contains some of the best material of their career.

Chatting with a couple who drove in from Lincoln for the show, I guessed that the band wait until the encore to play their famous cover of Velvet Underground’s “Sweet Jane.” Instead, they launched into it as the first song of their second set, as gorgeous as ever.

I didn’t stay for the whole show, since I wanted to see McCarthy Trenching at O’Leaver’s. Opening was James Maakestad of Gus & Call, who played a set of rustic acoustic jams that highlighted his amazing voice. How would these sound with a full band? Do they even need to be fleshed out with anything beyond his voice and guitar? Maakestad stayed on stage to back Dan McCarthy on stand-up bass. McCarthy is Omaha’s Randy Newman — a musical genius who has a unique, funny and touching way with words. He sang a number of songs from his new album, along with “The Ballad of Dorothy Lynch,” which is bound to be an instant classic.

* * *

Briefly (because this is running long) here’s a recap of some of the better shows this weekend:

Back at O’Leaver’s tonight it’s Back When with Ketchup and Mustard Gas and New Lungs. Bring your earplugs, it gonna be loud. $5, 9:30 p.m.

Tomorrow at Elmwood Park it’s Earth Day. The full schedule of events is right here, but the highlight from a performance standpoint is Icky Blossoms, who play from 3:40 to 4:25. Should be a blast, and it’s free. More info here.

If you’re in Lincoln tomorrow, Duffy’s is hosting a benefit show for KRNU. The lineup: Great American Desert, AZP, Manny Coon, Shipbuilding Co., Good Show Great Show, Pharmacy Spirits, Sun Settings and Machete Archive. Show starts at 5 p.m. and suggested donation is $5. More info here. I only wish we had a KRNU here in Omaha…

And don’t forget that tomorrow is Record Store Day. Get out to The Antiquarium (check out all their cool-ass promotions), Homer’s and the Shop at Saddle Creek and buy some vinyl.

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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.

Dave Sink in better days...

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

This week’s issue of The Reader features a cover story that compiles remembrances of Dave Sink from the musicians and friends who knew him best. And while portions of the article have appeared on other websites over the past day or so, none collect more comments from the people who made a mark during the era in which Sink was most influential. The contributors: Brian Byrd, Simon Joyner, Craig Crawford, Pat Buchanan, Bernie McGinn, Conor Oberst, Robb Nansel, Gary Dean Davis, Tim Moss, Matt Whipkey, Jake Bellows, Patrick Kinney, Adam J. Fogarty, Gus Rodino and Brad Smith. You can read the article online right here, or find a printed copy around town.

The issue also includes my remembrance of Dave, which I’ve posted below:

Remembering Dave

It began in November 1992. I was a few years out of college at UNO, already working full time at Union Pacific, but still writing about underground music, something that I’d begun doing as the editor of the college paper and as a freelance writer for The Metropolitan and The Note, a Lawrence, Kansas, regional music paper that had expanded its coverage to Omaha and Lincoln.

One of my first assignments for The Note was writing a piece on Dave Sink, his record store in the basement of The Antiquarium, and his record label, One-Hour Records. By the time of our interview, One-Hour already had released singles by Culture Fire (Release), Frontier Trust (Highway Miles) and Mousetrap (“Supercool” b/w “Fubar”), as well as Simon Joyner’s landmark full-length cassette, Umbilical Chords. One-Hour was a big deal both to the editors down in Lawrence and to me.

The audience for indie and punk music in Omaha was microscopic. At this point in its history, Omaha’s live music scene was dominated by top-40 cover bands that played a circuit of local meat-market bars along 72nd St. College music was heard mostly in college towns — something that Omaha certainly wasn’t. But Dave didn’t care. He had no aspirations of getting rich off One-Hour.

From that article:

“It’s fun empowering people,” said the 43-year-old entrepreneur who used to prefer classic rock to punk. “These are good people with good ideas and lots of energy. I knew these guys as really cool people long before I knew them as musicians.”

The advantage to being on One-Hour? “Possibly nothing,” Sink said. “We’re in an infant stage. But this is how Sub Pop got started and a lot of other quality punk labels. Any band we press is going to get 200 promotional copies of their single shipped to radio stations and ‘zines across the U.S. and Europe. The bottom line is we’re a medium for a band to reach a broader audience.”

Sink said Omaha had never had as many good original bands as it does now, whether the city knows it or not. “Unfortunately, most of the time they’re playing shows for each other. Omaha has a very talented music scene that is woefully underappreciated.”

Funny how, despite the success of Saddle Creek Records, little has changed.

After that story ran, I continued to drop into Dave’s store. He would pick out an armful of albums and singles for me to buy, and that’s how I discovered a lot of the bands that I would end up writing about in The Note (and later, in The Reader). He was always willing to give me the inside scoop on something that was going on musicwise. And much to my surprise, he read a lot of my stories, and was always willing to tell me when he thought I got it right, or got it wrong. A former editor at the old Benson Sun Newspaper, Dave’s perspective on my writing went beyond his music knowledge. As a result, he was always in the back of my mind whenever I wrote anything about music (and still is). I guess I didn’t want to disappoint Dave. Actually, no one did.

Toward the latter days of his involvement in the record store, Dave became more and more disillusioned with modern music. I’d go down there ask him what was good and he’d start off by saying, “Nothing, it’s all shit,” but eventually would find a few things for me to buy. He was more into jazz by then, and (of course) baseball, which we’d talk about at great length, along with his perspective on art and literature and film.

Funny thing, it didn’t matter that Dave was 20 or 30 years older than the kids buying the records. They all respected and sought out his opinion, and Dave was always happy to give it. My favorite Dave line when he didn’t like something: “It’s not my cup of tea.” It was that simple.

As the years went on, Dave quit showing up at the store, and then eventually it changed hands and moved out of the basement. Meanwhile, Saddle Creek Records bloomed, Omaha became nationally recognized as the new indie music “ground zero,” and I slowly lost touch with Dave.

And then along came Facebook. And there was Dave again. Over the last couple years we reconnected online, but mostly about baseball. Dave, a long-time Royals rooter, hated the fact that I’m a Yankees fan, a team he said was ruining baseball. I would argue that, in a market like Omaha, being a Yankees fan was downright punk – people hated you for it, that it was a lonely existence not unlike being a punk fan in the ‘90s. He never bought that argument.

I tried and I tried to get Dave to do that all-encompassing interview about the glory days of One-Hour and The Antiquarium. I told him how much he influenced everything that Omaha’s music scene had become, that I wanted to tell his story and put him on the cover of The Reader. Of course he would have none of it. He would kindly turn down the requests, saying he didn’t do anything, that he was only a record store owner and that the focus should be on the bands, not him.

Despite that, I think he knew how important he was to everything that’s happened here. He certainly was important to me.

* * *

If I had to venture a guess, I’d bet that Dave wasn’t a Lemonheads fan.

Not coincidentally, neither am I. But that shouldn’t stop you from going to see The Lemonheads tonight at The Waiting Room, where the band will be performing It’s a Shame About Ray in its entirety. I’m told that Evan Dando was a bit fussy the last time he came to Omaha. What will he do this time? Opening is Meredith Sheldon. $15, 9 p.m.

Also tonight, power pop in the form of Lonely Estates and the Beat Seekers at The Sydney. 9 p.m., $5.

* * *

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.