Domestica, Wagon Blasters, Broke Loose, Optic Sink, David Nance/Mowed Sound, Matt Whipkey tonight; Facet, Leafblower Sunday…

Memphis post-punk trio Optic Sink plays at Grapefruit Records tonight.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

It’s a freaking log-jam of great shows tonight (Friday).

Top of my list is an old-school combination – Lincoln power-punk trio Domestica and Gary Dean Davis’ tractor-punk sensations Wagon Blasters at The Sydney in Benson. Who remembers when Mercy Rule and Frontier Trust played shows together in Omaha and Lincoln back in the mid-‘90s? Well it should be just like that except completely different. Both are opening for Glenn Antonucci’s alt-country-rock band The Broke Loose (think midwestern Centro-matic). $10, 9 p.m. Bring your earplugs…

Meanwhile, down at Grapefruit Records in the Old Market (1125 Jackson St.), Memphis post-punk trio Optic Sink plays an in-store show with local heroes David Nance and Mowed Sound. Fronted by Natalie Hoffman (NOTS) with Ben Bauermeister (Magic Kids) and Keith Cooper (Jack Oblivion & The Sheiks), Optic Sink is a synth-heavy First Wave-style dance-punk riot whose latest, Glass Blocks, was released last September by Feel It Records (Their 2020 debut was released by Goner). David Nance and Co. should be red-hot, having been on the road supporting their Third Man Records full-length debut. DJ Justis Brokenrope kicks things off at 7:45 p.m. $15.

Also tonight… did you know that The Jewell in the Capital District just reopened? Well it did, and in addition to jazz, the new Jewell is supporting local acts of all genres. F’r example, tonight the have The Matt Whipkey Duo (which features guitarist Mike Friedman). It’s a free show and starts at 7:30.

Sunday night, Oakland, California, noise-punk trio Facet headlines at Reverb Lounge. Clearly inspired by ‘90s acts like Unwound and Unsane, their sound is hard, angular, post-hardcore. Joining them on the bill is Omaha noise band Living Conditions and post-punk monsters Leafblower, who kicks things off at 8 p.m. $10. 

Just a head’s up – we’re down to five tickets remaining for Monday’s Eric Bachmann show at Ming Toy Gallery. Snag one while you can from The Undertow Website. More info about that show is right here.  I also may or may not have an interview with Bachmann going up on the site tomorrow – it depends on if he gets in touch with me today. 

And that’s all I got. If I missed your show, put it in the comments section. Have a great weekend!

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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 © 2024 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

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David Nance & Mowed Sound tonight (album reviews); Matthew Sweet Saturday…

Category: Blog,Reviews — Tags: , — @ 8:33 am February 16, 2024
David Nance and Mosed sound play at their LP release party tonight at Reverb Lounge.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Ironically, the last band I saw in 2023 will be the first band I see in 2024. David Nance & Mowed Sound host their LP release show tonight at Reverb Lounge. The self-titled debut on Jack White’s Third Man Records came out two weeks ago. I mentioned the Pitchfork review already. But since then Allmusic, Paste and Spectrum Culture have also weighed in.

Allmusic gave the album a 4-star rating and concluded with: “It’s anyone’s guess if David Nance & Mowed Sound represents a new direction for the frontman or just a detour on the way back to wilder things, but if his goal was to show he had some cards up his sleeve we hadn’t seen before, he succeeds brilliantly.” 

Paste rated the album 8.0 – “The Nebraska musician’s latest shoulders rock music into new phenomena while remaining achingly indebted to its capacity for magic and freedom.”

Spectrum Culture gave the record a 79% rating (almost four stars) — “A surprisingly tight set of gently pan-fried country-tinged numbers from Omaha’s finest DIY rockers still contains plenty of good old American weirdness.”

High marks, almost “critical darling” territory. Heck even Matador Records co-founder Gerard Cosloy mentioned the record in on his Can’t Stop the Bleeding twitter account with this comment: “alright.  for the price of a lawn GA ticket to see Neil Young & Crazy Horse, you could instead purchase David Nance’s ‘Mowed Sound” AND Ryan Davis & The Roadhouse Band’s ‘Dancing On The Edge’ and you’d still have enough left over (for a downpayment on parking to see Neil Young)

My review? 

David Nance & Mowed Sound, self-titled (Third Man Records) – This is throttled down David Nance. Restraining his usually blewsy, rough-hewn psych/garage rock, brings forth a rootsy, folk rock style more interested in songcraft than in blowing your head off, and that’s not a bad thing. And while there’s a hint of twang, as Nance says this ain’t no country album, and it ain’t. This is an old-fashioned record that should be purchased on vinyl, enjoyed one side at a time, preferably on a sun-drenched weekend afternoon.  So yeah, I dig it. I’d dig it even more if he’d amped up these songs with harder riffs and longer solos, like in his good old days. Rating: Yes.

Maybe we’ll get the harder versions of these songs tonight at Reverb Lounge. Pagan Athletes opens at 8 p.m. $15. Methinks this one could sell out.

Tomorrow night, Matthew Sweet returns to the Waiting Room Stage. I wrote about Sweet and this show yesterday, if you missed it. Mobile, Alabama-based twangin’ singer/songwriter Abe Partridge opens at 8 p.m. $25.

And that is all I got. If I missed your show, put it in the comments section. Have a great weekend.

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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 © 2024 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Lazy-i

David Nance & Mowed Sound gets Pitchforked (6.7 rating)…

Category: Blog — Tags: , — @ 8:42 am February 12, 2024

A screenshot from the new video for David Nance & Mowed Sound’s single, “Credit Line.”

by Tim McMahan,Lazy-i.com

Last Friday the new self-titled album by David Nance & Mowed Sound was released on Jack White’s Third Man Records, and I was thrilled to hear that it includes a new uptempo version of “Credit Line” similar to the version heard at Petfest a couple years ago. Nance and Company even released a video for the song, directed by local cinematic genius Nik Fackler. 

I’m still digesting the album and need to drop by Grapefruit Records to pick up a vinyl copy, but after initial spins, I dig what I’m hearing. Pitchfork, that kooky bible of everything indie, does as well, having reviewed the album Saturday and giving it a better-than-okay but less-than-stellar 6.7 rating. Critic Grayson Haver Currin seemed to dig the album but felt the band held back too much compared to some of Nance’s earlier releases. 

It also feels circumscribed and safe, though, as if Nance and a band capable of truly cutting loose tried to make their own modern classic rock LP by forsaking the weirdness and wildness that made them special,” he writes, concluding the review with: “But as good as it often is, Mowed Sound reinforces what, in retrospect, has been Nance’s conundrum all along: He remains the clerk across the record store counter, gushing about all the things he loves without being able to tell you the one he likes best, the one he would forever commit to calling his own.

Not sure what he means by that last line, but I do agree the album feels more restrained than some of Nance’s earlier albums, which can be both a good thing and a bit frustrating. For example, having seen Nance perform live countless times in the past, his most recent gig at The Waiting Room opening for Icky Blossoms also felt less “out there” and more held back than past white-knuckle performances. 

What will Nance & Mowed Sound bring to the stage when they play their album release show this Friday at Reverb? 

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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 © 2024 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

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New David Nance & Mowed Sound on Third Man Records; MX Lonely at Blindspot Feb. 1…

Category: Blog — Tags: , , , , — @ 8:04 am January 5, 2024

David Nance & Mowed Sound at The Waiting Room Dec. 26, 2023.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Yesterday it was announced via their PR agency that David Nance’s next album, titled David Nance & Mowed Sound, will be released Feb. 9 on Jack White’s Third Man Records.  

Nance’s relationship with White goes back at least to September 2018 when a member of White’s team reached out and asked if Nance would open for White at an outdoor gig at ONEOK Field in Tulsa, according to this interview. A year later, Third Man released a 7-inch by David Nance Group, “Meanwhile” b/w “Credit Line”. I guess ol’ Jack liked what he heard.

From yesterday’s press release: 

Led by Nance on vocals and guitar alongside Kevin Donahue on drums, James Schroeder on guitar, Derrick Higgins and Sam Lipsett on bass, alongside guest appearances from Megan Siebe, Skye Junginger, and Pearl LoveJoy Boyd, Nance brings together a crew of veteran Omaha musicians for a record that showcases Nance’s  voracious appetite for anything that rocks, anything that soothes, and all the glorious static and disturbed transmissions in between. ‘The whole album is a big magic trick,’ Nance says, ‘most of these songs were written as country songs and then were perverted into different forms…but it sure as shit isn’t a country record.’”

No, it’s definitely not C&W. Folks who saw David Nance & Mowed Sound open for Icky Blossoms Dec. 26 at The Waiting Room likely got a sneak preview of some of the new material, which, as I mentioned in the show review, sounded like a midwestern version of Robbie Robertson and The Band. Listen to the first single, “Mock the Hours,” embedded below. You can pre-order the album from the Bandcamp page, which, strangely enough, has Nance’s own Western Records logo on the header (but includes a link back to the Third Man Records site). 

The album’s track listing includes yet another version of “Credit Line” — this will mark the third recorded version of the song that I’m aware of, and hopefully resembles the gritty, rock version they played at Petfest back in ’22.

. 0 0 0 . 

There are no indie shows to speak of this weekend. It’s as simple as that. 

However, in perusing my Instagram feed this week, I discovered that New York-based heavy shoegaze band MX Lonely will be playing at the mysterious, illusive, new all-ages punk venue The Blindspot Feb. 1. 

It took some serious internet digging to find out anything about the band, but I finally found this article on Post-punk.com that said MX Lonely was formed in November 2021 by Rae Haas and Jake Harms (ex-HARMS), initially as a home recording project. In November 2020 Haas began collaborating with fellow Brooklyn multi-instrumentalists, Gabe Garman and Chris Curtin. The article’s author, Alice Teeple, said thier music sounds like “a mix of Deftones, Hotline TNT, Preoccupations, Nothing, Cloakroom, and a few Frank Black screams for good measure,” which is pretty straight on. Hear for yourself. 

Anyway, stick a pin in Feb. 1 for this show. Opening is Omaha underground buzz bands Western Haikus and Cupholder. The Blindspot used to be one of those places that didn’t list their address, however their latest posts on Instagram show the addy as 619 So. 20th St. $10, 7:30 p.m. Considering my age, I’m going to have to go in disguise…

Have a great weekend…

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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 © 2024 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

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