Bien Fang at O’Leaver’s March 4, 2016. The band plays tonight at The Waiting Room.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Among the year-end lists (or list of lists) I pay attention to is the annual Matador Records’ “Orgy of Self Congratulations,” wherein Matador artists and associates lay out what music and performances were their favorites in the past year. Matador co-founder Gerard Cosloy always ends the blog with his lists, and among his favorite recordings in 2016 was David Nance’s More Than Enough (Badabing Records). Is it a big deal? Probably not, but it is to me because I’ve always respected Cosloy’s taste in music, back to his days at Homestead Records. Check out Cosloy’s full list (and the rest of Matadors’ listings) right here.

By the way Big Thief, Saddle Creek’s biggest roster addition, also made it onto three other Matador folks’ lists. Big Thief has had a big year. Someone needs to bring them back to Omaha…

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Speaking of David Nance, Hear Nebraska announced the line-up of its 6th Annual Take Cover concert at The Waiting Room Jan. 28. This is a fundraiser where performers cover a song by another Nebraska artist and play one of their own songs to boot.

Among the participants this time is the aforementioned David Nance. Other standout acts include See Through Dresses, Mint Wad Willy and Thick Paint. More info and full line-up here.

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Nebraska band Bib has captured its share of national attention this year. Noisey did a Q&A with the band upon the release of their demos 7-inch and 5-song EP Pop on Deranged Records and ETT in Europe. They also received a brief write-up in Maximum Rock ‘n’ Roll; and, of course, hit the road on tour. And they’re capping off the year with a gig at fabulous O’Leaver’s tonight.

Conny Franko, who’s had a pretty good 2016 in his own right, also is on the bill along with the super-talented Jim Schroeder (UUVVWWZ). Subtropics headline. $5, 9 p.m.

Also tonight, Lincoln’s Bien Fang (self-proclaimed grunge-pop band featuring Rachel Tomlinson Dick, Nathaniel Luginbill and Katherine Courtney Morrow) opens for Hottman Sisters at The Waiting Room. Scott Nohrenberg kicks things off at 8. $7.

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Lazy-i Best of 2016 Comp CD

Finally, if you missed it yesterday (and many of you did), enter to win a copy of the Lazy-i Best of 2016 comp CD. The collection includes my favorite indie tunes I’ve come across throughout last year as part of my tireless work as a music critic for Lazy-i. Among those represented: Car Seat Heardrest, Sam Evian, Whitney, Big Thief, Father John Misty, A Tribe Called Quest and lots more. The full track listing is here. Entering to win a copy couldn’t be easier, either: 1. Send an email with your mailing address to tim.mcmahan@gmail.com, or 2) Write a comment on one of my Lazy-i related posts in Facebook, or 3) Retweet a Lazy-i tweet. You also can enter by sending me a direct message in Facebook or Twitter. Hurry, contest deadline is midnight Jan. 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 © 2016 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

High Up plays tonight at Slowdown Jr.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Everyone’s favorite low-fi rock explosion, David Nance, dropped a 17-song live blast called Dragging Across The East yesterday via Bandcamp. Sez Nance in Facebook: “Here’s 17 songs recorded live over the past couple of years. Recorded mostly on an iPhone (although there’s a few takes from a session at WNYU), everything included is quite loose and ugly. Fun stuff. Banter galore. A few covers (Richard Thompson and Armand Schaubroeck). All Free. Happy Holidays.”

Hear Nebraska says Nance just wrapped recording his next studio album, which will be released next year on Ba Da Bing. That ticking sound you hear is Nance, about to explode.

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Omaha World-Herald‘s Kevin Coffey posted an item with an embedded video of Conor Oberst singing The Replacements’ “Here Comes A Regular,” dedicated to Conor’s brother, Matt, who recently passed away. I didn’t know Matt, though I had the pleasure of interviewing him a couple times about his band, Sorry About Dresden, one of my favorites from the early ’00s. Why Dresden never took off like those other early Creek bands, I do not know. It sure wasn’t from lack of quality.

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With three hot shows happening tonight you’d think it was already the weekend (which it kind of is for me since I have tomorrow off).

Top of the list is High Up down at Slowdown Jr. What’s the occasion? Who needs a reason to rock? Maybe Christine and Co. will roll out some new material. Find out. And get there early. The amazing Sam Martin opens along with the always-entertaining Sean Pratt & the Sweats. $7, 9 p.m.

Meanwhile, over at The Brothers Lounge, Silversphere (f.k.a. The Lepers) headlines a show with Ridgelines and Chalant. $5, 9 p.m.

And finally, Josh Hoyer and Soul Colossal overtake fabulous O’Leaver’s tonight. Can everyone’s favorite mid-town club handle Hoyer’s expansive sound? No opener listed, just a long night of Hoyer soul/funk. 9:30, $5.

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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.

Jeffrey Lewis and Los Bolts at Reverb Lounge, Nov. 15, 2016.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Here Jeffrey Lewis was expecting no one to be at last night’s show at Reverb Lounge and there he was greeted by a nearly full room of around 35 to see the Manhattan troubadour and his uber talented band Los Bolts. And Lewis seemed quite pleased, saying it was the biggest crowd he’d every played for… in Omaha.

With guitar in hand he launched right into a set that included a lot of songs off his recent album, Manhattan, as well as a handful of chestnuts from years past. What I found most surprising was how much the set rocked. Lewis’ albums are mainly fast-paced upbeat acoustic folk fare, while last night’s show slalomed between acoustic and electric — somehow he made that acoustic guitar scream as loud as any Fender Strat, with full-blown feedback snarls. Lewis is, indeed, as good a guitarist as he is a great songwriter.

After every few songs he went to his Macbook, which fed a small projector that he used to tell stories supported by comic-book-style illustrations. One told the history of Sitting Bull; another told how he’s gone from being a hippy (clothingwise) to a regular dude. The funniest of these stories were adaptations of Nirvana songs from the album Bleach — specifically “Big Cheeze” and “Mr. Moustache” — that proved just how inane Kurt Cobain’s lyrics could be.

Lewis’ entire set had a lift of humor behind it, including his between-song patter wherein he reminded me of a young Gilbert Gottfried, complete with a Gottfried squint. Funny stuff. I ended up buying a couple issues of Lewis’ Fuff comic book and an outtakes and rarities album I hadn’t seen before. Judging from the lines, he did very well with merch sales.

David Nance at Reverb Lounge, Nov. 15, 2016.

There was as big a crowd for the show opener, David Nance and his band, which included Simon Joyner on bass (a first for Joyner). Nance’s music was quite a contrast to Lewis’. They played only two songs, but each lasted at least 15 minutes, and consisted of droning, building, feedback-layered head sounds. One well-schooled music fan I talked to said the set reminded him of Dream Syndicate (?) and Velvet Underground (dead on). Or imagine drawn-out, dark, slow, psychedelic tunes without keyboards and you begin to get the picture. Nance’s music is trance-like, almost hypnotic in its powerful dissonance. A great night of music.

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Let me tell you a brief record-buying story.

I recently walked into Almost Music in the Blackstone District to do some record shopping. Flipping through the stacks, I made conversation with the proprietor, a fine lad named Brad Smith. “Brad,” I said, “why don’t you pick me out an album that you think I’d like. Every good record store proprietor should be able to pick out a record that can’t miss with one of his or her patrons.”

Brad thought about this a moment, and then said something along the lines of “Everyone has his or her own specific tastes,” which is true. “But,” I said, “you still must have something I’ve never heard before that you can recommend.”

So Brad walked from behind the glass counter and began flipping through the new vinyl and said “Here” and handed me a copy of The Self-Titled Album by a group I never heard of called Tenement. I told him to put it on the stack, which included a used copy of Talking Heads 77  and Rolling Stones’ Goats Head Soup and a signed copy of James Ellroy’s Blood’s a Rover. There always lots of good stuff at Almost Music.

And I took that record home, put it on the turntable and was knocked out by it. Tenement is a trio from Appleton, Wisconsin, that has been kicking around since 2006. Their Wikipedia bio says they’re often associated with the American hardcore punk scene, though you wouldn’t know it by listening to this record. which was released this year on Deranged Records. While the first track, “Everyone to Love You,” does have a throbbing punk rock sensibility (in fact, Brad warned me about it — what’s with people thinking I don’t like punk rock no more?), the rest of the record bounced between styles as diverse as Pavement, Ted Leo/Pharmacists and ’80s-era Rolling Stones. It’s a gorgeous record and on my list of favorites for 2016, and you should definitely check it out.

Which just goes to show you that you can always trust Brad Smith to make a blind recommendation for how to spend your hard-earned dollars.

All of this is just a long-winded way of letting you know that Tenement is playing an early show tonight at Sokol Underground. I’ve been told this show originally was scheduled for a different venue, but was moved as an early show to compliment the NOFX show also taking place at Sokol Auditorium later tonight (though Tenement has nothing in common with NOFX).

Tenement, the second band for this early show, goes on at 6:15 after Meat Wave (a Chicago punk band on SideOneDummy, who starts at 5:30) and is followed by Direct Hit (Fat Wreck Chords). It’s a $10 show, but only $5 if you have a NOFX ticket.

That NOFX show at Sokol Aud includes openers PEARS and Useless ID, costs $30 and starts at 8 p.m.

Also tonight, Brothers Lounge is hosting Denver punkabilly band The Living Deads along with no-coast surf punks Huge Fucking Waves. $5, 10 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 © 2016 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Relax, It’s Science at The Barley Street Tavern, Nov. 12, 2016.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Saturday night was the first time I’ve been to a show in nearly a month. I have no explanation for my absence other than: 1) I’d seen the bands before; 2) I had to be at work early the following morning, or 3) I’m getting old. I’ll buy reasons 1 and 2 and never reason 3.

Somehow I dragged my tired old bones to The Barley Street Tavern Saturday night so see Jeremy Stanosheck’s band Relax, It’s Science, a band that, yes, I’ve seen before, and I’m hear to report they were as good as last time. Two basses and a drummer could be a confining combination, but Jeremy and Co. found a way to make it work on their sometimes droning two-chord prog songs. Some might find their lack of variation within compositions monotonous, but its hard to not be drawn in (especially when you’re standing eight feet from the stage).

It was when the band reached beyond their formula that things really got interesting, specifically on their final song, a composition titled “9-11, What a Bummer.” Here the trio played with more dynamics and variations — dipped and soared — climaxing with a rush, like a falling building. Jeremy tells me “9-11…” is an older song (in fact it appears on their debut EP); to me, it still points in a promising direction.

I intend to make up for missing all those shows the last few weeks by killing myself this week with shows. Or at least going out tonight.

As I wrote yesterday, tonight Jeffrey Lewis and Los Bolts graces the Reverb stage. If you’re into smart, topical, story-telling-style urban folk, look no further. Jeffrey made some waves a few weeks ago with a video asking people to vote for Hillary. It’ll be interesting to see what he has to sing about the outcome of the election. He said in the interview he’ll be trying out some new material, and his recent album, Manhattan (2015, Rough Trade), is pretty awesome. And David Nance opens. What more do you want for $8? 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 © 2016 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Looking down on Sixth Street from Maggie Mays at South By Southwest 2015. This year’s SXSW kicks off today.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The annual South By Southwest music festival is kicking off in Austin today. I would be remiss in not saying it pangs me not being there this year, especially since they’re having 90-degree weather in Austin. The weather at SXSW has blown the past couple of years.

Lots o’ people from Nebraska will be down there. Taking my place (and Chris Aponick’s place) representing/reporting for The Reader is cartoonist Paul Trap. Paul is known first and foremost as the dude behind syndicated comic strip “Thatababy,” which I believe is carried in more than 100 newspapers nationally.

Paul also is a huge indie music fan. If you’ve gone to shows locally over the past few years you’ve probably seen him. When he told me he was going to try going to SXSW this year without a badge I suggested he get one from The Reader and be their correspondent. He took my advice (and so did The Reader), so you’ll be seeing Paul’s updates throughout the week, starting with this one. I’ll post links to more of his updates as they go online.

I can’t wait to see how he illustrates this year’s SXSW for the printed version of The Reader.

Of course Hear Nebraska is going to have a bevy of writers and photographers on hand this year as well. You can follow their hi-jinx at hearnebraska.org. No doubt they’ll be covering Lincoln’s Nebraska Exposed showcase, which takes place tomorrow.

And as always, the Omaha World-Herald‘s Kevin Coffey has conned his paper into sending him to Austin on their dime (and getting paid for it). Look for Kevin’s updates via his twitter feed @owhmusicguy. Oh, what a life.

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This week’s Live @ O’Leaver’s sessions just hit the ‘net. Check them out below. Lush Bruise Crew is David Nance’s band, BTW…

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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.