Who doesn’t like an awards show, especially one focused on music?

No, I’m not talking about The Grammy’s, I’m talkin’ ’bout the Libera Awards, brought to you by the American Association of Independent Music (A2IM), the trade group for the indie music industry.

For the first time, the awards show is going to be streamed live for free, tonight starting at 5:30 p.m.

It’s sort of like the Grammy’s for indie rock. For example, the bands nominated for Album of the Year: FKA Twigs, Angel Olsen, Brittany Howard, Orville Peck and Big Thief. Big Thief, formerly on our very own Saddle Creek Records (now on 4AD), also is nominated for Best Alternative Rock album, and will be performing live at the ceremony.

Once again this year, Saddle Creek Records has been nominated for the Label of the Year (Medium) award, alongside 4AD, ATO, Sacred Bones and Drag City. Will the Creek take home the coveted Libera? You’ll have to tune in to find out. Register for free here.

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Also tonight, Omaha legend Dereck Higgins is performing a virtual concert streamed live from The Bemis Center’s Low End performance space.

“For his performance, he will play a variety of his electronic compositions with live accompaniment as well as improvise several ambient pieces created on the spot,” Bemis writes. The stream begins via Facebook and Twitch (twitch.com/bemiscenter) starting at 8 p.m.

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Finally, this month’s Over the Edge column in The Reader is all about the fashion of face masks, and includes an interview with Fashion Institute Midwest’s Denise Ervin. Who would have thought Billie Eilish and Gucci could be so precog as to know face masks would become fashion staples months before the pandemic? Read the column here.

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 © 2020 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Criteria, Years (2020, 15 Passenger)

Last Friday Criteria’s new album Years dropped via 15 Passenger Records. It’s a banger. BrooklynVegan was the first outlet to sort of review the album, saying: “The more polished sound suits them well, and helps elevate their chunky post-hardcore/alt-rock to a level where Criteria sound like even more of a force than they did during their initial run. The songwriting is inspired, the songs rip, and it just feels great to have this band back.”

Indeed. Get your copy and have a listen here. Tonight Criteria opens for Cursive at Neumos in Seattle.

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Digital Leather last week shared yet another song off its forthcoming album, Because You’re a Winner, called “V.” Check it below:

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And the always prolific Dereck Higgins dropped a new track in Soundcloud called “Scoobs.” He says he’s “causally working” toward a new album. And pssst…. InDreama also is in the studio.

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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 © 2020 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Stef Chura’s new album, Midnight, comes out on Saddle Creek Records June 7.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Stef Chura, one of Saddle Creek Records’ more recent signings, announced this morning her new album, Midnight, will drop June 7. The album was produced by Will Toledo of Car Seat Headrest and is likely to be much more rough-hewn than Chura’s 2017 Creek debut Messes. Certainly the first track, “Method Man,” seems to support that theory. 

You can order the limited-edition blue glow-in-the-dark splatter vinyl at the Saddle Creek store.

Chura also announced an Omaha date for her summer tour — Aug. 6 at Reverb Lounge. 

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Musician Dereck Higgins (DHX, R.A.F., ex-Digital Sex) is the subject of a new mini-documentary about Nebraska from filmmaker Brad Barber. 

“States of America” is a series of documentary shorts, featuring one person in each of the 50 states. New state episodes are released once a month until all 50 are complete. Higgins said he doesn’t know how his name got submitted for the project. “They interviewed me on the phone. About a month later they called back saying I was chosen,” he said. “I have no idea who suggested me.”

In the 5-minute video, Higgins talks about living in Nebraska and the role music plays in his life. There’s also some tasty footage of Higgins performing in R.A.F. Check it out below. 

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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 © 2019 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

As many foliks who follow this website know, there were a couple landmark performances that took place over last weekend — the John Prine/Conor Oberst concert at The Orpheum and the Cursive show at The Waiting Room. In days gone by, I would have attended both (if I could afford it) and would have written live reviews.

But life being what it is, I missed both shows due to family stuff and work stuff. As I get older, going to shows is becoming more of a challenge. Yeah, I still go to rock shows and write about them, but fewer than in the old days, when it wasn’t uncommon to hit as many as four shows a week (Who remembers when were four GOOD shows per week in Omaha?).

Add to this the loss of Hear Nebraska‘s concert coverage and you say to yourself, “How am I supposed to keep up with what’s going on in the Omaha music scene?”

Well, here are some brand new resources for local music news and reviews to check out:

— Kevin Coffey has held the mantle of Omaha’s chief music critic since taking over the music reporting chores at the Omaha World-Herald from Niz Proskocil in the fall of 2008 — that’s 10 years for those keeping count. In addition to his news and reviews work at the OWH, Kevin launched a new podcast last week called Guest List. The first episode includes interview excerpts with John Prine as well as the list of his favorite concerts. You can check out Guest List on iTunes or your iPhone’s Podcast app. I’m sure it’s also available somewhere on an Android phone…?

If you don’t know what a podcast is, check out my column in the current issue of The Reader about the Serial podcast. BTW, I tried may hand at the podcasting game way back in the spring of 2015 — Who remembers the Lazy-i podcast? I quickly discovered that all the work involved in recording and editing each episode by myself was too much for a mere 300 or so downloads. You can still check out the SoundCloud version of that old podcast at https://soundcloud.com/timmymac29.

— Omaha music legend Dereck Higgins (R.A.F., InDreama, Chemicals for starters) has been active in the YouTube world for almost a decade  Now he’s launching his own online video show called “Higg’s Corner.” And get this: The test pilot episode is going to be streamed on Adult Swim (www.adultswim.com) this Friday night at 6 p.m. CT. Higgins already has a regular one-minute feature on Adult Swim’s “Stupid Morning Bullshit” program called “Old Music Friday.”

Higgs says Higg’s Coner is a “music and life talk with a call-in line,” and you can check out that pilot episode right now here on YouTube.

— Finally, I know Ed Perini as that guy who goes to all the shows, and I mean ALL the shows — Ed has a much broader musical palette than I’ll ever have.  An “Omaha-based music enthusiast and classically trained singer,” I’ve seen Ed’s concert photos and show reviews over the years in Facebook. Now he’s launched his own Facebook page called “That Omaha Music Guy” located at facebook.com/thatomahamusicguy/. If a show happened last night, chances are pretty good Ed was there. 

I wonder if Ed will be at tonight’s Cannibal Corpse show at The Waiting Room…

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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 © 2018 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The folks at the Maha Music Festival today announced the schedule for its Aug. 17-18 Festival at Stinson Park in Aksarben Village.

The Friday night gig — a first for Maha, which will be celebrating its 10-year anniversary — is the softer (and cheaper — $35 GA) of the two nights, and starts at 6 p.m.

6 p.m. – Clarence Tilton
6:30 – State Disco
7:20 – Hurray for the Riff Raff
8:15 – Benjamin Booker
9:10 – ZZ Ward
10:30 – TV on the Radio

The Saturday schedule is stacked, and starts at 12:30 p.m. and costs $70 for GA tix.

12:30 p.m. – The Dilla Kids
1:15 – David Nance Band
2 – U.S. Girls
3 – Mesonjixx + Omaha Girls Rock
4:15 – Hop Along
5:30 – Ravyn Lenae
6:30 – Tune-Yards
7:45 – The Kills
9 – Father John Misty
10:30 – Weezer

You can buy a two-day festival pass for $95 and save $10. Prices go up by about $10 per ticket DOS. If you buy your pass by midnight Friday you’ll be entered into a drawing for a free VIP upgrade (we’re talking free pizza and air conditioned potties — what more could you ask for?).

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Dereck Higgins’ monthly residency continues tonight at The Down Under Lounge. Higgins will be playing songs from his just-released album The World Is Burning. Joining him is singer/songwriter Todd Grant, formerly of the band Compost.

For some background on Grant, here’s a 2005 interview/feature/column about the man behind the 1994 album Strangled Soul. Needless to say, a lot has happened to Grant since that column was published.

The show starts at 9:30 p.m., and is free.

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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 © 2018 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Dereck Higgins’ The World Is Burning includes tracks that date back to his Digital Sex days.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Dereck Higgins has played in dozens of bands over the past 30+ years, but most notably was a member of seminal ’80s band Digital Sex. Higgins is still in at least a half dozen bands, including Son, Ambulance, Skuddar and RAF, not to mention his  solo work.

Last week a new collection of songs and recordings written and performed by Higgins that date back to his Digital Sex days was released by Randy LeMasters, a Pittsburgh-based music entrepreneur who released the last Digital Sex compilation Essence and Rarities back in ’94 as well as a 2012 collection of rarities by The Millions called Poison Fish.

“Randy is a super fan of my music, starting with his discovery of Digital Sex,” Higgins said. “When he traveled to Omaha in 2000 to meet me and see DS play we visited at my house. I played some of the stuff I recorded at home for my own sanity and enjoyment. He begged me to have copies.”

Over the years Higgins sent LeMasters CDs of recordings, which he said were never intended for public consumption. “A few years ago Randy approached me with the idea of releasing some of his favorites of the hundreds of songs I had sent him,” Higgins said. “I was reluctant at first but agreed.”

Titled The World Is Burning, the CD is limited to 300, of which about 100 already have been sold via Higgins’ website, which is the only place you can buy them locally. “Put simply, if you actually like the music of Digital Sex you will like this,” Higgins said. “Some music is as old as 1984, (with the) most recent likely from the ’90s. I wrote the original music and played all of the instruments on the home recordings, the same recordings from which Digital Sex sprang from — drums, bass, guitars, keyboards and vocals.”

Higgins said the title track reflects our current national state of affairs. “…Things have only gotten worse since I wrote the song,” he said. “It’s a totally topical song about the state of the world.”

You’ll get a chance to hear Higgins perform songs off the new album live at The Down Under Lounge July 19 as part of his residency at the club. The night also will include a performance by Todd Grant of the band Compost whose solo album, 1994’s Strangled Soul, is one of my faves.

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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 © 2018 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Chemicals performing at Hi-Fi House, April 16, 2016. The band plays tonight at The Down Under.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

I guess consider this video a Throwback Thursday since it went online way back in 2015. I just discovered it this morning when I was trying to remember whether Nate Krenkel was the guy who ran Team Love Records — he is. He’s also the guy, along with Gabe Gonzalez, who runs NAG Management. They’ve represented Conor Oberst’s projects since back in the day. NAG also works with Mega Bog, who opens for Destroyer at The Waiting Room Feb. 4.

Anyway, doing my Googling, I fell into this video from Copyright Alliance of Krenkel talking about piracy, streaming and record labels from way back in 2015. I mean, if I’ve never seen it before, it’s new to me, right? Nate points to a grim future in a streaming-only world. Take a look:

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Tonight musician extraodinaire Dereck Higgins launches his new monthly showcase at The Down Under Lounge. Aptly titled “An Evening with Dereck Higgins,” it features Higgins’ various musical projects as well as local and regional acts, visual artists, etc. Tonight Higgins welcomes his red-hot progressive jazz project Chemicals, while Hugo’s Art Galleries will display the works of Derek Shockey.

This one’s free and starts at 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 © 2018 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Omaha music legend Dereck Higgins plays in at least a half-dozen bands (my favorite among them being the prog-jazz outfit Chemicals), so how does he have time to also put out solo material?

Yesterday, Higgins released his latest, the soundtrack to filmmaker Jim Fields’ yet-to-be-released movie, Life After Ex, the follow-up to his previous film, 2013’s Flyover Country, which Higgins also created a soundtrack for.

“Jim had some specific ideas for each film and although I wrote and submitted a fair amount of new material for Life After Ex, Jim ended up using several older pieces from my catalog,” Higgins said. “On Flyover, it is all electronic. This time around there is a nice mix of my electronic tracks and me playing all of the instruments.”

Higgins said the songs were written for the film this past spring. “I have yet to see the final cut with my music and am looking forward to the premier Oct. 11 at Ak Sar Ben Cinema,” he said.

Check out the new tracks and order your copy at Higgins’ Bandcamp page.

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Sheer Mag plays tonight at Reverb Lounge.

I’ve been listening to this new Sheer Mag album, Need to Feel Your Love (2017, Wilsuns RC), for a couple months (man, I need to do more album reviews). It kind of reminds me of an old band from 2005 called The Ark combined with Butch Walker along with modern garage rock but fronted by a firecracker of a lead singer in Tina Halladay, whose pouty growl is unforgettable. The music is indie, but on a certain level, their sound is commercial, and very appealing. I was surprised when Rolling Stone did a big feature on them in July. As such, I wouldn’t be surprised if their gig tonight at Reverb sells out. Especially considering BIB is opening, along with Laffing Gas. $12, 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 © 2017 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

A frame from the Studio Fackler film “One Day, One Month, One Year,” featuring members of the .tbd dance collective. The film premiers Saturday, July 23 at Kaneko.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The third annual Under the Radar Festival kicks off tonight at Project Project, 1818 Vinton St. I don’t know what Project Project is, nor do I know much about this festival, which runs through Saturday at venues around downtown. But I guess that’s why they call it “under the radar.”

The event describes itself as an annual “experimental performance” festival. “We emphasize non-commercial and independently created work, and work that represents under-represented ideas and identities,” says the website. Performers come from all over the country to take part. The common denominator is “avant garde,” which is a rarity (and a tough sell) in Omaha.

One of the highlights is a show being held at The Slowdown Saturday night that features the .tbd dance collective.

Another festival highlight is Thursday night at House of Loom where a handful of electronic musicians will perform, capped off by Dereck Higgins, the local legend who should add “hardest working man in the biz” to his unofficial title. Higgins is in at least four bands the last time I counted (including the sublime Chemicals).

And Friday night Milk Run holds the UTR court with a show featuring Big Slur (Dan Scheuerman of Deleted Scenes).

Full festival details, ticket info and schedules are available at http://www.undertheradaromaha.com/.

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Speaking of Milk Run, tonight the tiny club on Leavenworth is hosting two shows simultaneously. Minneapolis punk act Fucking headlines with Conny Franko (a.k.a. Conchance of M34n Str33t fame), Flak and CBN over in the tiny side, while The Bricks headlines in the art gallery side with Kate Berreckman Sam Vicari and Lincoln’s Scott Severin. The shows are $5 each and start at 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 © 2016 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

My Record Store Day 2016 haul…

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Well, another Record Store Day has come and gone and we’re all a little lighter in the wallet for it.

I purchased the majority of my booty down at Homer’s, which by early afternoon was still basking in the afterglow of the mob scene that it withstood earlier that day. Did I buy everything I wanted from the 2016 RSD collection? No, no. But I got what I needed. BTW, that Feelies recording is particularly sublime.

One of the Hi-Fi House sound systems.

I hit Drastic Plastic next, then after my trip downtown I checked out the mysterious Hi-Fi House that was celebrating RSD with an open house of its own. Located at the old Joseph’s College of Beauty building at 3724 Farnam St., the facility is first class all the way — a huge open, carpeted space with comfortable furniture arranged in circles throughout, centered around stereo equipment set-ups, like what I was told was an $80,000 system (shown above).

Part of the Hi-Fi House’s extensive vinyl library.

Behind the big room are a couple smaller ones. Inside the first is the Hi-Fi House’s album collection, or what I was told was merely a portion of the collection (which is spread out in locations around the country). A glance at the titles indicated that the music touches all genres. Some of it looked unplayed and was still sealed. There also were some interesting music-related items lying around, like a Patti Smith edition of a Pono Music Player — something I’ve never seen in real life.

Tucked further back in the building was the remnants of the Bomb Shelter Radio studio, which had been housed at Milk Run. One assumes the broadcasts will continue at Hi-Fi House. But I can’t tell you for sure as I still can’t get anyone from the organization to do an on-the-record interview. Hi-Fi House might be open but it’s still hush-hush, for now.

Chemicals at Hi-Fi House, April 16, 2016.

There was 20 or 30 people on hand at Hi-Fi House when Chemicals began its set. Of all the bands I’ve seen Dereck Higgins perform in since Digital Sex broke up, Chemicals was the most impressive. I don’t know much about jazz — or improvisational jazz for that matter — but I can still recognize great music played with fire and funk, and Chemicals was all of that. Higgins said during the set that the band was still in its development phase, but you couldn’t tell by Saturday’s performance.

The band includes guitarist Jacob Cubby Phillips and keyboardist Jake Reisdorff. Horns were provided by trumpeter Blake DeForest and the always amazing James Cuato on saxophone (and keyboards). But keeping it all together was gritty drummer John Evans crashing the beats with style and finesse, and of course Higgins himself at the center, one of Omaha’s greatest bassists holding it all together.

At first I wasn’t expecting much thanks to the long, unstructured noise collage that kicked things off, and then Evans cut through the clutter with a defined beat and Higgins dropped his bass line and we were on our way. This is modern, progressive rock jazz in the same vein as Kamasi Washington, progressive but tuneful and exciting, and well played. I’m sure there was a lot of improvisation going on, but there was no mistaking each song’s foundation and arrangement — this wasn’t random noodling. Can a recording be far behind? (Hey Hi-Fi House, why not put it out on vinyl?).

Hand Painted Police Car at Almost Music, April 16, 2016.

After Chemicals I strolled down to Almost Music and caught Hand Painted Police Car rip the paint off the walls while a crowd thumbed through the bins.

Then it was off cross-town to the new Recycled Sounds, sort of hidden on 76th St. across from Buffalo Wild Wings but tucked in behind a strip mall. It’s easy to miss, but you won’t want to miss it. Recycled moved from its old location in Lincoln and will become a regular stop for used vinyl (along with Almost Music). The releases are very well organized — by band by alpha — and there’s a ton of it. It’s where I found that Lloyd Cole 12-inch 4-song 45.

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Tonight at Reverb Lounge a handful of Omaha performers are getting together to celebrate the genius of Rick Moranis. Among them are Kait Berreckman, Michael Campbell, Castor, Vago, Doug Kabourek (who is the living embodiment of ’80s-era Rick Moranis) and Stephanie Krysl. Expect classic SCTV skits in the bar and the best of the best from past Canada Day events on The Reverb stage. $7, 8 p.m. Tell them Louis Tully a.k.a. The Keymaster sent you…

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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.