The Gardenheads play O’Leaver’s Saturday night.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Tonight’s show at The Sweatshop Gallery features three bands that just played at South By Southwest. Headliner Speedy Ortiz is coming off a big splash with last year’s Major Arcana (2013, Carpark) and brand new EP Real Hair (Carpark). They must have played a dozen times in Austin last week, and I missed every performance. No strangers to Omaha, they usually play at the Farman St. house. Opening is Digital Leather returning from their own SXSW tour along with Boston band Pile. This $10 show should be a mob scene. Starts at 9.

Also tonight, Dereck Higgins celebrates the release of his new self-released album, Flyover, at the Carver Bank. The album’s music was written for or inspired by Jim Fields’ feature motion picture Flyover Country. Also performing is singer/songwriter Greg Hand. The show starts at 7 at Carver Bank, 2416 Lake Street. More info here.

Meanwhile, local hardcore supergroup Old Bones (ex-Split Second, 8th Wave, Race for Titles) is headlining tonight at fabulous O’Leavers. Timecat and Goon Saloon also are on the bill. $5, 9:30 p.m.

Tomorrow night (Saturday) O’Leaver’s hosts Springfield, Missouri band The Gardenheads. You first read about them here, where I described their most recent album, Growing Season, this way: “Maybe it was because I’d just seen the Big Star movie, Nothing Can Hurt Me, but the band’s music recalled Chilton, Bell and Co. The Beatles also came to mind, as did Matthew Sweet and The dBs and Wilco and the finer pop moments from the Titan! label.”

Yeah, I like their record. Check it out in its entirety below (skip to track 1). I saw them play to six people at Barley Street Tavern last year. Let’s see what they can bring to O’Leaver’s Saturday night. Headlining is Those Far Out Arrows. John Larsen also is on the bill. $5, 9:30 p.m.

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By the way, Bank of the West announced this year’s “Independence Day” Memorial Park concert line-up. It’s a real “must-miss” event with Blues Traveler, Sugar Ray, Uncle Kracker and Smash Mouth. Really, really bad. Book your travel out of the Dundee area June 27.

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Uh, have a good 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 © 2014 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Welcome to another icebox weekend. Getting tired of all this winter bullshit? Should have thought of that when you decided to live here.

O’Leaver’s has a cure for the late-February wintertime blues: Drink booze, and lots of it.

That certainly will be the remedy tonight when Digital Leather returns to O’Leaver’s. The band’s split LP with The Hussy is now available for pre-order from Southpaw Records, and features disturbing cover art by DL member Todd Fink (also of The Faint). Consider this show as a sort-of warm-up for SXSW, where Digital Leather will be playing the Goner Records party March 14 at the legendary Beerland (FYI, Beerland doesn’t partake in SXSW madness, so that show is actually $10 with or without a wristband).

Opening tonight for Digital Leather at fabulous O’Leaver’s is Skeleton Man. I have no idea who that is. $5, 9:30 p.m.

Also tonight, Chicago metal instrumental trio Russian Circles (Flameshovel, Suicide Squeeze, Sergeant House) plays at The Waiting Room. Ken Mode and Inter Arma open. $15, 9 p.m.

Saturday night, Saddle Creek Records’ latest signing, Twinsmith, plays at Slowdown Jr. This one also is a warm-up for SXSW, where the band has an official showcase gig. Opening is the surreal rock sounds of InDreama (Nik Fackler, Dereck Higgins) along with The Caves and Lot Walks. $7, 9 p.m.

Meanwhile, back at O’Leaver’s Saturday night, The Brigadiers headline a bill that includes Ghosts of Guyana and indie instrumental band Relax, It’s Science (featuring Jeremy Stanosheck). $5, 9:30 p.m.

Finally, Sunday at The Waiting Room it’s legendary rocker Marshall Crenshaw. Doesn’t everyone have at least one Crenshaw record in their collection (Mine’s Field Day from 1983)? Opening is The Bottle Rockets. Tickets are $20 Adv/$25 DOS. PLEASE NOTE: This is a 5 p.m. show! You’ll be home in time to catch the end of The Oscars.

That’s all I got. If I missed something, post it in the comments section. Have a good weekend and (try to) stay warm…

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2014 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

I’m not the only one who thinks Halloween is lame. Just to clarify, this is not my dog.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

It’s Friday and that means it’s time for the weekend wrap.

Tonight Denver duo In the Whale plays O’Leaver’s with Saturn Moth. From what I can tell, In the Whale is a garage band, but not really. Judge for yourself below. $5, 9:30 p.m.

Over at the Barley Street Chromafrost (Lincoln Dickison’s red hot noise-punk band) plays with Seer States and The Real Action. $5, 9 p.m.

Tomorrow night John Vanderslice makes his way to Slowdown Jr. His latest, Dagger Beach, was released on Tiny Telephone. Opening is the always entertaining John Klemmensen and The Party. $12, 9 p.m.

Can you believe Halloween is less than a week away? Test drive that lousy costume of yours Saturday night at The Goth Ball at Ralston Arena. Digital Leather is the featured band, which is odd because I can’t think of a band that’s less goth than Digital Leather. Tickets are $20 but are available until 4 p.m. today for $10 from gooddealomaha.com. Doors are at 8. No idea when DL goes on. More info here.

There’s a lot of other Halloween-related things going on around town this weekend. Since I generally hate Halloween (except for the candy part) I’ll leave it to you to find out where those “parties” are happening. Needless to say, most involve cover bands.

One last show worth mentioning that doesn’t have a Halloween theme — The Whipkey Three headlines at The Barley Street Tavern Saturday night with Guilty is the Bear and Virginia Tanous-Gallner. $5, 9 p.m.

That’s all I got. If I missed anything, post it in the comments section. Have a good one.

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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 © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Sorry about the spotty reception this week. Lots of stuff going on, none of it having anything to do with music.

One piece of old news I’m just getting to now is Diode, a new project by Shawn Foree of Digital Leather and David Hansen of Worried Mothers. Their first released track is called “Peck on the Lips,” and is available via YouTube (Below). They call their sound “industrial shit-noise.” It is indeed industrial. Just how shitty it is, well, that’s your call. According to Chris Aponick in The Reader, Diode is planning a full-length on Crash Symbols sometime in the future.

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Speaking of The Reader, this week’s column is a travelogue of my recent trip to Manhattan and the hotel problems I encountered that made my vacation that much more hot and sweaty. Read it in this week’s issue of The Reader or online right here.

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Couple shows worth mentioning…

John Klemmensen and the Party returns to Benson tonight at The Waiting Room. Joining him is The Love Technicians and Minutes to Miles Just $5, 9 p.m.

Also tonight, Underwater Dream Machine headlines at fabulous O’Leaver’s with the debut of Reagan Roeder’s new band Wild Kingdom. 9:30 and the nice price: 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 © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Maha’s cup overfloweth: A view of the crowd at this year’s festival while the Thermals perform.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

In this week’s column, a recap of this year’s Maha Music Festival. You can read it in this week’s issue of The Reader or online right here. Or heck, why not just read it below?

Over the Edge: At Age 5, the Maha Music Festival Is All Growed Up

Was this year’s Maha Music Festival a success?

The concert, held last Saturday at Stinson Park in Aksarben Village, drew 5,100 people. If that number seems light — especially compared to your typical CenturyLink Arena concert — consider that you cannot hear any of the bands that performed at Maha on your local FM radio. None. They don’t call it “indie rock” for nothing.

Tre Brashear, one of the festival’s organizers, said Saturday’s 5,100 was a 20 percent increase in attendance compared to the 4,300 there last year to see Garbage and Desaparecidos in the rain.

It was a big crowd. In fact the first thing I noticed after walking through the gates was that Maha had somehow made the park shrink. There wasn’t much green space for the crowds between the massive duo stages, the food vendors on Mercy Street, The Globe performance tent and the Bellevue University Community Campus.

Despite that, Brashear said Maha has yet to outgrow Aksarben Village, at least from a music standpoint. “Stinson is large and can hold more,” he said. “Furthermore, parking still continues to be pretty easy and convenient.”

On the other hand, Maha’s vendor space on Mercy Street has become too constrained. “People want more food options, more vendors,” Brashear said, “but we don’t have any place to put them unless we can figure out a way to put more items on the far side of the park.”

But beyond vendor congestion, if Maha ever bags its dream act — Wilco — organizers will have little choice but to look elsewhere, as the band could easily attract well over the park’s 10,000 capacity.

Enough about logistics. Here’s rundown of the bands I saw after arriving midway through the concert.

Saddle Creek Records’ latest recruits, The Thermals, played the straight-forward power-punk the trio is known for, including a number of songs off their latest album, Desperate Ground. The crowd seemed to like it, though they stood like scarecrows holding their beers and nodding their heads to the unchanging straight-four beat.

While The Thermals sounded good on the massive “Weitz Stage,” local boys Criteria sounded even better on the smaller “Centris Stage.” Don’t ask me why, but that junior-sized set-up sounded fuller (and louder) than its big brother, but maybe the band had something to do with it. Criteria, also a Saddle Creek act, boasts more dynamic songwriting vs. The Thermals’ play-and-repeat, one-gear punk style.

None of that mattered when Bob Mould took the main stage and blew them both away. Grinning throughout the set, Mould rifled through a “greatest hits” selection that included favorites off his Sugar albums, new stuff off his lastest solo record, The Silver Age, and classic Hüsker Dü in the form of “I Apologize” off New Day Rising. Bassist Jason Narducy filled out the vocals when Mould couldn’t, adding tasty harmonies throughout the set.

Mould was the highlight of the day for me and for a lot of others I spoke to including Brashear, who said Maha had been trying to book him since the festival began five years ago. As for those who complained that Mould’s set was “too loud,” the term “pussy” comes to mind. It’s Bob frickin’ Mould, folks. What did you expect?

Which brings us to Digital Leather. A few years ago during a lunch meeting I tried to convince the Maha guys to book the band by playing songs off their album, Blow Machine. When the execs heard stand-out track “Studs in Love,” with lines “I like Wrangler butts / I like hairy asses / I like men” they just shook their heads and said, “Maha’s a family event; we can’t have that.”

Cut to last Saturday and there was Digital Leather on stage singing about hairy asses to a crowd that barely noticed. Why would they? Isn’t rock ‘n’ roll supposed to be controversial and/or risky? What’s risky about hairy asses?

The thought that Maha organizers would be offended by Digital Leather seemed ridiculous after Matt & Kim took the stage. The keyboard-and-drums duo that plays cute, shiney indie pop dance tunes spent most of the time between songs yelling profanities at the audience. Every other word out of drummer Kim Schifino began with an F or MF. I guess they needed something to “rough up” their cutesy veneer and all those colored balloons just wasn’t cutting it.

It took about a dozen grips a half hour to get the set ready for festival closer The Flaming Lips. T-shirted stage hands carried huge chrome-plated globes while electricians carefully draped light strings from massive overhead crossbars. A few minutes before the set, out walked frontman/messiah Wayne Coyne in his shiny electric-blue suit, his graying mane blowing in the summer breeze. Coyne climbed atop the mountain of silver embryos and stood like a hipster Jesus grasping a weird fetus doll in his left hand.

If you came for the spectacle, you got it. The Lips’ amazing light show included a huge digital back-screen that blazed with glowing imagery while pin-lights flowed from above Coyne down the chrome mountain and back to the sky like an LED volcano.

Yes, there was plenty of smoke; yes there was confetti. Too bad there weren’t many hits. Coyne and Co. spent the first 20 minutes droning through depressing tonal music indicative of the band’s most recent album, The Terror. They would close out their set with hit, “Do You Realize?” but by then I was pedaling through Elmwood Park on my way home.

So was Maha a success? Artistically, it was the strongest festival they’ve ever put on. Brashear said it was financially successful as well, thanks to strong sponsorships, heavy donations throughout the year, and best-ever ticket sales.

“We definitely made a profit,” Brashear said. “That profit is going to get rolled into making next year’s Maha ‘better.’ What does that mean? We don’t know just yet. Could mean more expensive talent and/or an additional day. It’s too early to tell.”

Over The Edge is a weekly column by Reader senior contributing writer Tim McMahan focused on culture, society, the media and the arts. Email Tim at tim.mcmahan@gmail.com.

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John Klemmensen met his piddly Kickstarter goal of $500, actually exceeded it by a couple hundred dollars. I am among those who donated enough to get JK to do cover. I’m still mulling my choice  — should I select one of my favorite Buckingham Nicks songs or ask John to breath new life into a song by a local artist? Decisions, decisions…

Meanwhile, Bret Vovk (a.k.a. Under Water Dream Machine) and Nick Carl (a.k.a. Kicky Von Narl) just launched a Kickstarter in support of their upcoming 3-week tour of the American Southwest and West Coast. “All the proceeds gathered will go toward the happenings of a successful tour and production of a brand new split LP, available exclusively (for a time) to their Kickstarter backers,” they say. Get in on the action right here.

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Been kind of quiet show-wise since Maha. Not much happening tonight either, except for the next installment of The Record Club @ the Saddle Creek Shop (located in the Slowdown Compound), this time featuring The Beach Boy’s classic Pet Sounds album. The needle drops at 7 p.m. followed by a critical discussion of the record. As always, the event is free.

Also tonight, singer-songwriter Damon Dotson plays at Slowdown Jr. $5, 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 © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Mousetrap at The Waiting Room, Aug. 16, 2013.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Coverage/review of Saturday’s Maha Music Festival will appear in my column in the upcoming issue of The Reader. For the record, it was a heckuva show. Check out the action photos below the Mousetrap review.

Mousetrap was a blast Friday night at The Waiting Room. As was the case last time they played here, the band sounds tighter than back in its ’90s hey-day. No doubt there are some obvious differences that come with 20-odd years of life experiences.

Their sound, while as bracing as ever, at times was cast in more subdued tones. The trio played a couple dark-throb numbers that ebbed and flowed like a tide coming in at midnight carrying a body floating face-down in the bay. Black and grisly and a bit creepy. But then again, there always has been something disturbing about frontman Patrick Buchanan. On stage he comes off like a punk version of a Brett Easton Ellis psychopath. Don’t look directly into his eyes.

Bassist Craig Crawford acts as sort of a buffer/cipher that keeps Buchanan from spinning out of control, though you know if things ever got heavy Craig would say, “Sorry, pal, you’re on your own.”

You can tell they’ve only just begun with drummer Colby Starck. A seasoned veteran, he still needs push it a couple notches to match former drummer Mike Mazolla’s ferocity. That’ll come with time.

My only gripe about Friday night was the set’s length — little more than 20 minutes with a three-song encore (that included a cover of Dead Boys’ “All This and More”). Buchanan promised more new material when Mousetrap returns, probably sometime during the holidays. There’s nothing quite like Christmas with Mousetrap…

Ron Wax was up before Mousetrap and judging by the comments made outside the venue you’d have thought it was the end world. I’ve known Ron Albertson for years both as the drummer of Mercy Rule and as a fine artist (I proudly have three Ron screenprints-on-canvas hanging on my walls). I caught the last two brutal songs of their set. It was loud, raucous, noisy, ham-fisted caterwaul rock, more than a little bit weird. Gritty and unbridled, but what did you expect? My reply to the guy who said he was going to gut-punch me if I called it genius: It ain’t genius, and it ain’t supposed to be.

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Now onto some pictures from the Maha Music Festival this past Saturday…

The Thermals sort of got the crowd going. Theirs is a one-note punk style, but people love it. Those who expected moshing forgot where they were.

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Criteria sounded louder (and better) on Maha’s “second stage” than the Thermals did on the main stage. Might have something to do with dynamics…?

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Bob Mould for me and a lot of people was the cornerstone of this year’s festival. Lots of Sugar and new stuff and even “I Apologize.” What more do you want?

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For the uninitiated, Digital Leather brought a modern garage aesthetic, along with lots of cool noise. 

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Our lord and savior Wayne Coyne doing his thing atop a mountain of chrome embryos, fetus doll in hand. Great lights, droll music.

More on Maha Wednesday, I promise.

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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 © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Digital Leather at the 1200 Club, June 7, 2013.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Here’s a late review of last Friday’s Holland Center/1200 Club show. In fact, Lazy-i reception will be a bit spotty this week as I’ll be headed out of town for a few days. I’ll try to update when/if I can.

On the surface, the line-up for the inaugural Hear Nebraska Live program sponsored by Omaha Performing Arts at the Holland last Friday night was edgy, if not just plain risky. Kill County isn’t exactly a well-known commodity in Omaha. Saddle Creek’s Big Harp was the closest thing to a sure bet, while Digital Leather appeared to be an obvious miss-step — a synth-fueled punk band that you’d think was way too loud for the Holland’s delicate acoustics.

In fact, the program, which was filmed in its entirety by Nebraska Educational Television (NET) was supposed to emulate Austin City Limits, a PBS program whose staple is acoustic, alt-country balladeers that are more storytellers than rock stars. Rarely has ACL featured full on rock bands, probably because its reserved setting seems an ill fit for anarchy.

Kill County at the 1200 Club in The Holland Center, June 7, 2013.

Needless to say, of the three bands Kill County was the best suited for the show’s relaxed environment. 1200 Club, located on the second level of the Holland, is a gorgeous sit-down space — round tables and candles on polished oak floors. You know when you walk in that it’s going to be a nice evening as a member of the crack Holland staff points you to your table where moments later one of the black-clad waiters comes and takes your drink (or food) order with a whisper. Very classy.

On Friday night, the corners of the room were filled with NET’s professional television production equipment, including a huge boom-control camera, a stationary camera and a guy walking around with a shoulder-mount camera followed behind by a cable lackey. We arrived during the second half of KC’s reserved alt-country set. Pretty stuff, crowd pleasing, well played, and exactly the kind of music that you’d expect to see on Austin City Limits, which is a nice way of saying their music isn’t anything you haven’t heard before. There is an obvious familiarity with everything they play, and people love listening to music they recognize.

Big Harp at the 1200 Club, The Holland Center, June 7, 2013.

Chris and Stef — i.e. Big Harp — came on stage alone for the first part of their set for a few gorgeous ballads before guest players keyboardist Dan McCarthy and drummer Dan Ocanto joined in and ratcheted up the sound. This band continues to vex me by never hovering for long over any specific genre. Their first album, White Hat, was filled with acoustic ballads while last year’s Chain Letters had a rock sound that seemed to reach for a Black Keys audience. Friday night the band was all over the map, each song carrying a different sonic reference point, a different style, with Chris Senseney’s croaking baritone and agile guitar work providing the common denominator. While rougher (and noisier) than Kill County, Big Harp’s set was still a fine fit for both the broadcast and the venue.

Then came Digital Leather, sounding exactly as I expected. If anyone involved in organizing this program was surprised at what they heard, they didn’t do their homework. In retrospect, it was probably why the band was scheduled last because the organizers knew they’d lose some of their audience in DL’s sound and fury… just like they did.

There were two surprises from DL. First was the addition of new keyboard player Ben VanHoolandt, who plays bass in Pleasure Adapter and is part of the duo known as Dirt. This was BVH’s first show with DL, joining Todd Fink, who remains on keyboards, though the speculation after the show was that BVH is being groomed as a road replacement for Fink. Only frontman Shawn Foree knows for sure. Just a year ago, Foree had turned his back on live synths; now he has two synth players.

The other surprise was hearing Digital Leather play “Modern Castles” off Warm Brother, something I never thought I’d ever hear. Needless to say, the return of keyboards opens horizons for some of Foree’s more tuneful – less punk songs. Now if they could work up a version of “Gold Hearts” I could die a happy man.

While as loud as any Digital Leather show I’ve seen, there’s no question that the band held back for either the venue or the cameras. My wife kept asking if they’d close with “Studs in Love,” the crowd-pleasing homo-anthem off Blow Machine recently returned to their live set (usually as an encore). I just shook my head. They wouldn’t dare, and of course they didn’t (though there’s always the Maha Festival…).

I think a lot of people involved in the program saw it as an experiment. The outcome was — for the most part — a success, though I’m sure they would have liked to have sold more tickets. Still, every table was filled and everyone seemed to have a good time. I can’t wait to see how it’ll translate to the boob tube. The broadcast is slated for airing on NET sometime in the fall (and may even be picked up by PBS nationally).

But the bigger question is whether Omaha Performing Arts, NET and HN will team up (along with the 1200 Club) for another show next year. Keep your fingers crossed.

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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 © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

News…

Des Moines’ 80-35 Music Festival announced what I assume is just part of their line-up for their July 5-6 gig. David Byrne/St. Vincent is good, so is Wu-Tang Clan, but I can’t believe that’s it for big names. They also announced Deerhunter, Yeasayer, Wavves, and old-school Iowa band House of Large Sizes, along with a handful more. Seems rather light for a festival that’s been around for 7 or 8 years… Keep watching their website.

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Digital Leather announced on its website that it will be opening a handful of Cursive dates in June, including a June 23 gig at The Waiting Room. DL also is listed as playing The Holland Center June 7 — wait ’til you see who else is on that gig’s line-up.

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Denver Dalley and his Mac, together again…

Denver Dalley, who you know from Desaparecidos, Har Mar Superstar and years of hanging around Omaha bars, announced yesterday that there’s a new Statistics album coming out June 25. It’s called Peninsula and is being released by Afternoon Records. Check out the release page and the first single from the album, below:

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Finally, everyone’s favorite touchstone of indie rock pretension, Pitchfork, is hosting a full stream of the new Thermals album Desperate Ground right here. Can an 8.0 rating be far behind? (When it comes to the history between Pitchfork and Saddle Creek, don’t hold your breath…)

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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 © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

White Lung at Slowdown Jr. April 2, 2103.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

So the move is over, my interweb is running and I’m back.

Briefly catching up on a few things: I had heard nary a note of White Lung prior to Tuesday night’s show at Slowdown Jr. The band had that very day driven from Winnipeg to make the show — a questionable tour schedule to say the least — but you wouldn’t have known it by the metal-infused punk they laid down during their relatively short set. Impressive power behind lead vocalist Mish Way — huge rhythm section, intricate layered guitar that bordered on dark metal. Nice stuff indeed.

Digital Leather at Slowdown Jr., April 2, 2013.

Opening band Digital Leather did their usual superb set, though they sounded more restrained than when they play their home field of O’Leaver’s, which is understandable. I still don’t know the future of this line-up, which includes Todd Fink of The Faint. Will Todd record with DL? Time will tell. It’s good to hear those synth parts on these songs again, and Fink fits right in with the band’s overall style.

On hand, about 100 people. Not bad.

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Touch People a.k.a. Darren Keen celebrates the release of his new album, Brain Massage, at The Waiting Room Saturday night with openers m34n str33t, Killer Blow and the inimitable Solid Goldberg. Leading up to the show, I asked Darren a few questions about his new project (which you can check out here) and new direction. This is what he had to say:

I still don’t understand why you pulled the plug on TSITR. Is it because you no longer want to play that music or no longer have to react when people ask you to play that music? Now you can say ‘TSITR is dead. I’m Touch People’ and can shut them up, but you’re still Darren Keen and it’s still your music.

I pulled the plug on TSITR for a lot of reasons, but the easiest way to sum it up is…I had lost all of my momentum, and I was going to have to start all over making all new fans anyway, and I just wasn’t interested in doing that again with TSITR. A lot of TSITR’s energy was tied up in this false “I’m the best” pride, and having to once again go through the process of trying to appeal to a bunch of college kids makes me feel the exact opposite. I was faced with dragging a comedy hip-hop project back through the trenches, which would suck, where as, with Touch People, it’s a more real, honest, musical endeavor, so I don’t mind doing it.

It’s hard to explain. I guess I just didn’t feel like moving backwards with TSITR after 10 years of kicking ass.

Did you start Touch People to provide a clear line of demarcation in terms of your musical style? Why couldn’t you simply do this kind of music as TSITR?

I never make music to “provide” anything for the audience. I started Touch People because I was interested in studying minimalism, and I was really itching to start thinking more like a “composer” and less like a “rapper”.

What freedom does Touch People provide you as an artist?

As an artist, and as a human, I am free to do or say anything I want. The band doesn’t really provide me with any additional freedoms, except sometimes I get to shout into vocoders in front of large groups of people.

Explain the process of making Brain Massage. How would you describe the style of music? What does it mean?

Brain Massage was awesome to make. It was literally the only album I’ve ever made, where I thought about the sound and process before hand, and everything went just as I planned from creation to studio to mastering to live show.

I would describe it as minimalist composer influenced electronic music. I tell people that it has a lot of really fast notes, and odd time signatures. I use four guitar amps, a bass amp, and two vocoders, all controlled by an Akai Apc 40 and Ableton Live.

Brain Massage is lyrically not very diverse…most of the songs are about the human brain, and about feeding your brain with knowledge. The anti-intellectualism movement in America is disgusting to me, and when I hear someone talking about “biblical truth” or “intelligent design” I just want to puke my fucking guts out and stuff their mouth full of my pubic hair. People need to wake up, we aren’t dumb, illiterate cro mags wondering around the desert anymore. Science is not a conspiracy, teachers aren’t poisoning your children’s minds. We live in a real, scientific world, and that tribal mumbo jumbo is a dead scene.

What role did/does drugs/grass play in creating your music?

I have really cut back on my drug use, and either way, I never compose while on drugs, unless you consider weed a drug. I am always stoned. I don’t think it has anything to do with my process though. My talents and creativity are my own.

Are you satisfied or bitter about your career? Has it turned out as you expected or hoped?

I’m neither. I’m not bitter, although, when I was in TSITR I sometimes was. It has more or less turned out as I expected, but I HAD hoped that I would have gone further by now. I would love to be able to quit my jobs and just focus on my craft, but that’s just not a reality for me right now. Sometimes I see some of these bands that are packing out shows locally, and I realize that I have nothing in common with them. The things they think are “cool,” I think are lame, and visa versa. It’s not a right / wrong thing, it’s just a very deep divide in how we handle our bands and our business.

Please be careful not to take me out of context here, I do not want to be thought of as “shit talking” but for example, take Icky Blossoms or Universe Contest…both bands full of my friends. They are very good at what they do, which is making very fun, wild music that makes kids want to dance and make out. Its not “selling out” when they do it, because they are honestly into that sort of art / presence and that’s why they are so successful. If I were to do what they do, it would be terrible and I would be a poseur, because to me, music ISN’T this surface level, fun party time thing. Music is the ultimate healer, music is the way that I communicate myself the most clearly, and my whole life is wrapped up in it, thus my whole life is sort of my true art. I guess it’s another reason I quit TSITR…it just didn’t go deep enough for me. Does that make sense? Again, those bands are fine, and I don’t think of them as “selling out” (although they do sell out most of their shows), I feel like I personally WOULD be selling out by doing that, and like I said the first time when you interviewed me, I want to have my own path, where my success is my own.

What are your plans for getting Brain Massage heard? What are your hopes for this recording?

I am releasing the album March 29. I am playing that night in Lincoln at the Bourbon, and playing a release show in Omaha on April 6 at The Waiting Room. It’ll be up on Bandcamp and SoundCloud. I am just going to start touring a ton like I did with TSITR, and try to get out there at a very grassroots, local level. That’s all I know how to do. I’d love to find a label that was interested in my art, but I don’t really care or need that in my life at this point.

My hopes for this recording is that people will give it a listen, and that they will be inspired by it somehow.

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So that’s one hot show for the weekend.

Another is tonight at fabulous O’Leaver’s, where Saddle Creek band PUJOL will make its first-ever stage appearance in Omaha (unless one of their gigs slipped under my radar). Openers are local band The Seen. This one if just $5 and will very likely be a capacity show, so get there early. Starts at 9:30.

Benson First Friday also is happening tonight. Details here. Of note for the kinky set is this here show at Sweat Shop Gallery. Find out more.

Finally tonight is Lincoln band Kill County’s album release show at The Sydney, brought to you by Hear Nebraska. Outlaw Con Bandana opens along with Electric Chamber Music (ex-Gus & Call). $5, 9 p.m. More info here.

Tomorrow night is the aforementioned Touch People show at TWR.

Also tomorrow night (Saturday) Water Liars play at O’Leaver’s with Twinsmith and Field Club. $5, 9:30 p.m.

That’s all for now…

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Pro-Magnum at O’Leaver’s, March 9, 2013.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The bulk of my evenings this weekend were spent at O’Leaver’s.

Friday night was Digital Leather and a crowd bigger than the one that showed at O’Leaver’s for Criteria the prior weekend, or so it seemed. A real crush-mob. I guess word is getting out about Todd Fink of The Faint joining the band. Or maybe folks are just beginning to “get” what Digital Leather is all about.

Needless to say, the crowd was too big to get close enough for a photo. No matter. You’ve seen these guys before, but you probably haven’t heard them quite like this. The weird, dark, sweaty nature of the evening helped it eclipse the new lineup’s debut a few weeks ago opening for Ty Segall at Sokol Underground. But then again, DL always plays better at O’Leaver’s, where they’re surrounded by friends and booze confessors.

While I have five or six DL albums and tapes, I’m not an expert on the band’s complete discography. That said, I’d never heard the second song played during their set, one in which Fink and frontman Shawn Foree traded vocals. I’m told that they’re writing new material, but I have no idea what role Fink is playing in it. As I’ve said before, Fink adds the synth element that’s been missing in Digital Leather for years, even stretching back to when Foree and others played keys on stage but were barely heard. There’s no missing Fink in the mix. Intense fun. As was the pseudo-encore of “Studs in Love” which is once again becoming a staple in the band’s set (as it should). If you missed it, DL’s next stop is opening for White Lung April 2 at The Slowdown.

Speaking of openers, I got to the club early enough Friday night to catch the last half of Plack Blague’s twisted, bass-heavy, goth-techno-bondage set. The bass was so loud it caused ripples in people’s voices when they spoke. Creepy weird.

So for the past two week’s I’ve gone to the new, improved O’Leaver’s where I saw bigger crowds than I’ve ever seen at this hole-in-the-wall music venue. I’m more used to seeing a casual 40 or 50 people leaning on the railing watching the show, and that’s exactly what I got Saturday night for the debut of Pro-Magnum (They spell their name with all caps, but I’m not doing it. Sorry guys. Just like I won’t add an exclamation point to a band’s name (Snake Island, Thunder Power, take note).https://lazy-i.com/wp-admin/post-new.php

Consisting of Pat Oakes, Paul Hansen and frontman/bassist Johnny Vredenburg, the power trio sounds like they’ve been spending their off hours listening to ’80s metal and prog rock. Heavy, heavy shit with strong riffs on anthems that are more punk than metal and are anything but run-of-the-mill. Halfway through the second song, Vredenburg broke into a super-intricate bass riff that was proggy and powerful and very cool. His vocals are mainly of the shriek/scream variety, but what else would you want from power/metal/rock? For a debut, pretty awesome; they definitely left the crowd wanting more.

As for the rest of Saturday night, touring band Buildings played the kind of driving, dark music you’d expect to hear while beating someone to death with a ball-peen hammer. Closing band, the charmingly named Flesh Eating Disease, played one- to two-minute noise explosions keyed with hyper-active yell vocals, the kind of thing you can imagine being played to break down Gitmo prisoners just before the water-boarding begins.

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Tonight at Slowdown Jr. it’s Seattle mutant garage band The Spits on what I’m told could be their last tour ever. Opening is Coaxed and The Dad. $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 © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.