Disq at Slowdown Jr., June 2, 2019. The band plays at O’Leaver’s Saturday night.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

A busy weekend for a change…uptown, downtown, all over…

Let’s start with fabulous O’Leaver’s, where tonight sees the return of Louisiana duo Ghost Foot. I wrote about them yesterday. I’m told they’ll also be hanging around Omaha this weekend doing some recording. Treat them like locals even though they ain’t. Lincoln’s Universe Contest and The Sunks open at 10 p.m. $5.

Also tonight, Nik Facker’s space-prog-art-rock project InDreama headlines at The Sydney. I’m told Nik and Co. have been working on new material. Go see what they’ve been up to. And How and Jacob James Wilton open at 10 p.m. $5.

Meanwhile, downtown tonight at The Slowdown seminal alt-rockers Helmet brings their 30th Anniversary Tour to the big room. It’s just Helmet playing 30 songs over 30 years. $25, 8 p.m.

Tomorrow night (Saturday) it’s back to O’Leaver’s for Saddle Creek Records band Disq. Their gig this past summer at Slowdown Jr. was one of my favorites of 2019. Disq is opening for LA psych rockers GOON (Partisan Records). This is a very cool show for $7. Infinite Video kicks off the night at 10 p.m.

Reverb’s hosting a very interesting hardcore show Saturday night headlined by NYC act Show Me the Body. Their latest album, Dog Whistle, is as hard and shrill and uncompromising as they come. Urochromes and Jocko are the openers. Things could get heated in Reverb’s tight confines. Bring your Docs. $15, 9 p.m.

On the other end of the spectrum, LA psych-pop band Dreamers headlines at Slowdown Jr. Saturday night. Arrested Youth and American Teeth open at 8 p.m. $18.

Meanwhile, over at The Down Under Lounge, 24 Hour Cardlock headlines a show Saturday night with Wagon Blasters and Korey Anderson. It starts at 9 p.m. and No Cover!

Sunday, of course, is a day of rest.

Did I miss anything? If I did, 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 © 2019 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Listening to albums the way god intended…

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

I’m catching up on a couple columns that appeared in The Reader over the past couple months but only just went online. First is this month’s column. I’ve written variations on this theme a number of times over the past 15 years, this idea that digital music has forever changed the way we listen to music. But this time I include critics.

When I was much younger I used to love to peruse the album reviews in Rolling Stone, SPIN, Option, Magnet and a slew of other printed publications. The only one of the above that still exists in printed form is Rolling Stone, and their reviews are little more than capsule summaries with a star rating. As I say in the column, while I rely on Pitchfork and Stereogum as well as the never-aging grand bard of critics Robert Christgau (you can now subscribe to his writings online here), I’m just as apt to catch recommendations in Facebook and Twitter as anywhere else. In fact, you may recognize a couple people I namecheck in the column as folks whose opinion I value (It wasn’t until after I filed the article that I realized, hey, 99 percent of my column’s readers have no idea who I’m talking about).

Anyway, read the column in the current issue of The Reader, on newsstands now, or online right here.

The October column also is online, which asks the question: “Does the art change once you discover that the artist is an asshole?” Woody Allen, Ryan Adams and Aziz Ansari are subjects of discussion, among others. I have always separated art from the artist. Social media is now making that more difficult, as we all know. And in the end, it might be yet another reason why it’s time to unplug your Facebook account. You can read that column online right here.

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If you’re involved in music at all in Omaha you already follow Ian Aeillo in Facebook and Twitter. If you don’t, you need to. Ian, who is a veteran musician and something of a scene legend, is the sound engineer at The Sydney and also works with bands on occasion.

One of them is Louisiana band Ghost Foot, who will be playing at fabulous O’Leavers this Friday night. Ian shared a new track by Ghost Foot called “Leaving Omaha,” which is destined to join the ranks of other Omaha-themed songs by the likes of Counting Crows, Moby Grape and Desaparecidos.

This one’s less a celebration of our city and more of a sordid snapshot taken by someone who lived to tell about it, with the lyrics:

Leaving Omaha

I’m leaving Omaha
With just my clothes
And all the powder
I put up my nose

I lost my girlfriend
I lost my wife
I lost my billfold
In that great good life

I’m leaving Omaha
Dead sick in my shoes
With a big head
All filled up with blues

I lost a song there
I lost a dream
I gained a nightmare
A few friends and a scene

But the sun
The sun is still shining
And the rain
The rain will still come

Let the bombs
All fall on the big world
As ashes
We all will become

Here’s the track, below. See them sing it live Friday night at O’Leaver’s.

Then there’s Ian’s project Flight School. After photos of Trump’s childlike handwritten notes exploded on the internet like a sad American meme yesterday morning, Flight School took those notes and created “I Want Nothing,” a track that accurately captures this moment in our country’s unfortunate history. As Mr. Trump would say, enjoy:

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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.

Ex Hex on the Maha Music Festival main stage, 8/15/15. The band returns Saturday at Reverb Lounge.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Winter hasn’t finished with us yet. Weather-wise, another a crappy weekend; show-wise, the selection is limited but pretty good.

Tonight Nightmarathons headline way out west at Dr. Jack’s Drinkery, a place I’ve yet to visit located at 3012 No. 102nd St., which (I think) used to be the old Brass Knocker? Someone help me here. I lived right down the street from there for years when I was in college.

Anyway, the Pittsburgh band plays punk pop/emo with lots o’ group vocals and rock riffs a la The Get Up Kids. Like I said, an emo band. Opening is Omaha pop-punters HeatWaves and Speedball Summer. $8, 9 p.m.

That’s it for Friday, but there are two awesome shows Saturday night.

Mary Timony’s band Ex Hex headlines at Reverb Saturday night. Their new album, It’s Real, just dropped via Merge Records and is a straight-up old-school rock album, or as Pitchfork said in this 7.8 rated review: “This time, they mine the denim-clad AOR of Billy Squier and Foreigner.” Yeah, this sounds very ’80s FM radio rock. Opening is Sub Pop band Moaning, an LA DIY post-punk trio. $18, 9 p.m.

Also Saturday night, Lodgings headlines at The Brothers Lounge. The band has been working on a new record, which they’ll likely preview. Opening is Bed Rest and Relax, It’s Science. $5, 9 p.m.

Finally Sunday night Louisiana band Ghost Foot headlines at The Sydney in Benson. Joining them are Lincoln’s Universe Contest and The Natural States. $5, 10 p.m.

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 © 2019 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Wrong Pets at O’Leaver’s Oct. 21, 2016. The band returns to O’Leaver’s tonight.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Lots of shows happening tonight; not much the rest of the weekend.

Let’s start with the show at The Waiting Room: Drive-By Truckers. The Athens band that’s been kicking it since the late-’90s is out supporting their latest release, American Band (2016, ATO). I gotta believe they’ll be playing some new stuff tonight. Joining them is our very own High Up. $30, 9 p.m.

Meanwhile, over at The Brothers Lounge, Digital Leather headlines with Cult Play and Satanic Abortion. $5, 10 p.m.

The Sydney tonight has Shreveport band Ghost Foot along with Rusty Lord, Lincoln act Sweats and a late-night DJ set by David Nance. $5, 10 p.m.

Finally, Wrong Pets, the band fronted by Reagan Roeder with Landon Hedges (bass), Danny Maxwell (guitar) and Ryan Haas on drums, opens tonight for a Nirvana cover band at fabulous O’Leaver’s. $5, 10 p.m.

Tomorrow night (Saturday) Guster returns to The Slowdown. Their latest is Evermotion (2015, Nettwerk). Van William a.k.a. Van Pierszalowski of the band Waters opens. He’s been opening for First Aid Kit on thier 2018 tour. 8:30 p.m. $28 Adv/$30 DOS.

The Indie is Sunday morning in Benson.

I’ll be skipping Guster this time because I’ll be running in The Indie Sunday morning in Benson. It’s arguably the toughest urban 5k/10k event in the area, boasting a course consisting of one insane hill after another — they don’t call them the Alps of Benson for nothing. It also has the coolest trophies of any local races — winners take home gold records.

You can register for the run right up ’til the day of the event. Registration is taking place today at 1912 in Benson from 3 to 7 p.m., tomorrow at the 1912 booth at Benson Days after the parade, and the day of the run starting at 7 a.m. Those who register will receive a handsome Indie shirt designed by Pat Oakes of Ink Tank while supplies last.

Race start time is 8 a.m. Sunday at 60th and Maple. For more information, go to theindieomaha.org.

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 © 2018 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.