It’s True, Eros and the Eschaton tonight; Sebadoh, Literature, Dandy Warhols Sunday…

Category: Blog — Tags: , , — @ 12:51 pm September 26, 2014
Sebadoh plays at Reverb Sunday night.

Sebadoh plays at Reverb Sunday night.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Expect a mob scene tonight at The Barley Street Tavern for the Eros and the Eschaton show, which also features a solo version of It’s True — Adam Hawkins singing some of your favorites from year’s past. The Barley Street music room can get crowded simply when all the performing bands are in there at once, so yeah, it could get crowded. Best bet is to get there early for Gramps — the new-ish combo by Django Greenblatt-Seay of Love Drunk fame. Also on the bill is Charioteer. Four bands, $5, 9 p.m.

Also tonight, Buckhunter and M34n Str33t headline a night of electronic music at The Waiting Room that includes BOTH, Sharkweek, DFM, & Kethro. $8, 9 p.m.

Mitch Gettman and his band plays tonight at the Harney Street Tavern with Custom Catacombs. 9 p.m. and free.

Meanwhile, at fabulous O’Leaver’s, The Electroliners will headline a show tonight with Boone, NC band Hedleg Husky and Kate Berreckman. $5, 9 p.m.

BTW, tonight also is the grand opening of Reverb, the new club owned and operated by One Percent Productions located just north of Jake’s in balmy downtown Benson. No music is scheduled, but the bar will be open starting at 4 so you can get a look-see.

Tomorrow night Aaron Freeman, former lead singer of Ween, headlines at The Waiting Room with Arc Iris. $15, 9 p.m.

Over at the Barley Street Saturday night Travelling Mercies headlines with 24 Hour Cardlock, The Tinder Box and The Willards Band. $5, 9 p.m.

It all leads to Sunday night and the kick-off show at Reverb (TWR Jr.?) featuring Sebadoh. Opening is See Through Dresses. Tickets are still available for $20, 9 p.m.

Also Sunday night, Slumberland Records artist Literature headlines at Sweatshop Gallery with White Fang, Nathan Ma & the Rosettes and Eric In Outerspace. $7, 9 p.m.

Finally, our old friends The Dandy Warhols are headlining at The Waiting Room (TWR Sr.?) Sunday night with Bonfire Beach. $20, 9 p.m.

Did I forget your show? Put it in the comments section. Have a good weekend.

* * *

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.

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Kyle Harvey on why he prefers words to music; Ghost Foot, Those Far Out Arrows tonight…

Category: Blog,Column — Tags: , , , , , — @ 1:45 pm February 13, 2014
Poet Kyle Harvey

Poet Kyle Harvey

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

In this week’s column, an interview with Poet Kyle Harvey on what it’s like to be a poet and why he turned his back on the music world. It’s in this week’s issue of The Reader or online right here, and since this tangentially involves music, you can read it below.

* * *

Over the Edge #94: The Life of a (Real) Modern-Day Poet

Hyacinth (Lithic Press, 2013)

Hyacinth (Lithic Press, 2013)

Just the word “poet” makes some people’s eyes roll in exasperation and disbelief. “Who does he think he is, calling himself a poet? Is he serious?” To those same people, anyone who would classify himself as a poet is very likely a self-involved, deluded, pretentious asshole who thinks he has all the answers and can even make those answers rhyme. Either that, or he’s a university professor.

The only problem with that theory is that Kyle Harvey is a poet, and he’s anything but a pretentious asshole.

He used to be a musician, the kind that plays rock ’n’ roll and folk songs of his own writing. Once upon a time when he lived in Omaha, Harvey was known to stand on stage with his guitar behind his rather bushy beard and sing painful, personal love songs designed to draw tears from your eyes (and often succeeded). He also played in a rock band that no longer exists called It’s True, which released records and drove around the country in a van playing concerts in night clubs.

All of that was a long time ago. These days Harvey lives in picturesque Fruita, Colorado, a town of around 12,000 located just outside of Grand Junction on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains. He and his wife, Veronica, live a quiet life raising kids (with twins on the way), hold down day jobs and are part of a community where Harvey recently was elected to the City Council.

But on top of all that, Harvey writes poems, like this one from his latest “chap book”:

Tulips

There’s an overcoat of cottonwood,
on a quilted field in Holland.

Words spill from one pocket
and rhythms from the other.

Down into the soil they seep,
Cupping seeds in their hands

and sprouting the promise of bulbs
from which colorful miracles leap.

“I’m only a poet when I write a poem,” Harvey explained. “The rest of the time I’m just an average dude.”

How does one go from performing rock songs in front of an audience to quietly writing at the foot of a mountain? Harvey says at some point he “fell out of love” with being a musician and the pressures that came with it.

“Music just doesn’t hold as much value as it used to,” Harvey said. “I think it stopped a long time ago, well before I started stepping back from it. I got burned out on the formula of writing songs. Poetry seemed a little bit more open-ended and felt a little more free.”

Harvey said he also didn’t feel fulfilled playing rock shows. “The fulfillment came from the process of creating something,” he said. “With the band, the value for me was hanging out with my friends and traveling to different cities, but the shows and the grind of it was not as exciting or fun. I don’t crave being on stage in front of people, I almost like not being on stage — which is weird considering how long I played music.

“There doesn’t seem to be much to a poet’s lifestyle, like there is to a musician’s.” he added. “Poetry is solitary, you do it in solitude.”

Well, except for when he takes part in poetry readings, but even then all he has to do is read four or five poems. “Then you get to hang out with people who read books,” he said. “I’d rather read a book than listen to an album.”

What? Sacrilege!

Harvey said he began writing poetry back in his musician days. After he moved to Colorado one of his poems, “Hyacinth,” won the 15th Annual Mark Fischer Poetry Prize awarded by the Telluride Arts Council.

Shortly after that, friend and fellow poet Danny Rosen suggested Harvey collect his poems — many of which had been published in small poetry journals and magazines — and put out a book. Named after that award-winning poem, Hyacinth was published by Rosen’s Lithic Press. Harvey calls it a “chap book,” which he said is the term for books under 42 pages that use staples for the binding.

Unlike the music business, which seems to thrive on album sales, there isn’t a lot of pressure to sell copies of his chapbook. Harvey said Rosen would love to at least break even, but “in his mind, the most important part (of the process) is creating the artifact, the beautiful book,” Harvey said. “(Rosen) would tell you he already considers it a huge success, which is neat to hear.”

So what’s the pretentious part in all of this?

“There’s a misperception that (poetry) is some sort of pretentious high art. It’s not like that at all,” Harvey said. “What I’ve learned is that the poetry world to me doesn’t seem nearly as pretentious as the music world. Even the biggest, most widely read, best-selling poets — and there’s not a whole lot of them — are still nothing like rock stars. There’s a purity to it that maybe comes from the fact that there’s not much of an audience for poetry, and from the lack of exchange of money. There’s not even a whole lot of people who have been to a poetry reading. They’re almost considered taboo.”

And now you can take part in this taboo ritual when Harvey presents some of his work at a poetry reading Feb. 24 at the Petshop Gallery, 2727 No. 62nd St. in Benson. Joining him will be Greg Kosmicki (the 2000 and 2006 recipient of the Nebraska Arts Council’s Merit Award), Paul Hanson Clark (co-founder and operator of the poetry studio SP CE in Lincoln), and Omaha musician and novelist Michael Trenhaile.

And if you’re wondering what Harvey sounded like on stage, well you’ll get your chance to find out when he once again slings on a guitar as the opener at the Brad Hoshaw and the Seven Deadlies album release show Feb. 21 at The Waiting Room. No one said poets can’t sing, too.

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

First published in The Reader, Feb. 13, 2014. Copyright © 2014 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

* * *

Tonight at O’Leaver’s, Shreveport band Ghost Foot plays along with locals Those Far Out Arrows. Whenever I see shows like this listed, I wonder how they got booked. Ghost Foot has almost no web presence. They have a Facebook page with 375 likes with an “about” section that has almost no information about the band. They have a bandcamp page but no formal releases. Beyond that, nothing. And yet, here they are hundreds of miles away from home on tour.

Somehow they found O’Leaver’s, or O’Leaver’s found them and they booked a show for tonight. Maybe they’re friends with the TFOA guys, who also only have a Facebook page and a Reverb Nation page. I think it’s safe to say this is the punk underground at its finest. $5, 9:30 p.m.

* * *

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.

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Live Review: Yo La Tengo, Eros and Eschaton; UUVVWWZ tonight…

Category: Blog,Reviews — Tags: , , — @ 12:57 pm September 23, 2013
Yo La Tengo at The Waiting Room, Sept. 21, 2013.

Yo La Tengo at The Waiting Room, Sept. 21, 2013.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

When I got to The Waiting Room Saturday night at around 8:30 I thought the show was going to be a dud. Maybe 20 people were wandering around the club. A guy outside with connections told me pre-sales had been disappointing, especially considering that Yo La Tengo rarely plays such small venues anymore. Last time they came through (in 2009) they nearly sold out The Slowdown. In fact, the reason I got there early was to make sure I could snag two tickets and a table.

But within a half hour the place was nicely filled, and a line of people waiting to get in snaked out the door. I didn’t get numbers, but it felt like at least 250 were there to see what arguably is one of the most influential indie bands of the past 20 years. Ira Kaplan, Georgia Hubley and James McNew came on at about 9:20 and announced they were doing two sets, starting with a “quiet set” that included soothing renditions of soothing songs from albums that reached all the way back to 1993’s Painful LP as well as stuff off their latest, 2013’s Fade (Matador).

Don’t get me wrong, this was beautiful, lush, moving stuff, but after four or five songs, it all began to bleed together, and sure enough people started to get bored and turned their attention away from the stage and toward whoever they came with. Muted chatter slowly became a rolling roar that rose from the back of the room. This is the point in the review where I’d normally chastise the crowd, but I can’t blame them for getting restless.

After about 45 minutes of soothing stuff, the trio left the stage for about 20 minutes, than returned for the “loud set,” which was indeed more interesting, more upbeat, and loud enough to discourage casual chatter. You had to yell if you were going to cut through the dense noise generated by Ira’s guitar shredding. Again, the band played a fine selection from a variety of albums, including favorite “Tom Courtenay” off Electr-O-Pura. Nice stuff, but again, one after another after another — including extended Ira guitar solos — started to become dull indeed, and we ended up leaving five songs into the “loud” set.

I love Yo La Tengo. This is the third time I’ve seen them live. The best time was when they played Sokol Underground back in 2006. That set was broad and varied and Ira was reined in. Then there was that Slowdown show in ’09. That one felt loud and chaotic and while Ira was in full-on jam mode, the sheer overblown power of the set made it memorable. Last Saturday’s show was memorable too, but dividing the set into “quiet” and “loud” made for too much of one thing or another.

Eros and Eschaton at Slowdown Jr., Sept. 22, 2013.

Eros and Eschaton at Slowdown Jr., Sept. 22, 2013.

I don’t know if it was because I still had YLT on my mind, but Eros and Eschaton kind of reminded me of that trio when they played at Slowdown Jr. last night. This was an early show — starting at 7 p.m. — which made it possible for me to actually attend. Why more shows — especially on Sunday or “school nights” — don’t start at 7 or 8 remains a mystery to me. It’s nice to be able to get home before 11 p.m.

In this case, I was home before 10 because E&E played a severely short set. The band consists of former It’s True frontman Adam Hawkins and his wife Katey Sleeveless (Kate Perdoni), along with a bassist and (I’m told) the drummer from It’s True. The It’s True influence was distinctive during the first half of the set, which sounded very much like material that would have fit in well on It’s True’s last album. The difference is the harmonies between Hawkins and Perdoni, along with a bit more heft in the arrangements.

Things got heavier in the second half of the set, as the band pulled away into the more brutal territory heard on their new Bar/None album. The musical violence reached a fever pitch when a song closed with what seemed like a full five minutes of battering guitar and feedback noise — a noise collage — that had the guy next to me holding his ears.

At their best, the band epitomizes the ’90s shoegaze of bands like Jesus and Mary Chain and My Bloody Valentine, while the quieter numbers recall the Velvets or, yes, Yo La Tengo. The prime moment was the closing song, a hard, fuzzy droner that I wanted to go on and on, but instead closed too quickly, marking the end of a set that couldn’t have been more than 30 minutes (including five minutes of guitar-noise filler).

* * *

The week starts off strong tonight as Lincoln’s UUVVWWZ takes the stage at fabulous O’Leaver’s with Power Haunts (ex Eagle Seagull, ex Black Hundreds) and Dirty Talker. $5, 9:30 p.m.

* * *

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.

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Live Review: VietNam, Dumb Beach; Hawkins goes to Bar/None; Thermals, Pleasure Adapter, the return of Jiha Lee tonight…

Category: Blog,Reviews — Tags: , , , , , — @ 12:34 pm May 13, 2013
Dumb Beach at O'Leaver's, May 11, 2013

Dumb Beach at O’Leaver’s, May 11, 2013

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

I’m oh-for-two for being on the list for national shows. The first oh came at that Polica show a couple weeks ago. The publicist for opener Night Moves was supposed to handle it. Nothing. And then this past Friday the publicist for Black Pus left me high in dry. Mortifying. In both instances, I got in out of the goodness of the club.

VietNam at Slowdown Jr., May 10, 2013.

VietNam at Slowdown Jr., May 10, 2013.

So needless to say, I don’t feel bad about missing Black Pus’ set, though I was told it sounded like Lightning Bolt, the band that BP’s Brian Chippendale drums in, and that would have been something to see and hear. Instead, I got to Slowdown just in time for VietNam. Described as singer/songwriter Michael Gerner’s project, the essence of their sound is a culmination of all seven band members. That’s right, seven — two guitars, fiddle, bass, Moog and two drummers.

Whenever I hear a band has two drummers, I prepare for either World Music or psychedelic. Friday night it was the latter, in spades. In fact VietNam is the purest form of drug music music I’ve heard in a long time. That fiddle provided a layer of scratchy, droning feedback that cast the proceedings in sonic tones, like a red handkerchief thrown over a lampshade. But this wasn’t some sort of slow-drone Floyd-ish psycho head game. More like the kind of music you imagine playing in the background while on the run after a deal gone bad just outside of Bakersfield on a summer day in 1972, a day that never ends viewed through the filter of over saturated 70 mm film stock. Chugging, hot, on-the-run rock music with no place to hide. This band would be fun to see on a big outdoor stage (just outside of Bethel, NY) sitting in a field surrounded by 100,000 people. Can Gerner bring this energy to VietNam’s upcoming recordings? Wait and see.

Laughing Falcon at O'Leaver's May 11, 2013.

Laughing Falcon at O’Leaver’s May 11, 2013.

Saturday night was another O’Leaver’s night. Lots of folks there to see the reincarnation of Peace of Shit in the form of new band Dumb Beach. I got there just in time to hear the last five minutes of unbridled roar from Dim Light, a band that has reemerged with obvious new energy. I didn’t know much about the next band, Lincoln’s Laughing Falcon, and expected even less. Instead I was pleasantly surprised.

As one guy told me Saturday night, metal is metal, and Laughing Eagle is indeed metal, but of a more palatable strain than the dumbed-down goon rock heard at Rock Fest this past weekend. Laughing Falcon heralds back to the days of Judas Priest, Sabbath, all the way back to Deep Purple and as current as Early Man. But despite referential riffs, the four-piece brought something modern to this rather tattered fight club. It’s not so much angry as energetic, though afterward, you’ll feel like kicking someone’s head in.

The main event, of course, was Dumb Beach, the latest brainchild of frontman Austin Ulmer, and by far his best. Ulmer has surrounded himself with some of the best up-and-coming talent in town, including drummer Jeff Lambelet (Digital Leather), guitarist Ethan Jones (Baby Tears, ex-Ladyfinger), a second guitarist who I’ve seen in a couple other bands whose name I do not know, and secret weapon smiling Dave Hansen (Worried Mothers) on bass. The resulting roar is more straight-forward and “poppy” than Peace of Shit, with songs reminiscent of Digital Leather during that band’s three-piece punk years. They were at their best when playing the fast, heavy stuff vs. the slower songs (though you’ve got to have that contrast to give the highs their highs). Ulmer is at the center of it all with guitar and howl, bare boned, raw, he’s a working man’s frontman, a no-nonsense Midwestern garage punk with an obvious knack for riff and melody and violent noise.

* * *

Everyone thought that Adam Hawkins’ last project, It’s True, was going to break through and get signed, but it was not to be. Hawkins got married, had a kid and now lives somewhere other than Omaha, though he’s far from forgotten by the Benson crowd who once called him their own.

Now comes word that Hawkins’ new project with his wife, Katy Sleeveless, called Eros and Eschaton, has been signed by Bar/None Records. Bar/None has been around since way back in 1986. Among the bands that got their first break from Bar/None are Yo La Tengo, Freedy Johnston, They Might Be Giants, Poi Dog Pondering and even our very own Lullaby for the Working Class.

* * *

Believe it or not, tonight’s Thermals’ show at Slowdown Jr. has yet to sell out — surprising considering the band’s past history and the hype behind their Saddle Creek Records’ debut Desperate Ground. Opening is another hot band, Pleasure Adapter, who I’m told will have a new cassette available at tonight’s show. $12, 9 p.m.

By the way, I’m supposed to be on the list for this one. Let’s see what happens.

Also tonight… Jiha Lee was a member of Bright Eyes and at the center of Saddle Creek music scene when it was just emerging in the early 2000s . And then, she just seemed to disappear. Well, she’s back tonight at Pageturners, performing with another ’00s veteran Fizzle Like a Flood a.k.a. Doug Kabourek. Show starts at 9 and is absolutely free.

* * *

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.

 

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Live Review: It’s True; Sharon Van Etten, Little Scream, Joyner, Black Joe Lewis tonight…

Category: Blog,Reviews — Tags: , — @ 12:36 pm April 4, 2011
It's True at The Waiting Room, April 1, 2011.

It's True (full sequence) at The Waiting Room, April 1, 2011.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

There are two reasons why there was a lot of chatter in the audience during Friday night’s It’s True “reunion” / “CD release” show at The Waiting Room. Reason 1: The show was “sold out.” I put that phrase in quotation marks for a reason, which you may understand by looking at the crowd in the above photo, perhaps the largest crowd I’ve ever seen in TWR. And Reason 2: Said crowd was made up of a lot of friends and fellow countrymen who spent the past couple years becoming fans of It’s True, and conversely, became a sort of extended family. And since that family hasn’t been together since last summer, they had a lot of catching up to do.

That explanation isn’t going to help those who just discovered the band, however, one of which complained to me that he couldn’t find a place to hear them without having to also hear yelled conversations between two, three, four other people. He had a right to be pissed, but who expects to really “hear” the band when they go to something akin to a wedding reception?

That said, I had no problem hearing them — no crowd can drown out TWR’s mighty sound system. And what I heard was at times angelic, explosive, violent, angry, loving, lost, lonely, funny, happy and familiar. Yes, there were 12 people on stage at the beginning of the set — the breakdown included back-up singers, two percussionists, and lots of guitars — but everyone seemed to have a reason for being there, which is more than I can say for some of the ridiculous everyone-and-their-best-friend ensembles I’ve seen/heard over the years. The first half of the show focused on reproducing the depth of sound and substance heard on the band’s EP, Another Afterlife, for sale for the first time that evening. And for the most part it was spot on. Hawkins ran through the album with little spacing between songs, intent (it seemed) on getting through the set list as efficiently as possible. I assume playing with 11 musicians is a trick not unlike juggling cats — everyone thinks it’s fun to look at except for the guy tossing the kitties, who would just soon get it over with before one of them plunges to its death or sinks its claws into your wrist.

It's True at The Waiting Room, April 1, 2011.

It's True (first sequence) at The Waiting Room, April 1, 2011.

Hawkins seemed more comfortable when the band switched to the stripped-down version heard on the previous album. The crowd seemed more responsive as well, as the band dipped into the more familiar material that they’d been waiting to hear again. Certainly the old stuff — with its lengthy, bombastic feedback jams — lends itself to stage heroics, while the newer, more compact (i.e., shorter) material is in many ways more direct and more effective in a pure songwriting vein. I like the new stuff better, and maybe the crowd did as well, as it thinned oh so slightly during the encore.

A final note: Hawkins kept his glasses on for the full 12 rounds. In the past, the specs were either violently whipped off or set on the stage three or four songs into the set, but Friday night they stayed firmly affixed to the bridge of his nose all evening long. Read into that observation whatever you will.

The only opener I caught was Cowboy Indian Bear, who did a pretty good job capturing an audience that wasn’t there to see them.

* * *

Quite a singer/songwriter showcase going on tonight at Slowdown Jr. Brooklyn’s Sharon Van Etten’s latest album, Epic, was released on Ba Da Bing in ’10 and received a whopping 7.8 on the Pitchfork meter. You might know her for her guest-spot work on The Anters’ last album Hospice. In the middle slot is Little Scream. Her new album, The Golden Record (Secretly Canadian), reminds me more than a little bit of St. Vincent. Opening the festivities is Simon Joyner. This is a pretty “epic” line up for $8. Starts at 9.

Also tonight…. Seems like there were as many people excited about tonight’s Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears show when it was announced a month or so ago as there were when the upcoming Sharon Jones / Dap Kings concert was announced . Well here we are, a month or so later, and BJL still hasn’t sold out. Not yet, anyway. Opening is Tennessee’s Those Darlins. $12, 9 p.m.

* * *

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 © 2011 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

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It’s True CD release / “reunion” show tonight; Toro Y Moi Saturday; Wye Oak Sunday…

Category: Blog — Tags: , — @ 12:44 pm April 1, 2011

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Adam Hawkins of It’s True said that tonight’s CD release show for Another Afterlife at The Waiting Room will feature as many as 12 musicians on stage at the same time. “It’s not going to be like a rotating cast,” he said. “We’re arranging songs for about 12 people. And hopefully we’ll remember the songs. We’ll have had maybe six practices with the big band by the time it happens.”

I suspect that the evening will have a “reunion” feel to it despite the fact that it’s an album launch. Hawkins said he doesn’t intend to ramp up a touring band, at least not anytime soon (see why here), so tonight’s show and tomorrow night’s show at The Bourbon Theater may be the last times you get to see It’s True perform in the foreseeable future. Expect a crowd, and maybe lines as no advanced tickets were offered to this show — it’s walk-up traffic only. Opening is The Haunted Windchimes, Noah’s Ark Was a Spaceship, and Lawrence band Cowboy Indian Bear. $8, 9 p.m.

Tomorrow night’s big show is “chillwave” artist Toro Y Moi at Slowdown Jr. TYM is South Carolina native Chaz Bundick and a plethora of electronic devices. His new album, Underneath the Pine (Carpark) is synth-y and beat-heavy, the shimmer is dreamy, the vocals breathy and echoing, the melodies intentionally loungy (a la Stereolab). Pitchfork gave the album an 8.4. Opening is Adventure. $10, 9 p.m.

Last but not least, Wye Oak (who you read about yesterday) plays at Slowdown Jr. with Callers Sunday night. I realize it’s a school night, but you won’t want to miss this amazing band that’s signed to Merge Records. And it’s only $8. Starts at 9.

That’s what I got. Let me know what I’m missing.

* * *

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 © 2011 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

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Column 315: The Return of It’s True; Saturn Moth, Dim Light, Lincoln Exposed starts tonight…

Category: Blog,Column,Interviews — Tags: , , — @ 12:29 pm March 24, 2011

It's True's Adam Hawkins

Column 315: Adam Hawkins’ Encore

It’s True emerges from the ashes with an important EP.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

When local indie band It’s True’s announced that it was breaking up at a performance last June, I was more than a bit surprised.

After playing South by Southwest the March prior, the band had released its debut full length to much local adoration. They went on to play a number of shows in California that were, by all indication, a big success. Rumors abound that the band had caught the eye of a few big-name star makers. The world was about to take notice of what many of us thought was Omaha’s next big thing.

And then during a show that was more like a drunken Irish wake, It’s True frontman Adam Hawkins announced with a bourbon drawl, “This is our third-to-last show,” and that the band was hanging it up after its performance at the MAHA Music Festival that July.

The reasons for the break-up are hinted throughout the band’s fantastic, soon-to-be-released EP, Another Afterlife. There’s the opener “Don’t You Know You’re Never Alone,” with the line  “Looking at all these people looking back at me it seems they’re seeing more than I would want them to see.” Or the opening phrase to “Stand Still,” which goes “He breaks another vow and sells his guitar / He says ‘I’m never gonna be a star.’” Or maybe the most definitive line of all, from track three: “I don’t want to be the one who let’s you down.”

“I got tired of all day, every day, all anyone would talk about was the band,” Hawkins explained from his home in Grimes, Iowa, a small town just outside of Des Moines. “The strategizing and worrying about decisions about where we should play next, those were the only conversations we had; and it was all that anyone would want to talk about whenever I ran into anyone outside the band. It felt mentally limiting. Everything that I was doing at that point was not feeling right or natural. It wasn’t anything personal, it wasn’t any big dramatic event, I just needed a little space to breath.”

Hawkins said the breakup didn’t catch the band by surprise. “I think that maybe they didn’t think it would actually happen,” he said, “but I don’t think they were surprised at all. Everyone knew I wasn’t happy.”

But if the band knew it was coming, the fans didn’t. “I had a couple people tell me that they were really pissed at me,” Hawkins said. “People thought I was really throwing something away and making a big mistake, not understanding the situation. A number of people cried at the last few shows, they came up to me teary eyed. It was strange to hear how much it meant to people.”

But despite those reactions, Hawkins said nothing was going to sway his decision. “(Their reactions) felt good, like we were really doing something,” he said, “but I knew I needed time to air out.”

If fact, he’d already made his decision by the time of that brief California tour. “We all knew that was our last hurrah,” Hawkins said, adding that he had nothing to come home to after the tour. “I’d been slacking off at my job, and they fired me, rightfully so,” he said. “And so I came back with no job and no money and decided I was going to get out of there.”

Hawkins’ parents own a combination art gallery, frame shop and flower shop located in an old stone church in Des Moines. “I knew mom was looking for some help in the kitchen and asked if she’d be interested in me coming back and staying a month or two,” he said.

The plan was for Hawkins and his girlfriend, Katey Sleeveless, to save some money before going back on the road, but things didn’t work out that way. His kitchen replacement fell through, and his mother “made strong hints that it would be helpful if we hung around, so we signed a six-month lease on an apartment.”

And then Hawkins and Katey found out that they were going to be parents.

“It hit me in a lot of different ways,” he said. “Everything is totally different now. It’s definitely the No. 1 important thing for me — finding ways to provide happiness for my family.”

It's True, Another Afterlife (2011, Slo-Fi)

It's True, Another Afterlife (2011, Slo-Fi)

But while all that was happening, Hawkins never stopped writing songs. “Music was always there,” he said. “I wrote songs no matter what, and had a little collection that I wanted to record and not worry if they were good.” His first call was to It’s True bass player Kyle Harvey. By October Hawkins was recording most of the parts at the home studio of Jeremy Garrett, The Waiting Room’s sound engineer. The rest of It’s True filled in the holes, except for drummer Matt Arbeiter, who had moved to New York.

The 8-song EP is an evolution for Hawkins. It’s more straight-forward and tuneful, and in many ways more personal than the band’s debut full length. “It’s all about the last year or so,” Hawkins said of the album. “It’s kind of all about starting over, different things beginning and different things ending.”

But the EP and its release shows at The Waiting Room April 1 and the Bourbon Theater in Lincoln April 2 aren’t so much a new beginning for It’s True as a reunion (even Arbeiter is coming back from NYC for the shows). Hawkins has his sights set on only one thing after the final encore.

“First of all, I’m going to have a baby,” he said about his future. “That will take precedent for awhile. After that, I don’t know. Katey and I are both musicians. We’ll find a way to do that, and not in a background sort of way. We’ll find ways to make it an integral part of our lives.”

* * *

Want a sneak peak of Another Afterlife? Check out the interview with Adam Hawkins at Worlds of Wayne (it’s right here), which includes a sampling of the songs off the EP.

* * *

Saturn Moth, a new-ish four piece fronted by Collin Matz, headlines a show tonight at The Waiting Room that also includes the amazing Dim Light, Cymbal Rush and Knife, Fight, Justice. $5, 9 p.m.

Tonight also is the start of the three-day Lincoln Exposed festival. You’re looking at three nights of Lincoln bands playing at The Zoo Bar, The Bourbon Theater and Duffy’s. Tix are $7 a night or $15 for all three nights. The best place to see the line-up and schedules is at Omahype, at these three links:

Lincoln Exposed Day 1 – Thursday, March 24

Lincoln Exposed Day 2 – Friday, March 25

Lincoln Exposed Day 3 – Saturday, March 26

* * *

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 © 2011 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

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It’s True takes an evolutionary leap with new EP, Another Afterlife…

Category: Blog — Tags: , , — @ 1:17 pm March 23, 2011

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

It's True, Another Afterlife (2011, Slo-Fi Records)

It's True, Another Afterlife (2011, Slo-Fi Records)

Tomorrow I’m posting an interview with It’s True’s Adam Hawkins as my weekly column. If you’re out and about, you can read it in this week’s issue of The Reader, which drops today. The interview attempts to answer questions about It’s True’s breakup after last year’s MAHA Music Festival, as well as talk about the band’s rebirth and new EP, Another Afterlife.

It’s rare that I gush about an album that’s yet to be released (the CD release show is April 1 at The Waiting Room), but I simply can’t help myself with this one. Another Afterlife is hands down one of the best collections of songs I’ve heard from a local band in a long time, and sits among the best nationally released CDs I’ve heard this year.

Consider it an evolution in songwriting and style. When It’s True’s debut CD was released back in ’09 — there there, now… / i think it’s best… (if i leave) — I thought it was a nice little 4-track bedroom recording of solo acoustic folk songs, sweet and unpretentious. Then came last year’s more formal self-titled release that was basically a re-imagining of the songs on the debut with a full band. Hawkins and Co. took simple ideas and made them sonically huge, at times a little too huge and ponderous for my taste, yet it was unquestionably an impressive step forward that a lot of us thought would be a launching pad to bigger things. We all know what happened next.

Now on this slight, 29-minute EP, Hawkins takes the best ideas from his first two efforts and hones them to perfection. At times I’m reminded of intimate, early Simon & Garfunkel. Other times (especially on the more instrumental tracks) I think of the best of Badly Drawn Boy. But overall, Another Afterlife is a refinement of Hawkins’ own songwriting voice, and what a voice it is. Both lyrically and musically, he’s cleared away the clutter and brought his songs down to core ideas that are consistently moving and entertaining. I love this record.

Kyle Harvey, who owns and operates Slo-Fi Records (which is releasing the EP), could have his hands full with this one if he and the band can get it heard by the right people. But something tells me that’s not going to happen, especially with the monumental task that’s about to confront Mr. Hawkins in the very near future, but more on that tomorrow…

* * *

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 © 2011 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

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Live Review: Interpol; It’s True’s next life; Brad Hoshaw tonight…

Category: Blog,Reviews — Tags: , — @ 1:55 pm February 10, 2011
Interpol at The Slowdown, Feb. 9, 2011.

Interpol at The Slowdown, Feb. 9, 2011.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

As I was leaving last night’s sold-out Interpol show at The Slowdown I ran into someone who also was at the 2003 Interpol show at Sokol Underground. His comment: “You’ve seen one Interpol show, you’ve seen them all.” Last night, it seemed, was proof of that.

The band didn’t sound or look much different than when I saw them all those years ago, though that first show had an excitement factor that can’t be replicated. There were obvious differences, of course. I had a much better vantage point to see the band this time around, standing just below stage left (I was way in the back of the room at that Sokol show). And then there were the lights. Interpol uses a battery of powerful, dazzling LED panels along with synchronized spots (mounted at ground level) to give them a haunting man-who-fell-to-earth sort of vibe. Unfortunately, where I stood the LED’s and floods burned right into my retinas, blinding me through most of the show — I wound up pulling a Corey Hart and slapped on my Ray-bans. Those lights were the most exciting part of the band’s stage presence, as the well-dressed lads kind of stood there and played in the glare and fog, though guitarist Daniel Kessler (looking like a young Noah Wyle) did break into some edgy, kicky dance moves on occasion.

Add their flat stage presence (and no between-song patter) to Interpol’s interesting though one-dimensional songwriting and you’ve got a recipe for a pretty static show once you get past the first three songs. The good news is that their new material stands up well next to the old material. The bad news is that it all sounds the same. I got the feeling after Kessler and Banks’ somber guitar-vocal duet halfway through the set, that it would be right back to business as usual, and it was. With an early wake-up call this morning, I took off my sunglasses and headed home before the encore.
* * *

It’s True, a.k.a. Adam Hawkins and whoever he’s playing with these days, announced a CD release show yesterday on Facebook. The new disc is called Another Afterlife, and the show is April 1 at The Waiting Room with the Haunted Windchimes, Noah’s Ark was a Spaceship, and Cowboy Indian Bear. It’s good to have you back, Mr. Hawkins.

* * *
Speaking of talented singer/songwriters, tonight Brad Hoshaw is headlining a gig at Slowdown Jr. with Lincoln Dickison, SAS and Michael Wunder. $7, 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 © 2011 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

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NYE options; It’s True is back; Roam for the Holidaze; Smiths bootleg…

Category: Blog — Tags: , — @ 12:56 pm December 31, 2010
Mercy Rule 12/29/10

Mercy Rule at The Waiting Room Dec. 29, 2010. Included here because you can never post too many photos of Jon, Heidi and Ron in action.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

New Year’s Eve was never a good night for live music. The bars and clubs are taken over by cover bands while the amateurs come out to drink themselves into a numbed stupor. Most bands that play original music take the night off and join the fray as participants rather than combatants. The story’s the same this year — lots of cover bands and DJs.

If I were going out tonight (other than just to dinner) I might hit the Joe Budenholzer classic album tribute night at the hot new Side Door Lounge at 3530 Leavenworth (just across the street in the easterly direction from the Family Dollar store). Joining Joe on covers of songs by Talking Heads, T. Rex, The Cure, Velvet Underground and Iggy Pop will be Dereck Higgins, Bill Eustice, Dan Crouchley, Jim Morrow, John Foley, and Gary Foster. Starts at 9:30, and I have no idea what it costs.

Another option is the free New Year’s Eve show at the old Orifice studio space at 24th and Leavenworth, above 4 Aces. According to the chap that posted this on the webboard, the show will feature “Conchance (hip hop, 40oz slamming, bad ass); The Fuckin Party (Members of Perry H. Matthews, Hercules, and La Casa Bombas….Jesus Lizard meets Arab on Radar meets way too much weed); DJ Frankie Troia starting at midnight when the ball drops (well an hour after the ball drops [fuckin time zones] and the babes congregate. BBQ available all night as well as babes to potentially make out with at midnight (although it is cold/ flu season so make out at your own discretion). With the $15 you would spend on Goo, you can backpack a 30rack and party down all night at a rager.” Nice.

And there’s always The Brothers Lounge. Whatever you choose, I wish you good luck on your mission. I will see you somewhere on the other side.

* * *

Sarah Wengert at The Reader broke the story (posted right here) that’s been in the back of everyone’s mind but that no one could confirm — It’s True is back. “…You can take that from the horse’s mouth straight to the bank,” Sarah writes. “(Adam) Hawkins says he and a new band will release another It’s True album April 1 — save the date, no foolin’ — at a Benson venue. The evolved It’s True is comprised of 10-11 members, including several former members. The new record is all new material.”  Welcome back, Mr. Hawkins. We all knew you’d return.

* * *

David Matysiak of Coyote Bones fame dropped a line to say his  20-track original sampler of music for the holidays and other occasions is available for free download from his Coco Arts website. The collection contains “Some Omaha, some Atlanta, some Athens, some NYC, some KC, you know, someeverywherehrehere!” Matysiak said. Among the notable local contributors are Dereck Higgins, Icky Blossoms, Coyote Bones, and Indreama, the new band fronted by Nik Fackler (who, btw, are playing at The Waiting Room next Tuesday, Jan. 4, with Conchance, No I’m the Pilot and Dapose (of The Faint)). The download link is located at the CocoArt site, right here.

* * *

Speaking of free downloads, fans of The Smiths will want to check out Morrissey-solo.com where there are links to download 16 unreleased Smiths’ studio outtakes that first appeared on vinyl-only Unreleased Demos & Instrumentals. It’s rare stuff, well recorded, and the quality is AIFF. Track listing and links are here.

* * *

Lazy-i Best of 2010.

Speaking of samplers, a small handful have dropped their name into the hat for the drawing to win a copy of the highly coveted and collectible Lazy-i Best of 2010 Sampler CD!  You can enter, too, by sending an e-mail to tim@lazy-i.com with your name and mailing address. Tracks include songs by Perfume Genius, Arcade Fire, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, The National, Tim Kasher, Hot Chip, Sally Seltmann, Belle and Sebastian, Titus Andronicus, The Mynabirds, Zeus, The Black Keys, Pete Yorn and more. Full track listing is here. Enter today. Deadline is Jan. 18.

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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 © 2010 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

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