The Lupines at O'Leaver's, Nov. 10, 2011.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

First up last night was the screening of The Adventures of Prince Achmed to what looked like a more-than-half-filled crowd at Film Streams. Jake Bellows, Ryan Fox and Ben Brodin set up shop in the first row of the facility’s big auditorium, where amps glowed just under the screen. I’m happy that I remembered to bring earplugs. It was loud. Not painfully loud, but loud for such an enclosed space.

It also was trippy. Very trippy. The images by themselves were a psychedelic head-trip without Bellows & Co’s innovative “score,” which glided between somber ambient tone shifts, electro-dance mantras, space-folk feedback and chord-driven mountain rock. I wouldn’t say the styles seamlessly matched the screen, but most of the time I found myself lost in Achmed’s weird Eastern netherworld filled with wizards and monsters and proud people doing magical things.

BTW, next up in the Silents in Concert series Dec. 1 is the 1966 surf classic The Endless Summer, featuring music by Matteah Baim, whose ’09 album, Laughing Boy (Dicristina Records), got a 7.2 at Pitchfork.

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Next, it was off to beautiful O’Leaver’s for the debut of The Lupines. While writing this before work this morning, I listened to Brimstone Howl’s Big Deal album, trying to ascertain the “differentiators” between that band and this, John Ziegler’s new project. There were obvious similarities, not the least of which was Ziegler’s big-shouldered vocals delivered with its familiar dead-pan snarl on garage rock songs that dwell on the downside of love.

If you like Brimstone, you’ll like Lupines. The real difference (to me) was Mike Friedman’s guitar. Friedman has always been a secret weapon in any band he’s played in — one of Omaha’s best unheralded guitarists. The “unheralded” status may be at risk now that he’s in this band, especially once people hear his freak-out solos and their interplay with Ziegler’s own frenetic guitar style. Holding it together was Iron Mike Tulis’ rock-steady bass lines and  Javid Dabestani’s forward-leaning drums.

If anything, The Lupines seem less campy and more punk than Brimstone ever was, and at the same time (ironically) more serious and more refined. For a debut performance, they were tight as tics and sounded ready to enter a studio, but I guess that’s what you’d expect from this band of rock veterans.

Openers, Detroit rockers Gardens, were a by-the-numbers garage band with brief forays into psych rock and a gift for between-song gab. “We just drove from Denver,” said the drummer. “There was nothing to see. Not even any trees. Just cow concentration camps. This next one’s a big kiss for Omaha.” Unfortunately I didn’t see any of the dozen or so people on hand puckering up.

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Busy, busy weekend.

On top of the list tonight is, of course, the Speed! Nebraska 15th Anniversary rock show at The Brothers Lounge, which you read about yesterday. On the bill: Ideal Cleaners, The Wagon Blasters, Domestica, Techlepathy and The Filter Kings. Show starts at 9 and will run you $5. This one should be a hoot.

Also tonight being held at clubs throughout Benson is the OEA Nominee Showcase. The $10 entry fee gets you into The Waiting Room, Burke’s Pub, Benson Grind, The Barley Street Tavern and PS Collective all night. For the full run-down of bands, go to http://oea-awards.com/

Also going on tonight in Benson (but not affiliated with the OEA event) is the Down with the Ship CD EP release show at The Sydney with Arrah and the Ferns (Philadelphia, Pa.) and Bazooka Shootout. $5, 9 p.m.

Also tonight (but not in Benson) is Ragged Company’s CD release show at The Side Door Lounge. 9 p.m. and absolutely free.

And jeeze… did I almost forget Depressed Buttons are performing down at House of Loom tonight? Brent Crampton opens. $5, 10 p.m.

On Saturday night the decisions become even tougher.

At The Waiting Room, Lonely Estates has its CD release show for their new self-released album The Invertebrate. Lonely Estates is former members of Malpias (minus Greg Loftus) and includes David and Luke Backhaus, Phil Reno, Scott Evans and fronted by Braden Rapp, The album was recorded by AJ Mogis at ARC Studios. I’ve been listening to it off and on for the past couple of weeks and would say its sound is huddled under the same indie rock umbrella as Criteria and Little Brazil. Big, soaring anthems with big, soaring vocals and guitar solos and lots of harmonies. Worth checking out. Opening the show is Brad Hoshaw and the Seven Deadlies, New Lungs and Blue Bird. Quite a lineup. $8, 9 p.m.

But…

Over at O’Leaver’s Saturday night it’s the return of Digital Leather — and I’ve never seen a bad O’Leaver’s Digital Leather show. Add to that Noah’s Ark Was a Spaceship and you’ve got another solid rock bill. $5, 9 p.m.

Can I go to both shows? No, I can’t.

Also going on Saturday night, Lincoln instrumental rock trio Machete Archive plays at The Sandbox with Fetal Pig, Super Invader, Class M Planets and 13th Year. $8, 9 p.m.

Meanwhile, over at The Barley Street Tavern Saturday night, Jake Bellows breaks away from his work at ARC studio to perform along with The Betties and one more band. $5, 9 p.m.

The weekend ends Sunday night at The Slowdown when City and Colour takes the stage with Hacienda and David Romano. Tickets are $22/$25 DOS (and I hear they’re going fast). Show starts at 9.

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2011 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The following is a public service announcement, as earlier presentations in the Silents in Concert series have sold out, and I have a feeling this one will as well:

Tomorrow night at 7 p.m. Film Streams will be screening The Adventures of Prince Achmed. The 1926 German silent is regarded as the first animated feature-length film and is comprised of papercut silhouettes filmed in stop motion.

The film’s original score was composed by German composer Wolfgang Zeller in direct collaboration with the animation. However, for tomorrow night’s screening, a new original score will be performed live by Jake Bellows (Neva Dinova), Ben Brodin (Before the Toast and Tea, Mal Madrigal) and Ryan Fox (1989 Chicago Cubs, Our Fox, The Good Life).

“We’ll have three electric guitars and rotate on a couple keyboards and trigger a few programmed beats and other odds and ends,” said Fox, who along with Bellows, just arrived in Omaha this week. He and Bellows have worked together in the past as a duo called Breakfast, whose influences have included Brian Eno’s ambient work, Stars of the Lid, Yo La Tengo’s The Sounds of the Sounds of Science, Spacemen 3, The Velvet Underground, Jackie-O Motherfucker and Cluster. Look for those influences during tomorrow night’s performance.

But that’s not the only thing the trio will be doing while Fox and Bellows are in town. “On Saturday, the three of us are going into the studio (ARC) to begin recording 15 or 16 or 17 or 25 tracks to make the first full-length album of Jake’s songs since Neva Dinova’s last album in 2008,” Fox said. If the new music is anything like the two new songs available from Bellows’ website, we’re all in for a treat.

As for tomorrow night’s screening, tickets can be purchased from the Film Streams website: $8 for Film Steams members, $10 for students, and $12 for the general public. Get them while you can.

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Tomorrow’s column: Speed! Nebraska at 15.

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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.

by TIm McMahan, Lazy-i.com

I swung by The Barley Street Tavern last night for Orenda Fink/McCarthy Trenching, and it was (as expected) a packed house, which means there were more than 50 people in the bar’s “music room,” where folk stood along the wall in the back and women sat on their boyfriends’ laps. Another 20 or so people were pushed into the main bar area, content with watching the performance on the security monitor-style camera above the bar.

Yeah, it was crowded, but had you wanted to see the show, you could have. I caught the last few songs by Whispertown’s Morgan Nagler, one of which was accompanied by Fink and another two accompanied by Omaha ex-pat Jake Bellows. Nagler had an innocent, some might say childlike, flair to her simple acoustic ballads. Bellows took over right after her set and played five or six solo acoustic tunes, sounding better than ever. He remains one of Omaha’s best lonely-heart crooners, like an Elvis lost on a desert island.

Dan McCarthy came on at around 11, taking advantage of the Barley’s house piano, which he said was made in 1917 and last tuned in 1918. Despite that, the rustic keyboard sounded perfect for his style of Randy Newman-meets-Chuck Brodsky-meets Tom Waits folk balladry, which included a few Scott Joplin rags. A couple members of hot new band Gus & Call joined him in the middle of the set (playing stand-up bass and that piano) when McCarthy picked up an acoustic guitar. He eventually made his way back to the piano and was still at it when I left at midnight, too tired to wait for Orenda (unless, of course, she played before Whispertown, which I do not know). The crowd had a hipster wedding reception feel to it, consisting of members of the Saddle Creek Records family and their friends and colleagues, all out to “welcome back” Orenda and Todd Fink to Omaha.

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The folks at the MAHA Music Festival took a decidedly smart turn in how they picked the bands for their local stage this year — three of the five bands were chosen by folks involved with hearnebraska.org (including myself as an HN board member, though only one of the three bands chosen were on my list). As a requirement for accepting the local-stage gig, each band was tasked with curating one pre-festival showcase, where they would play along with two or three other bands of their choosing. Last Friday MAHA announced the line-up for these showcase events.

Strongest of the three is the showcase curated by So-So Sailors at Slowdown July 28. Playing along with SSS will be power-punk band Millions of Boys, the more traditional indie stylings of Fortnight, and one of the area’s best punk/garage/new wave rock bands, Digital Leather, who (one could argue) should have been in consideration for one of those three MAHA local stage spots.

The other Omaha showcase will be held June 22 at The Waiting Room, curated by Noah’s Ark Was a Spaceship. Joining them will be New Lungs, a new trio featuring Danny Maxwell of Little Brazil on guitar and vocals, drummer Corey Broman and bassist Craig Fort. Think Polvo meets Dinosaur Jr. meets Mission of Burma meets classic ’90s Linoma punk. Also on the bill are noise rockers Ketchup and Mustard Gas.

And finally, there’s the Lincoln showcase curated by The Machete Archive to be held at Duffy’s Tavern July 1. Joining Machete will be Her Flyaway Manner, Irkutsk and Powerful Science. Brendan McGinn’s HFN has been around for years playing brutal, Fugazi-inspired punk. I can’t say as I know a thing about the other two bands.

All three showcases are all-ages events and absolutely free, so you best mark them down on your calendar.

There’s still one more MAHA local stage spot up for grabs, which will be determined by a public-vote talent competition as part of the OEA Summer Showcase July 8-9 in Benson.

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One final bit of news: Judging by their Facebook fan page, it looks like Big Harp, the husband-and-wife duo of Chris Senseney (Baby Walrus) and Stefanie Drootin-Senseney (The Good Life, Consafos) are the latest “signing” by Saddle Creek Records. They’re still not listed on the Creek site, but I’m sure that’ll come any day now. It’s good to see Creek continuing to sign new talent in this era of music industry decline…

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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.