SERIAL (ex-Ritual Device), See Through Dresses, Staffers tonight; Criteria, Little Brazil Saturday; Happy (frozen) NYE…

Category: Blog — Tags: , , , , , , — @ 12:00 pm December 29, 2017

SERIAL at The Brothers Lounge, Dec. 23, 2016. They return for another go tonight at The Brothers.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Despite the fact that New Year’s Eve has been usurped into a night of firework-bombs that exceeds the 4th of July (driving my dogs under the couch shaking in fear) I was considering going out this year… until I saw the weather forecast that calls for ambient temperatures ranging between -15 and -20. No. NYE is always a bomb anyway; even was back when I was single. It’s definitely not a night to see original indie music. I mean, who wants to hear that at midnight?

Anyway, there’s plenty of other good stuff going on this weekend, starting tonight at The Brothers Lounge where SERIAL returns for their third annual holiday show.

SERIAL is Tim Moss (Ritual Device), John Wolf (Cellophane Ceiling, Bad Luck Charm), Lee Meyerpeter (Cactus Nerve Thang, Bad Luck Charm, Filter Kings, Ocean Black) and Jerry Hug (Ritual Device). Moss, Wolf and Hug also were the Men of Porn, but that’s another story

To give you an idea what you’re in for, here’s part of the review from last year’s show:

The first set included covers of songs by Nugent, the Stones, Tom Petty, Cheap Trick, one of my favorites by Pavement (“Two States) and Bowie’s “Rebel, Rebel.” As Wolf said, they were SERIAL, killing one classic at a time.

Moss’s wife, Clementine, took over the drum kit, allowing the bearded wonder to growl a couple numbers himself, including a punked-up version of Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab,” and a gruff cover of AC/DC’s “Dirty Deeds” that featured a young lady with dreads who crushed the guitar solo.

I only stuck around for the first set. Lord knows what happened after that. Opening the show is KC band Drop a Grand. $5, 9 p.m. (but I bet it doesn’t start til 10)…

Meanwhile tonight over at The Waiting Room it’s the triumphant return of See Through Dresses. The band has been touring all over the U.S. this year. No doubt you’ll be hearing a well-honed machine on stage. Joining them is Saddle Creek Records band Twinsmith and Oquoa. $8, 9 p.m.

But that’s not all…

The fine folks at Almost Music are hosting an in-store tonight with Staffers, Apoptosis (featuring Anna McClellan) and Sean Pratt & The Sweats. This one starts at 8 p.m. and is $5. You could probably hit up this show early than walk down the street to Brothers to catch SERIAL. Just sayin’…

Tomorrow night (Saturday) is The Waiting Room’s big holiday show featuring our old friends Criteria. Will Stephen Pedersen and the boys roll out some new Criteria material for family and friends? Find out. I do know we’ll be hearing a couple new one from opening band Little Brazil (along with the classics). Those brutes in Noah’s Ark Was a Spaceship opens the night at 9 p.m. $8. In the words of everyone’s favorite holiday movie icon: Now I have a machine gun. Ho-ho-ho.

There is actually one notable show going on New Year’s Eve, and it’s at fabulous O’Leaver’s. The sinister electro-dance sounds of Cult Play headlines with post-punk rockers No Thanks and Houma. Come for the rock, stay for the NYE madness. O’Leaver’s is a crazy drunken madhouse on any given Sunday; no doubt it’ll go next-level crazy-fuck when the clock strikes 12. You’ll have to tell me about it since there’s no way I’m going out in 21-below weather.

For those of you who do, have a great New Year’s Eve and I’ll see you in 2018.

* * *

Lazy-i Best of 2017

I almost forget to remind you about the Lazy-i Best of 2017 Comp CD?

The collection includes my favorite indie tunes I’ve come across throughout last year as part of my tireless work as a music critic for Lazy-i. Among those represented: SLuna, Closeness, Slowdive, !!!, Digital Leather, Perfume Genius, Big Thief, Wilder Maker and lots more. The full track listing is here, or take a listen if you have Spotify.

So the big news is you, too, could win a copy of the CD. To enter, either: 1. Send an email with your mailing address to tim.mcmahan@gmail.com, or 2) Write a comment on one of my Lazy-i related posts in Facebook, or 3) Retweet a Lazy-i tweet. You also can enter by sending me a direct message in Facebook or Twitter. Hurry, contest deadline is midnight Jan. 5.

* * *

Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2017 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Lazy-i

Live Review: SERIAL; Icky Blossoms, Closeness, Nathan Ma & the Rosettes tonight…

Category: Blog,Reviews — Tags: , , , — @ 2:12 pm December 26, 2016
SERIAL at The Brothers Lounge, Dec. 23, 2016.

SERIAL at The Brothers Lounge, Dec. 23, 2016.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Late Friday night at The Brothers. Someone pointed out that those overhead PA speakers were mounted on their ceiling a long time ago, evidence of how the bar has kind of transformed into an occasional music venue this year (though it’s still a punk bar at heart). The pseudo drum riser in the back corner I’d noticed before. On Friday night it held Tim Moss, who I’d forgotten was  pretty good drummer in addition to being the frontman of Omaha golden age punk band Ritual Device.

SERIAL is a sort of super group of golden age punk rockers, heroes of the ’90s who get together while in town for the holidays to play some covers. John Wolf, of Cellophane Ceiling fame, played guitars and did vocals. So did Lee Meyerpeter of Cactus Nerve Thang and modern-day act Filter Kings. And there was Jerry Hug on bass, a lawyer by profession, a rocker by reputation, at least the rep he has among folks at The Brothers.

I only watched the first set, which included covers of songs by Nugent, the Stones, Tom Petty, Cheap Trick, one of my favorites by Pavement (“Two States) and Bowie’s “Rebel, Rebel.” As Wolf said, they were SERIAL, killing one classic at a time.

Moss’s wife, Clementine, took over the drum kit, allowing the bearded wonder to growl a couple numbers himself, including a punked-up version of Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab,” and a gruff cover of AC/DC’s “Dirty Deeds” that featured a young lady with dreads who crushed the guitar solo. I split when the band took its first break. Great stuff on a late Friday night before Christmas…

* * *

The holidays continue with tonight’s show at The Waiting Room. Icky Blossoms headlines a strong four-band bill that includes Closeness, Nathan Ma & the Rosettes and Cult Play. This is sort of a reunion show for Icky Blossoms, though Derek, Nik and Sarah haven’t gone anywhere. Rumor has it they’re working on new material for 2017. $10, 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 © 2016 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

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Maria Taylor music in ‘This Is Us’; SERIAL (ex-Ritual Device) does X-mas (again)…

Category: Blog — Tags: , , , — @ 1:46 pm December 5, 2016

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

There’s an interesting Q&A with Omaha ex-pat Maria Taylor in something called Alabama Newscenter wherein Taylor talks about getting her music played on soapy NBC drama This Is Us. From the interview:

I have a licensing company that pitches my music to TV shows, and I have been fortunate to have many of my songs featured on TV and in movies. It’s always exciting, especially when you really love the show. I’ve also had songs on Grey’s Anatomy, including an episode named after Song Beneath the Song, and another in the movie The Devil Wears Prada. Dawson’s Creek or Felicity might have been the first license I ever got!

When I first listened to her new record, In the Next Life (which comes out Friday on her label), licensing immediately came to mind. Taylor solo or in Azure Ray creates music that naturally complements these kinds of shows. No doubt licensing can be very lucrative and an exceptional way to augment a musician’s meager income in the streaming era. Too bad it’s so hard to land a licensing deal, but fact is most bands’ music simply doesn’t fit on TV.

One example: Tim Kasher’s music — with Cursive, The Good Life or solo. It’s just too mesmerizing, too distracting. If one of Tim’s songs came on during This Is Us it would be impossible to not refocus your attention toward the music, instead of letting it blend into the background.

* * *

Legendary Omaha musician and promoter John Wolf dropped an email yesterday announcing that SERIAL is playing a Christmas show Dec.23 at Brothers Lounge with those merry elves in Bloodcow.

SERIAL is Tim Moss (Porn music, Ritual Device), Wolf (Cellophane Ceiling, Bad Luck Charm, Porn music, Lee Meyerpeter (Cactus Never Thang, Bad Luck Charm, Filter Kings) and Jerry Hug (Ritual Device, Porn music).

Says Wolf: “Wolf, Moss and Meyerpeter performed as SERIAL a handful of times in the mid 1990s. Various bass players played with the band including Eric Melvin from from NOFX for a couple of shows. For this performance the men of SERIAL coaxed and possibly blackmailed Jerry Hug into playing bass for them. SERIAL was known for their volatile, chaotic, and unpredictable rockin’ performances, and nothing less than this can be expected this time around.”

That’s primo stuff, but it isn’t the only X-mas show going on that night. Criteria is playing at The Waiting Room with Little Brazil on Dec. 23. Plan accordingly…

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2016 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

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Live Review: Gramps, Millions of Boys; Serial returns (the band, not the podcast); Back When, Paria reunions…

Category: Blog,Reviews — Tags: , , , , , — @ 1:48 pm December 14, 2015
Gramps at O'Leaver's, Dec. 11, 2015.

Gramps at O’Leaver’s, Dec. 11, 2015.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Great crowd at O’Leaver’s Friday night for the Gramps EP release show. Django Greenblatt-Seay and Co. belted out songs off the online-only release (along with a few others) to a festive pre-holiday crowd packed into a very hot room — so hot, in fact, I had to step outside for air halfway through the set. The atmosphere was downright mossy.

Full disclosure: I work with Django downtown at Union Pacific, but rest assured I’m showing no bias when I say Gramps’ style of jangle (not jango)-indie rock has distinctively Nebraskan flavor, sounding like a cross between Little Brazil and Criteria (one song, about four into the set, had a riff and rhythm that directly channeled En Garde).

With all the irons Django has in the fire, Gramps shows are a rarity. If you get a chance, definitely check them out.

Millions of Boys at O'Leaver's, Dec. 11, 2015.

Millions of Boys at O’Leaver’s, Dec. 11, 2015.

As much of a draw as Gramps Friday night was the return of Millions of Boys. It’s been a long time since this trio played in Omaha, and they’ve been sorely missed. Whereas Sara Bertuldo’s other band, See Through Dresses, is more of a shoe-gaze act, Millions of Boys is in-yer-face, crunchy pop-punk reminiscent of Weezer. Fun stuff we need to hear more of.

* * *

By now you may already have seen the Facebook invitation for a special reunion show Dec. 26 at Brothers Lounge. It’s the return of Serial, a band consisting of John Wolf (Cellophane Ceiling), Lee Meyerpeter (Cactus Nerve Thang) and Tim Moss (Ritual Device).

John Wolf dropped me an email last Friday announcing the show. “Moss, Lee and I did a few gigs as Serial in ’94-’96 time frame with various bass players, including Eric Melvin from NOFX,” Wolf said. “We coaxed Jerry Hug into playing this show with us!”

Whoa! Add to that a “special guest” and you’ve got a post-Christmas show for the ages.

Speaking of reunion shows, I would be remiss in not mentioning another big reunion show taking place the same night, Dec. 26 at The Waiting Room. Reuniting for one night only, after years defunct, is powerhouse noise-metal band Back When. Joining them is the equally fierce rock of Paria.

Where will you be the day after Christmas?

* * *

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 © 2015 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

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Live Review: Ritual Device, Cellophane Ceiling, Nightbird…

Category: Blog,Reviews — Tags: , , , , , , — @ 8:11 pm December 27, 2014
Ritual Device at The Waiting Room, Dec. 26, 2014.

Ritual Device at The Waiting Room, Dec. 26, 2014.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

I’m surprised to this day, 20 years after they were really a band, that Ritual Device continues to divide the music community.

On one hand, you have those who think the band not only was the ultimate product of Nebraska during its day in the ’90s, but think Tim Moss and Co. may be the best band that ever emerged from the Good Life State. I was told last night that people had made exoduses to The Waiting Room from as far away as Minneapolis and, of course, Kansas City, where Ritual Device played often back in its heyday. I even traveled down I-29 one summer in the ’90s and saw them tear apart a used record store somewhere on the edge of Westport. Unlike local bands today who seem to play every weekend for reasons I’ll never understand, Ritual Device shows were something of a rarity back then. I can remember the band playing only a few times in Omaha, usually at The Capitol Bar & Grill. So rare were their shows that they became events.

On the other hand, there are those who never “got” Ritual Device, who felt they were a “performance thing” or a gimmick, Tim Moss being little more than a circus geek who instead of biting heads off live chickens showered his crowds with pig ears and other raw meats, a demented circus barker tied up in microphone chord, spitting vitriol and mucus into an adoring crowd that could never get enough of either. I talked to a half-dozen people inside and outside the club last night who planned on leaving after Cellophane Ceiling’s set. Strike that — there were a few who wanted to see “what the fuss was all about,” who could barely remember Ritual Device in their later years but never bothered to see them at The Capitol or wherever they were playing.

I have never been on the fence when it came to the band. Those who malign Moss have their reasons — either they were turned off by the violence of the songs or the crowd that followed them. So be it. But even the most cynical who viewed the band as “an act,” who also have a modicum of interest in punk or metal, have to acknowledge the band’s talent. Strip away Moss’s histrionics and you still have some of the most memorable rhythms and riffs from an era in Nebraska music defined by rhythms and riffs. Mike Saklar was — and is — a top-notch guitarist; Jerry Hug, a genuine groove master, and then there was the preppy-looking guy behind the kit, the secret engine that made the band what it was on stage and on recordings — Eric Ebers — who gets lost in the conversation even though his throbbing drumming is the guidepost to every Ritual Device song.

Anyway… We got there early last night because Teresa didn’t want to stand up for three hours, and we weren’t alone. At 8:15 p.m., an hour and 15 minutes before any band would take the stage, all the tables already were taken by folks who looked older than me, all apparently with the same idea of finding a place to sit down for what would be a long night. Like a bloodhound Teresa found two stools along the ledge 10 feet from the soundboard squeezed behind a table of people that was a mix of biker-looking dudes and their soccer-mom wives. All around us were late-middle-aged couples and overweight guys in 20-year-old concert T-shirts. It didn’t so much seem like a wedding reception as a reunion of retired Hell’s Angels who long ago threw away their leathers.

Nightbird was joined by Pat Dieteman, center, for a handful of Cactus Nerve Thang songs.

Nightbird was joined by Pat Dieteman, center, for a handful of Cactus Nerve Thang songs.

Nightbird didn’t make it on stage until 9:30. By then the entire back end of the club was a mass of boozed up AARP members who clearly were not prepared for what they were about to hear. Nightbird is a stoner-rock band in the Sabbath / Sleep vein, maybe not that plodding but certainly not exactly an uplifting listen. As frontman Lee Meyerpeter ripped into the first song, backed by bassist Jeff Harder and drummer Scott “Zip” Zimmerman I leaned over and yelled into Teresa’s ear, “This one will last 20 minutes.” The set? she asked. No, the song.

And sure enough, it did — 20 minutes of exquisite, plodding, riffage broken into stanzas and brazen guitar solos and Meyerpeter’s raspy, guttural vocals that recalled Kurt Cobain if Cobain could hold a note without shrieking. Nightbird’s debut last July at The Sydney was hit and miss, almost experimental in its take on stoner rock. Last night they sounded like a stadium stone-metal band thanks to The Waiting Room’s far superior sound system and five months’ worth of gigs that honed their sound.

That first 20-minute song was followed by a second, pushed along in the same plodding, stoner pace. And then Meyerpeter welcomed former Cactus Nerve Thang drummer Pat Dieteman to the stage to join the band on some Cactus numbers for what would be a two-thirds reunion. Original CNT bassist Brian Poloncic apparently has hung up his bass for good, refusing to step away even for one night from his current life as a fine artist and author (btw, a large Poloncic print hangs proudly on the wall in Teresa’s home office).

No matter, Harder handled the bass and Dieteman joined in on guitar and vocals for a handful of CNT songs including “High” and “Sunshine” off their infamous Sloth CD recorded in ’93 at Junior’s Hotel in Otho, Iowa, and released on Grass Records. I’d forgotten how many good songs were on that record. The band sounded better than the last time I saw them play, which I think was on a sun-drenched deck outside Sharkey’s for a one-day music festival sometime in the mid-90s.

Meyerpeter is something of a sonic chameleon. I’ve now heard him play in punk, country, heavy-metal, post-punk and now stoner rock bands. He is one of the more versatile and prodigious musicians and songwriters Nebraska has produced in the past 20 years. I was told one of his electric guitars – one he played with Cactus Nerve Thang 20-odd years ago – was being retired after last night’s show, to be displayed in The Reverb Lounge “until they find something better to hang up there” — though I can’t imagine what that would be.

Cellophane Ceiling at The Waiting Room, Dec. 26, 2014.

Cellophane Ceiling at The Waiting Room, Dec. 26, 2014.

Next up was the main attraction for a large part of the audience, the reunion of Cellophane Ceiling. I scoured my memory for the last time I saw the band. During the interview a week or so ago, I mentioned to frontman John Wolf that it was probably at The 49’r and he just shook his head. “We rarely played there,” he said. “You’re probably thinking of Bad Luck Charm.” At one point BLC, a band that also included Meyerpeter, was practically the house band at The 49’r, playing there what seemed like every weekend. If I had seen Cellophane it was probably at the Howard Street Tavern or maybe the Capitol, two other long-lost bars in the annuls of Omaha music history.

I also have no copies of Cellophane recordings. It appears the band pre-dates my interest in Omaha music, and when Wolf and his band took the stage, the only song I recognized was the single “Don’t Play God,” and only because the video on YouTube. But there was a familiar quality to Cellophane’s music that would pop up in Bad Luck Charm and, with the heavier numbers, could be traced as influences to Ritual Device.

What makes Cellophane stand out from the rest of the late-’80s early-’90s punk rock bands is Wolf’s vocals, which have a sort of trucker slur to their delivery, almost a forced, ironic twang as if to say “We’re hicks from Nebraska, you got a problem with that?” It’s a style that would live on in BLC.

Wolf is anything but a hick. He looks, sings and plays exactly as I remember him in BLC. One old Cellophane fan told me his guitar work sounded better than it did back in the day. An ageless precision attached to an ageless rock fury. But maybe not ageless after all. Wolf displayed evidence of his age in the form of his 14-year-old son who joined the band on a half-dozen songs, looking like a well-dressed young punk in his shirt and tie, and more than able to keep up with his old man.

Why Wolf isn’t in a band these days, I do not know. Maybe his life and his family and job keep him too busy to play in bands on the weekends. It’s our loss.

Ritual Device's Moss and Hug center stage, The Waiting Room, Dec. 26, 2014.

Ritual Device’s Moss and Hug center stage, The Waiting Room, Dec. 26, 2014.

Finally, Ritual Device. Tim Moss climbed on stage in an untucked long-sleeved dress shirt, jeans, boots and a ZZ Top-style beard, ready for action. Maybe not ZZ Top. Moss with beard looks more like an R Crumb comic-book hippie, a middle-aged San Francisco Mr. Natural but with shoulder-length hair, neither foreboding nor threatening as he briskly strolled around the stage pulling microphone cords in various directions, grabbing the front stage mic and announcing, “We’re Ritual Device from Omaha, Nebraska” as the band kicked into the first number.

I had pushed my way up toward the front, near stage right, just a dozen steps from what would turn into a pseudo mosh pit and launching pad for Moss’s relentless stage dives that were more like stage lurches, leaning forward onto extended hands that pulled him into and above the crowd while he continued to speak-howl lyrics about serial killers and bizarre sex. Midway through the first melee the older and more timid members of the crowd began peeling off and heading toward the sides or back to their tables with frightened smiles pressed on their faces.

Moss’s stage thing hasn’t changed at all in 20 years. He continuously lurched at the crowd as if begging them to hurt him before he hurts himself… or them. During the second song he pulled out a brown paper grocery sack and began flinging raw pigs ears into the crowd; fans either kept them as souvenirs or threw them back at the stage — all except one Manson-esque looking dude who leaned against center-stage shaking a pig’s ear in his teeth, wagging it at the band.

The rest of the guys looked down at their instruments and smiled while old man Moss continued to get groped in the crowd. Saklar, urban chic in black dress shirt, leaned over his Fender in focused concentration while across the stage was Hug, dressed in a black T-shirt looking like a cross between a fitness instructor and hip Loyola English Lit professor as he shredded his bass. Behind them was the ageless Ebers dominating the sonic landscape with relentless, frenetic yet precise drumming — drumming that, when combined with the riffs and breaks and Moss’s insane mumble-howl, created the tense energy that defines this ageless band.

Ritual Device is indeed the band that time forgot, except of course for Moss, whose crazy beard and shoulder-length Jesus hair has turned him into an angry, crazy grandpa complete with weird, black tiger-stripe tattoos up and down his forearms. Even when he was a clean-shaven lad in the ’90s there was something sinister about his stage presence, a far cry from the person he is in real life.

For those keeping score, the band played all the favorites including “Charlie Jones” and “What You Got.” They did, indeed, sound as good as I remembered them sounding 15 or 20 years ago. And while the frenzy in the middle of the crowd continued until the end, it never got out of hand. There are few modern-day local (or national) bands that bring the level of energy to the performance that Moss does (The closest that comes to mind for sheer weird chaos is probably Worried Mothers).

Reunion shows are precarious things. By their very nature they distort fans’ memories of who the bands were and what they sounded like the last time they played, which may have been decades ago. The risk is that whatever climbs on stage will be a weaker, sloppier and obviously older version of their former selves. That was not the case last night. All the bands did their legacies proud.

* * *

Last minute reminder about tonight’s Good Life show at The Waiting Room. It’ll be butting up against the Huskers playing in the Whatever Bowl, so who knows what kind of crowd will be there. Opening is Oquoa and Big Harp. $13, 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 © 2014 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

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The Reader Interview — The Return: Ritual Device, Cellophane Ceiling and Main Vein Productions…

The cover of this week's issue of The Reader featuring a profile on Ritual Device, Cellophane Ceiling and Main Vein Productions.

The cover of this week’s issue of The Reader featuring a profile on Ritual Device, Cellophane Ceiling and Main Vein Productions.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

That cover story in support of the Dec. 26 Ritual Device / Cellophane Ceiling reunion show at The Waiting Room is now online at TheReader.com (right here).

The story covers the history of both bands as well as the rise and fall of Main Vein Productions — the concert promotion company run by Ritual Device’s Tim Moss and Cellophane Ceiling’s John Wolf.

The story also talks about the Omaha music scene circa the early ’90s when a handful of bands (including the ones mentioned above) attracted national attention thanks to recording and touring outside of the state. It was those bands that set the stage for what would come later in that decade — the rise of Saddle Creek Records’ bands and Nebraska’s notoriety as an indie music Mecca.

Check it out and try to pick up a printed copy. It contains a ton of photos including old Main Vein show posters from back in the day. And get your $10 tickets to the show (while you can) — Dec. 26, 9 p.m. The Waiting Room. Nightbird (also performing Cactus Nerve Thang songs) opens.

* * *

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.

Lazy-i

Ritual Device, Cellophane Ceiling reunion show slated for Dec. 26…

Category: Blog — Tags: , , , , — @ 1:43 pm November 3, 2014
Ritual Device circa 1994. The band will reunited Dec. 26 at The Waiting Room along with Cellophane Ceiling. Photo by Mike Malone.

Ritual Device circa 1994. The band will reunite Dec. 26 at The Waiting Room along with Cellophane Ceiling. Photo by Mike Malone.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The secret can now be told, though many of you guessed it already:

Legendary Omaha ’90s punk bands Ritual Device and Cellophane Ceiling are both reuniting for a one-time-only show Dec, 26 at The Lifticket Lounge, er, I mean The Waiting Room. The event is a Main Vein Production. Main Vein was a promotion company run by Ritual Device frontman Tim Moss and Cellophane Ceiling frontman John Wolf back in the ’80s and ’90s. MV brought some classic bands to Omaha, including that famous Nirvana show at the Liftiicket Lounge in 1989.

“I always said if John Wolf put Cellophane back together, I would do it.” Moss said about a Ritual Device reunion.

The line-up for Ritual Device will be Tim Moss on vocals, Jerry Hug on bass, Mike Saklar on guitar and Eric Ebers on drums. The line-up for Cellophane is John Wolf on guitar and vocals and Chris Sterba on bass. Moss says original CC drummer Steve Coleman is unavailable, so I’m not sure who will be handling the sticks.

Is this a big deal? Yeah, for a lot of us, it is. Ritual Device was part of the golden era of Nebraska rock music that influenced the bands that would eventually form Saddle Creek Records. RD was among the first area bands that did extensive touring outside of Nebraska in the early ’90s, along with acts like Frontier Trust, Mercy Rule, Mousetrap and Sideshow.

Here’s how I described Ritual Device way back in ’97:

Ritual Device was a tortured, monolithic punk rock band whose sound had been aptly described as “gutter groove.” Ritual Device made perfect background music for your typical serial killing or perhaps high-speed chase through a bombed-out Beirut neighborhood. The closest comparison? Maybe the Jesus Lizard meets Ministry with a little Nine Inch Nails thrown in (without the synths, of course). It was violent music, scary.

Cellophane Ceiling was a precursor RD. “Cellophane was a bit older,” Moss said. “They bridged the gap between the band generations. They were my influence.”

Cellophane was just as brutal as Ritual Device, but their music was more rooted in traditional heavy rock. Some may remember John Wolf’s follow-up band, Bad Luck Charm. Moss and Wolf would also reunite in 2000 as The Men of Porn.

Check out this Cellophane Ceiling video from 1987 directed by Dickson Lebron.

And below is a video of Ritual Device from 1994, shot at the legendary Capitol Bar and Grill a few days after Tim Moss broke his collar bone. Moss is a bit restrained here, but you get the gist.

Moss said Main Vein has yet to determine who will open the Dec. 26 show, but there will indeed be a third band on the bill. More information to come.

* * *

Tonight at The Waiting Room Conchance headlines with Black Jonny Quest, Kethro and Dojorok. $5, 9 p.m.

Also tonight, Homer’s Music takes over House of Loom. DJ Chris Aponick will spin three new albums in their entirety prior to their release tomorrow — The self-titled album by Clark (Warp Records); Deerhoof’s La Isla Bonita (Polyvinyl) and Arca’s Xen (Mute) — and he’ll be giving away a couple of the records. It’s free and starts at 9:30.

* * *

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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