Blue Bird at The Waiting Room, June 16, 2012.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Night Pirate, Omaha’s latest mix-and-match post-punk combo, debuted Saturday night at The Barley Street Tavern to a full room. So new is this band that they had lyrics taped to their microphones, having (apparently) just come up with the words. Turns out they didn’t need the cheat sheets as no one could understand what frontman vocalist/guitarist Jason Ludwick (of Bombardment Society fame) was yelling anyway, nor did they care. Theirs isn’t the kind of music that lends itself to intense cerebral examination. Rather, it’s all about angle and rhythm, riffage and beats and where the breaks lie. So yeah, this was as abrasive as anything that these guys have done before. Bassist Tim Feelger of Latitude Longitude pounded it out and even threw in a tasty vocal lead that was a tad closer to actual singing than Ludwick’s Gary Dean Davis-esque bark. Overall, the difference between this and the band members’ other projects were the songs, which more closely resemble something that could reasonably be mistaken for “rock” thanks to the riffage, as brutal as it was. As for drummer Steve Micek (of The Stay Awake), I will simply add that he’s probably the best drummer in Omaha. Will these guys ever play again? Who knows. Hope so.

Kite Pilot followed. Playing as a power trio, they continue to mix in proggy/arty material with the usual proto-punk scorchers, to ill effect. Artists must be artists, I suppose. That said, the band will always be known (and loved) for their five-song pop EP from earlier in the past decade, which they no longer play live (which is a pity). They still managed to roll out a few pop numbers that showcase frontwoman Erica Petersen-Hanton’s kickass guitar and bass chops. It’s called giving the people what they want, and we do want more.

Afterward, it was up the street to Blue Bird’s CD release show at The Waiting Room. Nice crowd of more than 100 were on hand to see this rather large ensemble whose primary focus is frontwoman Marta Fiedler. One guy turned to me and said “What do you think of the Jenny Lewis tribute band?” That description doesn’t necessarily fit, but I can understand why the comment was made, especially when Fiedler and the band strolled through some twangier numbers. Still, with her added C&W lilt, Fiedler has more in common with Loretta than Jenny. She has a good voice, along with two backup singers that know their way around a harmony. The highlight for me didn’t come ’til the end of the set, however, when Fiedler and the band played a couple songs that were less heartland and more rhythm-based, making me wonder what she would sound like if she stepped away from the Americana / C&W stuff and headed toward an indie sound. Just imagine the Jenny Lewis comparisons then…

* * *

There have been rumors the last couple weeks that Morrissey was headed to Nebraska, this time to Lincoln. Today it was announced on his pseudo homesite True To You that he’ll be performing at the Rococo Theater Nov. 1. Having seen Moz play the Orpheum last time through, more than five years ago, I fully endorse this ticket purchase, especially with rumors of his impending retirement (though he’s doused those rumors as wishful thinking from music journalists (but not this one)).

* * *

Tonight at The Waiting Room it’s the return of Maps & Atlases. The band came through last year in support of Perch Patchwork. Now they’re touring their latest release on Barsuk, Beware and Be Grateful. Opening is The Big Sleep and Suns. $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 © 2012 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Well-Aimed Arrows at The Barley Street Tavern, April 7, 2012

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

No photos from Saturdays show because my Mac’s OS is being rebuilt again. What a pain in my ass. Maybe it’s time to get a new computer? I was way in back of a crowded Barley Street Tavern anyway and the photos weren’t exactly primo, as you can see by the crappy, off-kilter pic of Well-Aimed Arrows, above. WAA followed the very good six-piece known as We Live In Sod Houses, who opened the show, a rousing Americana punk band, sort of Decemberists meets Neil Young meets ’90s indie rock from somewhere in southwest Iowa. I only caught their last four songs, and was told that they’d been on for about 45 minutes before I got there — super long set. Sorry I missed the first part.

Well-Aimed Arrows’ set was the usual 30 minutes of angular post-punk that harkens back to greats such as Gang of Four/Wire/Minutemen/Fugazi. I love this band (as you know), whose members include Clayton Petersen and Koly Walters of The Protoculture (Erica Hanton of Kite Pilot, then Erica Petersen, also was in the band). Their album, Adult Entertainment, reviewed last July, will be the subject of a vinyl-release show May 25 with Millions of Boys and Dads at Slowdown Jr. Mark your calendars.

Finally, it was Kite Pilot reborn as a power trio featuring Todd and Erica Hanton and drummer Jeremy Stanoschek. Their new sound is much more post-punk and less poppy than the old version that was kicking around last decade. Todd’s trumpet is gone. Instead, he’s busy on keyboards and the occasional bass and providing very tasty vocal harmonies, while Erica’s bass and guitar work never sounded better. Performing all new material, their finest moments were ripping full-bore into blistering rockers that were among the best things I’ve ever heard them play, but they floundered when they tried their hand at arty, experimental prog, which suffered from awkward time changes and poor arrangements. As a whole, the trio has entered into an exciting new stage in their career despite the fact that they’re still trying to define this new sound.

* * *

Tonight at The Waiting Room it’s Americana rockers Good Old War with The Belle Brigade and Family of the Year. $12, early 8 p.m. start.

Also tonight at fabulous O’Leaver’s it’s Tucson band Seashell Radio with The Debts. $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 © 2012 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

If you missed Kite Pilot when they played at the boats in CB a few months ago, you’ve got another chance to catch them tonight at The Barley Street Tavern (which is quickly becoming one of the hottest tiny indie music spots in Omaha). The band opens for edgy, angry noise punk band Techlepathy and angular mathematicians Well Aimed Arrows (who have the best new album that you’ve never heard). As you know, if you combined one member of Kite Pilot (Erica) with two members of Well Aimed Arrows (Koly and Clayton) you would get a reunion of seminal Omaha punk band The Protoculture. Maybe as a special birthday gift to me the trio will get together for a rendition of “My New Laugh.” I’m not holding my breath…

Meanwhile, over at Slowdown Jr., Saturn Moth plays with Lincoln punkers Her Flyaway Manner and Blue Rosa. $5, 9 p.m.

And over at O’Leaver’s it’s Honey & Darling with Everyday/Everynight and Betsy Wells. $5, 9:30 p.m.

Saturday afternoon the S.S. Bright Eyes anchors for the evening at Westfair Amphitheater in Council Bluffs for the only local Bright Eyes stop on The People’s Key tour (so far). Never been to Westfair? Neither have I. According to their website, it’s located two miles east of I-80 on Hwy 6 (Exit 8). There’s a mapquest on the website. I mean, how hard can it be to find? Opening the show is Con Dios, David Bazan (of Pedro and the Lion) and Jenny and Johnny. Gates at 5, concert at 5:30. $25 tix available online via etix right here.

If you’re not going to Bright Eyes, there’s a ton of other worthy shows going on Saturday night:

Domestica (Heidi and Jon from Mercy Rule) are back with a new drummer who’ll  make his Omaha debut at O’Leaver’s Saturday night with Wagon Blasters (Gary Dean Davis’ rig) and St. Louis legacy band Bunnygrunt. $5, 9:30 p.m.

The Barley Street has Blue Bird with Pony Wars (Craig Korth’s new band) and Death of a Taxpayer. $5, 9 p.m.

And I’d be remiss in forgetting to mention my nephew Christopher’s death metal band, Blessed Are the Merciless, are playing the Great American Metal BBQ at Sokol Underground tomorrow at 8 p.m. $8+pain.

Finally, on Sunday, it’s the long sold out Iron & Wine show at Slowdown with The Head and The Heart. 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.

Kite Pilot at Stir Lounge, Council Bluffs, April 23, 2011.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

I don’t know the backstory behind last Saturday night’s Kite Pilot gig at Harrah’s Stir Lounge in Council Bluffs other than it wasn’t some sort of one-off reunion. In fact, if you were among the 30 or so in the bar hoping to hear “Tree Caught the Kite” or “On My Lips” from their amazing debut EP or maybe “Lucid Lights” from their debut LP Mercy Will Close Its Doors, you would have been sorely disappointed. Instead, the four-piece that features husband-and-wife team of Todd and Erica Hanton, guitarist/vocalist Austin Britton and drummer Jeremy Stanoschek played songs from their never-distributed 8-song EP (“released” just prior to their breakup in May 2007) as well as a couple new tunes presented rather matter-of-factly. In other words, Kite Pilot has picked up right where it left off without blinking. As you might guess (or hope), their sound is “the same as it ever was” — and yes, that’s a veiled reference to early Talking Heads. KP continues to proudly hoist a New Wave/Post Punk banner in style and songcraft. Their new songs have the same angular-pop sound that defined them back in the mid-aught years. The only downer other than not hearing those classic songs off the EP is that Todd played trumpet on only one song. Like a superhero “reboot,” Kite Pilot seems determined to look forward with only a moment’s glance toward its past. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

* * *

Today at 10 p.m., the fine folks behind The MAHA Music Festival will be releasing the initial line-up for this year’s event, which is slated for Aug. 13 at Lewis and Clark Landing. Yes, I know the names of the three bands that will be announced. No, I’m not going to let that information slip. You’ll know soon enough, especially if you follow MAHA on Facebook or Twitter. And even if you don’t, you’re bound to see it somewhere. I will say this: They’ve done a masterful job in the face of some staunch competition for touring bands this summer.

* * *

Tonight at The Waiting Room, it’s the return of The Black Lips with Vivian Girls and Solid Goldberg. Chris Aponick has an interview with Lips’ guitarist/vocalist Cole Alexander in the current issue of The Reader, where he talks about working with Amy Winehouse / Duran Duran producer Mark Ronson on their upcoming album (Check it out here). $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 © 2011 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Wye Oak

Column 316: Wye Oak, Why Not?

The duo’s sound is larger than the two of them…

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The South by Southwest Music Conference was just two weeks ago, but it already seems like ancient history. For a lot of bands, SXSW not only is a career goal, it’s a chance to get discovered by both a larger audience and maybe a record label executive or some other music industry shlub who could change their lives.

But Jenn Wasner, half of the Baltimore duo Wye Oak, said that if you’re going to Austin looking for some sort of miracle to happen, you’re going for the wrong reasons. Wasner, who plays guitar and sings alongside band mate Andy Stack, drummer and bass player (yes, you read that right), had just left Austin when I spoke with her last week, calling in from the road as they headed to San Diego for a gig  at The Casbah on a tour that brings them to Slowdown Jr. Sunday night.

“It’s obviously a good opportunity to have a lot of good people and bands and labels and journalists all in the same place at the same time, one-stop shopping,” Wasner said of SXSW, “but it’s not as big a deal as people make it out to be. It’s a small piece of the puzzle in terms of what we have to do to stay in a band, to keep touring and stay active. You definitely should already have had your big break before you play there.”

Wye Oak, Civilian (2011, Merge Records)

Wye Oak’s big break came in 2008 when out of the blue Merge Records’ label executive Mac McCaughan asked the band for a copy of one of their recordings, and followed that by asking if Merge could release it. Wasner said that three years later she’s still “completely astonished” by the deal. “It just fell into our laps,” she said. But we all know that it takes more than luck to make it in the music biz. It also takes great songs.

Wye Oak’s music is built upon a bedrock of classic ’90s indie influences, from Madder Rose to Spinanes to Yo La Tengo to Built to Spill. There’s an untamed beauty to songs like the strange, frontier love ballad, “Civilian,” the title track off the band’s just released album where Wasner starts off quietly crooning, “I am nothing without pretend / I know my faults / Can’t live with them,” before it explodes into a monster of feedback and noise that a modern Neil Young could adore.

So big is their sound, in fact, that you would swear that there’s more to Wye Oak than just the two of them. Wasner said the two-piece architecture was supposed to be just “a temporary thing,” but that now “it’s become a big part of who we are and how I write and arrange songs,” she said. “It’s become a limitation that’s made us better. We would be a different band if we added someone else. I don’t think either of us has tapped the potential of what we can do.”

They certainly don’t sound like the other “guitar and drums” two-piece acts that we’ve all come to know and love (White Stripes and Black Keys come to mind). The trick is in Stack’s ability to deftly multi-task.

“Andy has this set-up where he plays the bass line on keyboards and also plays drums,” Wasner said, “and I play guitar, so it’s a basic three-piece right there. We do have some loops and samples that we recently started using, but it’s been a really valuable thing to distill our songs down to their basic components.”

Being able to pull off such a huge sound with just two people requires a close relationship. Which brought us to the question that I couldn’t find an answer to online or in any of their bio materials: Are they “a couple” in real life? What exactly is the state of their relationship?

“We get along very well,” Wasner said. “We were a couple for five years and we’re not anymore. We’re very close and comfortable with one another.” So, just best friends and band mates? “Yes, and it’s much better that way,” she said. “I’ve done it both ways.”

Wasner, who turns 25 in April, said Wye Oak’s growth has been gradual over its four-year history. “I notice that people are coming to shows now, and that’s really nice,” she said. “It’s been slow and steady and the result of years and years of hard work on our behalf. I feel like we’re at a point now where I’d rather focus on my main job, which is being a good band, writing songs and playing them well and not necessarily focus on too much beyond that.”

Including trying to make more out of SXSW than what it is. Wasner said in the past she hadn’t looked forward to the conference, “but to be honest, this year I had a really excellent experience and I’m not sure why that is,” she said. “You have to go into it with the right expectations, and I know to expect very little for it in terms of actually seeing music. But this year I ended up being able to see shows, see friends and go swimming.”

What more could you ask for?

Wye Oak plays with Callers this Sunday, April 3, at Slowdown Jr. $8, 9 p.m.

* * *

An update on that Kite Pilot info that I posted a couple days ago. Turns out that Kite Pilot won’t be playing at The Barley Street Tavern April 16. Instead, the band will be playing at the Stir lounge at Harrah’s Casino in Council Bluffs April 23 with Thunder Power (according to this thread on the ol’ Lazy-i webboard).

* * *

Tonight it’s the return of Old 97’s to Slowdown. The band’s latest album, The Grande Theatre, Vol. 1, came out on New West late last year. Opening is Dallas twangsters The O’s. $20, 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.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

I have no photos from Saturday night’s O’Leaver’s show because I couldn’t get close enough to the band to take pictures. It was an old school crush mob of gigantic proportions, and I was lucky to find a place to stand out of the way back by the “soundboard.” The main attraction was New Lungs, a new band that features Danny Maxwell of Little Brazil on guitar and vocals backed by returning drummer Corey Broman and the ubiquitous Craig Fort on bass. The trio blazed through SST-style ’90s punk rock anchored by Maxwell’s earnest, earthy howl — he can now count himself among the top Omaha frontmen, all he needs is a pair of leather pants.

Someone compared them to Polvo, and I nodded. Another mentioned faster/angrier Dinosaur Jr., and I nodded again, but none of those comparisons really fit. There were moments that reminded me of Archers of Loaf, Minutemen and classic Mission of Burma, but I could never convince myself that that’s what DMax and Co. were after. There’s a unique purity about their dark rock that defies comparisons. This was only their second show, and they only had five or six songs (though they were longer jams than your standard punk rock tune). Imagine the places they’ll go if they decide to stick together…

I chatted with one of the many local celebrities in the crowd throughout most of headliner Poison Control Center’s set and was rewarded both with deep knowledge and righteous tuneage. Whenever I looked toward the dirt-spot “stage,” the only thing visible was the guitarist/vocalist’s feet, which he’d kicked in the air from his position lying on the floor — in other words, it was your typical PCC show. The band has a new album coming out June 7 on Afternoon Records called Stranger Ballet that could push them to a new level. Let’s hope it doesn’t make them too big for O’Leavers.

* * *

During our PCC discussion, the local celeb passed along some interesting news, which I ran home and verified as well as I could. If you look at the April 16 entry of The Barley Street Tavern music calendar you’ll see that the bands listed are The Beat Seekers, Blue Bird, Traveling Mercies and… Kite Pilot. That’s right, apparently Kite Pilot is back, including Austin Britton. The band’s 5-song EP was one of the best local releases of 2004. I don’t know the particulars, but I have a feeling this could be a crowded show — I mean, who doesn’t want to hear “Tree Caught the Kite” again?

* * *

Amazon today announced that it’s launching its new “Cloud Drive” music service, which allows users to upload their music to a “cloud server,” which they’ll be able to access from any web-connected computer or Android phone. This is similar to what Lala.com used to offer, though Lala’s service was much more streamlined than Amazon’s clunky browse-to-upload process. Nonetheless, Cloud Drive facilitates access to your music library from anywhere including a smart phone. Can the iTunes’ version of the cloud music service be far behind? Those of you wondering about the significance of this development, re-read the Lazy-i 2011 Predictions Column. In summary, this could be the first step to something that could change everything.

* * *

It’s a busy night for a Tuesday show-wise. At The Waiting Room, Landing on the Moon unveils its new line-up minus guitarist Matt Carroll (Honey & Darling). Expect to hear some surprising new tunes. Also on the showbill is Bazooka Shootout, Birds & Batteries and No I’m The Pilot. 9 p.m., $7.

Meanwhile, down at Slowdown Jr., Capgun Coup headlines a show with Cleeman, Platte River Rain and Nicole LeClerc. Cleeman is the out-of-town act and features Copenhagen-based singer-songwriter Gunnar Cleeman and a band that includes legendary Omaha bass player Dereck Higgins (InDreama, Digital Sex). $8, 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.