Lincoln Exposed continues; Benjamin Booker, Hippo Campus, O’Leaver’s showcase Saturday…

Category: Blog — Tags: , , — @ 11:11 am February 14, 2025
Benjamin Booker plays Reverb Lounge Saturday.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The hottest shows of the weekend are in Lincoln again this weekend, as the Lincoln Exposed Festival continues in five bars in the heart of downtown. 

Here’s the rest of the festival schedule for tonight and Saturday. Bands to check out (because I’ve actually heard a few of their recordings and dug them) are in bold face. I’m unsure of the rest, tbo. Tickets are $15 per night and available from bourbontheatre.com. Even more info here.

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 14

ZOO BAR – 21+
5 – 5:40 – Floating Opera
6 – 6:40 – Comfy
7 – 7:40 – Dean The Bible
8 – 8:40 – Scott Severin & Stateleigh Holmes 
9 – 9:40 – Love And Gumption
10 – 10:40 – No Drinking On Grounds 
11 – 11:40 – Vempire
12 – 12:40 – The Said Mantics

DUFFY’S TAVERN – 21+
6:40-7:20 – Corson Branch Buzzard Club
7:40-8:20 – Pure Brown
8:40-9:20 – Goosehens
9:40-10:20 – The Jericho Strays 
10:40-11:20 – LaPerm
11:40-12:20 – Sweats
12:40 – 1:20 – The Ulcer Twins

BOURBON THEATRE – ALL AGES
6:20-7 – Witherpoint 
7:20-8 – Whiskey Drinkers Union
8:20 – 9 – Drew Phillips Band
9:20-10 – Lee Bowes and the Jupiter Rings
10:20-11- Her Flyaway Manner
11:20-12 – Red Cities

BODEGA’S ALLEY – 21+

7-7:40- Gabe Nelson with Pants 
8-8:40 – Vector 23
9-9:40 – Bolzen Beer Band
10-10:40 – Verse and the Vices
11-11:40 – Mustache’
12-12:40 – Vibe Check

1867 BAR – 21+
5:40 – 6:20 – Hansen Airship 
6:40 – 7:20 – Sputnik Kaputnik
7:40-8:20 – Orion Walsh & The Ramblin’ Hearts
8:40-9:20 – Cuddlebone
9:40-10:20 – Gutbomb
10:40-11:20 – Black Ophanim
11:40-12:20 – Ezra
12:40-1:20 – Hold Your Breath

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 15

ZOO BAR – 21+
5-5:40 – Moore Brothers Band
6-6:40 – Powerful Science 
7-7:40 – Happy John & the Arnold Palmers 
8-8:40 – After Arizona
9-9:40 – Social Cinema
10-10:40 – Head Change
11-11:40 – Emily Bass and the Near Miracle 
12-12:40 – ((Echo))
1-1:40 – Estrogen Projection

DUFFY’S TAVERN – 21+
6:40 – 7:20 – John Voyage
7:40-8:20 – Mono In Stereo
8:40 – 9:20 – All Knowing McGill 
9:40-10:20 – Whip Sigils
10:40-11:20 – Ro Hempel Band
11:40 – 12:20 – Thirst Things First 
12:40-1:20 – Fascinus Rex

BODEGA’S ALLEY – 21+

7-7:40 – Sitra Achra
8-8:40 – Crack Mountain
9-9:40 – Hangin’ Cowboys
10-10:40 – Dark Oceanz Live w/ RAWLZ
11-11:40 – Head Of Femur
12-12:40 – Turquoise
1-1:40 – Odinson B2B Poe B2B Jogga

1867 BAR – 21+
5:40 – 6:20 – The Breakroom
6:40 – 7:20 – Carrier
7:40-8:20 – Leaves Brown
8:40-9:20 – The Hanyaks 
9:40-10:20 – The Credentials
10:40-11:20 – Underbite

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Back here in Omaha, there’s nothing on the ol’ indie radar tonight. 

Saturday night, former DIY punk guy now New Orleans-based indie troubadour Benjamin Booker headlines at Reverb Lounge. Booker, 35, has an eclectic musical past. Early in his career he was identified as “what comes next” by Paste magazine, having performed on Letterman, Conan and Jools Holland, according to Wiki.

He’s toured with Jack White and Courtney Barnett, and has released albums on a slew of indie labels including ATO, Rough Trade and Fire Next Time (Thirty Tigers), who released his latest album, LOWER, in January, after an 8-year hiatus. The record got a massive 8.0 rating by Pitchfork, who called it “a corroded beat-centric grunge that soundtracks stories of violence and perseverance.”

LOWER is a collection of woozy, bloozy indie rock songs with guitars that (at times) recall Lenny Kravitz buzzsaws, sung in a breathy, dreamy whisper.  While there’s an undertow of R&B, Booker can fly into full-on rock, like on album standouts “New World” and “Same Kind of Lonely.” 

Opener Kenny Segal is an LA-based DJ who Mixmag described as “one of the best hip-hop producers in the city.” He also produced Booker’s latest album. 8 p.m., $24. 

Meanwhile, at The Astro in La Vista, St. Paul-based indie pop band Hippo Campus headlines. The band’s sound definitely falls on the soft-rock spectrum and has been compared to Porches and Pantogram whereas they most remind me of Semisonic, with a few tracks off their most recent album, Flood (2024, Psychic Hotline), coming dangerously close to country — all they need is a pedal steel.

Jazz-influenced indie artist Mei Semones, whose new album Animaru is slated for release on Bayonet Records, opens this show at 8 p.m. $36.50. 

Finally, there’s another new artist showcase at fabulous O’Leaver’s Saturday night. Take a chance on something new and/or get just blasted. Either way, admission is free. Starts at 9 p.m. (probably). 

That’s all I got. If I missed your show, put it in the comments section. Have a great weekend. 

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2025 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

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New Silkworm (sort of), Alex Orange Drink (w/Oberst); Lincoln Exposed kicks off tonight…

Category: Blog — Tags: , , , — @ 1:00 pm February 12, 2025
Silkworm’s Developer album gets a remastered expanded reissue.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Everyone has their bucket list of bands, and Silkworm was certainly on mine. I’ve been told the Chicago post-punk band did play at The Cog Factory one night in the ‘90s. But alas, I wasn’t there. Throughout that decade they released a handful of great albums, including Libertine, Firewater, Blueblood and Italian Platinum (which actually came out in 2002). 

Then as the story goes, drummer Michael Dahquist was killed July 14, 2005, in a car accident, and that was the end of Silkworm. Two of the band’s primary dudes, Tim Midyett and Andy Cohen, would go on to form Bottomless Pit, and members of Silkworm did reunite last July for a benefit concert for Steve Albini, who engineered a number of their albums.

And now the band’s fifth album, Developer, originally released in 2005 by Matador, is getting a remastered, expanded, vinyl+CD-only edition that includes five Japanese-only bonus tracks. Unlike, say, a DIrector’s Cut of a film, this expanded edition brings back all the tracks the band didn’t want to include in the original release because they thought they were too conventional.

If you want to hear the catchiest songs we recorded at that time – aside from Never Met A Man I Didn’t Like – they’re all on the extra record,” says Midyett on the album’s one-sheet, adding that the original version was Albini’s favorite Silkworm album. 

Anyway, the new expanded version comes out Feb. 21 on Comedy Minus One Records. Order your copy here. Here’s one of the additional tracks:

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Conor Oberst’s new record label, Million Stars, continues to grow its roster with the addition of Alex Orange Drink, whose new album Victory Lap (#23), drops May 9 (preorder here). Alex Orange Drink is Alex Zarou Levine, singer/songwriter for The So So Glos, and the album was recorded while he was undergoing treatment for a rare form of cancer. The first single, the super-druggy “Queen Victoria,” features Oberst. Check it below. 

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The Lincoln Exposed Festival kicks off tonight. The good news for concert-goers: This snow will be out of the way before the first band plays. The bad news: Windchills are expected to be well below zero for the balance of the festival. This would have been fun fest… in March or April.

Ah, but if you live in Lincoln, who cares, right? All the clubs are located on the same block. I thought about going Thursday night, but if the temps and winds are as bad as they say, my attendance is questionable. 

I previewed the festival last week, here, and included an embedded player and links to a Spotify playlist. For regular Lazy-i readers (i.e., indie music fans) who are still scratching their heads over who they should check out, here’s my list of must see’s after spending a few hours with that playlist: Domestica, Floating Opera, Vempire, Sweats, Her Flyaway Manner, Josh Hoyer, Estrogen Projection, Thirst Things First, Head of Femur. Minor Movements, Goosehens, LaPerm, Verse and the Vices, Ghostlike., Slow, Pioneers!, Obscurants, M.A.N., Vera Devorah, Social Cinema and The Credentials. I know there are a ton I missed as that Spotify playlist was far from complete. Bundle up and check it out. All the festival info including schedules is right here.

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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 © 2025 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

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Lincoln Exposed announces line-up for Feb. 12-15 festival; Whipkey, Mono in Stereo tonight…

Category: Blog — Tags: , , — @ 12:01 pm January 17, 2025
Matt Whipkey opens tonight for Mono in Stereo at The B. Bar.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Lincoln Exposed 2025 posted their official line-up and schedule for their 20th Anniversary extravaganza, which happens in less than a month. We’re talking more than 100 bands representing multiple genres playing at five downtown Lincoln venues. You can see the line-up at the event’s Facebook invitation page, right here.

Whereas I recognize some old familiar faces on the schedule — Domestica, Floating Opera, Vempire, Sweats, Her Flyaway Manner, Josh Hoyer, Estrogen Projection, Thirst Things First, Head of Femur —  I admit to not knowing most of the acts listed. I’ve asked festival organizer Dustin “Duff” Hunke, who books the Bourbon, if an online event program with band descriptions or – better yet – a playlist could be made available. Stay tuned….

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Only one show of note this weekend and it’s happening tonight at The B. Bar on Leavenworth Street (4330 Leavenworth, to be exact, right next to Barrett’s Barleycorn). Matt Whipkey and Mike Friedman are opening for newish band Mono In Stereo, which consists of singer/guitarist/songwriter Charles McNeil (Brian Jones Was Murdered); bassist Marty Amsler (legendary ’90s Lincoln act The Millions), guitarist James MacDougall, and drummer Joe Eichoff (The End in Red), according to their “Bandmix” page (Is Bandmix the new MySpace?). $5, 9 p.m. 

That’s all I got. If I missed your show, put it in the comments section. Have a great weekend!

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2025 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Lazy-i