by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

More comments and review of this year’s Maha Music Festival are in this week’s column. You can read it in the new issue of The Reader, out tomorrow, or online right here.

Some final thoughts/post scripts to Maha 2014:

Domestica’s Jon Taylor at the microphone.

— Jon Taylor sung leads on at least two Domestica songs during their Maha set — a departure as Heidi Ore has handled lead vocals with Domestica and Mercy Rule for about 20 years. Jon did a stellar job. It’ll be interesting to hear how it translates on future Domestica recordings.

— As mentioned in the review, Icky Blossoms’ new material is harder and more acidic than stuff off their debut album, but that doesn’t make it any less danceable. Expect their new album on Saddle Creek probably early next year.

The intense crowd in front of the stage during Icky Blossoms’ set.

— Speaking of Icky Blossoms, the band got a nice shout-out from The Head and the Heart during their set, gushing that Icky was their favorite band so far at the festival. Maybe the Ickys should try to get an opening slot on THATH’s next tour?

— I was skeptical about the Maha Ferris wheel until I saw it. It actually was pretty cool and when I went past it early in the evening there was quite a line of people waiting to get on.

—  Maha outdid themselves with this year’s Global Village. Lots of cool shit for kids to do while mom or pop is rocking. This is one of the central things that make Maha a festival rather than just a day-long concert.

— Ain’t none of my business but it was disturbing to see — while leaning through the crowd near the stage during Local Natives’ set — some guy carrying a baby with no hearing protection standing right next to me. Even with ear plugs I thought their set was loud from that vantage-point. Can that level of decibels be healthy for a baby?

— The Boulevard seasonal ale being served in the beer tents (something sweet blended with ginger) was indeed tasty. I’m developing a taste for sissy beers.

— It wasn’t all roses for Maha. The food selection was…lacking. I’m not sure what they can do about this. I swear I saw people walking around with cheeseburgers but I couldn’t find where they were coming from. That said, would it kill them to find a vendor that offered a pleasant, refreshing salad? Or ribs?

— For every person I talked to who loved the line-up there was someone who whined about the line-up. Maha will never be all things to all people, nor should it be. I like their basic two-stage recipe, though I think they’re going to begin struggling to find new, decent locals to fill that local stage who haven’t already played in the past two years.

— BTW, I’ve gotten plenty of shit about missing Radkey’s and Doomtree’s sets. Sorry fans. I’m quite familiar with their catalogs, and it just ain’t for me. Knowing that I was going to miss about two hours of the festival, I had to choose judiciously. I’m sure they were fan-fucking-tastic…

— The biggest disappointment was The Both’s set. The idea was good on paper, but I don’t think it translated to a festival. Aimee Mann’s music is probably better suited for a sit-down concert in, say, the Holland or the Orpheum rather than an outdoor stage. Conversely, someone needs to book Ted Leo at The Waiting Room.

— Oddest moments at Maha: The times between sets when there was no music. I mean nothing. You’d think they’d at least have some house music going over the PA. Even the annoying generic reggae beats that I’ve heard at so many other large concerts between sets would have helped fill the void. The simple answer is for Maha to hire one (or a few) of the area’s many DJs to fill in the gaps between sets. It would be a nice tip o’ the hat to the local DJ culture.

After six festivals, Maha is finally reaching its capacity. No, it hasn’t outgrown Stinson Park. Even at (what I think was) its maximum attendance level (toward the end of The Head and the Heart or at the very beginning of Death Cab’s set) it was still possible to comfortably walk through the crowd (By contrast, try navigating through the crowd during the last band at the annual Memorial Park freedom rock July 4 hog-calling concert).  The attendance number being reported is 7,000. Maha could squeeze a couple more thousand into Stinson, and maybe even reach that golden 10,000 number if they find the right headliner. Does Maha need to get bigger than that? It will have to if it’s going to attract the Beck / Wilco-level headliners.  How else can Maha grow? How about a second day-long festival — one held in the spring, the other in the late summer? Or add an amazing Friday night warm-up set in the park…

BTW, if you went to Maha, fill out the Maha survey so they can capture your thoughts and make it even better next year.

More Maha review here.

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You know that Dereck Higgins release I mentioned the other day that I wondered would ever make it onto vinyl? Well it is, probably. Dereck launched an indiegogo campaign to help fund the pressing. You can contribute (and pre-order the LP) here.

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Hear Nebraska’ second-to-last Live at Turner Park concert for the season is tonight. The line-up is Lincoln bluegrass outfit The Bottle Tops and roots rockers The Travelling Mercies.The show starts at 6 p.m. Bring a blanket and some booze and enjoy. More info here.

Also tonight at Slowdown Jr. it’s the debut of Feel Tight, a new project featuring members of Talking Mountain, The Seen and Weird Howl. Opening up is Huge Fucking Waves and Stephen Nichols. $5, 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 © 2014 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

The 2014 Maha Music Festival crowd late in the evening, looking from stage left.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

A more-detailed review of the Maha Music Festival will appear in my column in The Reader on Thursday. The micro-summary: It was a good, though rather exhausting, day thanks to humid weather and a loaded line-up that made it hard to sneak away to re-energize. I ended up skipping the Radkey and Doomtree sets to go home and change my clothes and cool off.

All the performances were good. Domestica, Whipkey and Twinsmith were as expected. It was good to see Heidi and Jon on a festival stage. The surprises were M34n Str33t, who I’d never seen before and thoroughly enjoyed, and Envy Corp, a band I’d all but written off as just not being my thing, that is until this gig. I was talking to a musician and another music journalist during their set and all three of us were like, “Who the f___ is this? These guys are pretty awesome.”

The Both were good, if not a bit sleepy in their mid-tempo way. I’d rather see them in a regular venue than on an outside stage. Local Natives ramped up the crowd for the coming evening, but what really got the crowd pumped was Icky Blossoms.  The old favorites from their debut album were as good as ever, but the new stuff points toward a different, more punk-fueled sound. Edgier, despite the dresses.

Head and the Heart and Death Cab did their things, and I’ll go in a little more detail about them in the column, though it’s safe to say Maha has broken its curse of having dull headliners.

Anyway, here’s a collection of photos taken throughout the day.

Domestica kicked off Maha to an adoring crowd.

Actually, the crowd for Domestica was bigger than it looked.

Matt Whipkey and his band launched the local stage in style.

And then there was Snot, representing this year’s class of talent from Omaha Girls Rock!

Twinsmith looked right at home on the main stage.

M34n Str33t was the only band to bring props for the crowd, which hung around at least until they got all but destroyed during Icky Blossoms’ set.

Aimee Man and Ted Leo do their thing as The Both. And yes, there was even a rendition of “Voices Carry” (though it paled compared to Leo’s awesome “Bottled in Cork”).

Local Natives got the evening rolling in style.

Icky Blossoms dressed for success.

The view from the side of the stage of The Head and the Heart.

Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard kicking off their headlining set.

A view of Death Cab from in front of the stage.

The huge crowd on hand at the end of The Head and the Heart’s set.

* * *

Tonight at O’Leaver’s, The Everymen return. Remember them from a few weeks ago and from this column? Check them out again tonight. The Ridgways and Sidewalkers also are on the bill. $5, 9:30 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 © 2014 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Death Cab for Cutie is the headliner at this Saturday’s Maha Music Festival.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

So, the Maha Music Festival tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed that the storms route around Omaha. I’d hate to see this one get water-logged. All the details, the band sched, everything is at mahamusicfestival.com. If you’re going and you don’t have tix, you should get them today to avoid a $10 DOS upcharge. I’ll see you there.

As for the rest of the weekend, there are a couple shows going on tonight:

Post Verse headlines tonight at Slowdown Jr. They describe themselves as “a band that doesn’t just seem inspired by the fuzzed out altars of Cobain, Corgan and Shields, but actually share the same DNA.” Nuit Vah and The Sun-less Trio — two bands I’ve never heard of — open. $5, 9 p.m.

Also tonight, John Klemmensen and the Party take their show to The Barley Street Tavern. Joining them are the Baberaham Lincolns, Superghosts and Thoughts — three bands I’ve never heard of. $5, 9 p.m.

O’Leaver’s is promising some “very special guests” at their Maha Music Festival after-party Saturday night. Who could they be? Find out. It’s free and starts at 9.

That’s what I got. If I missed your gig, put it in the comments section.

Stay dry, Omaha…

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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 © 2014 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

The Both = Aimee Mann + Ted Leo. They’re playing at Saturday’s Maha Music Festival.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The Maha Music Festival pre-coverage is hitting the streets today, including the stuff I worked on for The Reader.

Every year I do one Q&A with one of the traveling Maha artist, and this year it was with Aimee Mann and Ted Leo of The Both. Among the questions asked:

• – Is playing together everything you dreamed it would be?
• – Are you creating something with a new fan base or building on your solo fan bases?
• – During the songwriting phase, Aimee, did you ask Ted to throttle back / Ted, did you ask Aimee to ramp it up?
• – Aimee, did you foresee the decline of the music industry when you created your own record label in ’99?
• – What do you think of Kickstarter?

And the question I was most interested in asking:

• – Aimee, I have to ask a two-part Magnolia question: 1) What did you think when PT Anderson had the characters sing the lines to “Wise Up,” and 2) What did you think the first time you saw it in the finished film?

And so on. You can read the answers to those questions and more in this week’s issue of The Reader, or online right here.

Aimee and Ted were a lot of fun to interview, especially Ted, who reminisced about past shows he’s played in Omaha and how lousy they were. Leo came through with Dismemberment Plan in 2001, as a headliner at Sokol Underground in 2003, and opened for Against Me at Slowdown in 2008. He always puts on a great show, whether he thinks he does or not.

“I have not had the best shows of my life in Omaha, and that’s not inflective of Omaha per se,” he said. “There’s so many factors that come together like a perfect crap storm to make a show crappy, there are so many moving parts and every day you’re on tour, you can’t blame it on one thing. I’m happy to be back in this context with Aimee at the Maha festival.”

This is the first time Aimee Mann’s been to Omaha, and she had no preconceptions about our fair city.  “I’ve heard nothing (about Omaha), so it’s a lovely clean slate,” Mann said. “The reason any musician doesn’t or does go to a town or area has nothing to do with personal preference, it’s all about the promoter or booking agent. If there’s not a promoter that thinks that people will come to see you, you don’t show up at that town.”

Go read the interview. It’s long.

* * *

In other Maha news, my column this week focuses on the future of summer music festivals and how Maha fits into the equation. For perspective, I interviewed Tre Brashear, one of Maha’s founders, about the challenges he and his team face putting the festival together every year, and where he thinks Maha is headed. You can also read that in The Reader or online 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 © 2014 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Orenda Fink yesterday released a new video for the song “Ace of Cups” from upcoming album Blue Dream, which comes out on Saddle Creek Records Aug. 19. The video (below) was directed by Nik Fackler (the director of feature films Lovely Still and Sick Birds Die Easy as well as a member of Icky Blossoms and InDreama) and Aaron Gum (also in InDreama). It’s a head trip. Look for cameos by The Faint’s Todd Fink and InDreama’s Dereck Higgins.

* * *

Some Big Star news…. A band is being pulled together to play Big Star’s Third in concert that includes original member Jody Stephens on drums. Joining him are Mike Mills, Mitch Easter (Let’s Active), Chris Stamey (The dB’s) and “guest musicians from each city.” The band will be backed by a chamber orchestra and sets also will include songs from #1 Record. Cities are Carrboro, NC; Washington, DC; Seattle and LA. More info at ardentmusic.com. Ardent recently announced that #1 Record and Radio City are being remastered and rereleased by Stax, with a drop date of Sept. 2. I do love Big Star…

* * *

When in ROAM: Audio Postcards from the Four Corners of the Globe

David Matysiak (Coyote Bones) posted the next installment of his ROAM audio series. This time it’s audio postcards from around the globe. Contributors include Sarah Bohling (Icky Blossoms), Sam Martin (Capgun Coup), Mike Albanese (Maserati), Graham Patrick Ulicny (Reptar), among others.

Check it out via SoundCloud here.

* * *

In this week’s column, random notes on Mula (delicious), zucchini (big), Maha (soon), Guardians (awesome) and cyclists (chubby) . You can read it in this week’s issue of The Reader or online right here.

* * *

Speaking of Maha, the Maha Team announced yesterday that the festival is getting a Ferris wheel for the Aug. 16 concert at Stinson Park. “We are also introducing a game truck to the entertainment lineup in the early part of the day,” Maha said in a press release. “This truck will be stocked with a variety of XBOX, Nintendo Wii, and PlayStation 3 games.”

Ironically, I jokingly called their $50 ticket an “all-day ride pass” in my column this week not knowing about the impending Ferris wheel addition, which is bound to cause some confusion with someone.

* * *

Couple shows to consider tonight:

At The Waiting Room indie/country blues band Bazile Mills headlines with Burkum Boys (the bros from Skypiper). $7, 9 p.m.

At The Barley Street, it’s The Talbott Brothers Band w/ Maxwell Hughes (former Lumineers guitarist, yes those Lumineers) and John Larsen. 9 p.m. $5.

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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 © 2014 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

With their Aug. 16 concert less than a month away, the Maha Music Festival social channels began gearing up the hype machine yesterday. Maha Board member Tre Brashear tweeted that Maha tickets sales are running “50% ahead of last year, so a sellout is possible.”

A sell-out of $50 general admission tickets indeed would be a real coup. Maha tweeted VIP tickets sold out July 1. One assumes this year’s headliner, Death Cab for Cutie, is driving those sales. That said, last year’s headliner, Flaming Lips, wasn’t exactly a pushover (though Maha seems to have gotten the Lips during an era when they are producing their most depressing, uninspired music).

Maha also posted their official schedule yesterday. The Both at 4:30? I would have pushed that back to 8:50 (I know people who are coming only to Aimee Mann and Ted Leo together), but who knows what drives these decisions?

On the other hand, if they really wanted to be ballsy and get people in the park all day, have one of the nationals go on at 1. I know, I know, that just isn’t done, but it sure would raise the crowd level for the locals who have the early slots. It’ll be a shame if Domestica is playing to an empty field.

Here’s the schedule:

* * *

Lots of shows going on this weekend.

Tonight at The Sydney in Benson it’s the debut of Nightbird, a new trio fronted by Filter Kings’ Gerald Lee Meyerpeter. Joining him is Scott Zimmerman on drums and Jeff Harder on bass. Lee said expect heavy, hard rock bordering on ’70s sludge with a distinct stoner vibe. Bring your earplugs. Also on the card is Old Bones (Rymo lives) and headliner Civicminded. $5, 9 p.m.

Also tonight right down the street at The Waiting Room, it’s ’90s indie-rock instrumentalists Man or Astro-Man? with Portland rockabilly act Sallie Ford. $15, 9 p.m.

The Barley Street is hosting a Bob Dylan tribute tonight with a handful of locals playing their favorite Dylan tunes. $5, 9 p.m.

And lest we forget fabulous O’Leaver’s, where tonight they’ve got Two Shakes, The Broke Loose and Naked Sunday. $5, 9:30 p.m.

Tomorrow night (Saturday) the marquee event is, of course, Sara Bertuldo’s birthday party at The Waiting Room. The celebration includes a performance by Sara’s band, See Through Dresses; the debut of the reformatted Little Brazil (read the deets on the new line-up here) and headliners Ladyfinger. Huge. $8, 9 p.m.

Also tomorrow night, The Derby Birds play at O’Leaver’s with difficult-to-pronounce bands Illium and Ojai. $5, 9 p.m.

Aaaand… Start your Saturday off early at The Slowdown, where it’s time once again for the Omaha Girls Rock! showcase. This is the fourth year for the event, with proceeds going to support the Omaha Girls Rock! project (find out more). One of the funnest shows of the year and a chance to see tomorrow’s stars today! Show starts at 5:30, $5 (but you can add more if you want).

That’s what I got. If I left anything out, 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.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Ah, Maha…

The line-up for this year’s Maha Music Festival (for those of you who were out of town or away from their computers over the past 18 hours) was announced last night at O’Leaver’s. I told you there was going to be some surprises.

The headliner is Death Cab for Cutie. They’ve been touring through Omaha for more than a decade, since they were a little band on Barsuk Records playing to small crowds at Sokol Underground. Now they’re a festival act. One could argue they peaked with 2003’s Transatlanticism record. Their last album, 2011’s Codes and Keys, was nominated for a Grammy, but I’m only listening to it for the first time this morning (It’s pretty good, btw). Their last time through Omaha was in, what April 2009 for a gig at The Holland Center?

No, Death Cab would not have been my choice for a headliner. Their stand-and-play live shows are in direct contrast to last year’s Maha headliner in every way imaginable. Whereas Flaming Lips are known for their amazing stage shows (and last year’s was indeed spectacular), I’ve never cared for their music (Yes, that includes Yoshimi and Soft Bulletin, which I recently pulled out and still can’t get into). To me, Wayne Coyne has effectively compensated for boring music with eye-popping staging. On the other hand, Death Cab’s live performances can be mind-numbingly boring, but their music is sublime (to me anyway).

Summarized: I’d rather see a Lips show but listen to Death Cab music. Who knows, maybe Death Cab will come up with something interesting for Maha’s stage.

The Head and the Heart is a good genre match for Deathcab. The band sold out The Waiting Room back in October 2011. The review is here, wherein I described the performance this way: “The six-piece band was joined by a chorus of a few hundred who sang along to almost every song, sounding like a warm ocean lapping gently on the shores of the band’s acoustic folk. I haven’t heard so much singing since Dashboard Confessional circa 2003, only these songs weren’t cheesy heartbreak anthems sung by children. Instead the crowd was mostly in their mid-20s, with more women mixed in than I’m used to seeing at typical indie rock shows. Credit the nature of their music, which is more soothing than rousing, though it had its moments of exultation.”

H&tH’s latest record, 2013’s Let’s Be Still, is indeed quiet and…soothing.

Last time I saw Local Natives was at a sold out Waiting Room show in September 2010 (that review here). Like Head and the Heart, they’re a “vibe band” that plays vibe music rather than songs — perfect for a pretty summer night under the stars. Their latest, 2013’s Hummingbird, sounds a lot like the last Head and the Heart record.

Then comes what — for me — is Maha’s headliner. The Both.

The Both is Aimee Mann and Ted Leo. Mann is one of my all-time favorite artists. My love of her music began with the soundtrack to 1999’s Magnolia, a movie that had a profound effect on me as much for her music as the story on the screen. After seeing that film I ran out and bought the soundtrack (though 2000’s Bachelor No. 2 contains the best songs from that record), and Mann’s earlier albums, ’95’s I’m with Stupid and her debut, ’93’s Whatever.

It’s hard to separate Mann from the producer of those albums, the genius that is Jon Brion. She went on to release a number of consistently good records with a different producer, but only occasionally reached the heights of her earlier work (but they’re still worth seeking out).

Mann is a perfect match for Ted Leo (of Ted Leo and the Pharmacists), a performer I’ve wanted to see booked here for many years. Leo’s 2010 album The Brutalist Bricks (Matador) was one of my favorites from that year. Seems like the last time I saw Leo was back in November 2003 at Sokol Underground, though he’s been through Omaha since then (including (I think) in 2008 with Against Me?). Talk about your high-energy performers.

I haven’t heard anything from The Both except their Tiny Desktop concert. Their debut album came out Tuesday on Mann’s SuperEgo Records. Check out the first single, “Milwaukee” via this soundcloud link.

While the other three acts alone will make for a successful Maha this year, The Both is the act that will make it special, for me anyway.

The rest of the line up is a mixed bag of bands that includes a few I’d never heard of or listened to before, like indie hip-hop act Doomtree and St. Joe punk band Radkey. The Envy Corps has played in Omaha a number of times. Twinsmith is the latest signing by Saddle Creek Records and Matt Whipkey is a local legend. M34N STR33T is another up-and-coming hip-hop act that’s played around a lot, but who I haven’t caught on stage.

I’m told there could be more bands named to this year’s Maha Music Festival, but by itself this an impressive line-up. Tickets to the Aug. 16 show (once again at Stinson Park in Aksarben Village) are on sale now for $50. VIP tix are still available. More info at the Maha website.

Maha 2014 Lineup from Maha Music Festival on Vimeo.

* * *

It was interesting watching the reaction to the Maha announcement on Social Media last night. For every three people on Facebook or Twitter that applauded the line-up, there was one that went out of his/her way to complain.

Not surprisingly, the people who bitch most about the Maha lineup have never been to a Maha Festival and will never go to a Maha Festival. Their idea of a perfect festival line-up either: 1) involves bands that no longer exist/have been dead and/or retired for decades; or 2) involves bands that would take Lollapalooza money ($500k+) to book, or 3) involves bands so small and obscure they wouldn’t sell out Slowdown Jr. let alone The Waiting Room, or 4) are “genre” bands that don’t fit into the Maha theme, such as Country acts, goth-metal-goon bands, or straight-up pop acts. These folks also seem to require that every band on the line-up be one of their favorites.

Maha’s focus has always been indie/CMJ-style rock, the kind of music Omaha and Nebraska used to be nationally known for. The people bitching the most about Maha are people who hate that kind of music. Why waste time/energy bitching when you knew this was the kind of line-up Maha has booked in the past and always will book? If you prefer goon rock, go to one of the many goon rock outdoor concert/festivals that 89.7 The River hosts every year. If you like black-leather garage rock, go to Gonerfest — the Mecca of garage rock festivals (It’s on my punch list). If you like C&W headliners, check out the CenturyLink or Pinnacle arena schedules. If you can’t get over the fact that “your music” from your era is “so much better than today’s music,” then save up your money and travel to wherever “your bands” are playing reunion shows.

One guy online, who recently moved to Los Angeles and now regularly bashes Omaha whenever he can, commented that he sees “better bands in LA on a given weeknight that you’re getting at Maha.” My response: I have no doubt that’s true. The mistake you made was not moving to LA years ago. While we’re sad that you moved away and miss you, it pains me more to know that you wasted so many years of your life in Omaha instead of being where you CLEARLY belong. And btw, we already knew you weren’t going to Maha to begin with.

I hate when people move away. But more than that, I hate hearing them continue to bitch about Omaha after they’ve left. We get it. You hate Omaha. That’s why you moved away. All you’re doing when you bitch about Nebraska from your new homes in Denver or Portland or Austin or NYC or California is making yourself look like an asshole.

* *

Holy shit this is a long blog post. Let’s get to the weekend.

Tonight at The Waiting Room Satchel Grande is having a CD release show. I didn’t even know they were working on a new album. Opening is Buck Bowen (with Jazz Trio). $7, 9 p.m. This will be a big show.

Down at Slowdown Jr. Barsuk Records artist Say Hi headlines with Melbourne duo Big Scary. $12, 9 p.m.

Meanwhile, at fabulous O’Leaver’s, The Brigadiers headline with The Sons of O’Leaver’s and the return of New Lungs (DMax and Co., welcome back). $5, 9:30 p.m.

Tomorrow is, of course, Record Store Day. I covered it in detail Wednesday (here). The highlight will be the Almost Music Day Party, which starts at 11:30 and runs ’til 7:30. The line-up is here (and it says there will be food and drink). It’s free. Go. And don’t forget to go to Homer’s, Saddle Creek Shop and Drastic Plastic and buy plenty of vinyl.

Saturday night former Saddle Creek band Tokyo Police Club headlines at The Slowdown with Geographer and Said the Whale. $15, 9 p.m.

Finally, 2010 Maha Festival performer Ben Kweller headlines at The Waiting Room Saturday night with See Through Dresses. $15, 9 p.m.

Did I miss anything? Put it in the comments section. Have a great 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.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Tonight at — of all places — fabulous O’Leaver’s the folks behind the Maha Music Festival will unveil their 2014 concert line-up. I, along with other members of the music press, are already privy to this information, but have taken an unwritten blood oath not to publish the names until after the official word is made tonight at Nebraska’s Favorite Neighborhood Drunktank™.

I can tell you that you’ll be surprised by at least a few of the bands chosen. That the line-up blows away the 80/35 Festival and Stir Concert Cove line-ups. That Maha has managed to land one performer who has never been to Omaha and who I’ve always wanted to see. That the variety of music spans indie, punk and hip-hop. That the local stage selections are impressive without being redundant (They’ve yet to repeat themselves with any band; that trend cannot continue forever).

I’ll write more about the line-up tomorrow. I suggest you either head down to O’Leaver’s tonight or watch the various Social Media channels at 8 p.m. when the information is released.

Afterward, head on over to The Barley Street Tavern where Dan McCarthy, Brad Hoshaw and Michael Todd will be performing “in the round.” $5, 10 p.m.

* * *

In this week’s column, Pt. 1 of The MINI Cooper saga (including plenty of Porsche commentary). You can read it in this week’s issue of The Reader or online right here.

* * *

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.

The Faint’s Doom Abuse is out now…

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

It’s drop day for The Faint’s new album, Doom Abuse, out now on SQE. To celebrate, Homer’s is hosting an in-store meet-and-greet with The Faint this evening at 6 p.m. According to the press release “The band will hang out, Homer’s will spin the new CD, and there will be free soda, beer and pizza.” Free beer? Seriously. Of course the CD will be for sale as well as the limited deluxe special edition vinyl. Get it.

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I knew it was too good to be true. Moments after posting a link to yesterday’s blog entry someone posted a comment saying that Fischer no longer is on the bill for the Punk Rock Reunion show May 17. I’ve sent an email to 1% to confirm this but haven’t heard back. Fischer is still listed on the event 1% page, however… I’ll let you know one way or the other when I know…

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ROAM In the Family

The latest installment of David Matysiak’s ROAM project went online yesterday. This time ROAMers “explore the theme of family by creating a new audio collage using archived materials or new recordings to engage the concept in all of its literal and figurative manifestations.” Contributors include Stef Drootin (Big Harp), Dereck Higgins (InDreama), Devin Brown, Julie Hines and more. Download it for free right here.

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The folks at the Maha Music Festival yesterday tweeted that they’ll be announcing this year’s concert line-up April 17. I foresee surprises in store. Maha Fest is slated for Aug. 16 at Stinson Park…

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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 © 2014 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.