Icky Blossoms at Earth Day in Elmwood Park, April 22, 2017.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Another Record Store Day in the books. I only had time to visit one store, Almost Music in Blackstone, where I caught a few minutes of Montee Men playing in the bookstore — brutality among the children’s titles, big crowd, lots of smiling faces (RSD brings out the kid in all of us).

Montee Men at Almost Music, RSD2017, April 22, 2017.

I only picked up three things, though: The new O+S, a promo pressing of U2’s War and a T-shirt. That Spoon vinyl had already sold. Oh well. RSD is one of the smartest retail promotions — designating one day as a tribute to consumerism, collecting and music. Well, two days if you count RSD Black Friday, and I’m sure the independent record stores do.

After Almost Music I headed to Elmwood Park for Earth Day festivities. The good weather brought out every stoner, hippie and yuppie parent in Omaha. It was a day shot in Technicolor and sunshine.

Icky Blossoms had the legendary Dereck Higgins playing bass for this show (temporary or permanent member?), which was performed with its usual dance-vibe bombast but suffered from poor PA/audio. Everything sounded a but fuzzy and blown out, but what are ya gonna do? It’s an Earth Day concert. And the lousy sound didn’t stop the the gaggle of freaks from dancing in front of the stage. Gotta love it.

Last I heard Icky Blossoms was working on new material, though I didn’t hear any Saturday afternoon. Where will they go next? We’re all waiting for the next record…

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Umm, the duo of Stef Drootin and Chris Senseney (a.k.a. Big Harp), released their first new music online last week. Check out the Majestic Litter Soundcloud files below…

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Finally, the folks at the Holland Performing Arts Center announced last week another show at their 1200 Club. This time it’s High Up and McCarthy Trenching as the featured acts May 6 (tornado day). Tix are $15 Adv./$20 DOS.

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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 © 2017 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Wednesday night before Thanksgiving has got to be one of the biggest bar days of the year. Everyone goes out because they have the next day off to recover. Or at least most of us do.

The place to be tonight is fabulous O’Leaver’s where the stellar lineup includes the long awaited return of Millions of Boys. In the second slot is Leaflower, the new project by New Lungs’ members Craig Fort, Danny Maxwell and Tab Tworek with John Svatos of Noah’s Ark Was a Spaceship. Yuge! And headliners, the mega-power trio Montee Men. $5, 9 p.m.

Also tonight, everyone’s favorite local shit-kickin’ alt-country band Clarence Tilton is playing at the Harney Street Tavern, 1215 Harney St., with mega-power troubadour Brad Hoshaw. 9 p.m. and absolutely free.

If I don’t see you out and about tonight, have a great Thanksgiving…

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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.

Looking down on Sixth Street from Maggie Mays at South By Southwest 2015. This year’s SXSW kicks off today.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The annual South By Southwest music festival is kicking off in Austin today. I would be remiss in not saying it pangs me not being there this year, especially since they’re having 90-degree weather in Austin. The weather at SXSW has blown the past couple of years.

Lots o’ people from Nebraska will be down there. Taking my place (and Chris Aponick’s place) representing/reporting for The Reader is cartoonist Paul Trap. Paul is known first and foremost as the dude behind syndicated comic strip “Thatababy,” which I believe is carried in more than 100 newspapers nationally.

Paul also is a huge indie music fan. If you’ve gone to shows locally over the past few years you’ve probably seen him. When he told me he was going to try going to SXSW this year without a badge I suggested he get one from The Reader and be their correspondent. He took my advice (and so did The Reader), so you’ll be seeing Paul’s updates throughout the week, starting with this one. I’ll post links to more of his updates as they go online.

I can’t wait to see how he illustrates this year’s SXSW for the printed version of The Reader.

Of course Hear Nebraska is going to have a bevy of writers and photographers on hand this year as well. You can follow their hi-jinx at hearnebraska.org. No doubt they’ll be covering Lincoln’s Nebraska Exposed showcase, which takes place tomorrow.

And as always, the Omaha World-Herald‘s Kevin Coffey has conned his paper into sending him to Austin on their dime (and getting paid for it). Look for Kevin’s updates via his twitter feed @owhmusicguy. Oh, what a life.

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This week’s Live @ O’Leaver’s sessions just hit the ‘net. Check them out below. Lush Bruise Crew is David Nance’s band, BTW…

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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.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

No music for me this past weekend. That’s a first in a long while, but the situation was out of my hands. And as a result, there probably won’t be a Lazy-i Podcast this week (unless I can connect with Chris A before Wednesday).

Newswise, Hear Nebraska made the first in a series of line-up announcements for its Good Living Tour. The tour kicks off July 17 in the bustling metropolis of Imperial, Nebraska, home to HN founder and ED Andrew Norman. The lineup: Imperial natives The Talbott Brothers, Omaha’s See Through Dresses and Lincoln bluegrass/rockabilly band The Bottle Tops. The free gig is being held at The Imperial Country Club — sounds ritzy!

So how did HN come up with these line-ups? The organization published its selection criteria yesterday, which included “artistic and live-performance quality; history of successful touring (i.e., road-readiness); recent or upcoming album releases (i.e., new music); ability to play an all-original (i.e., no covers), family friendly set; proven ability to draw crowds and to self-promote; in some cases, local community ties; and innovative artistic elements…”

“We don’t expect everyone to like every band, but we aim for each audience member to connect with at least one of them.”

What more could you wish for?

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In other news, brand new local act Montee Men released a new tune on Bandcamp, which you can listen to below. Montee Men is John Laughlin (Pro-Mangum), guitar/vocals; Chris Kelley (Back When), bass/vocals; and Matt Baum (Desaparecidos), drums/vocals. Talk about your power trios…

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Finally, I just got confirmation of a rather massive upcoming concert, but have been I’ve been asked to “embargo” the information until given the green light. Needless to say, this is one show you’re not going to want to miss… More to come.

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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 © 2015 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.