by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

That was quite a week of shows. Hat’s off to One Percent Productions for putting them together. Needless to say, I’m exhausted, but that doesn’t mean I’m staying home this weekend.

Tonight at fabulous O’Leaver’s Pro-Magnum is hosting a release show with Borealis. You can check out P-M’s tracks from the link below and download it for a mere $5. Borealis’s tracks come on good ol’ fashioned cassettes. Both bands play dark, heavy, growl-y shit, so be prepared for Satan to show up at some point in the evening and do a shot of Rumplemintz. $5, 9:30 p.m.

Also tonight, Mark McGuire of Emeralds is playing at The Barley Street. McGuire’s new album, Along the Way, was released this year on Dead Oceans. Opening is Jenny Hval and James Maakestad. $7, 9 p.m.

Twinsmith

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Omaha indie band Twinsmith is seeing its first 7-inch released on none other than Saddle Creek Records Nov. 19. The tracks are “Honestly” b/w “1’30” and “Big Deal.”

“Honestly” premiered today on Minneapolis’ Radio K (right here). “Recorded and produced by Matt Carroll and J.J. Idt at Omaha’s Little Machine Studio, ‘Honestly’ – with its fuzzed-out guitars reminiscent of Blue Album-era Weezer – shows off the evolution of a band still in its infancy.” Congrats Twinsmith, and welcome to the big time.

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Maria Taylor’s next track off upcoming Saddle Creek LP Something About Knowing, titled “Tunnel Vision” premiered today on that great, gray bible of all things financial, The Wall Street Journal (here). The new album hits the streets Oct. 29.

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In other release news, Omaha proto-punkers (not sure what that means, but it sounds important) Pro-Magnum premiered two new songs on HearNebraska.org. available from their Bandcamp page (below).

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An addendum to yesterday’s Tim Kasher reviews round-up: Paste Magazine yesterday gave Adult Film a rousing 8.7 rating, concluding: “If this is a new avenue of self-loathing for Kasher, it’s a welcome change of form from the perhaps more angular output of his screaming past. His gifts for wrangling emotive detours from unlikely sonic realms is his best talent, but he couldn’t do that without his crafty capacity for language, too. Stripped of the angry adornments of his yesteryears, we now may take him at his word.”  Read the full review 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 © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Pro-Magnum at O’Leaver’s, March 9, 2013.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The bulk of my evenings this weekend were spent at O’Leaver’s.

Friday night was Digital Leather and a crowd bigger than the one that showed at O’Leaver’s for Criteria the prior weekend, or so it seemed. A real crush-mob. I guess word is getting out about Todd Fink of The Faint joining the band. Or maybe folks are just beginning to “get” what Digital Leather is all about.

Needless to say, the crowd was too big to get close enough for a photo. No matter. You’ve seen these guys before, but you probably haven’t heard them quite like this. The weird, dark, sweaty nature of the evening helped it eclipse the new lineup’s debut a few weeks ago opening for Ty Segall at Sokol Underground. But then again, DL always plays better at O’Leaver’s, where they’re surrounded by friends and booze confessors.

While I have five or six DL albums and tapes, I’m not an expert on the band’s complete discography. That said, I’d never heard the second song played during their set, one in which Fink and frontman Shawn Foree traded vocals. I’m told that they’re writing new material, but I have no idea what role Fink is playing in it. As I’ve said before, Fink adds the synth element that’s been missing in Digital Leather for years, even stretching back to when Foree and others played keys on stage but were barely heard. There’s no missing Fink in the mix. Intense fun. As was the pseudo-encore of “Studs in Love” which is once again becoming a staple in the band’s set (as it should). If you missed it, DL’s next stop is opening for White Lung April 2 at The Slowdown.

Speaking of openers, I got to the club early enough Friday night to catch the last half of Plack Blague’s twisted, bass-heavy, goth-techno-bondage set. The bass was so loud it caused ripples in people’s voices when they spoke. Creepy weird.

So for the past two week’s I’ve gone to the new, improved O’Leaver’s where I saw bigger crowds than I’ve ever seen at this hole-in-the-wall music venue. I’m more used to seeing a casual 40 or 50 people leaning on the railing watching the show, and that’s exactly what I got Saturday night for the debut of Pro-Magnum (They spell their name with all caps, but I’m not doing it. Sorry guys. Just like I won’t add an exclamation point to a band’s name (Snake Island, Thunder Power, take note).https://lazy-i.com/wp-admin/post-new.php

Consisting of Pat Oakes, Paul Hansen and frontman/bassist Johnny Vredenburg, the power trio sounds like they’ve been spending their off hours listening to ’80s metal and prog rock. Heavy, heavy shit with strong riffs on anthems that are more punk than metal and are anything but run-of-the-mill. Halfway through the second song, Vredenburg broke into a super-intricate bass riff that was proggy and powerful and very cool. His vocals are mainly of the shriek/scream variety, but what else would you want from power/metal/rock? For a debut, pretty awesome; they definitely left the crowd wanting more.

As for the rest of Saturday night, touring band Buildings played the kind of driving, dark music you’d expect to hear while beating someone to death with a ball-peen hammer. Closing band, the charmingly named Flesh Eating Disease, played one- to two-minute noise explosions keyed with hyper-active yell vocals, the kind of thing you can imagine being played to break down Gitmo prisoners just before the water-boarding begins.

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Tonight at Slowdown Jr. it’s Seattle mutant garage band The Spits on what I’m told could be their last tour ever. Opening is Coaxed and The Dad. $12, 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 © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Johnny Vredenburg of Digital Leather dropped a note to say he’s excited about his new project, called PRO-MAGNUM. Comprising of Paul Hansen (Perry H. Mathews, The Fucking Party) on guitar, Pat Oakes (Ladyfinger) on drums and Vredenburg on bass AND vocals, Vredenburg described their music as “loud, aggressive, yet tight, rock ‘n roll, taking my bass settings back to the screaming tone of that which I used in Dance Me Pregnant, while Paul rips inhuman-like riffs and thunderous backdrop of the heaviest drummer this side of hell. Collectively, we roll out hard rock riffs on par with Motorhead, Iron Maiden, Torche, Converge…” Setting the bar kind of hard, aren’t you Johnny?

PRO-MAGNUM’s first show is March 9 at O’Leaver’s with Flesh Eating Skin Disease and Buildings from Minneapolis.

While I had Vredenburg on the horn, I figured I’d ask how he likes working with Todd Fink. The Faint’s frontman recently joined Digital Leather.

“Todd is a fellow professional who loves making music. That’s why he’s a perfect fit,” Vredenburg said. “It’s all been very casual working with him. Most of the time we get side tracked talking about food or obscure ’80s movie songs. All in all, real excited to be playing in a band with him. And excited to be in a band with Jeff and Shawn too. Ha.”

You can check out that new Digital Leather line-up the night before the PRO-MAGNUM debut — March 8 at O’Leaver’s.

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That new Replacements track, “I’m Not Sayin’,”  is pretty frickin’ good. Check out the stream here at Pitchfork. The Songs For Slim EP is out digitally March 5 and will be released as a commercial 12-inch on April 16.

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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 © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.