Rig 1, a.k.a. Desaparecidos’ Ian McElroy, has a new single and album coming…

by Tim McMahan,Lazy-i.com

Desaparecidos keyboardist Ian McElroy’s hip-hop project, Rig 1, released a new single yesterday, “Kindest Brother.” The track comes from his upcoming album, Separation Illusion, which drops Nov. 3 on Maria Taylor’s Flower Moon Records. The song was written by McElroy and Neva Dinova frontman Jake Bellows.

The track will be released as a double A-sided 7-inch b/w “Real Hot Boy,” a track that features Maria Taylor, Mike Bloom and Josh Rawson (Felice Brothers). In fact, the album’s credits is a “who’s who” of early century Omaha Indie music glitterati and includes Todd Fink and Clark Baechle of The Faint, Nik Freitas, Blake Sennet of Rilo Kiley and Kirby James Fairchild (Granddaddy, Modest Mouse). 

To me, McElroy’s Rig 1 delivery has always been more like spoken word over trip-hop rhythms rather than straight up hip hop, like listening to slam poetry to a beat track. Check it:

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Tonight at Pageturners Lounge in Dundee indie trio Ojai headlines. The band consists of singer/songwriter Michael Hulstein with Micah Renner on bass and Tanner Rogerson on drums. Sounding like a pop-rock version of Wilco meets Harry Nilsson, they just played the opening slot at Petfest 2023 (and are probably still recovering from heat stroke).

Joining Ojai is touring singer/songwriter Al Oleander — on the road supporting her debut album, Easy Crier, a record who’s backing band included members of The Felice Brothers. Something called Stick With It opened at 8 p.m. No cover, but a $10 donation is suggested. 

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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 © 2023 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

See Through Dresses at The Waiting Room, July 19, 2014. The band just signed to Tiny Engines.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Indie label Tiny Engines announced today that it signed Omaha band See Through Dresses. The Carolinas-based label has been around since 2008 , according to their website. Their roster includes Beach Slang, which recently toured with Cursive, Adult Mom, Everyone Everywhere and a shitload of bands I’ve never heard of (but who are probably awesome).

Look for a new See Through Dresses EP this fall on Tiny Engines. The band just finished touring with Cursive and are headed out on a rather massive European tour starting right after they open for Matt Pond PA at Reverb this Thursday night. No doubt Sara Bertuldo, Matt Carroll and the rest of the band will be fluent in German when they return in June.

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Speaking of touring, Desaparecidos just added a few more dates to their summer tour, according to Brooklyn Vegan. The band will play support shows with Gaslight Anthem and Brand New, and will be hosting their CD release shows for Payola (out June 23 on Epitaph Records) in NYC at Shea Stadium and Rough Trade.

Meanwhile, the various members of Desa are busy trying to ride the wave of publicity with their own projects.

Rig 1 a.k.a. Ian McElroy, just announced a handful of East Coast and Midwest tour dates in support of his last record, 2014’s North of Maple (Team Love Records).

One of Denver Dalley’s other projects, Broken Bats, yesterday premiered a track off their upcoming EP called “Leather” (listen to the track here). In addition to Denver, Broken Bats consists of  former Pink Spiders frontman Matt “Friction” Bell, Future Unlimited drummer Gabe Pigg, and Tony Smith from Bowling Green rockers Sleeper Agent. The full EP apparently drops digitally today. The band is playing at Mercury Lounge in NYC May 14 with Fidlar and Metz.

I mentioned Matt Baum’s latest project, Montee Men, recently released a new tune on Bandcamp. And, of course, Landon Hedges’ project Little Brazil is in the process of writing and recording a new album.

Then there’s Conor Oberst, who’s got solo dates throughout the month of June, including a sold out show at The Waiting Room June 18.

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Tonight at Slowdown Jr. it’s the return of San Francisco band Vetiver (Sub Pop, Easy Sound). Opening is EDJ (Eric D. Johnson of Fruit Bats). $15, 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 © 2015 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Protomartyr at this year’s South by Southwest Festival. The band plays tonight at Slowdown Jr.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Orenda Fink, Blue Dream (2014, Saddle Creek)

The always amazing Orenda Fink yesterday announced that her new album, Blue Dream, is coming out Aug. 19 on Saddle Creek Records. The first released track off the album, “Ace of Cups,” is being streamed at Soundcloud here.

The press release calls the new album “a year-long meditation on death” that started with the death of Fink’s dog of 16 years, Wilson. I’m already feeling bummed out.

“The album truly came together at ARC in Omaha, NE with the help of producers Ben Brodin and Todd Fink (The Faint), along with drummer Bill Rieflin (Ministry, Swans, R.E.M., King Crimson),” says the release. Sounds enticing.

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Speaking of new releases, a few new videos from bands with local ties (and new albums) have been released in the past few days.

Former Omaha Melissa L. Amstutz, and her band. HERS, debuted a new video for “Please,” a track of her forthcoming album Youth Revisited. The vid was directed by filmmaker Lindsay Trapnell.

Also, Desaparecidos keyboardist Ian McElroy’s Rig 1 project has a new video for “Duality,” the first single off the new album North of Maple (Team Love Records).

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One of my favorite discoveries from this year’s South By Southwest Festival, Protomartyr, headlines a show tonight at Slowdown Jr. The Detroit band’s post-punk sound has been compared to The Fall, Pere Ubu and Wire. Their new album, Under Color of Official Right (Hardly Art) is already on my best-of list for 2014.

Opening for Protomartyr is Coaxed, Worried Mothers and Telepathy Problems. This is a big one, folks. $10, 9 p.m.

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In this week’s column, a rant about the Omaha World-Herald‘s litter distribution system called “Food Express” and how the paper is reacting to the public uprising against it. You can read it in this week’s issue of 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.

Rig 1, a.k.a. Ian McElroy, has a new album coming out in May.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

A few bits from the in-box.

Rig 1, a.k.a. Ian McElroy of Desaparecidos fame, has a new record coming out May 13 on Team Love. Titled North of Maple, the album includes contributions by Clark Baechle, Jacob Thiele and Dapose from The Faint, Nate Walcott (Bright Eyes) and Orenda Fink; and is produced by Andy LeMaster (Now It’s Overhead). The album release show is May 14 at Bowery Electric in NYC, so get your plane tickets now. The first single, “Duality,” is below:

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Protomartyr is a band I (luckily) fell across a couple times this year at SXSW, and it turns out, was one of my favorites. Much to my surprise (and pleasure) I notice they’ve been booked to play Slowdown Jr. May 15 (It’s an Eyeball Production). If you have even a passing interest in post-punk, you need to attend this show.

Anyway, yesterday Protomartyr was featured in AV Club‘s “Pioneering” series where they were interviewed about The Stooges and performed a cover of “Down on the Street” at the Michigan Union Ballroom (why that location is significant requires watching the video). Check it out below:

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I considered Matt Whipkey’s and Brad Hoshaw’s split 7-inch release party to be Record Store Day, specifically their performance for hundreds of line-waiters outside of Homer’s before the shop opened last Saturday.

Instead, they’ll both be performing tonight at Whipkey’s weekly Wednesday night performance at the Harney Street Tavern (Whipkey Wednesday), and are calling it their record release show for “I Miss You” b/w “Sorry,” which will be available for purchase at the show. 9 p.m., free.

Also tonight downtown, Provo band Desert Noises (SQE Music – yep, that’s The Faint’s label) plays with John Klemmensen and the Party at The Hive, 1207 Harney St. $7, 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.