Live Review: Ritual Device at Reverb Lounge…

Category: Reviews — Tags: — @ 9:05 am May 3, 2024
Ritual Device at Reverb Lounge, May 2, 2024.

By Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Day One of the Ritual Device reunion shows is in the books and it was a doozy. Never let it be said that this band doesn’t bring the theatrics, even more so than back in the old days when just showing up and not getting injured was enough. 

The set started with a lengthy, haunting guitar solo by guitarist Mike Saklar, a minor-key epic played under almost total darkness as one-by-one, members of the band walked into position with frontman Tim Moss coming in last. 

Moss, who I haven’t seen in a decade, looked looked like a biker gang’s accountant with his crazy long beard and thick black-rimmed glasses. He stood stark center stage while the band tore into opening song “Thick.” Unlike the old days when he would stalk the edges of the stage holding the microphone chord like a whip, Moss stood stock still and stared at the crowd of around 100 menacingly, as if making a list for later. Unsettling, especially in contrast to the roar going on behind him.

Ritual Device’s appeal has always been in the recipe. You have Saklar — a master guitarist, really peerless in this part of the country, then the rhythm section of drummer Eric Ebers and bassist Jerry Hug who put the groove in the nightmare, a rock-solid beat factory that powered through every song. Finally, Moss, who doesn’t so much sing as tell stories punctuated by gutteral screams. He never sounded better. 

The band kept it going with “I Want Me,” then tore into my personal favorate Ritual Device song, “What You Got.” By now, Moss had lost the glasses and was in classic Moss form – weird, bent-over howl followed by falling off (or onto) the stage and then into the thrashing crowd. 

Tim Moss in stalker mode. The giant white T-shirted man (left) did what he could to keep the pit going.

A decade ago at The Waiting Room, he would have been carried around the pit, but the band’s reputation had finally caught up with them. Only about 20 or so hale and hearty types moshed in front of the stage while most of the audience stood back by the soundboard (or behind it), their mosh-pit days long behind them (It was, indeed, an older crowd). 

Unlike the sneaky, sinister snap of the recorded version, last night’s rendition of “What You Got” sounded purposely slowed down, a hazy sludge. In fact, the entire set sounded slower and stonier than I remember vs. the ol’ serial killer pace heard on Henge or performed at The Capitol Bar & Grill.

Prior to the set, the sound man (Keith?) disconcertingly, meticulously covered the stage monitors with plastic sheeting. Was this to keep blood off the speakers? He just smiled and wasn’t saying. Then, I can’t remember if it was during “Shift” or “Charlie Jones,” the reason for the plastic was made clear – soap bubbles sprayed up behind the band from a bubble machine, a glowing effect that seemed oddly counter to the murder tales being performed on stage. 

Tiny bubbles… in the beard... Ritual Device during the bubble montage.

Well, the bubbles only lasted one song (but would make an appearance again at the end). Fans got what they came for, as Ritual Device played most of the songs off Henge, including “Sucker” and “Hatesong #3.” 

The set closed with a disturbing, angry rendition of Johnny Richards’ “Young at Heart,” that likely caused Frank Sinatra to reanimate and stomp around his graveyard in Cathedral City. Moss disappeared from stage before the band left, but they all came back for an encore, with Moss thanking the crowd as the guys ripped into “Porkfist.” Oh what a time to be alive.

Day Two of the Ritual Device reunion tour continues tonight (Friday) at Reverb with Gerald Lee Jr. and Bad Bad Men opening at 8 p.m. $20. The band also plays tomorrow night at Lincoln Calling (at Duffy’s) Go!

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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 © 2024 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Lazy-i

Ritual Device begins 3-day reunion tour tonight with Pagan Athletes, Nowhere…

Category: Blog — Tags: , , — @ 10:41 am May 2, 2024
Pagan Athletes at The Sydney, March 6, 2023. The duo opens for Ritual Device tonight at Reverb Lounge.

By Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

It’s night one of the Ritual Device reunion tour.

Tim Moss and company (read all about them here) are kicking things off tonight at Reverb Lounge. Tonight’s openers are Pagan Athletes (the Wolf brothers) and noise-punk band Nowhere. 

Tomorrow night (Friday), Ritual Device returns to Reverb with Bad Bad Men (the power trio of Omaha legends Chris Siebken on drums, RD’s Jerry Hug on bass and frontman/guitarist John Wolf) and Filter Kings’ frontman Gerald Lee Jr. 

Both Reverb shows have a $20 cover and 8 p.m. start time. These may sell out, so get your tickets early via the One Percent Productions website.

Ritual Devices closes out its reunion tour at Lincoln Calling Saturday night. More on Lincoln Calling in tomorrow’s blog.

I’ll be there tonight to hopefully catch and take home a pig ear! See you there…

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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 © 2024 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Lazy-i

Ritual Device original line-up reunites for Lincoln Calling, Reverb shows…

Category: Blog — Tags: , , — @ 9:54 am April 29, 2024
Ritual Device circa 1994. Photo by Mike Malone.

By Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

One of the biggest surprises of this coming weekend’s Lincoln Calling Festival line-up is that legendary Nebraska punk band Ritual Device is reuniting for a one-off concert featuring the band’s original line-up. 

A four-piece consisting of guitarist Mike Saklar, drummer Eric Ebers, bass player Jerry Hug and frontman/madman Tim Moss, Ritual Device was one of the key bands during Nebraska’s first golden age of indie music. Along with acts like Mousetrap, Frontier Trust, Simon Joyner and Lincoln’s Mercy Rule, Ritual Device recorded and released music and toured throughout the country at a time when very few Nebraska bands did. 

For those who missed it, here’s my original description of this band, written 30 or so years ago: Ritual Device is a tortured, monolithic punk rock band whose sound had been aptly described as “gutter groove.” They make perfect background music for your typical serial killing or high-speed chase through a bombed-out Beirut neighborhood. The closest comparison? Maybe the Jesus Lizard meets Ministry with a little Nine Inch Nails thrown in (without the synths, of course). It is violent music, scary.

On stage, Ritual Device also was violent – shows were riots of noise and panic, with Moss egging on the crowd with a microphone chord wrapped around his wrist and elbow, his long hippy hair sweat-matted to his face, throwing raw pig ears into the thrashing mob. Through that haze of mayhem, the band’s bass/drum/guitar groove piston-pumped like an overheated Mopar engine – angry, infectious, and, yes, groovy.

Ritual Device at The Waiting Room, Dec. 26, 2014.

And now you, too, can experience Ritual Device in all its glory, not only Saturday night at Duffy’s as part of Lincoln Calling, but at two nights of shows – Thursday and Friday – at Reverb Lounge. When the band last reunited almost 10 years ago at a crowded Waiting Room Lounge, Moss had said it would be their last waltz. But when Lincoln Calling organizers reached out, he and the band couldn’t say no.

“I didn’t think we’d play again, either,” Moss said Sunday night after the band’s first rehearsal for this spate of shows. “I had to sit on it a few days before I talked to the other guys. It seemed like, ‘Why not?’ We were all in a good spot to do it.”

Moss, who lives in San Francisco, is the artist manager for bands Faith No More and Sleep and the road manager for Mastodon, who currently isn’t touring. The remaining members are active in other local projects. Mike Saklar fronts The Sun-Less Trio and Jerry Hug plays bass in Bad, Bad Men (who will be playing right before Ritual Device Saturday night at Lincoln Calling and Friday night at Reverb). Last year Ebers played drums with the Cotton brother’s band, Violenteer.

So how was that first practice? “It was a little rough,” Moss said, but quickly added that they’ll be ready by this weekend. The set list no doubt will include songs from Henge, the band’s 1993 debut on Redemption Records. Produced by the band and recorded and produced by The Jesus Lizard’s David Wm. Sims, it’s something of a lost treasure of punk rock, having never been rereleased and unavailable on streaming services Spotify and Apple Music… but not for long.

Ritual Device, Henge (1993, Redemption)

The band will reintroduce Henge to the world with a remastered digital-only version. The plan was to have the new version available before these shows but “it’s taking a little longer for us to be happy with it,” Moss said. Working on the project is Chicago’s Carl Saff, whose credits include mastering albums by Sleep, Mudhoney, Bardo Pond, Sonic Youth and more. In addition to the full album, the release will include tracks from the band’s “Pork Fist” single. 

In a post on social media, Moss summed up his feelings about Ritual Device and the role it’s played in his life: “After the band broke up, my path now clear to me, I moved to California and never looked back traveling further into this life of Music, but it was this band, this little noise-rock punk combo, that introduced the World to me, and I will always be grateful for that and to my three band mates who shared it with me.”

The schedule for this week’s Ritual Device reunion shows are as follows. Choose wisely:

  • — Thursday, May 3 at Reverb Lounge, Ritual Device with Pagan Athletes and Nowhere. 8 p.m., $20.
  • — Friday, May 4 at Reverb Lounge, Ritual Device with Bad, Bad Men and Gerald Lee Jr. 8 p.m., $20. 
  • — Saturday, May 5, at the Lincoln Calling Music Festival – Duffy’s Tavern, 11 p.m. Full weekend passes are $60; one-day passes are $40 and available from Lincolncalling.com

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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 © 2024 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Lazy-i

News Bits: Saddle Creek noms; Conor/Phoebe reunion; Ritual Device in Omaha; new Pat Buchanan; Outlandia announcement imminent…

Category: Blog — Tags: , , , , , — @ 9:41 am March 26, 2024

Phoebe Bridgers and Conor Obersts reunited for a few numbers at Oberst’s show at Teragram Ballroom in LA March 21.

By Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Time to clean out ol’ in-box. Hold onto yer hats… Much of this you may already have seen on the socials; some you haven’t. Here we go…

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Once again, our hometown record label – Saddle Creek Records – has been nominated for a Libera Award — the annual awards handed out by the American Association of Independent Music. Saddle Creek was nominated in the Label of the Year category for labels with 6 to 14 employees. Also in their category: Captured Tracks, City Slang, Lex Records, Light in the Attic, Mack Avenue Music Group and Photo Finish Records. Seems like Saddle Creek is nominated every year. Could this be the year they take home the prize?

In addition, Saddle Creek Records artist Indigo De Souza was nominated in the Breakthrough Artist, Best Singer-Songwriter Records, and Music Video of the Year categories. The 13th annual Libera Awards ceremony will take place June 10 at Gotham Hall in New York City. More coverage at Variety.

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The indie music world was thrown in a tizzy last week when Phoebe Bridges joined Conor Oberst on his “Conor Oberst and Friends” residency show at Los Angeles’ Teragram Ballroom – a series that heads east to Bowery Ballroom in NYC next month. The best coverage of the incident appeared in Them, an online publication that purports to be the “best of what’s queer.” 

Them’s James Factora reported that Bridgers walked on stage during the show’s encore and together with Conor performed Bright Eyes classic “Lua,” Oberst’s “Double Life” from 2014’s Upside Down Mountain and Better Oblivion Community Center tune “My City.” The occasion marked the first time the two have performed together since October 2020. Factora wonders whether, with the announced hiatus of Boygenuis (Bridgers’ project with Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus), if this unannounced reunion could be a sign of future BOCC things to come… 

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I already mentioned that legendary ‘90s-‘00s Omaha punk band Ritual Device is among the performers at this year’s Lincoln Calling May 3 and 4 (the festival schedule has yet to be released). Now comes word that RD will be playing back-to-back nights at Reverb Lounge in Omaha May 2-3 leading up to the LC weekend gig. The shows feature the band’s original lineup of Jerry Hug, Mike Saklar, Eric Ebers and Tim Moss. 

It’s been a decade since the band has taken the stage stage, and I’m sure there’s a good reason for this reunion. More to come…

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Speaking of artists from Omaha’s first golden age of indie music, Patrick Buchanan, the frontman of another ’90s-’00s legendary punk band, Mousetrap, yesterday released a new 5-song EP from his project House of Transgressor called Ain Soph Aur, which, along with the eerie album cover artwork, seems a wee bit satanic. Check it out on Spotify (I don’t see a Bandcamp or YouTube link), and here’s the first song on YouTube: 

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Finally, word from on high is that the fine folks who putting together the Outlandia Festival will announce the line-up for the August 9-10 festival sometime Thursday evening. No doubt you’ll see it blasted all over the socials that night, but I’ll be writing about it the following morning in Lazy-i

Who do you think will be this year’s headliner? After last year’s Lord Huron / Modest Mouse headliners (a festival that also included The Faint, Cat Power, Criteria, The Good Life and Horsegirl, among others), I can’t even imagine what they have up their sleeves — prior to this festival, I had never heard of Lord Huron.

With the Maha Music Festival taking the year off due to financial issues (according to their press release), Outlandia controls the board as the only indie music festival in the Omaha area this year. As it enters year 3, will it maintain its indie focus? We’ll find out Thursday night…

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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 © 2024 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Lazy-i

Live Review: Ritual Device, Cellophane Ceiling, Nightbird…

Category: Blog,Reviews — Tags: , , , , , , — @ 8:11 pm December 27, 2014

Ritual Device at The Waiting Room, Dec. 26, 2014.

Ritual Device at The Waiting Room, Dec. 26, 2014.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

I’m surprised to this day, 20 years after they were really a band, that Ritual Device continues to divide the music community.

On one hand, you have those who think the band not only was the ultimate product of Nebraska during its day in the ’90s, but think Tim Moss and Co. may be the best band that ever emerged from the Good Life State. I was told last night that people had made exoduses to The Waiting Room from as far away as Minneapolis and, of course, Kansas City, where Ritual Device played often back in its heyday. I even traveled down I-29 one summer in the ’90s and saw them tear apart a used record store somewhere on the edge of Westport. Unlike local bands today who seem to play every weekend for reasons I’ll never understand, Ritual Device shows were something of a rarity back then. I can remember the band playing only a few times in Omaha, usually at The Capitol Bar & Grill. So rare were their shows that they became events.

On the other hand, there are those who never “got” Ritual Device, who felt they were a “performance thing” or a gimmick, Tim Moss being little more than a circus geek who instead of biting heads off live chickens showered his crowds with pig ears and other raw meats, a demented circus barker tied up in microphone chord, spitting vitriol and mucus into an adoring crowd that could never get enough of either. I talked to a half-dozen people inside and outside the club last night who planned on leaving after Cellophane Ceiling’s set. Strike that — there were a few who wanted to see “what the fuss was all about,” who could barely remember Ritual Device in their later years but never bothered to see them at The Capitol or wherever they were playing.

I have never been on the fence when it came to the band. Those who malign Moss have their reasons — either they were turned off by the violence of the songs or the crowd that followed them. So be it. But even the most cynical who viewed the band as “an act,” who also have a modicum of interest in punk or metal, have to acknowledge the band’s talent. Strip away Moss’s histrionics and you still have some of the most memorable rhythms and riffs from an era in Nebraska music defined by rhythms and riffs. Mike Saklar was — and is — a top-notch guitarist; Jerry Hug, a genuine groove master, and then there was the preppy-looking guy behind the kit, the secret engine that made the band what it was on stage and on recordings — Eric Ebers — who gets lost in the conversation even though his throbbing drumming is the guidepost to every Ritual Device song.

Anyway… We got there early last night because Teresa didn’t want to stand up for three hours, and we weren’t alone. At 8:15 p.m., an hour and 15 minutes before any band would take the stage, all the tables already were taken by folks who looked older than me, all apparently with the same idea of finding a place to sit down for what would be a long night. Like a bloodhound Teresa found two stools along the ledge 10 feet from the soundboard squeezed behind a table of people that was a mix of biker-looking dudes and their soccer-mom wives. All around us were late-middle-aged couples and overweight guys in 20-year-old concert T-shirts. It didn’t so much seem like a wedding reception as a reunion of retired Hell’s Angels who long ago threw away their leathers.

Nightbird was joined by Pat Dieteman, center, for a handful of Cactus Nerve Thang songs.

Nightbird was joined by Pat Dieteman, center, for a handful of Cactus Nerve Thang songs.

Nightbird didn’t make it on stage until 9:30. By then the entire back end of the club was a mass of boozed up AARP members who clearly were not prepared for what they were about to hear. Nightbird is a stoner-rock band in the Sabbath / Sleep vein, maybe not that plodding but certainly not exactly an uplifting listen. As frontman Lee Meyerpeter ripped into the first song, backed by bassist Jeff Harder and drummer Scott “Zip” Zimmerman I leaned over and yelled into Teresa’s ear, “This one will last 20 minutes.” The set? she asked. No, the song.

And sure enough, it did — 20 minutes of exquisite, plodding, riffage broken into stanzas and brazen guitar solos and Meyerpeter’s raspy, guttural vocals that recalled Kurt Cobain if Cobain could hold a note without shrieking. Nightbird’s debut last July at The Sydney was hit and miss, almost experimental in its take on stoner rock. Last night they sounded like a stadium stone-metal band thanks to The Waiting Room’s far superior sound system and five months’ worth of gigs that honed their sound.

That first 20-minute song was followed by a second, pushed along in the same plodding, stoner pace. And then Meyerpeter welcomed former Cactus Nerve Thang drummer Pat Dieteman to the stage to join the band on some Cactus numbers for what would be a two-thirds reunion. Original CNT bassist Brian Poloncic apparently has hung up his bass for good, refusing to step away even for one night from his current life as a fine artist and author (btw, a large Poloncic print hangs proudly on the wall in Teresa’s home office).

No matter, Harder handled the bass and Dieteman joined in on guitar and vocals for a handful of CNT songs including “High” and “Sunshine” off their infamous Sloth CD recorded in ’93 at Junior’s Hotel in Otho, Iowa, and released on Grass Records. I’d forgotten how many good songs were on that record. The band sounded better than the last time I saw them play, which I think was on a sun-drenched deck outside Sharkey’s for a one-day music festival sometime in the mid-90s.

Meyerpeter is something of a sonic chameleon. I’ve now heard him play in punk, country, heavy-metal, post-punk and now stoner rock bands. He is one of the more versatile and prodigious musicians and songwriters Nebraska has produced in the past 20 years. I was told one of his electric guitars – one he played with Cactus Nerve Thang 20-odd years ago – was being retired after last night’s show, to be displayed in The Reverb Lounge “until they find something better to hang up there” — though I can’t imagine what that would be.

Cellophane Ceiling at The Waiting Room, Dec. 26, 2014.

Cellophane Ceiling at The Waiting Room, Dec. 26, 2014.

Next up was the main attraction for a large part of the audience, the reunion of Cellophane Ceiling. I scoured my memory for the last time I saw the band. During the interview a week or so ago, I mentioned to frontman John Wolf that it was probably at The 49’r and he just shook his head. “We rarely played there,” he said. “You’re probably thinking of Bad Luck Charm.” At one point BLC, a band that also included Meyerpeter, was practically the house band at The 49’r, playing there what seemed like every weekend. If I had seen Cellophane it was probably at the Howard Street Tavern or maybe the Capitol, two other long-lost bars in the annuls of Omaha music history.

I also have no copies of Cellophane recordings. It appears the band pre-dates my interest in Omaha music, and when Wolf and his band took the stage, the only song I recognized was the single “Don’t Play God,” and only because the video on YouTube. But there was a familiar quality to Cellophane’s music that would pop up in Bad Luck Charm and, with the heavier numbers, could be traced as influences to Ritual Device.

What makes Cellophane stand out from the rest of the late-’80s early-’90s punk rock bands is Wolf’s vocals, which have a sort of trucker slur to their delivery, almost a forced, ironic twang as if to say “We’re hicks from Nebraska, you got a problem with that?” It’s a style that would live on in BLC.

Wolf is anything but a hick. He looks, sings and plays exactly as I remember him in BLC. One old Cellophane fan told me his guitar work sounded better than it did back in the day. An ageless precision attached to an ageless rock fury. But maybe not ageless after all. Wolf displayed evidence of his age in the form of his 14-year-old son who joined the band on a half-dozen songs, looking like a well-dressed young punk in his shirt and tie, and more than able to keep up with his old man.

Why Wolf isn’t in a band these days, I do not know. Maybe his life and his family and job keep him too busy to play in bands on the weekends. It’s our loss.

Ritual Device's Moss and Hug center stage, The Waiting Room, Dec. 26, 2014.

Ritual Device’s Moss and Hug center stage, The Waiting Room, Dec. 26, 2014.

Finally, Ritual Device. Tim Moss climbed on stage in an untucked long-sleeved dress shirt, jeans, boots and a ZZ Top-style beard, ready for action. Maybe not ZZ Top. Moss with beard looks more like an R Crumb comic-book hippie, a middle-aged San Francisco Mr. Natural but with shoulder-length hair, neither foreboding nor threatening as he briskly strolled around the stage pulling microphone cords in various directions, grabbing the front stage mic and announcing, “We’re Ritual Device from Omaha, Nebraska” as the band kicked into the first number.

I had pushed my way up toward the front, near stage right, just a dozen steps from what would turn into a pseudo mosh pit and launching pad for Moss’s relentless stage dives that were more like stage lurches, leaning forward onto extended hands that pulled him into and above the crowd while he continued to speak-howl lyrics about serial killers and bizarre sex. Midway through the first melee the older and more timid members of the crowd began peeling off and heading toward the sides or back to their tables with frightened smiles pressed on their faces.

Moss’s stage thing hasn’t changed at all in 20 years. He continuously lurched at the crowd as if begging them to hurt him before he hurts himself… or them. During the second song he pulled out a brown paper grocery sack and began flinging raw pigs ears into the crowd; fans either kept them as souvenirs or threw them back at the stage — all except one Manson-esque looking dude who leaned against center-stage shaking a pig’s ear in his teeth, wagging it at the band.

The rest of the guys looked down at their instruments and smiled while old man Moss continued to get groped in the crowd. Saklar, urban chic in black dress shirt, leaned over his Fender in focused concentration while across the stage was Hug, dressed in a black T-shirt looking like a cross between a fitness instructor and hip Loyola English Lit professor as he shredded his bass. Behind them was the ageless Ebers dominating the sonic landscape with relentless, frenetic yet precise drumming — drumming that, when combined with the riffs and breaks and Moss’s insane mumble-howl, created the tense energy that defines this ageless band.

Ritual Device is indeed the band that time forgot, except of course for Moss, whose crazy beard and shoulder-length Jesus hair has turned him into an angry, crazy grandpa complete with weird, black tiger-stripe tattoos up and down his forearms. Even when he was a clean-shaven lad in the ’90s there was something sinister about his stage presence, a far cry from the person he is in real life.

For those keeping score, the band played all the favorites including “Charlie Jones” and “What You Got.” They did, indeed, sound as good as I remembered them sounding 15 or 20 years ago. And while the frenzy in the middle of the crowd continued until the end, it never got out of hand. There are few modern-day local (or national) bands that bring the level of energy to the performance that Moss does (The closest that comes to mind for sheer weird chaos is probably Worried Mothers).

Reunion shows are precarious things. By their very nature they distort fans’ memories of who the bands were and what they sounded like the last time they played, which may have been decades ago. The risk is that whatever climbs on stage will be a weaker, sloppier and obviously older version of their former selves. That was not the case last night. All the bands did their legacies proud.

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Last minute reminder about tonight’s Good Life show at The Waiting Room. It’ll be butting up against the Huskers playing in the Whatever Bowl, so who knows what kind of crowd will be there. Opening is Oquoa and Big Harp. $13, 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.

Lazy-i

Lazy-i Best of 2014 Comp CD (and giveaway!); Cellophane Ceiling, Ritual Device tonight; Good Life Saturday; The Faint Sunday, Monday…

Category: Blog — Tags: , , , , — @ 12:14 pm December 26, 2014

It's the 20th year for the annual Lazy-i comp. The cover reflects all the past years' artwork.

It’s the 20th year for the annual Lazy-i comp. The cover reflects all the past years’ artwork.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

This year’s Lazy-i Best of… compilation CD marks the 20th year that these collections have been made. The collection is my favorite tracks from 2014 pressed on CDR for friends and family. To commemorate the 20th anniversary, Donovan Beery designed packaging that shows all the cassette and CD artwork used since 1994 (starting with the Alpo cover). In addition, every copy includes a different “1994 Surprise Track,” taken from the original 1994 comp tape.

Here’s the track listing:

1. Avant Gardner – Courtney Barnett

2. Do You – Spoon

3. J Smoov – Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks

4. Sun Kil Moon – Richard Ramirez Died Today of Natural Causes

5. Forgiven/Forgotten – Angel Olsen

6. Maria – The Lupines

7. Mirror of Time – Twin Peaks

8. Archie, Marry Me – Alvvays

9. You Are Now – The Trouble with Templeton

10. Bassically – Tei Shi

11. Money Rain Down – Big Black Delta

12. Lie, Cheat, Steal – Run the Jewels

13. Tarpeian Rock – Protomartyr

14. Evil Voices – The Faint

15. You Can’t Help Me Now – The Both

16. It Falls Apart – Brad Hoshaw & the Seven Deadlies

17. JM – Strand of Oaks

18 – Cruel Sexuality – Le Roux

19 – ’94 Surprise Track

Want a copy? Enter the drawing! I’m making it oh so easy this year. To enter either: 1. Send an email with your mailing address to tim.mcmahan@gmail.com, or 2) Write a comment on one of my Lazy-i related posts in Facebook, or 3, Retweet a Lazy-i tweet.

Hurry, contest deadline is midnight Jan. 6!

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Well, you made it through another year, and as a reward this last weekend of 2014 happens to be one of the best weekends for rock shows.

It starts tonight with the big Cellophane Ceiling / Ritual Device show at The Waiting Room (read all about it here). As of this posting, $10 tickets were still available. If this doesn’t sell out, it’ll be darn close. Opening is Nightbird, who will be playing songs by Cactus Nerve Thang, another legacy band from the early 90s. It all starts at 9 p.m.

While that’s going on, just around the corner at Reverb Lounge Little Brazil headlines a show with Millions of Boys and Dumb Beach. $7, 9 p.m.

Down the street at the Barley Street Tavern Brad Hoshaw and the Seven Deadlies headlines tonight with Matt Whipkey and friends, John Klemmensen and The Party and Matt Cox. $5, 9 p.m.

And down at The Slowdown Satchel Grande holds court with special guest Buck Bowen. $8, 9 p.m.

Saturday night, The Good Life returns to The Waiting Room. This show has gotten very little hype, though it’s one of the bigger shows of the weekend. Joining Tim Kasher and Co. will be Big Harp and Oquoa. Expect another packed house. $13, 9 p.m.

Also Saturday night, Pyrate plays at fabulous O’Leaver’s with Chicago band The Howl. $5, 9:30 p.m.

And Brad Hoshaw opens for Two Drag Club and Civicminded Saturday night at Reverb Lounge. $7, 9 p.m.

Then comes Sunday and the first of two nights with The Faint at The Waiting Room. Sunday night’s show, with openers Sucettes and Ruby Block, is SOLD OUT. Show starts at early at 8 p.m. Tickets are still available for Monday night’s Faint show with openers Ramona and the Slimdudes & Feel Tight. $20, 8 p.m.

Also Sunday night, The Sweatshop Gallery is hosting a rock show with David Kenneth Nance & his band, Nathan Ma and the Rosettes, and Stomach. $5, 9 p.m.

Finally, Josh Hoyer and the Shadowboxers returns to The Slowdown Sunday night with All Young Girls Are Machine Guns. This is a super-early show, starts at 7 p.m. $8.

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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.

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The Reader Interview — The Return: Ritual Device, Cellophane Ceiling and Main Vein Productions…

The cover of this week's issue of The Reader featuring a profile on Ritual Device, Cellophane Ceiling and Main Vein Productions.

The cover of this week’s issue of The Reader featuring a profile on Ritual Device, Cellophane Ceiling and Main Vein Productions.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

That cover story in support of the Dec. 26 Ritual Device / Cellophane Ceiling reunion show at The Waiting Room is now online at TheReader.com (right here).

The story covers the history of both bands as well as the rise and fall of Main Vein Productions — the concert promotion company run by Ritual Device’s Tim Moss and Cellophane Ceiling’s John Wolf.

The story also talks about the Omaha music scene circa the early ’90s when a handful of bands (including the ones mentioned above) attracted national attention thanks to recording and touring outside of the state. It was those bands that set the stage for what would come later in that decade — the rise of Saddle Creek Records’ bands and Nebraska’s notoriety as an indie music Mecca.

Check it out and try to pick up a printed copy. It contains a ton of photos including old Main Vein show posters from back in the day. And get your $10 tickets to the show (while you can) — Dec. 26, 9 p.m. The Waiting Room. Nightbird (also performing Cactus Nerve Thang songs) opens.

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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.

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Nightbird joins Ritual Device/Cellophane Ceiling bill; Denver Dalley’s Broken Bats; Darren Keen mixes…

Category: Blog — Tags: , , — @ 2:00 pm December 16, 2014

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

There was no update yesterday as I was buried writing a cover story for Thursday’s issue of The Reader about Cellophane Ceiling and Ritual Device, who are playing Dec. 26 at The Waiting Room. It’s a Main Vein Production (which is also discussed in the article). Huge show, huge reunion.

If you didn’t already know, Nightbird has been added to this line-up, and I’m told Lee Meyerpeter and his crew will be playing some Cactus Nerve Thang covers (Lee, as you know, was in Cactus) just to make this post-Christmas trip inside the Wayback Machine that much more authentic.

It’s great that we have all these reunion shows happening next week (Neva Dinova is next Tuesday at The Slowdown, for example) because there’s virtually nothing else happening around here (at least until Friday). I mean, holy shit, has there ever been a bigger drought in local news?

The hottest buzz is that Icky Blossoms has finished recording their new record, which is headed for a release on Saddle Creek next year. And Matt Whipkey informs me his new record is in the can, ready for a 2015 release.

And then yesterday Hear Nebraska reported (right here) that Denver Dalley of Desaparecidos, Statistics, Intramural and Two of Cups fame (as well as Har Mar Superstar’s sideman) has formed a new band with Pink Spiders frontman Matt Friction called Broken Bats. What that will sound like is anyone’s guess.

And finally, Darren Keen has chimed in from his new home in Brooklyn, New York, to say that he’s posted a couple new DJ mixes:

This is a worldy / tropical bass / club oriented type mix: https://soundcloud.com/darrenkeen/darren-keen-the-opposite-of-a-cold-snowy-city . This is a retro / synth / vocoder funk mix as my loose “DJ Tango Cash” pseudonym: https://soundcloud.com/darrenkeen/dj-tango-cash-waking-up-marcy

The DJ Tango Cash mix got me through my morning. I’m still trying to catch up with Darren to see what his plan is for conquering The Big Apple…

In case you were wondering, there are no shows going on tonight. Head over to The Barley Street Tavern for the Viva La Vinyl Christmas Party and buy DJ Brad Hoshaw a tall boy…

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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.

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Ritual Device, Cellophane Ceiling reunion show slated for Dec. 26…

Category: Blog — Tags: , , , , — @ 1:43 pm November 3, 2014

Ritual Device circa 1994. The band will reunited Dec. 26 at The Waiting Room along with Cellophane Ceiling. Photo by Mike Malone.

Ritual Device circa 1994. The band will reunite Dec. 26 at The Waiting Room along with Cellophane Ceiling. Photo by Mike Malone.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The secret can now be told, though many of you guessed it already:

Legendary Omaha ’90s punk bands Ritual Device and Cellophane Ceiling are both reuniting for a one-time-only show Dec, 26 at The Lifticket Lounge, er, I mean The Waiting Room. The event is a Main Vein Production. Main Vein was a promotion company run by Ritual Device frontman Tim Moss and Cellophane Ceiling frontman John Wolf back in the ’80s and ’90s. MV brought some classic bands to Omaha, including that famous Nirvana show at the Liftiicket Lounge in 1989.

“I always said if John Wolf put Cellophane back together, I would do it.” Moss said about a Ritual Device reunion.

The line-up for Ritual Device will be Tim Moss on vocals, Jerry Hug on bass, Mike Saklar on guitar and Eric Ebers on drums. The line-up for Cellophane is John Wolf on guitar and vocals and Chris Sterba on bass. Moss says original CC drummer Steve Coleman is unavailable, so I’m not sure who will be handling the sticks.

Is this a big deal? Yeah, for a lot of us, it is. Ritual Device was part of the golden era of Nebraska rock music that influenced the bands that would eventually form Saddle Creek Records. RD was among the first area bands that did extensive touring outside of Nebraska in the early ’90s, along with acts like Frontier Trust, Mercy Rule, Mousetrap and Sideshow.

Here’s how I described Ritual Device way back in ’97:

Ritual Device was a tortured, monolithic punk rock band whose sound had been aptly described as “gutter groove.” Ritual Device made perfect background music for your typical serial killing or perhaps high-speed chase through a bombed-out Beirut neighborhood. The closest comparison? Maybe the Jesus Lizard meets Ministry with a little Nine Inch Nails thrown in (without the synths, of course). It was violent music, scary.

Cellophane Ceiling was a precursor RD. “Cellophane was a bit older,” Moss said. “They bridged the gap between the band generations. They were my influence.”

Cellophane was just as brutal as Ritual Device, but their music was more rooted in traditional heavy rock. Some may remember John Wolf’s follow-up band, Bad Luck Charm. Moss and Wolf would also reunite in 2000 as The Men of Porn.

Check out this Cellophane Ceiling video from 1987 directed by Dickson Lebron.

And below is a video of Ritual Device from 1994, shot at the legendary Capitol Bar and Grill a few days after Tim Moss broke his collar bone. Moss is a bit restrained here, but you get the gist.

Moss said Main Vein has yet to determine who will open the Dec. 26 show, but there will indeed be a third band on the bill. More information to come.

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Tonight at The Waiting Room Conchance headlines with Black Jonny Quest, Kethro and Dojorok. $5, 9 p.m.

Also tonight, Homer’s Music takes over House of Loom. DJ Chris Aponick will spin three new albums in their entirety prior to their release tomorrow — The self-titled album by Clark (Warp Records); Deerhoof’s La Isla Bonita (Polyvinyl) and Arca’s Xen (Mute) — and he’ll be giving away a couple of the records. It’s free and starts at 9:30.

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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.

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Tim Moss reforms Porn for ATP Festival; Ritual Device reunion sounds unlikely…

Category: Blog — Tags: , , , — @ 1:02 pm October 14, 2013

The only content you'll find at pornmusic.com...

The only content you’ll find at pornmusic.com…

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

One of the most influential bands from Omaha’s pre-Saddle Creek Records era was Ritual Device.

Ritual Device was a tortured, monolithic punk rock band from the early ’90s whose sound has been described as “gutter groove;” a sort of combination of Jesus Lizard, Ministry and Nine Inch Nails (but without the synths). Ritual Device on record and on stage was a hyper-kinetic hyper-violent rock band, with frontman/maniac Tim Moss supplying the psychic pain.  Read a brief history of Ritual Device here.

Ritual Device disbanded sometime in the late ’90s when Moss moved to San Francisco where he went on to form Men of Porn (or just Porn). Porn’s music was sludge-rock/stoner rock/depraved genius. Grim and loud and heavy. The band made its way to Omaha in 2000 on a tour that turned out to be a brutal nightmare. You can read the road stories online here.

Over the years, Porn continued to perform in various incarnations, and now is reforming again, this time to play an event in conjunction with the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival in England Nov. 25.

Joining Moss for this version of Porn will be Bill Gould (Faith No More), Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth) and Balázs Pándi (Merzbow). Quite a line-up. Moss said though the personnel has changed, Porn is still based on the same band I saw in 2000 “though the music I’ve been doing lately has shifted some,” he said. “Usually the music is based off of what players I have with me at that time.”

So how did he get Thurston Moore to take part?

“Thurston has played with Porn before,” Moss said. “He sat in with us at an ATP in 2008. He approached me at the festival and said Porn was one of the bands he was really looking forward to seeing. He had our last album. So, I asked if wanted to sit in rather than watch.”

Moss said Porn will be doing a short European tour around the ATP gig, and Moore will play at the ATP and London shows.

So what’s Moss been up to when he isn’t “dabbling in Porn”? He says that he’s the artist manager for Faith No More and tour manager for various other bands. While I had his ear, I asked him about those Ritual Device reunion rumors that have been circling around Omaha lately. Moss said that “There’s been some talk, but I like living in the present and future.

“It’s always fun to relive old memories and conquests,” he added. “I’m happy with what became of that band. (It) helped create what I do today.”

I can’t blame him for not wanting to relive those brutal days of yesterday, but I’d sure love to see him and the band perform “Charlie Jones” again…

Here’s some Ritual Device from the old Capital Bar & Grill circa 1994…

And here’s some Men of Porn at New Haven, circa 2008.

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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.

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