St, Vincent at Slowdown Jr., June 3, 2009. She plays at the Holland Center Saturday.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

It’s gonna be another one of those ice-cold weekends, the kind where it takes every bit of your dying will to drag yourself out of your house/apartment, get into a frozen car and drive somewhere…. especially when it’s so much easier to sit at home all warm and coze and binge-watch The Great British Baking Show on Netflix…

Still… here are some good reasons to put on your leather parka, get out and go…

Tonight at fabulous O’Leaver’s it’s a big four-band bill headlined by Chicago rockers Two Houses. Supporting them is a slew of local acts, top of which is the musically infectious Uh-Oh. With White Wolf T-Shirt and Mad Dog + The 20/20s. $5, 10 p.m.

Saturday night Des Moines’ Karen Meat returns to O’Leavers. She came through here about the same time last year. From the review of that show:

Front woman Karen Meat a.k.a. Arin Eaton, filled the void with her girlish growl on golden garage-rock tunes that got me singing along by the third time through the chorus. Check out the recordings.

With Hussies, Dubb Nubb and Detachable Limbs. $5, 10 p.m.

Also Saturday night, The Brothers is hosting a rock show with Portland act Sunbathe. Razors and headliner Oquoa fill out the bill. $5, 10 p.m. This one’s sneaky good!

And then you have St. Vincent at The Holland. I’ve seen her play here four times, including back when she was basically fronting a rock band. Those early shows (The Waiting Room, Slowdown Jr.) were the best; the more recent ones were too stiff and choreographed (i.e., boring). Add to that the fact that this is happening at Holland Center and, well, that venue isn’t the best place to see a rock show — the pristine, sterile environment kind of sucks the life out of the audience. Maybe that’s why tickets are still available. $32-$42; 8 p.m.

Sunday afternoon, Hi-Fi House is hosting a free listening party for the new Clarence Tilton/Monday Mourners split LP. I’ve listened to a preview copy of the record (a number of times) and can tell you it’s worth your time. 4 p.m.

And finally, over at Film Streams Sunday night, it’s a special screening of Urgh! A Music War. It was way back in August 2005 that myself and Mike Tulis hosted a screening of this film at O’Leaver’s. It was actually my bootleg DVD copy of the full-length version of the movie. You can read about that event (and what the movie’s all about) online right here.

From my review of that night and that screening:

The turnout was good (over 50?), and it was fun to see which bands got the biggest reaction. I think The Cramps won, followed by Gang of Four, Devo and 999 (There were actually people singing along to “Homicide”).

I have no doubt the turnout will be even better when Film Streams downtown screens Urgh! A Music War Sunday night at 7 p.m. If you haven’t seen this film, you should go. Twenty-five years after it was made Urgh! stands as a valuable document of ’80s underground music.

And that’s all I got for this weekend. If I missed your show, put it in the comments section. Try to stay warm and have a great weekend.

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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 © 2018 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

St. Vincent at Sokol Auditorium, April 1, 2014.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Annie Clark looked like a kabuki toy standing center stage in her pretty outfit, a field of red rose petals covered the front across and down her skirt, her face painted / powdered white, cheeks blushed with rouge, her hair bleached and punk, a porcelain anime doll with big round eyes, a beautiful painting incomplete until the tech walked out and handed her a black electric guitar.

Annie Clark, a.k.a. St. Vincent, her voice thin and raspy, stared straight forward while she sang. When she wasn’t plucking out an electronic melody on her ax, she moved and bent and contorted her arms like a pantomime robot, doing Shields and Yarnell (look it up) with her fellow guitarist / keyboardist / vocalist. If Clark learned anything from touring with David Byrne it’s how to “dance” like an alien life form trying to communicate through arm gestures and hand signals. I don’t remember such theatrics the last time she came through town, so I have no choice but to blame Byrne who made a career out of his geek spastic dance motions throughout his time as a Talking Head.

I like it when Byrne does it; it seemed to make sense with his music. I don’t mind it when Clark does it, either, though her actions felt disconnected to what she was singing, as if she were trying to force a mechanical element onto something meant to be purely organic. The same thing can be said about her music. While I like the sterile beats, the oddly archaic rhythm-cut instrumentation (contrasted by a sonic blanket of synths), too often her melodies were reduced to elevating vocal tones crawling up and down a pentatonic scale.

All the while, Annie Clark was hatchet lit from below or shadowed by blazing-white LED panels that burned the retinas of a packed house who stood mesmerized more than moved by her music.

Between song sections, Clark performed short, pre-written monologues recited dryly and rehearsed. She told stories of how she and us weren’t so different. In fact, we were the same, as evidenced by her shared memories of lighting fires with a magnifying glass, feeling ill after telling a lie, admitting that her (our) friends don’t know us as well as they think they do.

I’m sure turning her concert into prolonged musical theater sounded like a good idea during tour rehearsals. The whole are-we-not-human? shtick worked well for Devo because it was weird and different and their matching jumpsuits made you want to believe it. Costumes are everything. I’d like to tell you that it was more interesting than previous St. Vincent shows, but it wasn’t. It looked and felt forced and uncomfortable, purposely rigid and thoroughly counter to the loose-and-rough spontaneity of rock. Instead, it was more of an attempt at art rock, but without the limitlessness of a Laurie Anderson.

Worst of all, after about a half hour, it became boring.

I fear that the bigger Clark/Vincent gets, the more disconnected she’ll become with her audience. I liked her better when she spontaneously paced around stage with her guitar and blazed the fretboard with the confidence of Prince. We saw a glimpse of the old Annie during the encore. After a quick wardrobe change, Clark reappeared alone on top of a tower of boxes and performed a sweet version of “Strange Mercy” off the 2011 album of the same name. For the first time that evening, her guitar sounded like a guitar, and her voice sounded oh so human.

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Side notes…

If you’re looking for a set list for (and a different perspective of) last night’s show, Kevin Coffey has both at the OWH website, here.

With this show and last Saturday’s Neutral Milk Hotel show, I can’t remember Sokol Auditorium sounding better, in fact sounding better then I ever thought it could. I’ve seen some boomy shows at the ol’ gymnasium/dance hall (Regina Spektor comes to mind). Today’s audio technology can make any room sound awesome. Sokol has always been an alternative for shows too big for Slowdown. Now it no longer seems like a compromise. Conor, The Faint and Manchester Orchestra are all booked at Sokol for upcoming shows. Get your tix while you can.

I’ve also figured out how to park at sold-out Sokol shows — just put it on 16th St. and walk down the hill. When the show’s over, it’s a straight shot back to downtown.

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There’s another in this week-long string of amazing show going on tonight.

Warpaint plays at The Waiting Room. The band’s new self-titled album, released on Rough Trade, was produced by Flood (PJ Harvey, U2, New Order) and is one of my favorites this year (I like it a lot more than the new St. Vincent record). And get this: Digital Leather is opening. $17, 9 p.m. See you there.

Also tonight, And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead plays at The Slowdown. They’ll be performing Source Tags and Codes. La Femme opens. $20, 8 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.

St. Vincent at The Slowdown back in May 2012. She plays tonight at Sokol Auditorium.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Tonight’s St. Vincent Show at Sokol Auditorium will be the fifth time I’ve seen Annie Clark and her band perform in Omaha. She’s gone from doing small, sparsely attended shows at The Waiting Room (in 2007) to sold-out Slowdown big room gigs (in 2012) to now the famous cow barn on 13th St.

I’ve always said she had the potential to be “the next PJ Harvey.” With this show — and her latest album — you could argue she’s exceeded PJ. I say that knowing that tonight’s show has yet to sell out; I have no idea if PJ could sell out Sokol Aud (though I’m skeptical).

I like the new self-titled record. Its brittle, sometimes sterile beats and compositions sound modern without losing (too many) elements that make the songs swing. Sure, at times it sounds like plastic robot music and can become somewhat static, but Clark pulls in earthy elements that help ground the songs, including horns and her own gossamer vocals.

What you wouldn’t know if you’ve only heard her records is that Clark is a guitar virtuoso, a real ax grinder that can shred with the best of them. That’s lost amidst all the electronics and effects on the album that make her guitar sound like a buzzing synth. Wait ’til you see her play guitar on stage.

Opening is Noveller a.k.a. Sarah Lipstate. Her instrumental music (mostly guitar) has been called “mind-wrecking noise.”

Like I said, this one is still not sold out, and is a steal at $20. Show starts at 8 p.m.

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Speaking of shows, Harrah’s has announced the Stir Concert Cove line-up for this summer and it’s right in line with shlock slated for this year’s Memorial Park concert (Sugar Ray, Uncle Kracker, etc.).

In Harrah’s defense, the casino doesn’t program its concert series with indie music fans in mind, obviously. But with their facilities and the size of their budget, they could get some real hum-dinger acts instead of Pat Benetar (who played at Memorial Park for free last year), Stain’d, Collective Soul, Alice in friggin’ Chains, etc. Willie Nelson is the biggest name on the sheet *yawn*. The full line-up is here. Is this the kind of music gamblers like to listen to when they’re counting their chips? I guess so. The only show on the slate that holds a modicum of interest is Fitz and the Tantrums, but even that’s a stretch for >$20 ticket price.

Stir’s announcement would appear to leave the field wide open for Maha to book an impressive concert this summer. Expect an announcement in the near future…

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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 Notwist doing the oldest cliche in the books as far as band photos go. Get off the tracks, you knuckleheads.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

A look back at St. Vincent’s performances in Omaha as the setting for last Monday night’s sold out show at The Slowdown is fodder for this week’s column in The Reader, which you can read it online here at thereader.com. Annie Clark, St. Vincent’s frontwoman, is bucking the one-hit-wonder trend that plagues today’s indie scene, where bands make a big splash with one record and then spend the rest of their careers frantically waving their arms while bobbing up and down in the vast sea of talent that makes up today’s music industry. I guess it helps to be unbelievably talented. And gorgeous. And talented. So is she the next PJ Harvey? Read on…

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Trey Lalley, everyone’s favorite bar owner and proprietor of The Brothers Lounge, sent a heads up about the big Rebates reunion show next Saturday night (May 26) at Brothers. The band is considered by some to be Omaha’s first punk band, whose members included Dave “Stinky LePew” Wees, who would go on to become a member of Buck Naked and the Bare Bottom Boys. Stinky, who now lives in S.F., is headed back home where he’ll join fellow Rebates Steve Warsocki and Tim Drelicharz (later of The Click) for the Brothers gig, which is a warmup for a show the following day (May 27) at The Joyo Theater in Lincoln with Pogrom/Ex-Machina, The Spastic Apes, Sacred Cows, Informed Dissent, Lon’s Garden and Battle Ship Gray, according to Chris Aponick’s report in this week’s issue of The Reader (right here). Joining The Rebates at Saturday’s Brothers gig is Bullet Proof Hearts and The Bob Garfield Experience. It is, as they say, kind of a big deal. More info here.

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Matt Whipkey also sends a head’s up that The Whipkey Three’s new album, Two Truths, is streaming for free right here on Soundcloud. Check it out.

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The Love Drunk Tour 2012 continues as, according to the schedule, the band is in Knoxville, TN, today filming that ever-elusive band that goes by the name TBA. Regardless, check out their latest video from the tour (for “Somebody” by Jukebox the Ghost) and get a status update right here.

Tonight at The Waiting Room it’s Quintron and Miss Pussycat. According to good ol’ Wikipedia:

Quintron is a multi-instrumental one-man-band. During performances, Quintron utilizes a custom-made Hammond organ/Fender Rhodes synthesizer combo, which he has had custom outfitted to resemble the body of a car, complete with working headlights and a Louisiana license plate which reads “Quintron.” Quintron is often accompanied by The Drum Buddy, a rotating, light-activated analog synthesizer, one of many which he has created and manufactured himself. Quintron is regularly accompanied by his wife Miss Pussycat, who sings backup and plays maracas.

Sounds like quite a spectacle. Opening is Vickers and the always amazing Solid Goldberg, who by himself is worth the  $10 ticket price. Starts at 9 p.m.

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Tomorrow: Big news about Hear Nebraska. Bring your pocketbooks and/or wallets.

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by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Last night’s sold out St. Vincent show at Slowdown was spectacular. Show of the year? It is so far. Look for a full review (as part of this week’s column) in The Reader, which will be online at thereader.com tomorrow. Until then, below are a handful of photos taken from my usual perch just off stage left. I fear more people are beginning to discover my secret standing spot. Please, KEEP IT TO YOURSELF.

Not mentioned in the column is show opener Shearwater. This band is a long way from the original that was co-founded by Okkervil River’s Will Sheff. That band was a quiet, introspective indie folk act. Sheff no longer is with Shearwater, and the band on stage last night was anything but quiet. They had a big indie-rock sound that I guess you’d expect from a Sub Pop band (with Americana roots). Nice stuff, though ultimately forgettable in this environment. And a strange pairing for a brash New Wave-esque 4AD band like St. Vincent. I’m sure they had their reasons.

Shearwater opens at The Slowdown, May 14, 2012.

St. Vincent at The Slowdown, May 14, 2012.

St. Vincent at The Slowdown, May 14, 2012.

Moments after her stage dive, at The Slowdown May 14, 2012.

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There are no shows happening tonight (that I know of), so why not stop down to the Saddle Creek Shop for a listening party featuring Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot? It’s part of the store’s ongoing Record Club @ Shop promotion, where fans get together, listen and talk about a classic album. The needle drips at 7, followed by robust discussion. BTW, it’s free, and a good chance to pick up some new vinyl releases.

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A reminder to all you Omaha peeps, don’t forget to vote…

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