You know him from the heavy stuff, like Leafblower, New Lungs and Peace of Shit. Well, he’s taken off the black T-shirt and strapped on a fake Nudie suit. And somewhere along the way picked up a twang. Maybe it came with the name change.

I’m talking about Craig Fort and his new project (and persona) that he revealed yesterday. It goes by the name of Lightning Stills.

“Over the last couple months I’ve stepped out of my comfort zone and started a new character project,” Fort explained. The product is Lightning Stills Sings His Songs, a 5-song EP that should be out shortly. The first single, “It’s All a Warsh,” dropped on Bandcamp yesterday and features guitarist Mike Friedman, maybe the best journeyman guitarist in the city. Friedman has worked with Simon Joyner, Little Brazil and Lupines, to name just three.

Also in on the project are Chris Kelly (Back When/Bovinae) on bass and Darren Broderick on drums. All the tracks were recorded remotely, then mixed and mastered by studio engineer/genius Ian Aeillo. The music is pure Outlaw C&W with a shot and a beer.

“Waylon has been a hero of mine since my dad and grandpa introduced me to him at a young age,” Fort said.

Expect a full immersion into Lightning Stills on stage once this friggin’ pandemic is behind us. Fort has all the props to make any venue feel like Nashville. And he says he’s already halfway through recording his next single to be released after the EP, which will be a duet with Junkyard Dan (Danny Maxwell). Look, if you don’t already own a cowboy hat, might be time to get you one….

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Here’s a dire message to end on…

Stephen Malkmus cancelled his tour yesterday, including the April 10, 2021 show at The Waiting Room. One Percent Productions posted the following message from Malkmus’ management:

“While things seem to be moving in the right direction with vaccines, etc., it appears unlikely that tours will be able to resume safely by next Spring. Unfortunately, the shows scheduled for March and April are cancelled. Refunds will be available point of purchase. Rest assured that Stephen will be back on the road in 2022, hopefully with even newer music!”

Who knows for sure when other tours will be scheduled, but I was hoping some artists would be on the road toward the summer of 2021, and I’m still hopeful. God help us (and the live music industry) if we have to wait until 2022…

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily (if there’s news) 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 © 2020 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Yesterday Aaron Gum, half of the duo Glow in the Dark along with Lawrence Deal, sent the following new video for the track “Phantasy.”

“‘Phantasy’ was filmed by the two of us in the early days of the pandemic,” Gum said. “We had to get creative with operating the camera and performing multiple puppets at the same time.”

He said COVID has hampered the release of the next GITD album release. The duo were on track for an album release show in October “with us carefully working on tightening up tracks throughout spring and summer until Lawrence became sick and tested positive for COVID-19,” Gum said. “We lost most of August and pulled out of the Bemis outdoor concert event ‘LOW END on the Bricks’ for safety. We had been working together in my home studio just two days before he started showing symptoms… so I self quarantined for a few weeks as he was recovering.”

In addition, Facebook “unpublished” GOTD’s band page for no apparent reason, and no way to get it back.

“Obviously everybody is concerned by COVID and bands are now becoming more aware of how easily Facebook can delete their content,” Gum said. “We have faced both in the past month.”

That said, Glow in the Dark still plans to finish the album this fall, but there’s no ETA on its release. Until then, check out the new video:.

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In something-to-look-forward-to news, today Stephen Malkmus announced rescheduled tour dates in support of Traditional Techniques (2020, Matador), and Omaha is on the list — April 10, 2021, at The Waiting Room. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that masks will have become a thing of the past by then (but I’m doubtful).

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily (if there’s news) 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 © 2020 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

So here’s the plan:

Start out early tonight with beers at House of Loom, where the guys who run The Antiquarium Record Store will be spinning sides from 5 until 8. Very chill.

Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, Mirror Traffic (Matador, 2011)

After that, head over to The Slowdown for Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks. The band’s new album, Mirror Traffic, was one of my favorites last year. In addition, a couple weeks ago I got my first release from the Matador Records “Singles Going Home Alone” 45-inch record club. The debut is SM&tJ doing a sweet cover of L.A. Guns’ “Wheels of Fire.” The flipside is a L.A. Guns’ cover of “Gorgeous Georgie” from Mirror Traffic. If you’re not in the club, you can join for $45 for a year’s subscription (six singles). Which brings up this question (again): WHEN WILL SADDLE CREEK START ITS OWN SINGLES CLUB? Get on it, folks.

Anyway… Opening tonight’s show is Nurses. The Dead Oceans artist just got off the road with Mountain Goats. You can check out their latest video on vimeo, here:  $18, 9 p.m. See you there.

After Malkmus and Co. wrap things up, get your nightcap at O’Leaver’s, where Lightning Bug is playing with Bear Stories, Lindsay Donovan and Dojorock. $5, 9:30 p.m.

Also tonight, Underwater Dream Machine and Ragged Company are playing at The Barley Street Tavern with The Fucking Doneofits and Tenderness Wilderness. $5, 9 p.m.

Tomorrow night’s much less hectic.

Davey & the Dicks are headlining a show at The Brothers with Dirty Talker and The Lupines. I don’t know who/what this Davey/Dicks is. Are they associated with the original Dicks hardcore punk band? That Davy didn’t have an “e” in his name. Anyway, I can tell you that The Lupines features John Ziegler (Brimstone Howl), Mike Friedman, Mike Tulis and Javid Dabestani. Here’s a review of their debut show at O’Leaver’s last November. 9 p.m., $5.

Also Saturday night, The Filter Kings return to The Sydney in Benson with School of Arms, $7, 9 p.m.

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The new full length by Digital Leather, Modern Problems, is just beginning to get the raves it deserves, like this review from Germany’s Musik Magazin Medienkonverter. I can’t read German, so I thought I’d drop the review into Yahoo’s old Babel Fish translator. Here’s what I got on the other side:

The output of Digitally Leather alias Shawn Foree is enormous – published alone 2011 a EP, a single and tape, follow now already a new album: Decaying of Problem is produced the successor of the 2009 published LP Warmly Bread ago and contrary to its predecessor still more consistently, taken up with a tape recorder in Foree’s bedroom, coly-ordinated to only few takes. 

You get the drift. Babel Fish don’t translate so well. Regardless, the review is still better than anything on Pitchfork.

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Finally, you may have noticed that the Bad Speler remix of Whitney’s “How Will I Know?” posted on Lazy-i Tuesday became “unavailable.” Darren Keen, the bad boy behind Bad Speler, said he received notification from Soundcloud telling him that the track “infringes on someone else’s copyright,” and hence, they pulled it from their site. That said, you can still download Darren’s remix at the Illegal Art website, where they’ve been posting a new Bad Speler remix on a weekly basis. Check it out (just don’t tell Whitney’s people…).

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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 © 2012 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.