By Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Conor Oberst’s first record label, Saddle Creek Records, yesterday announced that it’s releasing a digital-only “Deluxe Edition” of The Faint’s 2014 album Doom Abuse. This edition includes tracks from the “Evil Voices” 12-inch which have never been available digitally. If you go to the Saddle Creek page, you’ll see the track listings organized as Disc One and Disc Two, which makes it sound like it’ll be available as a Compact Disc, but no option for ordering a CD is available. No such organization at the Bandcamp page… Would people want a CD version of this Deluxe edition? Probably…

BTW, The Faint have been named in the line-up for this year’s Outlandia Festival, Aug. 9.

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Speaking of electronic music, last week TIT — the dynamic duo of Shawn Foree and Bobby Hussy — released their long-awaited debut album, 10 years in the making. You may know Foree as the mastermind behind punk project Digital Leather. Hussy is the proprietor of No Coast Records and member of the band Wristwatch. TIT first emerged with a four-song EP back in 2013, released by Volar/FDH. 

The 11-song collection includes the track “MGBF,” with lead vocals by Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst reminiscent of this Digital Ash/Digital Urn days.  Check out the full album at the TIT Bandcamp page. 

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Tonight at The Sydney in Benson, Nashville indie-folk singer songwriter Bats – a.k.a. Jess Awh – headlines a three-act show that also features solo sets by Joe Champion (Uh-Oh) and Mitch Jordan. 8 p.m. $10. 

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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.

The art of Mari Dailey opens at Ming Toy Gallery tonight as part of Benson First Friday.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Happy Groundhog Day. Our weekend music calendar is like very much like the movie Groundhog Day, in that every year around this time there are no touring indie bands coming through town. And this year is no exception.

That said, it’ll be unseasonably warm this weekend, including tonight, which is Benson First Friday (#BFF) – when the galleries and businesses up and down Maple Street feature art by our talented local artists. If you’re out and about, drop in at Ming Toy Gallery, 6066 Maple Street (right next to Legends Comics) and check out the opening reception for Mari Dailey. The evening will also feature spoken word performances by four poets including Todd (The Toddfather) Robinson starting at 7 p.m. And it’s also our one-year anniversary at this space, so… cake! The opening runs from 6 to 9 p.m. See you there!

Today also is Bandcamp Friday. That means proceeds from all purchases made today go directly to the artists, as Bandcamp doesn’t take a cut on purchases made today (and in many cases, neither do participating record labels). So go to Bandcamp and support musicians!

Among them, TIT. I’ve been wondering what Digital Leather’s Shawn Foree has been up to lately, and now we know. TIT is the project by Foree and Bobby Hussy (The Hussy, Wristwatch). Today they announced their debut, out April 5 on No Coast Records. According to the Bandcamp page, this one is 10 years in the making and includes a special guest appearance from Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes) handling lead vocals on one track. Preorder the album today to pass along those Bandcamp bucks.

While you’re at it, might as well preorder the self-titled debut by by David Nance and Mowed Sound, which comes out Feb. 9 on Jack White’s Third Man Records. 

Show-wise, tomorrow night Mike Saklar’s band The Sun-Less Trio plays at fabulous O’Leaver’s. It’s part of a three-band bill that also includes mysterious headliner The Radical Sabbatical. White Wolf T-Shirt opens the show at 9 p.m. And guess what? It’s free.

Also Saturday night, Des Moines alt-folk-rock band The Nadas is playing at The Waiting Room. To their credit, the band has been coming through Omaha literally for decades. They were named among The Best College Bands You’ve Never Heard of by Playboy in 2001, or “the Creed era” as it’s known in the alternative rock world. Emma Butterworth (no doubt a relation to Nadas’ frontman Mike Butterworth) opens the show at 8 p.m. $30. 

That’s all I got. If I missed your show, put it in the comments section. 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 © 2024 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

It’s been awhile since I hyped a show, and tonight we have two.

TIT, self-titled (FDH Records, 2014)

Top of my list is TIT at O’Leaver’s. TIT is Shawn Foree of Digital Leather and Bobby Hussy of The Hussy. The duo released its debut on FDH Records late last year. The 4-song EP features Bobby on lead vocals for two tracks, Shawn on lead vocals on one song, and a nearly 9-minute instrumental. Keynote soundwise are the severe, tonal synths and the atonal, robotic vocals, all of which give a nod to electro pioneers like Gary Numan, Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream, all the usual digital suspects. Just how TIT will be configured tonight, I do not know. Shawn and Bobby behind duo keyboards with guitars slung ’round their necks? Will there be added players? Go to O’Leaver’s tonight and find out.

Opening is Omaha apocalypse punkers Worried Mothers. Violent. Controversial. Subversively catchy (Primo track off 2013’s Tape, “Gray Corpse Banner,” can get any tired old sagging ass shaking). No two Worried Mothers shows are alike. If you go tonight, you very well might find yourself getting groped by a large, naked, sweaty man.  If that weren’t enough of a sell, Nate Ma and the Rosettes also open. $5, 9:30 p.m.

Meanwhile, down at The Slowdown, Cold War Kids headlines. The band is out supporting last year’s Hold My Home (Downtown Records) a very mainstream, commercially targeted album, which probably explains their popularity. Slightly more interesting is NYC youngster Elliot Moss, who opens the show. His style of electronic sounds like upbeat Washed Out. $25, 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 © 2015 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Shawn Foree of Digital Leather is at it again. After releasing a split LP with The Hussy earlier this year on FDH Records, Foree and Bobby Hussy spent a week together to write and record a side project called TIT, whose debut dropped today, again on FDH.

“This collaboration is a perfect mesh of pop sensibility, dark gloomy undertones, and experimentation that you would expect from this team,” says the press release. “The 4-song EP features Bobby on lead vocals for two tracks, Shawn on lead vocals on one song, and a nearly 9-minute instrumental.”

The LP is limited to 666 copies — 166 on Yellow vinyl / 500 Black vinyl. I ordered my copy from the label months ago and still haven’t received it, though I’m sure it’ll show up in my mail box any day now (*looks at watch, stares longingly at wall calendar*). Until then, I’ll just have to listen to it streamed version below from the TIT Bandcamp page, where you can buy a download or order the vinyl.  So when is TIT going to make its Omaha debut?

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I’m out of the loop when it comes to these Reptar guys, but I’m sure someone told me that one of them moved to Omaha. Well it probably wasn’t the one who’s in Semicircle, who today dropped their new LP, Blown Breeze, Grown Grass, and We are Part of the Earth (self release). The Reptar members in Semicircle are Andrew McFarland and Ryan Engelberger. Either name ring a bell? Not with me, either. Anyway, Noisy is streaming the whole album here. And you can check out one of the tracks below:

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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.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

One big long yawn this week musicwise.

In the news, Shawn Foree of Digital Leather is teaming up once again with Bobby Hussy of The Hussy to form a new project called TIT. The duo’s debut 12-inch is coming soon on Volar and FDH Records. Here’s hoping it’s not a flop (Get it?). You can follow TIT’s latest news on their Facebook page.

Like I said, this isn’t Foree’s and Hussy’s first team effort. They just released a split 12-inch (as DL / The Hussy) on Southpaw that is must-hear for any discerning synth-pop fan. The DL side is downright… romantic, a kind of/sort of collection of twisted love songs that shines a light on Foree the Balladeer. This is the most serene DL recording I’ve heard (I haven’t heard them all), and it still rocks. I wonder if Foree will ever perform this material live?

The Hussy side is a riot, and includes a cover of Digital Leather song “Studs in Love” that’s playful compared to DL’s original, quirky version (that appears on Blow Machine) and the gritty, brutal, desperate recent live DL performances of the song that could have been used in the soundtrack to an uncut version of Al Pacino’s “Cruising.” When Foree sings it these days, you believe him.

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The Sydney tonight is hosting New Jersey indie band Tawny Peaks along with Jersey roots/garage rockers Pinegrove. MushMouth and The Boy and His Wolves also are on the bill $5, 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.