by Tim McMahan,  Lazy-i.com

I admit I wasn’t that aware of Cincinnati band WHY? before last night’s show at Slowdown was announced a few months ago. WHY?’s publicist had reached out asking for coverage and I offered a Ten Questions survey, which frontman Yoni Wolf masterfully filled out. For the write-up, I listened to WHY? for the first time.

Their bio, including their Wiki page, suggested WHY? was a hip-hop project, but there was very little rapping on recent release, The Well I Fell Into, the band’s eighth studio album, produced by Brian Joseph (who has worked in the past with Sufjan Stevens and Bon Iver). The record vacillates between dour heartbreak songs and more upbeat keyboard-driven bouncers, and rewards repeated listens.

Playing as a four-piece, WHY? gave new life to the album last night, providing a more lively interpretation. Wolf’s nasal vocals had a similar hang-dog style as Silver Jew’s Dave Berman or Magnetic Fields’ Stephin Merritt (and when combined with guitarist Mol Sullivan’s harmonies, even recalled Timbuk 3’s acoustic moments). The band, filled out by Josiah Wolf on drums and Doug McDiarmid on keyboards and bass, fell into a solid, relaxed groove.

After about an hour, WHY? left the stage but returned for a three-song encore performed standing in front of a single microphone, where Yoni finally got a chance to strut his rhyming skills, performing “Early Whitney” off 2003’s Oaklandazulasylum, “Fatalist Palmistry” from 2008’s Alopecia and “Paper Hearts,” off 2012’s Mumps, Etc., while a hand-clapping crowd of around 75 looked on with glee.

Opener, Chicago’s NNAMDÏ performed solo backed by his laptop, singing with an auto-tune pedal Travis Scott-style. A handful of his fans stood in front of the stage and sang along to every word. The set ascended to the next level when he busted out an electric guitar and riffed over the tracks.

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It’s a trip back to ’78 tonight at The Admiral Theater as Descendents headline with support from Buzzcocks. Descendents’ current line-up is Bill Stevenson, drums, Karl Alvarez, bass; Stephen Egerton, guitar, and Milo Aukerman, vocals. While Steve Diggle is the only remaining original member of Buzzcocks playing tonight. Bay-area punk band Grumpster kicks things off at 7:30 p.m. $37-$75.

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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

A few notes to pass along from the in-box (and other places)…

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In addition to releasing a new album with his band Cursive, Tim Kasher has a new feature-length horror film about to make the festival rounds called Who’s Watching. 

“Who’s Watching is a story I first conceived way back in 2010, as I had yet to see a movie approach the stalker trope from this particular angle,” Kasher said in an article in horror film blog Bloody Disgusting. “After passing the script around to little interest, I set it aside before returning to it around 2018, realizing that STILL no one had told this story in such a fashion. A few bumpy years followed (as well as a pandemic) but we eventually got it shot in late summer of 2023, in and around Omaha, Nebraska where I was born and raised.”

The film was written and directed by Kasher, who also composed the film’s music. While it doesn’t have a release date, Who’s Watching will be shown at Beyond Fest and the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival. Can a world premiere at Film Streams be far behind?

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Has Saddle Creek Records’ high-flying act Indigo De Souza left our hometown label? In a surprise move last week (to me, anyway) De Souza released her new EP, Wholesome Evil Fantasy, via Loma Vista Recordings. If you go to the Loma Vista website you’ll find plenty of Indigo De Souza content. However, click to Indigo’s personal website and she still lists Saddle Creek as her label contact. Hmm?

The 3-song electro-pop auto-tuner-driven EP is a departure from the usual indie-rock heard on De Souza’s past Saddle Creek releases. Is this a one-off experiment or a permanent change of pace (and change of label) for one of Saddle Creek’s most popular artists?

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Post-Omaha singer/songwriter Anna McClellan announced last week via Terrorbird PR that her new album, Electric Bouquet, will be released Oct. 25 via Father/Daughter Records.

Co-produced with long-time collaborator Ryan McKeever and ARC Studios engineer Adam Roberts, the album was recorded both in Baltimore and Omaha. “While writing the album, Anna attended trade school, apprenticing to become an electrician to escape the service industry grind and secure a foundational career alongside music. Eager to break free from Omaha, she decided to take her newfound electrical skills to pursue a career in the film industry in Los Angeles, CA where she’s now based,” reads the one-sheet.

The 11-track LP includes a send-off of sorts to her hometown — “the grungy “Omaha” sees McClellan delving into her complex relationship with her hometown, navigating between identity, sense of place, and self-groundedness: ‘Wilting til I rot / Is it me or is it Omaha?’”

Check out the video for the first single, “Endlessly,” released Sept. 10…

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Tonight at Slowdown Cinci band WHY? headlines on the frontroom stage. Check out the Ten Questions survey taken by frontman Yoni Wolf before you head down to the show. Joining them is Chicago multiple instrumentalist/songwriter NNAMDÏ (Secretly Canadian Records). $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 © 2024 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan,  Lazy-i.com

When the project first emerged in the mid-2000s, WHY? was classified as an “alternative hip-hop” band fronted by Cincinnati rapper/singer Yoni Wolf. And there certainly was plenty of rap to go around on their 2008 breakthrough album Alopecia (Joyful Noise Records).

And while there’s very little rap to be heard on WHY?’s latest, The Well I Fell Into (2024, Waterlines), the songs’ rhyme and meter often sound like sung rap lyrics, with their tumble-on lines that could have been spoken over a thick beat instead of sung atop the often dense, bouncing arrangements (produced by Brian Joseph of Sufjan Stevens/Bon Iver fame). 

In some ways, WHY? has evolved along a similar path as Beck, whose early nonsense lyrics left people scratching their heads at their meaning, which sometimes happens with these lyrics, though the album’s overshadowing theme involves moving through life with a broken heart, or as the one-sheet explains: “The new LP is an autopsy of heartbreak as it charts the ups and downs of a devastating breakup while trading bitterness for healing.”

While some tracks are slow-burn pain anthems (the forlorn “Marigold,” the downcast “Jump”), the album’s center pieces consist of more upbeat slow-burn pain anthems. At their best (“Atreyu,” “The Letters, Etc.”), the songwriting recalls Magnetic Fields or even Sufjan.

In addition to usual bandmates Josiah Wolf, Doug McDiarmid and Andrew Broder, that album includes collaborations with indie up-and-comers Ada Lea, Gia Margaret, Finom’s Macie Stewart, as well as Lala Lala’s Lillie West and Serengeti. 

In support of the Sept. 24 headlining show at Slowdown, we caught up with WHY?, who agreed to take the infamous Ten Questions survey. Here are the answers (presumably provided by Yoni himself):

1. What is your favorite album?

The Range of Light Wilderness s/t.

2. What is your least favorite song?

Some kind of loud white blues rock guitar shit that feels like it should accompany a commercial for Fireball or Jack Daniel’s. 

3. What do you enjoy most about being in a band?

Sitting in a van listening to audiobooks. 

4. What do you hate about being in a band?

Sitting in a van after my AirPods die.

5. What is your favorite substance (legal or illegal)?

Spring water.

6. In what city or town do you love to perform (and why)?

Omaha of course because it is objectively the greatest city in the world. 

7. What city or town did you have your worst gig (and why)?

Small town in Slovenia called Murska Sobota. We played for about 10 teenage boys at a tiny rec center, or maybe a halfway house with grease-stained walls. They were making fun of us the whole time and there was a threatening air about the place. Runner up would be the time we played a Quiznos in a student center in Michigan. 

8. Are you able to support yourself through your music? If so, how long did it take to get there; if not, how do you pay your bills?

Yes, I am. It only took a few years to be able to do this but I am very frugal and lived off of cans of beans for the first decade. 

9. What one profession other than music would you like to attempt; what one profession would you absolutely hate to do?

I think I’d like being a therapist or a visual artist. I wouldn’t be good as a cop or anyone that works in a hospital (phobias). 

10. What stories have you heard about Omaha, Nebraska

I just know about Warren Buffett, Conor Oberst, Saddle Creek, lots of steak, flatness, cows (alive), and people drinking a lot. It’s like a secular, sinful Salt Lake City.  

WHY? plays with NNAMDÏ Tuesday, Sept. 24, at Slowdown. Tickets are $20; showtime is 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 © 2024 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

It’s the festival we’ve all been waiting for — O’Leaversfest! Three nights of headline-grabbing talent on O’Leaver’s pseudo-stage. Let’s run through all three days.

Day 1 – Tonight (Friday) – Chicago-based indie act Meat Wave headlines. The band has spent many a night opening for Cursive on that band’s recent tour. Opening tonight is our very own Pro-Magnum and Eric in Outerspace. There’s also a street/skate clothing pop-up store happening somewhere in the O’Leaver’s compound. $8. 10 p.m.

Day 2 – Saturday – The bosses will be in the house as Cursive headlines a show that, by the time you read this, is likely to be sold out (find out here). Every O’Leaver’s Cursive show is strangely unique, and no doubt this one will follow suit. Hot up-and-comers No Thanks open along with The Natural States. $10, 10 p.m.

Day 3 – Sunday – It’s a BBQ at The Club with an early 4 p.m. start time. Headlining is everyone’s favorite Omaha garage act Those Far Out Arrows. STATHI and Oquoa open (and is this a goodbye performance by a certain special drummer?). BBQ by Thunderbird Wines (no kidding). $7.

Now, let’s hope the weather cooperates!

Of course there’s another festival happening this weekend… in Lincoln.

The standout acts at tonight’s Lincoln Calling include See Through Dresses, Her Flyaway Manner, Bright Calm Blue, Universe Contest, Histrionic, The Mezcal Brothers and Josh Hoyer and Soul Colossal. It’s a bounty of local talent.

The standouts Saturday at LC include Miwi La Lupa, Diplomats of Solid Sound, Meat Wave, Bogusman, Charly Bliss, Pleasures, Charlie Burton & Or What, The Millions, and Dereck Higgins.

Check out the full schedule and ticket info at lincolncalling.com.

A non-festival show of note is happening tonight at The Waiting Room where Cincinnati indie act WHY? headlines. Their latest, AOKOHIO, was released on Joyful Noise Recordings. Brooklyn’s Barrie opens at 8 p.m. $18.

And 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 © 2019 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.