Column 105: Hanging with the Cool Kids
Adam Weaver wants in.

This column is the result of a reader who took seriously my prodding to send in column ideas. Musician Adam Weaver wants to know:

"What does it mean to locally 'make it' in the Omaha music scene? I'm not talking about a record deal or anything, but at what point can you call a local artist an established and respected local artist? When you play Sokol? When you open for a nationally recognized and respected act? When you play a One Percent (Productions) show? When you're featured in The Reader?

"And further," the letter continued, "how does a band here in Omaha get legitimized without the blessing of One Percent, given that they're pretty much the only show in town? Is it even possible? And if you don't know any of the indie king-makers in town, and they don't return your e-mails, what are your options as far as trying to get yourself heard?"

Good questions -- questions that lots of bands have thought about over the years, but have never had the cojones to vocalize on the record. Weaver obviously feels like he's been locked out of a scene with which he personally identifies, whether anyone else does or not.

A native of Gulf Port, Mississippi, Weaver moved to Omaha three-and-a-half years ago to pursue an internship for his graduate degree in psychology. He planned on moving to Nashville after graduation to connect with some music friends there. Instead, he's still here, trying to land gigs at Sokol Underground and O'Leaver's, with little luck.

I already know what you're thinking: "Maybe, Adam, if you were any good you'd get the attention you deserve." Not this time. After listening to Places We Were, Places We're Not, the new CD by Weaver and his band, The Ghosts, it's obvious that quality isn't the issue. The disc is a collection of well-crafted -- if somewhat somber -- acoustic singer-songwriter stuff. In fact, it may be a bit too well-crafted. Produced over two sessions in a Nashville studio, the recording is slick, and Weaver's voice is quite good. He doesn't have the usual characteristic indie quirks -- he doesn't sing off-key, he doesn't bray, he doesn't shriek as if in pain. Weaver's voice is radio-friendly. In fact, it's downright mainstream. And that's always been an unspoken no-no in the indie world.

Yes, you read that right -- if your music sounds too well-produced or too "smooth," it could very well be discounted by the indie set as being commercial, and hence, uncool. But that's really not what differentiates indie music from what you hear on the radio.

Weaver, who wanted to make perfectly clear his comments aren't sour grapes, clarified his viewpoint over the phone Sunday afternoon. He believes the line of music legitimacy in Omaha is drawn by Marc Leibowitz and Jim Johnson, the duo who book shows at venues around town under the One Percent Productions moniker.

"You can only go so far without getting them involved," Weaver said. "I'm sure they didn't get into this thinking, 'We're the guys that can make or break a band in this town.' They try to promote the music they like. I'm not trying to give them a bad rap, but I can't pretend that they don't exist, either."

Weaver also says that a band's friends, political views and what they wear helps define them as "one of the cool kids."

"Music is way down on the list as to how bands in that scene are identified," he said. "There are bands that aren't 'One Percent bands' that are just as good musically, but don't get the attention or opportunities that those bands get."

This is where Weaver and I part ways. I don't think a dress code or a friendship network defines Omaha's indie scene -- not anymore. And certainly the scene isn't defined by One Percent Productions, who are just as quick to book a teen-angst screamo-metal goon band as a Creek band if it means putting butts in seats. They are businessmen, after all.

There is, however, an indefinable quality that characterizes our indie music scene. I wish I could tell Adam what it is. All's I know is I know it when I see it (or hear it). I'm not sure why Weaver feels that he needs to be part of that scene, anyway. We're living in new times, when an affiliation to Saddle Creek no longer is a prerequisite for local or national success. Just ask Eagle*Seagull or Emphatic or Little Brazil.

"What is indie? Is it a sound or a frame of mind or a business model?" Weaver asked. "To me, a good song writer is a good song writer, whether you're cool or not. If anything, my band has a hard time identifying if we're indie or folk or pop or cool. I guess it doesn't really matter. If you have good songs, you'll always get your foot in the door."

Adam, I think you answered your own question.

Less Humor Per Pound
Danny Pound's brief glance at Vitreous Humor.

You can't blame Danny Pound for not being eager to talk about his old band, Vitreous Humor.

After all, they haven't been around for over a decade, and his new band, aptly called The Danny Pound Band, sounds nothing like them. Still, there's more than a few followers of Omaha's mid-'90s punk-rock golden age that remembers Vitreous Humor and their grungy, post-punk sound heard on the classic 1993 7-inch, Harbor. The three-song single featured a teen-aged Pound warbling the words to "Bu-Dah," the single's catchy B-side that went "In the shithole where we live / Something's living in the cellar / Keeps us all awake at night / Smells like cooking blood." Remember it now? Probably not. Still, the song managed to make it onto a lot of mix tapes from that era.

Pound appreciates the memory, but said few people recall his former band around his hometown of Lawrence, Kansas. "Some younger kids look up to Vitreous Humor as one of the old-timey, classic Lawrence rock bands," he said, "but no one ever comes up and asks about it."

The story of Vitreous Humor is a rather short one. The Harbor single was followed two years later by a 7-song self-titled EP. Posthumous, a collection of unreleased tracks, outtakes and live cuts, was released on Crank! Records in '98, well after the band already had called it quits and moved onto Pound's next project, The Regrets.

A decade later and Pound has left Vitreous Humor's jangle-grunge behind in favor of a more grown-up, sophisticated sound born out of his fondness for mid-20th century folk and blues.

"After The Regrets broke up, I discovered Harry Smith's Smithsonian Folkways recordings, began listening a lot of blues and pulled out The Basement Tapes," Pound said.

The result was The Danny Pound Band's 2005 debut on Lawrence label Remedy Records, Surer Days, a collection of tuneful alt-country rockers that sounded like a cross between Centro-Matic and The Silos.

But even that style was short-lived. Since its release, Pound and his band -- bassist Jeremy Sidener (ex-Zoom -- another classic '90s Lawrence band), guitarist David Swenson, and drummer Ken Pingleton (who replaced former drummer Dan Benson, who also was in Vitreous Humor) -- have moved in a whole different direction, creating music that recalls '70s-era So Cal groove rock. The band's as-yet-unnamed follow-up to Surer Days was recorded at Black Lodge Studios in Eudora, Kansas, and is slated for release on Remedy Records sometime in the near future.

"You couldn't call our new record rootsy. It's more of an electric rock record," Pound said. "I get bored quickly. I'm always trying to find new things to do."

As for Vitreous Humor, Pound said he doesn't understand why the memory of that band continues to live on in places like Omaha and Milwaukee -- another city with more than its share of that band's fans. "It must be a Midwest thing," he said. "We never toured very much. I don't think we even played in Omaha as Vitreous Humor."

While he acknowledges that the band could have influenced someone, Pound is hardly proud of those early recordings. "I'm not offended by that era, but it doesn't give me great pleasure to listen to that music," he said before immediately correcting himself. "I take that back. Some of it was interesting, if a bit too earnest. I know there are those who liked it, and there's nothing wrong with that."

Column 104: They're Still The Who
And why they're still cool after all these years…

This is an actual conversation had, oh, a few months ago down at Sokol Underground while waiting for bands between sets, leaning on the bar, killing time. Use whatever nasal inflection you feel is appropriate to voice me or the "Pretentious Troll." Perhaps try to act this out with a friend while you wait for your coffee at The Blue Line.

Me: Well I got my tickets to The Who concert Dec. 7. I'm pretty psyched. The Pretenders are opening, too.

Pretentious Troll: Are you fucking stupid? You're going to The Who? Talk about lame. It's not even the real Who.

Me: Well, it's Pete Townsend and Roger Daltrey, right? (I fumble for my receipt to make sure I haven't been duped into buying tickets to a tribute band called The What or The How).

Pretentious Troll: Man, I saw The Who when Entwhistle was still alive, and even then it wasn't the real Who. The real Who died with Keith. I wouldn't go if it was free. Those guys shouldn't be allowed to perform -- they're too old! As an indie music fan, I'm surprised you're even going -- The Who are sell outs!

I didn't have an answer for the little putz. He may have even been right, but it didn't matter.

I want to see The Who. They've been on my list, along with Yo La Tengo (who I saw at Sokol in October), Silkworm (who I'll never get a chance to see now) and Red House Painters for as long as I could remember.

The Who was my first punk-rock band. They were the ultimate outsiders that were allowed inside simply on the strength of their music. The Beatles might be the good-guy geniuses, the Rolling Stones the bad-boy working men, but the Who, well, they never seemed to fit into any category, even after their music was embraced by the masses.

To me, they were weird and different. Even at their height, when Tommy came out (in the theaters of course, I wasn't old enough to remember when the record was released) The Who were like some sort of super-intelligent alien wunderkind. They were the smartest kids in class who dressed funny and came up with all the interesting ideas that no one "got," then everyone copied. Their music told a story beyond the same old girlfriend-boyfriend-car-drugs-booze rock drama. They wrote about rebellion years before the snarky Sex Pistols came along and made fun of them.

And as saccharine-flavored as this sounds, some of my fondest memories are of listening to "Won't Get Fooled Again," "Behind Blue Eyes" and "Baba O'Riley" on my Spark-o-matic tape deck while roaring along Fort Calhoun's dirt roads in my rusty piece o' shit VW. It was years before those same songs became bastardized in car commercials and TV shows like CSI. Back when The Who were still cool.

They're still cool today. Their new album, Endless Wire, is a serious head-trip. It's a stereophonic thrill ride that isn't afraid to take chances. Some of them work. Some of them don't (yet). But it's never boring, and sonically, it's a quantum leap above the usual low-fi made-it-myself indie jangle-pap that I've been listening to for the past 20 years. There's a sense of real craftsmanship to Endless Wire that demands that you listen to it on a proper stereo or with a decent set of headphones and not -- god forbid -- on your computer.

I don't know what else to say. The Troll is right. Half the band is dead. But half the band is alive, too. And judging from what I've seen and heard, they still know how to pull off an arena concert. And they're coming to Omaha -- something I never thought I'd see or hear. So excited was I when the show was announced, I threw down some cash and joined The Who Fan Club just to get in on the ticket pre-sale. Now it turns out that I probably wasted my money since, as of this writing, the concert is unlikely to sell out.

Maybe that isn't such a bad thing. Maybe all those people who usually go to arena shows -- the ones who boo when the band plays a new song instead of one of their golden chestnuts, the ones who don't even like music and are merely trying to relive some unfortunate moment from their youth -- will stay home and leave the Qwest Center to the rest of us.

And for all you Pretentious Trolls who are reading this -- and laughing -- remember that all your cherished indie bands got their ideas somewhere. The more adventurous ones were inspired by bands like The Who, bands that will be here long after the current fads fade away.

Column 103 -- Two Years (and counting)
A look back on the second anniversary

The end of the year for music fans means endless retrospectives of the past 12 months written with great pomposity, and lists upon lists upon lists upon lists of "the best blah-blah-blah of '06." We complain, but we love looking back if only to say "I told you so," conveniently forgetting the blind missteps, and hoping you forgot them, too. That said, let this be the first of those retrospectives for '06, as we celebrate the second year of Lazy-i in The Reader and look back with great aplomb to update the past year's columns.

Presto! Change-o! (2/1/06) -- A description of the new Presto! Studios in Omaha, gleaned from an issue of Tape Op Magazine. Saddle Creek Records executive Jason Kulbel tells me that the building that housed the Lincoln Presto! Studios now sits empty following tracking last fall for the upcoming Bright Eyes record. The new studios, located near 69th and Dodge Sts., are coming to life. As I type this, the facility's "B Room" is being used for the final mixing of said Bright Eyes CD. By the way, the name Presto! apparently will die along with the Lincoln studio.

Scars for All to Hear (2/16/06) -- A profile of Outlaw Con Bandana's Brendan Hagberg. The band currently is recording its fifth release, Faeries and Rewards, with producer Ted Stevens between Cursive world tours. "We are also attempting an EP by hook or crook during the down time," Hagberg says on his myspace page. Look for both records in early '07.

Band of Brothers (2/23/06) -- A profile of them thar Thornton boys -- Bob and Will -- and their band Past Punchy and the Present. Since the column, Past Punchy has become rather dormant. Instead, Bob's new band, Now Archimedes!, has established itself as the hottest new punk band in town.

Not for The Faint of Heart (3/22/06) -- Wherein your fearless columnist reported about the possibility of The Faint leaving Saddle Creek Records for American Recordings, a rumor that Creek label chief Robb Nansel confirmed. Since then, The Faint has begun working on the long-awaited follow-up to 2004's Wet from Birth in their new studio. Asked if the record will come out on Saddle Creek, Kulbel gave a two-word answer: "No comment."

Living in Fun City (6/22/06) -- The Omaha World-Herald took umbrage to my attack on their declaration -- made after this summer's Bright Eyes concert in Memorial Park -- that Omaha is "Fun City." An OWH editorial, cleverly titled "The Quest for Coolness," referred to "a local blogger" who is "beside himself that anyone could possibly consider Omaha a Fun City." Pity they didn't have the stones to either mention The Reader (where the column also appeared) or my website's address. But like I said last week, The OWH doesn't acknowledge non-OWH-controlled local media sources in print. As for their editorial: If the paper and the Chamber of Commerce think the answer to Omaha's "quest for coolness" is to bring in more national-chain retail outlets like Cheesecake Factory and Williams-Sonoma instead of supporting home-grown businesses, then they clearly have no idea what "cool" is.

Unlikely Underdog (6/29/06) -- Amid a cloud of negative buzz, the column was an early defense of Cursive's new release, Happy Hollow. The record, which I still consider to be the band's best effort in their storied career -- continues to split fans down the middle between those who love it and those who don't. Regardless, the album sold 9,700 copies in its first week of release, enough to place it at No. 96 in the Billboard top 100. To date, Happy Hollow has sold more than 27,000 copies, according to Kulbel.

Urban Legend (7/6/06) -- A profile of local rock band An Iris Pattern's quirky, mysterious frontman, Greg Loftis. Since the column, Loftis reports that An Iris Pattern has been asked by world-renowned fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger to be the first band on his new record label. Stay tuned.

Flyover Country (6/1/06) -- The premise: Top-drawer national indie bands are beginning to pass by Omaha because cheapskate concert-goers won't pay more than $10 for tickets. In fact, '06 will be remembered as one of the better years for stellar acts hitting our stages, including such bands as Yo La Tengo, Joanna Newsom, M Ward and Gillian Welch. Lately, however the crowds are staying home. One Percent Productions' Marc Leibowitz, who along with partner Jim Johnson is responsible for most of Omaha's indie shows, says ticket prices alone aren't to blame. "It's more likely the combination of higher ticket prices and over-saturation of shows," he said. "There are a ton of shows that are all slightly overpriced. But when we talked about ticket prices (in June) it was just for Omaha, and this downturn in attendance is happening in a lot of other cities as well."

The Kids Aren't All Right (8/3/06) -- Wherein I ask the question: Where have all the new indie bands gone? Leibowitz says they're right here, you just have to look for them. Among them: Coyote Bones, Bear Country, Spring Gun, Domestica, Art Bell and Hyannis.

And so on… Thanks to everyone who provided their insight, inspiration, information -- and most of all, ideas. These are the things that keep Lazy-I going. Now onto year three…

Column 102 -- For 'Biggest Oversight' by an awards show…
The nominees are…

Before I get into this, I must tell you that I'm one of those hallowed few who have been asked to be a member of "The Academy" for the Live Music portion of the Omaha Entertainment Awards. And I also must explain that The Reader is one of OEAs' media partners, if not one of its chief organizers. So one could yell "Bias!" at these words, but one would be incorrect, as I hold no allegiance to the organization and have just as many gripes as you about the Nominees list published last week. Instead of griping for gripe's sake, however, I wanted explanations.

So I picked up the phone and called Tony Lange, the guy responsible for how the OEAs are being conducted. Lange comes to Omaha from Cincinnati, where the CEAs are in their 8th year. He said they were the boilerplate for the OEAs, right down to how bands were nominated. Anyone (as in you) could have submitted a nominating ballot, and Lange said around 2,000 of you did -- not bad for the first year. A five-person committee (of which Lange is a member) developed the categories with the help of a few others who were brought in to "broaden the knowledge base."

That brings us to the nominees and my list of gripes, first and foremost being the inclusion of South Dakota blues act Indigenous under the category of "Traditional / Indigenous" music. Anyone who's ever heard a lick of the band's Stevie Ray Vaughan blues-hammer aping knows that they don't belong in this category, and that South Dakota ain't Omaha (or Nebraska).

Clarification No. 1: Any performer from a 75-mile radius of The Holland Center was eligible for nomination, which explains why all those Lincoln bands are on the list (but doesn't explain why the awards aren't called the NEAs (N as in Nebraska instead of O as in Omaha)).

Lange admitted that, yes, Indigenous isn't from Nebraska, and no, they don't play indigenous music, and yes, the whole thing was a mistake. "That's one that slipped by us," he said. "We'll take the blame. It's a result of me not growing up here. It should have been caught."

Some of the categories, however, were tougher to explain. Why, for example, group "hard rock" and "metal" together? Everyone knows they're different genres. Apparently not everyone. "I know there's death metal and speed metal and hate metal," Lange said. "Next year we may consider separating the categories."

"Next year" also applies to including a "Singer/Songwriter" category, an omission that is the awards' biggest oversight, as Omaha is known nationally as a singer/songwriter town. Lange had no real explanation for this, other than to say he wanted to include the category but that other committee members preferred naming it "Adult Contemporary." This, of course, makes no sense, but "that's what you get when you deal with a committee."

Lange is not apologetic about the "Cover Band" category. "Cover bands are the core meat of the local entertainment business," he said. "Their art is just the same as anyone else's. Remember, this award is based on entertainment."

Complaints about who got nominated falls squarely on you, the voter, and your favorite bands' inability to "get out the vote." Lange admits that there always will be acts that simply aren't comfortable lobbying for themselves. That may explain why local jazz legend Luigi Waites was overlooked under the "Jazz" category or why Breathless wasn't nominated under "Hip-Hop/Rap." It also explains why there are no punk bands under the "Punk" category. Would a real punk band lobby for votes? Go ask Johnny Rotten.

For the first go-'round, the list of nominees isn't horrible, especially under categories "Alternative Indie" (rightfully dominated by Saddle Creek Records acts), "Folk Americana Roots," "Hard Rock" (I'm leaving metal out of it) and "Live Music Event." The full list is available online at oeawards.net. Yes, there are omissions, but hey, give them a break, it's the first year.

The most glaring omission is in how the local media have covered the event. Yes, The Reader is a sponsor, right along with NRG Media on the radio side. That shouldn't preclude the great, gray Omaha World-Herald from covering an event that has the full support of the Chamber of Commerce and a plethora of important local arts organizations.

The fact is, the OWH has historically put its own needs in front of its readers when it comes to covering anything that's sponsored by rival media, whether it be an alt-weekly newspaper, radio or local TV station. They need to let the paranoia go and realize what everyone else already knows: They don't have any competition. No one's going to steal away any of their potential advertisers and/or readers, certainly not The Reader. Acknowledgement of the OEAs by the OWH and other media is critical if this thing is ever really going to get off the ground. But I'm afraid that the polarizing, Citizen Kane mentality of local media will never let that happen, even for an event that's designed not to make money (OEA is a 501c3, nonprofit organization) but to celebrate this city's talent. Let's do this, before all that talent finds a more grateful place to play.

Column 101 -- And Now a Song from our Sponsor
Commercials go indie…

I'll let you in on a little secret: I dig watching sports on TV. Football, baseball, basketball, you name it. I know it isn't cool from an indie perspective to admit to such a steak-and-egger sort of past-time, but at any given moment during the season I generally know where the Yankees stand in the AL, and I cry right along with everyone else in the Big Apple when the Knicks inevitably skid to the bottom of the Eastern Division (Damn you, Isiah!).

The problem with watching televised sports, however, is having to put up with all the commercials, and Sunday Night Football is easily the worst. Why? Because during every time-out, you're force-fed John Mellencamp's ode to America in the form of a Chevy truck commercial. Once upon a time, Little Johnny Cougar wrote real songs -- stuff like "Jack and Diane," and "Pink Houses." Not anymore.

Artists whoring their music to Madison Avenue is nothing new. Even such upstanding, well-respected musicians as U2 have gleefully traded in their flesh-and-blood to sell a few iPods. If Reverend Bono does it, it must be okay, right? Certainly it's a no-brainer for someone like Mellencamp, whose flat-lined career was in the same place as Bob Seger's when Seger let Chevy turn "Like a Rock" into a commercial.

But these days, it isn't just the county fair circuit that's grabbing the cash. Earlier this year I heard Spoon's "I Turn My Camera On" used to sell Jaguar XKE's. And it wasn't just incidental background music -- the commercial was produced like a rock video prominently featuring the song along with tight, quick cuts of a shiny new Jag. When they replayed the spot about five minutes later, I immediately thought, 'Well, there goes that song."

Then last night the whoring reached a new low. On screen was a commercial for Outback Steakhouse. Amidst the weird buzzing didgeridoo noise was the melody from Of Montreal's "Wraith Pinned to the Mist (And Other Games)." But instead of Kevin Barnes singing "Let's pretend we don't exist / Let's pretend we're in Antarctica," some poor schmuck sang "Let's go Outback tonight / Life will still be there tomorrow" while animated cave drawings danced gleefully around a steak.

My first thought: "Those idiots! Don't they know that Barnes will sue their asses off when he finds out that they so blatantly ripped off his song?" Then I went online and found out that Barnes was in on the whole thing. Pitchfork reported that Barnes had given Outback's ad agency permission not only to use the song, but to rerecord it with new lyrics.

"We thought it would be totally amusing to hear their take on one of our songs as a jingle," he told Pitchfork. In this case, "totally amusing" means receiving a check worth a few thousand bloomin' onions.

Can you blame them for selling out their music? Fact is, in the case of both Of Montreal and Spoon, more people heard those songs on those commercials than will ever hear them on the radio. What price can you put on that kind of exposure?

When you live in a town like Omaha -- a city with no real college radio station -- TV commercials may be the only way to hear new music over the airwaves. And I'd be a hypocrite if I didn't admit that I've searched out a song used in an ad.

Case in point: The latest commercials for Geico featuring that loveable caveman that gets no respect. He first appeared on TV having lunch with a high-powered ad exec who apologized for the insensitivity of the company's "so easy a caveman can do it" commercials. "I didn't know you guys were still around." Caveman's response: "Maybe you should do some research." Classic.

In the new ad, our caveman (Who I'm sure is now headed for a sitcom career) stands on a moving walkway headed toward his departure gate in an airport when he passes yet another insensitive Geico airport display ad with the same catchphrase. Meanwhile, in the background plays a cool, simple, Casio-powered song that is, quite frankly, absolutely infectious.

Two seconds after entering "Geico Caveman Commercial" in Google, I discovered the song was "Remind Me" by Norwegian Euro-dance duo Röyksopp -- an act I'd never heard of, and likely wouldn't have without this commercial. Like Trio's "Da Da Da" song -- which went unnoticed for 15 years until it was used in VW commercials in the mid-'90s -- "Remind Me" also is destined to become an international smash that never would have been discovered if not for some savvy ad exec picking the song out of the ether and placing it in the commercial.

Like it or not, the same can probably be said for the new Mellencamp song. Without its Chevy connection, it never would have made it out of the blocks. Now it's fueling his next world tour.

Column 100 -- Metal Machine Music
The Terminals turn up the noise.

I was driving west on I-80 headed to Lincoln doing close to 90 because everyone else was and you either keep up or get run right off the road. No one told me about all the construction, the constant "Stay In Your Lane" warning signs that flipped past as the road jerked indiscriminately in odd directions, the left lane mere inches from large concrete barriers designed to keep semis and large SUVs from jumping into oncoming traffic. Lord only knows what hitting those could do to something like my Mini Cooper, which has a wheelbase akin to a rollerskate and the suspension of a go-kart. Every time my tiny tires found a piece of grooved pavement, it jerked the Mini in the wrong direction, either toward the deadly barriers or the adjacent lane crowded by a fleet of Voyagers, Caravans and Ram-tough Dodge SUVs that towered over me, blocking my view.

Meanwhile, blaring on my car stereo was the new CD by The Terminals, the band I was headed to Lincoln to interview. I'd seen them a number of times at O'Leaver's and The 49'r, playing hep-cat cool retro garage punk spiked by Dave Goldberg's gospel-infused organ twirls, frontwoman Liz Hitt's snarling, jagged guitar riffs and Brooks Hitt's beefy stick work. Fun stuff.

The CD, however, sounds nothing like that. Instead, most of the songs sound like a room filled with industrial power tools -- jack hammers, grinders, band-saws -- tearing through a concrete wall while an angry monkey pounds on a metal slab with a stone hammer. The recording is blown-out and raw. By the time I arrived at the Hitts' Lincoln home, my back was as tight as an iron rod and I could already feel the tension-pain in my neck that would haunt me the following day.

To say that The Terminals are not entirely thrilled with their Dead Beat Records debut, Forget About Never, would be an understatement.

"The first time I heard it I was furious," Goldberg said. "I called Liz with a list of complaints and got to No. 1 before she hung up. There are parts of the record that border on migraine-inducing industrial noise."

The story behind the recording began when Liz sent a handful of 7-inch records to Tom Spencer, the label chief at Dead Beat Records, hoping to get him interested in Brimstone Howl, another band on Hitts' and Goldberg's Boom Chick label. She also threw in some Terminals recordings just for kicks. "They were quite impressive," Spencer said of the Terminals. "So I told the band that I was interested in doing their debut album. After deciding on the track list, we got Andy Caffrey from The Horrors to record the album, and it turned out great."

Caffrey, Liz said, is "hot shit, and we accidentally made the mistake of telling Tom we knew him."

The band recorded the album live at The Zoo Bar when it was closed. Amps were placed in the bathrooms while the drum set was on stage. "(Caffrey) ran everything into this fucking box of noise and what came out the other side became the record," Liz said. "Getting Caffrey to record it was Tom's way of getting us credibility with these (types of) bands."

"With Andy, you take the good with the bad," Brooks said of Caffrey. "He has a weird view of things. He's the most over-the-top guy doing this kind of recording."

"The aesthetic is similar to other stuff you hear on Dead Beat," Goldberg explained. "The audience they're catering to are total speed freaks that enjoy that type of thing because they're always in that state of mind."

"Uh, I don't know if trashing our record during the interview is the way to go," Brooks added sheepishly. The fact is, the band actually likes the record, and so do I. The recording is almost artsy in its brazen, abrasive approach. The wall of static punk rock is aggressive and unnerving, and ultimately, very cool.

Goldberg said it took a few spins before his hatred for the recording turned into admiration. "Some of it is awesome. I'm pretty sure that people in Europe that are fans of this style of recording will go ape-shit over it. Most bands wouldn't put it out, and that aspect of it I enjoy. It is, dare I say, controversial."

He is concerned, however, that the stark contrast between the record and their usual live sound could result in some confusion, if not disappointment. "I'm afraid that people who are into the record will see us live and say 'What's this shit?' and by that same token, people who like us live will buy this record and say 'What's this shit?'"

Replicating the record's sound, however, is out of the question. "It would take a lot of expensive or broken equipment for us to sound like that on stage, Goldberg said. "Perhaps we should start poking holes in our PA speakers."

Omaha fans will get a chance to check it out Friday, Nov. 10, when The Terminals celebrates the official release of Forget About Never at The 49'r with Now, Archimedes! and Boom Chick artist The Shanks, which also will be celebrating the release of their "Cut Me" 7-inch single. For those of you driving down from Lincoln for the show, you may want to wait until you get home to listen to the CD, for your nerves' sake. Drive safely.

VOTE! today; Whipkey on Injured Reserved; Bright Eyes info; Starlight Desperation, Tokyo Police Club tonight... – Nov. 7, 2006 –

Before we get to the news, just a quick reminder that it's election day, which means you need to get your lazy ass to the polls and vote. I can't remember the last time an election was more important. Check out the Douglas Co. Election Commission website to find your poling place and to see a sample ballot. Do it, people.

Onward...

Anonymous American frontman Matt Whipkey is on the mend after injuring himself Oct. 20 in a bizarre scissors accident in his bedroom. "It's hard to explain what happened," Whipkey said. Apparently he was using a pair of scissors to cut plastic zip ties that were holding together a bundle of guitar cables. "I got to the second to last tie and was holding it with my left hand and cutting with my right hand," he said. "The scissors slipped and stabbed into my left index finger on the palm side underneath the knuckle. It severed the tendon in that finger."

As a result of the injury, Whipkey couldn't bend his finger at the knuckle. "For a professional guitar player, it's as big a nightmare as it gets, right up there with losing your hand," he said. Whipkey went under the knife right before Halloween to have the flexor tendon repaired and now has a huge scar on his finger beneath a cast that he'll wear for the next month. Rehab is ongoing and it will take several months before the finger is easy to move. He has plenty of motivation to get back in playing shape with a 30-day solo tour scheduled to begin Jan. 10 and a CD release show slated for Dec. 30 at Sokol Underground.

Although the prognosis is good, Whipkey's doctor tells him he'll never play exactly like he did before. Time will tell. "It's difficult to watch people play guitar now, especially at shows. It's maddening," he said. "I gained massive perspective on life as a result of the injury."

***

The first news about Bright Eyes' forthcoming LP is finally hitting the interweb. NME reports (from something they read in Spin) that the follow-up to I'm Wide Awake/Digital Ash will be a rather dark and stormy affair. "The apocalypse is a prevalent theme in my new songs," Oberst said. "There's a feeling in the world right now like everything is unravelling, but maybe that's not a bad thing. I'm not convinced that the human race is good for this planet anyway." Sounds like there will be some tsunami and hurricane-flavored country psychedelic folk rockers in the batch, along with songs about "telepathy" (unless Oberst was pulling Spin's chain). Read the full NME item here. Omahans will likely get a sneak preview of the new material at the Dec. 15 Bright Eyes/Simon Joyner/Bruces benefit concert at Sokol Auditorium. Tickets went on sale last Saturday, so if you wanna go, you better click on this here One Percent Productions link and buy some tix before it sells out.

***

It's a busy Tuesday night musicwise, with two very hot shows going on around town. The Saddle Creek Bar will be hosting Starlight Desperation, Virgasound and This Blush ($7, 9 p.m.), while a few blocks away Ontario band Tokyo Police Club and Bombardment Society will be playing a rare Tuesday night show at The 49'r (No idea on the price for this one, though it'll probably be around $5 and will start around 10).

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Live Review: Hyannis/Tomato a Day; Joanna Newsom tonight... – Nov. 6, 2006 –

I got a chance to catch most of the Hyannis set at O'Leaver's Saturday night, and it was pretty durn good. Nothing like their record, the boys decided to break out the electric guitars and rock the house instead. These guys (and one lady) could definitely make a mark if they stay together longer than their former band, the promising One Mummy Case, which was around just long enough for me to take notice of them. Saturday night was also the first time I've had a chance to catch A Tomato a Day. I was expecting a noisefest based on the fact that frontman Brian Poloncic was a founding member of noise ensemble Naturaliste. Instead, the trio played a set of bluesy indie rock reminiscent of Sebadoh and (vocally anyway, to me) J. Mascis. Very nice stuff. I should have stuck around and got a copy of their demo.

Tonight, it's Joanna Newsom at Scottish Rite Hall with Bobby Birdman. Here's a brief preview written for The Reader:

Tickets are still available for $15, and the show starts at 8 p.m. It'll be interesting to see how well this one does. Newsom may be hot stuff on the coasts, but I don't know how well-known she is around here.

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Live Review: Anathallo; FortyTwenty tonight; Saddle Creek Bar online... – Nov. 3, 2006 –

You've got to love the ambition of a band like Anathallo. The 7-piece outfit performed choreographed interpretive dance moves, foot stomps, snaps, hand claps, played a variety of percussion instruments (including marching-band bass drum), flugelhorn, trombone, two tinkling xylophone things, as well as the usual bass/keyboards/drums, constantly shifting from instrument to instrument like an indie Blue Man Group, each member also singing pretty harmony vocals. It was lovely, like listening to a Sufjan Stevens Christmas album. Unfortunately, the lead vocalist doesn't have Stevens' vocal chops, and the songs, though appropriately lilting, lacked in substance. And you can't help but ask yourself: Do they just sound like Sufjan Stevens or are they trying to rip him off? The resemblance is too keen to be a coincidence, though I'm sure no malice was intended. And while Stevens drew a near-capacity crowd when he and his band played here last year, only 50 showed up at Sokol Underground last night. But it was a devoted 50. Two girls standing next to me annoyingly sang along to every weird lyric Dashboard Confessional-style. I had to move.

Tonight's hot ticket is tractor-punk band FortyTwenty and The Filter Kings, which features Lee Meyerpeter of Bad Luck Charm, at The Saddle Creek Bar, 1410 N. Saddle Creek Rd. The Saddle Creek has a number of good shows lined up for November, all listed at their new website (at www.saddlecreekbar.com), which features a handy gig calendar. Tomorrow night at the SCB Adam Weaver and The Ghosts play with Jon Hardy and the Public and Spring Gun. Next Tuesday is Starlight Desperation with Virgasound and The Blush. And then Coyote Bones, Eagle*Seagull and Jake Bellows are lined up for Nov. 11, while Ladyfinger plays there Nov. 18 and Drakes Hotel Nov. 24. Not bad, not bad. As I've said before, I like SCB. It's close to my house, you can usually find a place to park nearby, the PA is first class, the beer is cheap, and there's plenty of places to sit or stand and watch the bands. I'm even told that food is served there, too, though I've never seen a menu. Yes, I'd like this place to join O'Leaver's and The 49'r and Mick's as important mid-town music venues. But for that to happen, SCB will have to continue to book decent shows every weekend, and make it even harder for people like me to choose between all those venues. Tonight's Filter Kings/FortyTwenty show is $7, so is that Starlight Desperation show Tuesday. The rest are just $5. All shows start at 9 p.m.

A quick rundown of the rest of the weekend. Tomorrow night, Hyannis plays at O'Leaver's for their first "bar gig" ever. Could be an achievement or a train wreck. Playing with Hyannis is Tomato a Day and Nicholas Hugg. $5, 9:30 p.m. And then, Sunday, the weekend's biggest show, Sean Na Na at O'Leaver's. I'm hearing that the bar is closing sometime after the dinner hour, when it'll be cleared out for a sound check, then reopened around 8 or 8:30. The show is slated to start at 9:30 and last I heard there was no opening band. Will Sean Na Na draw as well as Har Mar Superstar did the last time he played at O'Leaver's? The jury is still out on that one, but I think it probably will even if only Tillmann's friends show up (He has lots of them around here). So, if you're interested, you better get there early.

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Column 99: Local Heroes; Brimstone Howl to sign to Alive Records; Anathallo tonight... – Nov. 2, 2006 –

Another CD reviews column, and one of the last (you'll see why below). The advent of CD reviews at The Reader will actually mean that I'll be reviewing even more CDs here in Lazy-i in the future. The Shelter Belt CD was the biggest surprise, and will probably end up on a lot of "best of" lists if they can get it in front of the critics by the end of the year.

This is probably old news for some of you, but I just found out yesterday that Brimstone Howl will sign to Alive Records. Label owner Patrick Boissel confirmed the story yesterday via e-mail. "Yes, it's true, although we still need to finalize the paperwork," he said. "Dan (Auerbach) from the Black Keys wants to produce the album, and the plan is to release it this spring. I'll post the info on the site as soon as it's final. I'm quite excited about it, they're the best new garage band I have heard in quite a while." Alive has put out records by some of the country's best garage bands, including The Black Keys, Two Gallants (now on Saddle Creek), The Bloody Hollies, Trainwreck Riders and Bufallo Killers, to name a few. After I found all this out, I discovered that the folks at Boom Chick posted the news on their site two weeks ago! Congrats to Brimstone. Catch them live Nov. 11 down at Sokol Underground.

Speaking of Sokol, there's an interesting show there tonight featuring Anathallo, a kinda cool indie band from Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, that boasts eight members and a style that reminds me of Sufjan Stevens or Polyphonic Spree. Big sound. Lots of instruments. And the fact that Pitchfork absolutely hates them is just icing on the cake. Opening the show is Page France and local boys Life After Laserdisque. $10, 9 p.m.

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Live Review: Guster; three minutes with Sean Na Na...– Nov. 1, 2006 –

I have been known to get shit for liking Guster. In fact, I've gotten shit about it from certain members of the local music scene literally for years. But the fact is, I've always liked the band and respected what they do and how they do it. Guster easily could have been absorbed into the hippie jam-band circuit and spent the next 20 years mailing it in for a bunch of stoners who travel around to gigs in shitty VW vans looking for an excuse to get loaded every night. Instead, Guster has consistently tried to further their sound, working with producers like Roger Moutenot (known for his work with Yo La Tengo, among others). They've also always tried their best to entertain their fans, and achieved it every time, including last night, even with one of their core members almost down for the count.

Actually, I wasn't really in the mood to go to Guster last night. I was still kind of whipped from Monday night's Twilight Singers show (I don't know how the One Percent guys do it every night). But three or four songs into their set and I was happy I made the cold drive down to Sokol Auditorium. Guster's injured player was singer/guitarist Adam Gardner, who (as co-frontman Ryan Miller announced from the stage) has been suffering from pneumonia. Miller said the band had talked about canceling the entire week of shows, but Adam insisted on playing Omaha. The effects of his illness were obvious. Gardner was off pitch most of the evening and could barely carry his few vocal lines. This put Miller further into the spotlight, and he handled the duties with panache, singing better than I remember him ever singing.

The first half of the set was weighed down with songs from the new album. I'd like to tell you that they carried as well as the usual chestnuts, but they didn't, and it wasn't just a case of the crowd not being familiar with the material. Ganging Up on the Sun is probably the weakest Guster album in terms of straight-out, unforgettable hooks. No single song has that great-out-of-the-box quality of the best tracks from the last two records (There is no "Fa Fa" or "Barrel of a Gun" or "Amsterdam" or "Careful" in the bunch).

It was interesting to see where new guy Joe Pisapia fell into the line-up. He's billed as the "multi-instrumentalist," when in fact he spent most of the evening on bass, and to be honest with you, I prefer Guster without that added low end. The few times Pisapia strapped on an electric guitar were impressive - the band rearranged a number of songs to make room for him to spread out on solos, and he shredded every one of them. The other nitpick is how much time percussionist Brian Rosenworcel spent behind a full drum kit vs. his usual bongo set up. Most of the new songs appear to be written for the drum kit. I can't say that I blame him for shifting to sticks knowing how he bludgeons his hands every night, but for me, that bongo sound is part of what defines Guster, and I hate to see it go. Combine the added bass with the drum set, and Guster's usual buoyant sound becomes weighed down in low-end, especially in a hall like Sokol that's somewhat boomy to begin with.

That's a lot of complaining, when in fact, last night's set was a lot of fun. Miller is a true entertainer. His combination of wit and a new short haircut makes him come off as a cross between Timothy Busfield and Andy Dick. When it came to the end of the evening, he asked the crowd if they wanted the band to leave the stage for the obligatory "good night, Omaha" pause or to simply stay on stage and go right into the encore, which everyone knew was coming anyway. The crowd of around 700 opted for them to stay, so at the end of the set he said, "Good night, Omaha!" followed moments later with "Thanks for sticking around for the encore."

* * *

I don't own a cell phone so I don't have a clue how the billing works. Sean Tillmann owns a cell phone. And apparently his "plan" charges him mucho dinero for calls to and from Canada, which explains my rather short feature on Sean Na Na. In retrospect, I don't know what more we could have talked about anyway. I'd heard he'd was burned out with doing the Har Mar Superstar schtick, but that apparently ain't the case. He also has a new album in the wings, but no real date has been set for release, at least no date he was willing to tell me. I can tell you that this show will be madhouse packed. Everyone in Omaha loves Sean Tillmann, but few love him more than the guys that run O'Leaver's, who are running this show Nov. 5. Want in? Get there early. You've been warned.

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Live Review: The Twilight Singers; Guster, Now It's Overhead on Halloween night... – Oct. 31, 2006 –

It's impossible to not be entertained by Greg Dulli and his band, the Twilight Singers. He is the consummate entertainer. Like the last time he was here back in '03, Dulli came on stage dressed all in black, along with the rest of his band. He looked like a cocky middle-aged John Belushi, guitar over his shoulder, cigarette in hand (In fact, the entire band smoked throughout the set, making Sokol Underground smell like the old days that were only a few weeks ago). But despite having the same swagger, Dulli seemed a little off last night. Maybe it's the fact that Omaha is one of only two cities that didn't sell out on this tour (drawing only around 200 last night -- what happened, people?). Or maybe Dulli is just getting older. If he was on fire three years ago, last night he was only smoldering. His voice had that same Afghan Whigs snarl, but lacked that little bit of oomph needed to hit the high notes.

He opened with "Teenage Wristband" off the first Twilight Singers full-length, Blackberry Belle, a collection which Dulli drew heavily from last night, and with good reason. While his new one, Powder Burns, has its moments, Dulli could make a living just playing the tracks off Blackberry, which has aged into a modern-day classic. After four or five songs, I began to wonder if Mark Lanegan was still on the tour. Then out of nowhere he appeared, entering from back stage looking like a cross between a straight-haired, goateed Will Ferrell and Frankenstein, striking a pose with one hand on the microphone, the other firmly grasping the mic stand, eyes clamped closed, barely moving. They tore right into their cover of Massive Attack's "Live With Me" and I couldn't take my eyes off Lanegan, who looked like some sort of ghost-zombie-statue, chewing a piece of gum between numbers. After three songs, he exited the stage and didn't reemerge until the encore, when he came back for two more.

Lanegan may have been a highlight, but really, this was Dulli's show, and as the set wore on, he only got better. Unlike the last time, Dulli kept the stage patter to a minimum, telling the crowd to forget it was Monday night. "It's Saturday night at Sokol Underground," he said, lifting a cup of something in a toast (where was that bottle of Maker's Mark he had three years ago?). Like any good showman, he figured out a way to work a Husker reference into his between-song patter. As he went around the stage introducing the band, he introduced himself with, "I'm Lawrence Phillips… and I'm gonna rape you!" Laughter ensued (by me and Dulli, anyway). Another memorable comment came when he introduced "Martin Eden," one of the more frightening drug songs you'll ever hear. "The last time I was here three years ago, I introduced this song talking about Elliott Smith," he said. "After that show, I bought some cocaine from a girl named Kristen. Kristen's not here anymore. Let's sing this one for her."

The set lasted over an hour, and much to chagrin of a few fans, didn't include any Afghan Whigs songs. After the last song of the encore, Dulli lifted up his cup of whatever to salute the crowd, and said in a cautionary tone while looking at his drink, "Be careful." He then stepped off stage and walked directly out of Sokol with a girl on his arm, presumably headed to Council Bluffs… I hung out until well past 1 but never saw Lanegan leave. The show may not have been as good as '03, but it was still one of the better shows of '06.

Sokol is ground-zero tonight for shows both upstairs and underground. The auditorium is reserved for Guster, which starts at 8 p.m. with a rare opening set by Trippin Balls, a surprise act that you may recognize if you can get past their costumes. I promised new Guster guy Joe Pisapia that I wouldn't say anymore. You'll have to find out who they are for yourselves. Tickets are still available for $20.50.

Meanwhile downstairs, it's the return of Now It's Overhead. On their records, NIO is a floating, dreamy, mid-tempo stroll through the trees. All that changes when they step out of the studio and onto the stage. With their atmospheric music stripped down and raw, Andy LeMaster and Co. turn into a rock band, roaring and angry and utterly convincing. Opening band Summerbirds in the Cellar combines dance rhythms with Cure-style drone guitars and intricate, repeated riffs that pull songs out with extended, jammy endings that you don't want to stop. Also on the ticket is Coyote Bones. $8, 9 p.m.

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Little Brazil announces new CD, tour; Coyote Bones news; the return of The Faint; Twilight Singers (Dulli, Lanegan) tonight... – Oct. 30, 2006 –

First off, the Little Brazil news. Guitarist Greg Edds e-mailed to tell me that the band is planning to release its second full-length Tighten The Noose, Feb. 20 on Mt. Fuji Records. "Right now, we're waiting for layout and design work to be finished by local artist Mindy Leahey and Jamie Massey from Ladyfinger/Race For Titles," Edds said. "We have one show left sometime in December before our 3-month tour starts on Feb 1."

Edds also said the band is in talks with SubPop Germany, "which should push a little bit more in our foreign markets. From that point on, we're on a mission to tour non-stop for the rest of 2007 as well as tear apart many stages and after parties. Basically, just do what we do."

Hmm…. New album on Fuji, a European deal and a year's worth of touring? Little Brazil could be on the verge of taking it to the next level.

You'd think that would be enough for Edds, but no. He recently joined Coyote Bones as a guitarist. "We will be leaving for a small two-week tour starting Oct. 31," Edds said. "We'll be doing dates all the way out to the East Coast and back with a two-night stint at CMJ. Coyote Bones also has a record that is fully finished, titled Gentlemen On The Rocks. That should be due out sometime in early 2007 on a label yet to be determined." If you haven't had a chance, you can check out Coyote Bones at a couple upcoming shows. They're opening for Now It's Overhead Halloween night at Sokol Underground. Or wait until their Nov. 11 gig at the Saddle Creek Bar with Eagle*Seagull and Jake Bellows.

Moving on… Saddle Creek Records' monthly update was a bit more newsworthy than usual. The highlights, for those of you who didn't get the memo:

-- The Faint are hitting the road for a few weeks worth of shows. They'll be testing out some new songs and playing some old favorites. The band is currently hard at work in their studio, crafting the follow-up to 2004's Wet From Birth. Among the dates are two Omaha shows: Dec. 16 with Baltimore dance-rock band Celebration, and Dec. 17 with Tilly and the Wall, both at Sokol Auditorium. Tickets to the Omaha shows go on sale Nov. 4 at onepercentproductions.com.

-- Cursive is making the tracks for "Bad Sects" -- one of the stand-outs on their new album, Happy Hollow -- available for anyone and everyone to download and create their own remix. The best effort will be included as the b-side on a future Cursive single. Details are at www.badsects.com.

(Speaking of Robb Nansel, the Saddle Creek label executive sent out an e-mail last night begging people to spread the word about a show he set up for Nov. 7 at The 49'r with Ontario band Tokyo Police Club. Yeah, they do sound pretty cool, judging by their myspace page. Opening the show is the dominating rock onslaught called Bombardment Society).

What else… oh yeah, only what will likely be one of the best shows of '06 tonight at Sokol Underground. The following, written for The Reader:

Seriously, you don't miss this one.

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Last night at O'Leaver's, Tilly on Letterman; Jolie Holland/Dave Dondero tonight... – Oct. 28, 2006 –

When I showed up last night at O'Leaver's, Black Squirrels had just already begun their set of fun, laid-back, folky acoustic songs, the kind that would sound perfect played on a ukulele. Pleasant and unobtrusive, it's stuff that your mom would love. I'm surprised these guys haven't played at Mick's yet. The crowd was clearly there to see them, cheering for an encore, which the trio gratefully provided. Ten minutes after they were done, half the crowd of family and friends left. Looks like the poor Pomonas got Omaha'd.

Then to my surprise, while the Pomonas were setting up, I glanced up at the TV and saw that Tilly and the Wall were going to be on Letterman. I had no idea that they were scheduled for last night's show. A small group gathered around the TV while the O'Leaver's soundman wired up a microphone to broadcast the program's sound over the bar's PA. The Letterman stage featured the three Tilly girls all standing on plywood platforms like Barbie dolls, as if all three were going to tap dance instead of just Jamie. It's hard to say how good or bad it sounded. They played "Bad Education" from the new album, which was probably the wrong choice (but which of their songs would have been the right choice?). Actually, it did sound bad, but everyone sounds bad on Letterman. Jamie, Kianna and Neely looked flashy and theatrical. The guy next to me asked if they were Prince's latest project. "Who are they supposed to be? Vanity 6?" They did sort of come off as a label creation, like a quirky, indie version of The Dixie Chicks. Nick White was hidden on stage, and it wasn't until about halfway through that the cameras panned away from all the tight close-ups of the tap shoes and hips to reveal Derek Pressnall off to stage right playing guitar and singing. No idea who the bass player was, apparently someone new to the band. If you missed it, I'm sure someone will put it on YouTube eventually. Getting on Letterman is quite an accomplishment, and you gotta believe it'll result in moving at least an additional 5,000 units.

After all that, on came The Pomonas, playing their usual brand of Lawrence-sounding indie rock (I know, I know, what the hell does "Lawrence-sounding" mean... there's something about KC/Lawrence indie bands of this vein that reminds me of all those mid-'90s bands from down there that I used to dig). It was a fun, sloppy set enjoyed by the few who remained.

Tonight's big show is Jolie Holland and Dave Dondero at Mick's. Someone told me last night that ticket sales have been brisk, and I wouldn't be surprised if it eventually sold out. $15, 9 p.m.

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Members of the Press (say goodbye?), Pomonas tonight... – Oct. 27, 2006 –

It's a busy, busy Friday night with ton of shows going on. Here's the rundown:

Tonight at Shea Riley's, Members of the Press are celebrating their CD release show, made doubly special as it will be one of the final MOTP performances before frontman Randy Cotton moves to the Portland area. He says he fell in love with the PNW (that's Pacific Northwest for you Midwestern types) after visiting his girlfriend there on a monthly basis. "I have been out here before on tour, but I never got to spend much time in Portland, until recently. I feel like there is a lot of opportunity for me in the area, so I'm gonna check it out for a while," Cotton said. "As soon as I get settled in, my brother Barry (other bassist in MOTP) is going to spend some time out here. If he likes it, he will most likely move here, too." As part of this special night, there will be a short set by Cotton and Mike Saklar's old band, Ravine. And on top of that, Saklar's new band, No Blood Orphan will play a set. And if that weren't enough, there will be a set by Killdozer tribute band Shoeshine Boys. The $10 cover will get you a copy of MOTP's new CD. Cotton is encouraging costuming. Do what you feel is right. 9:30, $10, Shea's, 320 So. 72nd St.

Also tonight, it's time to welcome back the The Pomonas at O'Leaver's. The Lawrence indie dudes will likely be unveiling some new material from an upcoming album. Also on the O'Leaver's dance card are The Black Squirrels and irresistible Omaha folkie Bill Latham a.k.a. Bill Donuts. $5, 9:30 p.m. No mention of costumes this time. Good.

Also tonight, two Benson-area folk-rock shows, starting with new band Hyannis at The Foundry in Benson (60th Ave and Maple, to be precise). 8 p.m. and FREE. Also in Benson, singer-songwriters Kyle Harvey and The Scott Severin Band are at The Barley Street Tavern, just 1/2 block south of 62nd and Maple. That one's at 9 p.m. and also is FREE.

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Guster's new guy, Joe Pisapia (a Lazy-i exclusive)... – Oct. 26, 2006 –

This really is a Lazy-i exclusive, and when I use the word "exclusive," I mean unlike most of the interviews seen here, this one won't appear in The Reader. It doesn't mean that no one else in the Omaha community printed an interview with Guster. In fact, the reason this won't appear in The Reader is because the interview was "called" by another writer weeks and weeks before I asked for the story. Instead of walking away, I still wanted to see what the men from Guster have been up to since the last time I interviewed them (here). And as a tip o' the hat to the power of online webzines, the band's publicist and the band agreed to do an interview with good ol' Lazy-i. So here it is. Enjoy it, and also go to the One Percent Productions website and buy a pair of tickets to the Halloween night Guster concert at Sokol Underground. I know that a majority of Lazy-i Omaha readers will likely be downstairs at the Underground that same night, where Now It's Overhead will be playing with Summerbirds in the Cellar & Coyote Bones. I don't blame them. But if you're a Guster fan and never been to a Guster concert, you'd be well-served to make your way upstairs that night (NIO was just here a few months ago, anyway). And, gosh, when was the last time you got to rub elbows with a more westerly-leaning Omaha crowd?

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Column 98 -- The Temple of Simon Joyner; The Elected tonight... – Oct. 25, 2006 –

This is not the full review of the new Simon Joyner and the Fallen Men CD that I promised. That's still percolating but will be online in the very near future along with reviews of new CDs by Hyannis, Bright Eyes and Shelterbelt. Really. Instead, this column was written after Sunday night's rocking Simon show. Though I don't know him very well and haven't interviewed him since way back in 1998 (here), Joyner is one of my all-time favorite singer/songwriters. I'd hoped that I could get the gig of interviewing him for The Reader in support of this show and this album release, but Jesse beat me to the punch (again). I guess it'll have to wait until the next one. As I've said many times before in various live reviews and again in the following column, Simon Joyner's musical style and his voice is downright polarizing -- people love it or hate it. There's no in between. I've never met anyone, however, who doesn't respect Joyner's song writing talent and what he's achieved in his career. If you haven't had the chance to see him perform live, you'll never get a better chance than when he opens for Bright Eyes at Sokol Auditorium Dec. 15 for a show that benefits The Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts' International Artist-in-Residency Program.

The Elected are playing tonight at Sokol Underground -- that's Blake Sennett of Rilo Kiley's "other band." Those wondering what's going on with Rilo might want to take a glimpse at this item at Billboard.com where Jenny Lewis talks about their upcoming new album, expected sometime in the first half of '07. Even more than The Elected, people are abuzz about tonight's opening band, Margot And The Nuclear So And So's, an 8-piece chamber-pop outfit from Indianapolis who doesn't have a member named Margot (the moniker is an homage to brilliant film The Royal Tenenbaums). Also on tonight's dance card, the kids from Whispertown 2000. This should be a scenester's paradise. $10, 9 p.m.

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Briefly noted from last weekend; Electric Six tonight... – Oct. 23, 2006 –

Went to a couple shows this past weekend. Last night's Simon Joyner gig down at Goofy Foot Lodge was the better of the two. Plans call for providing a little more detail and a review of Joyner's new album in this week's column, online Wednesday or Thursday. Look for it. Opening act The Miracles of God, who has opened for Simon on a few other occasions, sounded completely different to me, in a good way -- like a hybrid of punk and beer-bottle rock, the kind of punk you might hear in a truck stop driving east of Chicago. Dirty and loud. They played a couple shows with Outlaw Con Bandana leading up to this gig (who I missed last night, thanks to the Cardinals). Outlaw apparently had some van troubles on this short tour, troubles as in getting T-boned somewhere around Iowa City. I'm told their van was totaled. I assume no one was hurt or they wouldn't have played last night. Joyner, incidentally, declared them his current favorite local band during his set -- quite an honor (if you ask me).

The Goofy Foot continues to be one of the cooler bars in Omaha that still doesn't make you feel out of place, even if you're wearing a Ft. Calhoun Pioneers hoodie and a stocking cap (it was cold last night). Their pseudo stage is still somewhat lacking -- actually, it's more of an anti-stage as you seem to be looking down at the band rather than up to them -- but their sound system is more than adequate for the room. It does have a similar "standing in the way" problem that The 49'r has -- if you're not at a table or up at the pool tables, you're probably in someone's way. Oh well. They have the cheapest Rolling Rock in town, incidentally. More on Simon Wednesday (or Thursday).

I didn't get a good enough feel at Saturday night's Titanmoon/Davan show at O'Leaver's to give a real review (I was chatting with someone in the back during most of the set). Titanmoon was fun, poppy rock, and durn good. Davan was quirky and didn't hold my attention. Neither band was a good fit opening for the thunder of Noah's Ark Was a Spaceship, which pounded the place to rubble. Perhaps the bands are friends or the touring bands were just thrown on the night's bill? No idea.

Tonight at Sokol Underground, Detroit's Electric Six with Aberdeen City and The Blue Van. I'm listening to Electric Six's "I Buy the Drugs" right now -- sounds like a throwback to early '80s FM radio rock a la Jack Black, lots of keyboards and guitar and a big, bad chorus. Could be fun. Niz wrote about Aberdeen City here in the OWH this weekend -- their guitarist has Omaha ties, apparently, and Steve Lillywhite likes 'am. $12, 9 p.m.

Here's this week's Slowdown photo. As always, click the thumbnail to enlarge. The cranes have been busy, but it's getting colder out there, folks. Can they get it buttoned down before the heavy stuff moves in?

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Terminals/Willowz tonight, Simon Joyner and the Fallen Men Sunday...– Oct. 20, 2006 –

Here's what we got for the weekend, folks:

It starts tonight with The Willowz and The Terminals at O'Leaver's. Hopefully more people will show up this time for The Willowz than when they came through here last August. $5, 9:30 p.m.

Tomorrow night is another one at O'Leaver's, starting with Noah's Ark Was a Spaceship and Electric Needle Room. Dallas' Titanmoon is an indie disco rock band. Sounds pretty fun, judging by their myspace page. Headliner Davan is weirdness from Lawrence. A lot of music for $5, 9:30 p.m.

Finally, Sunday, the long-awaited CD release party for Simon Joyner and the Fallen Men's new CD, Skeleton Blues, at The Goofy Foot Lodge. Look for a full review of the CD online here sometime this weekend. Also playing are Outlaw Con Bandana and The Miracles of God. $6, 9 p.m.

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Column 97 -- YouTubed; Califone tonight... – Oct. 19, 2006 –

The final word on Two Gallants? Probably. Nothing new about the Houston incident went online over night. I sense the hype fading, at least until the court date. The whole thing was a good springboard to write the following column about YouTube, which really is the greatest time waster since the invention of pornography. Go to YouTube when you're board, look down at your watch and discover that an hour has passed while you absentmindedly viewed someone's shitty videos of their dog or tried to find every Joy Division video online.

Tonight at Sokol Underground, Califone with Peter & the Wolf and McCarthy Trenching. I enjoyed Califone the last time they came through here, opening for The Sea and Cake waaay back in 2003 (read the review here). Judging by their new CD, the very trippy Roots & Crowns, not much has changed. It should be a fun evening. $10, 9 p.m.

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More Two Gallants publicity; Thunderbirds Are Now! tonight; Minutemen at O'Leaver's... – Oct. 18, 2006 –

Who would have thought Two Gallants getting busted in Houston last Friday night would become such a big deal? It's a story that just isn't going to die. The Houston Chronicle today follows with a lengthy feature headlined, "Melee Could Put the Hurt on Houston's Music Scene," with the underline "Brawl between HPD, band draws national notice, may keep acts away, fans say." The story (here) says that Houston already has a bad rep among touring bands, and that the Two Gallants debacle is only going to make it worse. "Managers are trying to give their bands a chance in Houston. But there's absolutely nothing we can say to help our case to get bands into town when they're being attacked by cops. Whatever the official report is, there's no excuse for it," said local promoter Ryan Chavez, who booked the show. Two Gallants would be crazy to skip Houston now. Imagine the press coverage they'd receive, both locally and nationally, upon their return. The show would be huge. If they really want to make a statement about what happened, the best way to do it is from a Houston stage.

Doesn't sound like that will happen though, based on the band's interview with Pitchfork that went online yesterday afternoon (here). Adam Stephens' and Tyson Vogel's account of the situation is disturbing, painting a picture of a man-mountain strolling through the crowd brandishing a Taser like a cattle prod. "He was really focused on this one kid, who was really young," said Vogel in the article. "I think he was 14 years old. He kept Tasing him over and over again. The kid started having convulsions or something. It's so crazy. You can kill somebody with one of those things." If true, that's pretty creepy. The funniest line of the story comes from Stephens: "That guy was huge, and we're skinny little indie rocker kids. It's not like we go to the gym, and we definitely couldn't take this guy on in any way. He was a big dude and he was on top of us, pretty much had us down." So now the band is considering taking legal action, which would be a mistake. Says Vogel, "This is about a larger truth. We're not trying to get something else out of it. We just want what's right." Good luck with that one.

Tonight at Sokol Underground, Thunderbirds Are Now! roll into town in support of their new album, Make History on Frenchkiss Records, a standard-issue indie rock album. With Rescue and Tie These Hands, $8, 9 p.m. Meanwhile, over at O'Leaver's, it's Mike Tulis' Rock Movie Night featuring the documentary We Jam Econo: The Story of the Minutemen. Movie details are here. The film rolls at 9:30 and it's FREE.

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Two Gallants epilogue; Bonnie Prince Billy tonight... – Oct. 17, 2006 –

A follow-up to the Two Gallants' drama. Just about every music outlet on the web has covered the incident, including Rollingstone.com and, of course, Pitchfork. And there are tons of blogs covering the fracas, including this one. Also as a result of the rigmarole, Thursday's Lazy-i column will focus on YouTube and will mention the incident. Again, could Saddle Creek and Two Gallants ask for better (or at least, more) publicity, even if it costs the band some more jail time and/or fines? Guess that's up to the band to decide...

Tonight at Sokol Underground Bonnie Prince Billy along with Dapose's Vverevvolf Grehv. Who remembers the last time Will Oldham came to town? I do. It was back in August 2001 at The Music Box. Simon Joyner opened the show, and Pinetop Seven did an amazing set. Oldham stumbled on stage last along with has band of very strange musicians. They created about 30 minutes of droning noise that featured Oldham mumbling words incoherently while some spook stood at the front of the stage and stared at the crowd (that appeared to be his only job, to be the official goon). Not one of the best shows of 2001, not by a long shot. But hey, that was five years ago. I'm sure things have gotten better for Oldham by then. He's certainly turned out to be a helluva an actor (Junebug, Old Joy, etc.). And his new album, The Letting Go, has been getting raves. $15, 9 p.m. If you prefer to dance instead, drop in at O'Leaver's for Chromatics, who's playing tonight with Glass Candy and Eagle's Blood. $5, 9:30 p.m.

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Two Gallants tangle with the HPD; Live review: Chin Up x2; Totimoshi tonight... – Oct. 16, 2006 –

I received a number of emails over the weekend from outraged Houstonites who were there Friday night when Two Gallants got busted during a performance at Walter's on Washington. Walter's calls itself "the neighborhood bar that is also the best new live music venue in Houston." Supposedly a few of those neighbors weren't so happy with the noise level Friday night and called the cops. By the accounts I've received, what ensued was a police action that borders on Gestapo.

One member of the crowd, Lazy-i reader William G.K. Zhang, says it went down like this: "A policeman came into the venue and immediately got on stage. The policeman then started to confront Adam and after a short while, threw him down on the stage. The policeman then got up and immediately called for backup. The policeman also started thrashing around and destroying musical equipment. Afterwards, members from the crowd and the opening bands started confronting the police officer. The police officer then proceeded to harass and taze members of the crowd, including one 14-year old teenager. Adam then ran out of the venue and disappeared into the streets. Tyson was handcuffed and peacefully entered the police car. Soon, helicopters and police cars flooded into the venue parking lot. Arrests were made of members of the opening bands and dissenting crowd members."

The local ABC affiliate filed this report, which originally stated the band attacked the cop. Ah, but the power of portable digital video cameras proved that those initial reports were, to say the least, questionable, and story has since been updated. Take a look a couple different videos of the incident on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxKQb03A0bw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40x2KghHX_A

Ugly. I ran into Saddle Creek's Robb Nansel yesterday, who confirmed that the incident did indeed go down, and that Adam and Tyson didn't get out of Houston till the next day, then booked it to Austin for their gig at Emo's. Zhang said that among the casualties in the fray was Langhorne Slim's 90-year-old bass, which got broken when the cop pushed a crowd member into it. Now there are reports that the neighbors never complained about the noise. And let's be honest, isn't it odd for a cop to storm the stage and try to take a guitar away from the musician? If you want the sound cut, you go to the sound board and start unplugging things. Strange, strange business. It'll be even stranger when the Two Gallants make their return visit to Houston -- to appear in court.

The Houston Chronicle weighs in with this account, where an HPD spokesman calls the policeman's behavior "commendable."

Zhang's full account is now on the Two Gallants Wikipedia entry.

There's another account on a witness' myspace page:

And more comments at the Two Gallants forum.

Expect this story to be covered in all the usual music media in the next few days. Could Two Gallants ask for better publicity? Congratulations, Saddle Creek. And thanks to those who wrote in (Emily, William, John) to give me a head's up.

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There was a nice crowd at the Chin Up Chin Up show Saturday night at O'Leaver's to hear a nice set from a nice indie 5-piece that plays nice, mid-tempo indie rock. I like Chin Up, but the set was less than riveting. To their credit, they got better as the set wore on, peaking with the final two songs.

Tonight at O'Leaver's, Oakland-based indie heavy-metal trio Totimoshi takes the stage with Omaha's own Lepers. $5, 9:30 p.m.

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Live Review: STNNNG, The Protoculture; Chin Up Chin Up tonight – Oct. 14, 2006 –

Maybe 65 people were at Sokol Underground last night to see Protoculture play the best set I've ever heard them play. If you were around the stage, you saw the hi-jinx between the crowd and band, that at one point forced them to start a song over. Kooky. Great sound, though, and always fun to watch (though they didn't play their Kite Pilot cover as drummer Koly Walter has promised.).

STNNNG had a tougher time. Halfway through their set, something went amiss with one of the guitar amps. It killed the momentum the band had gathered up to that point with their brand of hard-edged post-punk. Frontman Chris Besinger was in his usual bizarre form, looking like a dwarfish sex deviant straight out of Times Square circa 1971. With his scream-bark, leather gloves and piercing eyes, he looked like a homicidal street lunatic ranting at an imaginary friend, pointing and grimacing and storming around the stage. Meanwhile, a small moshpit formed up front, consisting of five or six young guys stomping around elbowing each other. Whatever happened to the slam-dance culture? STNNNG’s new songs are bleak, intense and filthy, at times creating an intense groove with Besinger playing the role of punk shaman. And man, it was loud.

Tonight at O’Leaver's, Chin Up Chin Up, with Skull Fight and Electric Needle Room. $5, 9:30 p.m.

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STNNNG on Friday the 13th!; Chin Up Chin Up Saturday; Cursive update – Oct. 13, 2006 –

Friday the 13th. Pretty scary. Is it safe to go out tonight? Well, if you do, there's a great show down at Sokol Underground: STNNNG, The Protoculture, Bombardment Society and The Stay Awake all for just $8. I'm told that The Protoculture will be rolling out a new cover of a Kite Pilot song this evening. And if you haven't seen Bombardment with new bass player Lincoln Dickison (The Monroes), well, you're in for a treat.

If for some reason you've gone crazy and you don't feel like driving downtown, Mark Mallman is "scheduled" to open a show at O'Leaver's with Pendrakes and Jon Yeager Band. Ironically, I mentioned Mallman's show to Chris Besinger of STNNNG, and he said if these two shows were going on simultaneously in Minneapolis, Mallman's show would be the one to sell out. Please Note: Mallman's O'Leaver' show is not listed on his tour page. He was scheduled to play in Fargo last night and in Albuquerque tomorrow. The show's promoter hasn't been able to reach him to confirm tonight's show, so caveat emptor on this one.

If you survive Friday the 13th, you may not be so lucky on the 14th, what with Skull Fight!, Chin Up Chin Up, and Electric Needle Room playing at O'Leaver's. CUCU just released the long player This Harness Can't Ride Anything on Suicide Squeeze. Skull Fight! is the new Cuterthans, but tougher, angrier, maybe not as smarter, but angrier (sort of). Electric Needle Room is one of the guys featured in my Joslyn column from a few weeks ago. I believe this will be his O'Leaver's debut. Will he be great? Will he suck? Find out for $5.

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A bit of Saddle Creek-related news to pass on: In an interview with Billboard (they're getting all the scoops lately), Cursive's Tim Kasher said that the band is writing a new album's worth of music with the intention of hitting the studio in January for a fall release. Kasher also continues to work on his screenplay titled, "Help Wanted Nights." Ain't looking so good for us Good Life fans, as Kasher is unsure when he'll return to that band. Read the whole story here. If you're wondering how Cursive is doing on the road, here's a colorful review of their show in Philly, that starts with "A man has found his way onto the stage of the Starlight Ballroom and he is very, very drunk." and ends with "A smile deep across his face, Kasher thanks everyone post-sing-a-long, bending over and hugging the front row. His sincerity probably only half due to his drinking." Glug-glug-glug...

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Column 96 -- The Trouble with Lists; Benevento-Russo Duo tonight ... – Oct. 12, 2006 –

This column was written in conjunction with The Reader's annual "music issue" which features a list of the area's top-20 bands and the next 15 bands. I don't have an accurate list to show you because it changed before publication for whatever reason. I assume editor Andy Norman will share the process by which the list was created -- i.e., music writers at The Reader were asked to contribute their lists, and Andy used a method to consolidate them involving votes, etc. But before those lists were sent in, a number of the writers met at The Dundee Dell to discuss the guidelines, and arguments ensued - not angry, fist-shaking scream-a-thons, but lively exchanges about what should and shouldn't be allowed. That's where the question regarding Saddle Creek bands' inclusion surfaced. Are Creek bands "local" or not? I argue that they are, some say they aren't, which makes no sense to me. In the end, my side of the argument prevailed, as you'll be able to see when the issue hits the streets today. Andy plans to make the lists an annual event.

Tonight down at Sokol Underground, the Benevento-Russo Duo with Chris Harford's Band of Changes. Here's a capsule preview I submitted to The Reader about this show:

This one has the folks at One Percent excited, and the B-R is doing an in-store performance at the Old Market Homer's at 5:30.

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STNNNG's stunning interview... – Oct. 11, 2006 –

Yes, that STNNNG interview just went online (read it here). Frontman Chris Besinger was one of the better interviews I've had in recent weeks. Translated: He was funny and engaging, as opposed to dry and boring. In addition to mocking Wayne Coyne and Chris Machmuller, Besinger talked about his leather glove, his love of Omaha, his new and old albums, and why he does what he does.

Among the quips I didn't have room for in the article:

And so on... Read the story, then go to the show Friday night. By the way, here's the "Slowdown pic 'o the week." I should have put it online Monday. Click the thumbnail to see a bigger version. And for those of you who complain about the picture on the Lazy-i homepage never changing -- I've changed it twice in three weeks. So there! Please notice.

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Live Review: Yo La Tengo... – Oct. 9, 2006 –

I don't know how to lead this -- I've been waiting for this show for a decade and finally, here it was. I was halfway afraid that no one would show up, this being Omaha, and this band being somewhat unknown due to the city's lack of a college radio station. But my city didn't disappoint me, and lo and behold, the Underground was sold out, packed with people that were, for the first time in recent memory, closer to my age than what you'd find at a typical indie show. Lots of old guys in graying ponytails, lots of middle-aged couples out for a wild night, and yes, also lots of young, urban indie fans paying homage to these legends, though overall, a completely different audience than, say, at a typical Creek show.

It was nice to see the entire band sitting behind the merch table while opening act, Why?, played their set of middle-of-the-road indie pop sung by a guy who sounded like John Flansburgh from They Might be Giants. Ira, looking like a cross between SNL's Chris Parnell and monologist Eric Bogosian, even sold me my YLT T-shirt ($11, cheap!).

What to say about the show? Two hours, three encores, selections from throughout their catalog. Don't ask me the songs' names, because I don't know them. There were a couple from the new record, including "Pass the Hatchet, I Think I'm Goodkind," and "Mr. Tough." A throbbing version of "Big Day Coming," an ironically appropriate (if only because North Korea was probably preparing to test their first nuke at the time), revelatory take on "Nuclear War" (I didn't realize that James McNew sung the lead), and a couple long, droning jams that were 20 minutes of throbbing organ and shrieking feedback guitar. Between it all were interspersed a few quiet songs featuring Georgia on vocals sounding like Nico, including encore "Tom Courtenay."

This band is forever compared to Velvet Underground, and for good reason. Ira has the same, flat monotone voice as Lou Reed, Georgia vocally resembles Nico, and some of their music is reminiscent of VU's live recordings, but really, no one sounds like YLT to me. Their style is all over the board, from raging indie jams to urban, falsetto R&B to quiet, acoustic ballads. For someone of diminutive size, Georgia Hubley was a monster behind the drum kit, joined at times on a second drum set by McNew, who also manned keyboards when he wasn't on bass. The bass, incidentally, was numbingly loud. The set started tolerable; but after a few songs, I put in my earplugs, and by the end, the earplugs weren't enough, especially from the front of the house. I don't know how people standing next to me by the stack who didn't have earplugs could take the noise level.

Among Ira's between-song snappy patter: He acknowledged that last night was the first time YLT had ever been in Nebraska (though he admitted that he lied to one of the local journalists (who? wasn't me) by telling him/her that they played in Lincoln before). He took a shot at the Omaha World-Herald when he introduced a Ramones cover: "I read in your paper -- in one of the few articles that wasn't about your football team -- that today is Johnny Ramone's birthday." He asked the audience if they had any questions. Someone asked if the band would ever return to Omaha. "Well, we haven't left yet," Ira said, then added. "It's too early to say." Chances are, after last night's show, they'll probably return, but it could take another 20 years. For me, a top-five show of the year.

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Live Review: Ideal Cleaners, The Monroes, Domestica; Yo La Tengo tonight... – Oct. 8, 2006 –

The Brothers doesn't do shows very often. Hardly at all, actually. The reason is simple: Tré, who runs the place, doesn't need to. Drop in at The Brothers on any given Friday or Saturday night at around 10. Try to find a table. It's always packed on weekends just on the strength of its service (You're not going to have to wait for a beer), its rep (The Brothers is where bands go to get drunk when they're not playing gigs), and its jukebox (punk and heavy indie and Omaha music from back in the day). So Tré doesn't need bands to get butts in seats. But every once in a while, he sees an opportunity to put on a show that's close to his heart, and last night was one of them. My point being: The Brothers ain't exactly designed for live shows. Yet last night, the bands sounded better there than I've heard them anywhere else.

Take Ideal Cleaners. I saw them a few months ago at the Speed! Nebraska showcase at Sokol Underground, and they were good, they were fine. Last night they sounded like a different band. Listening to the trio rip through a set of bruising, welt-rising punk, I said to myself. "Okay, I get it." I hadn't really gotten it before, but last night they sounded ripped and raw, easily pushing the weight over their heads for a personal best. Ideal Cleaners sounded better than I've ever heard them sound. Better than they sound on record. Stripped down to sonic essentials, their songs bled bright red, and now I think I know what I've been missing. I have a feeling they come off just as straight-forward at Duffy's, where I've never seen them play. So look, I don't know a thing about sound engineering, but I can point to the fact that it was just their amps, the small PA and the bar's low ceiling and wonder if that resulted in the dynamic tension. Simpler is better, almost always.

It carried on into The Monroes' set. Has Lincoln Dickison ever played better? No. He was in his own special world last night. The hand-spiders (as Chris and Jamie from Ladyfinger describe his playing style) were running wild on the fretboard, crawling impossibly where other hand spiders rarely climb. Jon Taylor marveled to my left while unpacking T-shirts: "How does he do that?" and later from stage "He must have three hands." He does it by being the best punk/rock guitarist in Omaha. Lincoln was just plain filthy last night, right down to the riff that powered the band's cover of Husker Du's "Divide and Conquer" (you know the one). And again, the sound mix was enormous.

So here's where it gets weird. Mercy Rule was a band that was notorious for being one of the loudest acts in the Omaha/Lincoln circuit. Guitarist Jon Taylor didn't just like it loud, he wanted to hurt you. Earplugs weren't optional, they were required for your personal long-term health. So when Domestica took over The Brothers' pseudo-stage, I was expecting to be blown completely away. In fact, the band sounded muted and muddy compared to The Cleaners and The Monroes. Certainly it wasn't as loud as either of those bands. Disappointing? At first, yes. Anyone who's ever heard Heidi Ore sing knows that it can be a challenge for her just to be heard over the din. And despite the lowering of the amps, her voice still was lost during the first few songs. Ah, but as the set wore on, my ears adjusted to the mix and everything came into better focus.

There are obvious similarities between Domestica and Mercy Rule songs, and that's part of the charm. No one plays riffs quite like Taylor or has a similar tone. There is a layered, fluid quality to his sound that resonates through his constant, chopping chords. Jon's guitar always seems to rise to the level of Heidi's pure, honest, unaffected vocals. So yeah, the band sounds like Mercy Rule, in musicianship and in song structure -- those big, chiming anthems that drop down halfway through, leaving Heidi singing alone while Jon plays a simple pinging line that moments later will roar again. Boz Hicks drumming is completely different than Ron Albertson's. It's more spare, simpler, more narrow, less likely to get in the way, not nearly as colorful, but right for this style. It's going to take some getting used to because it ain't Albertson, who's precise fills and ballistic remarks are tough to forget.

As their set went on, they got stronger. Heidi's voice got more comfortable and fuller and familiar with the style. Anyone who's ever heard her voice before loves it. It's hearing it for the first time that can be startling. Though at times lost in the mix, she hasn't lost an ounce of what any Mercy Rule fan has always loved. Welcome back. That said, Domestica could pick up where Mercy Rule left off, if the band wanted to. But I don't know if that's what the want. For now, they just want to play together, rock out with their friends and enjoy making music. And that's all right with me, as long as I can listen.

Tonight, Yo La Tengo at Sokol Underground. If the One Percent site is up-to-date (and it almost always is) then tickets are still available. Do yourself a favor and get down there tonight and see this legendary band. Considering that they've never played here before, chances are pretty good you may never ever get another chance.

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Clarifications, Domestica Saturday, Yo La Sunday... – Oct. 6, 2006 –

This marks one of the best weekends of shows in quite a while, but before I get to that, a couple points of clarification brought to my attention via the Webboard and other devices (See, people really do use my webboard, mainly to complain, but that's okay, too). First, concerning Commander Venus, one of the former members of the band pointed out that I had the line-up wrong. Yes, while the lineup listed in yesterday's blog entry was technically correct (for one tour), the folks who actually played on The Uneventful Vacation were Conor Oberst, Robb Nansel, Tim Kasher (of Cursive/The Good Life) and Matt Bowen, who's been in a number of important bands, including The Faint. Matt also pointed out that Oberst was 17, not 14, during the CV days (He only looked like he was 14, apparently. He looks like he's 17 now).

A couple people also pointed out my error in stating that The Dundee Dell no longer serves food. In reality, it's the "old Dundee Dell" on Dodge St. that closed its kitchen, not the Dell on Underwood, which is the one that actually has the famous fish and chips. I've excised the error from yesterday's blog entry. Apologies all around.

Moving on.

As I was saying, this could be one of the strongest weekends for shows in recent history. It starts Saturday night with two very hot shows:

First, Orenda Fink is playing a concert at The Healing Arts Center in the Old Market (at 1216 Howard to be precise), which by the way is a great place to see a show. Proceeds will benefit Filmstreams, the two-screen nonprofit indie movie house that's going in as part of the Slowdown project (read about it here). Fink's back-up band will consist of Adrianne Verhoeven, Dan McCarthy (McCarthy Trenching), and Corey Broman (ex-Statistics, ex-Kite Pilot). Suggested "donation" to get in is $25. The evening begins with an 8 p.m. cocktail hour (beer and root beer provided by Upstream Brewery, food and sangria provided by La Buvette). You'll want to get there early, because space is limited.

Afterward (or after the game), truck on over to The Brothers for the debut of Domestica -- Heidi Ore and Jon Taylor of Mercy Rule and Boz Hicks of Her Flyaway Manner. The show will be a veritable Speed! Nebraska showcase, with openers Ideal Cleaners and The Monroes. 9:30, $5..

And then, Sunday, the show I've been waiting for (we've all been waiting for, right?) for almost a decade: Yo La Tengo at Sokol Underground. Tickets are still available from onepercentproductions.com for $15. Don't miss this important show.

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Column 95 -- The stench of rock; Architecture in Helsinki tonight; Commander Venus reissued...– Oct. 5, 2006 –

Just when you thought you'd heard all you care to about Omaha's new pseudo-smoking ban that went into effect Sunday, here's another comment, this time from the musicians' perspective. What wasn't pointed out in the column below was the scorecard as to where smoking is and isn't allowed. Smoking isn't allowed at Sokol Underground, Sokol Auditorium and Mick's -- that's the extent of the ban's impact. It's still allowed for the next five years at O'Leaver's, The 49'r and The Saddle Creek Bar. If you don't know the rules, here's an abbreviated explanation: Smoking is allowed in bars that don't serve food (O'Leaver's, The 49'r) and isn't allowed in multi-use facilities (Sokol) or bars that serve food unless those bars offer keno (The Saddle Creek Bar). Mick's, which doesn't have a kitchen, voluntarily banned smoking.

Tonight's Architecture in Helsinki show at Sokol Underground will mark the first time I'll have gone down there when the place didn't smell like an ashtray. While bars are understandably worried about the impact of the ban on their businesses, I can't see the ban impacting the draw at Sokol shows one iota, and I know that One Percent's Jim Johnson couldn't be happier about throwing away the ash trays.

Opening tonight's Helsinki show is The Family Radio (live review), a combo fronted by local filmmaker Nik Fackler (He's done vids for a lot of Saddle Creek bands, including The Good Life and Azure Ray). They should be a good compliment to Architecture's indie electric fun pop. 9 p.m., $10. A warning about parking tonight: Goon rockers Good Charlotte will be playing upstairs at the Auditorium at 7:30, so good luck finding a place to park within a mile of the building. At least it shouldn't be raining.

One last bit if news to pass on. Billboard is reporting that Wind-Up Records (formerly known as Grass Records) is reissuing Commander Venus' The Uneventful Vacation Nov. 14. Commander Venus included Ben Armstrong (Head of Femur), Todd Baechle (now Todd Fink, of The Faint), Robb Nansel (king of Saddle Creek Records) and an adolescent version of Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes, age 14). On the same day, Wind-up also is rereleasing two long-out-of-print Wrens albums. Asked why Wind-up was only now reissuing the albums, label chief Alan Meltzer told Billboard.com, "Because the music is too important to keep in some vault. We have been on such a huge growth curve as a company, we felt we were never able to do justice to the material in terms of the necessary marketing, promotion and in-store placement." Read the whole article here. Other than historical/novelty value, the CV album is worth picking up just hear baby Oberst sounding like Peter Brady singing "When it's time to change, it's time to rearrange..."

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Yo La Tengo interview...– Oct. 4, 2006 –

Just posted online, an interesting little interview with Yo La Tengo's James McNew (read it here). James talks about how the band makes records, his relationship with mates Ira and Georgia, and coming to Omaha for the first time. Almost the whole interview is there and in The Reader (I think), though this online version also talks about the making of the soundtrack to the movie Old Joy, which hasn't played in Omaha yet, and considering how this city handles independent film, probably never will.

The show is Sunday night, and as far as I can tell, isn't sold out, which is both unfortunate and not surprising. Yo La Tengo is a music fans' band and is beloved by a core group of people who likely have been following indie music all their lives. So while the band is making some of the best music of their careers, it's going unnoticed by most people around Omaha, mainly because we don't have a real college radio station that plays college music. But then again, we never have and look at the scene we've managed to create? We're also lucky to have a promotion company like Marc and Jim at One Percent Productions, who are willing to take on a show like this knowing full well that it's a gamble, but doing it anyway because they love the band. So get out there and buy a ticket to what promises to be one of the best shows of 2006.

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Random notes: Slowdown, Domestica, The Who, Zune...– Oct. 2, 2006 –

Some random notes on a quiet Monday:

Every Monday look for an updated photo of the Slowdown construction site online here. It's not that I'm obsessed with the project; the fact is that it's just a few blocks away from my office so taking a snappy once a week is no problem. Will they get the building enclosed by the time the snow flies? Keep watching and see.

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I wound up not going to any shows this weekend, which means I missed Little Brazil on Saturday and Jenny Lewis on Sunday. Anyone who was at either show, feel free to chime in with a review on the webboard.

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Domestica, the new band featuring Heidi Ore and Jon Taylor of Mercy Rule and Boz Hicks of Her Flyaway Manner, will be making their Omaha debut next Saturday night at The Brothers.

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I bought my tickets to Dec. 7 Who concert, which I guess makes me a dick, or so it would seem from every local music guy I've mentioned the concert to. "Why in hell would you want to see The Who? It's not even the original line-up! Those guys shouldn't be allowed to perform -- they're too old! As an indie music fan, I'm surprised you're going -- The Who are sell outs..." And so on.

Look, I hate arena shows as much as the next guy that hates arena shows -- you're a mile away from the stage, the sound is always always always bad, and you're surrounded by a crowd that consists of middle-aged bikers, soccer moms, Husker fans and generally, people who don't like music and are trying to relive some unfortunate moment of their youth. I generally avoid arena shows, but The Who, well, that's different. They were punk before punk, New Wave before New Wave. This band of snotty British outsiders somehow was allowed inside simply on the strength of their music, which, from album-to-album always seemed to stray off the beaten path. Sure, half the band is dead, but half the band is alive, too. And they're coming to Omaha -- something I never thought I'd see or hear. So I got my tickets -- in advance, as a member of the fan club. I probably shouldn't have hurried -- glancing at their schedule, only their Nov. 24 Atlantic City show is sold out. I doubt the Qwest gig will sell out, either, even with The Pretenders opening (most people have told me they're more excited about seeing Chrissie and Co.). And as ridiculous as it sounds, I'll try to bag an interview with the band via The Reader -- it'll never happen. The Who doesn't need alternative newspapers to get the word out. They never have. But can you imagine what a gas it would be to talk to Townshend or Daltrey?

* * *

Finally, this rather humorous article on Yahoo! reports that Zune, the new soon-to-fail Microsoft competitor to the iPod is shipping with pre-loaded music so that consumers will have something to listen to when they take the player out of the box. Another mp3 player, SanDisk, will load more than 32 hours worth of music on their players -- all done under the guise of giving the consumer something for free! So all of us who use mp3 players in our cars to avoid the schlock that gets played on the radio these days will now be forced to delete the schlock from the players before they begin playing them. It's like freeware -- for your ears! I can't imagine a more annoying marketing ploy. A better idea may have been for giving away 30 free songs that users could download from the product-specific service (Rhapsody for SanDisck, for example). Ah, but then the labels would actually have to charge the hardware makers for something like that... Let's hope iPod doesn't follow their misguided lead...

* * *

Look for a nice, long exclusive interview with Yo La Tengo here on Wednesday, and another take on Omaha's new no smoking regs in this Thursday's column...

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Live Review: Eric Bachmann, Richard Buckner; Two Gallants tonight... – Sept. 29, 2006 –

A restrained, arty crowd (of 150?) last night at Sokol Underground got a long earful of Richard Buckner, maybe (definitely) too long. Seated with just his guitar and a sideman, Buckner put together a set of new and old that spanned at least 75 minutes, which I'm sure was a delight for fans. For the rest of it, the guy-and-guitar performance is always what I've never liked about him, and why his latest CD, Meadow, is such a good trip because there he's backed by a full band, making these folkish ditties into rockers instead of snoozers. Part of the problem was the lack of dynamics -- one song blended into the next, until you caught yourself looking at your watch.

Buckner finished up at around midnight (only a handful of people left after his set) then up came the towering Bachmann (There would be no sitting down for him!). From the first note of "Man o' War," which just happens to be the first song on his new album, Bachmann created on stage a pitch-perfect, dynamic replication of the CD -- in other words, if you like the record, you liked the set (I do and did). I heard two people comment on the Neil Diamond similarity in vocals (everything but the low-end growl), and another yap about Bachmann's precise finger-picking style (delicate pinging on a nylon-strung acoustic). The highlight, though, was my favorite track off Crooked Fingers' Red Devil Dawn, "Bad Man Coming," and fleshing it out with violin, keyboards and a guy playing a couple drums with mallets. Beautiful.

Tonight, all kinds of things going on. Down at Sokol Underground Two Gallants with Langhorne Slim and Trainwreck Riders. Here's what I wrote for The Reader about this show that they didn't publish: I've got to admit it -- Two Gallants' Saddle Creek Records' debut, What the Toll Tells, has grown on me. At first I couldn't get past the backbeat shack-shanty pirate pulse that runs thick throughout their take on '20s- and '30s-era blues by way of modern-day San Francisco. But now I look forward to hearing the over-the-top bash-crash ruckus of "Las Cruces Jail" and the rocking-chair blues of "Steady Rollin'" whenever they show up on my iPod shuffle. On stage they take their gritty folk elegies a step further, turning their set into a rock 'n' roll tent show. Don't miss out on this revival. $8, 9 p.m.

Also tonight, Scott Severin Band is at O'Leaver's. Scott sent me a copy of his latest CD, which reminded me of John Hiatt morphed with Stan Ridgway and some Midwest snarl. Wonder what he sounds like live? With three other bands, 9:30, $5.

And maybe the theatrical show of the evening, Father, collaborating with Dapose of The Faint, performing the first track off their disturbing just-released debut (you can find it at Drastic Plastic and I'm sure at the show) along with Vverevvolf Grehv (Formerly Precious Metal), Wasteoid, and Kjeld, all at The Magic Theater, 325 S. 16th St, and by candlelight no less. 9 p.m., $5.

The rest of the weekend is Little Brazil Saturday night and Jenny Lewis Sunday. More later.

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Column 94 -- Listening to Art; Eric Bachmann/Richard Buckner tonight... – Sept. 28, 2006 –

Clearly, as the Joslyn staff pointed out in Niz's story in The OWH Sunday (here, but you gotta register to read it), Art for Your Ears is targeted at attracting new blood to the museum, just like their (now defunct?) "college night" concert series that featured Son, Ambulance last year (and Tilly the year before). It's a good idea. We got masterpieces in our midst and most people don't even know it. While I was figuring out how to use the Joslyn's mp3 player next to that huge Chihuly near the gallery entrance, a young guy was standing dumbfounded looking up-up-up at the those shiny glass Mardi Gras bulbs. He asked if he could touch the sculpture. I said, "Better not. What if it came down around us? It'd be a helluva mess." He smiled and nodded, never taking his eyes off the art.

Tonight at Sokol Underground, Eric Bachmann and Richard Buckner along with local singer-songwriter Mal Madrigal, all for just $10. This is sort of a pseudo CD release show for Bachmann, whose new album To the Races, was released on Saddle Creek Records Aug. 22. I went out of my way yesterday to tell someone that the new Buckner CD, Meadow, was boring, when in fact it's much more interesting and lively than his last record. Buckner seems headed in a similar direction as Richard Thompson's solo stuff. It ain't bad, and the fact is most people will be there tonight to see Buckner, who has a bigger following here (for some reason).

Eric Bachmann review; Butch Walker reviewed; Kayo Dot/Shinyville tonight... – Sept. 27, 2006 –

I just posted the first new full-length review on the ol' Reviews page. It's been over a year since that index has been updated, seeing as how the Reviews Matrix has taken center stage. My original plan was to interview Eric Bachmann as a preview for tomorrow night's show with Richard Buckner, but he wasn't available when I was available and vice versa, so instead I put together this review, which will give you a general idea of where he's coming from on his new album, To the Races. And speaking of reviews, the folks at The Reader tell me that CD reviews will be returning to the paper after, what, an 8-eight year absence. Strangely, I think The Reader is just about the only alternative newspaper in the country that hasn't run CD reviews. It is a freakin' staple for alt weeklies, as it should be.

And while we're talking about reviews, Lazy-i intern Brendan Greene-Walsh has submitted some more reviews for your perusal, starting with the following, which is another example of where we disagree -- we're a regular Ebert and Roeper (Wherein Brendan plays the role of the fat guy and I'm the geek).

Tonight at O'Leaver's, Kay Dot with local boys Shinyville and Eagle's Blood. $5, 9:30 p.m.

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An Iris Pattern signs with Hilfiger; Bright Eyes heads to California; The Life and Times tonight... – Sept. 26, 2006 –

A couple hot little items to pass along on a quiet Tuesday.

I got a call from Greg Loftis of An Iris Pattern last night, inviting me to a last-minute gig at O'Leaver's. The reason for the show: To prepare for another show the band will be performing next Monday at an art gallery in New York City. According to Loftis, An Iris Pattern will indeed be the first band represented on Tommy Hilfiger's new record label. The as-yet-unnamed label (Hilfiger doesn't want his name involved, apparently) is in talks now regarding distribution (Atlantic Records is one name being tossed around). Loftis said the deal is 100 percent in the bag, and that a second act also will be joining An Iris Pattern on Hilfiger's label. "Tommy wants to show people what we sound like," Lofits said of the NYC gallery show. "It's playtime for him, but it's our lives."

Another bit of news, word has it that Bright Eyes has wrapped up recording in Omaha and has been working in Lincoln at Presto! studios to finish up the new album. Whether any more work continues at Presto! or not, chances are that the Bright Eyes album will mark the last project before the Lincoln studio closes for good and reopens full time in Omaha. Saddle Creek confirmed that Bright Eyes will now head to California at the beginning of October to do some mixing on the project.

Allen Epley's (ex-Shiner) new project The Life and Times will be taking the stage tonight at O'Leaver's. The KC trio also includes Eric Abert (Ring, Cicada) and Chris Metcalf (Stella Link). Good with Guns opens. $9:30 p.m., $5.

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Ladyfinger drops tomorrow, Slowdown speeds up, Man Man tonight... – Sept. 25, 2006 –

If you haven't had a chance or didn't look, there's a live review of last Friday night's Ladyfinger show just below this entry. The band's CD officially hits the record stores tomorrow, yet there have been very few pre-release reviews of the disc. Aversion posted this one today that gives Heavy Hands 4 out of 5 stars. Not bad for a first review.

* * *

Finally, after months of sitting dormant, serious work has begun again on the Slowdown compound. I was surprised to see steel beginning to go up last week from my office window and felt compelled to take a few snappies as I drove by the property yesterday afternoon (click the thumbnail to enlarge). If the 24-Hour Fitness on 77th and Cass is any indication, once the steel arrives it's only a matter of weeks before the whole damn thing is framed and walls become enclosed, and before you know it, they'll be working on the interior. I'm hearing from various sources that one of the retail bays is now spoken for by a coffee shop, though the folks at Slowdown deny that any tenant has signed a lease. At first blush, a coffee shop seems like an ill fit for an indie music venue, offices and film house, until you realize that there will be a couple hotels right across the street (to the north, which I suspect at the rate they're going up, will be open for business before the first band takes the Slowdown stage). I'll continue to take pics as construction progresses.

* * *

Tonight at Sokol Underground, Man Man, with Pit er Pat. Philly's Man Man plays an eclectic style of music that can sound as varied as Eastern European carnival hoedowns to standard Flaming Lips-flavored psych rock. $9, 9:30.

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Live Review: Ladyfinger, Criteria; Neva Dinova tonight – Sept. 23, 2006 –

It was Saddle Creek night at Sokol Underground with two of the label's "rock bands" playing back-to-back, picking their shots and landing just about every one of them. The night started with Now Archimedes! I arrived right before Criteria took the stage, and the place was already packed -- a sell-out sized crowd that reached all the way to the back wall.

It was the first time Criteria has played in Omaha with new drummer Matt Sanders, best known for his work in Lincoln punk band The JV All-Stars. The story behind the exit of Criteria original drummer Mike Sweeney is cryptic. Sweeney, I'm told, e-mailed the band saying he was done. A drummer from New York filled in during part of this summer's tour, before Sanders took over behind the kit. So how did he sound last night? It's hard to say, since the drums were buried in a mix that was bleached out with high-end and midrange. The kick-drum was virtually nonexistent, while Stephen Pedersen's guitar sounded tinny and shrill. The band's guitars always sound tuned on the high-end to me anyway, but last night's mix was so bright that everything was awash in piercing, jagged tones. That said, the performance was as honed as you would expect from a band that's road-hardened from virtually endless touring over the last six months. Pedersen's voice showed absolutely no wear, while AJ Mogis has become a veritable Sinatra compared to how he sounded a year ago.

Criteria's music continues to age well live. You'd expect a band that's played the same songs for so long to lose their edge or at least some of their intensity. Not last night. Clearly the band was feeling it, and so was the crowd. Or maybe the band was just happy that it was the last night of the tour, and now they can look forward to some well-deserved R & R while they work on their next record.

Not so Ladyfinger. As if grabbing the baton from Criteria, last night marked the band's first gig of two weeks of serious touring that continues tonight in Minneapolis with Cursive and The Thermals. What better send-off than a sold out CD release show? And Ladyfinger was up to the challenge. They sounded thunderous despite the continuation of that midrange-heavy mix. Anyone who's seen this band play at small stages like O'Leaver's or The 49'r likely wouldn't recognize them with the Underground's more massive sound system.

I know absolutely nothing about the science of singing. That said, you have to be concerned about Chris Machmuller's voice. It's not like Ladyfinger plays all that often, and now he's headed out for two weeks of nightly gigs where he'll be screeching in his barely-in-control vocal style. Will there be anything left by the time he reaches in Columbia, MO, Oct. 4? A couple vocal veterans assured me that he'd be just fine. Considering how things ended last night, their biggest problem will be their lack of material. The fans wanted more, but the band simply didn't have anything left to give them.

Night three of shows at Sokol Underground continues tonight with Neva Dinova, No Blood Orphan, Tomato a Day and Drakes Hotel. $8, 9 p.m.

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Live Review: White Whale, Nada Surf; Ladyfinger, Criteria tonight; Jon Crocker Sunday...– Sept. 22, 2006 –

I don't know if it was the rain or the fact that the band hasn't released an album in a year, but only about 150 showed up last night for Nada Surf at Sokol Underground compared to, what, 500 the last time they came through and played upstairs? There are those who will point to the fact that Rogue Wave opened for them last March, and maybe Rogue Wave was the draw. Who knows? Regardless, I wasn't the only one expecting a sell out. Maybe if the show had been marketed as part of a "greatest hits" tour, more people would have come out, but more on that in a minute...

White Whale was up first (after The Plus Ones, who I missed), and despite the fact that their new album is kinda interesting in its without-borders approach, the band came off somewhat flat. You knew there was going to be trouble when they took 20 minutes to do their sound check. There was just too much stuff going on, what with three guitarists (two of whom doubled on keyboards) and a mix that was soaking in delay and echo. It sounded like the band was playing inside an empty blimp hanger. All that delay made for a mushy mess, which made it that much harder to find the songs' already-buried hooks. Their best stuff was saved for the end (vs. the eight or nine-minute "odysseys" that made up the first half of their set). I'd like to hear these guys stripped down to the bare essentials with a more conventional mix and fewer (or no) effects.

Nada Surf came on at around 11:30 and announced that they were going to do their entire set in chronological order, starting with a cover (I can't remember what it was) and blowing right into their all-time hit "Popular," a song that I'm told they've never played in Omaha before and that they supposedly quit playing live years ago. It was followed a cover of Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart," which wasn't half bad. From then on, the set consisted of songs from their other early albums. "We now go from 1998 to 2002," said frontman Matthew Caws, who explained that last night's gig was a fill-in for an open date on their tour with Guster (ironically, that tour is coming to Omaha Oct. 31, without Nada Surf). This gave them plenty of room to stretch out on the set, which I'm sure was a treat for the hardcore Nada Surf fans who braved the elements. I thought the band sounded pretty good, but when I mentioned that to the guy next to me (a big fan), he said they sounded like shit, and that they already blew it on a couple of the older songs. I couldn't tell because I've only heard their last record. By the time midnight rolled around and I had to leave, they were still playing songs from 2002's Let Go.

Tonight, it's Ladyfinger and Criteria at Sokol Underground. I beseech anyone who followed the Omaha punk scene in the early to mid-'90s to get to this show early and check out opening band Now Archimedes! (Here's a review of their last O'Leaver's gig). I'm told Criteria will be playing with their new drummer (Mike Sweeney apparently left the band a few weeks ago). Expect a sizable turnout for this, the kickoff of Ladyfinger's first national tour in support of Heavy Hands. I assume copies of the new CD will be available at the show. Pick one up. $8, 9 p.m.

As for the rest of the weekend:

-- Saturday night it's Neva Dinova with No Blood Orphan, Tomato a Day and Drake's Hotel at Sokol Underground. That's a lot of music for $8.

-- Sunday night brings an interesting show to O'Leaver's featuring gritty, earthy, folkie singer-songwriter Jon Crocker, on tour supporting his new album, Death.. Also on the fight card are local singer-songwriter Brad Hoshaw and the legendary Dereck Higgins (Digital Sex, The Family Radio). $5, 9:30 p.m.

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Column 93 -- The Price of a Finger; White Whale, Nada Surf tonight... – Sept. 21, 2006 –

Consider this an addendum to yesterday's Ladyfinger feature. The specifics were too good to cram into that story and deserved their own column. What would I have suggested had I been asked (and there's absolutely no reason why I would have)? Ladyfinger UK, of course. There's a rich history of bands that have tucked a UK after their name to appease greedy squatters (which is all that LA band really is) and lawyers. Who remembers Kansas City's Cher UK? Or Charlatans UK? Chameleons UK? The list goes on and on. I have no idea how much more negotiating went on beyond what's below. I wouldn't be surprised if there were counter-counter offers, but the fact is, time was running out. The band needed to get the CD pressed. Schedules were in place for a reason. Would they have won had they fought it? Maybe, but it would have taken months if not years for the glacial judicial system to render a decision...

This week of quality shows continues tonight with White Whale opening for Nada Surf down at Sokol Underground. If it sounds like a weird combination, believe me, it sounded weird when I mentioned it to the guys in White Whale, too. Also playing tonight, The Plus Ones (ex-members of Mr. T Experience and Pansy Division who played at O'Leaver's a year ago July). $15, 9 p.m.

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Ladyfinger joins the Saddle Creek Mafia; Headlights tonight at O'Leaver's... – Sept. 20, 2006 –

This week's profile is a massive feature on Ladyfinger that may or may not be the cover story of this week's issue of The Reader. It was originally slated to be the cover, but now that looks doubtful, though the story is still cover-story length. It's confusing. The story was supposed to be the main feature of The Reader's "music issue," but that got pushed back until next week, which would mean this story wouldn't run until after their big show Friday night at Sokol Underground. The band will still be on the cover of next week's issue of The Reader along with two other bands, but not with this story (which is in the issue coming out late this afternoon).

Screw it -- just read the story now. It's right here. Chris, Jamie, Pat and Ethan talk about how the band got together, how they hooked up with Saddle Creek, how they made their new album, Heavy Hands, (including details on how they worked with producer Matt Bayles) and all kinds of other fun stuff. It's long. It's comprehensive. It's Ladyfinger! And yes, I know that I've left off the (NE). Find out why in tomorrow's column (which, btw, also is in today's issue of The Reader). Yes, I believe this band could be on a rocketship, what with a primo opening slot on Cursive's next tour and almost a month's worth of touring in Europe. Catch them while you can this Friday. It could be a while until Ladyfinger plays here again.

Tonight, it's Polyvinyl recording artist Headlights with Decibully and Someday Stories. Headlights just played at O'Leavers in April supporting their EP, The Enemies. Now they're supporting their debut LP, Kill Them with Kindness. See them again. $5, 9:30 p.m.

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Lincoln Calling recap; Of Montreal sells out; Murder by Death/Appleseed Cast tonight... – Sept. 19, 2006 –

Sorry for the delays in updates. I was out of pocket yesterday, but I'm back now with an update on how well Lincoln Calling did last weekend. Organizer Jeremy Buckley IM'd me to say that the numbers weren't as hot as he'd hoped. The breakdown: 600 attended Thursday night's shows, 500 on Friday and 250 on Saturday, bringing the grand total to around 1,350 -- a far cry from his hoped-for 2,000. The UNL-USC "rivalry" had more of an impact on the draw than he expected. So did last Saturday night's thunderstorms, which had the sirens going off here in Omaha throughout the game. That said, Buckley is OK with how things turned out. He's already looking at next year's Husker schedule for by weeks, and he's even considering adding a Wednesday night session. Here's to the 4th Annual Lincoln Calling...

What else...

Am I the only one to notice the new Appleby's (or was it Outback) commercial that features a rewritten version of Of Montreal's "Wraith Pinned to the Mist and Other Games"? There's no mistaking the source of the commercial's jingle, and you have to assume that whatever ad firm came up with it paid Of Montreal for the rights, which is a shame because it's my favorite song off that album and now it's being used to sell poorly prepared fast food. Or maybe Of Montreal isn't even aware that the commercial exists, which means there may be a lawsuit in the making (if they ever find out about it).

A big four-band show tonight at Sokol Underground: The moody Murder by Death with Appleseed Cast, Unwed Sailor and Sam Lowry. $10, 9 p.m. Meanwhile, the velvet tones of Voodoo Organist will be heard down at O'Leaver's with Life After Laserdisque and We're From Japan. $5, 9:30 p.m.

Stay tuned tomorrow morning for a huge feature/interview with Ladyfinger as we prepare for Friday's big shoe.

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Mal Madrigal, The Ghosts tonight at Mick's...– Sept. 16, 2006 –

It was brought to my attention that there is, in fact, a notable show going on here in Omaha tonight. Mal Madrigal, who I'm told has been working on a new record, will be taking the stage at Mick's along with The Ghosts, a band fronted by Adam Weaver. $5, 9 p.m.

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