Lazy-i Lazyhome
Interviews
BlogReviews
WebBoard
HypeStore
WoodEe Awards

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Neil Hamburger, Outlaw Con Bandana tonight...

I can't tell you how many people told me that I absolutely can't miss Neil Hamburger at The Waiting Room tonight. They go on and on about how drop-down side-splitting funny the guy was at O'Leaver's last year. And I have no doubt that they thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Yet, after watching Hamburger on YouTube (like right here) I have a hard time thinking he's anything but a poor man's Andy Kaufman/Tony Clifton. I'm sure he's much funnier live. Or not. With Daquiri, $8, 9 p.m. Meanwhile, tonight down at O'Leaver's, it's Outlaw Con Bandana and Theodore. $5, 9:30 p.m.

--Got comments? Post 'em here.--


0 comments  

posted by Tim at 10:55 AM

Monday, July 30, 2007

Live Review: Built to Spill; Shiver Shiver, SSTM; Remembering Tom Snyder; Coyote Bones, High on Fire tonight...

Before I get to last Saturday night, a quick review of the Built to Spill show at Slowdown July 18. What's that? Wasn't I in Cape Cod the night of that show? Well, yes, I was indeed, good reader. But through the magic of bootleg technology, I was able to relive the moment. A friend of mine sent me a link to the Blasé Blogspot, which posted a link to this divShare page that allows you to download the entire Slowdown performance, presumably recorded off the soundboard. It sounds pretty marvelous indeed.

I've never been a collector of bootlegs. My only foray into bootleg acquisition was picking up a cassette from a friend of a friend of mine of an old Led Zeppelin concert titled "Mudslide." The quality was piss-poor, but at the time (back in the '80s) I was so hungry for anything Zeppelinesque that I cherished the tape, which included a recording of a (then) unreleased Zeppelin track. These days there are entire web networks dedicated to nothing but bootlegs of live shows -- not just the usual boring, pointless Phish or Widespread head-shop noodling sessions, but everything from Prince to Morrissey to last week's Built to Spill concert. Who knows which of the recordings are authorized by the artists and which aren't. I assume the person listed in the accompanying BTS text file (strangely identified only as "DB" -- who could that be?) had permission from Martsch to record.

My take on the concert: Martsch's vocals continue to sound more and more like Neil Young's, to the point where the recording got me wondering if Young would ever consider covering a Built to Spill song (Martsch certainly has covered enough of Young's songs). Sounds like the band had a few problems with their gear, but that didn't stop them from putting on a solid night of rock that dipped extensively into their back catalog. Seems ol' Doug was a man of his word, and rock won out over jams, though he ended with a 16-plus minute version of "Randy Described Eternity" that devolved deeply into jam territory. Among the highlights were roaring versions of "Time Trap," "Stab," and a cover of Brian Eno's "Third Uncle." The recording includes all the between-song banter, including Martsch asking (after "Time Trap") "Anyone know what happened to Mousetrap?" Silence (a testament, I guess, to the number of people in the audience who don't remember the band). Moments later, he said"Chicago?"

* * *

File this under "eerie" and "sad": Yesterday while doing some "research" on personal writing hero Harlan Ellison, I spent a couple hours watching old Tom Snyder interviews on that ultimate internet time-waster, YouTube. After Ellison, I went to an old Wendy O. Williams interview, and -- just like opening a bag of potato chips -- couldn't stop watching interviews with The Clash, Iggy Pop, and PiL (specifically, Johnny Rotten, who is as famous for being a prick during interviews as he is for his music -- and what a prick he was to Snyder).

Then this morning on my drive into work, NPR reported that Snyder died yesterday after a long battle with leukemia. Strange, sad coincidence. I didn't grow up watching the Tomorrow show; I only caught it a few times during the '80s. It was on way past my bedtime -- if I was up that late it was because I was either studying or partying. The times I did catch it, however, I loved. It. Snyder's interview style seemed off-the-cuff, as if he did little or no research before strolling onto the set each evening. He was the first guy I ever saw regularly talk to the folks behind the cameras and control board during a broadcast -- it felt like he was letting you in on something you weren't supposed to see, and as a result, you felt like you were part of the show. He was no fan of punk and New Wave -- he simply didn't understand it. Despite that, he knew it made good television, and often invited punks onto his show, providing exposure that they'd get nowhere else. Unfortunately, more people remember Dan Aykroyd's impersonation of Snyder than the man himself. YouTube, of course, could change all that.

* * *

My only show attendence this weekend was Shiver Shiver and Sleep Said the Monster at O'Leaver's Saturday night. Opening band Donnelly is a new project by Satchel Grande member Ben Zinn. I missed them. Shiver Shiver is a keyboard/drum duo whose impressive recordings on MySpace drew me to the show. In fact, they were probably the main draw of the evening as half the crowd left shortly after their set. Live, their sound was muddy and off-balance, moreso due to the limitations of O'Leaver's sound system. O'Leaver's is a fine venue for punk and hard rock sets, not so much for more laid-back keyboard or acoustic-driven music. That said, Shiver Shiver sounded as good as they could, though nowhere as good as on their recordings. The formula is simple: Jordan Elsberry belts out loungy, jazzy ballads a la Todd Rundgren or Ben Folds on keyboards, while drummer Chase Thornburg fills in the rhythms and adds harmony vocals (For whatever reason, I couldn't help thinking of Flight of the Conchords). Again, maybe it was the venue, but the set seemed hollow. I'm told Elsberry handled bass lines on one of the keyboards, but that didn't compensate enough for not having a real bass (Why are bands so reticent these days to bite the bullet and bring on a bassist?). Elsberry's keyboard tones also seemed locked in a mid-tempo, mid-range rut, and lacked some much-needed variety. Some songs seemed too long. Still, there's no question these guys know how to write music, and no one is doing anything like Shiver Shiver around these parts. They slated to play at Saddle Creek Bar Aug. 17 with Seymore Saves the World. Check them out.

Sleep Said the Monster sounds different every time I see them, and last Saturday was no exception. They've evolved into a hard-rocking indie band that plays run-of-the-mill indie music -- which is a nice way of saying the band never sounded better, but their music was far from unique. I'm not sure fans of this style of music care, as long as it rocks, and it certainly did.

Tonight at Slowdown Jr., Coyote Bones opens for Blitzen Trapper. CB, one of the best new bands in the area, has a split 7-inch with Flowers Forever coming out eventually on CoCo Art. $7, 9 p.m. Also tonight, Oakland stoner metal band High on Fire (Matt Pike, formerly of seminal stoner band Sleep) plays at The Waiting Room with Omaha band Back When. $10, 9 p.m.

--Got comments? Post 'em here.--


0 comments  

posted by Tim at 10:43 AM

Friday, July 27, 2007

Filter Kings tonight, the rest of the weekend...

It's kind of a quiet weekend show-wise, at least compared to the past few weeks.

The feature event is tonight at The Waiting Room -- Omaha twang-punk masters The Filter Kings with The Mercury's. The Filter Kings is Lee Meyerpeter (Bad Luck Charm, ex-Cactus Nerve Thang) and his team of highly trained cowboy-hat-wearing knife fighters ripping apart alt-country-punk and reassembling it in their own image. I enjoy this band immensely, especially when they play at The Waiting Room (where they should be the house band (I'll keep saying it until it happens)). The only thing that would make their performance better would be if two drunks had a broken-bottle fight in front of the stage while Lee and Co. provided the sound track. In fact, if these guys ever release a CD, there's the perfect premise for their first rock video. $7, 9 p.m.

Meanwhile, over at O'Leaver's, trippy Virginia space-rock band Gifts from Enola sneaks into town. They call themselves "experimental" on their Myspace page. Their recordings sound more proggy/shoe-gazer than experimental to me. Opening is Paper Owls, and something tells me they're going to give a sneak preview of their new album, which they'll be celebrating with a CD-release show Aug. 11 at PS Collective. Also on the bill, The Slats. Waitaminit, SLAM Omaha says not the Slats but I Hear Sirens are playing tonight. The Slats' Myspace page, however, shows them at O'Leaver's. Find out who's right by showing up at 9:30 and doling out $5.

And don't forget Film Streams grand opening tonight. I was talking Wednesday to one of the guys who works there about the choice of screening the Seven Samurai (Shichinin no samurai) on opening night. He pointed out that it made sense if only for the fact that opening night will bring in people who otherwise wouldn't sit through a 3-plus-hour black-and-white Japanese film with subtitles. And if you're lucky Alexander Payne will provide a half-hour spoken introduction. Two showings, 5 and 9 p.m. Also playing (in the small theater) is La Vie en Rose (see yesterday's review) at 4, 7, and 9 p.m. Film Streams also is having an open house tomorrow from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Free popcorn!

Saturday night is all O'Leaver's, with Donnely, Sleep Said the Monster & Shiver Shiver. No idea who Donnely is and can't find anything on the 'net about them. SStM play laid-back indie pop. Shiver Shiver is the duo of keyboardist/vocalist Jordan Elsberry and drummer/vocalist Chase Thornburg. A friend of mine pointed me toward their Myspace site a few weeks ago and I dug what I heard. Their demos remind me of early Squeeze or laid-back Ben Folds. $5, 9 p.m.

--Got comments? Post 'em here.--


0 comments  

posted by Tim at 10:45 AM

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Column 134: Mid Year Report; Reviews: Film Streams, St. Vincent; Vampire Weekend/LotM/Sad Sailor tonight...

First an apology for the extreme length of this entry. I'll get to the column in a minute, first a look at last night's show at Film Streams. How exactly do you review a movie theater? I guess you consider the environment, the seating, the picture, the sound, the whole experience. Taken as a whole, Film Streams gets four stars.

The facility has a classy, simple elegance, with its gorgeous lobby designed in the same concrete-glass-and-steel modern-Euro style as Slowdown. Clean lines, big windows that look out to the street. I didn't get a chance to test the ticket window as entry was handled entirely by a guest list. Instead, the ticket booth was being used to film "testimonials" about the facility and the concept of Film Streams (Interestingly, Slowdown also has a ticket window, but I've never seen them use it). No idea on concessions as complimentary popcorn and soda were handed out. I didn't see anything unique in the candy counter, but really, I'm not looking for anything beyond Milkduds. Eventually, the theater is supposed to also offer Blue Line coffee and baked goods. I'm not sure how that'll work (actually, I'm not sure where Blue Line will be located in the new complex, I just know it ain't open yet).

Onto the important stuff: The auditoriums. They were pretty much what you'd expect from a new, modern theater -- high-back seats with drink holders, plenty of leg room (though, like every theater I've been in, still a bit tight for me, which is why I always sit in an aisle seat). Picture and sound were, of course, immaculate.

If I have a quibble, it's with the large auditorium. The seating is done in typical "stadium style" -- rows climbing up at a steep angle -- a welcome innovation in theater design. The problem is that the screen seems hung too low. The best seats are in the middle rows. If you go too high, you feel like you're looking too far down to the screen. If the auditorium were my living room, I'd either get a taller screen (probably not possible due to the theater's width and aspect ratio issues) or move it up about 10 feet (there's plenty of room to do that). The smaller auditorium has more traditional (non-stadium) seating, and feels more intimate. I kind of like it better, actually. The screen seems huge, and as a result, the best seats in that aud are in the last row (though, because the narrow slope of the rows, you my have a problem if you're sitting behind someone with Marge Simpson hair).

Film Streams is doing another Alexander Payne presentation tonight for special guests, then tomorrow is opening day, with Seven Samurai playing in the big theater (Payne might introduce it?) and La Vie en Rose in the small theater. The long-term plan is to have the first-runs in the big aud and the retrospectives in the small room.

So how was La Vie en Rose? I knew next to nothing about Edith Piaf before going to this. I still don't know much about her afterward, other than she lived a rather horrible, painful life that started drenched in illness and poverty and ended drenched in illness and loneliness. Along the way, there was plenty of great music and lots of morphine. Since the film is non-linear in nature, you don't get a sense of story so much as a sense of being -- not for who Piaf was, but what she was like. Great performances, especially by Marion Cotillard as Piaf (though she doesn't do the actual singing in the film). Ultimately, it was an utterly depressing two hours of film, as you watch Piaf experience one personal horror after another, ending with her death at age 47 of liver cancer (which isn't explained in the film). In French, with subtitles. If I were a movie reviewer, I'd give it three stars.

Speaking of reviews… I got out of Filmstreams at around 10:30 and high-tailed it to The Waiting Room in time to see St. Vincent. My take: She's going to be as big as PJ Harvey. Maybe bigger. I was under the impression she'd be playing solo, but instead, had a three-member band in tow -- a violinist, bass/keyboardist and drummer. Frontwoman Annie Clark impressively handled the lead guitar herself, with a tone reminiscent of Jack White's work in White Stripes (though she varied between hard-edged fuzz and a gentler sound). When she ripped into the heavy stuff, the music was cathartic. I stand by my earlier opinion that her voice is similar to Carly Simon's, especially on the more laid-back tunes, while it became chipped and PJ-like on the hard numbers (To give her vocals more dynamics, she switched between two different microphones -- a standard mic and one piped through an effect's pedal). After finishing her set, she came back alone to do a cover of Nico's "These Days" sitting on the edge of the stage with an acoustic guitar, surrounded by fans bent close to hear her quiet voice. A star is born. See for yourself when she opens for The National at Slowdown in September.

Now onto this weeks column. Like I said earlier this week, I didn't listen to a lot of music in Cape Cod, but I did on the flights out there and back.

Column 134 -- Mid-Year Report
A glance at the first half of '07.

Like our overblown, underachieving movie industry, so far indie music in 2007 has been a year of sequels, but with big question marks attached. Can Arcade Fire match the austere genius of its debut? Can Spoon keep its streak alive after the break-out success of 2005's Gimme Fiction? Does Bright Eyes have what it takes to keep the ball rolling (toward musical maturity)? Has Modest Mouse turned its back on the weird brilliance of their early records? Here's my take on the biggest (but not necessarily the best) indie releases so far this year.

Arcade Fire -- Neon Bible (Merge) -- With "(Antichrist Television Blues)," Win Butler has declared himself a modern-day Bruce Springsteen. I beseech anyone to listen to this song and -- in their mind -- replace Butler's beaten-child warble with The Boss' brassy New Jersey croon and not think of that upbeat era of Springsteen from the '80s just after he discovered Nautilus. It's one of the record's standout tracks, along with "No Cars Go" and "The Well and The Lighthouse" and most of the second half of the disc (after the rather droll, overly produced first half). I still like the debut better.

Modest Mouse -- We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank (Epic) -- Ah, for the days of dirty madman splendor that were Lonesome Crowded West, back when these guys could stretch out on head-case ballads like "Heart Cooks Brain" or "Styrofoam Boots/It's All Nice on Ice, Alright." Sure, "Dashboard" is a fun, kick-drum-driven dance track in a Franz Ferdinand sort of way, but do we really need another fun dance band (or even one Franz Ferdinand)? Nice knowing you, Isaac.

Wilco -- Sky Blue Sky (Nonesuch) -- I don't like Wilco. Never have. Little bit too hick-jam for my taste. But I like this record. A lot, in fact. This is a departure for Tweedy and Co., who throttled back the twang and opened up something genuine and richly melodic and slightly overcast. I've heard Wilco fans whine that it's too laid-back. Well, they can go back and spin Yankee Hotel Foxtrot again while I enjoy the dark-blue tone of songs like "Either Way" and "Impossible Germany." This is Tweedy's Sea Change, which means, like Beck, it's also the best thing he's ever done.

Spoon -- Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (Merge) -- Not hugely different from Gimme Fiction. Maybe a bit more thought-out, but ultimately, just another bouncy Spoon album in a series of bouncy Spoon albums that stretch back to 2001's Girls Can Tell. And then there's "The Underdog" -- with its handclaps and horns, it might be the best song Britt Daniel ever recorded, thanks, in part, to Jon Brion's production chops (but, sadly, only on this track).

The National -- Boxer (Beggars Banquet) -- You could say they're a newer, fresher version of Interpol, with the same militaristic drums, the same rich, droning vocals, the same elements that forced people to compare Interpol to Joy Division (whether they sounded like Joy Division or not). The difference is The National's variety of sound and song (a quality that Interpol too often lacks) and the willingness to soften the edges with piano or a cushion of synth strings, or a simple acoustic guitar, something Interpol would never consider (nor, I suppose, should they).

Interpol -- Our Love to Admire (Capitol) -- People were quick to discard Antics as just another disappointing follow-up, only to later realize just how good it was. This is the one that deserves that sense of disappointment. You get the classic Interpol rhythmic thrust, their usual chugging, echoing guitars and Daniel Kessler's trademark Ethel Merman-esque bark. Missing, however, is the starkness of melody, the dismal pall of bleakness that was so irresistible in their debut. Songs like "The Heinrich Maneuver" and "Who Do You Think?" would have you dance rather than mope. Sometimes I prefer moping.

Bright Eyes -- Cassadaga (Saddle Creek) -- Yeah, you already know all about it. But three months after its release it bears revisiting. It's still not as good as Wide Awake or Lifted, but it's growing on me the more I isolate the songs from the over-the-top production. Rumor has it that Conor may be stripping the sound down on the next one. It could be a revelation (or a naked emperor's curse).

LCD Soundsystem -- Sound of Silver (DFA) -- The album explodes out of the runway with opener "Get Innocuous" and never reaches that level of pure-build dance-itude again (though it comes close on the title track, whose fortune-cookie lyric is more disturbing than revelatory). Still, nothing here is as good as "Yeah (Crass Version)" or "Daft Punk…" or the genius "Losing My Edge," which is why the debut is still the one to own.

Once -- Original Soundtrack (Canvasback/Columbia) -- This soundtrack to one of the best movies about music that I've seen in a long time is a postcard reminder of the film's finest choke-up moments, much in the same vein as Magnolia's soundtrack (minus the Supertramp songs). If you're smart enough to see this indie gem before it leaves The Dundee, you'll pick up this album the next day and wonder what happened with those two crazy kids. Kind of sappy; absolutely gorgeous.

Tonight at Slowdown Jr. it's New York's Vampire Weekend and Omaha's own Landing on the Moon along with special guest Sad Sailor, a new 7-piece improvisational, psychedelic, group featuring Brian Poloncic of Tomato a Day. Get there early to check them out. $7, 8 p.m.

--Got comments? Post 'em here.--


0 comments  

posted by Tim at 10:53 AM

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Hello, Film Streams; Handsome Furs, The Winter Sounds, St. Vincent all tonight...

I'll let you in on a little secret: I go to as many movies as I do rock shows, maybe more. I see everything, not only the high-falutin' indie and foreign flicks at The Dundee (Once, After the Wedding, etc.), but also the popcorn fluff at the cineplexes (Harry Potter, Fantastic Four, Ratatouille). And I love them all, except for the shitty ones, which -- just like shitty bands -- are plenty and hard to avoid.

Anyway… tonight is special for a non-musical reason: It's the press opening of the Ruth Sokolof Theater down at the Slowdown complex -- i.e., the grand opening of Film Streams. Actually, one of the first screenings was last night for city big-wigs and the high-end donors who are making the whole thing possible. Tonight is the press screening. Tomorrow is yet another event (I'm not sure who's invited) and Friday is the hoi polloi opening. Watch for the spotlights.

When Rachel Jacobson told me about the project back in 2005 (for this story), I thought it was a no-brainer -- it was an even better idea than Slowdown, quite frankly. The only theaters screening indie films at the time were that grand old dame The Dundee, and its ghetto twin, the $2 Westwood Cinema 8. Now two years later, the AMC Oakview has dedicated a couple screens to indie films, and theaters in the new Mutual of Omaha and Aksarben developments also are likely to screen a few indie films. That's more competition, but if the Film Streams' auditoriums (two of them -- 209 seats and 96 seats) are as state-of-the-art and comfortable as originally planned, it won't matter. Film Streams is more of an arts organization than a movie theater anyway, a non-profit that depends on the kindness of strangers for its financial well-being. And there are plenty of strangers in Omaha willing to lend a hand if it means getting quality films shown in this town. I bought my membership weeks ago. You can too, right here. $50 is a small price to pay to get access to films that I only used to read about in my subscription to Time Out New York. And, yeah, you can always Netflix them, but really, there's no comparing watching a film at home on a plasma to a movie theater experience.

Tonight's screening emphasizes a problem with Slowdown that I've mentioned before -- their 8-sharp start time for rock shows. Because I'll be walking the streets of France via the Sokolof Theater this evening, I'm going to miss Handsome Furs and Latitude Longitude at Slowdown Jr. The bands will just be leaving the stage when the final frames of La Vie en Rose burns on the virgin screen. A pity, because the new Handsome Furs disc, release by Sub Pop, is Neil Young meets Arcade Fire, with lead vocalist Dan Boeckner (also of Wolf Parade), providing the lonesome moan over the Crazy Horse-style guitars. $10, 8 p.m.

Well, the movie should be over in plenty of time to make it out to the other hot shows tonight. The sleeper is Winter Sounds at The Saddle Creek Bar with The Lemurs and Hyannis. In its more laid-back moments, Athens Georgia's Winter Sounds is like Minus the Bear fronted by Bob Welch (who remembers "Ebony Eyes"?). They're at their best when trying to be dreamy and psychedelic vs. when they're doing the usual indie stutter-step guitar stuff we've all come to know and yawn over. Hyannis just finished recording the final two tracks of their upcoming EP, Off the Reels. $5. 9 p.m.

The other prime show is St. Vincent at The Waiting Room with Scout Niblett, and Omaha's Bear Country. St. Vincent is singer-songwriter Annie Clark, a veteran guitarist for both The Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan Stevens. Her new album, Marry Me (on Beggars) is stunningly beautiful, mixing upbeat ballads with a voice reminiscent of (this is really gonna date me) Carly Simon. She works with a number of accompanists on the record, including Bowie pianist Mike Garson and a horn section. But tonight I believe she'll be doing it solo, probably with backing tracks. I fear it could be more of a PJ Harvey 4-track Demos-style presentation than what we get on the record. If you've never seen Scout Niblett and her wig before, you're in for a weird treat. The first time I saw Scout down at Sokol Underground, it was just her, her drum set and her boyfriend from Swearing at Motorists. The next time, a year or so later, it was her, her drum set, and her electric guitar (Though Ryan Fox lent a hand on one song). Scout looked like a spooky, stoned-out Chan Marshall with adult ADD. It's weird stuff that borders on beat poetry and often includes crowd participation (you'll likely be prompted to help with a few cheers). $10, 9 p.m.

--Got comments? Post 'em here.--


0 comments  

posted by Tim at 10:45 AM

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Don Cab, Fromanhole tonight...

I haven't kept track of Don Caballero for years. In fact, I thought they'd broken up earlier in the decade. So when I saw this show slated for The Waiting Room tonight, I was a bit surprised. In fact, according to the all-knowing Wikipedia, Don Cab did break up in 2000, shortly after American Don was released. Says Wiki: "To equal parts surprise and criticism, (drummer Damon) Che reformed Don Caballero in 2003 with an entirely new lineup consisting of members of Pittsburgh's Creta Bourzia, a band that bore clear marks of influence from Don Caballero. The new members are Jeff Ellsworth on guitar, Gene Doyle on guitar, and Jason Jouver on bass. (Original members Mike Banfield and Pat Morris were invited to participate but both declined)." Che apparently vowed never to work with original second guitarist Ian Williams again. So Che is the only original member in tonight's line-up, according to Wikipedia. The band, who recorded for Touch and Go for years, now records for metal label Relapse Records. I have to assume they sound somewhat like they used to, but I haven't heard any of their recent recordings. Opening the show is Omaha's own math rock/noise rock masters Fromanhole -- who alone are worth the $10 admission. Show starts at 9 p.m.

--Got comments? Post 'em here.--


0 comments  

posted by Tim at 10:49 AM

Monday, July 23, 2007

Back from vacation; Creek's Tokyo Police Club deal; Terminals last night; Mother Mother tonight...

I'm back from Cape Cod, where I spent seven days on a beach with virtually no music whatsoever except for oldies stations on the car stereo -- Boz Scaggs, Dr. Hook (does every one of their songs have to sound like it was written by a pervert?), Gerry Rafferty, ELO, Orleans, Ambrosia -- you get the picture, it was a week of FM Gold. Boston stations barely reach the Cape, and those that did only played hip-hop or retro. Indie music as we know it didn't seem to exist. But hey, you don't go to Cape Cod to sniff out hot local clubs brimming with introspective indie bands. You go there to get away. When you do find a club with live music, chances are you're in for an evening of Jimmy Buffett covers or a Doobie Brothers tribute band... and you wouldn't want it any other way.

So, not a lot to write about. Looks like there was some news while I was gone. Saddle Creek Records signed Tokyo Police Club, a deal that's been rumored for months. I'm not sure how they fit into the Creek roster, but I don't think the label execs care all that much about things fitting these days. TPC is a band that's going to support their debut release in classic Creek style -- by constantly touring, which is what they've done for the past year. Their sound clashes no more awkwardly with the old-line Creek stable than, say, Georgie James or Two Gallants. Two Gallants seemed like an odd addition when they climbed aboard the S.S. Saddle Creek a couple years ago. Over time, the signing made more sense if only weighted on their music's lyrical content. Georgie James was more of a question mark, though some people pointed toward drummer John Davis' Q & Not U connection and his relationship with other Creek bands. Who knows. None of these new signings except for maybe Art in Manila are going to be big earners for the label in the vein of The Big Three or Jenny Lewis, who was a veritable home run for Team Love. Does it matter? Maybe not. Anyway, look for TPC's debut in early 2008.

I dropped in on The Terminals at O'Leaver's last night, they were headlining a show with a couple touring bands. Their set started rough and only got more brutal as the night wore on (in a good way). They sounded about as heavy as I've ever heard them (but nowhere near as distorted as Forget About Never). Fans and followers crowded the "stage," standing on railings, forming a standing circle around the band. You had to press up close to see what was going on. Strangely, after about a half dozen songs -- and just when it was getting really interesting -- the band called it a night. The set seemed half-finished and it was only 12:30.

Tonight at The Waiting Room, it's Cary Brothers with Stars of Track and Field and Mother Mother. Cary Brothers plays adult alternative (a more horrible term I can't think of) in the vein of The Fray, and just like that band, they've had some of their tracks played on TV shows like Scrubs, Grey's Anatomy, ER and a couple lame Zach Braff flicks. Inoffensive, probably boring, but likely well-played. Stars of Track and Field are Radiohead replicants (OK Computer era). Opening band, Vancouver's Mother Mother is the most interesting of the three -- think Tegan and Sara with a guy added to the mix, though their music is weirder, almost proggy in an indie sort of way. Quaint and clever, Mother Mother has an identity of their own making, which is more than you can say about the two "big bands" on this bill. $10, 9 p.m.

--Got comments? Post 'em here.--


0 comments  

posted by Tim at 12:43 PM

Friday, July 13, 2007

A brief look into the future as Lazy-i goes on hiatus...

Yup, it's that time of year again when Lazy-i takes a week off to enjoy some well-deserved R&R. What will you do without me? Anyway, here's what I'll be missing (but hopefully you won't be) in my absence:

-- Tonight and tomorrow is the continuation of the Mavradio Benson Local Music Festival. Tonight at The Foundry it's Tea Ceremony, Scott Severin, Mike Harvat and Goodbye Sunday. $2, 7 p.m. While over at PS Collective it's Talkin Mountain, Electric Needle Room and Family Unit. $5, 9 p.m. The festival's highlight comes Saturday night. First, at Barley Street Tavern, it's Ric Rhythm and the Revengers, Reagan and the Rayguns, and the Southpaw Blues Band. $2, 8 p.m. and then at The Waiting Room, the long-awaited return of Son, Ambulance. Chatting with Joe Knapp last weekend at Slowdown, it sounds like they'll be playing some stuff off Key and maybe some new material. This isn't just a one-off reunion. Knapp sounds ready to put the Ambulance back on the road. I'm sorry I'm going to miss this one. Also on the bill is Ladyfinger and Little Brazil. $5, 9 p.m.

-- Also tonight, Satchel Grande opens for The Balance at The Waiting Room. SG is one of the funnest (and best) bands going these days. Should be a riot (if they can get people to loosen up and dance). $7, 9 p.m.

-- Monday night, Box Elders (that's Dave Goldberg and them McIntyre brothers) open for Quintron and Miss Pussycat at The Waiting Room. $8, 9 p.m.

-- Wednesday, of course is the big Built to Spill show at Slowdown with The Boggs. Tickets are still available for $17. I figured this show would sell out fairly quickly, but BTS didn't sell out the last time they came through until the night of the show, and this venue is a bit bigger than Sokol Underground. Will it be a jam-band fiesta or just a solid rock show? I think it'll be the latter. It'll certainly be something you won't want to miss. Show starts at 9.

-- Thursday, No Blood Orphan and Capgun Coup open for Drakkar Sauna at The Waiting Room. NBO's new album, Robertson Park, is a solid effort, and Capgun Coup continues to be dead-set on world domination. Also the bill, Dim Light. $7, 9 p.m.

-- Friday, the second big show at Slowdown this week that I've been dying to see but will, alas, miss. Tokyo Police Club plays with Dappled Cities. TPC is a favorite of the Saddle Creek Records crew. They play pretty, peppy indie punk, lively and fun. Imagine Cursive with hand-claps and you're starting to get the picture. $10, 8 p.m.

See you when I see you.

--Got comments? Post 'em here.--


0 comments  

posted by Tim at 9:08 AM

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Column 132 -- Hello, Goodbye Drakes Hotel; Mavradio Benefit Day 1 tonight...

One of the more surprising things I heard when I talked to Chris Y and Amy Drake outside of The Saddle Creek Bar Sunday night was that they'd been advised not to play at O'Leaver's. The duo had never actually stepped foot in the club before. To me, playing O'Leaver's has become almost a rite of passage for local indie bands (and a few touring bands, as well). Sure, Slowdown and The Waiting Room remain at the top of the food chain, followed by Sokol Underground (which used to top the list). While a great place to play, Sokol is too big for most up-and-coming bands, especially if they're not filling an opening slot for a big-name national show. As everyone knows who frequents the place, playing in front of 50 people in Sokol Underground is like playing in front of an empty room, and looks disastrous. While playing in front of 50 people at O'Leaver's is like performing in the middle of a mob scene. Sure, the club has a sub-par PA. Sure, the place kinda smells like a wet ashtray and has the ambiance of someone's rec-room. But some of the best shows I've seen in Omaha have been performed there. Odd that someone would tell the band to avoid the place. Drakes did manage to play at The Waiting Room while they were here, as well as Sokol and The Saddle Creek Bar (four times!).

Column 132: A Matter of Timing
Drakes Hotel goes unnoticed.

Earlier this year, I got a phone call from Roger Lewis of Saddle Creek Records bands The Good Life and Neva Dinova. Roger never calls unless there's something important on his mind.

So I got in touch with him post haste. Roger's trademark greeting: "Dude!" Anyone who's met him knows exactly what that sounds like. Roger has a unique Midwestern Valley Girl drawl that only he could possess. He called to give me a head's up about a new band on the scene called Drakes Hotel, and to tell me that I'd soon be getting a preview copy of their CD, Tell Me Everything, released by Portland's Reverb Records. "Dude, it's really good. You really need to do something about this band."

I'd heard about Drakes Hotel from a few other folks around town who compared them to shoe-gazer bands like Jesus and Mary Chain and Curve. Well, the CD arrived, and it was gorgeous, filled with dreamy, buzzing music that would have fit right in with late-'80s UK bands like Cocteau Twins and Ride. On songs like "Broadcast to the Addicted" and "Red," Amy Drake's effects-laden vocals were a cross between Siouxsie Sioux and Cocteau's Elizabeth Fraser, while husband Chris Y's fuzzy, shuttering chop guitar pulsed atop a thick rhythm track. More laid-back songs, such as "Songs I Forgot About," featured the duo harmonizing over spacey, Cure-flavored music.

Roger was right, I had to write something about these folks, but a funny thing happened every time I tried. Whenever they had a show on the horizon, the date fell on a week when I already had a story scheduled with The Reader. The same thing happened for their live shows -- every time I made a point of seeing them, they either played first or I was unavailable or I simply forgot… and missed them. The next day when I asked people who had told me they were going how it went, for whatever reason they missed the show, too. Something always came up. It was a matter of timing, I guess, or bad luck.

Tell Me Everything was officially released May 1 to a roomful of crickets. Time passed, and I still intended to write about the band.

But I waited too long. In my inbox was an e-mail from Chris Y, inviting me to the band's farewell show last Sunday at The Saddle Creek Bar. "We will be relocating to Portland OR. In fact, we will be leaving right after the show. Portland is home to our label, Reverb Records, and they will be able to do much more for us if we are out there.

"Doesn't seem like Omaha is a very good fit for our kind of music," the letter continued. "Seems like unless you're The Faint, people only want to hear straight up rock or campfire sing-alongs. They certainly aren't going to dance - that's for sure. There are some great rock bands around here and there are some mediocre ones -- doesn't seem to really make any sense as to who gets shows, who gets popular and who's left on the sidelines."

Chris admitted that "we never really played the game or broke our backs around here trying to get shows, but I know of some great musicians that have and should be doing better. Seems like no matter where you go, the scenes are the same. We have lived in a ridiculous number of places, and Omaha is so small it's almost laughable that there should even be any kind of clique in this town. Three cheers to Saddle Creek Records for building an impenetrable wall around themselves. How Indie are you really when you build a shrine to yourselves with the blessing of the city and only book your friends and bands from your ultra cool record collections? Good luck with that. Anyway -- don't know what brought that on -- I just wanted to send you an invite--- so there ya go. Take care, Chris."

I finally got to see Drakes Hotel last Sunday night at the sparsely attended Saddle Creek Bar show -- a venue where they played most often over the past year. Before their set, we talked about Chris' e-mail while standing alongside the Flintstones-style camper that they'd be living in on their way to Portland. I'd heard they moved to Omaha to get signed to Saddle Creek. True? Of course not. Drakes Hotel already had a label. After living for years in Santa Cruz, Seattle and Blanchard, Iowa, the couple had decided to move to Amy's hometown of Omaha. Sure, part of the reason behind the move was to get involved in the music scene, but it just never happened, though they made some good friends along the way, like Roger. While the letter sounded bitter, the band wasn't bitter at all. They had tried their best. Now they were going to try their best somewhere else.

So why didn't Drakes Hotel ever catch on in Omaha? Maybe because they lacked a live rhythm section. Playing over prerecorded rhythm tracks hardly makes for a dynamic show. Or maybe the real obstacle was their inability to break into the scene's social network. You'd hope that wasn't the case, that the music would be enough, but maybe not.

Or maybe it was just a case of bad timing, and bad luck. So, Omaha, let me introduce you to Drakes Hotel while we bid them fond farewell to fresh waters, and, hopefully, to better luck.

Tonight kicks off the 3-day Mavradio Benson Local Music Festival, with shows at two venues -- Vago, It's True, Thrift Store Clerk and Stephen Monroe at Benson Grind ($2, 7 p.m.), and Paper Owls, Pictures of Lily and Midwest Dilemma at Mick's ($5, 9 p.m.). Serious festival goers can purchase an $8 wristband at Jake's, The Pizza Shoppe or Benson Grind that will get them into all three days-worth of shows -- a bargain.

I wrote about this festival in my column a couple weeks ago. Mavradio is UNO's campus-only radio station. Proceeds will go to buying new equipment that will allow the station to once again stream its programming at mavradio.org, with the long-term goal of purchasing a new sound board and radio tower to broadcast on the entire UNO campus.

Wouldn't it be great if you could hear the station off campus in our cars? Considering the politics and costs involved with radio broadcasting, that likely will never happen, especially with KVNO being UNO's official broadcast radio station. But you can always dream.

--Got comments? Post 'em here.--


0 comments  

posted by Tim at 5:18 AM

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Built to Spill: rock vs. jam; Gravy Train!!!, The Shanks tonight...

I think it's fair to say that Doug Martsch of Built to Spill was slightly agitated and slightly amused at my line of questioning for our interview (online here). Fact is, BTS hasn't released an album in over a year other than the limited edition vinyl and reggae songs mentioned in the story. The real burning question on everyone's mind is whether or not BTS will rock next Wednesday or jam all night. I don't know if I got a definitive answer other than the denial that they excessively jam in the first place. Well, I was there last time, and I can tell you it was one long solo after another (relive the evening here). At one point during the discussion, Martsch said something along the lines of "We'll now be sure to do lots of jams when we get there." Uh-oh. We also discussed the fact that this is the first big touring show on the Slowdown stage, and how it also was the first Slowdown show announced prior to the venue's opening. Martsch said he'd heard something about it and was pleased to be the band picked to break the place in. Too bad I'm going to miss the show as I'll be out of town that evening...

A couple shows worth mentioning tonight: Those crazy kids from Gravy Train!!! are at The Waiting Room tonight with SSION (who remembers when they opened for Yeah Yeah Yeahs in March 2004 dressed as chickens, a lion and a cow?) and The Flamboyant Gods. $8, 9 p.m.

Meanwhile, over at O'Leaver's, it's those crazy punk rock kids from The Shanks with Thee Almighty Handclaps and Ric Rhythm and the Revengers. Mayhem shall ensue. $5, 9:30 p.m.

Tomorrow in Lazy-i, Drakes Hotel.

--Got comments? Post 'em here.--


0 comments  

posted by Tim at 5:31 AM

Monday, July 09, 2007

Capgun Coup, Slowdown and Omaha's "Next Wave"; some Conor news...

Forgive the lateness of this post as I'm suffering from a lingering head cold. Not good. Don't catch it.

Moving on…

This past March I went to a show down at Sokol Underground featuring Capgun Coup, Baby Walrus and Whatever Happened to the Dinosaurs? Easily the best band that evening was Baby Walrus (ex-Le Beat). The worst was Capgun Coup (Whatever Happened… bordered on being a Bright Eyes tribute band). My comments from that show: "Finally there was Capgun Coup, who I really came to see. I was told by someone who has heard them before that it wasn't their finest moment. The set was sloppy and out of sync, and I have to wonder if it wasn't just an off night. That said, the crowd of around 80 didn't seem to mind. In fact, the whole evening had a house party feel to it and you could tell that the crowd consisted mostly of friends having a good time."

Fact was, they were terrible. This was just a few weeks after Conor Oberst had name-checked the band during an interview I conducted with him, focused on Cassadaga. Oberst had said he loved Capgun. After this show, I went back and reread my notes. Surely he couldn't have been talking about this band. But there it was. Oberst name-checked the band again a few weeks later in a Rolling Stone interview. For better or worse, Capgun was on its way.

Needless to say, I wasn't expecting much last Friday night when I headed down to Slowdown to check out their new "small" stage. I got there late -- they don't mess around at Slowdown -- shows start at 8 p.m. sharp. Owner Robb Nansel even told me that evening that nary a note will be heard from a band in Slowdown past midnight. That's a harsh timeframe for those of us used to heading to shows after seeing a 7 o'clock screening. By the time I rolled in around 10:30, The Family Radio had long finished their set and David Vandervelde had just left the stage. Last up that evening -- Capgun Coup.

First, an update on Slowdown's service. Remember that blog item where I said it took 24 minutes to get a beer (here)? For whatever reason, it got a lot of attention, judging by the number of people who have come up to me to also complain about Slowdown's service. Misery loves company, I suppose. Well, bar captain Ryan Palmer seems to have gotten things under control by throwing sheer numbers at the problem. There were at least five people hustling drinks Friday night at what I was told was a capacity show for the "small bar setting" (i.e., when they have the divider in place, blocking off the big stage). I was able to get my Rolling Rock ($3) in less than five minutes. Not bad. I even had a bartender ask me "how ya doing" all night from my roost at the far end of the bar. The real test will be next Wednesday's Built to Spill show (which, alas, I won't be in town for).

The small-bar stage located just inside the door is overhung by a set of amps that provide pretty good sound without overpowering the room. Capgun was a good test of this -- they sounded frenetic (and loud), but I was still able to talk/yell at people standing next to me. In retrospect, I don't think the band had "an off night" down at Sokol in March as much as they didn't know what they were doing on that huge stage. They've gotten a helluva lot better, thanks to playing all the time. Their show Friday night certainly came closer to the sound heard on their CD, and Sam Martin's yelp (at its most ragged) even brought back memories of a young Pat Buchanan. Capgun sounds nothing like Mousetrap though, and though their energy is similar to Desaparecidos, they don't sound like those guys, either. I guess you'd have to call their sound house-party-punk. The style is ragged and out of control, what you'd expect from a band weaned on uninhibited house shows. Now Capgun is trying to translate the party to a bigger stage, and for the most part, is succeeding, at least in their hometown. Ah, but how will it translate when they hit the road and get away from their hordes of followers?

Rumors of their Nebraskafish debut being reissued on Team Love are true. I'm told promos of the Capgun Coup reissue were available from a T-L rep who was in the house Friday night (I didn't grab one). That same rep told me that Flowers Forever also will see their debut released on Oberst's label. Will Capgun and Flowers tour together? Time will tell, but the combination seems like a natural (actually, Capgun would be better suited touring with Tilly and the Wall, a band that shares the same youthful exuberance).

Capgun is part of the "Next Wave" of Omaha bands, a wave that includes The Family Radio, Bear Country, Baby Walrus, Coyote Bones, Sleep Said the Monster, Flowers Forever, Art in Manila, Hyannis, and Drakes Hotel (though Drakes no longer is with us here in Omaha). The bands all seem to be drawn together, either through their style or their social network. Most play the same house parties, and when they perform together on a regular stage, they tend to turn the room into a house party.

* * *

A couple Conor items to pass along from the Interweb… Seems the folks at Shepherds Bush Empire (in bonny ol' UK. Tut-tut! Cheerio!) got a glimpse of the old Conor during their July 3 show. According to a report in Uncut (here): "Technical hitches at the end of the show, which had been elaborate with live projections of swans, candles and jigsaws in the background, saw front man Oberst snap, with the singer picking up and throwing a stage amplifier half-way across the stage. He also flung fellow Bright Eyes band member Mike Mogis' guitar in a pique of anger." I have this vision of Mogis looking down at his hands where he had just held his guitar. Upon reading this, I wondered if the reporter was just misinterpreting the usual end-of-show fracas that takes place nightly during "Road to Joy"?

In other Conor news, Polydor has commissioned five directors to create videos for Cassadaga, according to Digital Arts (here). Each director and video is described in the story, which also includes a link to the videos online. One would think that the videos cost Polydor a shitload of money, and that Saddle Creek will get all the benefit in the U.S.

This week, look for an interview with Doug Martsch of Built to Spill (probably Wednesday morning), and a piece on Drakes Hotel leaving us just after being discovered...

--Got comments? Post 'em here.--


0 comments  

posted by Tim at 4:40 PM

Friday, July 06, 2007

David Vandervelde, Prospect Avenue tonight; Little Brazil Saturday...

Busy night last night. And I missed it, thanks to a head cold. Or maybe it was just allergies. Don't know. All's I know is that I couldn't breathe. Tell me you've been there before. Come on!

Tonight should be just as busy. The feature show is at Slowdown -- David Vandervelde and the Moon Station House Band. The Chicagoan, who records for Secretly Canadian, sounds like he just stepped off a tour bus with Norman Greenbaum. That is, when he rocks. When he's acoustic, he sounds like your typical indie-folk ballad guy. The music is tweedy and urban at the same time, like a hipster dressed in a western-cut suit. Opening are local heroes Cap Gun Coup (Conor Oberst's favorite local band, in case you didn't know) and The Family Radio (featuring filmmaker/videomaker/full-time genius Nik Fackler). $7, 8 p.m. (I've been told that Slowdown's 8 p.m. shows are routinely starting at 9, though).

Meanwhile, over at The Waiting Room, it's Prospect Avenue, No Action and Landon Hedges' other band, Fine, Fine Automobiles. $7, 9 p.m.

Also in Benson tonight, over at The Barley Street Tavern it's a reunion of Such Sweet Thunder. No idea on the cover, but the show starts at 9 p.m.

Saturday night's feature event is Little Brazil at O'Leaver's with Noah's Ark was a Spaceship, Cloven Path and Gertie Fox. While over at The Waiting Room, it's '90s rockers Secret Skin (remember them?) with Old Boy Network. $7, 9 p.m.

--Got comments? Post 'em here.--


0 comments  

posted by Tim at 5:31 AM

Thursday, July 05, 2007

Column 131 -- Standing in the iQueue; Har Mar Superstar tonight...
My 30-second review of the iPhone: It's neat, it's easy to use (though the keyboard takes some getting used to). My biggest gripe: The device doesn't accept headphones/earbuds that use a standard jack, which means if you want to use those fancy Epitonic or Bose or Ultrasone earbuds/phones, you're going to have to shell out $10 for a plug adapter. No one mentioned this at the Apple store. The other gripe is AT&T's coverage area, which is spotty in Dundee (or at least around my neighborhood). In fact, I get no signal at all inside my house, which I now assume is made of lead.
Column 131: In the iQueue
Is the iPhone worth the wait?

"Imagine what it must have been like in the Soviet Union, waiting in line all day for a scrap of stale bread. After hours and hours, finally getting to the front of the line only to have the door slammed in your face because they were all out, and that was all you had for dinner."

Teresa's story, while poignant and touching, seemed strangely inappropriate. The line we were waiting in wasn't for bread or free cheese, but to purchase a $600 iPhone. Teresa promised to buy me one for my birthday, a month earlier. I'd never owned a cell phone before. Never understood why anyone needed one. The iPhone would be my first, and would also replace my dying Palm Tungsten as well as my white Third Generation iPod. That is, if we could actually get our hands on one.

The hype machine behind the iPhone's June 29 release was nothing short of a proclamation of the Second Coming of Christ. With the ongoing genocide in Darfur, Congress and the White House locked in a stalemate and the never-ending violence growing in Iraq, the national news media had chosen to focus its entire resources on covering the latest overpriced high-tech fashion accessory, coveted by greedy yuppies who mistake shopping for creativity. And we were among them.

Rather than go to the Apple Store way out at Village Pointe, we chose to get in line at the AT&T store located next to the Bag N Save on Dodge St. I'd driven by over lunch earlier that day and noticed only four or five lunatics sitting in lawn chairs outside the door.

The store was closed when we got there at 5. Along with every other AT&T and Apple store in the Midwest, it would reopen at 6 to what I assumed would be a feeding frenzy unrivaled since the Cabbage Patch Kids craze of the '80s -- a mania I had witnessed first-hand while working at Kmart. I remember being in the store's stock room, soberly stacking dolls three-high onto a flatbed cart while outside, drooling mothers waited with claws drawn. The manager told us to push the cart out into the open and get out of the way. The resulting melee resembled a piranha feeding -- women physically fighting and scratching each other, trying desperately to score a doll. Boxes were ripped apart. Children stole dolls out of other people's carts. It was madness. Within two minutes, it was all over. Nothing was left but a couple black Cabbage Patch dolls and a pile of tattered cardboard.

We would see nothing like that this day. In fact, the line was a bit of a downer. I'd hoped for an atmosphere similar to a Star Wars movie premiere, with people dressed as iPods or wearing Steve Jobs-style black turtlenecks and blue jeans. Instead, about 50 drowsy people stood along the sidewalk, looking bored and annoyed.

We sat on the curb outside of the grocery store and played hangman while people drove by in SUVs and stared. An elderly woman walked up and asked about all the hub-bub. "We're all waiting in line to sign up for the Army," I said, pointing at an Army recruiting office a few feet away. She lit up, excited, until I told her it was really for the iPhone.

Ten minutes into our wait and a cheerful AT&T representative bound out of the store, clipboard in hand. Resembling a young Doogie Howser in his powder blue AT&T polo, black khakis and enormous cell phone holster, he explained the line policy while wrapping orange wristbands around our wrists. No one would be admitted without one. "If you have to go to the bathroom, there's a Subway shop just a few doors down," he said, officiously. "Ask someone to hold your spot."

Time crawled. Small talk in line involved cell calling plans and gaming. I wondered what was happening at The Apple Store. I imagined an entirely different, more exciting atmosphere, where black-shirted Apple clerks made their way through the line, telling people it was almost time, that Steve Jobs was just spotted flying over North Platte with a bag filled with iPhones, the crowd clapping their hands in glee. Back at our store, angry-looking people forced their way through the line to get inside the Cash Advance place, glowering at the idiots.

One woman drove by in a dirty white sedan, leaned out her window with her little black-and-white dog by her side, and said loudly, "Oh, it's that fucking phone."

Finally, at 6, the store manager popped out the door and yelled the rules of the game. One in, one out. There would be no turmoil, the armed sheriff would see to that. "Are you excited?" he shouted. "We're excited, too!"

A camera crew from one of the local TV stations was on-hand to film the first lucky shopper to emerge victorious with an iPhone. Strangely, no one in line clapped.

It took an hour, but we finally made it just outside the door. Inside, we could see excited customers watching hands-on demos of the iPhone. They looked happy. In just a moment, we would be happy, too.

But before that would happen, out came the store manager along with Doogie and the sheriff. "Sorry, folks, we just ran out." The crowd exhaled with loud groans and a hidden, yelped "fuck you." Turns out the AT&T store only had 40 of the 8-gig iPhones on hand before they opened their doors. We'd wasted our time.

Suddenly, amidst my angst, Teresa's story made sense. No, we didn't have an iPhone, but at least we would not go hungry that evening. At least we had food.

Epilogue: The next morning I drove out to The Apple Store, walked right in (no lines) and bought an iPhone. I'm still waiting for my first phone call.

There are a handful of good shows going on tonight, the biggest being Har Mar Superstar down at Slowdown. It's being promoted as a "GOO" event, which would imply that Sean Tillmann will be spinning discs all night from stage. Not likely. I have to assume that we'll also get plenty of Har Mar sexiness in the form of a performance. Tillmann has adopted Omaha as a second home, and the Saddle Creek crew as a second family. I suspect this will be a huge show. $5, 9 p.m.

Meanwhile, over at The Waiting Room, it's Fort Worth band Black Tie Dynasty, a group of guys who dress in black dress shirts and play music drenched in their influences, which include The Cure, Psychedelic Furs, The Smiths, etc. Opening is Civic Minded and Sleep Said the Monster. $7, 9 p.m.

Finally, at O'Leaver's it's Thunder Power!!! featuring new members Alex Boardman and Kacynna Tompsett. The gig is a warm-up for the band's mini Midwest tour that will take them to Lawrence, Chicago, St. Peters, Minneapolis and Des Moines, winding up at The Saddle Creek Bar July 13. Opening are Jon Crocker and It's True. $5, 9 p.m.

--Got comments? Post 'em here.--


0 comments  

posted by Tim at 5:32 AM

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Slowdown's small stage debut...

Thanksgiving Eve. Christmas Eve. July 3rd. And so on. These are all perfect nights for shows, since almost everyone can sleep in the following morning. And yet, historically there are very few shows on the eve of holidays in Omaha. I guess that's to the venues' advantage, since they're all going to be packed tonight with or without bands performing on their stages.

That said, Slowdown is taking advantage of this holiday eve to christen their new "small stage," located along the north side of the bar. The space is designed to host less-popular bands that would have a hard time filling the venue's "big room." Doing the honors is Flowers Forever (Derek Presnall of Tilly and the Wall) and Fourth of July (Adrianne Verhoeven of Art in Manila). The 8 p.m. show will run you $5, with all of it going to charity. With a capacity of around 100, I bet this one will be packed.

--Got comments? Post 'em here.--


0 comments  

posted by Tim at 5:32 AM

Monday, July 02, 2007

Live Review: KC, Dan Deacon; Once; Page France tonight...

The iPhone odyssey will be recapped in Wednesday's column. I will say this: I got one… eventually. More later.

After my late-afternoon iPhone fiasco, we headed to Memorial Park for KC and the Sunshine band. It was the usual crowd of fun-loving suburban white folks, mostly families, lots of kids. Almost no black people whatsoever. The crowd seemed larger than last year's 4th of July celebration-in-the-park (certainly larger than the Bright Eyes concert). KC and his entourage came on at around 9:15, and though I thought the whole thing was disappointing, I don't know what I was expecting -- some sort of hip disco show that highlighted the grooves of the band's best songs? Dumb on my part. Instead it was your typical Vegas/Branson-style medley/revue performance. Bombastic. Lots of bad dance routines. A handful of covers from the disco era that should have been left out. KC could easily have played 45 minutes of nothing but his own material. Instead, we got disco's greatest hits and even a couple obscure KC numbers along with ones we all know and love. The band was good, but the sound was particularly bad for an outdoor show -- shrill, with too much high end. No bass at all. The Sunshine Band, specifically the brass, was first rate, and KC's voice was good enough to pull it off despite having to run around stage like an elderly aerobics instructor. Most people around us weren't watching, anyway. They were too busy making sure their kids weren't lighting things on fire or spilling Kool-Aid on their blankets. A small handful of women in their 40s did some good-time rump shaking, hiding their Busch Lights beneath foam coozies. KC finished at around 10, and the fireworks followed. Funny how these fireworks shows always use the same music. Get ready for Lee Greenwood, Neil Diamond and the requisite Louis Armstrong "It's a Wonderful World." Teresa wondered what it would be like to see a fireworks display backed by indie rock songs -- Spoon, Death Cab for Cutie, Bright Eyes. The crowd would hate it. Actually, I'd probably hate it, too. It seemed like the shortest fireworks display I've seen at Memorial Park since the '90s. People around us actually booed. I guess they didn't get their money's worth.

Saturday night was Dan Deacon at The Waiting Room. A friendly Lazy-i reader saw the show listed on my blog and pointed it out as something I shouldn't miss. I'm glad she made the effort. She said Deacon is part of a Baltimore art / theater / music collective called Wham City. I knew he was a one-man band sort of thing, but other than that, didn't know what to expect. His shtick is similar to The Show Is the Rainbow's -- Deacon sets up on the floor instead of the stage, surrounded by samplers and lighting gear and a big green skull on a stick that lights up during the high points. Before he started, a couple guys taped white bedding sheets from the beam that divides the stage room from the rest of the bar, effectively creating a barrier, forcing people to come inside the stage area and surround Deacon and his gear. Smart move. It made the room more intimate and enclosed. Deacon's music is almost entirely prerecorded tracks played on an iPod Shuffle, augmented by keyboards and his vocal effects. Hyperactive, frenetic, big-bass dance songs sung by squirrels playing Casio keyboards, melodies reminiscent of A Clockwork Orange and The Faint and TSITR and video game soundtracks.

The biggest difference between Deacon and TSITR is how Deacon forces crowd participation. Sure, Darren Keen gets out in the audience and gets them involved, but Deacon makes almost every song a sing-a-long, includes a pseudo dance contest, even passes out lyric sheets and stinky plastic robes for a few unfortunate fans to wear during his final song (a rapacious version of "Wham City"). With the crowd of 50 or 60 packed so tightly around the front of the stage, with the red, green and white floor lights, Deacon's show felt more like a weird religious event rather than a rock concert -- a psionic cult happening, a throbbing dance ritual where you halfway expect grooving onlookers to begin floating in the air, trying their hardest to "renew" Logan's Run-style. Instead, Darren Keen picked up one hearty soul and lifted him over his head and passed him around the crowd before he was set down in front of high priest Deacon. A religious experience indeed.

One last music note from the weekend: Went to see the film Once at The Dundee Theater Saturday night. I thought it -- and its music -- were terrific. Glen Hansard, the leading man, sounds like an Irish version of Cat Stevens, with music that at times is nearly as good. Hansard also is in the Irish band The Frames, who have released a handful of albums, including a couple on Anti Records. The Frames are opening for Bob Dylan in New Zealand and Australia in August. Once is a simple film filled with so much music and performances that it borders on being a musical (maybe technically it is). It isn't a love story as much as a fable about a singer-songwriter making the record of his life. Check it out before it leaves.

Tonight at The Waiting Room it's Suicide Squeeze artist Page France with Bear Country and Scissors for Lefty. France plays twee acoustic indie-folk songs that are always pretty, sung in frontman Michael Nau's charming nasal croon. All Music said the press compares them to Bright Eyes or Jeff Tweedy. I don't hear that at all, but you be the judge. Scissors for Lefty are the brothers Garza (three of them) and the brothers Krimmel (just two), singing upbeat indie rock songs in a style similar to Eagle*Seagull -- vocalist Bryan Garza even sports an affected rasp similar to Eli Mardock's (at least on the tracks I heard online). The show starts at 9 p.m. and costs $8.

--Got comments? Post 'em here.--


0 comments  

posted by Tim at 3:38 AM

Music Posts
Neil Hamburger, Outlaw Con Bandana tonight...
Live Review: Built to Spill; Shiver Shiver, SSTM; ...
Filter Kings tonight, the rest of the weekend...
Column 134: Mid Year Report; Reviews: Film Streams...
Hello, Film Streams; Handsome Furs, The Winter Sou...
Don Cab, Fromanhole tonight...
Back from vacation; Creek's Tokyo Police Club deal...
A brief look into the future as Lazy-i goes on hia...
Column 132 -- Hello, Goodbye Drakes Hotel; Mavradi...
Built to Spill: rock vs. jam; Gravy Train!!!, The ...
Music Posts
February 2005
March 2005
April 2005
May 2005
June 2005
July 2005
August 2005
September 2005
October 2005
November 2005
December 2005
January 2006
February 2006
March 2006
April 2006
May 2006
June 2006
July 2006
August 2006
September 2006
October 2006
November 2006
December 2006
January 2007
February 2007
March 2007
April 2007
May 2007
June 2007
July 2007
Posts Before February 2005