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Home - Music
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Compass Spinning - |
Jamie Lidell tweaks sound yet again on Compass
By Brent Crampton
“What makes a person love the music of Stevie Wonder over Keith Urban it’s something you’re either into or not,” said Jamie Lidell. “I never thought about music belonging to race and not belonging to me.” |
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Blu Simon Says - |
This Zeppelin-inspired band is on the rise and on a mission
By James Derrick Schott
I first met Aaron Shoemaker, lead singer and guitarist for the local trio Blu Simon, over the phone. He recommended I attend the band’s practice where they ritually stream live video over the Internet at blusimon.com. |
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Back Beat - |
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1% Productions announced a pair of back-to-back Cursive shows at the 49’r Lounge, Sept. 19 and 20. This marks a highlight in what’s been an almost year-long swan song for the storied bar/venue as it faces its nearly sealed fate of being razed to make way for a CVS which I’m certain won’t have purple stuff or shuffleboard. Boo. On the bright side, these are just two new 1% concerts recently announced. For more show announcements visit onepercentproductions.com. |
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His and Hers - |
She & Him bring sweet, retro pop to Anchor Inn
By Jesse D. Stanek
Venerated songwriter/guitarist/vocalist M Ward has had the kind of solo career most musicians dream of, releasing seven full-length records to critical acclaim and mass praise on blogs and at record shops nationwide. However, when he teams with actress Zooey Deschanel for their throwback pop project She & Him, Ward relishes the opportunity to step to the side of the stage as a capable backing instrumentalist, and also the chance it gives him to work at producing the material. |
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Grown-Up Alternative - |
Reader reviews latest by adult alternative’s leading lights, David Gray and Ray LaMontagne
By Chris Aponick
When Ray LaMontagne popped up on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” in March 2009, it was to an audience mostly unaware of the Maine singer.
But to those tuned to the current pulse of adult alternative, it represented the first real trickle of LaMontagne into public consciousness. LaMontagne took to Rockefeller Center to play his soulful acoustic-folk pop to an audience of unbelievers without a huge hit, hipster indie-rock credibility or his fingerprints all over a major Hollywood movie soundtrack. |
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Coin Toss - |
‘Cricket’ Tommy Allsup missed Buddy Holly’s fatal flight
By Andy Roberts
Luck plays a role in all our lives. No one knows that better than Tommy Allsup.
Allsup, a 78-year-old Owasso, Okla., native, is here because of a legendary coin flip.
One of Buddy Holly’s Crickets, the guitar player was in Clear Lake, Iowa, as The Winter Dance Party including Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson loaded up after playing the Surf Ballroom on Feb. 2, 1959. They were bound for Moorhead, Minn., and on that frigid Midwestern night, the tour bus’ heater wasn’t working. |
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Back Beat - |
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In addition to her gorgeous set of pipes, sense of style and all-around awesomeness, The Black Squirrels’ Kat Smith has given me the best haircuts of my life. Seriously, the best. Smith has mounting bills after a series of medical struggles that have left her unable to work (hear from Smith in Hoodoo page 39) and the local music community is coming together this week to lend a hand. Tuesday, Aug. 31, starting at 6 p.m. is Crooning for Kat at the Waiting Room, a fundraiser featuring a silent auction and music from Kyle Harvey, Filter Kings, The Bruces, McCarthy Trenching, Whipkey Zimmerman Sing, Outlaw Con Bandana and Adam Hawkins. If you can’t make the show visit CrooningForKat.com where you can also donate. Omaha has been missing Smith’s own sweet croon for too long; help now and it’s all the sooner we’ll get to see her onstage where she belongs. |
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Relaxed Recording - |
Tapes ‘n Tapes takes time recording third album
By Chris Aponick
Josh Grier is really excited about just how awesome the new Tapes ‘n Tapes album is. But he’ll admit that his opinion of the Minneapolis band’s forthcoming album is heavily biased. He’s the front man. |
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All the Young Girls - |
Rebecca Lowry releases Secret Attic Recordings on Slo-Fi
By Jesse D. Stanek
Rebecca Lowry is not only a ukulele-playing YouTube semi-sensation, the self-described “book nerd” also fancies words. She recalls a conversation with a friend a couple of years back about the Nabokov classic Lolita and talking about “the inherent truth that young girls are manipulative.” Her friend responded with “C’mon, you know all young girls are machine guns” and in that fateful instant, Omaha’s only solo, ukulele-playing chick had a name for her burgeoning musical curiosity. |
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Back Beat - |
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It’s hard to believe the sweet heat and abandon of summer is soon coming to a close. The only thing to do is embrace the also-happy fate of sweaters, spiked cider, falling leaves and, for so many around these parts, Husker Football. Gear up with the gridiron’s unsung heroes the Cornhusker Marching Band as they kick off their own season Aug. 20, with a free exhibition concert at 7 p.m. at Lincoln’s Memorial Stadium. |
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On The Road Again - |
Stone Temple Pilots hit the road older and wiser
By James Derrick Schott
The early ’90s music scene saw the end of overly commercialized ’80s hair bands. Dancing on their graves was the Seattle grunge takeover highlighted by bands like Pearl Jam, Nirvana and Soundgarden. Riding their coattails, according to some music critics of the time, was San Diego, California’s Stone Temple Pilots, viewed by many as a cheap knockoff of the grunge movement. The irony of STP’s success peaked in January 1994 when in a Rolling Stone Magazine poll, the band was simultaneously voted Best New Band by Rolling Stone readers and Worst New Band by the magazine’s music critics. Like an ex-girlfriend that just won’t go away, they continued releasing chart-topping hits throughout the decade, eventually forcing America to come out of its STP closet and admit a love affair with the band. |
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Dance Party - |
Multi-DJ event returns to The Max
By April Christenson
The genesis of the first F*ck Me, I’m Omaha Famous party may one day be folklore in the Omaha DJ community.
Sean Kingsbury, of Ultimate Downhill Machines, said it went like this: Last spring, the people of Ultimate Downhill Machines (UDM), an Omaha DJ collective, found themselves in a heated Facebook discussion over DJing skills with DJ Tuck, the resident hip-hop DJ at The Max. The discussion led to UDM inviting DJ Tuck to a weekly DJ roundup they host at their home, the Historic Duke in Midtown. Each week, UDM shares their equipment, offers free music lessons and mingles with others in the local music scene. DJ Tuck accepted their invitation and a friendship and collaboration were forged. |
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Forget Mozart - |
Phoenix composes a classic
By Kyle Eustice
There is no question that Phoenix is on fire. The four-piece French ensemble’s fourth album, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, seemed to be on everyone’s list of 2009 summer soundtracks. They have released three records, but this one brought them greater recognition; although it wasn’t all unicorns and rainbows. The road to notoriety was a bit of a rocky one.
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No Fear - |
Melissa Etheridge brings Fearless Love to Orpheum
By Sarah Wengert
Never have I so wanted to teleport; to exchange a quick phone interview for a lazy afternoon of long, meaningful conversation and drinks, than when I spoke with Melissa Etheridge last week. |
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Back Beat - |
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*All Young Girls Are Machine Guns’ Rebecca Lowry is a musician with an arsenal of passion, making her a Backbeat favorite for some time now. Next Thursday, Aug. 19, at Slowdown, Lowry hosts a fete for the release of her Secret Attic Recordings, the latest on Slo-Fi Records. Lowry will perform backed by Scott “Zip” Zimmerman and Travis Sing. Midwest Dilemma and Kyle Harvey open. |
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Not-ley Crue - |
Don’t expect hedonistic rock ‘n’ roll abandon from the happy-go-lucky Spinto Band
By Chris Aponick
For a band that’s been hitting the road since its mid-to-late teenage years, the Spinto Band is refreshingly devoid of tales of debauched rock excess.
In fact, singer Nick Krill is hard-pressed to come up with one sordid road story starring the six-piece Delaware band. |
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Princes of Pop - |
’90s wunderkind, Hanson, are full-grown and doing good for the world
By John Wenz
While you may not have been paying attention since removing the poster of the Hanson brothers from your bedroom wall, they never went anywhere. Sure, the chords of “MMMBop” faded from the radio, but after that bubblegum pop όber-hit’s 1997 release on Middle Of Nowhere, the brothers Zac, Taylor and Isaac have consistently toured and recorded new albums. |
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Rock Steady - |
Reggae legend Jimmy Cliff continues to evolve on latest record
By Kyle Eustice
A handful of reggae artists will forever remain iconic: Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Burning Spear and Jimmy Cliff, to name a few. Founded in Jamaica, reggae progressed from ska and rock-steady to the more rhythmic style of “skank” which is a slower version of ska yet faster than rock-steady. Its message is often hopeful, politically charged and spiritually uplifting. Cliff remains one of the greats. |
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Back Beat: Music News - |
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While the “deluxe” portion of last Saturday’s Concert For Equality was otherwise lacking starting with an excruciating, buzz-kill of a nearly hour-long wait to get in between the fine cause and Lullaby For the Working Class’ stirring set, I was pleased to have paid the upgrade. I can’t even tell you what year it was when I last saw local cult favorite Lullaby, but it was at the Cog Factory and I believe I was in high school. Anybody who caught Saturday’s set has likely blabbered to you excitedly about how magical and worth the wait it was. With the disappointing recent breakup of It’s True! a group with the chops and style to live up to its mighty buzz and that was getting people excited about local music again happening in tandem with a batch of notable reunions, perhaps the lesson is to be sure to support such bands while you can. But, it seems perhaps an irreversible Omaha trait that even great bands disband and/or can’t focus their energies up to the level of their abilities. Ah well, we’ll wait for the reunion. |
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Band On The Rise - |
Throw back a couple PBR tall boys and get to rocking in a cramped room with oversized speakers and a drummer working his flow like a machine, wrenching as many beats as possible out of a second. Finish with a sweat-soaked wail … and collapse.
This is the typical scene in Omaha hardcore band And Collapse’s jam room.
The quartet is comprised of members Buck Blanc on vocals, Aaron Maxwell on guitar, Josh “Butch” Richert on bass and Matthew T. Benson on drums.
While the band isn’t new it features a revamped lineup meant to push its sound to an all-new, harder level.
Last April, shortly after the original lineup released a self-titled CD, two members departed and were replaced by Blanc and Richert. Both had worked with Benson, making a smooth transition. As Mawell put it, “It’s been really nice working with guys who are committed to the band.” |
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