* McCarthy Trenching is rolling out Fresh Blood, a limited edition LP, available only on vinyl and as a digital download. Dan McCarthy’s mostly-solo project will be available at the Saddle Creek Shop, 721 North 14th St. McCarthy kicked off the release with a Tuesday performance at Saddle Creek’s retail storefront. McCarthy will also play an Omaha release show Friday, October 14 at O’Leaver’s Pub, 1322 South Saddle Creek Road.
* This week has filled with club shows, highlighted by Ty Segall at the Slowdown, 729 North 14th St., Wednesday night. The San Francisco garage rocker took his latest, stripped back batch of melodic garage-pop back into a world of distortion and big rock moments. Segall has easily re-assembled his songs to fit into a high-adrenaline power trio format. Meanwhile, Segall’s buddy and frequent collaborator Mikal Cronin impressed with nods to classic power-pop, punk-pop and garage rock with hishook-laden set. I also caught the tail-end of Mike Posner‘s set at the Sokol Auditorium, 2234 South 13th St., Thursday. University of Nebraska at Omaha’s Maverick Productions put on the show, which drew an enthusiastic college-aged crowd. Posner relied on two DJ’s on dance tracks, but impressed most when he sat down at the piano for slower club jams. A Saturday night Slowdown show featured a batch of locals as Family Picnic headlined a show supported by Cymbal Rush and the Razors. The Razors were youthful, lo-fi indie poppers, while Cymbal Rush have developed new layers with a two-guitar attack that adds life to the band’s sound, which once bordered on slowcore, but now seems to crib from a host of hip 90s influences, though my bet is the band would scratch their heads at mentions of Superchunk, early Built to Spill and Swearing at Motorists. The most talked-about show of the week was the Head and the Heart at the Waiting Room Lounge, 6212 Maple St. The Sub Pop Records band sold itself well as their set became a communal sing-along about halfway through their performance. The folk-pop indie sound was elevated by piano and big builds. The Head and the Heart are mining similar territory as Mumford & Sons, without such an allegiance to the old-timey trappings that Mumford wraps their music in.