* Maha Music Festival has finalized all but one spot on its 2012 line-up. The event, scheduled for Saturday, August 21st at Aksarben Village’s Stinson Park, will now include Michigan indie folk band Frontier Ruckus and Omaha’s own the Mynabirds. Local stage will include the already-announced Eli Mardock, along with UUVVWWZ, Icky Blossoms and Lincoln’s Universe Contest. Prior to Maha, the local stage performers will host showcases in Omaha and Lincoln. UUVVWWZ plays their showcase Friday, June 29th at the Slowdown, 729 North 14th St. Eli Mardock plays his showcase Saturday, June 30th at Duffy’s Tavern, 1412 O Street in Lincoln. Universe Contest will play their showcase Friday, July 13th at the Bourbon Theatre, 1415 O St in Lincoln.
* A final local band will be selected to the Maha lineup at the Omaha Entertainment and Arts Award summer showcase, held Friday, June 8th and Saturday, June 9th at various venues in the Benson area.
* KIOS 91.5 FM will once again air the one-hour documentary Janis Joplin: The Pearl Sessions at 2 p.m. Monday, May 28th. The special is an overview of Joplin’s final years leading up to the recording of her final album, Pearl, in 1970. The program features interviews with Joplin’s sister Laura, road manager John Byrne Cooke, producer Paul Rothchild and author Holly George Warren, as well as alternate takes from the Pearl sessions.
* Quintron & Miss Pussycat returned to the Waiting Room Lounge, 6212 Maple St., last Wednesday, for more New Orleans-marinated psych-organ badassery. Quintron got his fervent followers dancing throughout his set, as he tinkered with his own self-made gizmos. For all the far out effects and sounds conjured up by Quintron, he still keeps an undeniable groove to keep his hits perfect for any rhythmically-inclined weirdo to bop along to.
* Grouplove’s sold-out Waiting Room show last Thursday may have just been stolen by Reptar. The Athens, Ga. band seems to have learned from one of their town’s biggest names, the B-52s, by taking all sorts of nerdy tics and turning them into pop music. The band carried a big-deal, synth-heavy ’80s pop music vibe throughout their set of danceable nerd-pop. At the end of the set, the crowd clamored for an encore. Instead, they got a rock-solid Grouplove set that leaned into a grunge-lite realm that isn’t as apparent on their indie-pop singles “Tongue Tied” or “Colours.”
* Deer Tick‘s Sunday night show at the Waiting Room provided the weekend’s live music highlight, as the drunkest miscreant ever to inhabit Rhode Island wrecked themselves through a nearly two-hour set of raucous, bar band alternative country chaos. Singer John McCauley’s raspy bray was in fine form as he sung of bad loves and late nights, while the entire band stayed boozily perfect. (colorreflections.com)