The Continental Drift Music Festival will be moving to Ralston’s The Granary for its 13th year. The festival is put on by Taylor Stein of the long-running Omaha band Ten O’Clock Scholars and new project The Farewell Season.
The free festival will happen on Aug. 16 and feature both of those bands along with Two Drag Club, Brothers Tandem, Fox, Midwest Dilemma, and Third Frate.
Stein and Ten O’Clock Scholars just released their first new music in 10 years with the album “Sit Down Next to Me.” His other band, The Farewell Season, released their debut album “Funeral Flowers” in December of last year. Stein talked about the festival’s changes, along with the two bands and being in Omaha-based bands while living in Minneapolis.
“Continental Drift started in 2012, and it was just an idea I had,” Stein explained. “We played some festivals across the country with Ten O’Clock Scholars. Some of them were bigger, and some of them weren’t. And some of the ones that weren’t, I was like, I can do that. I know enough people to make that happen. So when we first started out, there were, I think, five or six bands, and we ran our own sound at Riverwest Park out in Elkhorn.”
After five years, Riverwest became cost-prohibitive for the festival, and they moved to Fremont Lakes. They spent seven years there, but budget cuts at the park found them looking for a new space.
“So we found The Granary in Ralston,” Stein said of the move. “I grew up around there, and so I knew they kind of redid it a little bit, and I just like playing outdoors. I always find it fun. So we relocated there, and they have the concrete stage, and we’re bringing the sound guy from before and all that stuff. So it’s a fun little free deal. Over the years, we’ve tried to balance the cost. First it was ten bucks, then it was five bucks, and then it got to the point I was just like, I’m not trying to make money out of this. We’re doing it because it’s fun. So it’s free to the public, and we hope people come out and check out some bands they’ve never seen before.”
The pandemic helped bring Ten O’Clock Scholars back into the studio and also was the catalyst for Stein’s new project, The Farewell Season.
“That actually started during the pandemic,” Stein remembered about the beginning of The Farewell Season. “Nate Gasaway used to play in The Big Deep, and he and I have been friends for a long time. We just kind of started trading song ideas as a way to pass the time and kick some stuff around. Like, yeah, I got some ideas—why don’t you mess around with it? Vice versa. So then when we came out of that, we were like, well, maybe we should record one of these songs. And then, you know, once we kind of recorded a song, we were like, maybe we should play some shows. So we started recruiting people that were obviously in other bands that we knew, but it was like, hey, do you wanna try out this new project?
“So that’s what was born. And it’s interesting because, you know, I live in Minneapolis now, and I’ve been up there for 13 years, pretty much. So we started finding some players up there and down here, and then it kind of became like now I’m the only player up there and everybody’s here, because, you know, it’s all the people from the Omaha music scene, Nebraska music scene. But I have enough contacts that we’ve played a bunch of shows up there and a bunch of shows down here. We’ve been doing it for a year or so, but we had been recording songs for three years. Just kind of like, instead of doing a one-off single release to come out, let’s do a full album. It’s a little different from Ten O’Clock Scholars, which, you know, is more pop rock and what have you. Exploring a different sound has been a lot of fun.”
Ten O’Clock Scholars just celebrated their 25th anniversary with an album release at Reverb Lounge in April.
“We were joking about how we’ve doubled our number of shows just playing two shows a year now instead of one,” Stein said. “We took a bit of a hiatus for about three years when we kind of went our different ways and life happens and what have you. But we’re always still friends. So yeah, we had songs on this new album. We hadn’t released any music for 10 years, so we had songs that we started recording in 2015 that were just out there, dead on the vine. And we kind of resurrected them. We began with the pandemic, just had song ideas and traded ideas and what have you, and some of those came out. So we decided to go with a full album, and it took ten years to record because everybody lived in different cities and all that stuff. So yeah, I mean, we would love to play a little more. I think now we’re getting into a life space where we could maybe even do four shows a year. But you know, we’re not hitting the road in a van anytime soon. We’re still doing it for fun.”
Stein said the band had to rewrite some of the songs since so many years had passed.
“Some of them we did have to rewrite,” he said. “We had to re-record a little bit of the material. You know, like, you’re in a different headspace. When we started this band, we were coming out of high school and college and all that stuff. It was an interesting endeavor to go back to some of that old stuff. And then, you know, I feel like the topics in the lyrics—they’re kind of all over. There was a pandemic in there. We did wanna throw some tunes on this new album that gave old fans that feel—like Ten O’Clock Scholars, Ranch Bowl-era feel. But then we’ve got some new stuff on there where we’re trying a little synth and something, just goofing around, because why not? We’re older now. We’ve got a trumpet on one song! So it’s been a ton of fun.
“We’ve got a song called ‘Barley St. Tavern,’ which is about the Barley St. Tavern, because it was one of our go-to venues back in the day—kind of a home base for us guys. We actually recorded one of the tunes up at Pachyderm Studios in Minnesota, which I’m sure you’re familiar with. And that was another thing—when I moved up there, I was like, you have to come up here and record. Pachyderm is the coolest of the cool, out in the woods.”
The first year for The Continental Drift Divide Festival at Granary Green will be a pretty straightforward affair with a full bar, food from the venue, and the bands.
“We’ll see how it works the first year there,” Stein said. “Then see if we can improve it. It’s more of a fun thing now. It’s kind of a reunion, to be honest with you, where you see all those friends from back in the day that I don’t get to see anymore—once a year.”