* Talking Heads’ David Byrne & St. Vincent will bring their duo collaboration to the 80/35 mainstage this summer. Iconic rap collective Wu-Tang Clan will also headline Des Moines’ annual 80/35 Festival Friday, July 5th and Saturday, July 6th at the Western Gateway Park. Other scheduled performers include Deerhunter, Wavves, Yeasayer and reunited Iowa alternative rockers House of Large Sizes. Tickets for the music festival are on sale now at 80-35.com.
* Midtown Crossing at Turner Park, near 33rd and Dodge streets, is building a permanent stage and pavilion structure at the east end of the public park. The stage area will feature a dancing area in front of the stage. The stage itself will be covered by a canvas shell, all of which is scheduled to be completed in time for the start of the midtown development’s Jazz on the Green series. The first of those free shows is scheduled for Thursday, July 11th.
* PUJOL, the Saddle Creek-signed scrappy garage poppers, finally made the trek to Omaha from their home in Nashville. An enthusiastic crowd, not-quite-capacity crowd greeted the band’s maiden voyage to town at O’Leaver’s Pub, 1322 South Saddle Creek Road. The band responded with a quick-hitting dose of whipsmart pop songs that stuck somewhere between the Black Lips and former Nashville labelmates JEFF the Brotherhood. Singer Daniel Pujol pulled out new songs including one called “Circles” that bode well for whatever label releases the next album of should-be hits from this emerging band.
* Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band have set up two summer shows at the Slowdown, 729 North 14th St. The shows, scheduled for Wednesday, July 31st and Thursday, August 1st, are the band’s only scheduled shows so far in 2013. Tickets are on sale now via etix.com.
* Grouplove and Icky Blossoms are set to provide University of Nebraska-Lincoln students with a free show Thursday, April 18th. The free show will take place outside the Nebraska Union building on UNL’s City Campus starting at 8 p.m.
* Whispertown, the indie-folk project of Morgan Nagler, premiered the video for “State of Mind” on Paste Magazine’s website. Among the most prominent in the California-based Nagler’s rotating cast of musicians has been ex-Omaha resident Jake Bellows (Neva Dinova). The project has gained the fandom of Jenny Lewis, as well as Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, who put out the last two Whispertown releases on the duo’s Acony Records imprint.