Meat of the Meets

The City Weekly’s Meeting the Band series is still going strong after nearly two years. Week in and week out, we’ve kept our ears tuned to the heartbeat of the local music scene, offering in-depth coverage of the many, many musical acts that continue to thrive, flounder and seemingly appear out of nowhere in music venues throughout Omaha, Lincoln and beyond.

Year Two of MtB saw plenty of fresh faces making their first appearances in a publication of any sort right alongside long established artists who’ve been asked the same questions by the same journalists on a routine basis year after year.

Another common trait Year Two revealed is that several people are in several bands, often finding spots in two or three separate MtB articles, leaving one to wonder exactly how many times can you interview Cass Brostad and Danny Bueno in the course of six months? Apparently three or four. (See MtB No. 90 on page 23.)

And as Year Three and the ominous MtB No. 100 fast approach, there are a few big names that we intend to capture before ultimately retiring the series (or, more likely, evolving it into something even better). But, from the start, the whole purpose was to give a boost of exposure to local groups worthy of attention that otherwise wouldn’t get much ink at all, let alone an entire page and a half spread – complete with a unique photograph – spinning their stories in their own words. What other local media outlet offers that?

Once again, we’d like to offer our infinite thanks to our extremely dedicated and underpaid crew of freelance writers and photographs that contributed to the series, going out of their way to set up interviews late on weeknights and photo shoots an hour before deadline.

So, without further ado, the ensuing pages are clips from the 47 local acts the CW profiled in 2009 – our second annual “Meat of the Meets.”
– Will Simons

Contributing writers:
Will Simons, Marq Manner, Lindsay Trapnell, Chris Aponick, Kyle Eustice

Contributing photographers:
Dale Heise, Mike Howard, Lindsay Trapnell, Steve Loftus, Brady Hess, Josh Williamson, Will Simons

#43 Tim Wildsmith
Members: Tim Wildsmith backed by Jake Adams, Jason Burkum, Craig Hughes, Matthew Tobias

Can you tell me about your songwriting? I saw an interview on your Web site and you said focus on emotional highs and lows.
Tim: I have a really uncanny ability of attracting insane women.

Don’t we all?    
Tim: (Laughs) Right? I think when I write, I write when I’m in a place where I’m dealing with what’s going on emotionally in my life. I’m writing a lot about the rough times in life, but I’m also in a place where I’m trying to be hopeful about what’s going on.

For your next album, if you had 18 or so good songs, would you release the quintessential Tim Wildsmith double LP?
Tim: The double vinyl epic release? I don’t know. If I got 10 good ones, I might just stop.

#44 Fucken Snakes
Members: Jack Nasty, Joe Crick, Jeff Lambelet, Austin Ulmer

Well, the Earth is going to end one day, how do think that’ll come about?
Jack: The end of the world? Ah, Jesus. It’s “Armageddon Week” on History Channel. I think December 21st of 2012, something is going to happen, magnetic poles, get hit by an asteroid. I dunno. I think the end is near, though.
Austin: You would think that, Jack.

#45 Aurasing
Members: Mike Clark, Tony Hemann, Matt Oliver, Lowell Owen, Corey Wilson

Where do you guys want to go with this band?
Lowell: What do we expect? Where do we draw the line? We all agreed that it was something to take seriously, but it wasn’t something to pay the bills. When the ceiling seems so far away I want to be hitting my head on it.  
Mike: I thought I was going to be asked, “Why did I get back into this?” And I was going to say, “to save the scene.” Seriously though it is because it is the right guys, the right sound and the right time. I am really happy with what I am doing and am unapologetic with it.
Corey: The impression that I get with this group of guys is that we are not going to get a major label contract. It’s a different game these days and it is all about how we define success. We are not looking at the top of the mountain. We are not trying to sit around and chase some sort of a major label thing. When we get there we will value it.  

#46 DJ Kobrakyle and DJ Spence

What songs make the crowd shake it like a Polaroid picture?
Kyle: Any crunk rapper over dance beats, anything Spank Rock related and definitely anything involving Birdman or David Banner.
Spence: Anything by A-Trak. Wait, that’s a cop out. I’m going to say “Music Feels Better With You” by Thomas Bangalker (one half of Daft Punk) or Waters of Nazareth by Justice.

#47 Malpais
Members: Dave Backhaus, Luke Backhaus, Scott Evans, Greg Loftis, Phil Reno

You all seem pretty good at avoiding inter-band ego battles and stuff like that.
Greg: We drink. That helps.    
Phil: There’s a definite respect level. We all come from different backgrounds, but we all meet somewhere in the middle, and it works really well.
Scott: And everybody’s been in tons of bands. Luke’s actually the only formally trained (musician). Well, from an educational standpoint.
Greg: He tells us when we’re flat or sharp, what we’re actually playing.
Luke: (Sarcastically) I can find notes on a keyboard and tell them if it’s the right note.

Looking back how do you feel with where you’re currently at?
Phil: I think in my mind, for not actually making it anywhere, into the majors I guess, I feel like we’ve done a lot and there’s a lot more coming, too.
Greg: We get off on what we do. A couple bands beforehand, (playing) live shows, it’s not always been that fun for me. Now it’s enjoyable.
Dave: Greg’s a studio kind of guy.
Greg: Yeah, the studio format is definitely where I’m more happy. I’m getting into this whole live performing thing, trying to channel my inner Freddie Mercury. I’m growing a mustache.

#48 It’s True
Members: Adam Hawkins, Andrew Bailey, Nathaniel Brighton, Kyle Harvey, Karl Hofek

So how does it make you feel when you hear that a lot of people seem to be talking about this project?
Adam: I hear people say, “you guys are getting a lot of buzz.” I don’t know what that means or who is talking or who is saying what. I guess it’s cool.

When did you decide that you wanted to form a band here in town?
Adam: I was at the Barley Street and Andrew was playing. He asked me if I wanted to play. Nate was there and he was playing brushes. We just kind of got the idea to put together the band. I had asked Karl a long time ago to play and he saw something was starting and joined. Kyle was the last person we wanted to play bass.
Kyle: I just started showing up.
Adam: We were going to have Liz Webb play bass, but she didn’t know how to play bass. We were just going to have him play until she learned how to play bass.

# 49 Southpaw
Bluegrass Band
Members: David Fleming, Steve Hoiberg, Justin Kephart, Josh Krohn, Chris Hunke

It’s interesting that you play a lot of originals. Do you play quite a few traditional songs as well?
(They all concur.)
David: Yeah, I think that’s always where the music should be. And the list just goes on and on and on…
Chris: When you have a mix of traditionals along with your originals, then the crowd hears something they recognize and something that’s new to them each time they come to a show.
Steve: If you bombard them with all originals, they’ll like the music, but it won’t be songs they’ve heard before.
David: Or vice versa in Omaha.
Steve: I think it really depends on the crowd.
Josh: It’s important to all of us that we’re playing original music, stuff that we’re contributing to bluegrass music. But it all has its foundations in traditional roots.

#50 Icares
Members: Tim Blair, Mike Torczon, John James Reuben Shepherd, Ryan Osbahr

I’m not sure how most people know you guys, but I was introduced to Icares through your active presence on the S.L.A.M. Omaha Web boards.
Ryan: We use it at a networking tool, just like anybody else. Shep (JJRS) is known to piss a person off or two.
JJRS: I’ve never made anybody mad, ever.
Ryan: It’s really all in fun and it’s really, we’re bored. We all are working but kind of “wink, wink,” not working on the Internet and just kind rapping with our friends.
JJRS: The only ones we’re not joking with are the Filter Kings. There’s a lot of bad blood between us.
Ryan: Yeah, f**k the Filter Kings! The thing that’s crazy about S.L.A.M. is JJRS, Shep, whatever, he’s built this persona that’s so big it’s like everybody wants to hate on him. But he hasn’t been on S.L.A.M. for four weeks and he’s still the most popular guy on there.

Did you hear that new Scott Weiland solo album?
JJRS: It sounds like if you took a dump in a blender and pressed “3.” It’s terrible.
Ryan: I just saw a performance on Leno and it was awful.

#51 Secret Weapon
Members: Dave Backhaus, Phil Reno, Larry Allison, Benji

It’s strange that original music fans come out to see this band, yet shun many of the cover bands in town. Why is that?
Dave: I think because we are in original bands … we operate this project like that.
Larry: I think a lot of those people use it as an excuse to get out of the house and get rid of the kids, get shit faced and take a cab ride home.
Benji: When I think of a cover band I think of 40-year-old guys that are washed up and not sexually attractive and they are lonely.
Larry: We have a lot more energy than those bands. We are more energetic and there are two singers. We take it to an extreme of fun. We drink and get drunk and just have fun.

#52 The Show is the Rainbow
Member: Darren Keen

Do you usually have time to hang out and spend time in the cities on tour?
Darren: Yeah, I always make time for it. In the states I don’t care so much anymore to be honest with you. Overseas is when the partying becomes a little more important to me than the shows – not even partying, like getting crunk, just like doing all the tourist-y stuff, you know? I have a lot of interests outside of music. I’m interested in the world. I like going to Europe and experiencing everything about it.
What is something that not that many people know about you?
Darren: I’m afraid of horses, heights and being wrongfully accused of something by the police. These are three very irrational, very intense fears of mine. Any time I see a police car near me, I’m like, “That’s it. Send me to the pokey.” Oh, this is more interesting: I don’t speak to police, under any circumstances. Police, when they arrest you, tell you that you have the right to remain silent. You have a right to remain silent all of the time.

#53 Tranny Package
Members: Steve Norkus, Sherman “Shredmeister” Shepard, Andrei Kholbarov, Giovanna di Benedetti, Fritz Peters

How come so few people have heard of Tranny Package here in Omaha?
Norkus: Well, Omaha was a great place to start a band, but I suppose you could say Sherman and I always had an itch to explore the world. I dunno, maybe we read too much Willa Cather. (Laughs.) We were two very curious kids and in the ’80s there wasn’t anything like MySpace or Facebook or whatever, so if you wanted to make it in music, you had to move to New York, L.A. or London. Otherwise you’d never get discovered.
Sherman: Plus, we’ve always played glam rock, you know, David Bowie was – I suppose he still is – our hero, but back in ’86, ’87, Omaha was all country bands and punk rock. We didn’t quite fit in so well dressing like girls and flopping about stage.

#54 Electric Needle Room
Members: Matt Beat, Steven Beat, D.L. Diedrich

Over the last several months, your music is really starting to grow on me the more I listen to it. It’s got a certain charm to it, as a lot of your songs are catchy and kind of silly. What do you write about?
Matt:  I get really sick of songs about love and death, morality, whatever. I mean, let’s face it, most people have their little things in their daily lives that there’s plenty of opportunities to write things about. I’ve never really been big on lyrics anyway. Some of my favorite songs, I don’t remember the lyrics for. I think I was trying to prove a point, especially with the tomato song (“I Don’t Like Tomatoes”). It was just a good little tune. You could add any lyrics to it and make it good.

Did O’Leaver’s Pub really ban you guys for wearing wigs during a show?
Matt: Whoever does the O’Leaver’s posting on S.L.A.M. Omaha said because we wore wigs, we can’t be taken seriously. I was thinking about Talking Mountain and all these other bands that dress up, and what’s the difference? A lot of it’s political, I hate to say it. I guess I didn’t really care, but at the same time I thought I should write a song about it. I hope I didn’t offend them.

#55 Thousand Houses
Members: Matt Banta, Mitch Towne, Marc Frieden, Matthew Tobias, Steve Packwood

So where do you see this band fitting in the current music landscape?
Mitch: I think that the one thing that we are doing is being sincere. There is nothing ironic about it. This is our music and you will like it or you will not. We are not trying to trend jump. So what you see is what you get.
Matthew: So we do not apologize.
Matt: My goal is to make us more of a regional presence and not just a local band. We don’t want to over extend ourselves here in town. If we can create a brand in a few towns that can go a long way to being a successful band, I believe in the music and I want as many people to hear about it as possible. It’s a lot easier to get people out when we play once a month in Omaha.

#56 Honey & Darling
Sara Bertuldo, Matt Carroll, Robert Little

You’re building a recording studio?
Matt: We’ve been building a recording studio in the basement, like a basic startup studio, so that we can do all our own recording. We decided to get one of those Tascam Portastudios and try and make something that sounds a little rough, but still exercise care in the recording process and make it something we can be proud of.
Sara: I still have my Casio collection that I’m pretty proud of. I’m such a nerd for those. Have you ever listened to All-Time Quarterback? He (Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie fame) recorded it all on four-track. It’s an out of tune guitar and a Casio PT-10. It’s so distinct and it’s the same one I had as a kid. It’s got tiny keys and it’s monophonic, too. Pretty rad.
What else do you nerd out on?
Matt: We’ve become huge gear nerds.
Robert: They’re going down the dark path of home recording. It’s expensive, and it never stops. But it’s cool to have friends that do that stuff.

#57 Big Al Band
Members: Big Al, Ashley Dawn

Al, how did you get started in music?
Big Al: I played Sokol Hall the first time when I was 18 years old. Tim Rayre from Eclipse studios was my bassist. We had a cool local band. I moved to Los Angeles to pursue my musical career a little further. In 2003, I moved to back to Omaha.

What did you end up doing in L.A.?
Big Al: I worked in the film field during that time. Pretty much taking part in the whole process.

A lot of people know you for your self-promotion of your project and events as well as other bands in the scene. What makes you so confident in what you are doing?
Big Al: I think it boils down to this. There are bands that are waiting at home for a phone call. And then there are bands that are making it happen and it’s just that simple.

#58 Cold Steel

Members: Alex DiBaise, Matt DiBaise, Josh Graves, Gage McLain

How do you think you fit with the rest of the bands in Omaha?
Matt: I honestly don’t think we fit in with most of the other bands. If we’re playing, the other bands on the bill are either way harder than us and we sound “weak” compared to them, or mainstream. Or the bands are way lighter than us and we sound brutal. So we don’t really fall into a certain spot. We’re just out there.
Gage: We just kind of have to not care what people think and go out there and hopefully they’ll like us. And it’s worked out good so far.

#59 McCarthy Trenching
Members: Dan McCarthy (and a revolving cast of backing musicians)

Tell me about your history as a songwriter and some of your earliest musical experiences.
I grew up playing piano, taking piano lessons. I never was really in bands until I was 19, 20 years old. And then I started doing a little bit of songwriting, started picking up banjo and mandolin and teaching myself band-type instruments because I grew up just reading music, playing simple classical music, or whatever. And then, after I got through with college, I moved back to Omaha and was playing with this band called the Short Timers. It was an old timey string band. I played upright bass in that band. We played Carter family tunes, murder ballads and traditional train songs. That was really fun, but there’s no real songwriting; we only sang other people’s songs. It was a good group and that’s how I met a lot of people who were playing music in Omaha.

#60 Platte River Rain
Members: Ashley Rayne Boe, George Prescott, B. Anthony

What was the catalyst for taking the project to the next level?
Boe: For us it just happened. It was just natural. I ended up being divorced and a huge part of it was me wanting to make music. It’s a huge passion. We never decided that it was going to be something professional, we just ended up doing it.

How would you describe your sound and would you say that you play music within a genre?
Boe: I think one of the things that is unique to our music is that while I write a lot of the melodies and rhythms they write something totally new over it. It’s like a polyrhythm and everyone has a real individual stake in the songs.  

#61 Spiders For Love
Members: DL Diedrich, Cryssy Jean

So you were originally going to be a metal band. It’s funny how you ended up being pretty much the opposite of that.
DL: Yeah, it’s kind of anti-folk.
CJ: We didn’t want to stress about songwriting anymore. It can be really stressful trying to convey a message and be serious. We just wanted to do the opposite and play the first thing that comes to your head and just relax and not have it be so intense. Just smile for ourselves and make other people smile.
DL: Just have fun. And really, we could have done that either way. If it ended up being a noisy metal project, I think we could’ve cut loose just as much. I just kept playing acoustic and it just seemed to work.

#62 The Pendrakes
Members: Eric Ebers, Craig Meirer, Paul Novak, Corey Weber

What’s your take on the music community in Omaha?
Corey: There’s definitely kind of ebbs and flows and at the same time you’re part of the ebb and flow. You know, you and your friends get older and you go out a little less and then there’s a new batch of people when you go to the 49’r. You go, “I don’t recognize anybody here. I used to recognize everyone!”
Paul: Just make sure you tell everybody how young and rock ‘n’ roll we are. (Sarcastically) It’s already blown. That separates the guys who really like music and who don’t.

#63 Edge of Arbor
Members: Adam Christensen, Jessica Errett, Nathan Hall, Matthew Shrader

What do you find yourself writing about in your songs?
Jessica: I guess my relationship with other people and seeing my friends go through other relationships. The last song I wrote was about a book I read. “The Giver.” I loved it as a teenager and I re-read it again.

If you could open for any band who you it be?
Jessica: Jenny Lewis.
Nathan: I would like to open for Jupiter Sunrise.
Adam: Kings Of Leon four years ago.

#64 Boy Noises
Members: Braden, Chris, Joe, Karl

So you totally changed the songwriting approach from (your previous band)…
Joe: All momentum was like lost and all of a sudden Braden wrote this song called “Partay!!” which is in our set and we all got really excited about it, so Karl played keys and I moved to bass.
Braden: We brought in an analog synth.
Karl: The songs are synth driven now. And (B) kind of wrote these songs for himself and I think he was a little surprised when we were all on board. And it just felt good and it felt like we didn’t have to try so hard.
Braden: (Smiles) Pretty much what happened. “Let’s make some pop music!”
Chris: We don’t want to be a downer.

#65 The Beat Seekers
Members: Keith, Ryan, Kyle, Benji, Timmy, Ryan K,

You all seem really happy to be in this band. Why is this working out now?
Kyle: For some of us it’s the only thing.
Ryan K.: It’s finally got to the point that was actually worth it.  
Kyle: We wouldn’t have bought a short bus if it wasn’t worth it.  
Keith: You get to that point after doing a lot of stuff that you shouldn’t have been doing and you decide if it’s either this or scrubbing toilets. I feel like if it’s going to happen it’s going to happen now rather than 10 years ago. If it would have happened 10 years ago, I had a personality where I would have killed myself.
Ryan: When you get older the direction becomes more clear.

#66 Outlaw Con Bandana
Members: Brendan Hagberg, Matt Rooney, Pearl Lovejoy Boyd, John Kotchian, Alex McManus, Amanda Fehlner

Have you always lived in Omaha?
Brendan: No, I was born here and then I lived in Lincoln and Brainerd, Minn., and moved back here when I was in Junior High. Aside from that, I lived in New Orleans and Seattle. Those were the only places I ever paid rent besides Omaha. Oh, and North Idaho.
In cycles I leave Omaha never to come back again and then I come back again.

Why did you come back this last time?
Brendan: To straighten things out with my little boy who’s going to be 12. It’s going good. We’re going to take a long road trip here in a few weeks.

#67 10 O’clock Scholars
Members: Ryan Kosola, Paul Gedbaw, Justin Connealy, Taylor Stein

So your CD release show this Friday is also officially your last show. You’d like to end on a high note, huh?
Taylor: Yeah, exactly. We’ve been doing it for a long time and it kind of felt like it was time to call it quits, so instead of fading off into oblivion and playing shows to a handful of people for the rest of our lives, we thought we’d go out with a bang like “Seinfeld” – go out on top.
Paul: We had quite a few songs that we had recorded and some we had never released, so we figured we’d just get them all recorded and out there and leave it at that, I guess.

#68 Cat Island
Members: Kendra Senrick, Bret Vovk, Jerry Johnson, Danny Bueno

You have one of the only bands fronted by a girl in the city, especially one where the girl is also the songwriter.
Kendra: The other bands fronted by girls here, they all have heavily pretty, soulful voices and stuff. I can do that, I used to be a lounge singer – my dad’s a piano man – for two years I did that. I have the ability to do that, but when I sing it’s totally stripped of that. It’s my completely natural voice and I think that’s one thing that sets us apart from other bands fronted by girls.

You definitely have this kind of hyperactive, bouncy, sloppy pop-punk thing going on.
Kendra: I think our energy is definitely like that, but it’s a little less now because I’m five months pregnant, so I have to not rock so hard. That’s what my doctor told me. I used be really screamy and really crazy, but I kind of had to tone that down a little bit. But once that kid comes out, man, it’s back on!

#69 Noah’s Ark Was A Spaceship
Members: Andrew Ancona Gustafson, Robert Webster, John Svatos

You guys were supposed to do one of these interviews a year ago, but something happened at the Barley Street. There was a breakup or breakdown or something. Tell me what happened.
Andrew: Oh yeah…
John: I’ll tell you the details. We played a show at Barely Street. We just opened for Times New Viking at the Waiting Room like a week before that. Andrew and I had been best friends in high school, and long story short, we were two songs into it – like doing weird, crazy things at shows is not abnormal for us. So we look over and Andrew is on his knees rockin’ out. Standard. Then it continues and then the next thing I know, his Jazzmaster (guitar) is flung into the wall. He threw his amp and the show ended and we took a small hiatus after that to gather ourselves.
Andrew: I like to think of it – I mean this in a positive way – unpredictability is just sort of an element of all things. We’re never really in a hurry to do anything. I think we’re a fortunate band in the sense that I think the three of us are able to communicate maybe sometimes on an unspoken level.

#70 Matt Cox Band
Members: Matt Cox, Ben Zinn, Seth Ondracek, Nick Semrad, Matt Arbeiter

Where did you play at when you arrived in Omaha?
Matt: Mick’s. That was a place I tried to get into for probably a year. I played McFoster’s and some coffee shops around the town, but Mick’s was establishing itself as the singer-songwriter spot. Eventually, I did a lot of open mikes there and Michael (Campbell, former owner of Mick’s) started putting me in front of a couple other acts opening up for people.
I ended up recording an EP there, actually, on an open mike night. I had a guy come in, do a recording for me and I released a couple hundred albums of the EP “Stick Your Neck Out.” I took that and basically left town for about a month and a half and traveled all over the west; Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and then all the up the coast of California just hitting every little club and café to just kind of get out of town and get some experience.

#71 Box Elders
Members: Jeremiah McIntyre, Clayton McIntyre, Dave Goldberg

How important has touring been to the success this band has had so far?
Dave: Vital.
Clayton: It’s probably the most important thing for anyone.
Dave: I mean, aside from bloggers going apesh*t over us.
Clayton: But you know, all the bloggers just saw us at shows. If we wouldn’t have been in Seattle, then some dude in Seattle wouldn’t have been able to see us and blog about us.
Dave: But there was blogging about the 45, even before people saw us, as well. But majority of it was about the live show.
Clayton: It’s one thing, I think, to have a good 45, but if you can get people excited and talking about what you’re doing in the live show, it gets people to come out. Touring supports itself, you know. The more you tour, the better you get.

#72 Matt Whipkey

(On musicians playing for free.)
Matt: I think musicians should stop giving it away. My big thing this year is kind of noticing frankly how people take (advantage of) musicians and we gladly play along with it. I came up with a good analogy for it. I want to go to a Ford dealer and tell them that they should give me their Ford car for free because of all the people that will see me driving that Ford car. I’m going to drive to work, to dinner – I’m going to take it out at night. I’m going to be seen by thousands of cars every day in a Ford car. That’s really great exposure for Ford. I don’t see why I should have to pay for that car.

#73 Jes Winter Band
Members: Jes Winter, P.J. Butler, Sean Severson, Kyle Sheldon, Jeremiah Zymola

You have been playing with other musicians for a while, but you recently reinvented the band as a five piece. What was behind that?
Jes Winter: I wanted to be able to rock out on stage. I just wanted a fuller sound. The vibe you get from an acoustic sound only goes so far.
Kyle: It’s cool to go to a show and see the artist and their work. But you also want to see the performance.
Jes: I wanted to back off a little bit and interact with the audience again.

#74 Benn Sieff
Members: Benn Sieff (and a revolving cast of backing musicians)

(On why recording his latest album was one of the most emotional things he’s ever done.)
Benn: It’s a culmination of two major losses in my life and they intertwine and putting that out really, really was an emotionally draining kind of thing. I would finish a particular track of vocals or a particular track of guitar, I’d go into my garage, I’d stand outside and unleash emotion, just completely breaking down sometimes. I was really worried about it because it was intense. I actually made an appointment with my psychiatrist to go talk to him. Had a cool conversation with the guy, didn’t give me any medications. He’s like, “considering the things in life you go through, I couldn’t prescribe a better remedy.”

#75 Digital Leather
Members: Shawn Foree, Jeff Lambelet, Austin Ulmer, Johnny Vredenburg

You’re originally from Arizona, so what brought you up to Omaha?
Shawn: Pretty much, Austin and Johnny (Vredenburg). Those dudes.
Austin: We got really f**ked up in Iowa City one night and kind of bonded in a weird way.
Shawn: We smoked pubes, I don’t know if you want to write that.
Austin: We got f**ked up at Dave Lord’s house.
Shawn: Everyone shaved their pubes.
Austin: We smoked them out of a beer can.
Shawn: It was insane.

And that was pretty much the groundwork. What made you finally decided to enlist these guys as your band?
Shawn: Todd (Stup of the Shanks), maybe.
Austin Yeah, Todd.
Shawn: He was like “Move here, dude. We’ll get you some dudes to play.” And I already knew them so I was like OK. I was confident cause they’re f**king party animals so I’ll come do that.

#76 Little Black Stereo
Members: Nicholas Semrad, Elizabeth Webb, Sean Murphy, Ben Zinn, Matt Arbeiter, Jamey Fleege

How did the concept of Little Black Stereo come about?
Nick: At the end of the ‘Wholes days. I had kind of been in a better mood. Not that I was in a terrible mood. It kind of gave me an excuse to start checking out other music. It became more personal; I started caring about what I was writing about. We tried to as a joke, start a Rapture cover band with a bunch of weird shit. We hated it so we ended up writing songs and thought we might as well play shows since we had the songs written down.

#77 Steve Raybine

What’s your practice routine like?
The first thing I always do when I practice my vibraphone is I get through my repertoire. I have a lot of songs I have to keep in tiptop shape. I cannot afford to not sound really good. I have a certain level of professionalism I expect from myself and they expect from me, you know the people that are hiring me. So I’ll do my own repertoire first, and then I’ll work on other jazz standards that are also part of my repertoire. Then I’ll learn new things. A session might be an hour to two hours of intensive practicing. And that’s maybe all the time I’ve got, so I’ve got to make it count.

#78 Cass Fifty and the Family Gram
Members: Cass Fifty, Vern Fergesen, Walker Gerard, Will Goldfein

What do you guys think about playing with Cass?
Walker: (She) can really sing and I like (her) songs. It would be a shame if I didn’t get to play with her or at least try to play with her.
Vern: Yeah, she’s got a voice. And also how caffeinated she is. She’s got this pep, this energy – she gets things done. I used to be very lethargic before I was in this band.
Cass: I pretty much just tie a rope to his wrist and drag him to band practice, like, “C’mon Vern! Here we go!” I love how I had a readymade band. It’s like “just add water!”

What do think you’d do if you weren’t playing music all the time?
Cass: I don’t really know, actually. I’d probably spend a lot more time sewing.
Will: Oh, I’d probably be addicted to crack, or something.
Walker: I might sell you crack. I’d probably be a cook. I enjoy cooking.

# 79 112 North Duck
Members: Michael Beebe, David Nauman, Brendan Riley, J.E. Van Horne

Can you talk about the blues community in Omaha?
Michael: There really isn’t one.
Brendan: There’s a couple bands. Blue House have been around for 20 years.
J.E.: Yeah, there’s a few that have been around for a long time. Barkin’ Irons and some of the others. There’s good blues bands, but there’s not really much of what I’d call a blues scene. We do better out of town than we do here.

#80 Landing on the Moon
Members: Oliver Morgan, Megan Morgan, Eric Harris, John Klemmensen, Matt Carroll
How do you put the songs together? Seems that most of the lead vocals are split between Megan and John, are they the main songwriters?
Megan: Not necessarily at all.
John: It happens in all different ways. I’d say maybe one or two songs on the album each are songs me and Megan kind of wrote like singer-songwriters.
Megan: We come to practice with an idea and we start jamming.
John: A good number of them are Megan’s initial piano riff and I sing. Or my part and Megan sings off it.

The vocal harmonies are really prominent on the album, too.
Oliver: It’s something that we decided that we wanted to do right from the get go. When we started the band, we wanted a collaborative vocal effort between John, Megan and myself. John really drove home the point that we should really have strong harmonies.
John: Yeah, where I sing lead on a lot of these songs, Oliver is singing just as much. The vocals are pretty much split three ways.

#81 Hercules
Members: Aaron Broveak, Tyler Cain, Danny Harvey, Brock Stephens

You guys seem like one of the more established bands in Omaha, yet you don’t really have a big presence locally. Is that on purpose?
Brock: I think we probably tour more than we actually play at home, because we were gone like three months this year.
Danny:  It’s f**king boring to watch the same bands all the time, especially when you’re a sh*tty band like we are. It’s just our friends that come to the show.
Brock: I don’t know, I think we play music no one cares about here.

#82 Narcotic Self
Members: Dan Cinotto, Jessie Dean, Rick Halverson, Douglas Houston Taylor, Yorg
Omaha has always been a hard rock town. With every scene though, it ebbs and flows. Where do you feel the metal scene in Omaha is at?
Dan: I think it has come full circle. For a while you couldn’t take two steps without seeing a hardcore band. I think you are seeing people come around to a songwriting approach rather that writing a riff to a math equation. It just got really thin and watered down. I think it’s coming back around to the whole of a song rather than just the break down of the song.

#83 Edgar Franklin
Members: Edgar Franklin

Is there somewhere that people can access your material?
You can hear my songs anytime at 32nd and Farnam. You can hear my songs anytime at the river’s edge close to the Mormon Bridge. You can hear my songs where the meat packing plant in the south once stood. You can hear my songs outside of the Bucket O’ Blood Tavern on some Tuesdays as well. You can hear my songs at Charlotte McGowan’s grave.

#84 Adam Robert Haug
What’s next for you musically?
I’ve been pretty active in multiple bands, and I have this solo project now that I really want to take off. Ideally, I would love to have a talented drummer, bass player, keyboard player, extra guitar player – I would love to have all that. But my experiences have led me (to believe) that you can’t just wait on other people to do what you want to do. So I do what I have to do with what I have.

#85 Rock Paper Dynamite
Members: Trey Abel, Andrew Janousek, Joe Janousek, Scott Zrust

(On recording with Curt Grubb at his studio Grubb Inc.)
Trey: He’s really good at what he does. He’s really good at producing.
Joe: He gets in tune with you. We’re really good friends with him now, but it’s weird because he’s your producer, but at the same time if you’re not going there for music, you’re going there to hang out and talk with him. He gets in touch with you, makes you feel comfortable and can be honest with you and you can be honest with him. It’s just a great atmosphere.

#86 The Answer Team
Members: Jason Bejot, Brandon Bone, Kaitlyn Filippini, Tom McCauley, Dustin Treinien

Why did you decide to not use vocals?
Tom: We tried it for a long time. We never had any vocals that could really compliment our music.
Kaitlyn: In a way, I kind of fill in for a singer sometimes with my melodies (on violin).
Tom: Originally, I had all these songs and they had lyrics, but I can’t sing.

#87 Kris Lager and Jeremiah Weir’s Electric Stomp

Since you play around 200 shows a year, how often do you get on the road?
Kris: As much we can. That’s pretty much our main agenda these days. It’s been hard to get tours going doing Indigenous gigs, but now we’re not doing that anymore. Pretty much every weekend, we’re trying to get out there. We did an East Coast run a few weeks ago with Indigenous, opening up for ‘em. That was a lot of fun.

#88 Underwater Dream Machine
Members: Bret Vovk, Danny Bueno, Cass Brostad, Vern Fergesen, Craig Reier

Since Bret writes the songs, does Bret dictate everyone’s parts?
Cass: Um, a little bit. Bret is a really good conductor. That can be hard to do. You can almost look like an asshole, usually.
Danny: But then everybody throws in their own two cents.
Bret: Yeah, you throw in a lot more than two cents.
Cass: You put down a $5 bill!
Danny: I’m a drummer. I just say whatever.

What was the first CD you bought?
Bret: Kris Kross, “Totally Krossed Out.”
Vern: Queen was the first band I started listening to, but I was also into the Rat Pack a lot.
Cass: I want to say it was (Cake’s) “Fashion Nugget.”
Craig: In first grade I think I also got “Totally Krossed Out” for my birthday.
Danny: I had a Beach Boys album. It was on record.

#89 Jason Ferguson

Why did it take you until now to do your own thing?
Jason: I wasn’t happy where I was at as a songwriter. I didn’t have enough songs, or I would compare my songs to someone like Brad Hoshaw and he has 200 songs and I am not that guy. I have known so many good songwriters and played with them. I never knew that my material was up to par – it was a slow process.