Truly a man who needs no introduction, Black Francis/Frank Black of the Pixies plays Slowdown tonight, Brad Hoshaw opens. $15 9pm

Here is the new Faint song, 'The Geeks Were Right'!! It seems they're killing people if they post the mp3, so here is a stream. Who wants to drive to Des Moines?

Here is a short preview – Tonight brings one of the lovely former halves of Azure Ray, Maria Taylor, to the Waiting Room. She hasn’t played Omaha for quite a while, her last shows around here probably being Lincoln Calling last year and that Jimmy Eat World show? That was like a year ago. It’s been a year since Lynn Teeter Flower came out, and a few weeks ago she released a digital EP on iTunes with Andy LeMaster (Now It’s Overhead) titled Savannah Drive. There are two songs from the EP on her myspace, a great version of ‘Leap Year’ that was first on 11:11, and new song called ‘Tell Me’ which you can also download below. Oh, plus Johnathan Rice (who had awesome hair at one point) and Team Love’s Nik Freitas the greatest, who also happens to be a member of the Mystic Valley Band, right? I’ve got some other sweet stuff going on tonight, so no clue when or if I’ll be showing up to this, but you should for sure be there. 9pm $9

Maria Taylor with Andy LeMaster – Tell Me
Maria Taylor – One For the Shareholders
Nik Freitas – Sun Down
Nik Freitas – What You Become

Tonight at the Waiting Room is Calmity Magnet. They're from LA and one of the girls in the band used to be in the Rentals (a friend of P perhaps?). I'd never heard of them so I checked out the myspace. Poppy girl harmonies with a little bit of a country feel to some of it. I don't know, should be ok I suppose. Opening is Dri, aka Adrianne Verhoeven, who has been in/is currently in a bunch of cool bands (the Anniversary, Fourth of July, Art In Manila...). Her Range Life debut Smoke Rings came out last November, but right now is really the perfect time for it. Saw her and her band last winter and wasn't really impressed with the live show, but they just posted a sweet Daytrotter session that makes me think I'm going to enjoy this performance a lot more. It's not nearly as slick as the record but it sounds like they've got the full band deal working pretty well. 9pm $8, you know the drill.

Dri - Don't Wait
Dri - You Know I Tried


As far as Saturday night went, some pretty great bands played some pretty good songs. I made it to the Bemis in time to see Capgun Coup do a set of songs that I've seen a bunch, but the room at the Bemis sounded great and the crowd was really good too, a mess of young scenester looking kids along with the usuals, kind of proved the point that this permission slip bullshit was a lame move. Of course, $free$ never hurts crowd size either. Sources say that Bear Country was great, and that while the sophomore album won't be out till 2010 or 11, they do have a tape coming in a few weeks which should maybe get me off their back for a bit.

After Capgun finished their set (11pm-ish? Maybe a bit later than that.) I ran over to the Brothers and saw the entire set from Talking Mountain, who now have a third member who just happens to be the dude from Stolen Kisses, and they played Stolen Kisses' monster super mega hit 'I Wanna Die Young' which really is an awesome song. Then Flowers Forever played a short 6 or 7 song set, it was fantastic and the Brothers sounded surprisingly great for barely ever having shows. Flowers even brought out the strobe lights for the last couple of songs (which I believe were 'Golden Shackles' and 'Black Pope'). Fun stuff. Plus I picked up a free tape-shaped foam coaster from the I'm Drinking This dudes, which I'm using on my desk right now. A lovely evening was had by all.

I must have walked into Slowdown right after Suzannah Johannes, which is a bit of a bummer. Word on the street is that is was an enjoyable set. I am glad I got there in time to see Our Fox this time. Our Fox is Ryan Fox's current project, and the first song was pretty slow and plodding, but highlighted by some pretty ace guitar work. I thought the rest of the set would follow the same pattern, but to my surprise there were quite a few loud songs thrown in too, but they all followed suit in the kick ass guitar work department. Some of the songs instrumentally sounded like (surprise!) the best Neva Dinova songs, but vocally and lyrically there is obviously a huge difference. Enjoyable band, I'm interested to see them again, hopefully sooner rather than later.

Then Fourth of July was up. My biggest problem with the usual Fourth of July shows are that they only play for like a half hour, tops, and that's just not enough time for me to hear all the songs I want to hear. Luckily, last night they played a nearly hour long set, stemming from the fact that they had to do an hour at the Wakarusa fest in Lawrence a few weeks ago. They played pretty much everything you'd want to hear from On The Plains, but the best stuff were the new songs that peppered the set. They seemed mostly in line with the rest of the their songs, subject matter-wise, and it was exciting to hear stuff from their soon to be recorded sophomore record. Standouts included one that was described beforehand as "epic", which built to being pretty huge but couldn't have been more than 4 minutes, and one of the first new ones they played, chorus about mending a broken heart. I go through times when I'm pretty sure I'm bored and done with indie pop songs, but if bands keep making them like this, I'm probably in it for the long haul.

Tonight is one of the craziest evenings of shows we've had in quite some time, literally 3 awesome shows worth going to, 3 shows I'd go to if they weren't all at the same time. At the Waiting Room is Broken Spindles, the Faint's Joel Peterson's solo project. His first 3 releases were all on Saddle Creek, and felt really dark. His newest release is called Document Number One, and is on his own label (Kaput Pin), and strays away from what you'd expect... or at least that's what I've heard of the all instrumental CD. I haven't actually heard the entire record, but I'm about $20 away from ordering it. It actually features a lot of electronic stuff just like you'd expect, but some of it feels downright massive/creepy because of a large string orchestra. What I've heard is impressive. Also on the bill? A one man/two man/three man dance party, Slumber Party Record's FTL Drive. I saw them earlier this week at the last ever Prostitute show (who were fantastic... videos coming soon!) and I'm pretty sure I didn't know one of the songs, and it was good, nevermind the usual favorites. Playing first is Lincoln's Pharmacy Spirits, and they're pretty good too. 9pm $8

PLUS! At the Bemis Center is the third and last night of the Bemis Creativity Festival 2008, and features some of the coolest bands in town playing at night. Starting at 730 is Shiver Shiver, and following them is Bear Country at around 830. I haven't seen Bear Country in what seems like forever, and in theory they should be really close to done recording their sophomore record, hopefully for release sometime in 2008, but knowing these jerks it'll probably be June 2009 or something equally as ridiculous. I'm working too late to see them tonight, too, but you should make a point to catch their set, for sure. Following the folky pop of Bear Country is one of the goofiest and funnest bands around, Lincoln's Columbia vs. Challenger. Then, scheduled to start around 1030 according to the Bemis itinerary, is Capgun Coup. Rumor has it they might be playing some stuff live that we haven't heard before so that makes it almost a can't miss. Another bonus is the fact that the Bemis Center is one of the coolest places in town to see a concert, it's like a cross between a house show and a music venue. Plus, hey, it's free, and there is a ton of other amazing stuff to see, so even if you're not planning on seeing these bands, you should for sure make it down there sometime today and check out everything else they have going on. Bands start at 730ish, $free$

Last but not least, happening at the Brothers, is the first I'm Drinkin This showcase of the summer, featuring Flowers Forever, Talking Mountain, Carnal Torpor, and Oui Bandits. This will be the last Flowers Forever show for awhile (I would think, at least) since Derek will have to go on tour with Tilly and the Wall in about a week to tour for their new record. If you're not going to one of the above shows, you should definitely be at this. For one, they barely ever have shows at Brothers, so that in itself is a treat, plus the line up is awesome, the price is awesome, and the tapes are awesome. I'll admit that Carnal Torpor isn't anywhere near my tastes, but Flowers Forever is one of the best local releases of the year (not kidding). Plus if you've been paying much attention then you know we love Talking Mountain and although I'm not sure if I've mentioned it, I really like the Oui Bandits tape too. Yeah, there are entirely too many bands that I like playing all over town tonight. I'm pretty sure the stats on this one are 9pm and $free$?? Awesome.

There is a really amazing art event happening this weekend at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts - the Bemis Center Creativity Festival. It's a three day festival featuring a ton of really cool exhibits and tons of artists showing and performing. Of course, I totally blew it and forgot about it starting on Thursday. Make sure to check out the site for a full list of cool stuff that is happening, plus a pretty great line up of bands tomorrow, more on that later. Check out today's schedule >>here<<.

One of our favorite bands from our lovely neighbor scene to the south would be Lawrence's Fourth of July. I've seen them quite a few times over the past year or year and a half, but they always have a new song or two. On The Plains is an amazing record, and right now is the perfect time to pull it out again (along with the summer-perfect Smoke Rings from Dri). Plus they're really fun live, last November at Hotel Frank was probably one of my top five performances of 2007. Opening is Our Fox, who opened for Beach House a few months ago and everyone said good things. I was late, as usual, and missed them, so I'm pretty excited to actually catch a set. Playing first is Suzannah Johannes, who, like Fourth of July, is from Lawrence and on Range Life Records, so I'm excited to hear her too. 9pm $6.

Fourth of July - The Faint
Fourth of July - She's In Love

If you're not going to the Bemis or Slowdown, make a stop over in Council Bluffs, do some gambling, and see the always mega Willie Nelson at Harrah's Stir Cove. It's only $50ish! Show at 7pm!

I've got some good news - Prostitute, Sam Martin, and FTL Drive are playing Sokol Underground tomorrow, it's only $5, and I promise it will be sweet. The bad news is that it's the last ever Prostitute show and that is depressing, but let's take what we can get and make sure it kicks butt. Is FTL Drive going to put out a CD sometime? That'd be cool. Make sure to pick up Sam's tape, it's fantastic and well worth whatever price those I'm Drinkin This dudes are trying to get you to pay them, money or drinks or kisses or whatever. There are 3 amazing mp3s below. 9pm $5

Prostitute - Que Sira
Sam Martin - I Wish I Was A Fag So Bad
FTL Drive - Girls on Pills

Is Forbidden Tigers/Yuppies NOT happening at O'Leavers tonight? Super duper lame. It is happening in Lincoln on Tuesday, though, right? - Andrew

EDIT : O'Leavers update for tonight from the almighty Chris Aponick, thanks bro.

Tonight at O'Leaver's is Brimstone Howl playing new material from their forthcoming Jim Diamond-produced Alive Records album.

Joining them is Fontana, from the very same Deeeeeetroit Rock City that Jim Diamond inhabits. http://www.myspace.com/fontanafuntime

Well worth your time.

Hey, if you folks missed the Midwest Dilemma CD release show a few weeks ago then you should really try and catch them tonight at Slowdown. They'll have a bunch of friends along to open the show for them, too, which will be a fun time. Last time they were on the big stage and at times the band swelled to close to 20 members, but tonight they'll be in the front room at Slowdown and the band will probably consist of 7 or 8 or 9 members. Needless to say, the little stage will be packed. I posted a bit about the record Timelines and Tragedies a few days ago (scroll down a little for an mp3), and I recommend checking them out and picking up a CD tonight, I think you'll be impressed, especially if the image you have of Midwest D is Justin solo - the record (and current live line up) is pretty epic at times. $7 9pm. - Andrew

I got to Slowdown right in the middle of what I'm going to tell myself was the first song in Honeybee's set, which just happened to be 'Colloquial', which is one of my absolute favorites. They did about a half hour set, ending with a song I don't think I had heard before. The coolest part was when Cody left the drumset and ran over the keyboards and then he flipped some switches and pressed some buttons or something and looped Melissa's vocals, for a very cool effect, before running back to the drum kit. At this point they've turned into a pretty sweet band and I think I like them a lot. The most exciting thing to me though, was at the merch table. They've put out Quilt, which isn't a true LP but more of a collection of Melissa's home demos over the past few years. The packaging is some of the sweetest I've ever seen, the art is great let alone the fact that the cardboard is sewn together and topped off by being tied with a little string. The inside has a time-line of when the songs were recorded and little descriptions of each. It's 11 songs and only 25 minutes but oh so lovely. Check it out before the limited run of 100 is gone...

And at this point I pull the big time asshole move and totally skip out on Pomegranates and drive to the Barley Street Tavern. I wish this show would have started 20 minutes later so I could have seen more Dim Light. I caught about two songs and they just filled up the cozy Barley St room with tons of heavy shoegaze noise. They need to record and put something out. I think I say that everytime I see them and now I feel guilty for not stuffing the "tips for bands" jar. Following Dim Light was Bazooka Shootout, a band that I've only seen once or twice. I searched the site to see what I said about them last time, and I was mostly positive while comparing a song to Silverchair. This is going to sound lame, but during their set last night I once again thought one song sounded like Silverchair. They really don't do the "indie rock" thing as much as they do the guitar-rock thing, and I ended up liking them a lot more this time than I remember ever liking them before, and they sounded fantastic. The drummer does this "ooooh I'm gonna fall off of my stool" thing and every time I think he's going to actually fall off! Consider me stupid for not paying enough or giving enough attention to this band over the past forever.

And then last comes Noah's Ark Was A Spaceship. At this point I was feeling pretty good about myself, having already seen 3 great bands, and as I've mentioned a million times before, I love Noah's Ark. Well, they started things off great with that new one where Andrew plays tambourine for half of it, I think the title was something like 'Orion's Belt' or something. It was great, except they were having some problems with the bass guitar which took a few minutes to fix, in fact they might have switched it out and used Roadie's bass, I can't remember. Anyway, then they did that kick ass 7 minute instrumental that might be their most intense tune, the one that shifts tempo a bunch of times... and towards the end Andrew started going completely apeshit, throwing his guitar into his amp, then into the wall, then the amp into the wall, (while during this somehow getting his shirt off and throwing that too) and then finally smashing the amp onto his guitar a few times before collapsing in a heap next to his pile of equipment... which effectively killed the set at 2 songs. While it was easily the most kick ass two song set I've ever seen in my life, it was also a pretty big disappointment for me and the rest of the nice sized (Barley St standards) crowd. Definitely a performance I won't be forgetting anytime soon. A true WTF moment. - Andrew

A few good shows tonight in an otherwise mostly lame week - at the Waiting Room, Jim Ward of Sparta, formerly of At the Drive-In, brings his alt country band Sleepercar to the stage along with Flight Metaphor and Civicminded. If you were at the Conor Oberst/M Ward/Jim James rally for Obama earlier this year then you saw Jim Ward doing some of these Sleepercar songs. $8 9pm

At Slowdown, another band that is basically a bit of a 'side project', Javelins! The fellas are also in Thunderbirds Are Now!, and it's obvious they like their exclamation marks. I'm not really into either band, but opening is Pomegranates from Ohio. They actually played Slowdown a few months ago and I was mostly indifferent, but I've listened to their stuff on myspace quite a bit since then and now I'm all excited to see them again. Go figure. Playing first is Honeybee, who seem to be playing a bunch now which can only be a good thing. They're one of my favorites, and it seems like it has been forever since I've actually seen a complete Honeybee set, so I'm excited to see them again, too. $7 9pm. - Andrew

EDIT: Josh w/ the heads up in the comments, Noah's Ark Was a Spaceship + Bazooka Shootout @ Barley Street. Anyone know the order they're playing? Probably $free, probably 9pm. Thanks Josh, don't kill me.

Timelines and Tragedies is Midwest Dilemma's debut album, even though Justin Lamoureux and an ever changing band (that balloons from a one man or two person group to 22 people on this album) have been writing, recording, and playing locally for close to a decade. While that seems like a long time, Timelines and Tragedies actually covers more than 400 years of the Lamoureux family history, from his ancestors through the great depression and world wars, to Justin himself currently here in Omaha. It's most easily described as "orchestral folk", but even beyond that it's a incredibly interesting take on a family tree. We made it to the CD release show a few weeks ago, where at one point there were 18 people on stage, and the next song there were only three. They'll be playing again, this Sunday at Slowdown, but with only eight or nine members. I think I called them "a landlocked Decemberists fronted by a dude that looks like Rick Rubin and sometimes sounds a little like Conor Oberst", which is selling them way short, but that would probably be your first impression anyway. Check them out on Sunday or pick up the CD at one of the stores in town (I know for sure that Homers has them). 'Chicago and North Western' is the longest song title and the shortest song on the album, and probably the catchiest, I think you'll like it. - Andrew

Midwest Dilemma - Chicago and North Western