Omahype: The Omaha Events Calendar

Written by Will Silvey Simons

Omaha sextet Fortnight are gearing up to release their Botany Camp EP this Saturday, January 15th at Slowdown. Musically, they unabashedly embrace  the innate popiness that resides in us all. Their music seeps with personality; their songs are danceable and intentionally catchy. Comparisons to popular indie acts like the Get Up Kids, Mates of State and Tilly & the Wall are on par, especially with the dual male/female vocal attack of Corey Degner and Jenn Bernard (who also plays keyboards). But that’s not to say Fortnight can’t rock out a bit. In fact it’s to the contrary, as angular guitar lines tend to sneak into several of the six tracks tracks on their self-released EP. Thank Mike Greene-Walsh and Tim Walker for this. Bassist Matt Carlson and drummer Scott Micheels comprise of the rhythm section.

The gal and guys in Fortnight put together some words and took some photos of a recent pre-band practice dinner, sharing recipes, routines and random insights into the band. It’s apparent they greatly enjoy each other’s company; they share the kind of camaraderie one only experiences sharing the gift of making music with one another.

-will

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FORTNIGHT’S DINNER DIARY 01.12.11:

Corey wife, Jenni, made the chili ready before we all arrived. Corey pretended to help her.

Jenni’s Famous Chili:

• 1 1/2 lb. hamburger
• 1/2 chopped onion
• 2 cans Mrs. Grimes Chili Beans
• 2 jars of homegrown tomatoes from the Degner farm (sub stewed tomatoes if you want)
• 1 chili brick (Johnson brand — found in the frozen food section)
• 1 1/2 t. cayenne pepper
• 1 t. paprika
• 2 t. parsley
• salt and pepper

Brown hamburger and onions together. Fry chili brick in a pan. Mix everything together in a large pan, simmer for at least an hour.

The aftermath

Jenn Bernard made cornbread from the recipe on the back of the Quaker Cornmeal container –

Cornbread makes everything better

Mike brought a case of Name Tag Lager that he drives all the way to west Omaha to buy at Trader Joe’s. Since it doesn’t come in a case, he had to bring it over in a Coors Light case.

Tim, Scott, and Matt brought their lovely faces.

Does Scott realize that Name Tag lager is brewed by Minhas?

Here is an interesting side note — Mike is a very picky eater so he almost always brings Culver’s with him — it’s right on the way to practice, which is very convenient for a guy who is addicted to burgers.

Recipe for a successful trip to Culver’s:

1. Drive to Culver’s

2. Enter the Drive-Thru Lane

3. Order a Double Butter Burger with Cheese Value Basket, with only ketchup and mustard, extra sized with a Diet Pepsi

4. Proceed to the pick-up window

5. Pay $7.29

6. Receive number and pull forward

7. Wait for Culver’s employee to bring food out to car

8. Receive food and proceed to band practice

9. Eat food before practice while everyone else enjoys a home-cooked meal.

OK, so we all are going to eat now….

Today we are topping our chili with shredded cheddar, jalapenos, Fritos, and saltine crackers.

Jenni’s table came with a Lazy Susan. We have turned the word into a verb — “Hey, Scott, will you susan me the salt and pepper?” “Matt will you susan me the jalapenos?”

Matt and Mike agree that "WCW Revenge" on N64 featured great four-player action.

While Scott and Tim more or less concur, they hastily change the subject to a recent episode of "South Park."

Conversation has digressed to the following topics: Christian clubs/choirs, Salt ‘n’ Pepa, “Southpark” (the episode where the internet goes away), how we all have the same cameras, “WCW Revenge,” giving each other nicknames, “Flight of the Conchords,” dairy farms, Orbitz, getting stampeded by cows while camping, camper stew, headlamp dancing, Google calendars.

We finished it off with two kinds of homemade ice cream and brownies. Some of us also partook in “apple pie,” which is a lovely homemade hooch that our North Dakotan pals cooked up for us. To quote Scott, “this should be illegal.”

[several minutes later]

Fortnight: We are SOOO full and are now headed to the basement to practice.

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In addition to our lovely chili dinner pictures, here are a couple pictures from a previous band dinner. This was our most famous dinner. We made these crazy burgers that we had seen on Food TV — instead of using buns, you make grilled cheese sandwiches and use those for the buns. If you include bacon, fried eggs, and/or peanut butter, it becomes really ridiculous.

Other Fortnight food traditions include: Don Carmelo’s (aka Donny C’s), Cali Taco, Taco John’s (mmm churros, ordered in the drive through and eaten at O’Leaver’s), Mama’s Pizza, $5 HyVee pizzas.

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Our compadres at Love Drunk and Hear Nebraska recently posted this video of Fortnight performing their track “Welcome Back, Bond.”