Hear Nebraska

produced by Dan Scheuerman

Hear Nebraska's Jacob Zlomke and Chance Solem-Pfeifer review Tim Kasher's "Adult Film." Buy it here: http://www.timkasher.com/

Interview by Chance Solem-Pfeifer | photo by Daniel Muller On the opening track of Adult Film, Tim Kasher sings, “When … great, great grandkids are doing acid, they’ll give two shits about all this insipid brilliance.” When I turn the prism of his biting lyric about the Great American Novel back on Kasher’s new record, the Omaha songwriter and bandleader is modestly clear. Those acid-dropping grandkids won’t care about his insipid brilliance either. “Yeah, no, I don’t think so. I really don’t,” he laughs, imagining what people in four generations might say of his 2013 release. Poking fun about the pretentions of storytelling is one of the few themes running through Adult Film, one of Kasher’s rare non-concept albums across his work with Cursive, The Good Life and his solo material. Adult Film, out today on Saddle Creek Records, demonstrates a version of Kasher’s music with renewed rock ‘n’ roll clarity and lyrics that run the gauntlet of the dark drama and incisive wit that have come to define his career

Michael Todd and Chance Solem-Pfeifer review the 2013 Underwater Dream Machine record "Can You See Behind the Moon." Buy it here: https://bretvovk.bandcamp.com/album/can-you-see-behind-the-moon

by Chance Solem-Pfeifer | Photo by Daniel Muller There is a version of Omaha music history that says Simon Joyner started a movement of singer-songwriters, but reaped none of the rewards. It’s a whispered narrative that says maybe his folk music was a shade too dissonant or experimental to capture a large national audience. Or that he laid earnest, musical groundwork for the Saddle Creek boom, but missed the elevator to the top by playing the field when it came to record labels. Only Joyner has never bought into those secondhand accounts. He disagrees with the premise that he was some kind of flashpoint for Saddle Creek bands such as Cursive and Bright Eyes, and he doesn’t view himself as the prototypical Omaha singer/songwriter of the early 1990s. The version of events that says Joyner missed out on high-profile tours and record deals presupposes that the songsmith ever chased those spoils in the first place. Releasing 13 studio albums, founding two of his own record labels, occasionally touring the worl

"Lovers And Quarrels" by Kwala Bee | On The Record by Rabble Media

Michael Todd and Chance Solem-Pfeifer review Eric In Outerspace's "Secret Summer." Buy the record here: https://ericinouterspace.bandcamp.com/album/secret-summer-2013

"Play Me, I'm Yours" Turns Ordinary Pianists Into Street Performers by Rabble Media

"Top Shelf & Lost Tricks" by No Blood Orphan | On The Record by Rabble Media

by Chance Solem-Pfeifer | photo by Chloe Ekberg As generous and humble with his life story as Thomas Wilkins is, there are moments when you might forget the circles in which the maestro travels. About an hour into our interview, I asked the Omaha Symphony director how often he thinks about the racial component of the accolades that have seen him featured in the LA Times and Boston Globe. Rarely, he says. But that being a black man at the highest echelon of a white-dominated industry is something he’s repeatedly discussed with a good friend named Branford Marsalis. Then Thomas excuses himself from the room for the moment. When he returns, he offers a courteous smile. “Where were we?” “You were talking about your friend Branford Marsalis.” Wilkins is the sort of person who, as he puts it, when he wants a bologna sandwich, he wants a bologna sandwich. But as an artist, he’s accrued the level of national and international notoriety that lead to polite debates with Marsalis about the state of racial equity i

"Meridian" by No Tide | On the Record Podcast by Rabble Media

words by Chance Solem-Pfeifer When Michael Todd and I first heard the songs from "Everything Happens For The First Time," they were still growing, clawing and maturing into the spaciness of Eli Mardock’s debut solo record. Mardock stopped by the KRNU studios in the spring of 2011 to play acoustic versions of “King of the Crickets,” “Hold On” and “Algebra and the Moon.” Even then, Mardock was clear that the demos were much different than his guitar fingerpicking let on. They’d been changing ever since their creation. Some of the songs even predated the breakup of Mardock’s old band, Eagle Seagull, in 2010. "Everything Happens For the First Time" comes of the heels of two solo EPs from Mardock — "Hamburg" and "NE Sorrow Is Born" — in the last year. The full-length was released physically on July 20 and became available digitally on Paper Garden Records on Aug. 6. With predominant synth tones and fluid soundstages, "Everything Happens For The First Time" straddles an intriguing line between hazy trance music

"New Ocean" by Jake Bellows | Album Review Podcast by Rabble Media

Words by Chance Solem-Pfeifer | Courtesy photo There are 10 people staying in the motel in Jeremy Holan’s head. Each one is more confused, downtrodden and guilty than the last. But set to music — haunting rock, country western spoken word and barroom balladeering — they become almost attractive. Not for emulation’s sake, but for observation. The 10 voices that articulate the new full-length from Omaha’s Travelling Mercies are the kind of people whose harrowing road stories you’d listen to out of dark fascination. And apparently people are fascinated with Travelling Mercies, enough to contribute more than $4,000 to the new concept record via Kickstarter. Travelling Mercies’ Holan, John Klemmensen (drums), Vern Fergesen (bass), Colin Charles Duckworth III (lead guitar) and Edward Spencer (harp) will release their second full-length album Saturday night at The Waiting Room. Saturday’s concert also marks the release of a new album from Omaha’s The Decatures. Listen here for in-depth examination of "Motel" fr

by Chance Solem-Pfeifer | photos by Bridget McQuillan When a man approached Omaha comedian Ian Douglas Terry after a bit about how much he hates horses, Terry thought he was in for a scolding. “I was like, ‘Great, is this gonna be big horse fan?’” Terry recalls worrying. Quite the contrary. The man praised Terry’s routine — in all its oddity — for transposing onto horses the hatred lesser comedians might direct toward women or the LGBT community: simultaneously fostering originality and pointing out the absurdity of hate comedy. At the source of Terry’s alternative material is a punk rock credo banning homophobia, racism and misogyny, learned from the musical community where the comedian began performing in high school. Then partner that social principle with the DIY mentality Terry adopted while playing in punk bands in his hometown of Columbus, Neb., and later in Omaha punk outfit Renford Rejects. When Terry co-founded the OK Party Comedy collective three years ago, he carried those lessons with him.

story and multimedia by Chance Solem-Pfeifer From up on high to the streets of their hometown, the lyrics and music video of AZP’s newest single, “Charge,” bite off a lot. But it’s nothing Ishma Valenti and Zachary Watkins — the creative duo behind the Lincoln band — haven’t set out to chew. The video plays host to themes of suffering and redemption on a divine scale, an anti-bullying message and a portrait of violence in Lincoln neighborhoods. It’s a fusion of open eyes to social strife with melodic and danceable music that’s shaped AZP’s developing vision for itself since Valenti and Watkins first crossed paths more than 10 years ago. The duo maintains they’ve clawed and maneuvered to avoid any kind of “box” for their artwork, going so far as to have once had “Productions” attached to their name, symbolizing an ongoing interest in film media and collaborating with visual artists. At times, AZP has even eschewed the word “band” altogether, in favor of “songwriting team” or “music production collective.”

*story by Chance Solem-Pfeifer* Mike Fratt is an Omaha music Swiss Army knife. One-third musician, one-third broadcaster and one-third record merchant, Fratt has been a triple threat in and around the Omaha scene for nearly 30 years. In the ‘80s, ‘90s and ‘00s, Fratt worked his way through a half dozen bands, including Hanna’s Porch, Acorns, Compost, Goodbye Sunday and Midwest Dilemma. And while Fratt and his bass are well-traveled within Omaha, he’s currently taking time away from live performance, cultivating his love of bluegrass music — which he compares to “acoustic jazz” — and waiting for the right band in that genre to pop up nearby. Fratt made a few local headlines recently for leaving his 10-year post at the “Sunday Morning” show on 89.7 The River, showing his willingness to retract from the spotlight when he feels it no longer serves its purpose or gratifies his creative interests the way it once did. For the many things he’s moved on from over the years, Fratt has a calm and clear message. “

Mike Semrad has come a long way since his childhood singing act and Michael Jackson impression almost landed him on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson thirty years ago. And the musical partnership between between him and his wife, Kerry, has travelled a great distance as well, since their days of dueting as theater students at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Together, the Semrads front The Bottle Tops, a two-year-old bluegrass and rock band based in Lincoln. Before moving back to Lincoln from Chicago — where Mike played in rock and punk bands and Kerry sang with her husband at tribute shows — the Semrads committed to the formation of a band that would showcase their onstage chemistry, but also provide an important kind of catharsis for the busy mother and father. The Bottle Tops played the first official Lincoln show opening for Chuck Ragan at Duffy’s Tavern in Dec. 2011. Their lineup has since grown to feature Mark Wolberg on bass, Mike McCracken on steel guitar and Mike’s brother, Drew Semrad, on lea