Conchance debut goes out to the 'Calm Kids,' due out on Slumber Party in early May

photos by Tyler Chickinelli

as seen on HearNebraska.org

It was well after business hours at Make Believe Studio when I met up with Omaha rapper Conchance. Owner Rick Carson was already pushing a 12-hour workday as I settled down on the couch in the dimly-lit, incense-infused control room.

Offsetting the serene atmosphere at this artist-friendly studio is a certain memo jotted at the top of Carson’s to-do list. He pulls out his planner and points out to task No. 1: “finish the Conchance record.”     

The project keeps the 20-somethings weighed down at the studio for late nights like these. But however work-fatigued these nights may be, they help give Conchance (Brent Walstrom Gomez; ‘Conny’) a particular piece of mind.   

“I’m not trying to fucking sit around and watch days go by,” he says.

Walstrom Gomez (who won an OEAA award this year for best rapper) will tell you that he’s already spent too much time “sleeping” on this project — months spent bumming around on friends’ couches and tour vans, from here to the West Coast. Not to mention the countless days residing at Hotel Frank with members of Capgun Coup; faded and left dormant by the previous night’s party and pot smoke. Whatever the pretense, living in the music-mecca-microcommunity with Capgun’s Sam Martin and Greg Elsasser unmistakeably shaped Walstrom Gomez as an artist, as it had on others before him.    

As Omaha’s once-premiere home and hang out spot to scene musicians, Hotel Frank’s 7,000-plus square feet (divided among three wings) helped cultivate artists from Son Ambulance to Cursive and The Good Life, along with individuals like Todd Fink and Conor Oberst. The house saw its final days of grandeur with Martin and Elsasser (also of No I’m The Pilot).

So it’s fitting that Walstrom Gomez’s first LP, Calm Kids, features work from his former Frank roommates. The Capgun pair helped with production and handed over beats for the album, which is due to drop in early May on Slumber Party Records.

interview clip: Conchance on living at Hotel Frank by J. Minnick

Hear more of what Conchance has to say about living at Hotel Frank.

The album was almost named “Mr. Waites,” in memoriam of legendary Omaha jazz musician Luigi Waites, who past away last spring, Walstrom Gomez says. His uncle played with Waites for 25 years as a part of The Luigi Inc, a jazz band that remains one of his biggest musical influences.

The Band Broke Up: The Trendies' '7 Songs' and The Monroes 'International Harvesters of Sorrow'

as seen on HearNebraska.org
At the turn of the century there existed, for about a hot second, Lincoln band The Trendies (2000-2001). Their single lasting legacy: the 2001 release 7 Songs. Seven songs that bear a wall of sound — a brew of soft-alt and guitar reverb.

The Trendies included Matt Silcock (Opium Taylor guitarist), Greg Peterson and Peter Wilson on guitars and vocals with Malcom Miles on bass and Dze Bayles (formerly Ryan Krumel) on drums.

If there’s another lasting legacy from The Trendies, it’s the Post-Trendies (2001-2003). The band was fronted by Peterson who was joined by Miles and Bayles as well as Eric Aspengren on guitar. The reformed Trendies went on to release Get Yr Wings in 2002 and saw their last hurrah with the Lincoln rock compilation album A Situation Presents Itself in 2004, featuring the songs “Why’s The Beef” and “Aluminum Man.” The compilation’s 10 tracks also include songs from Ideal Cleaners, Junior Mighty, Suzy Dreamer & Her Nightmares and Crush the Clown.

The compilation was the first in a series of five, with A Situation Re: Presents Itself (2005), A Situation Like This (2006), A Situation in Situ (2007) and A Situation EVOLves (2009), all of which can be accredited to Miles. The first three compilations are available for purchase at Lone Prairie Records, where there also happens to be some free downloads up for grabs.

Head over to TheBandBrokeUp.com to download 7 Songs by The Trendies.

1. Anyone
2. Broken
3. Misty World
4. Clean
5. On and On
6. Bad
7. The Monster

And if all that compilation talk has gotcha hot and bothered, there’s plenty more from where that came from. Also this week, we have The Monroes’ International Harvesters of Sorrow, a compilation of the five 45-rpm 7-inches released by the band from 2001-2007 on SPEED! Nebraska Records: their debut SPEED! 600 (2001), Razorback EP/SPEED! 800 (2003), "Inferno" single/SPEED! A-200 (2005), a split with The Diplomats of Solid Sound/SPEED! A-300 (2006) and Drilling Daylight/SPEED! A-700 (2007).

The Monroes displays the ‘tractor punk’ genre with an emphasis of rigor, considering leading man’s Gary Dean Davis’ earlier efforts of D is for Dragster, Frontier Trust and Pioneer Disaster — likely a testament to the combined songwriting efforts of Davis and the hardcore ingenuity of guitarist Lincoln Dickison. Drummer Jesse Render and bassist Mike Tulist completed the foursome.

All the 7-inch records were recorded at the Shoebox in Lincoln and were engineered by Phil Shoemaker, with the exception of final 2007 release, which was recorded at DNA Studios in Lincoln’s Havelock area and engineered by Brooks Hitt (The Terminals).


[The Monroes - Kiss Your Elbow Goodbye, 2004 Ted & Wally’s performance]

Download the International Harvesters of Sorrow Monroes compilation at TheBandBrokeUp.com.

1. Kiss Your Elbow Goodbye
2. Got Food?
3. Knocked Over
4. Razorback
5. Ready, Set, Topeka
6. Breaker, Breaker
7. Six Days on the Road
8. Inferno (The Divine Hoedown)
9. Supperbell
10. Hayloft Stomp
11. Drillin’ Daylight
12. Speed of Slow
13. The New 60

The Band Broke Up: Opium Taylor's 'Boy-White City'

as seen on HearNebraska.org

Last week, we took a look at Frontier Nebraska’s LP Speed Nebraska, made and produced in 1995 by North Platte natives A.J. and Mike Mogis. So it’s fitting that this week we consider another Mogis brothers album from 1995 at WhoopAss Studios: Opium Taylor’s Boy-White City, also released by Caulfield Records.

This Lincoln band was active from ‘93-’97, during which they recorded a  single, Sun Foil/Living (‘94), and two albums: Boy-White City and Fade Machine Fade Magazine (‘97).

Download Sun Foil/Living at TheBandBrokeUp.com.

Constant members included Chris Heine (vocals), Pat Noecker (bass) and Matt Focht (drums). The band also cycled through a few guitar players: Mike Mogis (‘93-’94), Matt Silcock (‘94-’97) and Jeremiah McIntyre (‘97).

Boy-White City marked Opium Taylor’s first full-length release, and almost their last, as the band broke up in ‘95.

“Opium Taylor’s last show was their CD release show,” recalled Caulfield label chief Bernie McGinn in a 2005 interview with Lazy-i columnist and HN contributor Tim McMahan.

Download this! [vol. 3]

Bright Eyes - The People's Key
LP, 10 tracks
out on Saddle Creek
download "Shell Games" and "Haile Selassie" at Saddle-Creek.com

Conor's latest has been praised by NPR and lashed by Pitchfork where the album got a mediocre 5.0.

La Sera - La Sera
LP, 12 tracks
out on Hardly Art
mp3: "Devils Hearts Grow Gold" and "Never Come Around"

Katy Goodman's (Vivian Girls) latest with band La Sera. Kind of wish All Saints Day, another project Goodman was involved in, could put out an album. They teased us last year with a 7-incher. Check it out here via Gorilla vs. Bear.

ON YOUR RADAR

The Berg Sans Nipple - Build With Erosion
LP
due out on Team Love March 15
mp3: "Change the Shape" and "Convert the Measurement"

Nebraskan Shane Aspegren and Frenchman Lori Sean Berg make up the drum and electronics duo The Berg Sans Nipple. Much of this album was recorded in Paris.

Meet your new favorite band with the beats, Icky Blossoms

[ICKY DEBUT SHOW/DOUBLE SPLIT RELEASE]
[Icky Blossoms, Conduits, Touch People & InDreama]
[Friday, April 15] [Slowdown, Omaha] 

I've just embarked on an internship with Hear Nebraska, and so far, so very swell. Now I'm playing catch-up. You can check out a story I did on Omaha band Lightning Bug's Summer 2011 EP here. I'll also be giving Nebraska music history lessons with the help of The Band Broke Up, my first post on Frontier Nebraska's Speed Nebraska is here. 


as seen on HearNebraska.org

When I spoke with him, Tilly and the Wall and Flowers Forever musician Derek Pressnall was working his full-time job as a father to his 14-month-old daughter, Willa Sun Pressnall. Duties include "Yo Gabba Gabba" dance parties.    

“She likes to dance,” Pressnall says, wrapping up a father-daughter boogie session to Gabba’s “I Like to Dance.” The little one’s interest is fitting — her mother’s Derek’s wife and eminent Tilly tapper, Jamie Pressnall.

   

Lately, it’s been less about Tilly and Flowers and more about Icky Blossoms — a new project Pressnall describes as a Flowers Forever offshoot. Floral jargon aside, you can be assured that Tilly is subconsciously thriving. More on that later.      

The Icky project bloomed when Pressnall wrote some Flowers songs with a synthesizer instead of a guitar. As the band continued to write and play the new synth songs at shows, the sound became its own.  

“It just felt like it was something different and it wasn’t Flowers Forever,” he says.

Even with a newfound alias and sound, Pressnall is a little weary to call Icky Blossoms a band, because, well, there is no set band.

“It’s always changing. It’s always evolving,” he says. "It’s always growing or breaking down.”

Among the constants stand Nik Fackler of InDreama, who carries out songwriting duties with Pressnall. Blair native Sarah Bohling (Flowers Forever) provides subtle yet polished lead vocals, with which Fackler and Pressnall harmonize. Conduits and former Eagle Seagull guitarist J.J. Idt has also been a regular player.