Rabble Media

"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 and the snappy pop sensibilities that define the title track and rope the listener into well-timed choruses.

"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" from HN’s managing editor Michael Todd and staff writer Chance Solem-Pfeifer. There’s talk of No Country For Old Men, singing in dialect and why artists who write concept records shouldn’t be afraid of those two words.

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.

“When we started OK Party, it was no one is going to give us anything, no one is going to give us opportunities. Let’s do it ourselves,” Terry says. “And I think that’s the way everything should be. Instead of waiting for somebody to notice you or to give you something, you just do it.”

Since 2010, OK Party has positioned itself at the helm of alternative comedy in Omaha, hosting stand-up Battle Royales at venues like The Waiting Room and Slowdown and attracting nationally renowned voices like Judah Friedlander, Rob Delaney and Doug Benson with the promise of a positive and uniquely Omaha experience.

“(As a touring comic) it’s between going to place get a paycheck and going to do a show to have fun,” he says. “And also get paid.”

In June, Terry released his debut comedy album …and out comes the ghost horse. The album represents a buffet of some of Terry’s favorite stand-up topics, including professional wrestling and the late actor Patrick Swayze.

OK Party Comedy will be prominently featured as part of Omaha Comedy Week, which begins tonight at Slowdown. On Saturday, Terry and company will bring comedian Rory Scovel to The Waiting Room. See the full schedule of events below.

For the fourth installment of Sessions, Terry and I met up in the smoking patio of The Sydney on Fourth of July weekend to discuss his ultimate aspirations for OK Party Comedy, how he deals with the haters and why he still can’t write real jokes.

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.”

Deliberate eclecticness holds for AZP’s sound, as well. The band is likely most recognizable for its combination of gospel-rock piano, soul vocals, rap lyrics and a backing rock band. Despite the mantra expressed in their 2012 song, “Keep It Simple,” (officially from Valenti’s album Respect) characterizing the band is anything but.

With their forthcoming EP, Early Sunday Morning, AZP’s message has shifted toward increased clarity, spiritualism and stirring representations of power and power reclamation.

“It’s that power inside of you: not power over people, but power from within,” says Valenti of the internal call-to-arms expressed on the EP and its lead single.

The cover image of Early Sunday Morning is an evocative rendering of black Jesus with his mouth agape and a crown of thorns atop his head. That same visage is matted, 8 feet tall and in color, propped against the west wall of AZP’s Parrish Project studio space in downtown Lincoln.

“It’s not to throw out Christianity,” Watkins says. “It’s our representation of a higher power. (His pain) is a not a representation of physical pain, but pain as in, ‘We need to do better.’ That’s what I get from it.”

On Tuesday night, AZP will release Early Sunday Morning at Duffy’s Tavern with More Machine Now Than Man.

(intro song, "Bones," courtesy of Domestica)

*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.

“I felt good about the contribution I made at the station,” Fratt said. “But just like bands and street weeklys, nothing lasts forever and I don’t feel like I have to do that forever. I’m not so obsessed with ‘the Mike Fratt brand’ that I need to have to do something forever.”

As the general manager of Homer’s Music for 10 years, Fratt isn’t shy about saying he’s found his deepest passion. In our interview, it showed the moment we turned to the subject of record sales. Statistics about vinyl resurgence and the details about expiring leases on now-closed Homer’s stores came forth easily as Fratt carefully explained the growth and downsizing of Homer’s during his tenure as general manager.

For this second installment of Sessions, Mike Fratt invited me into his Benson home for an hour-long conversation about bands that fell apart, occasionally having to do Sunday morning radio fresh from the bars and how he explains the continued success of the flagship Homer’s store in downtown Omaha.

(*intro featuring "My Bones" by Domestica)

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 lead guitar and fiddle.

The wife and husband call Ragan “probably (their) number one idol” in music, but in their stage presence and harmonies they also pay homage to the likes of Johnny Cash and June Carter. That attention to history is an important part of the Semrads’ musical identities. Mike comes from a proud and storied history of Nebraska musicians that includes his father Mike “Pinky” Semrad Sr., who founded the Nebraska Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame, and his uncle Dick Allison, who toured with Grand Ole Opry.

This sit-down interview with the Semrads is the first installment of a new Hear Nebraska series called “Sessions,” meant to explore the depth of the stories, passions and personalities that make Nebraska music as eclectic and vibrant as it is.

*Photo by Chance Solem-Pfeifer

*Featured music from The Bottle Tops' appearance on 89.3 KZUM's Soundcheck