much has been made about this burgeoning new music scene. the bands: Bright Eyes (Conor Oberst) Desaparecidos (Oberst) The Faint Cursive Azure Ray The Good Life so, is omaha the next seattle of the early 90s? here are some articles that tackle this very subject. http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/from_redirect/0,10987,1101020318-216309,00.html http://www.rollingstone.com/features/featuregen.asp?pid=947 http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0240/levy.php http://www.startribune.com/stories/457/3207247.html http://www.nysun.com/sunarticle.asp?artID=202 http://www.psycho-jello.com/omahastuff.html so....have at it you industry experts ....
jeremy, you forget about Thrice. and no, for the love of humanity omaha is not the next seattle. omaha is nothing. please shoot me if i ever am living there, whether forced or otherwise. especially if otherwise.
The Faint are a decent punk-techno mix of sound, they definitely put on a good show when you are under the influence of some stuff. Check out a couple of their goodies, The Conductor, and Worked Up So Sexual.
they arent punk at all. or techno. theyre darkwave. think depeche mode. i prefer violent as one of thier songs. also, call call, and glass danse.
Industry mooks are certainly treating it like the next Seattle. Any band from that region is getting priority listening time by A&R guys, for no other reason than "it's a hot scene". I actually had a conversation with a major label guy about a month ago where he mentioned "the Omaha Sound". He also told me a funny story about another industry guy (not from his label) attempting to concoct a "Fischerspooner is Missing/Dead" story to plant in order to get some press over here. These guys are shameless. Cursive is cool. My kid loves Desaparecidos and said they ripped live this summer.
Haven't heard anything from Desaparecidos, but absolutely love Bright Eyes. Similar sound? Seeing as both projects are Conor Oberst I'll have to check out Desaparecidos.
I'm also a big Bright Eyes fan. The album "Lifted..." is one of the best albums of 2002. Isn't Lullaby For the Working Class also from Nebraska? I'm not sure if they are from Omaha but their sound is similar to Bright Eyes' sound. A great album from Lullaby For the Working Class is Blanket Warm. Murf
Cursive is ok, but it's depressing to me. Where can I find a 311 clone? I'm still playin' there ************, but I need a new dose of something close to it.
I remember reading Play..err..a men's magazine about 8 years ago that was saying Asheville, NC was going to be the next Seattle. I think they are still waiting. If Omaha wants that mantle, go ahead, but I think it is about time people (in the industry) stopped looking for "the next Seattle" and started looking for better music to play. Being from Seattle didn't make any of those bands good, being good bands did. Sir Mixalot was from Seattle. Did that make him a "peer" of Cobain? I'm not a huge believer in the "one city gets 3 good bands and becomes a hot music scene" theory. Liverpool, NYC and Seattle each have had good runs at times, but enough already.
This article says Azure Ray is from Athens, GA. I know at least Maria Taylor from that group is from Alabama. I went to elementary school with her. http://www.thewarmsupercomputer.com/AZURERAY.html
Amen. The last time I took indie rock seriously (1994) they were clamoring about San Diego with bands like Tanner and Drive Like Jehu. A few months later and those who were so eager to be ahead of the crowd were on to ...where exactly? I don't remember, who cares.. Like the man said, music is organized noise and like the other man said, there are two kinds of music: the kind you like and the kind you don't like. Screw the scene, screw the hipsters. Think and listen for yourself.
Re: Re: Omaha, Neb -- The next Seattle???? no, you're right. they moved to omaha when they were signed by saddle creek records. that's the tell-tale sign, when bands actually relocate to be a part of the label. la, ny, chicago ... not surprising. but omaha? there must be something...
good thoughts, people. i personally think the focus on omaha is kind of a backlash to the plastic, overhyped, overproduced music that has characterised the mid to late 90s. that music had no soul, no substance. so, where do you go when you want to get back to the basics? the heartland of america, of course. the pilgrimage to omaha is symbolic of an overall desire to get back to a more simple, innocent time IMO. you can criticise these bands for being "whiny" or whatever, but at least they stand for something.
I hate Connor Oberst's whiny ass. Screw Omaha. Screw Bright Eyes. But I do like some faint stuff and quite enjoy cursive and the good life.
desa info actually, desaparecidos is quite a bit harder. this is actually a rock band. a lot of people favour it over the bright eyes stuff (even though the bright eyes stuff is very, very good). they only have one album (9 songs), but the whole thing is a diatribe against the suffocating commercialism in their home town, omaha. it's quite good. just to show you how young this band is (and where their core fans are), this band doesn't even have a home page, and the de facto homepage is done by some guy in the UK: http://www.thedesa.fsnet.co.uk/ they don't tour that much or promote the album that much because oberst makes bright eyes his top priority (understandable). but if they ever decided to go full bore, this band could be significant...
it's funny how people from other midwestern towns (with sh1tty music scenes) feel the need to chime in with their immature, jealous responses. because you somehow feel that your city is superior to another city. funny. remember, it's not about the city, it's about the music.
Omaha and Saddle Creek records are relatively new to me, but the music scene in this area of the midwest (Omaha, KC, Lawrence, Manhatten) has really picked up a lot in the last few years. I really miss the days of the mid-90's when KC/Lawrence had an incredible scene and I even remember reading a newspaper article about Lawrence being "the next Seattle." In the late-90's the music scene shifted away from the type of music that is made here and support for the local scene really dropped off and it hit a slump for a few years up until it seems like just about this past year. You forgot to mention a band called Pomeroy from Lawrence and Manhatten, who is gearing up for their big splash. They already have a record contract but are waiting and developing a pretty big scene here before they make their first CD. I've been to way to many concerts to count the last decade, but I'm confident in saying that no band has ever put on a more fun show that they do. (Check out Roboflow and Elevate on Kazaa for a good sampling) I see them usually once a month and I wish I could check them out more than that. Just get trashed and get yer groove on and you won't remember a better concert. Also Anything But Joey is getting huge in KC and were approached by Jive records but they turned it down (who wouldn't turn down a contract from that company?) and The Get Up Kids have really gotten a huge national following the past few years. But keep in mind two things... No city will ever have the impact in the music scene that Seattle did in the early-90's. It won't happen again. Also... KC/Lawrence had an ungodly number of great bands in the mid-90's, but only a handful of them made any sort of a splash on the national scene (Paw, The Urge (I am well aware that they are St. Louis, but played here all the time and were treated as a local band. It was an adopted home), The Gadjits, Outhouse, Frogpond). If that scene couldn't do it then, I don't think it's going to be very possible for another city around here to try to do something similiar. The only thing that make's me think Omaha might be able to do something greater is the fact that they have a well known label, Saddle Creek, that KC/Lawrence didn't have. The problem with the type of music that is produced in this area of the country, typically is indie style in nature. It's difficult to throw it into a specific genre, and that's why the national radio scene has been reluctant to play it. There's nothing that radio hates more than music you can't label. I like the Omaha scene though, it's pretty similiar to the KC scene and it's a great alternative to the absolute s**t that is being played on the radio today. Rock is reallllllly bad right now.
the difference between omaha and columbus is night and day. columbus, contrary to popular belief, or the midwestern misconception, is NOT surrounded by flat emptiness. and yes, columbus is far superior to omaha. and i hate columbus too. at least here im 5 hours from DC or chicago, or 7 from NYC or the coast. as for the music scene. its just hype. thats all it freakin is. i dont buy into that crap, and neither should any of you. yes, a few good bands are coming out of omaha. but same goes for LA, NYC, __insert name of city here__
okay, a couple points, because people seem to be chiming in with homages to their own home town. first, check out this article on minneapolis' struggling music scene: http://www.startribune.com/stories/389/3161005.html second, there are certain things that omaha has in it's favour that city _________ (fill in blank) doesn't: 1. omaha has a national icon that people recognise as the face of it's music scene (and a hype machine to go with it). kind of like, dare i say, seattle's scene had a face in kurt cobain. i think rolling stone is utter crap, but when they proclaim someone as the "next bob dylan" that doesn't hurt.... 2. omaha has a record label with a national profile in saddle creek records. again, kind of like sub-pop in seattle. 3. omaha has bands relocating from other parts of the country to be part of the label. sorry about dresden relocated from chapel hill, nc, and azure ray relocated from athens, ga. again, this is nothing new for ny, la, chicago, but this is new territory for omaha -- 311 had to relocate to la to get publicity.
Yeah, I gotta disagree with OGHT on this one. There is something kooky going on in Bugaha when people are relocating TO Omaha and not FROM Omaha. Funny thing is I'd never heard of Saddle Creek records until today while talking to a friend (before I saw this thread). I immediately thought of Sub Pop and started explaining it's signifigance to the Seattle music scene to her. The difference between a band coming out of NY, LA, DC, etc... vs. bands coming out of Seattle, Omaha (or anywhere in that region) is that they tend to have a distinct sound that really revolutionizes that genre. Seattle was to grunge what SoCal was to Punk/Ska was to what NY was to Hardcore was what DC was to Emo and on and on.... When people claim "_____ is the next Seattle" I don't take it as them claiming it's the next big thing to revolutionize music the way seattle did because that would be nearly impossible (though it will probably happen someday) and I don't take it as that city reinventing grunge, I take it as that city having it's own distinct sound that for whatever reason captures the musical tastes of the country and forever they will associate x genre music with y city. OGHT, it is all 100% based on opinion and taste that one can claim Columbus is better than Omaha, or Omaha is better than Columbus, so I have absolutely no right to tell you that you are wrong. What I can say is that people are identifying a lot more with Omaha now than most other non-traditional music cities in the country (NY, LA, DC, etc...).