Around the Table

by Chris Aponick

There's a short distance between 60s’ psychedelic pop and the acoustic pop that peeked out from first-generation college rockers like R.E.M., the Feelies, the Church and the Go-Betweens.

Both elements were present when I first saw the Fresh & Onlys, as they trekked across  2009's South By Southwest festival; but so was a weirder, darker post-punk throb.

It's this element that plants the San...

Rooftop Ravers

by Leo Adam Biga

Tiempo Libre Kicks Off Jazz on the Green

Growing up in Cuba, members of the hot Miami-based Latin band, Tiempo Libre, studied classical music at Havana conservatories. Popular music was deemed subversive and thus forbidden. That included their native timba, but most especially American music.

Hungry for what they were denied, the players clambered atop roofs at night with homemade antennas to pick...

Rock Steady

by Kyle Eustice

Omaha's 10th annual Riverfront Jazz and Blues Festival is one thing the Missouri River flooding isn't stopping. Despite Mother Nature's recent attack on the Midwest, the show, as they say, must go on. The two-day event has been moved to the legendary Orpheum Theater, a more than suitable replacement. Organizer Tim Clark is determined to make this year another success.

“In terms of challenges, as...

Before & After

by Chris Aponick

A semester at Creighton University told the Meat Puppets' Curt Kirkwood all he needed to know about his future in academics.

The 17-year-old Kirkwood attended the Jesuit university in the fall of 1976, but he returned to Arizona shortly after.

“It got cold, so I left,” Kirkwood told the Reader during a Monday afternoon phone interview.

“I wasn't that into college.”

Kirkwood's parents are originally...

Stretching Out

by Chris Aponick

Betsy Wells is a band of boys just getting some distance from their teenage years, but youth and young manhood belie the band's rapid maturation. Led by guitarist and lead vocalist Jordan Smith, the band is set to release its second EP, The Calm, as a Friday night show at the Waiting Room Lounge, 6212 Maple St. “We all just freshly turned 21,” Smith says over beers at the Pizza Shoppe in...

Summer Music Preview: 311

by Kyle Eustice

“We were toiling away in the underground for so long, we were ready for the attention. It’s so different now with the Internet. Some viral video will happen so quickly that the group gets a bunch of attention, but they aren’t ready for it. They haven’t developed enough and people lose interest,” Nick Hexum says. “We used to stand down at Drastic Plastic to get any information on music...