Omaha's booming music scene makes name for itself
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By HILARY STOHS-KRAUSE / Lincoln Journal Star
In the late ’70s and early ’80s, the tiny city of Athens, Ga., exploded onto the music scene with the zany club sound of the B-52s and Pylon and the melodic, mild-mannered musings of REM. More local entertainment in GZO
A decade later, Seattle was home to the long-haired children of the grunge era who filled the city’s bars and radio waves with restless, sometimes angry, sometimes apathetic music and grabbed the attention of music fans across the nation.
Some say the 2000s belong to Omaha.
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The emotive stylings of Bright Eyes could become the next Big Thing. And the Faint’s ecstatic dance albums could put Nebraska squarely in the center of the indie music map.
“I feel like everything that has happened there over the past 10 or 15 years or so has been … kind of concentrated or organic,” said Joan Hiller, publicist for Sub Pop Records.
“Definitely it’s a very small, tight-knit community of people who have really been amazing in that they’ve been able to do things on their own terms … and be really successful,” she said. “That’s kind of what the definition of punk rock is.”
Based in Seattle, Sub Pop was the first to sign grunge legends Nirvana and Soundgarden and is currently home to such indie staples as the Shins, Iron and Wine and the Rapture.
In some ways, the label is a bigger, grander version of Omaha’s major independent recording label, Saddle Creek Records.
Not all agree, however, that Omaha deserves such an exalted spot in the independent music world.
Take Raoul Hernandez, in his 12th year as music editor for the Austin (Texas) Chronicle. His city’s South By Southwest Music and Media Conference serves as a magnet for indie fans, bands and critics from across the country. Yet when he was asked what comes to mind when he thinks of Omaha, he hesitated.
“I would wonder where the Starlight Mints are from and then go, ‘Oh, no, they’re from Norman (Okla.).’”
Talk with music critics, record label executives, musicians and local experts, and it’s clear that the Omaha music scene has changed drastically in the past 10 years. It’s equally clear that where it currently stands remains unclear.
Is Omaha a soon-to-be Seattle or an adolescent Athens?
Humble beginnings
To most Americans in the 1970s and ’80s, Omaha was just another place to fill the gas tank when driving west on I-80 and Nebraska was a state of prairie dogs, farmers and tornadoes. But not rock bands.
That changed briefly but powerfully in 1993 when rock-rap-reggae group 311 hit No. 20 on the Billboard charts with the single “Do You Right.”
The group originated in Omaha, but didn’t achieve widespread fame until moving to Los Angeles, a move many locals have dismissed as selling out or abandoning the scene that raised them.
“California was just so appealing to us at the time,” said 311 singer and turntable artist Doug “SA” Martinez. “At this time, no band had really broken out of Omaha or Lincoln. A lot of bands were doing it independently, but on a broader scale, no band had really jumped out.”
Besides, Martinez said, the group had already conquered the regional market. “We just thought that going out to California would help us grow. And it did.”
A few years before 311 made it big, Lincoln had the concerts worth seeing.
“In the mid-’80s, the hot bed of music was Lincoln,” said Mike Fratt, who manages the six Homer’s independent record stores in Omaha and Lincoln. “All the Omaha bands were coming down there. … It was a happening scene.”
Omaha, by comparison, had a lack of venues and little sense of community, he said.
Andy Fairbairn agreed. The entertainment promotions director for Duffy’s Tavern, 1412 O St., for the past 10 years, Fairbairn has brought in such acts as Supersucker, Mojo Nixon and the Derailers.
“Omaha’s got better bands than they used to,” he said. “Definitely. Omaha used to have a few good bands and a lot of really bad bands.”
In the early ’90s that all started to change.
“Everyone stopped being so competitive and realized they were all in it together,” Fratt said. “That’s when the Omaha scene really started to come alive.”
“There were a lot of bands playing shows, playing together on bills, creating something out of nothing,” Martinez recalled.
He and the rest of 311 left on the verge of an underground movement slowly sweeping Omaha. Eventually, it would result in the Saddle Creek success story.
Conor’s crew
Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes fame and his brother, Justin, started an early version of Saddle Creek in 1993, according to label manager Jason Kulbel. Conor was 13 at the time.
In 1997, with Bright Eyes ready to release its first album, “it became a little more serious,” Kulbel said. Robb Nansel and Mike Mogis, two Omaha scene regulars, were also heavily involved with the label.
To date, the label has nine employees, 16 bands and 92 releases.
While Saddle Creek has influenced many in the Omaha area, they in turn were influenced by bands that came before.
Tery Daly, music journalist and founder of Lincoln’s online music community StarCityScene.com, cited such acts as The Monroes, Race for Titles and the Lepers as helping to pave the way.
“They’ve been doing that since the Saddle Creek kids were in grade school,” he said with more than a little scoff in his voice.
Tim McMahan agreed. A music critic and columnist for the Omaha alternative weekly The Reader and founder of Lazy-i.com, an online music publication that focuses on the Omaha scene, McMahan has interviewed seemingly everyone in the music industry.
“Sideshow, Mercy Kills, Simon Joyner, they’re all bands that toured and provided a model for the Saddle Creek bands who were young back then and saw, hey, it is possible to do this thing,” he said.
There’s no arguing that Saddle Creek made Omaha famous among indie enthusiasts. National critics are often aware of little else.
“Well, I’m familiar with the Saddle Creek Records scene,” said Amy Phillips, news editor for national online indie music publication Pitchfork Media. “I’m sure there’s plenty of other stuff going on … but that’s the scene that has definitely gotten the most attention nationally and internationally.”
Daly, the Lincoln music journalist, agreed.
“It’s interesting how people think that Omaha counts as a music capital of the country, because really, I think it doesn’t,” he said. “When people nationally refer to Omaha, they’re really only talking about Saddle Creek, not the Omaha music scene in general.”
However, “it put a face on Nebraska,” Fairbairn said matter-of-factly. “Before, we had a few bands that were getting some national attention, like the Millions and Mercy Rule … (but) Saddle Creek got a lot more national attention that there’s decent music going on in Nebraska.”
While acknowledging the work Oberst and others put into the label, some say it has caused the rest of the Omaha scene to be overshadowed and overlooked.
“As many people hate Bright Eyes as love them,” Phillips said.
Others, like Daly, argue that the label is too involved with itself and ignores the greater music community.
“I don’t mean to take anything away from the bands or Saddle Creek in general, because they work their asses off for everything they get,” he said. “But I don’t think their fame has helped to do anything for the Omaha music scene as a whole.”
Fairbairn was quick to deny this.
“People thinking all there is is emo in Omaha or Lincoln or Nebraska … those aren’t real perceptions,” he said. “Those are just people trying to make themselves feel better.”
“Why, because they succeeded? That’s a cop-out,” said Sophia John, program director for 89.7 The River, Omaha’s independent music station. “Nobody owes anybody anything in this local music scene. … It’s not Saddle Creek’s job to get a rap band signed.”
“I like to think we make (the scene) better,” Kulbel of Saddle Creek said. “We obviously bring some attention here, and I think there’s a lot of bands that are popping out because of what the bands on Saddle Creek have done.”
This will probably only increase with the development of the label’s Slowdown, a music hall, bar and warehouse with offices and meeting facilities, slated to open in the fall.
The new Seattle?
Results are mixed as to how Omaha fits into the national scene. Some call the city an indie music capital, which most local experts say is going too far.
“That’s pretty bold,” Fairbairn said. “There’s a lot of places around the country that could probably call themselves that. … For the size of the city, I think Omaha does a good job. They have a decent amount of good bands.
“(But) … I don’t think it’s ever going to blow up and be the next Seattle because no place will ever be the next Seattle. It’s just not going to happen.”
Martinez was also skeptical. “I think people assume there’s a lot more music going on here than there really is,” he said.
Others, however, find the title of indie music capital appropriate.
“I think it’s accurate,” John said simply. “I think credit needs to be given where credit’s due. … When Modest Mouse, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Spoon, Death Cab (for Cutie) come to Omaha, they’re not looking to hang out with 311. They’re looking to hang out with their friends, Bright Eyes, Cursive …”
Phillips agreed. “I’d say that’s probably true, if you’re thinking of indie music purely in terms of independent music,” she said. “It’s a very grassroots type of thing.”
Check back in 10 years or so
Those from outside Omaha tend to beam at the city’s glowing scene, but those intimately familiar with it remain pragmatic, if hopeful.
“I think … the future of the scene is going to depend entirely on the continued ability of the bands to continue to create robust, interesting, good music and then go out on the road and perform it,” McMahan said. “That’s true with Saddle Creek, anything.”
Said 311’s Martinez: “The music business, any business, it’s not easy,” he said. “But as long as you stay focused … and work hard, anything is possible.”
Phillips stressed breaking out of the Saddle Creek mold. “If you want to get bigger, other people not associated with Saddle Creek need to get things going.”
John, of The River, agreed.
“There is an indie scene. There is a metal scene. There’s always going to be a pop element” as well as jam bands, jazz and blues, she said, citing Omaha band The Jazzholes and blues singer Sarah Benck.
Perhaps a brief look at the older-sister scene of Austin will shed some light. The city that gave birth to such varied artists as the Dixie Chicks, the Butthole Surfers and Spoon shares some of the same strengths and weaknesses as Omaha.
“Whether it’s country, or punk, or blues … it’s an artists’ community,” the Chronicle’s Hernandez said. “A drawback is that you get so comfortable and there’s such an allowance for the individual expression that … people don’t want to really venture outside the city limits. That life is comfortable here, that even playing on a more grassroots level is preferable to going out on a van and living that kind of life.”
In five, 10 years, however, who can say how the scene will have changed?
“Scenes come and go,” Martinez said. “Things kind of die down after awhile, and then you have another generation that comes up and wants to be part of a community of music … and then it all starts again.”
Homer’s Fratt pointed to “exciting developments,” such as the signing of Omaha bands Emphatic to Universal Records and Paria and Cellador to Metal Blade Records.
“While all the attention Omaha has gotten is because of Saddle Creek,” he said, “there’s lots of stories to tell.”
Reach Hilary Stohs-Krause at 473-7254 or hstohs-krause@journalstar.com.
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