popwreckoning

The Get Up Kids have released their third video from new album There Are Rules for song “Regent’s Court.” The video was compiled by director Pat Vamos and can be seen below.

The Get Up Kids have kicked off their summer tour, co-headlining June shows and headlining July shows throughout the Midwest and Northeast. Dates in Australia, New Zealand and Japan in early August will be followed by two Los Angeles-area dates in mid-August, before the band departs for a European tour in the fall.

www.thegetupkids.com

Chicago-based indie-punk songwriter Evan Thomas Weiss of Into It. Over It. has announced plans to tour the U.S. and Canada opening for UK-based Epitaph recording artist Frank Turner and American folk punk band Andrew Jackson Jihad.  The tour, which stretches from late September to early November, follows Weiss’ recent set of dates supporting Fake Problems, Pomegranates, Laura Stevenson and The Cans, and Mansions.

In addition to the upcoming dates, Weiss and Into It. Over It. have announced plans to begin recording their debut full length album with producer Ed Rose (Get Up Kids, The Appleseed Cast, The Casket Lottery) at Blacklodge Studios in Eudora, KS.  Tracking on the new record begins June 25th and will be released Fall 2011 on No Sleep Records.

For a complete list of over 40 tour dates, visit www.intoitoverit.com and www.nosleeprecs.com

After four years of writing and recording, Synchronized Sleeping, the debut full length from Hidden Pictures will be hailed with a public celebration April 1, 2011, at The Brick, in Kansas City, Missouri.

In addition to the groups core members, Richard Gintowt and Michelle Sanders, the album which was will feature a newly revised lineup of Erik Voeks on the bass, Cameron Hawk (of Dead Girls) on the drums and Nate Holt (formerly of OK Jones) on the keys. Additional musicians contributing to the completion of Synchronized Sleep include Josh Adams (of Ghosty), Tim and Alan Brandsted, Nate Harold (of Waking Ashland), Billy Brimblecom, Pat Tomek (of The Rainmakers) and Dave Gaume (of The Caves). Engineering was handled by Ed Rose, Paul Malinowski and Mike Giffin, in addition to work completed at Gintowt’s home studio.

Not only will you be able to get your hands on Synchronized Sleeping, but those fans who purchase the album on Hidden Pictures’ Bandcamp Page will also receive the lost OK Jones album Stealing Dan as a bonus. The album was shelved when OK Jones disbanded in 2007 when Gintowt and Gaume started Hidden Pictures. The six songs on Stealing Dan were finished upon the completion of Synchronized Sleeping.

The band’s previous EPs Choosing Sides, Whitney Houston and Self-Titled can be purchased on the group’s Bandcamp Page as well. You can find the video for the song “Annie Apparently” from the Choosing Sides EP below.

Hidden Pictures in Anne Apparently from Zac Eubank on Vimeo.

The Bottleneck is an oddly shaped venue. It’s kind of rectangular with a slightly raised level that overlooks the main floor and the back of the venue is divided into a second room that’s still somewhat open to the main room. Because of it’s configuration, the place never looks packed, which can be a bit intimidating for opening bands who already suffer from sparser crowds due to late arrivals. Yet for this particular show, the room looked as packed as it does for most headliners by the time of the first set. By the time the Get Up Kids triumphantly took to the stage, the Bottleneck looked as close to full as it had ever looked. Though there was still plenty of space for the crowd to mosh, dance and just rock out, which they, of course did.

Brian Bonz and the Major Crimes started the night off. Now the Major Crimes, Bonz’ backing band, has a rotating list of members. Touring isn’t cheap, so Bonz often performs alone or with friends. Tonight, some of the Major Crimes were members of fellow touring group, Miniature Tigers. The Crimes added a nice fullness to Bonz’ sound and some impressive harmonies that almost made you forget some of the more crass points of the lyrics. See that’s the thing with Bonz – his show isn’t just about the songs. It’s also about the banter. In between songs Bonz quipped about drugs, girls and life on the road. He even freestyled a rap that would be crap as legit music, but for the purpose of the evening, was funny and fresh and made everyone feel like Bonz was their best friend and not some random guy up on stage. Then after doing things like that and telling everyone to look him up on “Fuckface” or that he was about to perform a song about his “first time to a strip club in Queens,” Bonz would switch off the goofy crassness and switched into serious musician mode. 

Next were the oddly dressed Miniature Tigers. Seriously: oddly dressed. The singer was wearing a poncho and then the rest looked like they just stumbled out of an ugly sweater party. These guys seem to be quite popular with the ladies, which is probably due to the catchy lo-fi tunes they sing with big drum beats and clap-a-long moments. The sound mix was a bit off for this performance and the band seemed to be struggling with it during a few moments, but the audience didn’t seem to care. The songs are danceable and at one point, the singer even ventured into the audience to dance and apparently vacuum suck faces? Maybe the “schoop” sound and reaching your hand like a claw at another person’s face is the new dance rage, but let’s hope it doesn’t catch on in the Midwest. Let’s keep it a Mini Tigers thing. The highlight of their set was definitely “Cannibal Queen.” Not only is it one of the band’s strongest songs, but they turned it into a downright party. Bonz and the Major Crimes came back out on stage to add some percussion and then as an extra surprise, Spider-man came out to dance. Yeah, you read that right. Your friendly neighborhood Spider-man is a fan of the Miniature Tigers. Talk about a great endorsement!

The Bottleneck was noticeably more packed as people waited for local heroes The Get Up Kids to take the stage. People inched closer to the stage. The Get Up Kids hopped up on stage to triumphant music drowned out by the roars of the crowd. The room was electric with excitement. Kansas has sometimes been hit or miss with giving actual support to local bands, but tonight you had to be proud of Lawrence’s enthusiasm.

“Hello…home!” singer Matt Pryor announced with a grin before the band started with “Tithe” off their new album. This was the band’s last night of tour and they were ending it where everything started. Later in the show, Pryor even said that the Bottleneck was one, if not the first show. Then he reminisced with guitarist/vocalist Jim Suptic about Suptic’s 21st birthday at the Bottleneck. The hilarious anecdote about the band’s drunken escapade was cut short by a keyboard intro cuing the next song.

Speaking of birthdays and keyboards, perhaps the most noticeable difference in the band’s performance was the absence of keyboardist James Dewees, whose birthday also happened to be that day. The fill in keyboardist was ok, especially considering he hasn’t lived with the songs like the rest of the guys, but he lacked Dewees’ spunk, energy and humor. The band did give Dewees a shout out, but didn’t say where he was, but it’s safe to assume he’s probably off somewhere with My Chemical Romance. He’s being playing keys for them and touring with their most recent release.

Despite Dewees absence, it was a solid set with a good mix of songs off the new album and many of their older songs. The only complaint might be that they seemed to skimp on Guilt Show. The songs off There Are Rules, the band’s January release, weren’t as familiar to the audience as many of the older songs – the moving mouths shouting the words noticeably stilled for those tunes, yet the bodies kept moving and dancing along, patient until a song such as “Mass Pike” let them belt out again.

As much as the crowd seemed to like jumping up and down and moshing, perhaps the most well-received songs of the night were the slower, more romantic numbers. “Campfire Kansas” and “I’ll Catch You” saw plenty of couple’s reaching for the hands of their date and the singles in the room reaching for lighters or phones.

Another highlight was a 3-piece performance of The Replacements‘ “Beer for Breakfast.” The Pope brothers and Suptic made it back to the stage well before the stand-in keyboardist and Pryor did after the cheers for an encore. Suptic joked that Pryor had a nervous breakdown and the band was no a 3-piece before the surprise tune. But fret not, the breakdown bit was a joke and Pryor came out of the green room about halfway through the song and happily watched from the side of the stage. When the band followed that song up with “Holiday” the crowd erupted with an energy unmatched during the whole show. It seemed like they couldn’t get more into a song, but by “Ten Minutes,” the final song of the night, it looked like the band was about to wish they had a barricade. Arms were in the air and bodies pressed against the stage as people screamed their lungs out with the band.

A lot of bands seem a little lackluster after ten years in the business. They slow with age and almost seem to go through the motions. Their songs from their early years seem outdated. The Get Up Kids’ music seemed timeless and seamless. They were confident and lively. This show managed to be the exception to the rule.

Set List:
Tithe
Action & Action
Regent’s Court
I’m a Loner Dottie, A Rebel
Automatic
Mass Pike
Love Me
Overdue
Shatter Your Lungs
Red Letter Day
Woodson
Pararelevant
Shorty
Close to Home
Holy Roman
Campfire Kansas
Rememorable
Don’t Hate Me
Walking on a Wire
—
Beer for Breakfast (Replacements cover)
Holiday
I’ll Catch You
Ten Minutes

The Get Up Kids are back with new record There Are Rules, but for a band that has long been touting ‘kids’ in their name, this is a testament that they’ve grown up. Lyrical themes focus on experiences and the wisdom that comes with age and reflection. Now, this is still the Get Up Kids fans first fell in love with, especially when listening to the frequent driving drum beats over fuzzy guitars and characteristic vocals, but these battered music veterans have a new perspective.  

There Are Rules is the band’s fifth studio album, and the first lp since 2004′s Guilt Show and the much bemoaned hiatus/break-up. With There Are Rules, the band returned to longtime producer Ed Rose and Bob Weston, who produced their 4 Minute Mile debut fifteen years ago. After some label struggles in the past, the band worked to put this record out on their own Quality Hill Records.

As previously mentioned, wisdom from experience is a prevalent theme on this album. And with that theme come some other motifs such as lies and feelings of doubt and betrayal. While others albums might have focused more on relationships and surroundings, this album is more reflective on past interactions and their repercussions on the future. Several of the songs seem to specifically focus on the band’s break-up and the events that brought that about. On “When It Dies,” Matt Pryor sings “Let it go, when it dies,” which is basically like saying don’t drag something out when it isn’t working – part of the reason for the band’s absence for the last five years. Then on “Rememorable,” Pryor sings, “Look how far we’ve come and you’ll send us 10 steps off.” The plural subjects makes it pretty obvious that this isn’t a song about the group of the guys getting discouraged over time. But the reflective narration fights to the end of the song on a wave of fuzzy guitar riffs before entering a prose that could be a self-conversation or a conversation to fans or peers. “Wish this was over,” and then the narrator seems to retort a “no”: “We’re in it for the long haul.” Yet another response, “Why don’t you go away?” The challenging struggle to keep making music even when support isn’t always apparent? That’s just one of many possible interpretations.

Aside from the lyrical theme being a major change for the band, the other thing that stands out is James Dewees has really stepped into his role in this band. The fuzzy guitars and heavy reverb were always common for this band, but the synths are more apparent on this album than Guilt Show. The opening track “Tithe” could have easily worked as a Reggie and the Full Effect tune.

If you listen to any song off the album, it should be “Rally ‘Round the Fool.” This is the one that you won’t be able to get out after your head long after you hit the stop button on whatever device you’re using for listening. This song is so great not just because it is catchy, but because it seems to be a culmination point – a rally point, if you will – for the album’s themes. Remember that the theme about wisdom that comes with age and experience? Yep, that’s here in full force as Pryor’s voice darkly sings, “Rally ’round the fool, we all fall.” There’s lots of ways to envision that line. In a more metaphorical interpretation, I picture the innocent children’s game of Ring-around-the-Rosie. Now picture it if it weren’t so innocent. Like maybe the kid’s are playing it on a volcano’s edge. There’s a danger there that is only present to those watching, while the kids playing are completely blind to it. It’s a lot like life. You can be drawn into something blindly and see no harm, but it could lead to your downfall. This reflection could be carried over into different parts of the band’s career, and now with the wisdom of experience, they recognize the various fools. “It’s all over,” Pryor repeats at the end over a galloping rhythm guitar and a wailing bass drum. Not only is it great to listen to on recording, but it will undoubtably be the ace in the pocket for their live show.

Now, there are bound to be some haters – you know, those people who cling to a band’s first release and consider everything else crap – but give this record a chance. There’s a surprising amount of diversity on it (“Shatter Your Lungs” was a bit of an instrumental surprise” and “Automatic” felt like something off a John Hughes soundtrack), so no matter when you got into the band, you’re bound to find something you like.

Whatever people say though, this reviewer is glad that the Get Up Kids are back.

Track Listing:
1. Tithe
2. Regent’s Court
3. Shatter Your Lungs
4. Automatic
5. Pararelevant
6. Rally ‘Round the Fool
7. Better Lie
8. Keith Case
9. The Widow Paris
10. Birmingham
11. When It Dies
12. Rememorable

Kansas City’s influential indie rockers The Get Up Kids have announced the track list and release date for their fifth full-length record. There Are Rules will be self-released by the band on January 25, 2011.

This record follows seven years after the release of what looked to be their final album, Guilt Show. The band reunited in 2009 and decided to write together again while rehearsing for their tenth anniversary tour for Something to Write Home About.

The band has plans to announce a full U.S. tour in support of the record’s release. They returned to producer Ed Rose for the recording of this album as well as Bob Weston, who recorded Four Minute Mile.

Track Listing:
1. Tithe
2. Regent’s Court
3. Shatter Your Lungs
4. Automatic
5. Pararelevant
6. Rally ‘Round the Fool
7. Better Lie
8. Keith Case
9. The Widow Paris
10. Birmingham
11. When It Dies
12. Rememorable

Kansas City rockers, The Get Up Kids wrote a blog update announcing an April E.P. and the not so surprising news that Rob Pope wouldn’t be on their Australia and Japan tours (he’s currently touring with Spoon). But the April EP, Simple Science, is very exciting and welcome news as it has been six years since new music has been heard from the band’s camp.

Here’s the full message:

WE’VE GOT SOME GOOD NEWS AND SOME BAD NEWS….
We’ve got some good news and some bad news.

First, the bad news. Due to circumstances beyond our control, our bassist Rob Pope will not be able to join us on our upcoming tour of Australia and Japan. Luckily, our good friend Nate Harold will be filling in for Rob who will be rejoining the touring party as soon as he is able.

Now, the good news. The “Simple Science” EP is our first new
recording in 6 years!!!! The 4 song EP is going to come out in April
on limited, numbered and several different colors of 12″ vinyl as well
as a CD that we are releasing ourselves. It will be available
exclusively for download with Itunes. We’ll keep you in the loop once
we set a release date.

That’s all for now.
Thanks,
The G.U.K.

While most people came to the Midland to hear the tune “The Underdog,” I was there to hear the underdog band of the night. As is to be expected when a radio station is promoting their holiday show, the bands playing the show tend to get extra radio play.

This was the case for the bands playing 96.5 the Buzz’s annual the Night the Buzz Stole X-Mas. However, while headliners Spoon got several tunes played in regular rotation, the Bravery had some of their older songs return to rotation along with news tunes, and Metric‘s “Help, I’m Alive” was played so often that I kind of wanted to beat my head with a hammer every time it was played, but there is another opener that wasn’t treated to the same luxury: Hockey. Sure, they were played in promotion, but it was only during the night shows. And anyone looking over the station playlist could see that while the other bands were played nearly every hour of the day, poor Hockey was more often than not stuck into the 3 a.m. slot.

I suspect that I might have been one of the few, if not the only one, who went to this show with the main intention of dancing to Hockey. Pre-show the people who had turned up in time to see the first band, appeared apathetic. They were just claiming close spots for one of the later bands. Hockey had a challenge before them with this audience whether they knew it or not.

Fortunately, Hockey’s live show is where they really shine, and while they can sound a little detached on record, live, they’re bursting with energy. Hockey brought the dance party with their synth heavy tunes. If you still haven’t heard of this new buzz band yet, they’re like a toned down Passion Pit without the shrill vocals and a more diverse Owl City minus the cheesy lyrics. In fact, this group would have been a great addition to one of the radio station’s early shows this fall that was supposed to feature Passion Pit and Owl City.

Hockey easily won over the crowd with their charming music and funky haircuts (look at the pictures and I think you’ll understand what I mean). If the hair didn’t win you over, then it was probably the singer surprising the crowd by grabbing some mallets and banging a tom that did the trick. It was a pity that they only had 30 minutes to play because it seemed they had just started the crowd dancing when everyone had to wind down again for a set change. Hockey set the bar high and while the remaining acts have more experience in the music world, they could all do to learn a thing or two about stage presence and audience interaction from Hockey.

Set List:
Work
3am Spanish
Learn to Lose
Song Away
Too Fake
Put the Game Down

When indie superstars Metric finally took the stage, the pick of a slow, dark number “Twilight Galaxy” to start was a buzz kill after Hockey’s effervescent performance. A few spotlights shrouded the band in blue shadows as singer Emily Haines buried her face in her keys. I was getting chills, but not in a good way. When opening, slow numbers are usually left out for a reason, and no one ever starts on one. “Help, I’m Alive” followed and with it came the extreme performance I had heard about that makes Metric great. As much as the song is overplayed, it brought a sense a relief because with it, Haines started tossing her hair and stomping around the stage in her gold boots and encouraging her band to milk their solos for all their worth. Yay for energy at last.

Musically, Metric’s very talented, and that was evident from their set. However, for how much I’ve heard about Metric’s greatness, this was the most disappointing set of the night. Aside from that awkward opening snoozer, the set as a whole lacked album-variety. Now don’t get me wrong, I understand the importance of promoting the new material, but Metric has a few albums under their belt and only one non-Fantasies tune, “Dead Disco” off of 2003′s Old World Underground, Where Are You Now, made the set. Seriously, what was the logic with that? I’m glad I’ve finally seen Metric and I don’t know if things are a bit different when it is a headlining, but as an opener, I was left scratching my head as rookie mistakes popped up in their otherwise suave posterior.

Set List:
Twilight Galaxy
Help I’m Alive
Gold Guns Girls
Gimme Sympathy
Sick Muse
Dead Disco
Stadium Love

Now for as much critic hate as The Bravery receives, Kansas City appears to love them. To their credit, it was refreshing to hear the band play an even mix of songs from all their albums that included radio-friendly tunes such as “Unconditional,” “Slow Poison” and “Honest Mistake” as well as some lesser known new songs. They also had a good light show that reflected off their pleather jackets in sync with each pound on the synth. The crowd danced through their whole set and ate up every swagger of singer Sam Endicott and swooned with the swings of his microphone that he unaffectedly held out toward the audience.

I have to give them credit for their warm audience reception. I personally find the band detached performers and Endicott’s vocals hollow. For the most part, their songs all blend together, but occasionally they have a stand out guitar riff like on the end of “Honest Mistake.” Unfortunately tonight, the mix was a bit off, so the guitar mushed into the rest of the instruments.

I did my best with the set list. I might be missing one song and for that I apologize.

Set List:
Unconditional
Adored
Hatefuck
Believe
Red Hands and White Knuckles
She’s So Bendable
Swollen Summer
Time Won’t Let Me Go
Slow Poison
Fearless
An Honest Mistake

Spoon has been around for practically my whole life, but this was my first opportunity to see them. Joined by Kansas City’s homeboy* Rob Pope (also of The Get Up Kids) on bass, Spoon took the stage without theatrics and dived into “Don’t You Evah.” (*I realize it is weird to call Pope  homeboy, but if Spoon can use “evah” in a song, I can call Pope a homeboy.)

After finally seeing this band, I was left scratching my head. Spoon’s set left me conflicted.

On the one hand, you have a group of able-bodied musicians performing smart tunes. Sure the vocal harmonies can be a bit gruff, but the band is all about the music. There are no distracting set pieces. Lights are minimal, but enough so the band is lit enough that you can see what they’re doing. There aren’t any surprise instruments. The set’s comprised of several new songs and a mix of older songs going all the way back to 2002 (they had to draw the line somewhere, I guess). Stage banter is kept to a minimum. The most anyone really talks is to occasionally announce a tune. This is a band playing songs for their fans. It is refreshing to hear the tunes delivered in such a pure form. Spoon sounds just as they do on recording.

But here’s the other hand. These tickets, when you throw in Ticketmaster surcharges, are costing people at least $35. An album costs less than $10 these days. So I have to believe, that people want a bit of a show when the buy a concert ticket. They want some element they can’t get on a record. That’s lacking from Spoon’s performance. And it tears me up that I just can’t accept the band as good for having a clean sound. I just think they could be great if they beefed up the performance a bit. There’s a threshold of success they’re not quite crossing with their bare bones approach to music.

Set List:
Don’t You Evah
Don’t Make Me a Target
I Turn My Camera On
Written in Reverse
Got Nuffin
Rhythm and Soul
The Beast and Dragon, Adored
Black Like Me
Is Love Forever
I Summon You
(The Mystery Zone – listed, but not played)
My Mathematical Mind
The Underdog
///
(Jonathan Fisk – listed, but not played)
Way We Get By
You Got Yr Cherry Bomb

As far as radio holiday shows go, I have to give the Buzz props on the diversity of the line up and for hosting the holiday show at such a beautiful venue that might as well be KC’s own Carnegie Hall. The interns in elf hats handing out Hockey vinyl and Metric and Spoon download cards wrapped in bows were an especially nice touch to end the night.

Band Info:
Hockey: website | myspace | @ lollapalooza | interview with
Metric: website | myspace
The Bravery: website | myspace
Spoon: website | myspace

Where’s The Band? is a tour featuring solo acoustic performances by four frontmen of successful groups. Dustin Kensrue of Thrice, Matt Pryor of  The Get Up Kids and New Amsterdams, Chris Conley of Saves the Day and Two Tongues and Anthony Raneri of Bayside will bring Where’s The Band? to the West Coast for the first time in January, performing in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego and Anaheim.

Tour Dates:
Jan. 7, 2010 – The Troubadour / West Hollywood, CA
Jan. 8, 2010 – House of Blues / San Diego, CA
Jan. 9, 2010 – House of Blues / Anaheim, CA
Jan. 10, 2010 – Bottom of the Hill / San Francisco, CA

The inaugural Where’s The Band? tour in January 2009 included 10 dates in the Midwest, all of which sold out. The four singers sat in during each other’s sets, creating a unique and special event for fans.

A limited number of tickets have been held for Where’s The Band? fans and will be available through an exclusive Ducat King presale that begins today, Thursday, November 5, 2009. General public onsale is the following Thursday, November 12.

Buy tickets at wherestheband.ducatking.com.

Where’s the Band: myspace

I must apologize for the amount of time I spent transcribing this interview, but this found itself to be one of the most difficult transcriptions I have ever done and I contemplated not bothering. However, Little Brazil is a fantastic band and there were some really great answers provided in this interview that I couldn’t allow it to just get buried.

At this point, I’m sure you’re wondering what happened. Little Brazil’s guitarist Greg Edds and I left the venue in search of a quiet spot to conduct this interview. We found ourselves in a tiny bar that was empty aside from the bartender. We got a drink and sat down to interview. The minute I turned the recorder on, two rather-less-than-sober men entered the bar and added their own soundtrack to this interview. They loudly talked and laughed and even came over to our table and messed with the recorder. At some points, I left in their dialogue because they were interesting characters. I also left it because they both played important roles in the development of the band. One, Joe, had given lead singer, Landon Hedges, his first job in Omaha and the other happened to be Hedges’ roommate. I thought the interview was pretty wild, but the night only got crazier. As an apology for ruining the interview, they took me out to dinner (Edds recommended leaving on the recorder and encouraged that I go, but said he couldn’t because he needed to get back to the venue.) and dinner really was insane, although I’m sure it was more so one of those you had to be there things. At the show, I ran into one of them again. At dinner, his friends had warned me that he would do something insane at the show and the venue would let him get away with it. Sure enough, at the show, he managed to get away with not only grabbing the microphone, but also mooning the crowd. Oh the exciting life a music journalist leads. Now on to the interview:

Bethany, PopWreckoning: So what are you guys doing? It looks pretty exciting in there.
Greg Edds, Little Brazil: Well, we had this original idea where we wanted to tie the theme of the record in so like the cover with trees and something like. So we were trying to be as creative as possible. We had this whole idea of having this giant tree on stage, but we weren’t sure how to get a giant tree on stage. Then we thought maybe mannequins spread out on stage like a whole family of mannequins, but there is no place in town that you can rent that. So we decided to go with the pregnancy theme because that’s the It’s a Son thing is. So we were driving today and I was like, well, what do you do for a baby shower. So I was like, let’s get some balloons, let’s get some party poppers, let’s get some cigars and we got a big giant inflatable goose that says “It’s a boy.” We’ll probably take that back very early in the morning because we paid 40 bucks for it and I don’t know why. And we’ll never use it again, I’m not going to lie. So we just wanted to have it look really fun in there. There are some songs on the record that aren’t necessarily what you’d think of fun party songs, but we want people to have fun with it and feel like this show is a birthday party really. We wanted everybody to have fun and have just as good a time as we are.

PW: KC was listed as a CD release show, too. Did you do something down there, too?
LB: Not anything like stage set up. That is, you know, the home base of the label Anodyne Records. So, it was our label owner’s birthday and he already had people out and had already had it decorated like a birthday party. We played with a band called The Roman Numerals, who are also on our label. They were supposed to play tonight, but their original drummer also plays in The Get Up Kids, and they’re doing that reunion thing now, so it was a lot of-not drama, but pushing and doing this and that. They played with us and there was….

Enter first actual interruption as guy trips into our table.

Rando dude 1: Everything alright here?
Rando dude 2: Haha.
Rando dude 1: Now, don’t laugh at me.
LB: I’m not. I’m trying to do an interview.
R1: I know that you want to. You’re trying to be all serious and bladhio. And I’m going to be on stage and I’m going to laugh at you.
LB: It’s true.
PW: What’s your name for transcribing purposes?
R1: That guy for transcribing purposes.
LB: You sure you want to do that?
R1: Joey Pitts. (It’s not his name.)
PW: Joey Pitts?
R1: Joey Pitts is my nickname. Jeremiah Pepper Pitts. Joey M.I. Pitts.
PW: M.I.?
LB: Jeremy Pitts II.

With that, Random Dude 1, dances off back to the bar.

LB: But, yeah, so that was fun and it was a party. It was good to see all the people in Kansas City from the label and it was very welcoming. Same thing like with tonight where the Life and Times will replace the Roman Numerals. And they’re close friends of ours, so it still feels like family anyway.
R1: BLARGH!!!!!
PW: And then didn’t The Get Up Kids’ show get cancelled with Brand New anyways because of volcanoes or something ridiculous?
LB: Yeah, well, when we heard about it on tour we were just like, “Ahh,” and let out a collective sigh. It wasn’t quite disappointment, but it’s crazy because we’re good friends with Ryan Pope, the guy who plays in both bands and part ones one of our favorite bars in Kansas, the bourgeouis? In Lawrence, and we’re like since you guys screwed us in Omaha, it’s karma that….

Enter major interruption two.

LB: What is this?

Rando dude 1 sticks a glass over Edds’ nose and makes him smell. Then does the same to me.

LB: What is that?
PW: What is it?

Edds sips the drink.

R1: Pear cognac. Wonderful, wonderful warm pear. Like if you have ever had pears—there are pears and then there are Pears. Everybody’s had peach, but have you ever had pear?
LB: Yeah, it’s good. It tastes like Thanksgiving.
R1: The idea is that it’s warm. It will just warm you up. Warm pears.
LB: Oh man. It is going to be messy tonight.
R1: Grabbing recorder: I am in no part of this interview. Shh. Joey Pitts! Plugs nose and in a nasally voice and possible Landon impersonation: It will be a classic show tonight with a couple of bands. Maybe four. I think it is a quadruplet.
LB: I’m not Landon.
R1: Landon doesn’t do interviews. Last time I was interviewing somebody this crazy….BUT WE’RE In OMAHA!!!
LB: Oh man. Sorry about that.
PW: No worries. I just did a bunch of interviews in Austin at SXSW.
LB: Oh yeah. We were only there one day and it is crazy, so I can only imagine.
PW: Yeah, free alcohol everywhere and so they were interesting interviews.
LB: Well, you got a free drink out of this one, so that’s good.

PW: True. Let’s see. What were we talking about?
LB: KC stuff. So it was pretty simplistic and stuff and only two bands, but a very good vibe. A lot of Omaha people drove down. Like 20 people. And the venue only holds like 80, so we were afraid that…
PW: Which venue was this at?
LB: KC at the Czar Bar.
PW: Oh yes, Czar Bar.
LB: So that’s actually the label owner’s bar and he’s big into real estate, so he just opened that up in like September. But I was afraid that all these people coming down from Omaha, who will probably be here tonight, I was afraid we weren’t going to be able to let in all the KC people who were going to be like, “We’re trying to come out, but there’s always all these Omaha people coming down. How big is the guest list?” And it seems like that’s where everybody transplants. There or Minneapolis or Denver. Lots of KC fans. That crowd was really nice. Really receptive. We had a lot of jokes. It was a good night.

PW: This is your first release with Anodyne? How did you get involved with them?
LB: About, I’d say, almost two years ago, we started writing material and practicing. Not even having a theme or anything, and we just focused more on song writing and next thing you know we had a group of songs with a reoccurring theme and we were rehearsing so much, we didn’t know if we wanted to record them and have a demo because we weren’t necessarily sure if we wanted to release with Mt. Fuji even though they released before. So we were like, ok, we’re having some small problems with this label, minor problems. Like not taking a phone call. Communication was starting to get poor. So we kind of said, screw the business, let’s focus on writing. After we had a certain set of songs written, I was contacted by Sean Moeller From Daytrotter and he wanted us to come out just to play and I thought, how about we demo some of the new stuff and then possibly use those recordings to submit to labels and Sean loved the idea and was yeah, I’d love to help you guys make a step in the right direction. And ironically at the time, Oliver, our drummer, had acquaintances with a band called the Dark Circles, which the label owners knew and they were playing at O’Leaver’s one night and I was doing sound.

Enter another interruption:

R1: If you have three wishes, on the third wish, ask for three more wishes.
PW: Did you just pick that up from Aladdin?
R1: It only makes sense.
R2: you have to ask the genie for three more wishes.

LB: Ok. So through the Dark Circles we met Anodyne. Danny was there and Oliver was there, but Landon wasn’t, but we kind of made a relationship and they were like hey, I have a label, what are your plans right now. And we kind of gave them a head’s up on what we were doing and that we were writing a record without any plans of what we were going to do with it. We thought we might possibly release it ourselves. But I was a little afraid of what happened there with business and he was like keep me posted. Let me know what you’re doing. So we told him we were going to do the Daytrotter thing. We recorded those songs and they came out fairly well. We were pretty impressed with the quality, so we shot him the disc and the label manager, within a couple of days,

PW: First time ever with Daytrotter?
LB: Yeah. First time ever with Daytrotter. It was a pretty overwhelming experience because so many people have done it. So you kind of walk in and are extremely nervous and don’t know what to expect, but it was a great experience. Four songs and 26 minutes in the time it would take like two hours to do it. We did it and got the record, the cd, a couple days later and Sean was like, I like what you did. I hope you do well. A couple days later we sent the cd off and Anodyne was like, I want to work with you guys. Keep me posted when you think you’ll get done and when you want to work with the studio. From there the ball was rolling and everything pretty much happened overnight.

Interrupted again:

R1: Greg Edds is a gentleman of leisure.
LB: You suck.
R1: Haha. Yes. Indeed I do.

LB: Oh man. I never had such an easy experience. Before everything was easy, but this time it didn’t seem like there was as much work and tedious things because he was a very good business man and his label manager, his name is Brandon, he is the lead singer of the Architects. So he gets musicians. They all seem to make very good decisions and they want everyone’s opinions and they weren’t really like “ok you got to do this and here is your budget and here is this.” We told them that all we wanted to do was record at ARC studio, we wanted to do it with AJ Mogis, and we had 10 songs and we were going to try and do that within a certain amount of time. They were like, Oh that’s fine. Let’s write this up. Let’s figure this out. So we called Pedersen from Criteria who is a working lawyer. Sat down with him and started contract negotiations. Everything worked out really easy and was just a simple process and we all learned a lot. We had never been through that before. I’m still amazed at how easy it has been. They’ve done everything. We haven’t asked them for anything. They’ve done all the work.

PW: You guys have worked with AJ before. What is it like to work with him and how heavily involved is he?
LB: The first time we worked with him was 2007’s Tighten the Noose. That was our first experience and Landon’s second or third, we were all like extremely nervous because he is a very stoic person. He is very quiet and sits behind the board like Reuben, twiddling his beard. You never know what he is thinking, what he is going to say, or if he is mad. He just kind of, well you ask him a question and he’ll think about it. Like you’ll say if you want to go for a certain sound in the guitar, certain sound in the vocals. And he’ll go OK. It makes you nervous. So the first time was a little nervewracking, but the second time going into the studio ARC, ARC is a very nice studio. We were in the B room and felt privileged.
PW: Yeah, I’ve been in there.
LB: Yeah, and you feel privileged. You walk in there and some people record on their laptops, but it is just not the same as when you walk in and the pressure is on. I told Landon, it is crazy that this place of insanity spawns so much creativity, because you’re locked in the studio for 10 days and you put your life out there and write a story and keep an overall theme without going mental. It is a weird thing. AJ this time around had much more input.

Recorder grabbed again.

R1: Pear cognac. Sniff. Keep it warm. The idea is that it is warm and there is the aroma. It is in the sniffing because the pear cognac, while it is warm, it goes through your nose and hits your olfactory. Forces us both to sniff. Isn’t that good?
PW: Very good.
R1: So good because?
PW: It hits your olfactory.
R1: What was your experience of the pear cognac? Just smell it.
PW: Delicious.
R1: Especially large sniff.
PW: Thanks, Darth Vader.
R2: Watching Aladdin. He just goes up to that girl and is like, want to go for a ride? I wish I had a magic carpet.
R1: It is an awesome idea. You’re praying five times a day on your carpet and it is magic and it would be transcendental and you’d leave your own body, mentally. So that makes it a magic carpet.
LB: What?

Gives us new pear cognacs.

LB: Thank you. This is going to be fun.

Forces a toasting of glasses.

LB: Sooo, back to AJ. The second time was more input. He was more of a producer this time and had a lot of say in the production. He put Landon’s vocals to the brink and hitting notes that he can’t usually hit. Landon’s voice has developed so much over these last few years and on this record it really shows. The only thing I can credit that to is AJ because Landon would do a take and AJ would be like, nope do it again. Nope, do it again. Vocals lasted about three days and I couldn’t imagine what it was like to do that. But he had a lot of ideas and even when we were kind of fried, because we’re not a big post-production type band, we don’t add a lot like a band like The Faint out there where it is all about the nuances or even Cursive. It is all about what happens between songs and what you can only hear in headphones, we’d like to be like that someday, but it’s so much money and we like things simplistic and I think AJ definitely added to that. I can only imagine what is going to happen the next time we record. I’m very nervous, but very excited because he is comfortable with us and we know more about him now. We know his humor and he is a nerd, just like us. He likes video games. He likes weird movies. He is just a great engineer. Who knows? It can only get better as we get more comfortable.

PW: We kind of touched on this, but it sounds like you have a lot more duties in the band than just playing guitar.

Interruption again as R1 sings to the theme of “A Whole New World”:

R1: A whole new cognac…

PW: What exactly do you do for the band like booking and what not?
LB: I share the booking duties with Sean from eleven 11 booking. I am also kind of the daddy/band manager if you will. Landon always says it is because I went to college I fit this role very well. Then I always remember going to school and hearing junior professors say you’re going to need these skills one day and I was like, no, no. I was a PR and advertising major and I never thought I’d be able to use those skills in the band that I play in and it was never my intention, but I do now and I think it gives me a little more confidence in certain situations than those guys and more comfortable whether it be an interview or working with a promoter or working with a booking agent, they just let me take care of it and I just kind of developed that role. Now it feels like I’m kind of growing in it. I feel more comfortable dealing with it, but a part of me just wants to be a musician and just play music. You miss out on a lot of the creating or relaxing when you’re constantly on your laptop or making sure a press release went out or somebody sees the record or telling people to be at certain places at all times or making sure balloons are getting blown up and somebody is taking care of food. This time we have a tour manager now and they’re helping a lot and making sure we’re at the clubs on time and making sure we’re on track or just responsible. The first couple tours were by the seats of your pants. The first few tours I didn’t touch a lot of that stuff and was just kind of there learning the experience and now it is more of a responsibility.
R1: Yeah. You are a responsibility. Greg Edds. Poster child of responsibility.
LB: Turkey.
R1: Coo.
PW: Now you interned at Saddle Creek, too. Did that help you with these responsibilities?
LB: Oh yeah. That was an experience learning about what goes into putting out a record. Especially because at that time they were like a “major” label, but a small independent major label. Like seeing everyone’s role. I worked a lot with Matt Maginn from Cursive. He did a lot of setting up for other artists and Cursive as well like setting up shows, promoting, making sure people had merch and had everything taken care of. I got to see what Nansel and Jason did. He is a label mananger so he had a lot of control and I got to see what he did. Then I got to see the labor side. I did a lot of record shipping out and all that stuff. It was a cool experience. Not necessarily eye opening, but I learned so much in such a short time. I don’t know for sure if it is run the same way as then because that was when it was in a small little place and it seemed like a basement type thing. Now they’re in a bigger building. I’m sure they have like 15 interns and I can only imagine what it is like now. But it helped a lot.
PW: I think they still keep it to just a few interns at a time.
LB: Yeah. And now more interns stayed put. Like my friend CJ, he did the same thing and is now an employee. It is crazy that you try something for one experience and then it turns into your career. That was one of those things. I never thought I would utilize the things I learned there. In the beginning I was just fulfilling a need for college and interning and I did not want to get stuck somewhere that I wasn’t going to have fun, but those guys listen to records all day and it was really lenient when who knows what I could have been doing as an internship. I didn’t really think past it. I just submitted one day and my friend, Jeff Taffola, was like hey I know you. Just come in. Work for a couple months. You’ll have fun, you’ll learn a lot and you’ll get some records at the end and it will be worth it. 5 years later, I’m like, wow I did learn a lot. It is crazy. I really did learn a lot and they can see how my role has become that of businessman from what they’ve taught me.

PW: I love Saddle Creek and it seems like Omaha has become synonymous with Saddle Creek, but as a band not on Saddle Creek, do you ever find it hard to break away and stand out in the Omaha scene or even break away from Little Brazil’s past ties to the Good Life?
LB: Yeah, that is something, those ties to those other bands that Landon has is something that in the very beginning we didn’t necessarily use, but it was so recent that you have to. It is a resume. We had all been in other bands, but none as famous or infamous as those, and part of it, it does, we have seen it kind of grow in popularity in name in certain in areas. Like in California and on the West Coast, you just drop the name Saddle Creek at a show and all or a sudden we have 60, 70 people. But in certain places, it is hard. People still ask us, how’s tim doing, how’s conor doing, when is the new desa record coming out, but we’ve started to create our own name outside of them and we enjoy all those artists and we’re all friends, we all support each other still as a whole. People are noticing more now though that we’ve kind of succeeded now, on our own. Not necessarily with the help of them, but we’ve made our own path and our own mistakes. A kid in Jackson, Texas, is one. He actually designed some merch for us; he is an aspiring artist and musician. He was like so, what kind of advice can you give me? I want to play music for the rest of my life, I want to be an artist for the rest of my life. We said, make every mistake possible because that’s the only way you’re going to learn in the end.

R1: HAHAHA.
LB: I like how I end a sentence and you’re just waiting.

PW: So the new album, Son, is a narrative. There’s a lot kind of tougher subjects on there. How did you guys come about the narrative about the “son” and how connected are the subjects?
LB: When we started, a couple songs into, I started to notice a theme. I don’t think he knew he had a theme. He had a close family member go through some hard health issues, and that was being reflected in the song writing, but from there we developed a certain story.

Interruption again as random dude one steals the recorder of spraying spit.

LB: You’re just trashing the place dude.
R1: And conduct interview in 3, 2, 1. Pear cognac is quite tasty and smells like sniff.

LB: It was like four or five songs in when I asked. We were just sitting in our practice room just talking and I think we wanted to name the record from the very beginning and I had noticed these themes of family whether it be dysfunctional or functional, who is to say what family is fucked up? I said, Landon, it seems like, well he was diving so deep into the song writing process that he started to write from different perspectives in a family that had started at the very beginning to the very end of that relationship that bloomed into a marriage with children and separation and divorce and eventually it touches on suicide and then kind of a hypothetical ending from certain perspectives, and I said, can we call this Son because it literally sounds like in the beginning it could be him growing up through a certain relationship, yet it kind of reflected all of our personal lives. We all grew up in certain situations. I’m not going to say any are bad, but we all had different upbringings and it is reflected in each of those songs. When it was mostly ¾ of the way done, we realized the stories were tied together. We would write songs in different orders, but the first song, which was called “Brighton Beach” was about the intro to a relationship and you put in a certain setting, a fictional setting, but there are still a lot of personal issues in there and then all of a sudden we jump to the end to a song called “Separated” where you fast forward to an I have somewhat of an ex-wife, but I want her back. She has my kids. What do I do here? What’s the next step? And in the end, it all worked out like beginning to end. It still has a positive in it because I think that people can always relate to things that happen in your family from any perspective from a child’s perspective, a mother’s perspective, a father’s. If you’re going through something with health. Especially in the recession, there is a little bit about money tied in there. Like who can really afford to do this shit? And when we backed away, I was like, Oh my God. We actually have a concept record. I mean we’re not trying to be Pink Floyd. I know that certain bands have the rock opera thing. We didn’t set out to do it and we realized it was taking place in the middle and in the end we were just like oh my god it worked out. It worked out the way we planned, I guess. So it is a good story from beginning to end. We all enjoy it and anytime we hear it we try to place ourselves in certain parts of it and I think it is reflected.

PW: How does “Perfection” fit into that? I think I saw on Daytrotter that it was about Ladyfinger (NE).
LB: Yeah. Actually, when we were talking about a lot of the subject matter, when we were talking about Ladyfinger, that was more of a sound. A lot of the songs have a different tone musically. That was a song that when we started writing it, it felt kind of metalish. Me and Landon were doing some sort of abnormal guitar work that we’re not used to doing. Before when we set out to write a song, we just wrote it and played and practiced with eachother. But these were pop songs or certain tone songs. You can kind of hear the influences in those songs, minus the words. That was one when we were writing it, we were actually out with Ladyfinger. That was a band that you can actually, when you hear the voice you either think something from like Iron Maiden to who knows what. They were more reflected in the tone of the song. We’ll say that to this day. This is our Ladyfinger song. The lyrics are completely different, but soundwise we are just trying to be Ladyfinger.
PW: At Daytrotter, you said it was an “ode to Ladyfinger.”
LB: Yeah, it was like we were just trying to be them. Every now and then in a practice room we’ll be like ok let’s right our Cursive tune or our Nada Surf tune or Built to Spill. We’ll write a song and people will come up and be like, hey you sound like Metallica. And we’ll be like what really? Ok. Whatever. And actually sometimes we’ll set out when Landon’s writing certain songs, he might say that he is going for Sunny Day Real Estate or Superchunk. When he tells us that then we’re like Ok and all of a sudden we’re more focused on the sound than the lyrics because that is his forte and we try to help him out as much as we can without being offensive or letting him do his thing. He always asks our opinion, what do you think of this, and we’ll say ok, sounds great. He did really well lyrically. He keeps it pretty simplistic so people can relate to it, but he still puts a little bit of masque to it. You don’t want people to be like, who is this person? Is this you? Technically it is not. It could be anybody. It could be the person listening to the record, that’s the idea.

PW: For “Gold” on the Daytrotter description, it also said that that song, Landon wrote that about how he comes off as a prick at times, what is his personality really?
LB: That’s where the story meets the person. He is trying to be, he is still trying to continue with the story after there is a death and he is still trying to continue with this perspective of who he is in death and a lot of personal situations come out there. It is kind of like when you walk away from a situation and you realize where you’ve gone wrong and you accept it. You realize everything is not gold. It is kind of like a sad self-realization in a certain way. But we all think that. We know we’re not perfect guys. We’re not trying to be perfect guys. We’re just trying to do what we do and I think that is the thing he is trying to get down. He knows he is not perfect. He knows that people know he is not perfect and that is the best that he can do.

PW: Is there a song on the album that particularly resonates with you?
LB: That’s a good question. I’m thinking. I’d actually say “Golden” for me. It resonates so much. In the end, we are who we are and there are certain things that sadly we can’t change about ourselves, but you come to terms with that. I guess that could be about my personal life at the moment or even in the past, I’ve had that feeling before. I hear it and it makes me feel comfortable. Playing it live makes me feel comfortable. So I would say that would be the one. I couldn’t even say what comes in a close second because they’re all so fun to play and we all put ourselves in the situations. Oliver has a little daughter, so when the situations start dealing with a child’s perspective or the parent’s perspective, he can relate to it. I can only imagine what that is like, but for him, that is probably where it feels cathartic. Definitely “Golden” for me. That was actually the last song we sound checked and I thought man, we haven’t played this one in awhile. I miss it. So livewise, for me personally, it is like Explosions in the Sky meets Ryan Adams. It is a heartfelt song with self-realization and an instrumental explosion. That actually has more feeling than the lyrics. That’s why I like playing it, that’s why I like hearing it, so it has a close relation to it. That’s mine. I had never really thought about it.

PW: I like your description of it as an Explosions in the Sky meets Ryan Adams.
LB: Well, yeah. It is one of those things where you are talking one day and he started writing guitar and I wrote something with it and we have a mutual admiration from that band. So when it happened, we were like, this works.
PW: Did you catch Explosions at SXSW?
LB: I did not. We played a show and were only there for 24 hours. We had a show. After the last record, I lost a little track of them. Doing the whole business thing, I lose track over what is coming out and staying on top of new bands or the front page of Myspace to see the bands there or reading magazines. There are so many and there are bands that are here one day and gone the next. So for Little Brazil to have been here since 2002 and turn into a little rock band, we feel like we already have been around so long. Then you have bands like Cursive who have been around for like 14 years and that’s amazing to me. So it feels like if I haven’t from a band in two years, it is like, oops what happened? Where did they go? Then they probably have like 14 different side projects and who knows what.

PW: I know you said it is hard to keep track, but you are well-engrained in the Omaha scene. Are there any up and coming Omaha bands that people should be looking out for?
LB: The band we’re playing with tonight, Noah’s Ark Was a Spaceship is one of my favorite bands at the moment. Then of course Flowers Forever. We all have our personal favorites and usually when we book a show and put a bill together, we take a lot of that into influence and say what band do we want to introduce to our crowd. First of all, we want to hear them because we’re going to play anyways, but we want to hear our favorites. Like Eagle Seagull has been around the same time as us and they’ve been something unique. They have a great sound and are compared to the Arcade Fire, though I don’t really see similarities. Well, I see it, but.
PW: I think it is the strings and the number of members.
LB: Yeah. I don’t like saying it.

PW: Do you find yourself paying more attention to the KC scene because of your label?
LB: Yeah, well, Oliver, has been with some bands in the past that have had KC members like Shiner and all these older mid 90s bands. We were actually talking about this a couple of nights ago and we were trying to retrace family trees of bands and what bands they’ve been in just like you would do here. But the KC scene, even more so than Omaha, does it like I was saying with Get Up Kids and Roman Numerals and then they have even more side projects all the way back. I mean these guys are in their late 30s and have been playing music since they were 13 or 14 years old in bands that were prominent. So right now, I’m just trying to get up to speed in my Kansas City music scene education. Because for me, the only thing when I thought about Kansas was Get Up Kids in Lawrence. And even now I think more of Lawrence bands like 4th of July because I’m always down there. But now, KC is just blowing my mind and I’m just trying to catch up. There are like 30 bands where it seems like every dude is in them and the drummer is playing in like 30 more. So Oliver is my teacher in that perspective and I’m still learning.

PW: You guys should get up a big chart in the practice space or something.
LB: We do have a chartboard. We made a resolution to actually start with bands and see where it goes. Because you do have 8 hours in a van and you get bored. You want to waste time and you’ll do anything possible. You at least want to make it interesting and that is an interesting thing to do to be like ok who is this guy and what band did he play with and what other band did he play with or influence or who is he with tonight and just add to this. Next thing you know, you’re at your destination because you just spent the last six hours trying to figure out everything about that city.
PW: Beats that 7 or 6 degrees from Kevin Bacon game, for sure.
LB: We tried to do that. We tried. We do a lot of the movie games and name that actor related to different movies and different things. Anything to pass an eight hour drive. Three to four hours, we’re all like who is driving and blah blah and we’ll sleep because it is a short drive, but those 8 to 14 hours and this last jaunt, we’d talk about so much random stuff. We’d be driving along the border and next thing you know we’d be worried about cartels coming to take us in the middle of the night. We start scaring ourselves and border patrol is asking all these crazy questions.

Random dude 1 stumbles back over.
LB: You’re not going to make it tonight, are you?
R1: I will.
LB: Alright. I’m going to hold you to that.
R1: We’re going to go to dinner if you guys want to come.
LB: I’m good. I got some celery that I’m going to munch.
R1: It is on me.
PW: I have to pick up a friend for the show, actually.
R1: Does your friend not eat?
PW: Haha. When are you going?
R1: Once my friends get here we’ll go. You could pick your friend up. We’ll stay awhile. Dinner on me. I’ll include your friend.
PW: Haha. I’ll see.
R2: Crazy voice. Greg Edds likes to eat dinner.
LB: This is true.

PW: Ok. Well, I guess for a final question, what is next for you guys? The album just came out, so more touring, will there be music videos?
LB: we’re actually working on a concept with Bill Sitzmann who is a very good local photographer, well local, but he is known nationally. He wants to do his first video and is working with a certain type of camera and things like that. He has been coming up with different themes and concepts. We’re going to try and do this in April. So we have some sporadic dates then and we’ll try and do this video with hopefully more touring in May and June. East Coast next because we just went West and we want to do this before it fts too hot and humid. Kids will be out of school and then who knows where they’ll be at. We’re entertaining a couple different packages of bands we’d like to go with. Bands we’d like to take on and get them out to the region like Noah’s Ark and It’s True. Bands that we like and want our fans in cities to see them because that’s how Cursive did to us. Our influence isn’t as great as theirs, but we want people to see the bands that we like. We have wanted that since the first tour we left for. We want to be out there with people that musically we are friends with and take Omaha on the road. Of course we do Ladyfinger and Cursive and that’s two of our favorite bands. At the end of the night, everybody is like, we’re moving to Omaha and we’re like wait a minute. It is not that cool. There are certain things that are nice, but still.

Random dude stumbles over without shoes.
R1: Greatest interview I ever did was with Greg Edds.
LB: This one might take the cake.
PW: That’s all I have unless there is anything else you’d want to say or add.
LB: You going to dinner with him? Keep the recorder on at dinner. Oh God. I’m curious to see what happens.
PW: How do you know each other?
LB: He’s the owner of Ted and Wally’s (local ice cream shop that is quite popular) and Landon used to work with him. I’ve known him since high school. And he’s always been like this, but super nice. As a guy, you’d get beat up, as a girl, you’d get a lot of stuff bought for you. He always takes care of people, but we always get beat up all the time. I usually keep space. Haha. Have you heard Life and Times?
PW: Yeah. They’re from KC, and I’m from there originally.
LB: We’re actually going to play their CD release next week. When we called them up to do ours, they were like, yep we’ll do it. You guys want to do our CD release party? That’s like, we think they’re greatest. I feel bad. They’re playing second and I’d like them to play third, but Eagle Seagull was already in the spot and I don’t want to create drama and move things around. It is going to be a party and people will be there. It is going to be interesting. I love that band. For a three piece, they are so good. I saw them at SXSW and they killed it at this really random club on the second level.
PW: Waves?
LB: Yeah. I was in the back. I didn’t go into the crowd. I wish they would have been at a bigger venue. People will say that about us, but we love where we’ve been because they make great bloody marys and we always want to come back. Most places we play are always east of 35 and over in the neighborhoods where a lot of the Fuck SXSW parties go down because it is always free food and free beer and fun times.
PW: This was my first time there, so it was definitely an experience.
LB: How long were you there?
PW: The whole time for music. Got there Tuesday, left Sunday.
LB: So that turned out good.
PW: Yeah.
LB: It is a hangover.
PW: I was pretty responsible. I had a lot of work to do.
LB: Yeah. This was like the 4th time we were down there and had only been there for 24 hours and had a blast. I saw a lot of the Omaha bands and would catch wind of whatever, but that’s all I wanted to do. Support others like see Brimstone Howl from Lincoln and Dareen Keen. I missed his show, but I hung out with him. Went to the Life and Times, hung out with Cursive in the park at a free show.
PW: Yeah, I was excited to see O plus S.
LB: Yeah, I was wondering about that. Their record came out the same day that ours did. We got an email from the music editor from Alternative Press and he is in love with our record and that was a privilege to hear. He put out a blog and was like, of all things you should buy today, Little Brazil and blah blah. So that was the same day as O plus S and the Decemberists and we were like, wow. Really? That’s awesome.
PW: Yeah. Well it is a good album.
LB: When I sit back and look at it, I’m just like wow. We didn’t try. We worked hard. It has such a weird relationship to the others. What did we do with this one that we didn’t do with the others? We didn’t care as much? We just let the music speak for itself. We were simplistic and it turned out really well. Shoot. I better get going back and making sure the balloons and all that shit’s coming through. See you there.

P.S. I did go to dinner and it was quite the experience, but alas, I forgot to turn on the recorder for that.

Little Brazil: website | myspace | @ the waiting room