I used to ask bands making a repeated stop through Omaha or Lincoln what they thought of the cities, their favorite places and their overall experience. I hoped to elicit charming stories of why Nebraska is such a great place to play. 

 

I don't anymore.

 

It took touring with a band last fall to realize that most bands only experience gas stations, the venue they're playing and — if they're lucky enough not to sleep in the van — a friendly person's house. They roll into the city when it's dark and stores are closed, and they wake up in time to hurry to their next town before load-in. It's a lot of work, including very little time for site-seeing. 

 

The same was true about the Love Drunk video tour I was on for the last 15 days — two of my favorite weeks — of my life. We saw plenty of the country roll by, but didn't have much of a chance to explore.

 

Here's what the tour looked like by the numbers: 

 

• 15 bands 

• 15 days

• 12 cities 

• more than 3,200 miles

• more than 240 gallons of gas

• $3.80 was the cheapest gas, in Columbia, Mo.

• $4.40 was the most expensive, in New Paltz, N.Y. 

• more than 10,500 total views of the 10 videos we released while on the road (as of Monday morning).

 

But the best number to me is 5: videos remaining to post each day this week. You can watch the first one —  featuring singer-songwriter Brian Wheat playing a song about “leaving” in Buffalo, N.Y.'s abandoned central train station — below. On Tuesday, watch singer/DJ Quitzow and accompanying dancers perform in a New Paltz, N.Y., laundromat. On Wednesday, you'll see Detroit band Phantasmagoria pounding toms and enchanting bats in the middle of a Royal Oak, Mich., neighborhood's street. On Thursday, it's folk artist Matt Jones singing and finger-picking in his backyard, next to a retired, record-breaking hovercraft. The series ends on Friday with indie-rockers Holyoke knocking the dust off of hip, old clothes in a Chicago vintage store. 

 

The last couple weeks, I've used this column extensively to promote this tour — whose mission included promoting Nebraska music culture, but this will be the last you hear about it. At least, until next year. 

 

While we're looking ahead, we have some big news to announce. Hear Nebraska is excited to be a media sponsor for this year's MAHA Music Festival, Aug. 13 at Lewis & Clark Landing in downtown Omaha. The indie fest has already announced Guided By Voices, Cursive and Matisyahu as headliners; and, tonight, we're helping it announce three of the five bands to play on its local stage. Stay tuned to our Facebook page at 9 p.m. CST for that news, and for two more main-stage acts. 

 

Here's how the decision for the three local bands was made: Duffy's Tavern, Slowdown and The Waiting Room each offered five selection; HN's board helped MAHA's board select three bands (one from Lincoln; two from Omaha) to best represent the cities' local indie talent from the 15 options. To make our decision — a tough and subjective one, for sure — we considered all of the following qualifications: trajectory; entertainment factor; festival-setting suitability; style; sound-quality; and draw. 

 

So now what happens? Each of the three bands chosen will play — and book the rest of the lineup for— a pre-fest showcase at one of the aforementioned venues. Bands don't often get to pick their opening groups, so those shows should be interesting. The dates are: The Waiting Room, June 22; Duffy's Tavern, June 30; Slowdown, July 28.

 

That will take care of three of MAHA's five local bands. The other two will come from a MAHA board pick, and the popular-vote winner from the OEAA showcases in Benson on July 8-9. 

 

Have questions? Post them below.

 

Finally, in what's becoming sort-of a hodgepodge column this week, I'm excited to announce the first crop of HN's summer interns. These young, talented journalists will be getting a challenging mix of music writing, editing, photography, audio and video production, marketing, events coordinating and community outreach. They'll get tough editing, gain killer clips and help grow a young nonprofit. But they won't be getting any handholding. So I'll let them introduce themselves. (Next week, we say goodbye to HN's first intern, Jordan Minnick. More on that later.)

 

Michael Todd

I was supposed to be a body man. I grew up with the impression that hail was manna from heaven, and now that I’m graduated from UNL with a degree in journalism, sadly enough, the damage hail can cause still safeguards my well-being.

 

Truth is, though, my dad knew early on I’d break the line of business owners starting with my grandfather in Alliance, Neb. I was destined to dream big, ensconce myself in the arts and hopefully never stop writing, whether that’s articles in print in the Daily Nebraskan or songs played on the stage of open mics across town.

 

I’ve spent a number of fruitless nights these past few months writing cover letters for jobs I didn’t really want (but the pay would be nice) or prestigious internships I wouldn’t get (but hey, it’s always possible). Only when I was cleaning the oven at my old house this past weekend did I experience a moment of clarity, where my mom’s graduation-card advice — don’t settle, even if it means a paycheck — and my true passion of music led me to decide Hear Nebraska was perfect.

 

Now, let’s hope the oven-cleaner fumes didn’t have something to do with it, too.

 

Bryce Wergin

Born in Grand Junction, Colo., in 1987, Bryce moved to Nebraska in the early '90s and has been in Lincoln ever since. He is currently a student at UNL and plans to graduate in August with bachelor’s degrees in English and advertising. He was assistant editor and a staff writer for the DailyER Nebraskan from the paper’s founding in 2008 through his senior year in 2010. Bryce also worked internships with The MuseBox music marketing agency and Paper Garden Records in New York City during the summer of 2009, where he did online marketing, press outreach and follow-ups for artists like Peasant, Das Racist, Emanuel and the Fear, The Wooden Sky, Del Marquis (of Scissor Sisters fame) and Living Things, among others. An avid fan of multiple music genres, some of Bryce’s all-time favorite bands include The Smashing Pumpkins, Mos Def, TV on the Radio, The Cure and David Bowie to name a few. Bryce also enjoys partly-cloudy days and nachos.

 

Casey Welsch

Casey was born and raised in and around the small town of Fairbury, Neb. He had a highly conservative, religious upbringing on his father's farm, living the hard life of a farmer's son. But the farm life never really appealed to Casey. The backbreaking labor and thrifty living made him tough, but he was always more fond of more intellectual pursuits. He got involved with music at an early age, playing piano from fourth grade onward, eventually picking up trumpet and bass guitar as well. He began writing about music his senior year of high school when he edited the school paper. When he got to UNL, he began working for 90.3 KRNU and the Daily Nebraskan, writing ag stories. Finding this terribly unfulfilling, he moved to writing about music, and he hasn't looked back since.

 

Alex Wunrow

 

Andrew Norman edits and manages Hear Nebraska. He hopes you'll follow HN on Twitter and Tumblr, because you just can't get enough. Tell him what you think in the comments below or at andrewn@hearnebraska.org.