Over Thanksgiving weekend, Nebraska will bid farewell (at least for now) to one of the state’s most idiosyncratic and experimental musicians.
Known through the last decade as Bad Speler, The Show Is The Rainbow, Touch People and more, electronic artist Darren Keen leaves Saturday morning for Brooklyn. Once there, Keen says he hopes to pursue music as his full-time career.
In advance of the move, the longtime Lincoln-now-Omaha resident has organized dual going-away events. Tonight in Omaha, he’s at House of Loom for the club’s Daft Punk vs. LCD Soundsystem party. RSVP here.
photo by Molly Misek
“I’ll be representing the daft punk side, djing ‘against’ [Loom owner] Brent Crampton, who will be representing the LCD side,” Keen says via email. “I will also be doing my live Daft Punk tribute act that night. I rebuilt Daft Punk songs from the ground up. I play guitar, sing through vocoders, and have a live drummer.”
And then Friday, Keen is in Lincoln with M34N STR33T, Beaver and the Hottage Cutch and Dojorok for a farewell show at The Bourbon. RSVP here. Keen says this set will highlight the “all original progressive footwork” to which he’s devoted a lot of his sonic energies this past year.
As far as what the future holds, Keen has started a working relationship with the urban electronic label Seclusiasis.
“They are based out of Philly [and] Baltimore, so that’s another good thing about this move,” he says.
We wish Darren all the best in his move and future plans, and hope to see him back here on tour soon.
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Start your holiday shopping at the end of the weekend with Hear Nebraska’s Cyber Monday sale. By entering the code “CYBER2014” at checkout, you’ll get 25% off everything and our new koozie free with each order.
Buy stuff here!
We’ve recently added a bunch of new concert posters like this one from Simon Joyner and Kill County, or this one Cursive’s Chicago New Year’s Eve show in 2010, as well as posters from Ladyfinger, Desaparecidos and more.
We also just unveiled our new T-shirt design. We recommend one in every color.
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Lastly, this week in out-of-the-blue emails, we got a nice note from Logan Corbino, a musician from Yutan, Neb. If you don’t know it, Yutan is a 1,000-person town in Saunders County, about 45 minutes from Omaha.
The songs are basement-dwelling and rough. Logan was open in the email about hoping to one day record an album in a studio: Right now he’s doing it entirely on this phone. But the sound he’s shooting for is pretty seldom heard these days. “Life’s Free” — listen here — is an earnest bass-heavy take on ‘80s pop-rock. Always good to know people outside of Omaha and Lincoln are working on music.
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Here’s hoping everyone has a nice Thanksgiving tomorrow, and if you’re looking for shows this weekend, look at our events calendar here.
Off the cuff, Oketo is in Omaha tonight, Josh Hoyer is playing a Thanksgiving set at Zoo Bar, Har Mar Superstar is in Omaha Friday, and Saturday hosts a massive slate of shows to end the long weekend. If there’s any one you’re particularly excited about, leave it in the comments.