Note: This is the first in a two-part series exploring music of and relating to Nebraska and rating it based on its portrayal of the state. Read part one. And check out the Nebraska-focused version here.

by John Wenz

1991 – Chickasaw Mudd Puppies "Omaha (Sharpless)" off 8 Track Stomp

A sort of footnote in the pre-alternative boom of the '90s, these bizarro Michael Stipe protégés released one album that's best described as "early Meat Puppets play in a swamp on way scuzzier drugs." 

Degrees of Omaha: 2/5

You try to decipher any lyric that isn't "I know what we're doing back in Omaha." I think there's something about fishing in there. And fried chicken. Do they have the right Omaha? I guess they say Omaha a lot.

Portrayal of Omaha: 1/5

I think Athenians have mistaken Omaha for Lumpkin County. 

Overall Quality of Song: 3/5

The Chickasaw Mudd Puppies straddle that venn diagram between weird for weird sake, weird for novelty sake and making art. The album is a flash in the pan bit of southern fried put-upons, and this is far from the best song on the album.

Omaha Index: 6/15

1993 – Counting Crows "Omaha" off August and Everything After

It's '90s alterna-pop, with a friendly, emotional feel that was popular for a longer spell than any of us care to remember. Better than Live and Collective Soul? 

Degrees of Omaha: 2/5

The Omaha they describe is not the Omaha we know. They seem to be searching for real salt-of-the-earth folk, simple country folk living lives of quiet desperation. This is another case of "drunk people excited because this song is where we are!"

Portrayal of Omaha: 2/5

Whatever, I guess it says we're nice and it's the heart of America, but does Adam Duritz know that Nebraskans have electricity?

Overall Quality of Song: 3/5

Some people love these guys. I'm indifferent. Wasn't this song on Friends?

Omaha Index: 7/15

2000 – Mountain Goats "Shower"

Originally a cassette-only front for lead singer John Darnielle, the Mountain Goats have become one of indie rock's most heartfelt and respected bands, and one with a surprising amount of metal references.

Degrees of Omaha: 3/5

A man becomes trapped in West Des Moines from a storm coming out of Omaha. Not just any storm. "The blackest storm I ever saw," which just so happens to be "coming in from Omaha." He does what anyone would do in a terrible thunderstorm: gets in the shower and cries about a relationship breakdown.

Portrayal of Omaha: 1/5

There's not much portrayal, and what it is makes it seem like his misery is Omaha's fault. Despite my love of the Mountain Goats, I can't, in good conscience, say this bodes well for the fair city.

Overall Quality of Song: 4/5

Though ultimately left off of 2000's Coroner's Gambit due to Darnielle's dissatisfaction, it's a pretty remarkable burst of frustration and anger that deserves a proper home somewhere. But that describes a lot of the catalog.

Omaha Index: 8/15

2003 – Damien Jurado "Omaha" off Where Shall You Take Me?

Americana-infused songwriter with a few ghosts following around his music, Jurado has been releasing solo albums since the late '90s, creating a melancholic body of work.

Degree of Omaha: 2/5

Less about Omaha and more about Nebraska, a family leaves their Omaha home and sets off on the road. 

Portrayal of Omaha: 3/5

Despite the melancholic sounds of the song, it doesn't seem entirely down on Nebraska, a beautiful place at night as they head out on their journey to parts unknown. So I guess a step above value neutral.

Overall Quality of Song: 4/5

A slow, haunting tale that really sticks with you on each listen. It's the sort of song buried deep in a mix that never really leaves your mind, an effectively haunting slab of folksy Americana with a dash of the sad. 

Omaha Index: 9/15

2005 – Bowling for Soup "(Ready or Not) Omaha, Nebraska" off Bowling for Soup Goes to the Movies

They were that band that sang the song about 1985. I think it was called "1985." They're the kind of pop-punk that makes the junior varsity of Tony Hawk soundtracks.  

Degrees of Omaha: 3/5

As about Omaha as they were contractually obligated to be by ESPN. More about baseball than Omaha specifically, but the College World Series is pretty intimately tied to Omaha, especially after the stadium fiasco. 

Portrayal of Omaha: 5/5

I have to give them credit: This is something they've dreamed of all their lives. They've been ready to be here, at TD Ameritrade park, since before there was a TD Ameritrade Park overlooking the Saddle Creek party block. 

Overall Quality of Song: 2/5

This is a shameless studio song, a commercial jingle more or less for the College World Series. As such, it's a product — the artistry involved is nil. However, that's not to say that it's a poor product — it serves its exact purpose, which is to discuss baseball and Omaha in the same song. But if tomorrow Omaha lost the NCAA contract, the song would become a mere footnote in a band that knows a thing or two about being a footnote. 

Omaha Index: 10/15, somehow

2005 – They Might Be Giants "Sokol Auditorium" off Venue Songs

In the most loving way possible, They Might Be Giants are a band designed for and by earnest nerds. An underground staple of quirk, the band has spent 20 years establishing a devoted cult following based on heartfelt songwriting and wry humor.

Degrees of Omaha: 4/5

You know where you are? Listen to the song again. You're at the Sokol Auditorium. It's across from the Kum and Go. Something something light show Omaha, NE. 

Portrayal of Omaha: 3/5

That passage above is pretty much the entirety of the just-over-one-minute song. They're definitely in Omaha! That is certainly a thing that is happening. Here, have some dance beats. I can't tell quite if they're having fun in Omaha or mocking it.

Overall Quality of Song: 2/5

The idea behind Venue Songs was a live album composed mostly of songs written on the fly about that venue. Sometimes things like this come across as an in-joke that someone is trying to explain to you but "You just had to be there." I guess I would have had to have been there. (Note: I think I actually was there but kind of drunk at the time.)

Omaha Index: 9/15

2007 – Band of Horses "The Great Salt Lake" off Everything All the Time

Long ago, in a dark age of magic and illiteracy, four horses were cursed with being frozen in time. Years later, the evil spell was broken, but finding no knights to properly serve, the super-intelligent steeds put on clever human disguises and formed an indie-rock band with an eye toward grandiosity. 

Degrees of Omaha: 2/5

The reference is passing. Blink and you'll miss it. A note says "Everybody listen you'll be the next Omaha." I'm assuming that's more or less a reference to Omaha being the new Seattle which was the new Athens which was the new Minneapolis which was the new New York which had likely been just New York for a really long time.

Portrayal of Omaha: 4/5

Though barely grazed on, our anthropomorphic friends seem to find Omaha as something to aspire to. 

Overall Quality of Song: 3.5/5

I've never paid much attention to Band of Horses. I'll be honest. Hell, I don't even know if they're actually horses. Seemingly, the band is better-than-average indie rock. Or maybe not. Are they still cool? It's hard to be critical when you're first encountering something you wouldn't really encounter on your own.

Omaha Index: 9.5/15

2010 – Justin Bieber "Omaha Mall"

Canada's most dangerous export since Strange Brew.

Degrees of Omaha: 5/5

Justin Bieber wants you to know this. That little dude has been to L.A. and like, some other places, and their malls are whatever. But Omaha? Omaha, your mall (unspecified) is the real shit. This is the mall dreams are made of. 

Portrayal of Omaha: 5/5

You didn't hear? He could eat his dinner in a fancy restaurant, but nothing compares 2 … the Omaha Mall. (Mall.) Omaha Mall. We're like, the epicenter of late-capitalism cool, the ultimate temple to the gods of consumer culture.

Overall Quality of Song: 4/5

Justin Bieber is incredibly easy to pick on. This might be because he vaguely resembles an elf. But the kid managed to make himself wildly successful in ways that others like Rebecca Black have tried to imitate poorly — he was an actual Internet sensation, rising from obscurity or Calgary or wherever to become the latest in a line of teen idols. Usually these guys come out of factories of pop but Biebs got here on his own and is now more or less unavoidable. Assimilate.

So anyway, pop music is in itself a commercial product. More so than anything it's a line of transactions, and one thing leads to another. The weird thing is what the internet does to us — it distorts our sense of talent and fame and consumerism, and we can boil things down to the idea of products. Justin Bieber is cleverly manipulating this. He's shoring up a fan base in the midwest, continuing on our consumer culture by endorsing an unnamed Omaha mall (which one? Better shop at them all!) and doing it in a metanarrative that reflects on our own need to spend. Are we looking for sick shoes, or are we looking for fulfillment that comes through our own disaffection? Once shoes are acquired, Bieber goes all poonhound on us and says he's on the hunt for girls. Or is that what he's saying? Could he be talking about our detatchment from ourselves leads us to see love and affection as another transaction, another consequence of capitalist culture? Perhaps Justin Bieber is the world's most secret anarcho-primitivist, subverting normal media channels to force us to realize what we've become as a culture as we head to crisis after crisis.

Or whatever, maybe he just wrote a song that fulfills the necessary requirements of teenage bubblegum music, and the lyrics are no dumber than "Sugar, Sugar" or "I Want Candy" or "Mad Locust Rising" by Agent Steel. Erm, scratch that last one. 

Omaha Index: 14/15