This week and last, we encapsulated 2014 as best we could by asking nearly two dozen Nebraska musicians, journalists and scene figures about their favorite albums, songs, shows and events of the year. Catch up on those categories here, and now they turn their eyes toward the future.
In this second-to-last installment of “The Scene List,” we asked these contributors for one wish for Nebraska music in 2015.
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Rebecca Lowry | All Young Girls Are Machine Guns
Personally and selfishly and fantastically, I wanna sing all over a Conny Franko track. I wish there were like, a million paid gigs for my band to do. I wish Neko Case, St. Vincent, Tegan and Sara, Sleater-Kinney, Solange, Lucius, First Aid Kit and Lizzo would play MAHA 2015 — and Broad City would take over Tent Griffey Jr. — because WOULDN’T THAT BE THE MOST INCREDIBLE THING EVAR?! (Yes. Yes, it would.) But realistically, and a little more universally, I simply wish someone would set up shop and make a community-run label (for and by the community). That is my real wish for NE music in 2015.
Marq Manner | OEAAs Music Chair, Omaha Dispatch
That Omaha hip-hop continues to get it together. I think we saw a huge improvement in the Omaha hip-hop scene this year and acts coming out and promoting and performing and coming together. In the past, it seemed like a lot of social media rants about how great they are, and now we are seeing that live and in person. I hope that continues as that is a huge part of the future of music in our state.
Ben Brodin | Recording Engineer/Producer at ARC Studios
I don’t discriminate, so my wishes for Nebraska music are the same for all music; I’d like those tasked with marketing and promoting music to stop catering to those who won’t pay for it […] I’d like peripheral staff in the music industry (and by that I mean anyone not actually making music) to work harder at changing the culture of music consumption rather than participating in it. They are failing the music they’ve been asked to (and paid to) support.
Spencer Munson | DJ Spencelove, Marketing/Booking at The Bourbon
More street parties in the streets of Lincoln. The Skrillex show was so fun and went so smoothly.
Hanna Guenther | Hear Nebraska Summer 2014 Intern
More Nebraska musicians get put on the national map. There is a lot of talent in this state that needs to be heard.
Laura Fortney | Host of KZUM’s “Every Kind of Blue”
My Greatest Wish for Nebraska music – local and touring – is simply for more people to attend LIVE music! With the ups and downs of the economy, the opening of the Railyard, and summer shows at Pinewood Bowl, it seems like the population who attends live shows regularly (at least in Lincoln) is getting stretched thinner and thinner. We need new blood! We need more people to discover the wonderful joys of live music! Everything’s better LIVE…
Ryan McKeever | Telepathy Problems, Staffers, Skeleton Man
MORE SHOWS BY SUPERSTAR AND STAR.
Michael Todd | Former Hear Nebraska managing editor
Have you played this week’s HN Radio playlist yet? That curated collection of great Nebraska songs at the top of the page has so far delivered about six months of interesting music. Our Managing Editor Chance Solem-Pfeifer deserves praise for putting that together each week. The next step is a technical one, allowing the player to be embedded on other sites. I hope to one day see it atop my hometown’s newspaper site; it’s an achievable wish that would enlighten the city of Alliance’s musicians and maybe even inspire a few kids to start a band.
Günter Voelker | Jack Hotel, Sower Records
2014 was peachy. I just want more. Is that greedy? More bands, more solo artists, more labels, more showgoers, more blogs (blogs?), and more blurry Instagram concert photos. More buskers. There’s a dire lack of good buskers downtown. I have an idea for a new kind of house venue that I want to start this year. More insane big-stage festivals and more backyard bonfire hootenannies. More of Kenny Kinlund throwing a half-full tallboy from the stage and hitting Max Morrissey’s mom in the head. More of Max taking off his shirt and singing “Down in the Valley to Pray” while keeping time by slapping his own sweaty chest. I could deal with significantly less Bird Dog whiskey. I want to discover more artists — it’s embarrassing to me that I just learned of Rachel Tomlinson Dick’s Miniature Horse, and that I never saw Dear Herman before they broke up this year. More high-quality videos. More records, more tapes, more CDs, more jump drives. More mix CDs. (Make me a mix CD!) More women onstage. Ember Schrag used to tell me a few years ago that there weren’t enough women in the music scene here, and I didn’t quite believe her. I thought, “I can think of a bunch of women I know who play music!” But I was just an idiot, and she was much more involved than I was. The situation was worse then, even, than it is now, and now that I’m playing and going to shows all the time, I can see that she was obviously completely right. So more women. Above all, in 2015, I want more opportunities to wax rhapsodic in list form.
Anna Gronewold | Hear Nebraska contributor
I want a small storefront to sell functional and reasonably priced walkman cassette players so we can all jaunt around Lincoln listening to Timid Wind and Snake Hymns.
Tom Flaherty | Teetah, Routine Escorts, //FITNESS founder
Get weirder!
Chris Dinan | Hear Nebraska contributor
I want to see Nebraska music keep taking chances. I feel like 2014 has been a really great year for bands that are taking risks with their sound and getting a little weird with it. I think local music is more diverse than it has been in a long time, and I am really excited to see where it goes from here.
Molly Misek | Hear Nebraska Spring 2014 intern
I really just want Digital Leather to start playing “Modern Castles” at their live shows. I have simple tastes.
Andrew Stellmon | Hear Nebraska Fall 2014 intern
In 2015, I want to see more big breaks. It could be anything from record deals to self-booked national or regional tours to announcing your own presence as a new band or musician. But I’m looking for fireworks, grandiose statements of purpose. Essentially, I want a band or two to pull up to the doorstep, drop kick it open, and excavate their own foundation within the scene.
James Fleege | BZZZ, Oketo, Silver Street producer
I’m gonna be starting a basketball league for local bands this spring. 3 v 3. More details to come. My one wish is to lead the league in assists by throwing alley oops to Brandon Elwell. Also, more shows in the back lot at Duffy’s.
Derek Pressnall | Eyeball Promotions, Icky Blossoms
More new bands.