After spending the bulk of 2014 on the road, Kris Lager Band gave its fans everywhere a nice gift earlier this week.

Heavy Soul & Boogie Trance went online on Christmas Eve, the band’s sixth official release. Buy and preview it here.

The new album still sees the band soloing and shaking through the many roots genres they’ve long loved, but with a very defined lo-fi effect this time. Think very much the soundstage from The Black Keys’ Brothers.

Moving forward, the new year sees Kris Lager Band immediately striking out on a month-long tour of Utah, Colorado and a few Southern states. Dates and towns here.

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If you still have an appetite for Christmas music, Omaha singer-songwriter Danny Sabra  released a short holiday EP on Bandcamp this week. Recorded at 402 Arts Collective, Sabra covers three standards with the help of cello and flute. Might be the perfect post-Christmas version of these songs, actually. They all sound distant and bottomed-out, a lo-fi execution from artists who sound like they could easily do it in pure, soaring pop. Listen below.

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Lastly, before we take a long afternoon nap to prepare for tonight’s Ritual Device/Cellophane Ceiling reunion, some nice praise for a Nebraska connection. Pittsburgh punk band The Gotobeds was charted in The Washington Post’s Chris Richards’ list of the Top 50 albums of 2014.

Turns out bassist Gavin Jensen is an Omaha native. Also turns out Poor People Are Revolting is a pretty excellent punk album — enough feedback to put you on edge but with some really palpable joy in the vocals and chord progressions. Here’s hoping they make their way here in the coming year(s).