The Bemis Underground and Trocadero hosted The Munny Show at the Bemis on Saturday. A bunch of really great local artists (Scott Blake, Wanda Ewing, Renee Hoover, Leslie Iwai, Jeff King, Laurie and Charles, Joey Lynch, Miss Cake, Peter Morris, Dave Nelson, Zack Nipper, and Nolan Tredway) were given a Munny to design/decorate/re-create.

I like these kind of concept art shows, it’s cool to see how different each artist’s work was when given the same canvas/parameters. There were a lot of really cool ones (so much so that I reached my photo limit on this blog post without making an album). They were silently auctioned off with proceeds going to the Nebraska AIDS Project.

Dave Nelson’s Munny.

Zack Nipper’s Munny.

Peter Morris’ Munny.

Friday night Thunder Power!!!, Flowers Forever and Baby Walrus played at the Bemis. What an awesome line-up. For those of you who read this who aren’t in Omaha (which is probably most of you), please check these bands out. They all make really great and different music. You can buy the Flowers Forever album at Team Love, and the Baby Walrus one here , and you can listen to Thunder Power here. The show was to celebrate the releases of the Baby Walrus and Flowers Forever albums and also a fundraiser for Kianna from Tilly and the Wall’s bulldog Foot Foot who needs ear surgery. The Bemis is a great place for shows — it’s a basement art gallery and the shows are usually in this small room off the gallery. So it’s basically a warm, sweaty, sometimes smelly place with no stage and very little light.

Thunder Power!!! played a great set and sounded really good. Flowers Forever played their album in order. Derek was his usual energetic self, and the crowd was really into it — a lot of dancing. Baby Walrus closed with another amazing set. I’m always really impressed with how good they sound live, especially since their songs have unusual arrangements and layers and stuff.

Flowers Forever.

Baby Walrus.

The Bemis. Photo taken at an earlier, less snowy date.

Saturday was a cold, snowy day but Jamie, Erin, Sean and I made it out to the Bemis (Jamie and I made the trip twice, in fact). The following photos were taken from an exhibit/show titled “Visual Art by Musicians.” Let me know if that isn’t descriptive enough. If you want to see a list of all the artists featured, just click on the Bemis link above.

Some artwork. Left by Derek Presnall (Tilly and the Wall), right by Kianna Alarid (Tilly and the Wall).

Photos by Nick Zinner (Yeah Yeah Yeahs).

Artwork by Jacob Thiele (The Faint).

Jamie admiring the antics of Derek Presnall, captured on video.

Flowers Forever. They are a great live band, Derek has a lot of energy and fashionable accessories, a killer combination. Their upcoming CD is coming out on Team Love February 5 (out in stores Feb. 19, pre-order available now).

You can download three songs at Team Love.

Fourth of July. From Lawrence, Kansas. She’s In Love is a super catchy song, and they closed with it.

I have been very busy as of lately, so I haven’t had a lot of time to post. I did go to a great show this past Saturday night though and I feel the need to promote some music that you may not have heard. The show was held at the Bemis Underground, the basement of the contemporary arts museum the Bemis Center. The Bemis also has a great artist in residency program here in Omaha. You live and work there and they provide one of their brick lofts, large gallery workspace and some materials. They support artists from all different mediums including music. Some of the past residents include Tilly & the Wall, Orenda Fink, and Gillian Welch. David Matysiak from Coyote Bones is currently there.

Anyway, the show included music from Alessi, Thunder Power!!! and Baby Walrus — all really great musical acts. If you haven’t heard any of these musicians/bands, you should check them out when you get a chance. Alessi is from England, but was here in Omaha for a spell recording, and Thunder Power!!! and Baby Walrus are Omaha-based.

And here is a link to CoCo Art, where you can download some songs from some other Omaha bands that are making some interesting music.

There is a lot of great music coming out of Omaha right now.

Other than listening to music, I have been busy with teaching, writing and shooting. More details to come in the near future.

And, in other news, it is winter here.