You can purchase "a situation presents itself" at:

a situation
a situation presents itself

"Maybe I’m not the best person to write a review of this CD," I thought to myself moments after telling Mr. Daly that I would be glad to review A Situation Presents Itself (a compilation of 5 Lincoln bands). My hesitation and reservations are based on the fact that I’ve only actually seen live performances of 2 out of the 5 bands featured on the CD. But, then again, maybe I’m the perfect person to write a review for that very reason and because I seem to be the only person around that wasn’t intricately involved in creating this sonic portrait of Lincoln’s ever-thriving music scene.

For those of you don’t know, A Situation Presents Itself is a project that began over a year ago, before Starcityscene.com even existed. The idea was simple and pure: Put out a quality comp CD featuring the best Lincoln has to offer. 5 bands were chosen to do 2 songs apiece: Ideal Cleaners, Junior Mighty, Suzy Dreamer & Her Nightmares, Crush the Clown, and Post-Trendies. While obviously discriminating against bands that start with "the," this disk surpasses the high expectations I had placed upon it whilst in anticipation of its release. It definitely rocks. I would say "fucking rocks" but I’m not sure that will be printed. Who am I kidding? It fucking rocks.

Over a year ago, the featured bands launched the project with a show and now, sometime in October, the "official" CD release show will bring the effort full-circle. The CD is available now at a variety of locations, including, I understand Malcom’s back pack, but check out a situation website for a listing of where you can go get one right away.

On to the review, I guess. I didn’t quite know how to approach reviewing a compilation. And it’s been 14 years since I last wrote an album review, so I’m a little rusty. Should I review it band by band? Song by Song? That seems too boring and too predictable. So what then? I decided on just basically describing my take, or feel of the album as a whole, with a couple of highlights from some of the bands, the ones that stand out the most to me. The benefit of a comp CD, however, is that since the bands are all very distinct from one another, it’s hard not to find something you like.

Judge this book by its cover. I love the cover art. It’s not some lame Lincoln-themed artwork like all the bands standing in front of the capitol or something. It has nothing to do with anything but has a very simple, modern style that makes you think, "this is going to be good, this is cool," and then you buy it and pop it in the car stereo and you’re blasted with Sweets to the Sweet by Ideal Cleaners. This song kicks off the CD so well that all of the rest of it could be the worst shit I’ve ever heard and I’d still have been pleased with obtaining it. The good news is that the rest of the CD is far from the worst shit I’ve ever heard.

The album, although a comp, flows so well. This project was well planned and well made. All the bands were recorded at the same studio and mastered by the same people, giving it a consistency and feel that each of these songs from five very distinct bands were meant to be on this record together. Surprising to me then is that none of the bands really heard any of the other band’s recordings until the record was complete.

Within this disk you’ll hear Lori Allison’s sassy, timeless voice against raw, melodic guitars and drums, the powerful brilliance of Crush the Clown and Ideal Cleaners, and of course the freaky-deeky guitar of Tery Daly coupled with Kristen Bailey’s head-trip lyrics. The biggest bonus for me was the post-trendies. Honestly, I’ve not heard much about them (again a reason why I doubt my wisdom in agreeing to write this) but was so impressed it makes me a little pissed at myself for never having seen them play. A big kick-myself-in-the-ass for that. Great stuff.

Interesting to me is that of the bands featured, two are not currently together and two (especially at the time of the first A Situation show) are really just getting started and picking up steam. In fact, the Suzy Dreamer recordings are evidence of the transition the band undertook moving from the Honey Hush to what Suzy Dreamer & Her Nightmares is now. Since the recording Jeff Gustafson and Amos Joseph have replaced Sean Moon and Erik Aspengren on the drums and bass, respectively. I think most would agree that the line-up change has steered the band towards a more rock and roll, pop quality. I saw both line-ups and like the music from both, but the current crew seems more able to rock the house. That being said, it’s nice to hear the band recorded at such an early stage in its existence.

I want to hear more from each of these bands. I’ve heard that 3 of the bands are recording for pending full-length CD releases and that possibly another may release one as well, this compilation has given me something to look forward to, and maybe that was part of its purpose, to focus the listener’s interest on a band or two, and create new interest in bands one may not have heard of before. And just having fun. I casually know many of the musicians who participated on this work, it’s great to see it be such a success. This CD proves, once again, that Lincoln has and will continue to have, great music created by people who work hard and truly care for what they’re doing just to please us, just because our lives are enriched from the abilities and talents of one another. I’m always amazed at how good many of the Lincoln bands are; right here in little old Lincoln, Nebraska, fans of rock music have a good situation (no one saw that coming, right?). - Mark Bestul

Press:
From: Lazy-I

Dealing with 'A Situation'
story by tim mcmahan
Lazy-i: February 5, 2003

A handful of Lincoln bands are joining forces to raise the profile of local music, share resources and work together to make a name for themselves.

Called "A Situation," the idea was born out of frustration from bands that had hit the same glass ceiling, not knowing what to do next. They'd done their local gigs; a few had recorded their own CDs, but a future of continually playing the same clubs over and over while hocking CDRs seemed pointless.

Pulling together was a logical next step, said Malcom Miles, bassists for the Post-Trendies, one of five bands involved in the project.

"This is about efficiency and resources," Miles said. "We are trying to be more effective at doing the things musicians want to do, which is record and release music, play live shows and tour, and have fun doing it. Having the support of a larger group makes some of these things easier to do."

He said any single band can put out a CD, but doing a compilation and pulling together the recording resources is easier and cheaper. Then there's touring. "None of us have toured extensively," he said. "If one of the bands adopted a city and built a following there, they could take the other bands along. Sharing club contacts is just going to make it easier for each band to set up a tour."

Miles gave a rather sophisticated take on the meaning behind the confab's name, saying "a situation" refers to a late-'60s movement by French intellectuals and artists working around the idea of society being a spectacle that they wanted to live outside of.

But that was followed by a more reasonable explanation. "We also didn't know what we were doing," he said. "We're not a label or a collective or a commune. We're a situation of bands working together."

Five Lincoln bands are currently caught up in this situation:

-- Crush the Clown, a power trio that sports a tight, angular punk sound;
-- Joe Buck -- consisting of the irrepressible Dan Jenkins, the force behind the now-defunct power-alt-country outfit Drive-by Honky;
-- Suzy Dreamer & Her Nightmares -- a 4-piece that includes former members of Black Dahlias, Starboy and Bronco;
-- Junior Mighty -- the duo of Lori Allison (the Millions) and Brian McCue (The Black Dahlias).

And, finally, Miles' own Post-Trendies. Called The Trendies in their first incarnation that included Matt Silcock (Head of Femur, Opium Taylor and a handful of other notable bands), when Silcock moved to Chicago in 2001, the band changed its name to the Post-Trendies and stayed a four-piece.

"We make a joke on our Web site that none of the bands in 'a situation' sound alike," Miles said. "This isn't an exclusive thing. We've talked to other bands, including bands from Omaha. Our main goal is to raise awareness of local music, that's the priority."

So how is it different than starting a record label? Miles said the comparisons have been drawn, but that the 'label' label doesn't really apply. "We love the fact that what we're doing is undefined," he said. "We looked at Saddle Creek and Sub Pop as models of similar efforts that have been successful. Both of those labels did great things to help their bands out. But our main focus is promoting the local scene. We're not doing anything that costs a lot of money. This is something that any group of bands could pull together."

The first project out of the gate is producing a compilation CD with contributions from all five bands, each contributing two songs. The tracks are being recorded at Crush the Clown guitarist Nick Westra's home studio. The group's "launch party" Saturday, Feb. 8, at Duffy's in Lincoln, is a fund-raiser to pull together cash to cover the CD's production costs. A similar group show is planned for Omaha some time in April.

Once completed, the bands will sell copies of the CD at their individual shows. "We hope that this starts a cycle and keeps moving forward," Miles said. "If we play enough shows and continue to sell CDs, we would get enough back to put together a second compilation.

"Most local bands don't have any sort of notion of becoming Britney Spears or The Backstreet Boys. Most of us would like to make music a lifetime job. You sort of make the best music you can, and just see how it goes."


BAND INFO:
crush the clown began at some point in time when one of the members started
the band. between then and now, some members left the band, others joined,
some stayed the same. they play musical instruments and sing. between them
they know many of the chords. when they are not playing music they enjoy
such things as sleep, cheese, and beer.

crush the clown does not sound like suzy dreamer & her nightmares

band members:

ideal cleaners is a band.
they play music for the enjoyment of those who enjoy music.

ideal cleaners does not sound like crush the clown

band members:

for information on these, and many other lincoln bands
go to starcityscene.com