BAND INFO:
Her Flyaway Manner is nearly 10 years old. The two songs on the cd are about 4 years old. We like to play our songs live. Sometimes we have too much fun. That never gets old.

Other band info to come

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


From the 12/9/05 issue of Ground Zero

A Situation releases second compilation album
By JOEL GEHRINGER / Lincoln Journal Star

Here’s the situation: Lincoln’s talented musicians need a way to get their music heard. The solution? Another situation. Last year, A Situation, Lincoln’s connective of local musicians, released the compilation album “A Situation Presents Itself.” The disc featured five local groups chosen by A Situation members as the cream of Lincoln’s musical crop.

Now, the group will release its second compilation, “A Situation Re:Presents Itself,” at 9 p.m. Sunday at Duffy’s Tavern, 1412 O St.

The new album features 10 new songs from Supergender, Amy Hana Huffman, The Bad Sects, Papers and Her Flyaway Manner. Those bands will also perform at Sunday’s release show.

“What we’re trying to do is get the music out there and get the CDs out there,” said Lincoln musician Malcom Miles, whose band Post-Trendies was featured on the first Situation disc.

Miles is one of the connective’s four core organizers, a crew that also includes Star City Scene Webmaster Tery Daly.

Each member brings a different resource to the group. Miles coordinates the bands’ work, Wickizer gives A Situation a method of distribution, Daly allows promotion through his Web site and Fairbairn gives the bands a place to play.

“We’re all pitching in without really taking anything out of it,” Miles said.

In 2002, that core chose five bands — the Trendies, Crush the Clown, Ideal Cleaners, Suzy Dreamer and Her Nightmares and Junior Mighty — to record songs for the first Situation album.

The compilation worked so well that the connective decided to produce another disc to feature five new groups.

“We decided to turn it into this little pass-the-torch game,” Miles said. “Each band (on the first album) would choose another band not linked through members to be on the next album.”

Once “A Situation Presents Itself” hit store shelves in October 2004, the next class of musicians was picked quickly, Miles said.

Since then, Miles and company have been raising money for the disc through fund-raiser concerts. All money gathered pays for production costs of the current album or goes towards future projects.

Apparently, A Situation’s efforts to promote cooperation among musicians are working. In March, musicians from A Farewell Show for Megan, the Master 8000 and Eagle*Seagull, bands not included on the release, offered to play in a fund-raiser concert when some of A Situation’s bands couldn’t make it.

“People are doing this out of good will,” Miles said. “They’re playing shows and donating their time and songs, and no one’s really taking any money.”

Supergender’s Drew Rudebusch said Lincoln’s musicians aren’t yet totally united, but compared to other scenes like Omaha’s there’s less exclusion and a better atmosphere for those who just want to enjoy quality entertainment.

“Lincoln seems to have less rigidly defined boundaries as far as what is considered acceptable among groups of people,” he said. “That’s probably why Malcom has been able to pull together such a diverse range of bands for this project. People are more willing to work together here.”

The collective’s efforts to get the best local bands together, no matter how diverse, has definitely paid off. “A Situation Re:Presents Itself” makes itself a candidate for the best local release of the year with quirky, cool tracks from Papers and superior straightforward rockers from Supergender and HFM. In addition, the Bad Sects’ mellow melodies and urgent vocals make “Excuse Me Lady” one of those tracks that will repeat in your head for hours, and the dark but upbeat “Sometimes All You Can Do Is Laugh,” possibly the disc’s best song, makes Amy Hana Huffman a performer to watch.

“I wondered how such an eclectic choice of bands would come off on a recording,” Rudebusch said. “We’re glad we did it, though. It gave us a chance to release a song that we weren’t planning on putting on a future full length.”

With the completion of “Re:Presents,” the cycle starts all over again, Miles said, beginning with the selection of A Situation’s next featured bands.

“I’ve put the task to the five bands on this one to figure out who the best bands are,” he said, “and I’m shooting for the same timeline.”