Note: This is part four of a four-part series. Read parts 1, 2 and 3. And check out the Omaha-focused series here.
by John Wenz
Here we are! The final installment! The last waltz. The ultimate hoorah! We are at the end of the Nebraska Index. And we (finally) have a winner.
Going from late-'90s swing revival oddity with the Squirrel Nut Zippers to a respected indie singer songwriter, Bird has amassed a devoted following for his folky music with just a dash of weird.
Degrees of Nebraska: 3/5
The song refers to two reference points — one on a tarmac 6 miles south of North Platte, the other 6 miles north of South Platte. There is a North Platte, Neb., of course. Trust me. I know this all too well. But there’s no South Platte, and thus, he may or may not be talking about the North Platte and South Platte Rivers, unless this is just him using sort of surreal word play or something. Which, I mean, the song is a bit of a fever dream, so who knows. As such, we’re discussing an area at which point the distance between both rivers is at exactly 12 miles. Though it’s not impossible to determine if such a location exists, I’m having a really hard time doing it with simple tools like Google Maps, because their estimations use roads. However, this map tool seems to tell me it’d be somewhere in between Big Spring, Neb., and the area where the North Platte River feeds into Lake McConaughy.
There is no tarmac. There are barely roads in between, and fewer of them direct. So either it’s word play and he’s at Lee Bird Field (which is east, not south of North Platte) or he’s just making shit up. This lack of clarity makes me doubt his commitment to truly placing this song in our fair state.
Portrayal of Nebraska: 2 / 5
I could be reading it wrong, but the song is seemingly about the fragile line between life and death and addiction, multi-layering “you’re what happens when two substances collide” to be life and death. And with references to imbibing, we’re left to our devices to build a case that this particular character is, uhh, overdosing. Well, meth is a huge problem in Western Nebraska! So it’s not exactly bright or sunny.
Overall Quality of Song: 4/5
Andrew Bird is frequently straddling the line between interesting artistic endeavors, hipster hyperbole and indie rock as adult contemporary. He’s at once interesting in his efforts and maddening in his repetition, also resorting to a sort of tried-and-true structure of a stand-out, CMJ-guaranteed pop song (see “Heretics” and “Fake Palindromes”) while reserving more contemplative fair (such as this song) for the album. There are also songs that are frankly somewhat boring. So in a way, Andrew Bird is helping bridge that strange gap between pop music and underground music by recording incomplete albums of occassionally middling music with flashes of greatness.
Luckily, this song has an interesting, “driving at 4 a.m.” structure that bears repeat listening, and, if you’re feeling adventurous, analysis. Of course, in that analysis, you’ll find a tale of our own mortality and the fragile lines we walk with the substances we consume and abuse. Or something.
Nebraska Index: 9/15
2006 – “Sally” by Gogol Bordello off Gypsy Punks
Taking liberal Balkan music influence and combining it with the attitude and sound of punk rock, Gogol Bordello has filled out a mostly unmatched niche outside the insular underground.
Degrees of Nebraska: 3/5
The song is about Sally, a girl from Nebraska, and gypsies who come through her town, causing cultural revolution. Then the lyrics get nonsensicle, the nature of the cultural revolution is not really spelled out and some foreign tongues are used. It starts out very promisingly in Nebraska, but references to radiation apparently go back to lead singer Eugene Hutz’s family experience with the Chernobyl incident.
Portrayal of Nebraska: 2.5/5
I have no idea whatsoever.
Overall Quality of Song: 4/5
At one point, I worked at the catalog arm of a record re-release label with a session musician named Skip Heller. Skip was a music guy. I mean, you know the type — completely obsessed with a wide plethora of music history but narrowly focused on recent developments as something anathemic to further musical progress. Having come of age in the punk-rock era in Philadelphia, he was searching for sounds of the new in music that has been continuously evocative of the old. At any rate, the singular silver lining for Skip — the area of excitement and newness for him — was Gogol Bordello.
At first, Gogol Bordello is a lot to take in. Hutz is playing vaguely unfamiliar music in an amped up, occassionally incomprehensible way. And this means that one of the first worries becomes whether or not we’re being put on — after all, it would be a shame to have a band this sonically interesting have no connection to Roma culture. It’s no different than appropriation of Native American cultures. It’s not your cultural heritage, and you’re continuously coming from a place of privilege in culture wherein a much-maligned and -abused group like the Roma could potentially be co-opted.
But Hutz comes from a place of legitimacy, a half-Roma family that continuously wandered Eastern Europe after Chernobyl, where he learned both his own culture and English through western music. This makes the music itself more interesting because you’re seeing a genuine synthesis of dominant culture with more “alien” (to us) cultures. You’re seeing something less a put-upon and more an extension of the music. Which makes it all the more interesting — and some of the more dangerous. Because, in imitation by someone not of the culture, the risk is run of being a cultural appropriator — something different than, say, mere influence of the music.
Nebraska Index: 9.5/15
2008 – “North Platte Blues” by the Mike McClure Band off The Burtschi Brothers & the Mike McClure Band
Lead singer of talented never-quite-made-it country act The Great Divide, Mike McClure struck out on his own with his roots-inflected country. Though based in Oklahoma, the Great Divide and the Mike McClure Band were a frequent draw for Nebraska venues.
Degrees of Nebraska: 5/5
The song is basically McClure sitting in a hotel room in North Platte on a rainy night. He’s contemplating the long life on the road and the toll it takes on a performer. But the framing device of the song is entirely North Platte. And, oddly enough, this installment involves North Platte a lot.
Portrayal of Nebraska: 2.5/5
Well, it’s not sunny sunny but I’m giving McClure the benefit of the doubt, having paid his dues to the fine folks of Nebraska. The fact that he’s bothered to use North Platte as a framing device says something. And essentially, the song could take place anywhere on the road and the feelings would still be the same and unrelated to North Platte. Besides, it sounds like the weather really sucks.
Overall Quality of Song: 4/5
The song is spare and raw, recalling at once classic folk and classic country. It’s an effective road song, though it’s funny to consider that the other “road song” covered in the Nebraska Index was “Turn the Page,” which is kind of the arch road song. I mean, what’s the competition? “Faithfully” and “Beth.” Were McClure more of a household name, this could be on that list, sneaking into the top five, maybe even usurping “Faithfully.” But McClure has never been alternative enough for alt-country or poppy enough for the radio country crowd. And as such, he’s an artist who will continue to make that same road his home.
By the way, Toby Keith continues to have No. 1 country hits. Where’s your God now?
Nebraska Index: 11.5/15
2009 – “Badlands” by Church of Misery off Houses of the Unholy
A Japanese doom-metal band that sings almost exclusively about murder and serial/spree killers. Somebody should tell them that’s more of a death metal thing. Doom metal is usually more concentrated on getting really, really high and talking about wizards.
Degrees of Nebraska: 5/5
Overly long narration about the Starkweather/Fugate murders that serves as a segue into lyrics about the Starkweather/Fugate murders and the nihilism of Charles Starkweather as they make their way across the state. A less sophisticated “Nebraska.”
Portrayal of Nebraska: 2/5
Here again, we’re left with a song portraying one of the most negative events involving our state. But I mean, the band does perform songs almost exclusively about murder, so I guess if you’re looking to be included on a geographic list of songs about murder by artists who sing almost exclusively about murder, this puts us pretty firmly on the map.
Overall Quality of Song: 2.5/5
As a song in the pantheon of doom/sludge metal, the song is well-performed, but does little to differentiate itself sonically. The narration at the beginning to establish the song makes the whole thing seem a bit schticky. Though enjoyable, the song ultimately feels slight — something weird to say when considering the intersection of genre and subject matter. But of late, Japan has been releasing doom metal more interesting and more varied than Church of Misery, which will continue along the same path while others find new and interesting boundaries of the genre.
Nebraska Index: 9.5/15
2010 – “Colder Weather” by Zac Brown Band off You Get What You Give
An up-and-coming emotive country act which has seen a recent upswing in sales with hits like “Chicken Fried” and “Free,” among other No. 1 and 2 hits on the country charts.
Degrees of Nebraska: 3/5
Second verse: “At a truck stop diner just outside Lincoln, the night is black as the coffee he was drinkin'.” Clunky, lyrically, but all signs seem to point to Schumaker’s, which is the truck stop diner I can think of just outside of Lincoln. So that verse puts us firmly at a place within the confines of Nebraska (so long as he was trying to rhyme “Lincoln” and not “drinkin’” or “thinkin’”) for at least part of the song.
Portrayal of Nebraska: 2.5/5
Value neutral: Nebraska is more a focal point for what was left behind than for absolute setting and place of the whole narrative, so the reference is passing and doesn’t leave much room for negative interpretation.
Overall Quality of Song: 3/5
I feel like Zac Brown found a niche and has proceeded to never leave it. This song is sort of like buying two pairs of Nikes — one of them is “Free” and the other is “Colder Weather.” And one of them is a low-top. One is a slightly higher low-top that’s not quite a high-top. One is black and white with red trim. The other is more like, maroon trim. And they're Nikes, so the product itself is made relatively well by the hands of children in Southeast Asia. But at the end of the day you spent money on these two things that are virtually indistinguishable.
But now imagine it’s many albums worth of songs. And you can’t put them on your feet because you bought them on iTunes. Sure, they cost significantly less than Nikes or whatever but if you’re just drunk enough you sing one and mean the other and then realize that you could’ve spent .99 fewer cents on it.
Nebraska Index: 8.5/15
2011 – “Calamity Song” by The Decemberists off The King is Dead
Hyper-literate indie group which won’t go away.
Degrees of Nebraska: 3/5
In his theoretical dream of America’s future, the narrator sees California as a pile of rubble swept away by the sea and the new coast of Nebraska conquered by conquistadors. Or something. Nebraska is in the refrain! Yay! We’re a Catalonian Red Dawn. Boo!
Portrayal of Nebraska: 2/5
We get our asses kicked by Andalusians during the Apocalypse. We get straight up set on fire. They obviously don’t know much about the insane anti-government militia shit in Southeast Nebraska. (Google "posse comitatus." If you think that bullshit still isn’t here, I found a copy of The Turner Diaries in a Salvation Army in Lincoln just last year and that book is insane racist thing after insane racist thing.)
Overall Quality of Song: 2/5
Speaking of bands that found their niche and never left it: The Decemberists seem to have set in on a very specific demographic for a large part of their career and sailed on a sea of half-stolen riffs. The music is often same-soundy, repetitive and sort of dull. And they’ve been at it for a decade never making significant leaps and bounds artistically, but a loyal fanbase of crashing bores keeps The Decemberists in business and me lamenting the NPRization of independent music. (It probably all started when Travis Morrison took a job at HuffPo.)
Nebraska Index: 7/15
2011 – “Ernie Chambers v God” by Virgin Islands off Ernie Chambers v God
Seattle-based, punk inflected, politically charged up-and-comers featuring Mike Jaworski of The Cops.
Degrees of Nebraska: 5/5
Remember when Nebraska’s greatest politician of all time (sorry, George Norris) sued GOD? That was awesome. Virgin Islands remembered it. They named an album after it. They named a song about it. They named a song about the punkest thing that has ever happened in our legislature by the greatest man who has ever walked those halls.
They wrote the song about Nebraska.
Portrayal of Nebraska: 5 / 5
I’m vaguely tempted to view this song negatively. After all, the lyrics aren’t necessarily kind: crumbling infrastructure, social inequality — it sounds a lot like the treatment by Nebraska of North Omaha and its minoritized voices. Let’s not forget the original intent of Ernie Chamber’s lawsuit stunt: a Nebraska judge chose not to allow the words "rape" or "sexual assault" at a trial for rape. When appeals were dismissed as frivilous, Chambers barnstormed the court with the idea that the courts are by and of the people, and should serve the needs of the people — a system that should be accessed by all, whether their case was as frivilous as suing God or as major as the trial which proceeded his decision. As one of the few 21st century voices for left-populist anger in the Capitol, Chambers was iconic of our state's motto: Equality before the law. So while it sounds like a negative view, in effect, Chambers was embodying a spirit that’s been and continues to be the undercurrent in our state, the voice for the small and the down-trodden.
Overall Quality of Song: 5/5
It’s really quite great. Whereas punk has lost a lot of degrees of urgency and immediacy in the decades since it became a Top 40 friendly genre, Virgin Islands chooses to strip that all back. It’s not just basic Bush bashing or heartbreak. It’s the music of struggle and inequality and earnest wishes for change. While the genre still struggles to find its footing, there are bands that are willing to take the helm and lead us to the promised land. And Virgin Islands stays righteously rooted in the past while looking toward the future, both in terms of social and musical progress.
Nebraska Index: 15/15 and our new winner!
So to recap, the Top Five Most Nebraska Songs:
1) “Ernie Chambers v. God” by Virgin Islands —15/15
2) “The Nebraska Song” by Sawyer Brown — 14/15
3) “Plains of Nebrasky-O” by Eric Anderson and Phil Ochs
4-5) (tied) “Nebraska” by Bruce Springsteen and “North Platte, Nebraskette” by Kronos Quartet — 12/15
Congratulations are in order to Virgin Islands! You have proven yourself capable of writing the most Nebraska song of all time, based on a completely arbitrary scale involving varying degrees of comprehensiveness.
But — and there’s always a big but, isn’t there? — we’re not done yet! No! We have one more installment. Though we won’t cover the entire history, we’ll endeavor to look within, and find, definitely, the Most Nebraska Song by the Truly Nebraska Artists. Finally, we’ll take our native daughters and sons and hold them up to the same scrutiny as others on this list. And we’ll find the finest 10 examples of nationally recognized Nebraska music discussing matters of all things Nebraska. Stay tuned!
* Photo from a cartoon by Neal Obermeyer that originally ran in the Lincoln Journal-Star. See the full cartoon here.
John Wenz likes cats. He can be reached at johnwenz@hearnebraska.org.