articles
McCarthy Trenching
from volume 01 issue 12 // Michael Spadoni
McCarthy Trenching
Interview with Dan McCarthy
Words: Kimberly Strasser
Photos: Courtesy of Team Love
When you hear the word Omaha, what do you think? Little League World Series? Cornhuskers? Steak? How about music? No, I’m not talking about the Counting Crows’ song “Omaha,” I’m talking about some of the most well-known indie bands: Bright Eyes, Cursive, The Good Life, The Faint, and Tilly and the Wall. They have an interesting collaborative set-up in Omaha. If you cipher through the lineup of these bands, past and present, you will notice a rotating cast of the same characters. From recording to touring, their collaboration seems to work and spawns life to lesser-known bands that are ready to break out of the local bar scene and hit the road. Singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist talent Dan McCarthy is part of this cast of characters. Five years ago, McCarthy started his first solo gig, McCarthy Trenching.
When I described the band as folk, alt-country, he agreed, “I think those are the boxes I’d check on the survey form.”... “Yeah, I’d say a little bit of folk influence, a little bit country. There’s a lot of drinkin’ songs, a few travelin’ songs. There’s a little bit of heartbreak, but that fits into country for sure.” McCarthy sings, plays guitar, mainly, with “Trenching,” but is savvy with other instruments, as well. “I grew up playing classical piano. I do play bass, banjo, accordion, and a few other things.” These few other things are the mandolin, concertina, and the upright bass. “Once I found the upright bass, it was like, ‘Wow, this is great, you only have to know like three notes.’ I got my start playing upright; we played hillbilly music on the street corners of downtown.” He then started playing bass with Ted Stevens’ (of Cursive) band, Mayday, for which he still plays.
McCarthy stays quite busy, playing local gigs, recording and touring with friends, “I’ve traveled with, or toured with, or pretty much know everyone…that’s one of the good things about so many bands from a small town, the good musicians are highly in demand.”
You can hear McCarthy playing keys on Cursive’s album “Happy Hollow,” and accordion on Tilly and the Wall’s “Bottom of Barrels.” McCarthy played bass and accordion in Bright Eyes’ 2006 Canadian run, and a few U.S. music festivals, including Bonnaroo (which I had the pleasure of attending). He has also been writing songs and playing local Omaha hot spots with Trenching. His first full-length band-titled debut album will be released on April 24 on Team Love Records—a label started by Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes).
Oh, did I happen to mention that he is kicking off a national tour, opening 15-20 dates with…well, who do you think? If you guessed Bright Eyes, you were correct. They will be playing at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center on May 16th and will hit Orlando’s Hard Rock Live on the 17th. If you’re having expectations of Trenching’s live performance to be a tear-in-beer drinking anthem, guess again, “The band will be more rocked out on the tour; we will be playing in front of a lot of people, so we’re going to create some volume.”
Knowing Omaha’s music scene to be less than six-degrees of separation, I ask McCarthy who makes up his lineup. “It varies, depending on who is in town at the time. For the Bright Eyes’ tour Stefanie Drootin, who plays with the Good Life, is playing bass with me, Ken Jensen is playing drums, and Steve Bartolomei is playing electric guitar. We are your pretty standard four-piece, for the tour,” he says humbly. “I heard Bright Eyes is traveling with a 12-piece, so we can’t quite compete. I don’t think we can fit that many people in the mini van.”
I quickly let him know that I’m a big fan of The Good Life. So he rubs in, “They played kind of a spur-of-the-moment show on Monday here in Omaha. It was really fun. They practice in my basement, so I make them let me in their shows for free.”
I’m a bit jealous at this point, but I guess that’s what I get for only minutes earlier rubbing in the fact that we were having 75-degree weather while they were having 28-degree weather. His response, “Oh, man. I’d like to spend some time at the beach. They are keeping us moving pretty quickly. We are putting a lot of miles on the mini van. We may be able to get in a day early, if we really drive like hell.”
Go to www.mccarthytrenching.com, you will find more info on the band, be able to listen to some tracks…and learn about cuts of beef. Seriously, if you belong to PETA, beware. It’s not for the vegan at heart.
Interview with Dan McCarthy
Words: Kimberly Strasser
Photos: Courtesy of Team Love
When you hear the word Omaha, what do you think? Little League World Series? Cornhuskers? Steak? How about music? No, I’m not talking about the Counting Crows’ song “Omaha,” I’m talking about some of the most well-known indie bands: Bright Eyes, Cursive, The Good Life, The Faint, and Tilly and the Wall. They have an interesting collaborative set-up in Omaha. If you cipher through the lineup of these bands, past and present, you will notice a rotating cast of the same characters. From recording to touring, their collaboration seems to work and spawns life to lesser-known bands that are ready to break out of the local bar scene and hit the road. Singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist talent Dan McCarthy is part of this cast of characters. Five years ago, McCarthy started his first solo gig, McCarthy Trenching.
When I described the band as folk, alt-country, he agreed, “I think those are the boxes I’d check on the survey form.”... “Yeah, I’d say a little bit of folk influence, a little bit country. There’s a lot of drinkin’ songs, a few travelin’ songs. There’s a little bit of heartbreak, but that fits into country for sure.” McCarthy sings, plays guitar, mainly, with “Trenching,” but is savvy with other instruments, as well. “I grew up playing classical piano. I do play bass, banjo, accordion, and a few other things.” These few other things are the mandolin, concertina, and the upright bass. “Once I found the upright bass, it was like, ‘Wow, this is great, you only have to know like three notes.’ I got my start playing upright; we played hillbilly music on the street corners of downtown.” He then started playing bass with Ted Stevens’ (of Cursive) band, Mayday, for which he still plays.
McCarthy stays quite busy, playing local gigs, recording and touring with friends, “I’ve traveled with, or toured with, or pretty much know everyone…that’s one of the good things about so many bands from a small town, the good musicians are highly in demand.”
You can hear McCarthy playing keys on Cursive’s album “Happy Hollow,” and accordion on Tilly and the Wall’s “Bottom of Barrels.” McCarthy played bass and accordion in Bright Eyes’ 2006 Canadian run, and a few U.S. music festivals, including Bonnaroo (which I had the pleasure of attending). He has also been writing songs and playing local Omaha hot spots with Trenching. His first full-length band-titled debut album will be released on April 24 on Team Love Records—a label started by Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes).
Oh, did I happen to mention that he is kicking off a national tour, opening 15-20 dates with…well, who do you think? If you guessed Bright Eyes, you were correct. They will be playing at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center on May 16th and will hit Orlando’s Hard Rock Live on the 17th. If you’re having expectations of Trenching’s live performance to be a tear-in-beer drinking anthem, guess again, “The band will be more rocked out on the tour; we will be playing in front of a lot of people, so we’re going to create some volume.”
Knowing Omaha’s music scene to be less than six-degrees of separation, I ask McCarthy who makes up his lineup. “It varies, depending on who is in town at the time. For the Bright Eyes’ tour Stefanie Drootin, who plays with the Good Life, is playing bass with me, Ken Jensen is playing drums, and Steve Bartolomei is playing electric guitar. We are your pretty standard four-piece, for the tour,” he says humbly. “I heard Bright Eyes is traveling with a 12-piece, so we can’t quite compete. I don’t think we can fit that many people in the mini van.”
I quickly let him know that I’m a big fan of The Good Life. So he rubs in, “They played kind of a spur-of-the-moment show on Monday here in Omaha. It was really fun. They practice in my basement, so I make them let me in their shows for free.”
I’m a bit jealous at this point, but I guess that’s what I get for only minutes earlier rubbing in the fact that we were having 75-degree weather while they were having 28-degree weather. His response, “Oh, man. I’d like to spend some time at the beach. They are keeping us moving pretty quickly. We are putting a lot of miles on the mini van. We may be able to get in a day early, if we really drive like hell.”
Go to www.mccarthytrenching.com, you will find more info on the band, be able to listen to some tracks…and learn about cuts of beef. Seriously, if you belong to PETA, beware. It’s not for the vegan at heart.
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