Tweens

Artist: Tweens

Album: Tweens

Genre: Pop Punk

2014

LP/Album

Favorite Track: Impossible to decide, but my ego says Forever
Available as: Download, CD, and vinyl (Frenchkiss)

Wow. I've let this place go. I mean, really, there's cobwebs on my keyboard and dust all over my records. I've let this blog slip out of my mind, but today I saw that it's been exactly one year since Tweens released their debut album, and I said to myself, "Self, it's time to bring the Adventurous Ear back."

I first encountered Tweens at Cincinnati's Midpoint Music Festival two years ago. I saw Wussy and The Breeders that day as well, but I had the best time when Tweens were playing. Their music is so fun and has so much energy that as soon as they started playing, I started paying attention (which I hadn't been doing for the first act that played). I started following them on social media, bought a digital copy of their "Live At Mohawk" EP (finally tracked down a cassette copy almost a year later), and was hugely excited when they announced their first full-length. I preordered it off of Bandcamp, in a package with not just the vinyl LP, but a demo cassette and other cool swag. But by far the most exciting thing was when they asked for volunteers to come and be in the music video for "Forever." Couldn't pass up the chance. I went down to the location, saw an awesome show, and got my 2 1/2 seconds of fame. 

When the album arrived in the mail, I listened to almost nothing else for at least a week afterwards (much to the chagrin of my parents, who don't get punk music). Although the band does an awesome job on the fast and furious mosh-pit stompers like "McMicken" and "Hardcore Boy," there's variety in the writing. "Don't Wait Up," which was my favorite of the demos they put up on Bandcamp, is a fantastic mid-tempo song with a great riff, and "Want U" is a reverb-heavy and surprisingly tender ballad which couples with "Forever" (another great mid-tempo song) to make an ode to mixed-up teenage emotions, something I'm intimately familiar with. Tweens have a musicianship that not all punk bands do. Bridget Battle has an excellent and distinctive voice and a strong guitar style, and bassist Peyton Copes totally rocks it - he's definitely one of the best punk bassists around. I think that might have been one of the first things that really attracted me to the band - as a bassist myself, I enjoy listening to artists who don't relegate the instrument to the background, especially when the player is really good.

I love this album so much it's hard for me to contain myself when writing about it. When I got a new turntable, this was the first album I played on it. Tweens also has the honor of being the band I've seen live the most times. Back when I was still living in Cincinnati full-time, I'd go every time they played, and they sound just as good in person as they do on the record. Which is saying something. If someone put a knife to my throat and made me name my favorite pop punk album, I would definitely pick this. It's got a little bit of everything and all the songs are incredibly enjoyable. So happy birthday, Tweens! I can't wait to see what the next album looks like.

Mardou - You're Not Going to Live Forever

Artist: Mardou
Title: You're Not Going to Live Forever
Genre: Post-Punk
EP
2014
Sounds Like: Vacation, Joy Division
Favorite Track: Dirty Streets
Available as: Download (Bandcamp only), cassette (Let's Pretend)

Mardou is a really interesting and versatile band which currently lives in the pantheon of "bands I regret not seeing when I had the chance." I almost went to see one of their shows once but I had some conflict or other that I decided to go to instead. After buying and listening to their cassette, I regret that.

The opening two tracks of this tape are lo-fi garage punk stompers that remind me strongly of another Cincinnati punk band, Vacation. This is probably more than a coincidence, because half of the EP was recorded by Jerome Westercamp, aka Jerri Queen, the drummer and frontman of Vacation. They're full of energy and drive, with some really good riffs. Then, on track three, "Earth," the band shifts gears into a slower, more atmospheric (but still driving) groove that reminds me strongly of Joy Division, except obviously with very different vocals. No one can imitate Ian Curtis. He's the man.

For the rest of the tape, the band alternates every two tracks between driving punk and atmospheric alternative, in slightly higher-fidelity sound on side two, due to the fact that the two sides contain songs recorded at different sessions, by different engineers. My favorite track on the album is from the second session. It's called "Dirty Streets." Although this doesn't appear on the cassette, somewhere or other I saw this track subtitled "an ode to Over-The-Rhine," a historic neighborhood in Cincinnati which is one of my favorite places to hang out when I'm in Cincinnati. Over the past 15 or so years, it's transformed from a pretty unpleasant place to a really cool, artsy neighborhood with great culture, although "Dirty Streets" is more of an ode to its remaining rough edges - "these dirty streets don't need to be cleaned!"

The cassette holds an interesting little bit of value for me, because it bridges my two hometowns. Mardou is from Cincinnati, where I grew up, but the record label that released the cassette, Let's Pretend Records, is based in Bloomington, Indiana, where I currently live. Nothing really deep or interesting here, just a personal note. The EP is available as a whole only on cassette, which can be bought through Let's Pretend Records, but all the tracks are available on Bandcamp as part of two different EPs. They're set at "name your price," aka "free unless you're rich." I highly recommend checking them out.