All Around Records

Sunday, October 27, 2024

 Nick Piunti’s new album Up and Out of It is wonderful, melodic rock played for power and meaning. If you re finding today's music wanting, then this album is for you.


Nick was kind enough to answer a few questions for me.


Andrea Weiss: Who were you listening to while making this album?


Nick Piunti: Mike Viola, Wet Leg, Spoon, Cage the Elephant, Tom Petty, Nada Surf, Sharon Van Etten, Extra Arms.



AW: When you say the songs are personal, do you mean the details or in a more general sense?


NP: Based on real life, either mine or people close to me. We all have struggles, internal and external, so I feel mine aren’t that unique and are relatable.



AW: “Bottle It” is good political commentary, and also about conformity. Is it more about conformity, or more political?


NP: I would say more it’s about standing up against conformity. Don’t be pressured to do something against your better judgment.



AW: “Rejection Letter,” which is great, is about just that, and will ring true for anyone who ever subbed something to a publisher or label, but is it mostly about the music industry?


NP: The first verse is definitely about that. We know at our age and making melodic rock music that labels wouldn’t be lining up to sign us, but there was a time that it felt like if you’re weren’t trying to be exactly like what was hot at the moment that you couldn’t get signed. The second verse was more about my daughter who was interviewing for a job and didn’t get it, even though it looked like a slam dunk.  Turns out the company was in the middle of a slight restructure and a few months later they reached out to her and she got the position!



AW: These songs have a lot of power, which I like. Is that power intended to drive the message home more?


NP: The power comes from growing up in Detroit, I think. Pretty much every band from Detroit rocks. These songs usually start out on acoustic guitar and are almost folky at times, but bring them to the band and the rock pours out of us.



AW: The melodies remind me very much of Fountains Of Wayne. Is that the way the band most influenced you?


NP: F.O.W. is obviously a big influence. They set the bar so damn high! But I never tried to sound like them. But if you write melodic pop rock with good lyrics the comparison is going to happen.



AW: What are your hopes for this album?


NP: For people that like what we do to like this album as well, and of course earn some new fans. There is so much music being released that it’s hard to get noticed, but the power pop community really supports what we do. I own my own publishing but I think it would be a good idea to find a publishing company to partner with to give the songs some more licensing opportunities and maybe get covered by some younger artists.



AW: What advice would you give someone who is just starting to write songs


NP: Don’t fall in love with everything you write, but write all the time! Don’t be overly influenced by just one band or one genre. Get some honest feedback from people whose musical taste you respect. Keep your songwriting antennae up all the time; co-writing is fun and can expand your horizons as well.

 Nick Piunti & The Complicated Men

Up and Out of It

Jem Records


These songs could be anthems about relationships, the music biz, or conformity, all set to killer rock in the style of Fountains of Wayne. Anthems are always needed, if for no other reason than to have songs to pump your fists to.


The lyrics are meaningful, like on “Bottle It,” about the deadness of modern life, and the self-explanatory “Rejection Letter,” which also makes fun of it, rather than feeling sorry for oneself. “Mind Reader” explains itself too, as in “you think you do, but you don’t.”


There is a lot of power to the music, the guitars cranked to 11 and the synths kept to a minimum, but it's always melodic. The anger and incredulous tone are welcome.


Why isn’t this kind of music making a killing on the mainstream charts, being the biggest music in the world? The only way this is going to change is if it’s bought. So if you want to kick these changes into gear, get this one, for good powerful music and smart lyrics that never disappoint.

Andrea Weiss

Friday, October 11, 2024

 The Armoires

Octoberland

Big Stir Records


I want to live there, and with this Album of the Year. Why? Because it’s a place where creativity is valued, innovation is prized, and originality is paramount.


It’s creative and original to put the New Pornographers and Jefferson Airplane together, have the complex, yet clear and direct lyrics of the former, the harmonies of the latter, and the equally complex good vibes of both, even when the lyrics are as dark as “Rejoice” by the Airplane and “Adventures In Solitude” by TNP.


This is gentle indie rock by excellent musicians, with Larysa Bulbenko's violin and viola played like electric guitars, a perfect compliment to Rex Broome’s twin lead guitar playing. This is what indie rock should be like, even with bands that have a harder edge, as there is a lot of humanity here. Things are sometimes good, sometimes bad, like on “Music And Animals.” The songs ask: How do we get by in this world? How do navigate the unnavigable?


Of the many good albums released this year, I’ve heard enough to know this one is special. There is nothing quite like it. So if you want something truly different, something that is a refuge in a world where things aren’t always good, like on “Snake Island Thirteen,” about Ukraine, and  an election that will determine the fate of democracy, this is for you. If the election goes the right way, to Harris and Walz, and the war ends, and ends well for Ukraine, Octoberland will be something of a reality, and a great one.


Andrea Weiss

Sunday, September 22, 2024

 Octoberland is the album of the year, for its creativity, innovation, and originality, the daring way they use their influences (like putting Jefferson Airplane and The New Pornographers together), and just for all around good vibes, even when talking about the war in Ukraine and how vital the fight is on “Snake Island Thirteen.”


Rex Broome (vocals, guitar) and Christina Bulbenko (vocals, keys) were kind enough to answer some questions for me.


Andrea Weiss: Is Octoberland a concept album?


Rex Broome: It's pretty close to one, or a “song cycle.” Those are sort of scary terms because they often imply a sort of pretentiousness, right? But we do love albums that have a real sense of time and place, unifying themes and recurring imagery, and as we sat down to write all these songs at once, which is something we hadn't done before, it kind of took on a life of its own. We would edit the lyrics from one song to line up with another one, and that would suggest something that would go into yet a third one, and before long we had eleven songs that suggested an overall track sequence, and the word “Octoberland” as a destination. It all fell into place as a loosely unified arc of songs that shared a lot of themes and iconography. It just made us happy.


Christina Bulbenko: You'll hear us sing about omens, cats, crows and snakes a lot. We also use the band's own name in a few of the songs, and we keep circling around this idea of October as a season, the “October surprise” that's expected in election cycles these days, and ultimately this fictional, semi-utopian destination of Octoberland. There's an undercurrent of mythic, folkloric and literary references, too. That's all part of the bigger theme here, which is that self-involvement is a real problem. We need to be opening up to each other, and these rich storytelling – or songwriting – traditions, all of which are based on the empathy of the creative act, are a place to start, because they're part of the cultural fabric. And we like the idea that we're building on that in the service of the idea of community.



AW: Who were you listening to during the making of the album?


CB: It's easier to remember what we listened to afterward, once we knew what we'd made and could think about what it reminded us of! And of course, we spend a lot of time listening to the releases we're putting out with Big Stir Records. We had this thing happen where just after we'd finished the demos, we signed two bands at once, which we almost never do – The Jack Rubies and Hungrytown, very different bands but both seemed connected to our headspace in writing Octoberland. The Jack Rubies have this postpunk drive and bravado that felt like what we'd just done, and Hungrytown is very lyrical, folk-based and evocative. We felt like we'd written a record halfway between those two realms!


RB: Like Christina said, we were so deep into creating our own thing that we figured out the influences later! I immediately gravitated back to the early work of The Band, where they had all these sideways reinterpretations of mythical stories, and, oddly enough, Siouxsie & The Banshees. There was something witchy,  but in a thoughtful way, about the Octoberland songs that made me want to immerse myself in that stuff. Plus Camper Van Beethoven, always.



AW: I love the complexity, and how gently wry and happy and positive the lyrics are.  Could you say more about them?


RB: I think we're always going for that, even when the songs get dark, and there's some serious darkness on this record. But we always want to have an element of playfulness about it. I think we're pretty unflinching . We don't put forth any delusions that things are just gonna be fine, but we also want to push against the notion that you can't be intelligent and joyful at the same time. Creativity is something to celebrate. We'll leaven our darkest moments with humor, or revel in the fact that we're fortunate enough to be expressing ourselves. It's a miracle that's so absurd that you really need to remember that it's a true joy just to be able to do it.


CB: In our collaboration on the lyrics, we always check each other, especially when we're dealing with the dark stuff (like the war in Ukraine on “Snake Island Thirteen” or some of the toxic cultural currents we run up against on “Ouroboros Blues” and “Sickening Thud”). We'll try to find a way to let the light in, if only subconsciously. Sometimes it's just an absurdly funny arrangement thing. On “Ouroboros” we had this crazy line “the Ouroboros eats itself with relish and abundant greed” and we decided to sing just that one line in these Simon & Garfunkel close harmonies that just really amused us. Or sometimes it's just one line at the end of the song, like “a single passerby looks up like she might hear it too” in “Sickening Thud,” a brief suggestion that whatever is wrong, we might not be alone in facing it. Subtle things like that.



AW: Larysa’s viola playing is a lot like a great lead guitar player playing a galvanizing solo. Did she always do this in her playing?


CB: We've all grown up in our playing over the ten-year history of the band, and Larysa was already brilliant as a teenager when the band started. But we've also learned a lot more about playing together, and what kind of stuff works the best in the band, and there's a real maturity to what she plays now. She's essential to the sound of the band, for sure.


RB: We tend to do the “lead parts” last, which will be Larysa on viola and me on the 12-string. On Octoberland we all knew the songs really well by the time we got to that stage, so we were both picking up on melodic figures from the vocals and the keyboards and using them as “themes”, and then we kind of work out how we want to play in unison, harmony, call-and-response, or as solos. And we kind of have a sense of “well, this song is one where we need to really nail down the parts, and this other one is looser and we can kind of just go off.” When she really cuts loose, like on “This One's For The Swedes” or “Green Hellfire At The 7-11”, it just commands your attention completely. We don't want it to be like that all the time, or it becomes too “jammy.” It has the most impact if the viola is always there in the fabric of the arrangements and then suddenly it just takes over. We really take our time making those decisions. It should be really nuanced until it's not, and she's masterful at both approaches!



AW: I know you’ve been compared to Jefferson Airplane and The New Pornographers. Would you say  this is accurate?


RB: It's as accurate as you can get, probably! It's kind of interesting, because the key part of our sound, wall-to-wall male/female harmonies, is sort of outside the realm of a “genre.” There was more of it in '60s folk rock than any time since, but there's a small handful of bands in every era that do it, and we're part of that continuum – very consciously so. We kind of study how those bands work, what kind of psychology that ambiguously androgynous vocal sound creates, and on this album in particular we write specifically for it.


CB: Yeah, I mean, Jefferson Airplane is the rock and psych side of the sunshine pop sound in the '60s, but then you get Fleetwood Mac in the '70s, you have X doing a punk rock version of it, you could consider The B-52's part of that lineage, and later on The New Pornographers and a lot of new indie rockers. Our approach makes us more a part of that lineage than any specific genre or scene or era, in a way!



AW: “Here Comes The Song” sounds like a great song to wake up to. Would you agree?


RB: I think we know that it can sound that way. For sure the arrangement is designed to build from a whisper to a big ol' crescendo and then come back down! But even though it's kind of a sunshine pop song, it's also pretty dark. It's not essential that anyone hear it that way, because it's up to each listener to decide what a song means, but it's not a happy story, that song.


CB: It was always meant to be the last song on Side 1, because it's just such a story in and of itself. It leaves us dangling a little bit... what happens to the singer, what happens to the song after this story is done? Like, you might want to take a minute before turning the LP over, and you're looking at the track list and thinking, uh oh, the next song is called “You Oughta Be Cut In Half,” that sounds ominous! But then it hits you with this really lighthearted intro and this big sweeping chorus and you're like, oh, okay, we're moving on, then!



AW: “Snake Island Thirteen” is part of a benefit single for Ukraine. Could you say a little bit about it?


CB: It's hard for me as a first-generation Ukrainian-American to talk about how it felt in the early days of the Russian invasion. We felt that all we could do was make some kind of creative statement as the Armoires to raise awareness and perhaps some money for humanitarian aid. “Snake Island Thirteen” was inspired by the story of the battle for a small, strategically located Ukrainian island in the Black Sea. The Russian navy captured it, but not without resistance from a brave Ukrainian garrison, including an instantly iconic radio message from the seeming doomed soldiers that was heard around the world. Their instantly inspirational defiance of the Russian warships calling for their surrender set the song in motion, but it was so difficult to live up to the responsibility of getting it right. Later, when we were writing the songs that would become Octoberland, the themes we've been talking about started arising, many of them informed by mythology and folklore. “Snake Island Thirteen” became a cornerstone of the record. It’s deeply connected to the other messages on the album: the vital importance of empathy and the way sharing stories brings us together in the darkest of times.


RB: Feeling a sense of urgency about creating the song, I plugged in a guitar and tried a number of approaches, from angry to mournful, but the windswept jangle approach just felt right – coastal and somehow ancient. The blend of the details of the modern conflict and the mythological background of the island seemed to come to life in that context, and we're very proud of the song. We hope it speaks to people about what’s still tragically unfolding in Ukraine today.



AW: “Music And Animals” is a wonderful ending. Did it just seem to fit as a closing track?


CB: We had the entire album almost written when that one dropped out of the sky. It was as easy and breezy as it sounds, just truly us speaking and singing our hearts. It was really that question – “how do we get by in this world?” – and in that little magical window where we were focused on the creative process, we knew that our pets and our creative enterprise were the things helping us hold onto our sanity and our souls, and with all the album's imagery at our fingertips, we just said what we felt, and it was a song. The final piece of solace we could offer our listeners after a sometimes rough journey through an often-indifferent world. I think you can hear how emotional we were on that song. It really means the world to us!


RB: It was the last song written and really felt like the “epilogue” the album needed, so yes, it was always intended as the closing track! Our producer, Michael Simmons (musical genius) loved the song and kept telling us we couldn't bury it at the end of the album. Our compromise was to put it out as the first single, almost a year before the album was scheduled to come out – we were dead set on releasing Octoberland in October! – so that it got its day in the sun, and we hope people will hear it as the summation of the album's themes, a ray of hope at the end, and a musically sweet treat that makes you want to take the whole trip again. 



AW: Do you plan to tour?


RB: If so, it'll be next year. We used to be an incredibly busy live band – we did over 150 shows in the five years before the pandemic, in California and the UK – but have been so focused on Big Stir Records in the years since, that it's been impossible to schedule rehearsals. That would have to be a process that we ramp up to when we're not busy prepping and promoting the album itself. The promo campaign for Octoberland has been really complex, and it's included a lot of unique stuff like videos and singles and special treats for our fans that we hope are keeping us in touch with them even if we're not out on the road!


CB: We'll see what 2025 brings! We're a different band now than we were when we started. Back then we could do any kind of show just to introduce the band to audiences, and if they checked out the records they'd get the real story. Four albums later, it's almost the reverse: people know what this band is about and what we sound like, and we keep thinking that if we go onstage without, for example, Larysa doing the amazing string parts people expect, or John Borack on the drums on the songs he helped to craft, or Cliff on bass and filling out the big harmonies from the albums, we would run the risk of giving a lesser experience than our fans deserve, so we'll need to carve out time to get these new songs into stage-worthy shape... and we hope to do that, when all the activity around the release of Octoberland calms down.



Friday, September 20, 2024

 Pop Treasures, The Half-Cubes latest album, is just that -- a treasure chest of great pop/rock covers from the 70s to the 90s. I thoroughly enjoyed it, discovered some people that I’d heard of but never had heard, and reconnected with old favorites. I think you will too.


Gary Frenay and Tommy Allen, who are The Half-Cubes, were kind enough to answer some questions for me.

 

Andrea Weiss: How did you pick the songs on Pop Treasures?


Gary Frenay: We’re huge music fans, so there is no end to our list of favorites. One of us would come up with an idea, and we’d discuss it, mainly to see if it was possible. For me at 71 now, and as the vocalist, I’m always careful about attempting to sing vocals that were originally created by singers - mostly - still in their 20’s. Yikes! But I’m really proud of how these came out and we only lowered the keys, by one full step, on three of the songs. I’ll leave it to the die-hard musicians out there to guess which ones!


Tommy Allen: After we had finished Pop Masters there were several songs that were on the list of covers that were not necessarily appropriate for The Flashcubes, but Gary and I still wanted to do them. Once we began this "phase 2" of our covers sojourn we were knocking out a song a week, which was a pace that The Flashcubes were unable to do, and we were having a blast recording some of our very favorite songs!



AW: There are a lot guests on the album, which is great, and it sounds like everyone wanted to pitch in, so who was invited and/or wanted to be included?


GF: I think we tried on nearly every track to find a connection to someone associated with the original song. We hit several dead ends (Flo & Eddie, anyone?), but often the original artist was happy to join in and flattered that we were doing their song which, as a songwriter myself, I can relate to. it’s the ultimate compliment!


TA: As for the guests, we made every effort where possible to invite the original artists to join us. Some did and were enthused about the project, some didn't, but cheered us on, and some didn't respond to our overtures! We are thrilled to have been able to enlist some of our heroes on their great songs!



AW: Was it hard to cover the well known songs like, say, Jason Faulkner’s “I Live?”


GF: That was a particularly tough one. Such a unique arrangement. And we wanted to pay homage to the amazing way Jason did the song, but put our own touches on it, as well.



AW: How hard was it to cover The Pursuit Of Happiness’s “She’s So Young,” and get Moe Burg, their band leader, to play on it?


GF: Tommy might say otherwise, but that one came together pretty easily, for me. Great song, and what a treat that Moe joined in. The icing on the cake was having Maura Kennedy (of The Kennedys) sing the backing vocals on the choruses. So perfect!


TA: “She’s So Young” is a pop masterpiece! I reached out to my friend Ed Stasium, who had produced The Pursuit of Happiness, and he gave me Moe's contact info. I sent Moe a workmix of our version and asked if he'd like to play the guitar solo, and we are happy he said yes!



AW: The 70s shine on here, which is wonderful. Did you draw from the whole decade or just one part of it?


GF: Well, that is our time, the loins from which we sprang, so to speak. So we’ll always have a great affinity with tunes from that era. But as lifelong pop fans, for us, the hits just keep on coming. A great song is a great song, no matter the decade. And they’re still out there, just never - it seems - on commercial radio anymore. Thankfully, there are so many other avenues to find music now!


TA: our choices weren't based on any particular decade, we simply picked songs we love!



AW: All of these songs are relationship songs. Were any other subjects considered?


GF: Interesting observation! If you combed through the catalog of our own songs as records we’ve released over the past 45 years as The Flashcubes, Screen Test, and my own solo records, I would guess 95% are relationship songs. That’s just what I’m drawn to as a songwriter, and what Tommy and I are drawn to as musicians: boy/girl trumps all! 


TA: Lots of pop songs are about relationships. Our goal was to honor our favorite songs. Lyrical content wasn't a consideration.



AW: Was there any band you wanted to stay away from?


GF: When a song would come up for discussion, one of us would invariably start scouring the internet to see if anyone else had already covered it. If it had been covered, and successfully, we moved on. So not a specific band that we stayed away from, but obvious favorites like Beatles, Beach Boys, Who, Kinks, etc, who have been covered and “tributed” to death, didn’t need us to shine any light on them. Whereas lesser known artist like Beagle, Bertolf, The Sinceros, OMD, Trashcan Sinatras, and many others we covered, greatly deserve to be heard again.


TA: Well, we love The Beatles, but never included any of their songs!



AW: What bands would you recommend people start with if they like what they hear, but are new to power pop?


GF: Well, there’s a great Rhino power pop series that highlights bands from each decade: 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s. Also, their earlier DIY series of US and UK power pop, which The Flashcubes were featured on. But for me, the best starting point is what I consider the Mount Rushmore of Power Pop: Rasperries, Badfinger, Big Star, and Dwight Twilley Band. Can’t go wrong there!


TA: Any fan of the power pop genre could start with the catalogues of the artists we've covered on Pop Treasures."There's gold in them thar hills!!!"

 The Half-Cubes

Pop Treasures

Big Stir Records


The Half-Cubes are one half of the NY State pop/rock band the Flashcubes. This album is all covers of 70s-90s pop/rock bands. Favorites are here, like “Jane” by Van Doren, and Cheap Trick’s “Heaven’s Falling”, but also lost classics like “Not Where It’s At” by Del Amitri, and “I Live” by Jason Faulkner.


It's all rock, and in some cases like “I Live” there is extra guitar, which makes a great song even better, or the female choir that sings the first line of the chorus of “She’s So Young” by the underrated Canadian pop band The Pursuit Of Happiness.


Troubled love and rebellion make up most of the lyrics. Some that aren’t are “She’s So Young,” about both admiring a young woman making her way in the world and also shaking their head at how foolish she can be, and sometimes, like on “I Live,” love works out for the best. Then there is “Tell Someone You Love Them,” by Dino, Desi & Billy, about just that.


The many guests on include Mo Berg from The Pursuit of Happiness, Van Doren himself on “Jane,” and Nick Frenay and Billy & Bobby Alessi on “All For A Reason.” All do the songs proud and link the past with the future.


And the future is what this is also about -- to pass these songs on to a new generation and keep the past alive. Great covers of already wonderful songs makes this album a good haul, and a trove to dig into.


Andrea Weiss

Thursday, September 12, 2024

 The Weeklings

Mr. Soul/Satisfaction (Video)

Jem Records


This fun clip of the band, with special guest Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits fame on lead vocals, shows them performing the song on a stage, with themselves as the audience. It's a blast to watch. The song is a mashup of the Buffalo Springfield and Rolling Stones songs, and they work together seamlessly. It’s such a clever idea. These two classic songs sound enough alike that I'm surprised no one seemed to have had thought of it before, and that adds to the fun big time. So check it out here, and happy viewing.


Andrea Weiss

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