Beth Peabody

Other Woman/Don’t Play (Single)

Jim Basnight Music

This debut double A-side single from Peabody is great power pop. "Other Woman" is rootsy, but I also hear a bit of very early Bangles in its garage rock sound. “Don’t Play” is jangly, a little like the Pretenders' “Talk Of The Town.” Both are wonderful. So if you’re looking for something that looks to the past, but makes it new and different, try these.

Andrea Weiss

 Librarians With Hickeys look to jangle pop and make it rock. As a fan of that genre from the 80s onward, I absolutely wanted to hear this, and was rewarded with a great album.

Ray and Mike from the band were kind enough to answer a few questions.

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

Ray Carmen: I host a show on Luxuria Music called the POP! Radio Program, so I listen to a lot of different things! Believe it or not, I’ve been listening to a lot of punk stuff, like The Pill, The Darts, Honeychain, and bands like that, but one of my current favorite bands is Alvvays, who a friend of mine turned me on to. I am now an Alvvays superfan! Another band I love is The Surfrajettes, a surf band from Toronto. They have a new album out called Easy As Pie, and it’s great--or should I say tasty! And I love the Go! Team, the British band, as well as the Go Team who were on K Records back in the 80s. Then there’s always The Beatles, The Monkees, Queen, The Residents, R. Stevie Moore, Martin Newell, XTC... The list goes on.

Mike Crooker: I wear a lot of hats when writing and recording, so it’s really difficult for me to actively listen to any outside music. I sort of live inside “studioland” 24/7, usually falling asleep with the headphones on while listening to that day’s output. That method seems to work as far as our records are concerned, but it’s not really conducive to hearing any outside music.

AW: What do you think is the difference between jangle rock and pop?

RC: What is the difference between jangle rock and pop? When I think of jangle pop I think of bubblegum music, which I love. When I think of jangle rock, I also think of bubblegum, so to me maybe there isn't much difference.

MC: Sonically, I think of jangle as the sound of a “band”--two guitars (in our case, Rickenbacker and Stratocaster), bass, and drums. Pop, these days, tends to live outside of those parameters: more attention to non-rock band sounds and vocal effects. We live closer to the jangle edge of things.

AW: “Everything Will Be All Right” is a good way to end the album. Did you mean that to be the message?

RC: Yes. Because at the end of the day, you really should shut off social media, which for most people means putting their phones down. It's weird how people still use the phone to stay connected after all these years, but in a completely different way. Most people spend as much time texting or looking at TikTok as they do actually talking to people, and I’m as guilty of that as anyone.

AW: I love the timpani on it. what do you think they add to the song?

MC: With this track I really wanted the Mellotron (strings), chimes, and percussion to shine and give it that epic flavor to play off the lyrics.

RC: The song was meant to be a message song and was written to be the album’s closer. We wanted the song to sound like an epic, and we thought adding tympani (and chimes) would do the job. It did!

AW: Most of these songs seem to be about off-kilter relationships, which I like. Did you mean to emphasize that aspect?

RC: Not really emphasized. That’s why we wanted to make it clear that this isn’t some sort of -urgh! - concept album. When we put the songs together, we realized they just happened to be about how people have tried to communicate over the years, and how nowadays everyone uses their phones, but again, in a completely different way. Mike and I almost never email each other and we never talk on the phone. We always text.

MC: It’s true! One time I accidentally hit “call,” panicked, hung up, and then texted him to apologize!

AW: Is “Hello Operator” one of the most off-kilter?

RC: Well, maybe. Back in the day, people talked to operators all the time, whether it was to get a call put through, to get a phone number, or even to get the time and temperature. Nowadays the only time you would talk to an operator would be to argue with somebody about the gas bill.

MC: The dynamic is one you don’t often get in current music, because of the era it’s set in. But, as we wrote “Hello Operator” first, it really did set the tone for the rest of the album both lyrically and musically.

AW: Are there any local Akron bands that you recommend?

RC: Dave Rich & His Enablers, who are sort of Akron’s answer to Guided By Voices--odd song titles, cool collages for album covers. And they also put out several albums a year. But Dave Rich’s songs are more in a power-pop vein, and they are absolutely top-notch. And Dave’s vocals almost sound to me like an arena-rock Outfield.

Lauren Brabson is a singer-songwriter with a charming, intimate, personal take on indie folk pop. She has some great songs, like “Leo and I Don’t Love The Way You Hate Yourself,” which are my favorites. She just released a new EP called Hey, It’s Me Lauren. She was supposed to sing on our new album, but we couldn’t get our schedules to mesh. Hopefully we will be able to in the future.

The Akronauts are a great alt-rock band with a lead singer who jumps around like he’s in a remake of Flubber. I swear he has springs on his shoes. They put on a fun show, and Joe Baker is a great frontman!

AW:Do you have any plans to tour?

MC: Maybe a series of small house shows, or libraries.

RC: If AARP will foot the bill, sure.

 Librarians With Hickeys

How To Make Friends By Telephone

Big Stir Records

Jangle rock, on the surface, is an update of jangle pop, but with a sharper edge. That’s what this album is all about. How hard can you rock the jangle? Pretty hard, as it turns out.

The album starts as strong as it finishes, with opener “Hello Operator,” about disconnections, and “Everything Will Be Alright” at the end, which could be an anthem for everyone that voted for Harris, as in persevere, be strong, resist, win in 2026 and '28, and everything will be OK. Stop believing the internet on everything.

In between are meaningful songs about life and relationships, mostly troubled love, but “Listening” is about just that. It hits a high note, about just sitting around listening to music, without a care in the world.

So if you’re a fan of jangle anything, new to the genre and want to hear everything from it, or just like something good and different, this album is for you. It's worth your while whether you’re feeling up or down, good or bad.

Andrea Weiss

 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

 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

 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.