Low Cut Connie

Low Cut Connie championed a gritty strain of rock and roll sleaze echoing Jerry Lee Lewis' Live at the Star Club alongside the rawest Rolling Stones sides, yet stood apart from fellow revivalists by balancing their incisive, witty compositions with propulsive, dance-oriented grooves. Their sound further set them apart through Adam Weiner's prominent piano work, an instrument largely absent from straightforward rock in the 2010s. Weiner's forceful keyboard attack powered early tracks such as "Shake It Little Tina" and "Boozophilia," the latter earning placement on President Barack Obama's 2015 Summer Playlist. Soon after, founding guitarist Dan Finnemore departed, freeing Weiner to explore bolder endeavors including the two-part album Dirty Pictures and the politically charged 2023 release Art Dealers.

A New Jersey native who had honed his craft in piano bars under the moniker Ladyfingers—sharing bills at times with Merrill Garbus, later known as tUnE-yArDs—Weiner encountered Birmingham, England-born Finnemore in Manhattan during 2010; the pair quickly relocated operations to Philadelphia. They recorded their debut Get Out the Lotion in the middle of that year and issued it independently in 2011, drawing favorable notices from critics Robert Christgau and Ken Tucker. The more polished follow-up Call Me Sylvia arrived in 2012, broadening their audience through appearances on NPR's World Café and a performance at Third Man Records.

For the 2015 album Hi Honey the duo enlisted producer Thomas Brenneck, whose résumé included work with Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings as well as Charles Bradley and Black Keys, while securing guest spots from Dean Ween and Garbus; they simultaneously solidified the lineup by adding Will Donnelly and James Everhart as permanent members. Hi Honey surfaced on Contender Records that spring. The band's visibility climbed further when Obama again spotlighted their 2012 track "Boozophilia" on his summertime playlist. By year's end Finnemore had amicably exited to return to England. Weiner reassembled the group in 2016 with drummer Larry Scotton and bassist Lucas Rinz, then captured a live set at Ardent Studios in Memphis. Splitting the results into separate installments, Low Cut Connie issued Dirty Pictures, Pt. 1 in May 2017 and Pt. 2 twelve months later.

Those two albums attracted high-profile admirers. Elton John aired Low Cut Connie on his radio program and dedicated "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" to them during a 2018 Philadelphia concert. Howard Stern welcomed the band for a David Bowie tribute performance, and Bruce Springsteen voiced his appreciation. Weiner channeled the acclaim into Tough Cookies, an online streaming concert series that doubled as a radio show during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic; initially focused on Low Cut Connie, it later featured regular appearances by other artists. Selections from the broadcasts surfaced in 2021 as Tough Cookies: The Best of the Quarantine Broadcasts, arriving several months after the atmospheric Private Lives.

Low Cut Connie resurfaced in 2023 with Art Dealers, an homage to New York City's vibrant 1970s artistic underground that also served as pointed social commentary, accompanied by a feature-length film incorporating every song from the album.