Tweens

TWEENS, a Cincinnati trio, call themselves a "nasty, doo-woppy band" that pulls from the city's rock past and from the defiant female-led punk of the seventies, eighties, and nineties. The group came together in April 2012 after vocalist and guitarist Bridget Battle started running through a Dixie-Cups number with drummer Jerri Queen and bassist Peyton Copes inside the rehearsal room of the house the three shared. The new project marked a clear shift from their other bands, as Battle played in the electronic noise outfit Public Housing while Queen and Copes performed with the experimental punk act Vacation. Shortly after forming, TWEENS began appearing at local gigs and put out a cassette of covers titled Live @ Mohawk. A key opportunity arrived in 2013 when the proprietor of a nearby record store recommended the band to open one of the Breeders' Last Splash reunion concerts. That slot led to further dates supporting the Breeders across much of their East Coast run and the entire West Coast portion of the tour. While juggling those shows and additional appearances with the Black Lips, the trio recorded its self-titled debut album with Eli Janney at Saltlands Studio in Brooklyn, and the record appeared in April 2014.