Self-described as a "nasty, doo-woppy band," Cincinnati's Tweens borrow from their hometown's rock history as well as from bad-girl punk from the '70s through the '90s. The trio formed in April 2012 when vocalist/guitarist Bridget Battle began playing a Dixie-Cups song with drummer Jerri Queen and bassist Peyton Copes in the practice space of the house they shared. It was very different musical territory than the trio's other projects: Battle was a member of the electronic noise band Public Housing, while Queen and Copes played in the experimental punk act Vacation.
Soon after forming, Tweens began playing local shows and released a cassette of cover songs, Live @ Mohawk. The band got a big break in 2013 when Kim Deal booked the band as an opening act for one of the Breeders' Last Splash reunion gigs on the recommendation of Jim Blaze, owner of Cincinnati record shop Shake It Records. Deal was so impressed she brought on the band to play much of the Breeders' East Coast dates and their entire West Coast tour. Between these shows and dates with the Black Lips, the band still managed to record its self-titled debut album with Eli Janney at Brooklyn's Saltlands Studio, and Tweens was released in April 2014 on Frenchkiss Records.
The album's first single, “Be Mean,” is a biting anthem, with Battle crooning, “I want you to be mean to me,” while “Forever” harkens back to a girl-gang sound, this time with driving bass. The band sites Bay Area punks The Donnas, The Trashwomen, and the Bobbyteens as influences—and that bubblegum badass vibe is apparent throughout the full-length—but the trash pop sound Tweens are creating is truly their own, bratty and precocious, sincere and genuine.
