Enough malcontent to smash your furniture
What’s the deal? Tweens has only existed as a unit since 2012 and counts as its frontwoman a tart-tongued dynamo named Bridget Battle who’s all of, like, 22 years old, yet the rambunctious Cincinnati trio possesses a rough-hewn musical vocabulary that thrillingly connects the dots between ’70s punk and that innocent moment at the dawn of the ’90s when several influential bands were reshaping the sound along tangents soon to be known as “grunge” and “riot grrl.”
Shorthand, then? If you’ve ever dug the Pretenders, the Clash, X-Ray Spex, the Buzzcocks and the Ramones and then followed that thread, femme- forward, into Bikini Kill, the Muffs and the Donnas, Tweens are for you. There’s a reason Kim Deal invited the band to open a bunch of dates on the Breeders’ Last Splash reunion tour when it was still thoroughly wet behind the ears in 2013.
In any case, Tweens’ self-titled debut album has been out for more than a year now and it still transmits enough malcontented oomph — “I’m too young to be this tired,” sighs Battle on opener “Bored In This City” — that I want to smash my furniture to bits every time I hear it. “Irate” is ageless. Sum up what you do in a few simple sentences. “We play aggressive pop songs about existing and growing up, 22-year-old female cuts about existentialism / boyfriends / betrayal / depression — you know, the good stuff,” emails Battle. “We spend as much time as we can in a rental van — because our own van was scrapped in Beaumont, Texas, and we’ve just never gotten around to getting another one — touring the world, shaking hands, kissing babies, supporting our debut record that came out last year on Frenchkiss.
“We drink a lot of Fernet and we love Toronto.” What’s a song I need to hear right now? “Be Mean.” Tweens clearly have a grasp on the connection between Ronnie Spector and the Ramones. And the Dum Dum Girls have never had this much muscle. Where can I see them play? The Smiling Buddha (961 College St.), Thursday at 9 p.m., with Sam Coffey & the Iron Lungs and Boat Culture.
For more information on the show, go to bit.ly/1hMFVuj.