The 61st Big Stir Digital Single of the Week is the second “Single of the Week” from Akron Ohio’s LIBRARIANS WITH HICKEYS! “Until There Was You” b/w “And Then She’s Gone” will be available for download Friday, February 21st and this duo of wonderful songs is available for pre order now! Just head on over to www.bigstirrecords.com/big-stir-digital-singles

LIBRARIANS WITH HICKEYS crawled from the wreckage of a post-industrial Akron, Ohio, and decided to stick around and form a band because… WHAT ELSE ARE YOU GOING TO DO???

Digging deep into the wellspring of power pop for inspiration Librarians With Hickeys added a 150-proof shot of indie rock, and have released two singles in their narrative arc. According to those in the know, there is much more music waiting in the wings. Last Summer the group brought you “Black Velvet Dress” b/w “Alex,” (Big Stir Digital Single #34. Both songs have received world-wide airplay and rave reviews, with both sides widely hailed as highlights of the Big Stir Singles: The Third Wave CD. On top of it all, they're a hell of a live band, working their local scene and beyond in a style that's all too rare in the days of isolated home recording – in short the Librarians are all-arounders in a way that makes them a band after our own hearts, and, we feel confident, yours as well.

The band started off 2019 with their self-released debut double “A” side single “Until There Was You” and “And Then She's Gone” which showcased the twin guitar jangle and chime of Ray Carmen (vocals, guitar) and Mike Crooker (guitar, vocals), the propulsive groove of Andrew Wilco (bass) and the rhythmic backbone of Rob Crossley (drums). On Big Stir Records’ side of the ledger, credit goes to label founder Christina Bulbenko's keen midwestern ears for catching those tunes early on and recognizing the Librarians as kindred spirits, in both musical aesthetics and the community ethos. Their banner year, and the tunes they are busily crafting for their debut album (due in 2020 on Big Stir) more than bear her instincts out.

“For anyone out there who may still, for some unfathomable reason, question the power and the glory of the three-minute four-chord p-o-p song done right, “Black Velvet Dress” will in no way fail to raise you off your settee and shove things direct towards the nearest Volume UP knob,” opines Gary Pig Gold of “The Rock and Roll Report.” “Nostalgic? No. The correct word would be timeless!” We at Big Stir Records couldn't agree more. For Librarians With Hickeys, the time is clearly now!

Because the band finds it difficult to continue writing about itself in the third person, here are other people – who are not us, – saying nice things about the band.

Gary Pig Gold / The Rock and Roll Report For anyone out there who may still, for some unfathomable reason, question the power and the glory of the three-minute four-chord p-o-p song done right, “Black Velvet Dress” will in no way fail to raise you off your settee and shove things direct towards the nearest Volume UP knob. “I heard you were giving a funeral today” may indeed be the first words voiced here, but what follows instead is a deceptively cheery deep breeze through all the brightest and the best of a circa-’78 playlist from your most trusted music geek’s audio closet. Nostalgic? No. The word would be “timeless.” N.B.: stay tuned for the coda too. Meanwhile, “Alex” sports the exceptionally ethereal sheen of, say, The Springfield or even The Who at their most subtle and nuanced …and the concluding 30 seconds are just about the most gorgeous I’ve spent all year. Oh! and Hunt down then repeatedly hear these Librarians’ “And Then She’s Gone” b/w “Until There Was You” as well. And let’s all hope their long-promised full-length album isn’t much longer overdue.

Mike DeAngelis / There Once Was A Note Librarians With Hickeys, “Black Velvet Dress”…Haven’t met the band personally, but I’d bet the farm that they’ve spent some quality time listening to Bob Mould. It has that propulsive, high octane feel of Sugar, and even some of the more melodic Husker Du tracks. Explosive, yet tight power pop. “Alex”…Haight Ashbury, The Ed Sullivan Show on a black and white TV, and those cool Roger McGuinn shades while David Crosby sings harmony vocals. This one will take you back to all of that. Fantastic track.

Kim Hatten / Bliss/Aquamarine Ray Carmen... leads Librarians with Hickeys, who appear here with “Black Velvet Dress” which combines atmospheric indiepop with powerpop oomph, and “Alex,” a very lovely dreamy jangly indiepop song. Definitely a band I'm keen to hear more from.

Malcolm X Abram / Akron Beacon Journal Librarians with Hickeys, a group of power poppers... who make melodic rock ‘n’ roll without, as the name implies, taking themselves too seriously. “Black Velvet Dress,” ...groove on the peppy, snappy, guitar-driven tune that kind of reminds of early 1990s “college rock. The B-side “Alex” has a breezy, jangle-pop groove and Carmen’s high tenor voice is soothing. Big Stir Digital Single #61 “Until There Was You” b/w “And Then She’s Gone” by Librarians with Hickeys to be released Friday, February 21st, 2020, available for pre-order RIGHT NOW!! -- www.bigstirrecords.com/big-stir-digital-singles

LIBRARIANS WITH HICKEYS are the stars of this week's BIG STIR DIGITAL SINGLE! Credit the keen ears of BSR co-founder Christina Bulbenko for tuning in to the Akron, Ohio's classic-but-timeless power pop sound even before their debut double A-side starting commanding the airwaves of some of our favorite DJs, and pinning them down for this equally-brilliant followup pairing. “Black Velvet Dress” b/w “Alex” are out Friday, July 12 and available for pre-order now!

www.bigstirrecords.com/big-stir-digital-singles

LIBRARIANS WITH HICKEYS having crawled from the wreckage of a post-industrial Akron, Ohio, decided to stick around the Midwest and eventually formed a band. They paradoxically could only have come from both 1989 and 2019, both of which are true.*

Digging deep into the wellspring of Power Pop for inspiration, with a shot of Indie Rock, “Black Velvet Dress” b/w “Alex” marks a Big Stir Records chapter in the Librarians With Hickeys narrative arc, building on the momentum** of their debut single “Until There Was You” and “And Then She's Gone” which showcased the twin guitar jangle and chime of Ray Carmen (vocals/guitar) and Mike Crooker (guitar/backing vocals), the melodic groove of Andrew Wilco (Bass) and the rhythmic backbone of Rob Crossley (drums). “Black Velvet Dress” charges straight out of the blocks with a snare fill and feedback that signals that it means business. The opening couplet announces “I heard you were giving a funeral today / you were mourning the death of another morning alone.” Then, in the chorus, the instant after the insistent title hook and sing-a-long harmony vocals delivers the goods, Crooker channels his-inner Brian May with a guitar line he's been dying to use since 1974. Watch your step, as the bridge sets-up an emotional big-bang payoff with smashed glasses littering the floor. “Alex” switches gears, building from its acoustic intro into a mid-tempo jangle with Carmen's haunting layered vocals ethereally guiding the song. The atmospheric “jack-in-the-box” piano and violin leads the song into a hazy reverb-drenched fade-out worthy of a David Lynch film. Lyrically, both songs feature protagonists talking to themselves in mirrors – “Alex” poignantly follows an overheard conversation of a man struggling overcome self-doubt in the face of adversity and to convince himself (and the listener) to stand up for his dignity and well-being. “Black Velvet Dress” comes at it from a different angle, with our heroine not having any of it and putting on her “best party dress” and having a hell of a time for herself and nobody else. For this recording, the band employed its usual DIY approach in the “studio” (a.k.a. Mike's family room) which involves a Rube Goldberg-like contraption that utilizes a dodgy laptop computer, some ancient software and a pile of gaffer-taped microphones, situated right next to the year-round Christmas tree and a seemingly endless pile of cassettes demos left over from mysterious time-travelers from 1989*** They are hard at work on a full album which should be done... soon. * (The short version is Mike and Rob played in a band together, and Ray managed them for a short while. Then Mike produced a record for Ray who had his own prolific solo career. A few years later Rob and Drew played together in a completely different band that Mike also produced. Then many years later Mike, Rob and Drew were in yet another completely different band. Finally, Ray, Mike, Rob and Drew all joined the same band at the same time. The longer version is much, much more complicated and involves a flow chart that Pete Frame would throw his hands up in despair at – and therefore, can't be reproduced here). ** (The worldwide response to that first single was surprising to the band, who assumed that there must be another band with the same name who happened to release a single with the same song titles at the exact same time. When informed this was not the case, they were still not convinced. However, it was only when Big Stir Records offered to release their next single, that they began to come around to the idea that all of the airplay and positive reviews were true, although Rob still makes a convincing case for Doppelgangers). *** (It turns out under later inspection that they were in fact Crooker's demos from 1989, but he has no recollection of writing or recording them, leading to the obvious conclusion that he was replaced by a time-traveler.)