Librarians With Hickeys - Listening
Ohio indie rockers LIBRARIANS WITH HICKEYS celebrate the release of their acclaimed new album HOW TO MAKE FRIENDS BY TELEPHONE with the third single from the record (and an all-new video to go with it). “Listening”, the band's love song to the transformative power of radio, hits all digital platforms as a standalone track on November 14. While it's available as part of the album out now, the single release is up for pre-order and pre-save at.
Following the global indie radio success of the pre-album singles “Hello Operator” and “No More Goodbyes” as well as the celebrated bow of HOW TO MAKE FRIENDS as an album, “Listening” is cut
from the same shimmering jangle pop cloth, but takes a more personal lyrical approach. It tells the story of lead vocalist Ray Carmen refecting back on his teenage years, holed up in his bedroom, shutting out the less-than-stellar world of late seventies high school, listening to radio stations like Cleveland’s legendary WMMS, and to records by two of his all-time favorite bands who completely changed his view of the world, the Beatles, and Queen.
Immediately after graduating high school, Carmen would begin tuning left of the dial to Cleveland State University’s WCSB, and to the University Of Akron’s WAUP, where LWH lead guitarist Mike Crooker hosted a late-night radio show in the early 80s. There he would be exposed to indie artists like the Residents and Robert Wyatt (two more of his all-time favorites), and his view of the world would be shifted, yet again. Crooker says, “Radio in the midwest was a lifeline to the outside world that television wasn’t or couldn’t be. Getting exposed to what became known as 'College Rock' music was life-altering, sending me down a path to becoming a musician as a vocation, a job that I couldn’t even conceive of a few years earlier. I’m still in love with the radio, and it never gets old hearing LWH blasting out of the speakers on stations worldwide!”
While you may not hear the Residents and Robert Wyatt in the band’s music (more frequently likened to the likes of The Byrds or The Church), their indie attitude is totally in line with the band’s aesthetic. The band hopes “Listening” will take you back to the very frst time music changed the world for you. And be sure and ask Mike Crooker
sometime about the artists he played on WAUP (but be prepared, and bring snacks, because it’s going to be a while), and the time Carmen won tickets to see the late Phillip “Snakefnger” Lithman by calling in to his show. And most of all, support the indie radio stations worldwide who are sure to be spinning “Listening” as they have with all of LIBRARIANS WITH HICKEYS' 2024 releases. It's good to hear mutual love on the airwaves, and you can bring it home by adding HOW TO MAKE FRIENDS BY TELEPHONE to your CD collection or digital library now.
