Last spring, Akron’s Time Cat disbanded after 10 years and intermittent member Jeri Sapronetti called fellow songwriter Corey Jenkins immediately ready to put together a new band. Within a day, Holbrook Riles III (HR3, Free Black!), Samantha Grace, Robert Keith (the Dreemers), and Cody Miller (Tales For The Deaf) had agreed to join them, and Big Pop was born.
Big Pop plans to release a new single accompanied by a music video once every six to eight weeks. The first single, the Cars-like “Can’t Even Tell” just came out. Recorded before the band officially formed, the tune was cut by Jenkins in his basement during the height of quarantine. The drums are courtesy of Joel Tietz, Jenkins’s longtime friend and collaborator.
The video serves as part one of a seven part episodic video series the band has been working on.
Since forming the band has accepted very few shows, only playing at Akron’s Lock 3 and during the Highland Square PorchRokr Festival.
“We’ve all taken the approach of playing as much as possible in the past and decided it was time to try a different approach,” Jenkins says in a press release.
“As much as we all love playing live, if you do it constantly in your hometown you really dilute the attendance at your shows and people begin to take for granted that they can see you pretty much whenever they want,” adds Sapronetti. “We want Big Pop shows to be somewhat rare occurrences and really for each show to be an event!”
Big Pop only has one other show booked for 2021 – on Dec. 18 during a two-day holiday concert extravaganza at the Rialto Theatre in Akron. The roster of bands is still being finalized, but Detention and A Band Named Ashes will both be on the bill as well.
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