Photo By Dale M. Johnson

Spindle has never worked harder on anything than their new CD, Self Serve Surgery, due out this summer.

Spindle: Self Serve Surgery
Release Date: Late July/early August (tentative)

The Skinny: When rockers Spindle hit the stage during the inaugural MidPoint Music Festival in 2002 at a packed-to-the-gills Cavern, there seemed little doubt that the group -- who had drawn the most industry buzz at the event -- wasn't far from getting a big-time record deal and becoming the next local act to draw national attention. While it took a couple of years, that speculation seems on the verge of coming to fruition, as the band prepares for its first release on New York City-based Triple Crown Records, home to platinum Pop/Punk group Brand New.

The band's heavy touring schedule was crucial to their signing. "We became friends with Brand New last spring through touring, and they brought us to their label's attention," says Spindle frontman Grant Arnow.

The label has an eclectic roster of Hardcore and Emo acts, so Spindle -- with their arena-ready moves, toughened Emo core, interesting guitar work, powerhouse rhythm section and Arnow's charismatic, almost theatrical vocal presence -- is a perfect fit and should be able to take full advantage of the label's wide distribution reach (the indie label has distribution through BMG).

The group spent four months working on the album with The Fags' bassist Tim Patalan in Ann Arbor, Mich. "We fought a lot, especially as the process wore on," Arnow says of the recording. "But we had a lot of fun as well. On a personal level, I learned a lot about myself. I've never worked harder on anything than I did on that record ... and I'm proud of that."

Anyone who's seen Spindle live knows about the "star quality" they exude. Now it's time to see if the rest of the world will notice it, too. (spindlefamily.com; triplecrownrecords.com)

Cari Clara: Miniature American Model Society
Release Date: July 13

The skinny: With his 2002 self-titled debut under the alter-ego Cari Clara moniker, singer/songwriter Eric Diedrichs unquestionably succeeded in removing comparisons to his successful Power Pop band The Simpletons from the minds of new listeners. With an ethereal, majestic lo-fi sound that took a less direct approach to melody and songwriting, the one-man Cari Clara quickly became one of the most talked about "bands" in town, a pretty steep accomplishment when you consider this was based almost solely on the actual recording and not any sort of live show.

Photo By Dale M. Johnson

Cari Clara with Eric Diedrichs (far right)

Diedrichs has since assembled an impressive backing band of local music vets for concerts, but for Miniature American Model Society he maintained his more solitary ways, recording the entire project in his home studio by himself.

Diedrichs says that for the next album he hopes to utilize the entire band. It was put together at the same time the album was being recorded, so he says he felt more comfortable finishing the project on his own. His reliance on capturing the creative spark as it happens -- being hit with inspiration and then getting it on to tape immediately -- makes it impractical to stop everything and phone in his bandmates.

"It's about getting that initial emotion in my head and then seeing it through to the finish," Diedrichs says of his process. "(Recording on my own) is out of necessity more than anything." But he's clearly excited to include the full band on future projects. "I love my band, as musicians and as people. I pray I never have to trade a member away."

Though less lo-fi, Diedrichs recaptures and expands on the dark, textural and gut-wrenchingly emotional vibe of Cari Clara on Society, his first release for the locally-based Tiberius Records, which will throw full promotional support (radio, press, touring) behind the album this summer.

With Tiberius' wide indie distribution and promotional net, Diedrichs will be logging a ton of touring miles in the months following the album's national release date, doing shows solo or with the full band (or factions of the band, given some bandmembers' work schedules and his brother/bandmate Mark Diedrichs' recent move to Chicago). Locally, the album will be released in conjunction with a show at The Cavern. It can't come quick enough for Diedrichs, who says he despises any time off from his music.

"When I finished the record and was just waiting on the (release plans), I got really depressed and didn't really know why," he says. "Then I realized it was because I wasn't really doing anything (but waiting for the album to come out). I don't like downtime." (cariclara.com; tiberiusrecords.com)

Bottom Line: Eloquence
Release Date: September

Bottom Line is finishing a new album as it gets ready to again play the Vans Warped Tour.

The skinny: It's a good time to be a great Pop/Punk band like Cincinnati's Bottom Line, with the genre mercifully taking over Nü-Metal's position as the main type of guitar-driven music being featured in mainstream outlets like MTV and Top 40 radio. And summer (albeit late summer) is the perfect time for Bottom Line's second full-length studio album (and first long-player with all new material) to be released, as the band gets ready to appear on the Vans Warped Tour for the fourth year in a row.

The group's upcoming release is said to be more adventurous than their last album, 2002's In and Out of Luck, and other CDs by their poppy peers, even letting unexpected influences like Latin music seep into the mix while still retaining the group's acute knack for solid hooks, brawny guitars and kinetic energy. The band recorded the album themselves in a rented house in West Chester over a three-month period, spending extra time to make it more of a "studio" project than a re-creation of a live show.

Bottom Line gets some far-reaching distribution bonuses by being the flagship band for Cincinnati's Nice Guy Records, run by Jamie Mandel of Caruso and The Scrubs. Mandel's ability to get Nice Guy albums into chain stores like Best Buy -- not to mention the label's connection with sturdy indie distributors like Choke and Revelation -- means all those Warped Tour attendees won't have to look far for Eloquence, a vital component to the band's current and future success. The disc will feature a music video (filmed in Cincinnati) and some "making of" footage, and the album itself features Jeremiah Rangel of the band Mest as a guest vocalist on the song "Desperate Measures." (bottomlinepunk.com; niceguyrecords.com)

Messerly and Ewing: Darkness Drops Again
Release Date: June 12

The skinny: Since their critically acclaimed 2001 release The Last Twelve Hours, the contemporary Roots Pop/Rock duo of Mark Messerly and Brian Ewing began performing shows with a full band, won the 97Xposure local band competition and remained at the forefront of the local Roots music scene. For their latest album, Darkness Drops Again, the band enlisted the Ass Ponys' Chuck Cleaver to produce (fellow Pony Randy Cheek played bass) and set about to make a more "live sounding" album that utilized the full band mentality. For the first time, the twosome worked out songs with a band rather than just between the two of them.

"We were trying to make a good 'driving in the car' kind of record," Messerly says, adding that, while different from their last album, Darkness is more like R.E.M.'s progression from Fables of the Reconstruction to Life's Rich Pageant than U2's drastic sound shift from The Joshua Tree to Acthung Baby.

M&E fans were given the opportunity to follow the duo's recording process via their Web site, where they'd post MP3 files of the songs as they were being developed in the studio. Messerly says that the online audio journals didn't exactly affect the final outcome of the record. But there's always next time.

Mark Messerly (right) and Brian Ewing

"So far no one has played arm-chair producer," he says. "Maybe by the next album we can have people mix the songs themselves. I'd love to hear that!" (messerlyandewing.com)

Emily Strand: Delay in the Connection
Release Date: July 31

The skinny: The title of the sophomore CD from singer/songwriter Emily Strand seems more and more fitting the further it gets away from its initial release date this spring. But Strand -- who specializes in smart, confident and organic Pop songs -- can be forgiven for the slight delay in connecting fans with her new release.

The Cincinnati-bred songwriter who now lives in Dayton had an already busy schedule (revolving around the completion of Delay, maintaining a live show presence and teaching at the University of Dayton) augmented by her victory in last year's 97Xposure local band contest. The win meant free studio time, which will result in yet another album this year, and also led to the formation of a full band, now dubbed Emily Strand and the Town.

"I'm convinced (the delay was) because I chose to name the album Delay in the Connection," Strand jokes. "It was cursed."

Strand recorded Delay in the Connection (her follow-up to 2000's Evansville) in Nashville with Eric Fritsch, a Columbus-reared producer and multi-instrumentalist who has produced and toured with ex-V-Roys frontman Scott Miller and his group The Commonwealth. She was turned onto Fritsch by hearing the album he did with her friend Sara Beck. The new CD features backup from several Nashville session players.

Strand says the delay was actually the result of listening to the initial mixes and deciding to take a different approach to vocals. So she re-camped to the studio in March, remixed and recut vocals and even recorded a whole new song.

Photo By Dale M. Johnson

Emily Strand is set to finally release her new CD, Delay in the Connection.

"I have so much more confidence in the record as a product after deciding to delay it," Strand says. "So it's been frustrating but worth it."

The disc will be released in conjunction with a show at the BarrelHouse. (emilystrand.com)

Len's Lounge: The Longest Night
Release Date: July 17

The skinny: Late last year, Jeff Roberson's Americana group Len's Lounge took to the stage of Jack Quinn's in Covington to record two Winter Solstice shows that would span the entire 12 years' worth of LL releases. Then the live retrospective would be lightly cleaned up and mixed for a quick-turnaround spring CD release.

After listening to the tapes, it became clear that -- thanks to some extraneous elements, including drunken crowd noise, plus mix and EQ problems -- more work had to be done on the back end. Ultrasuede Studio's John Curley (a former Lounger) took on the task of mixing it into listenable shape while retaining the, to use Roberson's words, "live and raw and human and spontaneous and no-holds-barred" quality of the performance.

The CD marks the end of another era for the band. The group has always had something of a revolving-door membership (with Roberson the only constant) and, following The Longest Night's release, Roberson & Co. will bid adieu to Annie Winslow, who, besides singing and playing guitar and mandolin with the band, was also a songwriting contributor. Night is set to feature three Winslow songs, including her new Cincinnati-centric song, "Cut in the Hill," plus a plethora of Roberson's compositions, from unreleased tunes to "Whirl," which dates back to an early Len's Lounge cassette release (wow, remember those?). The band plans a CD release party July 17 at The Cavern.

The disc also captures Len's Lounge "in stride," according to Roberson. With Mick Stapleton of The Stapletons on drums and Ben Doepke of Homunculus sitting in on keyboards, Roberson says The Longest Night represents "a signal of intent that Len's Lounge is turning back to a little bit more Rock & Roll."

Roberson says that, as a fan of the medium, he's excited to have a live album added to the LL canon.

"I love live CDs, always have," he says. "They seem to have fallen from favor on the critical level, but I love the shit that happens that you don't intend on happening -- the oblique spontaneity and the risk. Music for me is ultimately a document of time and place, and the live recording is a literal illustration of that." (lenslounge.com) ©