RickiC614 Blog: Mrs. Children, The Whiles and The Beatles Marathon

Ricki C at his Growing Old With Rock & Roll blog has long post from 2013 detailing his history with Joe Peppercorn, the pre-Whiles band Mrs. Children, and the legendary Beatles Marathon Joe puts on. Here's part of that:

I first met the band's main songwriter Joe Peppercorn in maybe January of 2002.  It was at my day-job at Ace In The Hole Music Exchange, an indie record store in Columbus, when he came in the day after I had co-hosted a local record review radio show.  "Was that you on Invisible Hits Hour last night?" the kid on the other side of the counter asked.  "Did you like the show?" I queried.  "Yeah, it was great," he answered.  "Yeah, that was me," I replied.  He paused for a moment, then said, "What were you gonna say if I DIDN'T like it?"  "I was gonna say it was the white-haired guy who owns the store.  The last thing I need is little 311 fans coming in here hassling me because I bad-mouthed their favorite band and I can't walk away from them." 

Joe laughed, then got serious and said to me, "I just wanted to come in and thank you because five or six years ago you were on that show and you played The Velvet Underground and I had never heard them and got into them because of you."  I just stared at him for a second, then said, "You have just validated everything I've ever gone through to be on that show.  I owe Lou Reed a gigantic rock & roll debt and you just helped me pay some of it off." 

We talked a little more about music & such and when he was leaving Joe said, "I'm in a band.  If we made a record would you sell it in the store?"  "Absolutely," I replied, thinking that was the end of it.  I would say at that point every tenth kid under 25 that came in the store was "in a band, and they were gonna make a record, and would we sell it at the store?" and not more than three of them ever returned.

Video: Already on Your Side by The Whiles (at Helling Yeah! II 2017)

Columbus Alive: Fatherhood Inspires New Whiles Album ‘Mercury Ghost’

Lots of bands come together and burn out in short periods. Luckily The Whiles, while only four albums deep, have managed to stay loosely together and put out material every few years. Here is an article from the Columbus Alive regarding their 2013 album Mercury Ghost.

When Whiles singer Joe Peppercorn and his wife had their first child seven years ago, it changed the way he viewed his role in the universe. 

“I describe being a parent to people as that ‘Back to the Future’ photo, where Marty McFly sees himself start to disappear,” said Peppercorn, clad in a Brian Wilson T-shirt at a Downtown coffee shop. “I think that’s a good thing, realizing how small I am and how many billion people [there are]. I never understood that until I had children and realized how much bigger the world is than myself.” 

That change of perspective worked its way into the Whiles’ excellent new album, Mercury Ghost, which the band will celebrate with a release show at Ace of Cups on Friday, Nov. 4. The lush, melodic pop record is the band’s fourth release on Anyway Records in a nearly 20-year career that has seen the Whiles flirt with major-label success and play alongside many national acts, especially early in its career. 

2012′s Somber Honey ushered in the second phase of the Whiles, in which Peppercorn and his bandmates accepted that mainstream success may never come, and that live performances and releases may be few and far between. But the chemistry and friendship among the members - singer/guitarist/pianist Peppercorn and his brother, lead guitarist Matt Peppercorn, plus bassist Chris Bolognese, guitarist/engineer Jake Remley and Cleveland-based drummer Paul Headley - glue the Whiles together. 

“It’s a very intense connection,” Peppercorn said. “That’s the only reason we’re able to still be a band. We can get together and it clicks. I think there’s an implicit agreement that if we get together and it doesn’t work, that’s when we should probably stop.”

New Additions: Colors Of The Year album by The Whiles

To call this a new addition is a bit of cheat. I did own this record when it came out but during my massive physical media purge of the mid-2000s, it ended up at a record store and all I had were poorly ripped MP3s. I'm glad to have the debut album by The Whiles back in my collection. Colors Of The Year did not connect with me a first, I heard similarities to 2000s Wilco that rubbed me the wrong way at the time, but having returned to it, I hear it with greater depth and understanding of what they were doing. Most of all, I have a better appreciation of what Joe and Zack were doing vocally and have a broader catalog of music to draw from for comparisons.

Know Yer Band: The Whiles

Band: The Whiles

Members
Chris Bolognese - Bass, Vocals
Paul Headley - Drums
Joe Peppercorn - Guitar, Piano, Vocals
Jake Remley - Guitar
Matt Peppercorn - Guitar
Zack Prout - Vocals, Percussion

Releases
2004 - Colors Of The Year album (Anyway Records)
2007 - Sleepers Wake (Anyway Records)
2012 - Somber Honey (Anyway Records)
2013 - Mercury Ghost (Anyway Records)