From left, Zeek Weekling (Bob Burger), Lefty Weekling (Glen Burtnik), Smokestack Weekling (Joe Bellia) and Rocky Weekling (John Merjave).
“The irony of being loud in a library,” said Glen Burtnik. “Awesome, man.”
Burtnik’s band The Weeklings will present a free show in an unusual venue, the Monmouth County Library in Manalapan, Jan. 27 at 2 p.m.. Burtnik called the “Morning Dew” program, which airs every Saturday night from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. on WFDU (89.1 FM), to plug this show, and others, and talk about the band’s music. (You can listen to the complete interview, and all the songs played during it, below.)
One of the songs that “Morning Dew” host Bob O’Donnell played was the band’s 2018 single, “In the Moment,” which deviates a little from The Weeklings’ usual Beatlesque sound.
“When we started as a band,” said Burtnik, aka Lefty Weekling, “we started from The Beatles. We said, ‘Okay, Let’s use these guys as a template.’ So, our first album (2015’s The Weeklings) was a lot more basic. It was in mono; we recorded it in mono. The second album (2016’s Studio 2), the same thing, but instead of us making believe it was 1963, we were making believe it was 1965, maybe.
“And then this song … it was time to come up with new material, in the writing process, anyway. This one kind of took us to a new place. There’s a little bit of prog in it, which is an important part of our … you know, we’re big fans, especially Zeek (Bob Burger) and myself, we’re big fans of some of the great prog bands of the ’70s, and stuff like that. So I think we kind of dipped our toe in that water. One could say it’s got a lot of Beatles influence, and also you could say, ‘Gee, it’s nothing like what the Beatles would do.’ ”
In addition to performing in Manalapan, The Weeklings will be at the Loft at City Winery in New York, March 10; The Fest for Beatles Fans at the Hyatt Regency in Jersey City, March 31; iPlay America in Freehold, April 7; and the New Hope Winery in New Hope, Pa., May 17. Visit weeklings.com.
