On new single ‘BAIT,’ Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers are at their most biting and satirical, writing from the perspective of the worst person you’ve ever met: the ego-driven music industry man who thinks he’s God’s gift. Propelled by a thick, muddy bass riff and punctuated by cowbell, Anna Ryan’s almost robotic vocals reflect this man’s general disinterest and come underpinned by restrained guitars chopping in off beat and swirling. “‘BAIT’ is big ego, full menace mode.” the band shares. “We wrote it in LA, channeling a delusional man who thinks he’s God’s gift to earth. It was fun to cosplay as someone we’d all probably hate in real life.” 

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GLORY is an exploration of confidence, disgust, infatuation, and power set against widescreen indie-rock you can strut to, ushering in a bold new era for the band. It’s the sound of getting the bus home after a night out, mascara smeared and battery on 1%. It’s the conspiratorial eye roll you share with a girlfriend when a loser guy won’t stop talking. It’s Cher Horowitz declaring, “Ugh, as if!” in Clueless.

The new single ‘MOTHER’ is unlike anything Teen Jesus have released before. With guitarist Scarlett McKahey taking lead vocals for the first time, its twangy, western-inspired beginnings explode into fury, the band screaming at the top of their lungs and leaving no room for anyone else. On ‘MOTHER’ the band shares…

“’MOTHER’ is for every beautiful, magical lady who’s been caught in the crossfire of a man pretending to be good. It’s about the built up rage of watching incredible women being mistreated by inadequate men, over and over again since the beginning of time.”

Produced by 3x GRAMMY Award-winning, London-based Catherine Marks (boygenius’ The Record, Wolf Alice), GLORY is an album the band calls “completely us”: the work of musicians who know exactly who they are, what they’re worth and what they want to create. Together with Marks, the band spent five intense weeks at a home studio on Darkinjung Land / NSW’s Central Coast, shaping every detail until the songs sounded exactly as intended. Marks fostered an environment where they felt empowered to say no, encouraged to experiment, and free to throw out whatever didn’t fit — all in service of arriving at the truest distillation of their sound. Every vocal, instrumental part, and lyric on GLORY emerged exactly as the band envisioned, their musicianship taking centre stage to deliver the suckerpunch power that drives the record.

GLORY:

1. WATCHING ME LEAVE
2. BALCONY
3. TURN AROUND
4. TALKING
5. DAYLIGHT
6. MINE
7. MOTHER
8. BAIT
9. UNSCARRED
10. WONDERFUL

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 “‘UNSCARRED’ was written after hearing about a friend’s failed situationship with a male musician,” the band shares. “It’s a feeling we can all relate to—when you think you’re on the same page as someone (who in reality can’t talk about their feelings and end up making you feel insane). It was nice being able to write from her shoes without actually going through the treachery of dating this man.”

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“’BALCONY’ IS FOR WHEN YOU’RE FEELING CHEEKY AND WANT TO KISS SOMEONE ON THE FACE AND GET KICKED OUT OF A BAR!!! CHAOS!!!!!” say Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers.

‘BALCONY’ marks a bold new chapter for the band, expanding their signature sound with widescreen indie-rock flair. It’s the first track to emerge from a five-week recording stint at The Grove Studios in so-called NSW with London-based producer Marks, who the band calls “a frickin dream. We have learnt heaps from her and have been such huge fans for so long! She’s stupidly hardworking and makes us all feel very motivated and inspired, which is hard to do when you’re locked in an isolated studio for 5 straight weeks. Hallelujah and god bless miss Marks.” The single also features engineering from 3x GRAMMY winner Oli Jacobs (Kendrick Lamar, beabadoobee, Taylor Swift) and mastering by Ruairi O’Flaherty (Sabrina Carpenter, Lana Del Rey, Bleachers).

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“’Please Me’ is about faking it till you make it,” say the band. “The lyrics are so cocky and overconfident, almost like an inner monologue of affirmations that you’d tell yourself on the way to a party. It’s about embodying the cool girl mindset until everyone has a big fat crush on you.

“These are the things you’d tell yourself and end up feeling sexy and cool and like everyone in the world is obsessed with you, even if you’re actually just super delusional and maybe had one too many Cruisers.”

The Linda Lindas included Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers’ debut album I Love You in their favorite albums of 2023 for Brooklyn Vegan. Which was a lovely surprise to the band, they’re longtime fans. When it came time to record ‘Please Me,’ Teen Jesus knew there was a call they had to make: “We just had to collaborate with The Linda Lindas on this one, because the musical style of ‘Please Me’ is very inspired by them! Their song ‘Oh!’ has been one of our favourites for a long time so we knew they could help take ‘Please Me’ to another level.”

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Along with news of the signing, Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers are excited to be releasing a deluxe edition of their critically acclaimed debut album I Love You. Aptly titled I Love You Too, the extended version of the LP will be released on September 20 via their new partnership with Mom + Pop Music and will feature three brand new songs, ‘Please Me,’ ‘we thought it would be a good time but it was a bad time,’ and new single ‘Dull’ feat. Canadian ‘riotgaze’ twin sibling duo Softcult.

‘Dull (feat. Softcult)’ is intensely warm and melodic, and thematically a companion-song of sorts to ‘I Used To Be Fun.’ On ‘Dull’ Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers take the more challenging route of sitting still with your own thoughts, rather than working overtime to keep busy in a thinly veiled bid to distract yourself from them. The band’s Anna Ryan shares, “’Dull’ has similar themes to ‘I Used To Be Fun.’ We had been talking about how it feels to not have that motivation like we used to, to go out and party, and that it’s often harder to sit with yourself and be alone with your thoughts rather than just distracting yourself with thing after thing! The lyrics ‘find it hard to take it slow, burning out and now it’s shows’ really resonates with me and I think it’s like coming to terms with the fact that distracting yourself constantly is unsustainable. It’s good to learn to just sit with stuff and take it frikken easy!!” On collaborating with Softcult – aka the Ontario, Canada-based grunge duo made up of twin sisters Phoenix and Mercedes Arn-Horn – the band says, “We’ve been fans of Soltcult from afar for a long time, when they said they were keen to record some parts for the song we were stoked! We are SO happy with how it turned out.”

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Opening with the devastating line “in seven years / I’ll be okay / cause that’s when my cells will regenerate”, new single ‘Never Saw It Coming’ highlights the strength that comes with getting through a hard time with your friends by your side. It’s the first song drummer Neve van Boxsel brought to the band and sang lead vocals on, and while it starts with just her, one by one the other members of Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers join Neve to sing together as strings and acoustic guitar build, with a poignant guitar hook repeating throughout.

Neve van Boxsel shares, “‘Never Saw It Coming’ is the first song I wrote that I brought to the band and the first song that I sing lead on. It’s a very personal song, writing and sharing it with the others was really hard but I’m glad that I did. Even though I start singing on my own, Anna sings with me on the second verse and then Scarlett and Jaida come in so we all sing together in the end. Having them with me to sing about what I went through together felt really powerful, it made me realise that I didn’t have to go through it on my own.”

I Love You:

1. I Used To Be Fun
2. Treat Me Better
3. Backseat Driver
4. I Love You
5. Your House My House
6. Salt (ft. The Grogans)
7. Cayenne Pepper
8. AHHHH!
9. Lights Out
10. Toe Bone
11. Never Saw It Coming
12. Kissy Kissy

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With these career wins and a few more birthdays under each of the Teenie Jeanies’ belts comes a collective sense of self-assuredness for Anna, Scarlett, Jaida and Neve. It’s a resolve not born of ego or entitlement, but of the coming-of-age they’ve experienced and a healthy confidence in the work they have put in to get where they are. But, as their new EP Pretty Good For A Girl Band will attest, it’s come in the face of being undeservedly underestimated.

From comments of “you’re the best chick band I’ve seen” and “do you need help with your amp, darl?” to unsolicited waist-grabs, PGFAGB speaks to the sentiments that underpin the non-male experience both inside the music industry and outside.

PGFAGB is stick-in-your-head rock lathered in doses of grunge, punk and pop that features an impressive list of collaborators behind it including production from Alex Lahey and engineering from Bonnie Knight (Amyl & The Sniffers, Poppongene) on the tracks ‘Girl Sports’ and ‘Bull Dragon’.

Embodying a quiet confidence and resolve like never before, PGFAGB is a powerful documentation of Teen Jesus figuring out who they are and voicing what they stand for. It’s the result of a band refusing to meet anyone’s projection of who they should be, how they should sound, and what they should say – and that especially goes for sexist dentists.

We had a chat with the band all about PGFAGB, their journey so far, creative process and more. Read the Q&A below.

Hi guys! How are you? How have the last two years been for you as a band? This year in particular has seen you gain a lot of momentum. What’s that journey been like?

“Hello! We are very well thank you! Our journey over the past two years has been very exciting and a bit surreal – coming out of lockdown to the busiest touring lifestyle was a shock but we are so happy to be doing it. It feels like our hard work is really paying off and we are so grateful to be back on the road and playing for you all!”

For anyone discovering Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers here for the first time, please gave us a brief history on the band, your mission and your influences.

“We started the band in year 9 as a fun cute lil bestie time, we never really took it that seriously and we just wanted to go to bars underage and play our little covers. We were all big fans of Nirvana, The Strokes, L7, Pixies, etc and we started off being really confused about our genre and what musical direction we wanted to go in. We chugged along for a few years playing the same Canberra bars, until 2018 when things really started to pick up. We started to develop a team around us, went on tour with Slowly Slowly and started touring/playing festivals like a real life band! These days the band is our top priority, and we are still bestest friends. It’s been a wild ride but we wouldn’t change a damn thing!”

You’ve just released your fab new EP Pretty Good For A Girl Band. What can you tell us about the record? What do you hope fans/listeners take away from it?

“The EP is definitely the thing we’ve worked the hardest on so the idea of having it out in the world is so exciting. We just want to be taken seriously and we think this EP really represents us as a band and as people. The title really says it all – we are constantly getting labeled as a “girl band” as if that’s a genre, and it’s getting to the point where if you can’t beat ‘em, join em. We think it’s funny and hopefully will make people think more about how they treat women in music.”

Please take us through your songwriting/creative process for PGFAGB. What was your favourite part and what did you find most challenging?

“Recording was definitely our favourite part!! We were lucky enough to have the EP be produced by Alex Lahey and James Tidswell which was a dream come true. It’s always hard being in the studio and having to create the “final product”, but it was the best couple of weeks ever. Many cruisers were consumed and bonds were formed.”

Finally, what’s next for you guys? We see you have an Aussie tour coming up this summer. What can we expect from a Teen Jesus show?

“Energy fun woohoo!!!!! Live shows are the best and that’s what makes it all worth it. We try and make our shows a super fun dancey safe space for all, so if you come along make sure you jump with us and look after each other. Safety is sexy!!!!!!”

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BEX has dropped a brand new single, ‘Tiptoe’, sees the artist’s 2022 debut and features heavy bass plucks, annihilating drums, and witty vocals across a riotous music video. Describing herself as, “a punk-rocker who wants the music to speak again” BEX is a young artist looking to reshape the rock industry through a lens of hard-hitting riffs, feminist lyrics and cutting-edge videos. Amongst this BEX balances out all the things that “suck,” such as: sexism, racism, fast fashion, judgementalism and heartbreak with pleasantly uplifting things like: riffs, self-expression, expressive art, inclusion, equality, feminism and last (and certainly not least) respect. Speaking about the track she says: “Lyrically ‘Tiptoe’ is about males who take advantage of women, ‘just because we perform it doesn’t welcome you off stage’. The chorus reflects on men taking action and the consequences that come from it. Musically the track is just riffs, fat riffs. A simple punk structure with two alternative bass lines that compliment each other. ‘Tiptoe’ is simple but meaty. The song is filled with alot of rage and rebellion against female norms, standing up for myself/ourselves and other females who have been in vulnerable situations. The track is in favour of post modern feminism.” Recorded in the first lockdown, ‘Tiptoe,’ is a track produced by Sam Cramer, and with BEX’s bass tones all created by hand on a custom pedalboard. ‘Tiptoe’ arrives with a vivid official video co-directed by BEX herself and videographer/photographer Olivia Brissett. Matching the soaring and beckoning energy of the track, BEX says of it: “The video is a visual representation of my anger and rage in the song. Also representing female empowerment, and lastly… showing off my handmade outfits and masks.” Honourably gifted across the arts, BEX is not just a musician, as she admits, “I hand painted the artwork on a canvas,” about the single’s artwork. Continuing her love for curating BEX expands on some of the projects she’s working on: “I have been making a zine that I am going to get printed, it’s like a little lyric and expansion book, all handmade. I also self directed the music video and I am currently in the process of editing it! I love making things, I made all the outfits for the music video as well as the masks. Nearly everything is DIY, I love having the ability to portray my personality creatively.”

In 2019, the Australian musician Stella Donnelly released her debut full-length, Beware Of The Dogs. Now she’s back with her sophomore album, Flood, which was written while Donnelly moved between various cities in her home country during lockdown. “I had so many opportunities to write things in strange places,” she said. “I often had no choice about where I was. There’s no denying that not being able to access your family with border closures, it zooms in on those parts of your life you care about.” Now, she’s sharing the playful lead single ‘Lungs,’ which comes along with a video that Donnelly co-directed with Duncan Wright. “Very loosely based on the Banded Stilts of my album cover, the character I play in red is a wobbly adult, doing their best with their new set of legs and responsibilities, trying to make it look easy but very much on unsteady ground,” she said in a statement. “I wanted this video to celebrate the child, firm in their footholds, intimidatingly honest, not to be messed with, they are the strength and power of this video no matter how much I try to assert myself as the boss.” [via Stereogum]

Phoebe Green will release her debut album Lucky Me on August 19. The songwriter has something special, with a string of project illuminating the patient innocence of her lyricism. The pensive title cut is online now, the optimism of the title undercut by word-play that deals with Phoebe Green’s own insecurities. She comments: “‘Lucky Me’ explores the idea of disguising self-destructive behavioural patterns due to a feeling of guilt for living a seemingly easy life. I’m very lucky in so many ways that I almost feel ungrateful for still experiencing such difficulties with my mental state. I frantically search for a trivial, tangible cause of distress so that I don’t have to dig too deep or accept that I might just be a bit mentally fucked, then altogether silence myself when I imagine how others may be perceiving me and my actions. The song represents the common defence mechanism of invalidating and dismissing my emotions before anyone else can.” Phoebe Green continues: “I wanted ‘Lucky Me’ to be the title track of the album as this is very much a running theme throughout; analysing and dissecting my experiences and emotions as opposed to feeling them, as they feel easier to digest that way. The title almost feels sarcastic and snarky depending on which way you look at it, and as I use humour to cope a lot of the time it does seem fitting. But I am actually extremely lucky to still be here so there is some sincerity in there somewhere.” [via Clash]

Down to the name, Number One Popstar makes no attempt to hide what she’s about. A mix of winking satire and loving tribute, the pop project spearheaded by singer and comedian Kate Jean Hollowell is both a quintessential chart-topping indie pop idol and a witty, irreverent send up of the genre. Having been likened to the Andy Kaufman of pop music, Number One Popstar is the sorely needed injection of humor we didn’t know was needed. Looking for relief from all her worries and woes, Number One Popstar is back with her latest single, ‘Dance Away the Pain.’ Full of glossy ’80s synths, the track sees Hollowell use her quirky strain of pop as a form of escapism, delivering a dark yet catchy hook of “My depression makes me go insane/I just wanna dance away the pain.” Not quite as overt as an SNL skit or a Weird Al Yankovic track, Number On Popstar manages to strike the right balance between humor and finely crafted melodies without making the music a joke. The single arrives alongside an equally absurd visual directed by Hollowell herself. Clad in a neck brace, the music video shows Number One Popstar hitting up the early bird special at the local family restaurant (which fittingly also looks like it hasn’t been updated for decades) to stuff her elderly compatriots’ faces and naturally dance away the pain. “I feel like pop music, especially pop music videos, are filled with young cool people, but I want to make music that brings joy to everyone, at any age, specifically 70+,” Hollowell says of the visual, which features a cast made up of real life friends she met at a Zumba class. “My hope is that this song is a celebration of not just dancing, but acknowledging the pain you’re going through.” [via PAPER]

Mysie has released a new video for ‘gin + juice’. It’s a cut from her new EP joyride, out now via Fraser T. Smith‘s label 70Hz, about the first time she met her ex-partner; “that exciting feeling I got before we were together,” she explains. “What I realise between every project is that I’m learning as I go,” she adds, of the EP as a whole. “I forget that’s what life is about, and I’ve learned so much from Joyride. It served as therapy to me.” [via Dork]

Rapidly rising Australian punk rock stars Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers are thrilled to release their debut EP Pretty Good For A Girl Band via Domestic La La. To celebrate they’ve dropped a video for ‘Girl Sports,’ their blistering new single which was written in honor of the male dentist who said that bassist Jaida Stephenson should stick to “girl sports” after knocking her teeth out skating. Featuring nods to three classic teen films, the ‘Girl Sports’ video is everything you’d come to expect from the four-piece; in your face and won’t back down, but they’ll still have some fun along the way. On the video, Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers say, “We had so much fun filming the ‘Girl Sports’ video. While the song encapsulates a lot of frustration and anger, we wanted to create a visual element that brought a more light-hearted feel to a song that touches on some pretty frustrating experiences a lot of women and non-males would relate to. We wanted to create a fun take on the idea of ‘girl sports’ by drawing inspiration from sport scenes in Clueless, St Trinian’s and Twilight (we hope we did the iconic pitching moment justice). We wanted the video to be fun as possible because everything we wanted to say, we had already screamed in ‘Girl Sports.’ The video is basically a big middle finger, you can’t touch us moment, to all the men that had and continue to look down on us.”

Los Angeles trio Lost Cat share their second single, ‘Bitch Fight,’ the latest track off their upcoming self-titled debut album, Lost Cat, due May 27 via Lolipop Records. As the rollicking fuzzed-out punk rock track proclaims, “If you don’t like it, you can go to hell!” Speaking on their newest single, band member Kiki wrote: “‘Bitch Fight’ was quietly written in my parent’s garage while they were sleeping…Originally, the lyrics were fist fight but when I brought the song to practice, Lucy thought she heard Bitch Fight and that’s where the name was coined. The song still needed a few more words, so the remainder of the song was again quietly written but this time at Angie’s dad’s house as he slept.”

Los Angeles hard rock outfit Starcrawler have released an official video for their single ‘Roadkill,’ directed by Gilbert Trejo (son of actor Danny Trejo) and featuring a cameo appearance by none other than Steve-O of Jackass infamy. In the video, the band is chased through the streets of LA by a raging pink jalopy with a grudge, driven by Steve-O. Interspersed with a very cool, stylized performance shoot, ‘Roadkill’ is perhaps the best example to date of Starcrawler’s super-swanky drip being fused with hard rock and punk. In talking about the track, vocalist Arrow DeWilde said, “‘Roadkill’ is about anyone that tries to dig their heels in the ground and stand in your way. We’ve all had people try to tear us down, and sometimes you just have to run right through them.” [via Metal Injection]

Award-winning French pop trio Hyphen Hyphen unveil a new single and accompanying music video, ‘Don’t Wait For Me’. ‘Don’t Wait For Me’ was co-written with six-time Grammy winner Glen Ballard (Alanis Morissette) and mixed by Charlie Holmes (Ed Sheeran).“In the midst of chaos, we’ve chosen the light! Here is our new song ‘Don’t Wait For Me.’ We had so much fun writing it with Mr. Glen Ballard, hope you’ll feel the energy. Don’t wait anymore!” says the band. “It was a great privilege to be invited into the creative circle with Hyphen Hyphen,” says Ballard. “Their exuberance and talent was a great inspiration. This band has joy and energy at their core…I’m forever a Hyphenate!”

The singer Carlota Flâneur broke onto the music scene a little less than two years ago with a her tender and colorful pop sound. Her first album uncertainty, will finally be released on September 16. On it, Carlota Flâneur explores all the forms, manners, angles and colors of pop within ten songs that stick in the memory and introduce the world into a fantastastical universe. Now, Carlota releases ‘lungs,’ the first single that the Barcelona artist is sharing from this first LP. It is a fresh and catchy song that hints at the next steps for the young singer. In the video clip for ‘lungs,’ Carlota Flâneur speaks to herself in different worlds full of color, snow and stars, creating a narrative between the apparently real and fictional spaces through a telephone as a common thread.

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