As well as being a clear contender for Best Band Name Ever, Teen Jesus & The Jean Teasers also boast a super-cute origin story.
Aged 15, they formed a band the day after a sleepover during which they watched School Of Rock, which also inspired guitarist Scarlett McKahey to later purchase a Gibson SG (Jack Black’s instrument of choice in the film).
Featuring jangly guitar (McKahey sure loves distortion!), playful bass, singsongy gang vocals and exuberant drumming, barnstorming opener I Used To Be Fun is a bop. The band moved into producer Oscar Dawson’s home in the seaside town of Rye to create I Love You – collaboratively, over the course of a few months – and the giggles we hear at various points throughout their debut record counter this song title’s tongue-in-cheek claim.
Never Saw It Coming, their first fully acoustic tune – just vocals, guitars and strings – is also the first song drummer Neve van Boxsel wrote for the band. Through writing this song, on which she also takes lead vocals, Boxsel found a way to reclaim control following a sexual assault.
Elsewhere: raunchy standout track Lights Out (“Touch me/ I want you only with the lights out”) is a perfect vehicle for vocalist Anna Ryan’s belting; Cayenne Pepper – a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it, 40-second interlude – sounds entirely spontaneous; and Kissy Kissy deals a satisfying closing slapdown: “‘Cause you’re a selfish, sexist narcissist/ I’m glad we never became more than this…”
An inspired, dynamically varied collection, I Love You proves – once and for all – that Teen Jesus & The Jean Teasers ain’t no one-trick ponies.
LABEL: DOMESTIC LA LA
