STACK #228 October 2023

MUSIC FEATURE

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THE DEBUT THESIS OF TEEN JESUS I f you heard the bandname ’Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers’ and thought, ”Huh – that’s barmy, and also cool, a bit like ’Amyl and the Sniffers’” then you’ll be jazzed to know it’s not the only parallel these two Aussie acts share: Foo Fighters don’t choose you as support if you don’t have the goods. Teen Jesus’ AIR Award-winning EP of last year was titled Pretty Good for a Girl Band , and the Canberra foursome fold that sentiment up and set it on fire across debut long-player I Love You . Opener I Used To Be Fun (”until they took my car away”) punches on with a 2/4 rhythm and off-beat guitar chonks with a raggae-punk, early-No-Doubt feel. On the brilliant Treat Me Better, vocalist Anna Ryan sings softly, ”Maybe I don’t want to go with you...” before guitarist Scarlett McKahey fangs over the top of the girls’ screams, and Neve van Boxsel’s delayed snare propels the track clean off the jetty. The foursome have got the loud-quiet-loud dynamic and confessional rage down, with the spunk of Olivia Rodrigo’s best – but it’s raw and real in a way no Disney kid could quite

Photo Credit: @sheisaphrodite

deliver. The narratives are nuanced, weaving topics of self-esteem, consent, livid frustration, lust, regret, and that unquenchable desire to shout your feelings (”You’re a selfish, sexist narcissist” - Kissy Kissy ). Stand-out Toe Bone (”I would love to apologise for Year 11 and the fight we had”) is 100% heart-squeezing, with a real folk spine which recalls The Waifs (though there’s no comparison for the idea behind its title, which revolves around a really weird but pretty adorable sentiment). The beautiful and horrific lament Never Saw It Coming (”In seven years I’ll be okay/ ’Cos that’s when my cells will regenerate/ So you wouldn’t

have touched my skin/ I’ll make sure to scrub wherever you’ve been”) looks like a thrash track on paper, but the venom comes as a slow, subtle poison via its sweet acoustic arrangement and the horror of the narrative’s gentle, thousand-yard stare. The band also made a perfect choice in guests The Grogans for single Salt, which doesn’t follow the usual duet template but unfurls in the realistic, piecemeal way a party convo might do. Pop The Muffs, Letters to Cleo and our own Amy Taylor into a bedazzled blender and you get the smoky-eyed brew of Teen Jesus. We’re ready for seconds. ZKR

I Love You by Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers is out Oct 6 via Domestic La La.

NEW LIFE ON MARS

It’s the

W hether the idea of being chained up in Jared Leto’s luxe-grime hi-fashion full-silver-grilled Cenobite dungeon gives you the thrills or the willies, listening to It’s the End of the World But It’s a Beautiful Day will assure you the man is at the top of his chosen game. Along with brother Shannon Leto, the two comprise the latest iteration of their act Thirty Seconds to Mars, which has threaded its 20-year trajectory inbetween Jared’s considerable film CV – but to fans of the band, Thirty Seconds doesn’t play second fiddle. It’s its own project, a towering conceptual enterprise into which the Letos have thrown themselves with gusto and commitment. It’s the End of the World But It’s a Beautiful Day is highly produced, but that’s what so perfectly suits the industrial-electro arena into which the boys have burst. (And to be fair, their previous mega-hits like 2010’s The Kill (Bury Me) – though simmering in emo – were also given meticulous treatment in the post-production ring.) The dangerous club-thrash of single Stuck

belies how life-affirming this record really is – just take a peek at the building beauty of Get Up Kid and the synth bathed World On Fire , or impassioned ballad Never Not Love You. Thirty Seconds’ last album, 2018’s America, hit #2 in the US and #10 in Australia; if you’re not a dungeon door knocker already, It’s the End of the World... might just convince you to join the club. ZKR

End of the World But It’s a Beautiful Day by Thirty Seconds to Mars is out now via Concord.

Photo Credit: Bartholomew Cubbins

10 OCTOBER 2023

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