Nothing to do with Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, Lydia Lunch’s pioneering 1970s no wave band, Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers are a young Australian four-piece rapidly evolving from their pop-punk roots. Formed in Canberra in 2015 by then 15-year-old schoolfriends Anna Ryan (guitar and vocals), Scarlett McKahey (guitar), Jaida Stephenson (bass) and Neve van Boxsel (drums), their first releases were rich of bubblegum chorus and melodically astute, with unignorable gender politics (last year’s EP was titled Pretty Good for a Girl Band).
However, their debut full-length album, I Love You, finds them broadening their palette. As McKahey explains: “We’d never been able to have a softer, more vulnerable side to any of our songs. They’d all been singles.”
This more vulnerable side is most apparent on the hushed Never Saw It Coming, on which Van Boxsel describes her reaction to being sexually assaulted (“I’d leave your bedroom with half of me still left in there,” she sings). “I think there is still a lot of empowerment in the lyrics,” she told the Canberra Times. “And hopefully, it makes someone feel a bit more in control.”
After wowing UK crowds at the Great Escape in May, they’re now looking forward to supporting Foo Fighters in Melbourne in December. Van Boxsel confesses to nerves: “I feel like I need to knuckle down and practise so much. Because apparently Dave Grohl watches all the supports.” You can’t see him being anything but impressed.
I Love You is released on 6 October on Domestic La La. Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers tour the UK in February 2024 supporting the Vaccines
