Madison Krawiec

It is beyond exciting to find a band that captures a new niche in the music industry. The trio JERK, backed by their label Very Jazzed, is not just a pop band with pop songs, but one in which they encompass deep and eerie tracks that make it impossible not to tap your foot to. With the release of their debut EP entitled Jerk on November 11 you will not be disappointed. In the meantime, you can listen to their first single “Delicacy” out now!

The key musicians include Austin Smith, as a multi-instrumentalist; Zach Alderman, drummer from his band Deep Cuts; and Vicki Lynn, keyboardist and vocalist from the band Black Kite. Austin Smith is the man to creatively put the three together and come up with the idea behind the music. His goal was to attack this record in a different way than he had before by experimenting with limitation. “Before, I’d use anything at my disposal to fill maximum room in a song, so for JERK I worked inside a set of rules where I couldn’t do that, which forced some inventive creativity on my end.”

I am incredibly impressed with the vocals throughout the entire EP. The dynamic between a mixed-head voice with a very low chest voice flow nicely with their transitions. These fluctuations, however, may or may not be in sync with the feel of the background music which can have a listener have back-and-forth experiences throughout one track.

The contributions from each person in JERK, set the stage for incredible rhythms, large synthesizer swells and carefully placed guitar riffs make each track unique but highly identifiable. The use of a constant beat on a majority of the tracks make the record feel like a single on-going track.

JERK definitely captures a new experience of pop music that will excite anyone.