Mr Little Jeans

Mr Little JeansIf you’ve engaged with contemporary pop culture, you’ve heard of Mr Little Jeans. To be clear, Mr Little Jeans is one woman — Monica Birkenes — and it’s her dreamy electronic production that has appeared in everything from network TV (Transparent, Grey’s Anatomy) to indie and mainstream cinema (50/50, Iron Man III). Her lush compositions make her music unnervingly original — after all, this is what drew millions to her first hit in 2011, a signature take on Arcade Fire’s “The Suburbs.”Although she now lives in L.A., Birkenes hails from Norway — she grew up in the small seaside town of Grimstad, the daughter of a shipbuilder and secretary. That English wasn’t her first language is actually an advantage in her songwriting: Her breathy lyrics take unexpected turns and leave you reaching at beautiful metaphors you can’t quite grasp. Birkenes admits, “I am a little obscure at times; maybe that’s how I feel I can be honest.” Her songs draw from personal experiences but leave things open-ended enough that you can’t help but lean into them and commiserate.This balance is what helped inform the magical blend that made up her 2014 debut album Pocketknife, a wandering soundscape of songs both dark and gritty (hard, menacing drums drive the beat of “Good Mistake”) and staggeringly elegant (“Oh Sailor” tugs at heartstrings with help from the Silver Lake children's’ choir).Birkenes and long-time collaborator Tim Anderson have now come back together for her second release — the F E V E R S EP (Out October 21 via Nettwerk Records). Like on Pocketknife, new songs “Stitches” and title track “Fevers” are pop hymnals, sparkling oases that temper but don’t hide the uncertainty of living. F E V E R S also makes a strong connection between Scandinavian musicality and the Los Angeles point-of-view, bringing together everything that has made Birkenes a part of Mr Little Jeans, and vise-versa.LapelAfter years as a backing vocalist and keyboardist sitting in with bands like Ezra Furman, Curls (Christopher Owens of Girls), and The Family Crest, Debbie Neigher has stepped out on her own with Lapel, a new solo project from this San Francisco music scene veteran. By turns playful and personal, introspective and danceable, Lapel’s debut record Periphery — co-produced by Beau Sorenson (Death Cab for Cutie, tUnEyArDs, Bob Mould) and Neigher herself —marks a new sound for the artist, trading the piano-based indie pop of her past solo releases for an immersive electronic sound, with contributions from members of Geographer, Astronauts, Etc., and the Magik*Magik Orchestra. Neigher named the project for a quote by the Canadian activist Margaret Trudeau: “I want to be more than a rose in my husband’s lapel.” In other words, Lapel is a new beginning, but it’s been a long time coming. “It’s a proclamation,” says Neigher, “against allowing yourself to be defined or diminished by anyone else.” Lapel was recently hand-picked by tUnE-yArDs to create an exclusive track for her Red Bull Radio show C.L.A.W. (Collaborate Legions of Artful Womxn). She was also chosen to perform at the San Francisco Unite for Justice rally protesting Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, as well as the Noise Pop Festival.  Lapel has been featured on Billboard, the San Francisco Chronicle, and has been hailed by KQED as a “Bay Area Musician to Watch in 2018.”