JOCKSTRAP
(In) The City

In an era of attention spans dampened by the endless scroll, it’s apparent that the musical landscape is changing. We’re no longer comfortably disconnected from each other and, perhaps more potently, the musicians we idolize. Snippets of songs cut-and-pasted into unrelated videos garner more focus than the music itself; artists interpose themselves into tidy boxes ripe for the algorithm’s picking. Somewhere in the process, we’ve lost so much authenticity – making a hyperconnected world somehow significantly lonelier. 

It’s through this lens that experimental art-pop outfit Jockstrap has come of age and blossomed. Drawing on themes of overbearing city life, anxiety, and the search for oneself, violinist and songwriter Georgia Ellery offers a relatable arm across Taylor Skye’s youthful, erratic production. Even the band’s name suggests a playful, semi-ironic quality; add in the medley of internet-age cultural references and buzzwords, and you’ve got a vigorous, unadulterated love letter from Generation Z, one that obliterates any notion of the monogenre as a dirty word. 

Even more fitting is their meteoric rise during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the band’s Wicked City EP racking up countless praise a mere two months after lockdown began. The development of the band in its relative infancy halted just as dramatically as the rest of the world’s – seeing Jockstrap only make its way to the States at the tailend of 2022. We were lucky enough to catch its fourth set here, at the beloved Bushwick venue The Sultan Room soon after the release of that year’s I Love You Jennifer B. 

On this go-around, Jockstrap took the stage after a raucous set from Nina Utashiro, a Japanese hip-hop act boasting similarly multitudinous influences ranging from punk rock to jungle through a flamboyantly gothic aesthetic. A fitting opener to prepare the crowd for the opening barrage of some of Jockstrap’s most gut-punching tunes – “Debra,” “Jennifer B,” and “Robert”– as its introduction on this American summer tour. It was immediately apparent how a larger venue and speaker system lent itself well to the band’s sound, shining bright in the remixed techno outro of “Jennifer B” that Skye prepared specially for this leg. 

Also palpable was the members’ boosted confidence in the eight months since the band last visited Brooklyn, with Ellery gliding across the stage in near-pirouette, whipping her hair back and forth like a seasoned pop star as “Neon” reached its searing guitar climax. Next delving into the comparatively stripped-down “What’s It All About,” she offers vulnerability through her evocative vocals, commanding the hearts of all there to witness. Skye also took on a much larger singing role here, notably leaning out from his 3-keyboard cubicle to deliver the entire outro of “Acid.” Compared to their dazzling yet delicate performance here in November, the two-piece beamed with strength–corralling a gleaming reaction from the crowd to match. 

We remained affixed as the night proceeded with a four-track run from I Love You Jennifer B, beginning with “Greatest Hits” and “Angst.” With the latter containing a warped conclusion emblematic of the panic attack that originally birthed the track, Ellery admirably recreated it before us as she likens her anxiety to a physical, natal manifestation. Following a heartfelt rendition of “Glasgow” featuring a guitar-wielding Ellery, Jockstrap soon went into “Concrete Over Water,” evincing a chill-inducing unforgettable moment from the show. Fans anticipated the unbridled, post-chorus sonic release with the emergence of a mosh pit – an almost comical moment for the band as it presided over the madness that ensued.

Afterward, one final callback to Wicked City with “The City,” a gorgeous ballad that trails off into a squeaky, disjointed close. Then, almost curtly, Ellery softly proclaimed it would be their last song as the opening notes to “50/50” began. A laughable lie, as the band took the stage again mere moments after they closed the song, launching into a manic, hyperpop-esque beat featuring Ellery’s manipulated vocals that wavered like a metronome between chipmunked and the inhumanly deep. Their second and final encore song, the Taylor Skye remix of “I Want Another Affair” from their first EP in 2018, proved an especially euphoric closer; an energetic dance-floor filler, the song evokes childhood videogame soundscapes and corresponding boisterous cheers from the audience. 

Though the band brought a similar setlist from their first Brooklyn set at The Sultan Room, its unpredictability allows it to generate an authentically novel sensation amplified by the pair’s on-stage certitude. Propelled by Skye’s malleable production expertise, Jockstrap delivered brand-new remixed moments, slight deviations from studio versions, and a couple of callbacks to earlier works unfound previously. This ability makes Jockstrap among the most unique and exciting bands to emerge in recent memory, and its ever-evolving nature is sure to hold our interest well into the coming years. Its growing maturity as a band correlates with the members’, and our, personal development as young adults. A personal touch, a disclosure of an authentically human burgeoning in a city and world that only weighs heavier on our backs.

- Connor