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| Jen Turner playing bass at the Coachella Festival. |
She appears to have come out of New Jersey. She was born about 1971, Her
first instrument was the piano, but at some point she was also a ardent
drummer playing in drum circles. As a teenager, she hitched around the country
for four months to learn to play guitar.
Jen Turner performing at the Meadowlands in 1995 with Natalie Merchant.
Furslide, which she fronted as lead singer and guitarist also included Jason Lader
and Adam MacDougall. They released their
debut album titled Adventure in fall 1998 and played a
few shows subsequently in the US, the UK and all across Europe ( opening for Lenny Kravitz on October 8, 1998 in Detroit, they
also where the support act for Kula Shaker,
Alanis Morissette and Ben Folds).
In 1999 they dissolved, not having been commercially successful.
In 2001 and 2002 she made two excellent albums as lead singer with a new group, called Inner, the group also included Erica Quitzow, Samuel Omeechevaria
and Fabien Waltmann. These two records were released on her own independent record label,
Caboose Music. Inner's first release was an EP called Dog Demos in 2001.The demos were supposedly all recorded in one take. They released a full length album, Lovetheonlyway in 2002. This may be her best work up to now-vocally she sounds like Jane Siberry here. The songs here are very introspective, raw, confessional and original sounding. What struck me is how the lyrics kept going in unexpected places.
Jen Turner appears to have kept a lower profile for a few years in the middle 2000’s. Since 2007 she has mostly worked in bands where she is not the front person. Perhaps, an understandable approach since she is a better instrumentalist than vocalist, but a little more frustrating for those trying to pick her "musical voice" out of the competing voices of the band she is working in. She worked on two albums playing guitar with Joseph Arthur and the Lonely Astronauts. Those albums are called Let’s Just Be (2007) and Temporary People (2008).
In 2009 she was documented doing some live work in the style of Inner
at a gig at the Living Room in New York City.
Around 2009 or 2010 she joined Here We Go Magic and was with
them for their second and third albums. This was her blond period. With this group she played
bass and keyboards. She produced their
2010 album, Pigeons (released June 2010) and was also with for them for their album, Different Ship in 2012. She left that band abruptly in a airport in a misunderstanding over sausages.
In 2012 she engineered (and played drums on!) the album, In Limbo, by the group Teen. I can't think of too many people who went from guitar to bass/keyboards to engineer/drums over the space of a few albums. Yes, multi-instumentalists have done all these at once on albums, but to go from specific role to another role-that's unusual.
For a time in the 2010's she worked in a side project called Thrillionaire which features another female singer, Henrietta Tiefenthaler, they sang lush psychedelic melodies over German Krautrock beats. She also did some concerts recently as part of a group called Alamar.
In 2012 she engineered (and played drums on!) the album, In Limbo, by the group Teen. I can't think of too many people who went from guitar to bass/keyboards to engineer/drums over the space of a few albums. Yes, multi-instumentalists have done all these at once on albums, but to go from specific role to another role-that's unusual.
For a time in the 2010's she worked in a side project called Thrillionaire which features another female singer, Henrietta Tiefenthaler, they sang lush psychedelic melodies over German Krautrock beats. She also did some concerts recently as part of a group called Alamar.
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| Thrillionaire |
In 2013/she was in a duo called Exclamation Pony with Brit Ryan Jarman (who’s
regular band is the Cribs) in late 2013,they released a single called "Pseudo Individual".
In 2015, she joined up with the group High Desert Fires. Bun-headed Chris Traynor fronts the band, sings and plays guitar. Jen plays guitar and sings. Gabriella Da Silva sings, Taylor McLam plays drums and sings, Drew Broadrick plays piano and sings, Sibyl Buck plays the bass and sings and Naren Rauch is a multi instrumentalist. Jen worked with Sibyl Buck before in the Lonely Astronauts. Chris Traynor is similar to Jen in that he has a long experience in various bands (most notably Bush), and plays more than one instrument.
Jen makes a short appearance in a new documentary about the Tigerlily album that was released as part of a new Natalie Merchant release called, Paradise Is There. See link below...
http://www.nonesuch.com/journal/nonesuch-natalie-merchant-paradise-is-there-new-tigerlily-recordings-dvd-2015-08-13
Recently, she produced a new album by NYC trio, American Anyman.
What little I have read about Jen Turner as a person suggests that she is a humble and kind person with a free spirit. Her music career has been a unique mix of continuing reinvention and great mystery.
There are rumors that Jen is working on solo material-here's hoping!
Chest Rockwell's video upload of "Carnival"-
https://vimeo.com/218876480
Also at Felpin's Pond: Fanny-the first all women rock band to hit the Top 40
In 2015, she joined up with the group High Desert Fires. Bun-headed Chris Traynor fronts the band, sings and plays guitar. Jen plays guitar and sings. Gabriella Da Silva sings, Taylor McLam plays drums and sings, Drew Broadrick plays piano and sings, Sibyl Buck plays the bass and sings and Naren Rauch is a multi instrumentalist. Jen worked with Sibyl Buck before in the Lonely Astronauts. Chris Traynor is similar to Jen in that he has a long experience in various bands (most notably Bush), and plays more than one instrument.
Jen makes a short appearance in a new documentary about the Tigerlily album that was released as part of a new Natalie Merchant release called, Paradise Is There. See link below...
http://www.nonesuch.com/journal/nonesuch-natalie-merchant-paradise-is-there-new-tigerlily-recordings-dvd-2015-08-13
Recently, she produced a new album by NYC trio, American Anyman.
What little I have read about Jen Turner as a person suggests that she is a humble and kind person with a free spirit. Her music career has been a unique mix of continuing reinvention and great mystery.
There are rumors that Jen is working on solo material-here's hoping!
Chest Rockwell's video upload of "Carnival"-
https://vimeo.com/218876480
Also at Felpin's Pond: Fanny-the first all women rock band to hit the Top 40
