You may not have heard of Jean Caffeine but you’d be a lot cooler if you did. – Dallas Observer
With a story stretching back to the 70’s San Francisco punk scene, Jean Caffeine made the scene and made a zine. She made gig flyers and shared stages with The Zeros, The Avengers, The Dils, X and The Bags. In the 80’s, Jean moved to NYC and hit the underground art and music scene dj-ing and drumming in all-female bands. Invited by Ann Magnuson, she drummed for Pulsallama, a 7-13 piece percussion ensemble who opened shows for The Clash. In 2016, the group was sampled by rapper Danny Brown on his song, “Dance in the Water.” Sundaze Records released a Pulallama record in 2020.
A move to Austin put her centre stage in Jean Caffeine’s All-Nite Truckstop where she leaned heavily into cowpunk and Americana, shifting from drummer to songwriter and front person. There she played both roadhouses and coffee houses, sharing stages with Lucinda Williams, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Mojo Nixon and Southern Culture on the Skids.
(Sub)-genre fluid, Jean Caffeine’s music blends indie, retro-pop, punk, folk, rock and roots, served up with big smiles and the occasional growl.
The track, “Mammogram,” is a shift from a lot of Jean Caffeine’s songs. It’s darker than many of her songs, moody, scary (and funny) because mammograms are a nightmare! So, Jean is releasing this single in time for Halloween.
But seriously, mammograms save lives and women need them. With toxins in our air, food and water, breast cancer is no longer only a middle-aged woman’s issue. More young women are being diagnosed with breast cancer. So if you have breasts – get one!
Jean calls her Austin band featured on the track: Male Order Brides. It’s Jon Nottarthomas (Ian McGlagan) on guitar, Zack Humphrey (Megafauna) on drums, Josh Robins (Invincible Czars) on bass. Jean on electrified acoustic and vocals. Interestingly, Josh’s main gigs is composing original scores to silent films and performing those soundtracks around the country.
Much of the video is borrowed from a silent film called Häxan by Benjamin Christensen which also serves as a hybrid documentary and live action picture about witchcraft in the Middle Ages. The film of the woman on the trapeze is by the inventor, Thomas Edison. The band at the top of the film is not the band on the track. Jean spends a lot of time in her home town of San Francisco. They’re Jean’s SF players, dubbed the Wuhan Splash. That band footage is by Neil Marshad.
