Friday, April 19, 2024

Who’s on? Jamaican Queens, which performs their self-defined genre of “Detroit trap pop” of snot-nosed indie-pop melodies over hip-hop beats, on a bill with with Teen, a New York quartet which performs modern R&B-informed pop, and headliners Lower Dens, who can’t explain what it is they do even when given lots of space or asked directly by Facebook.

For who? Young dirty bastards.

When, where and for how much? At 8 p.m. June 20 at The Sinclair, 52 Church St., Harvard Square. Tickets are $12 in advance and $14 the day of the show.

Who are they? Jamaican Queens have won critical acclaim for their raw and abrasive form of pop music focused on dark themes. Their sound incorporates electronic, electric and acoustic instrumentation, with writer, vocalist and instrumentalist Ryan Spencer claiming inspiration from his “mercurial relationship with modern love, the undeniably violent tendencies of the human spirit and sometimes-debilitating bouts with anxiety and depression.” He’s joined by the eccentric Adam Pressley and Ryan Clancy for music that the Detroit Metro Times calls “an intense mashup of Motown, MGMT and acid house.”

Are they any good? “Woe permeates the work, but that doesn’t make it a lugubrious listen. Rather, it’s inescapably fun and addictive despite the morose subject. It’s sensitive and yearning, bitter and hurt, but avoids being mopey, thanks to frontman Ryan Spencer’s cut-to-the-core lyrics balanced with the music’s innovation and buoyancy,” PopMatters says. “Jamaican Queens, makes instantly catchy, hip-hop-influenced, electronic-soaked pop gems and performs them in a dance-inducing glam pop fashion … Jamaican Queens could quickly become your favorite new band,” the San Francisco Bay Guardian says.

I want more: Jamaican Queens are here.