jerra
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jerra

Band Pop Punk

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This band has not uploaded any videos

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Press


"whip-smart firebrand delivers"

"...this whip-smart firebrand delivers her ya-ya sisterhood message with fist-pumping bravura, bone-crunching volume, and tight pop melodies wrapped around intelligent lyrics." - AMPLIFIER Magazine


"Play Like A Girl"

Play Like A Girl, is part hard-rocking, power pop-punk extravaganza and part feminist/political diatribe." - VC Reporter


"So-What Punk Edge"

"Combining a snotty, so-what Punk edge with a crunchy, juicy-sweet overload of Power Pop rhythms, Jerra melts the heart to mush while crushing any preconceived notions about the fairer sex with one fell swoop."
- Under The Volcano


"Powerful and Heavy Punk"

"The thirteen tracks here have tremendous low end and feature a strong, powerful and heavy punk attack that comes across like an uptempo L7, a more punk Veruca Salt or a more rock Bikini Kill." - Exoduster


"Jerra picks up where the riot grrl movement left off."

In the same vein as Sleater-Kinney and Le Tigre, she swings far fromt he bubble-gum pop of other self-professed girl-bands, but still shw holds tight to melody-based, listenable brand of rock. - VC Reporter


""Aggressive, sharp intelligence bursts out of every track, carried on crunching rock guitar chords.""

Jerra is a welcome exception to the California pop/blonde rule. Aggressive, sharp intelligence bursts out of every track, carried on crunching rock guitar chords. She is a fascinating study in opposites. Her signature color is pink, but there’s nothing passive about her. She can snarl and shriek on one breath and then croon a satin melody on the next. She’s Alanis Morrisette with a baby doll side. A smart rebel. A sardonic idealist.

I think she’s seen the kind of Hollywood nightmares that would make most people bitter. Instead, in tracks like “Girl Gone,” she pulls us right into an almost violent underground playground to see for ourselves:

You make films? I want to be a model.
You like to do? I like to dawdle.
Don’t care about your boys chasing us around town
Just keep that camera rollin’ when I start to pound...

Her voice reminds me of the lead singer for the 80s band The Waitresses. And I love that wicked sense of humor on the short confessional “Sugar Hooker,” which is not what you think and happened to start playing just as I was popping a chocolate mint. That song is me. Sing it, sister.

Music fans wondering what happened to uncompromising, kickass female rock artists who can really write and really play and really sing about real gritty stuff will find a new heroine in Jerra. They can also find the best chocolate mints in the checkout aisles of Target stores.
- Indie-Music


Discography

"Play Like A Girl", released by Sugar Hooker Entertainment (SHE). Tracks can be heard on the band website, cdbaby, myspace, i-tunes, towerrecords.com, and other online forums associated. We've been in several surfer compilations and movies including a clip on Surfer Magazine's website for the pro finals 2005. The record is sold in all US Virgin Megastores, and selected independent stores and chains. Jerra can be heard on Los Angeles' Indie 103.1-FM as well as MTV's Real World/Road Rules Challenge, and the surf movie TK7 featuring Kelly Slater. Distribution is with punk outfit, Disgruntled Music. We're proud to be endorsed by Daisy Rock Guitars. We were on Warped Tour '05 all summer long, playing over 48 shows in two months.

Photos

Feeling a bit camera shy

Bio

“Every woman has her story / Just like every man,” explains Jerra in “Slow 2Burn”— and she’s ready to tell you hers. Jerra is a fierce, intelligent mix of brash sound, feminist ideals, and punk rebellion, tempered by emotional honesty and heartfelt storytelling. Deeply personal lyrics sweep out from a frenetic wall of sound - distorted guitar layers, stops and starts, sing-along melodies and haunting harmonies. Her music is a sly discussion of human politics, a diatribe on gender inequality, an inquisition, a stand. It’s a nod to the riot grrrls and her own DIY philosophy, seeking always to inspire, to empower, and to attract. Jerra’s is the kind of music that finds you.

With the startup of her own independent label, Sugar Hooker Entertainment (SHE), Jerra invites you into her sweet, dark world with the release of her debut album, Play Like a Girl. As the title suggests, she enjoys playing with expectations and assumptions, especially those placed on women. Her songs are narrative social commentaries that are intense, brief, and strong. She explores role reversals, decries the double standard, teases and taunts on a canvas of pure Southern California punk and post-riot instincts. Honest, raw, and direct, Jerra speaks from a realm of opposites, contradictions, and shifting paradigms. Though never shying away from her female perspective, her message resonates with men and women alike.

*****

Raised in San Diego, Jerra grew up playing music with her father, a jazz trumpeter and composer, but it was her first concert experience that sparked her desire to perform. At 8 years old, she laughs, “I saw Alice Cooper rise from a pit of fire, and the crowd went wild. I realized that performance could connect me to a community.” At 10, she began playing guitar, and her persistence paid off: four years later, she was playing her own songs in Southern California coffee shops and small venues. Quickly outgrowing her hometown scene, Jerra left at age 14 to study and play in Michigan and New York. After earning her B.F.A. from NYU in 2001, she struck out on her own yet again, continuing her search for a place where she could perform uncompromised. Time spent living in San Francisco colored Jerra’s worldview, refined her skills, and further broadened her sense of community and activism. The city’s rich mix of cultures and opinions gave her fresh inspiration in the form of a six-song demo and a performance of her song “Lady America” on the main stage at one of the city’s largest anti-war rallies, in early 2003.

Invigorated by her growing success, Jerra felt a strong pull to explore the business side of the industry. Her specific vision for her music led her to relocate to Los Angeles in 2004 and to start her own label. “No one is going to do a better job at shaping me than me,” Jerra maintains. “I started Sugar Hooker Entertainment because I learned that I could take my destiny into my own hands.” The label has since gained tremendous momentum, allowing Jerra to release her first full-length album, Play Like a Girl. It’s this kind of independent energy and drive that continues to fuel Jerra’s passion for music—a freedom she hopes to pass on to a global community of fans and artists alike: “I love the process of taking a concept and making something out of nothing, by expressing yourself and sharing that expression with others, one person at a time.”