Bad News

'Bad News' is a new EP from Magana, the solo project of acclaimed LA-based multi-instrumentalist and photographer Jeni Magaña. Best-known as the current bassist and backing vocalist for Mitski (recently performing on the "Coyote, My Little Brother" / "Buffalo Replaced" single), Magaña is also one-half of the pen pin pop duo with Emily Moore, and has previously played with Lady Lamb among others.

In March, she returned to the Magana project after a three-year-absence with the critically acclaimed 'Teeth' LP, which reunited her with Audio Antihero Records (Frog / CIAO MALZ / Nosferatu D2) who issued her 'Golden Tongue' debut in 2016. Released to coincide with the peak illumination of the Worm Moon, her return was marked with a "Witchy Rock" sound that combined Acid Folk, Synth Pop, and Indie Rock. Magaña followed this in October with 'DREAMS,' a multimedia project released via the UK's Hand Drawn Hand label, which combined Ambient Electronic music with a spoken word dream diary and a book of her photography.

The 'Bad News' EP is her third release in a ten month period. Teasingly described by Magaña as "Cozy Core" and "Winter Pop," these four songs see her return to the singer-songwriter focus of works like 'Golden Tongue' and 'Teeth' but strip away the Rock and Ambient layers, so to emphasize words, meaning, honesty, and change.

Artist Quote:

"This EP is the last of what I think of as an interconnected trio of releases. Teeth was made for spring, a period of growth. It was expansive and exploring. Dreams was made for fall. It was about dusk, the dawning of the restful months. Bad News is made for that period of time between the end of winter and the beginning of spring. Stillness before movement. Each song is about the period of time right before a transition: the realization that change is coming or that it needs to come. As the most lyrically driven of the releases, it is mostly about storytelling. I think of each track as a vignette of a moment in time for four different stories." – Jeni Magaña

Praise for Magana's'Teeth'Album (March 2024):

"Magana wades through earth and space on Teeth." – Post-Trash

"Teeth is a mosaic, with crunchy guitars, airy woodwinds, gorgeous strings, and synths that sound like they were summoned from a different dimension blending together beautifully." – The Alternative

"Jeni Magaña's daring experimentalism exists as a cyclical theme across her solo offerings, inspired in no small part by the many artists she's collaborated or performed with over the years…It is a record of staggering honesty and melodic ingenuity. If you're a fan of brooding mercurial soundscapes, gale force vocals, and raptly blunt poetics akin to Mitski, St. Vincent, or Sharon Van Etten then this is right up your gloomy alley." – Grimy Goods

"Brutally vulnerable and beautifully breathtaking, Teeth is as visceral and raw as it is dramatically layered." – Atwood Magazine

"Feels equally at home in the era of doomy 60s girl pop and the modern age of dreampop and lushly-drawn indie music. Magaña's vocals exude joy and pain in equal measure…" – Analogue Trash

"Magana has a dramatic, floating vocal style that puts her in line with a lot of the big "indie folk" acts of today, but it's her embrace of more adventurous instrumentation that sets Teeth apart from the crowd more than anything else." – Rosy Overdrive

"Teeth combines acid folk, dream/alt-pop, and a touch of krautrock…Each song brings something new and vulnerable to the aching LP, a stunning representation of growth and self-discovery through the lens of a fever dream." – The Post