Jon Stancer and his band will perform songs from his new album, “Are We Not Here For Fun?”, as well as selections from his past releases.
It is one thing to acknowledge the omnipresent crises facing us these days. It’s another to twist that dread into incisive, poetic music. On alt-rock songwriter Jon Stancer’s new record, Are We Not Here For Fun?, Stancer transforms the chaos of modern life into luminous, poetic soundscapes. Across immersive arrangements built on electronic textures, Brit-pop hooks and haunting strings, Stancer addresses the crises of our time: Rising fascism, fractured mental health, and the lure of destructive technologies.
Balancing deeply personal songs (“Don’t Make Me Go Back” / “2am”) with dystopian storytelling (“Loose Cannons”), AWNHFF? offers rainy-day alt-rock firmly in Stancer’s own wry and empathetic voice. The record weaves darkly comic world-building invoking noxious TikTok pranksters (“Are We Not Here For Fun?”), overly sensitive hitmen (“Quasi Killer - Gotta Come At It Another Way”) and lovelorn robo-soldiers (“With A Little More Luck We Can Get Out Alive”), with intimate portraits of relationships unravelling under pressure (“State Of The Union” / “Ricochet” / “Like Radio Waves”). These songs echo Robert Wyatt and Radiohead, yet remain unmistakably Stancer.
Stancer’s music stares directly into the darkness while refracting light: Shimmering soundscapes with playful articulations (like pitch-shifted vocals), soaring melodies, waves of multi-tracked harmonies, and gradual, minor-key arrangements that open slowly and deliberately as moonflower petals.