Kevin Bronson on June 8th, 2021

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New things from all over the sonic spectrum — catch up with singles from Junior Mesa, Tennis System, Junaco and the Marías …

JUNIOR MESA, “Listen Close”

Following up last summer’s “Losing My Grip” / “Creep,” L.A.-via-Bakersfield artist Junior Mesa returns with “Listen Close” via Nice Life Recording Co. The protean-talented artist plays all the instruments, produces and engineers and even made the trippy video, which along with the lyrics give you an eye into Mesa’s perilous world. “In this song, I compare music to a toxic relationship,” he says. “I have struggled with epilepsy the past couple of years, trying new medications [and] dosages, and pretty consistently feeling very sick and depressed. This affected the thing I love most, music. I would make music till the world around me would spin, my hands would go numb and I couldn’t breathe. … I would have a seizure, but for some reason I couldn’t stop — it’s just what I do, it’s all I want to do, create shit.”

TENNIS SYSTEM, “Autophobia”

Autophobia is the crippling fear of being alone. “Autophobia” is also the title track to punk-shoegaze outfit Tennis System’s new album, due late this summer. The follow-up to the hard-hitting single “Truth Hurts,” the new single, made in collaboration with Hundredth’s Chadwick Johnson, is about “being in a relationship that has been dead for sometime,” Matty Taylor says. “Rather than express how you feel about it or put in work to fix it, you bury your thoughts and feelings deep inside to avoid confrontation or having to face your biggest fear — being alone.”

JUNACO, “Paradise” and “Dazed”

Building on the dreamy folk that gave us “Blue Room,” the duo of Shahana Jaffer and Joey LaRosa are back with the news that they have an EP arriving on July 9 via Side Hustle Records. “Paradise” is the latest single with the duo’s special glow, a song about “feeling the lows and riding the highs. This song really encompasses the way I try to live, as I learned from my parents: ‘Is paradise a place or a state of mind?’ We have the power and ability to create our own reality and there is magic in being present.” “Dazed,” released in late April, will also appear on the EP, titled “Blue Room.”

THE MARÍAS, “Un Millón”

The follow-up to “Hush,” “Un Millón” is the latest from dream-pop ensemble the Marías’ debut album, “Cinema,” coming out June 25. Sung in Spanish, it’s a love letter to lead singer María Zardoya’s birthplace of Puerto Rico. “I wanted to pay homage to the island and its music and people,” she says, “so in the song I’m calling out some of the places I used to go visit with my family when I was little.”