Sloppy Jane performing during the Reunion Tour at the Moody Amphitheater Waterloo Park in Austin, Texas on May 20, 2022, with Haley Dahl, Al Nardo, Bailey Wollowitz, Lily Rothman, Lily Desmond, Sean Brennan, Nicolette Miller, Emma Stacher, and Nathan Lopez. (Photo: Ralph Arvesen)
Sloppy Jane is an American avant-garde rock band fronted by Haley Dahl. The band released their breakthrough second studio album Madison, through Saddest Factory Records, an imprint owned by their former bassist Phoebe Bridgers. Dahl is known for her eccentric performance art style which sometimes includes nudity.
Haley Dahl was born in New York City and raised in Los Angeles. It was in the latter city that she formed Sloppy Jane at the age of fifteen, performing up and down the Sunset Strip. As an experiment she wore one suit for an entire year without washing it, vowing to wear it until it "rots off her body" and now intends to eat it.
Sloppy Jane released two demos Totally Limbless and Burger Radio with the line-up of Haley Dahl on lead vocals and guitar, Phoebe Bridgers on bass and background vocals, and Imogen Teasley-Vlautin on drums. They released their debut extended play Sure-Tuff through Lolipop Records. This release saw the addition of Sara Catherine on guitar. Sure-Tuff was inspired by both post-punk and proto-punk music.
Their debut studio album Willow was self-released in 2018. For this album Sloppy Jane was a duo, with Dahl performing vocals, guitar, piano, and bass, and Sara Catherine playing drums as well as additional guitar and vocals. Willow also featured non-members Charlene Huang and April Guthrie on violin and cello respectively. Musically, it is an art rock and punk rock album that "reflected a shift toward more playful, theatrical songs involving instruments like glockenspiel and flexatone, spoken word samples, and crowd noise". Following its release, Dahl moved back to her hometown of New York City.
Sloppy Jane signed to Bridgers' Saddest Factory Records in 2021. Their second studio album Madison was released that same year.
I went to see Cherry Glazerr and Sloppy Jane was opening. It's not, I think, so common for the opening act to completely steal one's attention away from the main performer, but that is exactly what befell me on that fateful night.Setlist for the show at the Moody Amphitheater Waterloo Park
Sloppy Jane currently features about 10 performers, including a string section and a horn section, many of whom share in vocal duties. Frontwoman Haley Dahl channels such rock mavericks as Iggy Pop and Lux Interior with her awesome histrionics: oozing paint from every pore, literally climbing the walls and, yes, stripping naked.
And the music! Try to imagine if Tim Burton wrote schoolyard rhymes to be performed by the children's chorus from Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall", using a recording studio located in the Twilight Zone, and you might have an inkling of the sounds I heard. I read up on the band afterwards; Haley said in one interview that her goal in performing is to be different and entertaining above all. Sloppy Jane certainly succeeded on that night. and definitely converted at least one person in the audience. (Source: Badgertg)
Sloppy Jane was opening and blew my mind, I couldn't concentrate after their show. Now I'm Obsessed.
Loved their performance!
- Overture
- Party Anthem
- Jesus and Your Living Room Floor
- Judy's Bedroom
- Bark Like A God
- In The Future It Was Me That Burned It Down
- Where's My Wife
- Cancer
- Bianca Castafiore
- Wilt
- Wonderama
- The Constable
Sloppy Jane shared the stage with Phoebe Bridgers at the Moody Amphitheater Waterloo Park. They continue across the United States with the last stop at the Austin City Limits Music Festival in Austin, Texas on October 14, 2022.
Sloppy Jane
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Photos by Ralph Arvesen
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