Stef Chura has spent a life moving around, but always within the state of Michigan. Having spent a number of years putting on DIY-shows, Stef is now ready to step out on her own with the release of her debut album “Messes”, which is out this month on Urinal Cake Records.
Stef Chura is one of Michigan’s DIY VIPs. The rocker has been roving across the Great Lakes State for years now, uprooting at least 20 times while coordinating underground concerts and honing her musical vision all the while. Now all that development is ready to be displayed on Messes, Chura’s full-length debut album, due out in January. That’s the cover art above by artist Molly Soda.
After sharing a video for opening track “Slow Motion” earlier , Chura returns for the album announcement today with the gleaming guitar jam “You.” The twilight-shaded alt-rock track is topped off with Chura’s striking vocal presence, each word quivering with power whether whispered, moaned, or fiercely belted out. It’s the sound of a songwriter taking familiar sounds and molding them into her own unmistakable image.
Stef’s sound is an intriguing one seemingly fusing a number of genres, there’s plenty of grunge, but at times her voice seems to take on an almost country lilt, capable of sweeping emotional minimalism, and roaring energetic anger. Recent single You is a gorgeous slice of angsty college rock, bringing to mind the criminally underrated Jessica Lee Mayfield. Elsewhere on Messes, Thin is a wonderful blur of meandering guitar picking and her distinctive mid-western twang,
Spotted Gold is a jangling, bright slice of indie-pop, whilst the closing number, Speeding Ticket, is a moment of beautiful clarity, as Stef sings, “is it time to feel a real thing?”. Stef has said of the album’s title that it represents emotional messes, and having to, “do a lot of things the wrong way in order to figure out how to live my life”, she might have done a lot of things wrong, but her music career seems to be heading in completely the right direction.
The Fat Angel Sings 