Jane Jensen

A musician and actress with a background in theater and connections to the comic and film worlds, Jane Jensen produces sensuous, hook-filled alternative rock which blends fantasy with reality. Making her solo debut in 1996 with the industrial-tinged Comic Book Whore, her subsequent work has ventured into genres ranging from hard-edged power pop to disco, with 2007's My Rockabye incorporating country, folk, and blues. Initially from Indianapolis, Jensen moved to Chicago, where she studied music, audio arts, and theater at Columbia College. She played in several bands during the early '90s, most notably Oxygiene 23, a collaboration with Jim Marcus and Van Christie of industrial group Die Warzau. The trio contributed a track to a 1993 compilation issued by Martin Atkins' Invisible Records, then released the atmospheric, occasionally jazzy CD Blue on Fifth Column Records in 1995. While living in New York City, she had a starring role in the cult favorite Tromeo & Juliet, and appeared on the film's soundtrack. She signed to Flip Records/Interscope and released her first solo album, Comic Book Whore, in 1996. The Craig Kafton-produced album received college and alternative radio airplay, particularly lead single "More Than I Can," and Jensen toured throughout the United States and Australia, sharing stages with artists such as L7, Green Day, Gravity Kills, and Porno for Pyros. She co-produced her second album, Burner, with Kafton and veteran downtown New Yorker Martin Bisi; the album boasted much fuller arrangements than her debut, combining hip-hop drum breaks with heavy, buzzing guitars and girl group pop melodies. Initially appearing on Jensen's own Autozen label in 2000, the album was later awarded the prize for Best Alternative Album by Just Plain Folks. Jensen formed the all-female band the Dollz, and performed regularly at independent film festivals as well as CBGB's. After acting in several films and television series, including appearances in USA Network's Big Apple, Jensen returned with her third album, the more acoustic, country-influenced My Rockabye, in 2007. An EP titled Privateer, Pt. 1 followed in 2008. The four-song Dollzrock EP appeared in 2015, and Trust was released two years later.
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