Girl has a chip on her shoulder. She calls herself Your Best Nightmare. Her album is entitled ‘Your Best Nightmare Presents: A Simple Solution for Toxic Masculinity.’ (We won’t belabor the point by offering spoilers.) The Hackettstown hellraiser used to be known for bubblegum punk and mastery of the ukulele. Now she writes horror-themed narratives with genre-defying musical prowess.

She’s out of Red Bank—has been writing music since she was 15—and she doesn’t look too pleased to be celebrating her 23rd birthday. After listening to David Bowie in her bedroom for years, she writes of her own life experiences. Now she listens to Missouri singer-songwriter Chapell Roan. “Cowboys” is the song that caught our ear.

The New Jersey Jazz Society will present the eleventh annual Jersey City Jazz Festival May 29 to June 2 with 37 concerts over five days at different Hudson County locations. Tenor sax man Jerry Weldon will perform May 30 at the Brennan Courthouse. Drummer Johnathan Blake will lead his band May 31 at the Nimbus Arts Center. The waterfront location will host vocalist Champian Fulton, pianist David Kikoski and tenor saxophonist Lance Bryant (pictured) June 1 plus tenor saxophonist George Coleman and vocalist Brianna Thomas June 2.

When it came time for Belgian jazz guitarist-composer-arranger-producer-vocalist Jeanfrancois Prins, 57, to record his loving tribute to the label that pioneered bebop, he had to come to New Jersey. He just had to. So he did. The Van Gelder Studio in Englewood, since 1959, had birthed the bop, literally. Before that, Rudy Van Gelder [1924-2016] recorded the greats in Hackensack. He ultimately recorded every Blue Note session from 1953-1967. That’s why ‘Blue Note Mode’ (Gam Records, France) reeks with tradition, and a real sense of history. Prins knows whereof he plays.

Paramus metal band Patriarchs In Black has completed its third album. Guitarist Dan Lorenzo of Hades and Non-Fiction with drummer Johnny Kelly of Type Of Negative, Danzig and Quiet Riot have always used different vocalists and bassists. Their third album, ‘Visioning,’ comes out July 19.

This Sunday, May 19, the FREE bi-annual Hoboken Arts & Music Festival will take place from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Washington Street between Observer Highway and Seventh Street with over 300 artists, crafters, food vendors, dance troupes, DJs and live bands.

Five New Jersey bands will perform while spirits from the Asbury Park Distilling Company and Jersey Beer from the Hoboken Brewing Company and others will be served at “Jersey Fest” in Jersey City at the White Eagle Hall on May 18. Can you get any more Jersey than that?

This song/video—“Jersey For Mental Health”—was written, recorded and filmed in Union County to raise awareness and funds for the Mental Health Association of New Jersey in Springfield. With May being Mental Health Awareness Month, 73 singers and rappers who each wrote their own lyrics convened with 27 photographers, videographers and others in supportive roles.

The New Jersey Performing Arts Center (One Center Street, Newark) has announced its 2024-2025 classical music season.

Memorial Park in Maplewood of Essex County will turn into the annual event known as Maplewoodstock again for the 20th time on July 13 and 14. This event is FREE. Complete with food venders, a beer garden and a “Kid Zone,” the schedule provides a multi-genre experience for every taste.

The new Bon Jovi ‘Forever’ album lands June 7 but “Legendary,” its first single, is out now. The album is the iconic band’s 16th studio release in 41 years (they formed in Sayreville, Middlesex County, in 1983). Longtime members Tico Torres and David Bryan are intact. Guitarist Phil X replaced Richie Sambora. Bassist Hugh McDonald replaced Alec John Such who died in 2022.

Bon Jovi’s in the air these days. Between their 40th Anniversary, the four-part Hulu docu-series currently streaming (‘Thank You Good Night: The Bon Jovi Story’), and the new Forever album due June 7, Jon and the boys are experiencing one of those late-career renaissance moments few actually get to achieve. Now comes news that one of the their most beloved tunes, “Wanted Dead Or Alive,” the third single off their 1986 third album, ‘Slippery When Wet,’ has been covered and revitalized by Florida band Under Black Sky.

On May 19, the 2024 “Rock For Ronnie: Year of the Dragon” Concert Celebration will honor legendary metal icon Ronnie James Dio and benefit The Ronnie James Dio Stand Up & Shout Cancer Fund. Dio—the captivating lead singer for Elf, Rainbow, Heaven & Hell and Black Sabbath—lost his battle against gastric cancer in 2010 at the age of 67. The seven-hour event will be hosted by SiriusXM Radio host Eddie Trunk from Madison in Morris County.

The Pride of Bayonne, Zakk Wylde, will join Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Kingfish Ingram, Eric Johnson, Samantha Fish, Dweezil Zappa, Taj Mahal, Noah Hunt, Stanley Jordan, Ally Venable and other artists at the 2024 “Experience Hendrix” tour.

Bettye LaVette—while on the road—took a moment to field a few questions about getting a call to open for the Stones June 27 at Soldier Field in Chicago. “I am very excited,” the Essex County resident exclaimed. “They are my contemporaries. In fact, my first single came out in 1962 before their first record. Like I’ve said, ‘I’ve been waiting for them to call for sixty years. They finally found my number!”

There’s rage in Kanak singer/songwriter Tom Kanach’s every facial tic in the Asbury Park band’s new “Without A Clue” song. Whoever he’s singing it to must’ve really done a job on him.

They don’t mind being labeled “pop.” Maybe because that’s exactly what they are. Propulsive, bouncy, upbeat, energetic without being hard or heavy, Sara, Stephen and Cynthia—originally from Long Branch but now based in Asbury Park—will have their Combustible Gems out May 17 on Slumberland Records. In the meantime, they’ve released the first single, “Bright Happy Girls.”

Kool & The Gang (Jersey City), Dionne Warwick (East Orange) and Mary J. Blige (Saddle River) will be feted at the 2024 Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony October 19 at the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland: Kool and Blige in the Performer Category, Warwick winning the “Musical Excellence” Award.

The term “genius” is tossed around pretty frequently these days. Yet a true genius either invents his own genre like Bill Monroe (bluegrass) or furthers an existing genre into the future by making it palatable again but with a new personal touch so that it is forever irrevocably altered. Guitarist Stephane Wrembel is in the latter category. The Maplewood resident has fully inhabited the gypsy-jazz aesthetic of Django Reinhardt [1910-1953] to the point where he is, indeed, the living personification of Gypsy Jazz.

When Jersey Girl Debbie Harry wrote “Union City Blue” with her British bassist Nigel Harrison for Blondie’s 1979 ‘Eat To The Beat’ album, she must have been thinking of that Hudson County town. The following year Harry starred as neglected wife Lillian in the 1980 film ‘Union City.’ Enter Philadelphia band Soraia whose lead singer ZouZou has captured the nerve, balls and aggression of the original while adding her own flair.