Concerts

Bask in the ‘Black Light’ of Dakota Jones in Medford

Tristian Carter-Jones and her band will whip up a funky, soulful, bluesy stew at The Porch on Oct. 22.

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Tristian Carter-Jones has spoken in interviews of being so terrified of singing in public that she didn’t even want to jam with a few close friends.

Fortunately for all involved parties, Carter-Jones has overcome her apprehensiveness.

How else could a band honestly describe itself as being possessed of “the hell-hath-no-fury power of Chaka Khan, the wild spontaneity of Janis Joplin, and the honey-dripping sensuality of Marvin [Gaye]”?

These are the words that you will find in the Intro box of the Facebook page for Dakota Jones, a New York City-based quartet fronted by Carter-Jones (whose middle name is Dakota) that also includes guitarist Randy Jacobs, bassist Scott Kramp, and drummer Steve Ross.

And no shrinking violet could say of herself, as Carter-Jones has, “I’m a Black, queer woman expressing my thoughts and my love … I’m also a Black, queer woman fronting three straight white men [who is] in full control of our band’s message. I write a lot about my sexuality and the ways in which I express it – songs about rough sex and masturbation bounce back and forth between songs about the pain of love, good love, hangovers, self-medication.”

Dakota Jones’s break came in 2019, when one of their songs appeared in the Netflix-produced movie “Always Be My Maybe.” This burned the path to the recording of their first record.

“The producer of the album actually reached out to us and loved our music,” Carter-Jones said of the band’s 2021 debut, “Black Light.” “His name is John Wooler. He had been in the record industry for a really long time and started his own label and then retired, but heard our song [‘Have Mercy’] in a movie called ‘Always Be My Maybe,’ and reached out to us and came out of retirement to see where everything went.”

In 2020, two more songs, “Blacklight” and “Last of the Day,” were featured on the soundtrack to the San Francisco International LGBTQ Film Festival-winning movie “Milkwater.”

Now, as of last August, they have a full-length recording to their credit, the aforementioned “Black Light,” which features the single “I Did It To Myself” and “We Playin Bad Games,” which Carter-Jones designates as her favorite of the 10 tracks.

The Matawan, New Jersey native – who considers “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” to be the greatest record of all time – now sees herself on a musical and personal mission.

“I hope to be one of the faces at the forefront of representing for Black women and for queer women, and just people of color in general,” she told Brooklyn Magazine. “I just want to make noise for all of us.”