When Jack Parker (McCormick ’23) and Cora Pancoast (McCormick ’23) DJed together as juniors at Northwestern’s studio radio station WNUR, they had disparate tastes in music.
Parker wanted to play ambient folk music and songwriter-oriented records, while Pancoast preferred hardcore punk and riot girl.
Today, they have a rock band together, Truth or Consequences New Mexico, and released their second EP “This Time of Year” on April 11.
The EP consists of five songs written by Pancoast and Parker, some of which were written before TCNM’s creation. The band had a release show on April 17 at Beat Kitchen in Chicago.
TCNM was created during Pancoast and Parker’s junior year, when they realized they would rather make music together than co-DJ. Both had dreamed of being in a band since coming to college. Thus, TCNM, named after a town in New Mexico they discovered on Wikipedia, was born.
“We’ve been inseparable ever since three and a half years later,” Pancoast said.
TCNM started out playing house shows in Evanston. Parker said these gigs taught him how to scream because he couldn’t hear himself playing. In 2023, they debuted their first EP, “TCNM.”
Parker said most of the songs are from the duo’s time at Northwestern but reworked with new band members, including Bassist Ben Goldenberg and drummer Carys Uribe.
“We wanted to be a little ambitious with the sounds we were going with, even though it’s mostly still a two guitars, drum and bass kind of rock record,” Parker said. “I play more lead guitar than I ever have in the past on this record and Cora sings lead more often, and it was new territory for both of us.”
Pancoast said all the instrumentals were recorded either in her living room or her parents’ house.
Self-recording gave the band complete control over the sound of the EP, which led to experimentation with feedback, layers and instrumentation.
Starting a year ago, they were able to record as many takes as they wanted, giving them time to work things out as they recorded.
“Left to our own devices, we took many months to perfect it,” Parker said. “We didn’t finish recording until last winter.”
TCNM has pitched itself as a country band, but Parker said he and Pancoast struggle with pinning their music down to a single genre. Their style is marked by intense and emotional instrumentation, as well as folk-inspired songwriting.
Pancoast said her songwriting ethos boils down to figuring out what’s fun to play. TCNM’s genre is “fun,” she joked, to which Parker quipped that he doesn’t “have as much fun.”
“Yeah, you’re a serious musician, I’m a clown,” Pancoast said, grinning.
Pancoast said one of her favorite things about making music is how different each member’s interests are.
Uribe enjoys metal, while Goldenberg likes classic country. Combined with Pancoast’s and Parker’s tastes, Pancoast said it feels like new genres emerge.
“It always feels like we’re going to come up with something that nobody would have predicted because of everyone’s different influences,” she said.
These past few weeks, Pancoast and Parker, who both work as engineers in Chicago, dedicated their free time to promoting their new EP by making CDs and t-shirts, as well as preparing for their release show.
Parker said TCNM hopes to play shows in Chicago this summer. They eventually want to tour the East Coast, he said.
For now, Parker said band members are enjoying the positive responses to the EP, even from people they don’t know personally.
“We couldn’t have asked for a better release,” Pancoast said. “It feels great to see people listening to this thing that we put a lot of effort into and connecting to it in the ways that we hoped that they would connect with it.”
Email: [email protected]
Related Stories:
— Student band Tavern readies to strike final chord before graduation
— Chicago-based artists talk ‘grassroots’ culture, community of growing music scene
