“My first show was in an art gallery with a backing track that I ran on my laptop,” Comet recalls, a couple of days following the release of her Quitter EP. “There was a Windows notification in the middle of my set. I’ve come a long way.” During her release show at NYC’s Mercury Lounge earlier this month, that observation carried depth and meaning. After pulling up to the 250-cap space in a limo, Comet echoed a lineage of ’90s heroes with unbound energy, gritty post-grunge, and conviction. She donned braids and a sash that championed the word “Quitter,” raging to songs that unfurled stories of love, addiction, and survival. Supported by Taraneh and MX Lonely, it was a rowdy evening that reflected the very ethos of her project — quitting can make you win.
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Comet’s gateway into alternative rock’s golden age was simple: “Drugs and Nirvana.” She adds, “I’m prone to nostalgia like everyone, but it’s not a reference in my work.” That’s because while that era shaped hundreds of imitators, Comet would rather look ahead, pushing her sound into weirder, murkier spaces that don’t feel beholden to the past. It’s not retreading hallowed ground — it’s an update, pulling from modern life with the same finesse as Fiona Apple or Courtney Love.
Jo Barajas
This time, though, she’s unafraid to embrace warmer terrain. 2023’s Two-Winged oozes with the muck of the city, but her latest EP gleams — a slice of pop-leaning cuts, richer in hope and healing, pieced together while hard at work on her first proper full-length. Throughout its four tracks, penned between Los Angeles and New York, Comet endorses the idea that quitting means choosing yourself — that it’s healthy and sane, not apathetic and miserable — while flipping a childhood nickname into a biting statement of intent. “I’ve never been lazy, and quitting is one of the most definitive actions you can take,” she asserts, giving no credence to its misconceptions.
Behind the scenes, producer Richard Orofino helped stretch the boundaries of her raw, bruised landscape. “Richard works with sound in such a unique way,” Comet says. “We recorded the bones of each song with my band and then added a million things before whittling them back down to where they are now. My favorite additions of his were the baritone guitar on everything, as well as the bowed acoustic guitar and mandolin in ‘Vain Memoirs’ and ‘Winona.’” The resulting songs find beauty and light in unexpected places, balancing brighter hooks with unalloyed cool. “They promise better days. A glimmer of hope in a time where I need it most,” Comet says.
Yet it’s still early days, as the EP is only a pit stop before she releases her debut full-length. “It’s a lot darker,” Comet reveals. “This time in a more powerful way. Two-Winged was the aftermath, Quitter is the bandages, and the album will be the fully healed beast.”
Jo Barajas