MSJR, Burnin' and the Cost of Holding Four Genres at Once
The Pittsburgh Band’s Catalogue Single Answers to Reggae, Rock and Jazz at the Same Time
MSJR’s Burnin’ refuses to pick a lane. The Pittsburgh band cut the single with derek woods on vocals and released it on 24 January 2025. It holds reggae, alternative rock, groove and jazz in one arrangement, and lets none of them take over. Even so, that decision carries a price.
MSJR’s music is in the playlist below, and every piece this desk has run on him is gathered on the MSJR artist profile. Burnin’ reached this desk through PopHits.Co Music Charts, which verifies independent artists and places their releases across its network of music news desks. Give it a listen before reading on.
Where Reggae, Rock and Jazz Meet on MSJR’s Burnin’
MSJR started in Pittsburgh in 2023 as an open mic project. Frontman Jonathan Vanaskie founded it, and named it for his friend Michael Spade Jr. The band calls its own sound a blend of reggae, rock and jazz fusion. Burnin’ is where that description meets the record.
The guitar holds the rock end. The beat underneath leans back into reggae, unhurried, pulling against the instinct to drive forward. Over the top, the harmonic movement gives the jazz away. The groove in between stops the three from arguing.
Yet none of it is decorative. Take one element out and the other two stop making sense. That is what separates a fusion record from a rock record that borrows a style for one section. Still, holding it across four minutes is much harder than attempting it for eight bars.
What derek woods Adds to Burnin’ and Why MSJR Left Room for It
A guest vocal on a record like this has one job. Instead of adding a fifth style, it gives the ear a fixed point to hold while everything underneath keeps moving.
derek woods does that on Burnin’. His vocal reads as a separate voice inside the arrangement, not a layer on top of one. So the parts around it step back and let it land. That puts the collaboration at the centre of the track rather than its edges, and it explains why Burnin’ stands apart in the MSJR catalogue.
The BestRock.News curator team: “What earns Burnin’ its slot with us is the restraint. A track built from reggae, rock, groove and jazz hands every player an excuse to solo. Nobody takes it. The parts stay in service of the arrangement, and that discipline is rarer in fusion than technique is.”
The Cost of Fusion for a Self-Released Pittsburgh Band
Fusion costs something that has nothing to do with studio time. A record answering to four styles gives up its clean genre address. That address is what gets a track filed, shelved and found. Without one, the listener has to do the filing, and most listeners will not.
Since 2023, MSJR has worked under exactly that constraint. Burnin’ shows it plainly. The single came out on 24 January 2025, and the band still puts it in front of new people now. As a result, a self-released track with a reggae lean does not suit a straight rock playlist. It does not suit a straight jazz one either. Independent records that refuse a label surface late, one listener at a time.
The band kept working regardless. Build the Scene featured them on the Pennsylvania Rock Show. The catalogue has since grown past Burnin’, and the sound never narrowed to fit anything.
Who Burnin’ Is For and Where to Find MSJR
The audience here is specific, and it is not small. It is the listener who found the reggae upstroke inside a Sublime record and wanted more of it. It is the listener who plays Rebelution for the way horns and offbeat guitar share a bar without crowding. And it is the listener who came to Stick Figure for dub space, then stayed for the rhythm section.
Burnin’ rewards attention paid to the middle of an arrangement. That is where most rock records have nothing much going on. If that is how you listen, this one will repay you.
MSJR is independent and self-released, and the catalogue rewards more than one visit. Burnin’ sits on Spotify. The wider catalogue runs through the Spotify artist page and Apple Music. There is more on SoundCloud and the band’s official site. Day to day, MSJR posts on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and the YouTube channel.
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