From a long list of sleazy punk n rollers LJ & The Sleeze rocks up to RPM HQ with their Bandcamp release ‘Stay Sleezy’. ITs down in the gutter rolling around with the Jabbers, The Stooges, and all things proto-punk. I’m guessing from the spelling they want to rattle the most fastidious punk rock police officers who patrol social media and beyond this here internet and will then produce the middle finger at any response.

This Virginia troupe gets things off to a one-fingered piano drill and distorted twelve-bar riff with those Steve Jones fills to accent the end of the bar – then hold it all together with a rock-solid beat and root note bass thump. Hey, chuck in a breakdown and floor tom fill for good measure and away we go. OH, let’s not forget the “don’t give a fuck” lyrics which happen to be repeating the song title over and over and over again. Maybe these punks really don’t give a fuck!

Follow that with a twist on the Beastie Boys ‘Fight For The Right’ and if you’re not hooked then move on mother fucker, Me, I’m in. Slurred vocals on ‘Closing Out The Bar’ and boy this is Sleezy stuff. Loud, in-your-face punk n roll for sure.

We shift through the gears as ‘I’m Bad’ revs its engine and we’re off. I’m liking this – I’m liking this a lot. ‘Small Dick & No Brain’ is a shambolic intro that’s holding on by a thread and that’s as it should be.

Many of these tracks first appeared on the band’s ‘Keeping It Sleezy’ but this is a much-improved version from the recording production to the tightness of the songs. These arrangements are the mutt’s nuts. If ‘Trouble Is A Ladies Man’ doesn’t get the blood pumping then I don’t know what will. It won’t be the best album you’ll hear this year but it might be the most un PC and sleezy for sure. ‘Aliens Exist’ is punk as fuck and clocking in at sub-one minute it’s a belter.

In another time ‘Cocaine’ could have been an L7 number or Betty Blowtorch no doubt about it. I won’t ask what ‘Ripping A Jizz’ is about but it’s got style and plenty of grunt going on but they do use the lyric “Blow me like a harmonica”. ‘Cheri Love Affair’ is a fine love song and is delivered with attitude. Before the band signs off they deliver a solid one-two-three – ‘Live Fast Die Whenever’, ‘Night Time Whenever’ and ‘2 Stoned To Bone’ a trio that encapsulates everything the band is trying to achieve and they do it in style.

Get on this you punks and fill up on the sleeze. Who knows they might learn some new riffs and a solo or two then come back with more tales of depravity and life in the fast lane or they might just get high and drunk or both then crash and burn! until then ‘Stay Sleezy’

Bandcamp Buy Here

Author: Dom Daley