Lazy
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Lazy

| INDIE

| INDIE
Band Alternative Punk

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"Lazy is easy like a Sunday morning - - until it comes to music."

Lazy doesn't do drugs — except for that one time on tour.

Brock Potucek recalls one night of debauchery with his band on the group's recent West Coast tour. The rest of Lazy's members laugh and reminisce with Potucek between puffs of cigarettes. They're sitting in a warehouse-style loft above the Leedy-Voulkos Art Center. Several of them live here, in a space littered with stage props and decorated with brightly colored murals. In the background, the Pretenders' "Brass in Pocket" spins on a turntable.

"We ate a lot of weed brownies in San Francisco one night. It was horrible. I wanted to sit in the van and cry," Potucek says.

"Yeah, we had to beg Brock to come back to the show, and we sound-checked the bass for an hour and a half," adds drummer Matthew Huff, after sharing a good-natured laugh at Potucek's expense.

As a collective, Lazy generally prefers to consume copious amounts of macha green tea instead of marijuana. After all, they wouldn't want you to mistake that stoner story — or their languid moniker — for apathy.

The group formerly known as Lazy K — the name of a ranch owned by Potucek's aunt — is no stranger to the hectic, hustling life of the local musician. The collective of scenester royalty from Ssion, Fortuning and Whoop Dee Doo take the band seriously, despite its ramshackle beginnings.

Last December, Lazy formed as a last-minute effort for Lawrence art-rock DIY family Chomp Womp, after learning some cover songs in the car on the way to the event. The performance was so successful that the band decided to stay together; but not everyone in the Chomp Womp camp jumped on the Lazy bandwagon.

"We pissed a lot of people off that night," Potucek says. The band, in its eagerness to go wild, bumped others out of the lineup and wreaked havoc on the Jackpot stage. "We broke a lot of things and made a lot of people kind of uncomfortable," Potucek says. "But I was happy with it because I thought that rock shows should definitely be kind of messed up. Causing chaos was a definite agenda."

Now the band — Potucek on guitar and vocals, Huff on drums, Zach Van Benthusen on guitar and backup vocals, Sarica Douglas on guitar and vocals, Michael Boles on bass — incorporates the same level of energy and chaos in its live shows, though things are a bit more refined. They also share writing duties on songs, starting with a rough sketch and reworking it until they find a moment that clicks.

A dash of theatricality adorns Lazy's aesthetic. The group dons black leather jackets and full gothic-style makeup for live performances. As he gets up to change the record, Van Benthusen explains: "My ideal sound is gothic soul. Kind of like Prince but with blood on the sheets."

While Lazy's sound rests firmly in the garage-rock vein, the band recognizes that the categorization is one that might not have much longevity. "There's a garage-rock revival that's been going on for far too fucking long now," Van Benthusen says. "But it is what it is, and if you have enough beer, it's fun."

"I'm interested in getting the most sound out of the least amount of instruments," Potucek says. "I think in rock and roll, less is more."

Van Benthusen offers up Prince, Al Green, Bauhaus and minimalist composer La Monte Young as influences. Potucek suggests a visual reference: "It's like Kate Bush making out with Carly Simon." The band members all laugh but agree.

Beyond those acts, the band has been listening to a lot of Friendly Fires, Harlem, Lou Reed and the local band Nature Boys, which they play in their tour van several times a day. Perhaps that's the most endearing thing about Lazy: It's finely tuned to local music. Though the band cites national acts it has shared bills with during the past year, Lazy is far more interested in discussing Kansas City.

"It takes a village to raise a band," Van Benthusen says as he gets up to change the record again.

Lazy's label has big plans for the group, starting with recording a new EP. Record Machine co-founder Nathan Reusch hopes to get the band involved in some guerrilla-style showcases around town to shoot on video and send viral. Lazy is also looking forward to what a progressive, social-media-driven label can do for the cassette-and-vinyl-only crew. Until then, Lazy will slug away in smoky warehouses and dingy bars, winning fans the same way it has for a year: by slaying them with rusty vintage grooves.

As for the chaotic side of its stage presence, fans need not worry that a proper label and a major tour will add too much structure to their spontaneous destruction.

Potucek lights a cigarette and thinks for a moment. "We're definitely not sitting down. We don't want to be lazy." His bandmates wince at the terrible pun and laugh.
- The Pitch, Kansas City


Discography

Lazy - EP - CS - Clandestine Records - 2011
Lazy - EP - 7" - on the Record Machine - 2010
Lazy - Lazy/Cvlts - Split 7 - on Collective Crowd Records - 2010
Lazy - Sleep Eater - CS - on Solid Melts - 2010
Lazy - Don't Want Your Nature - Tour CDR - Self Released - 2010
Lazy - Don't Want Your Nurture - CS - on Solid Melts - 2010
Lazy - IDS - CS - on Solid Melts - 2009

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Bio

Lazy formed in December 2009 in Kansas City, MO. Members of the group included Fortuning and Ssion. The band's influences include the Fleshtones, Pere Ubu, and The Gun Glub. The group is a five piece that combines garage rock with triple vocals and theatrics. In 2010 they signed with Record Machine, Collective Crowd, and Solid Melts. The band was toured the US once and plans on second tour in May 2011.