Bring Your Ray Gun

One of our favorite bands at SXSW this past March was Bring Your Ray Gun. Their brand of dance rock is infused with a cocksure presentation and inimitable swagger that made instant fans of all those in attendance. No small feat, since their shows on Sixth Street were filled to capacity. A pair of tight, dynamic performances took the decadence of SXSW to a whole new level, replete with a back-street sexiness full of white-hot hooks and unparalleled energy. Spinning off incredible hooks, Bring Your Ray Gun offers an amalgam of rock, dance punk and disco supercharged with a decadent, bump-n-grind and demonically sexual vigor. This is a band that is an absolute treasure to witness in a live setting.

In a music scene that at times feels played out with so many genres and sub-genres fighting for second and third chances in the popularity hierarchy, Bring Your Ray Gun stands out as decidedly original. To define their sound you'll need to come up with something that represents a fusion of funky pop, disco, surf and dance punk with a skew toward the avant-garde. Oh, and it plays out like the most popular college party, leaning on jerky, angular riffs that are irresistibly danceable and wonderfully flamboyant. It's all great fun, but so much more than stage presence and showmanship. Bring Your Ray Gun writes incredibly infectious and memorable music. - Jivewired

Dance-rock has a curious history as it fuses two genres that were once posed in vehement opposition: disco and rock. Disco emerged in the early 1970s in reaction to the overwhelming dominance of rock in popular music, the rejection of dance-oriented music in underground scenes, and the straight white men's club that rock music had become. As disco ascended the pop charts, the two cultures clashed in the mainstream (as evidenced locally by the disastrous Disco Demolition Night at Comiskey in 1979), though a few adventurous artists realized the potential of combining the two genres. Post-punk bands like Liquid Liquid, ESG, and Gang of Four took disco’s driving funk rhythms and soul influences and fused them with the aggression and angularity of punk. New Wave embraced its timbres and dance-friendly grooves. Ever since, the hybrid style has been present and evolving, most recently culminating in the dance-punk explosion in the early to mid 2000s.

As with any other genre that fuses two distinct cultures, dance-rock opened up artists to a slew of new influences as is evidenced in Bring Your Ray Gun’s fun, raw, and dynamic songs. Will Wood’s guitar work jumps from funky comping to spacey, delay-saturated riffs to straight-ahead bombastic punk without skipping a beat. Heather Perry and Carlos Zapata easily rise to the challenge of the genre’s elevated role of drums and bass; their grooves are tight, neatly interwoven, and right at home on the dance floor. The world-influenced auxiliary percussion on Break it Off gives off the party vibe reminiscent of late 70s Marvin Gaye tracks while Heather’s spoken-word vocal counterpoint in What Will Become Of All This sounds like she may have time-traveled straight from an 80’s new wave show to whisper in your ear. Josh Lambert takes on the role of frontman and singer with aplomb - his vocal melodies are catchy and energetic, and his stage persona has all the cocky, brash, raw sexuality that you’d ever want from a lead singer. Synth lines and pads accentuate the densely packed arrangements.

All of which is to say every Bring Your Ray Gun song is a party. And it’s a party you definitely don’t want to miss out on. - Chicago Singles Club

"If you weren’t dancing already, you will be by the time BYRG takes the stage. Imagine Straight-forward but catchy synth lines mixed with funky bass riffs, plenty of wah-wah and echo on the guitar and some sexy vocals on top. Or instead just listen to their self-titled EP and save your brain the work of imaging all of that. These songs are almost too damn danceable for their own good." - Midwest Action

“Chicago dance-rockers Bring Your Ray Gun seem poised for a remarkable future. The new-ish group took the stage at Pancho's with veteran swagger and a genuine desire to make people move. Heather Perry's catchy bass-lines meshed well with some tight drumming to create grooves that, well typical of the genre, never fell victim to predictability. Every now and then the guitar seemed to want to lead Bring Your Ray Gun into more all-out-rock-attack territory, only to have its leash pulled at the perfect moment. Lead singer Josh Lambert has a bit of Eric Paul in him, 'cept that Lambert looks like he's having the time of his life onstage. It's that sentiment that really carries the band- you get the feeling they'd almost rather be dancing in the crowd than making the music. Almost. The vibe was so contagious that Pancho himself was behind the bar grinning like a fool and jamming on a wood block. With a debut EP slated for August, it'd be a shame if BYRG weren't gigging outside somewhere in the city this summer. They have 'street festival show stealer' written all over them.” - Windy City Rock

“Chicago's own dance rockers Bring Your Ray Gun ... provide feisty vocal distortion, wacky synths, and funky bass lines [with] trace elements of electro-rock groups like The Faint and Gang of Four. If past shows mean anything, the members of Bring Your Ray Gun love strutting around in their undies. Nothing says dance party like colorful briefs. - Loud Loop Press