Lazy (46) – Rock n' Roller / Am I Dreaming

Intuiting what so many of their contemporaries did not, i.e. that VAN HALEN and KISS had a lot more to do with a workable post-RASPBERRIES pop aesthetic than ten closets-full of skinny ties, Washington D.C.’s LAZY sound like a lost Starwood demo tape or Sunset Strip street band in the vein of CANDY, MICKEY RAT or even MOTLEY CRUE at their earliest and poppiest. On both sides of their lone 1980 single, LAZY also fit the description of power pop as outlined by Greg Shaw in the pages of BOMP! Magazine nearly perfectly as well: naively flirting with the style in such a casual and shamelessly commercial fashion that – despite stiffing upon release – still sounds fresh and dynamic today. Starting out with a setlist chock-full of AC/DC and STATUS QUO, it wasn’t long before these future Hyattsville keg-kings put down two of their best tracks at D.C.’s Track Studios. While the single’s a-side, ‘Rock N Roller,’ picked up for airplay by local radio station WHFS, is a pure satin jacket ‘n’ silk scarf delight, the b-side, ‘Am I Dreaming,’ is to be slept on at your own expense (dig that backward-tracked cymbal – told you these dudes were heavy!). Without the commercial breakthrough the band needed, the of LAZY would retool and later resurface as AR-15.