Today, DCist would like to introduce Three Stars, a feature in which three local music acts are viewed, reviewed, and interviewed. The feature will run every few weeks, for three days, until we run out of notable local musicians. Today Catherine Andrews discusses Death By Sexy. This version of Three Stars will continue Wednesday with Barakus and Thursday with Full Minute of Mercury.

Death By Sexy
Oh lordy, we thought, as a man leapt up onstage before the Death By Sexy concert at the Black Cat backstage two Sundays ago, intent on introducing the band with southern-revivalist lingo and attempts to sound like a fire-and-brimstone preacher. Behind him, the members of the band set up their instruments, wrapping extravagant feather boas around their necks and adjusting their skinny jeans, tight t-shirts and sunglasses. We worried for a minute that the concert was going to be nothing more than smoke and mirrors - after all, so many bands these days concentrate more on creating a specific image than on actually putting out good music.

We shouldn't have been concerned. Death By Sexy, a two-member act, started off the night right with an interesting mix of classic, dirty garage music and glam-rock. The drummer set a blistering, frenetic pace, while J.R., the lead singer, had enough charisma to make us smile. Though some of the songs were repetitive, and the band's sound could have benefited from another guitar player or keyboardist, the duo seemed to be genuinely enjoying rockin' out on stage, and their enthusiasm was infectious. Death By Sexy reminded us that it's actually a good thing to have a silly, fun time at a show and that neither the band or the audience should always take themselves so seriously. God bless 'em for it.

Visit them at: http://myspace.com/deathbysexy

Hear them next: September 29 at the Warehouse Next Door

Questions for Death By Sexy:

Can you give us a little background on your band, the kind of music you play, and how you got together?

JR DEATH - We got together as band kind of by accident. Originally, I auditioned to play bass in a different band that Dex was in. One day we decided to get together and jam, just the two of us, and started writing songs immediately. It just sounded and felt really natural when we were playing songs with just the two of us, so we went from there. We played our first real show in April, and have been playing around ever since. The kind of music we play is straightforward rock and roll. Drums, Guitar, Singing. That's it. We focus on the songs, and what we're singing about, which is either the audience, or specific people. That's why almost all of our songs use pronouns in them like "You and Me are Gonna Get It On" or "Nobody Knows Where You'll Wake Up Tomorrow"

Name one negative and one positive about the D.C. scene.

DEX SEXY - One of the negatives seems to be the fact that there is little exploring of new music. In other words, few people venture out to check out bands that they haven't heard.

JR DEATH - Although, that isn't meant to put the onus on them. I mean, you have shows all over the place all the time, and every band can't be good. One of the positives about DC is that its a fairly small scene. If bands are good, you tend to hear about them a lot faster then you might in other towns. It's also good, cause of the small number of venues, that bands and people in bands tend to hang out and drink with each other a lot, which just fosters more friendly feelings and less competition and ill-will between bands.

What are some local acts you enjoy?

DEX - A few of the DC bands that we like are Greenland, the Bonapartes, and the Cassettes.

JR DEATH - I really like the vibe the cassettes have, they feel a lot like a more modern version of The Band to me. In the way that they're like a roving gang of multi-instrumentalists. Plus the dude who plays the theremin blows my mind every time I see him with that thing. I personally enjoy Justin Jones, too. He writes some nifty songs.

Death By Sexy seems to focus on creating sort of a façade around the band, from the faux-revivalist introductions to the glam-rock boas and posturing. Where did you take these influences from, and what do you think they add to the music?

JR DEATH - When you use the word façade, it makes it seem like the things we wear and the things we do onstage are some sort of artificial front, like we don't mean it. We are influenced by a lot of different things, bands like T-Rex and Kiss, and the white stripes, and we enjoy bands that have something visually interesting to them to go along with the songs. I mean, its all for fun. We play the kind of music we do and we wear the things we wear and act the way we do onstage cause that's what comes naturally, and that's what fun for us to do. Being in a rock and roll band is like having a license to dress up flamboyantly and jump around the stage and act like an idiot, and too few bands actually take advantage of it to the extent that they can. I think a lot of people forget that playing in a band is an inherently ridiculous thing to do, and wind up over analyzing things too much. Rock and roll should be a primal, grunting, sweaty, sexual expression of life and all the things that are great and painful and wonderful and amazing about it. Which is why all of our songs are about girls and whiskey -- because girls and whiskey are amazing.