Jason Zavala / Lazer Crust Press

"Ornament" (2011)

"Ornament is the latest album from Kentucky native and longtime friend of DISCOSALT Jason Zavala accompanied by many other talented musicians that make up the Lexington / Louisville, KY music scene. The album is assembled of desperately enchanting love songs that also manage to convey a lightheartedness in their delivery. In the song Only One the falsetto vocals praising an epic love, known to most of us only in movies, are offset by a mid-track break-down with romantically witty love calling. It’s not exactly an archetype, nor an axiom, but there is a light trend in which a mild mannered, reserved individual turns into a theatrical hellbeast on stage. Perhaps Jason Zavala, the central fixture of Louisville-based Lazer Crust, fits this description. Not only does this dichotomy exist in the live show, but also the catalog. Zavala is known for slowly building up his well-crafted love songs, which at first listen may not grab your attention, into a climactic melody that you will be humming later in the week. You can listen to some of the tracks from Ornament below." - DISCOSALT

"HIKE / A Double Edged Sword Reversed" (2010)

DJ President of the United States reviews "HIKE" - HERE

"Double album. First three tracks are indie rock, last four are electro. First half: all about the dramatic rendition on vocals, almost Bowie-esque. Music reminds me of Dr Dog. All of it is midtempo. Second half: Fucking awesome! Electro mash-ups using classics like Ray Charles and Sinatra. FCC Clean, Try 3 of first pat, and 4,5 of second part. 1.Love the vocals on this. Not a very strong voice, but the feeling with which they’re screeched make up for it. Pretty sparse, typical rock instrumentation. Lo-fi, dramatic rendition. 2.Another dramatic hollering. This guy must be awesome live. Soft, fuzzy guitars and drums. †3.Halting guitar line track with a fuzzy, lo-fi quality to it. Glam rock w/o dramatic instrumentation. †4. Upbeat. Electro, with a fifties recording in background on which the music is built. Speeds up and slows down. Really cool. †5.Downtempo. Ray Charles with an ominous synth line slowly rising in background. 6.Midtempo. Blues mashed up with a halting, metallic rhythm. 7. Downtempo. Classic Sinatra on forward and rewind, no mashup." - KZSU

"Generally, mash-up music comes across boring and lacking in creativity. The mash-up—taking another artist’s hard work and fucking it all up by trying to mix it with another artist’s hard work—may require a modicum of technical skill (not much, though, considering the crap you can pull off with a Mac and a little bit of patience), but beyond that it’s incredibly hard to do anything that’s actually worth hearing. Sure, some artists have come close. Others, like Ghostface Killa on “Holla,” which is basically verbal graffiti over an old soul standard, have superseded the idea entirely.
Mash-up music is the last thing I expected to hear from Ill Ease, the Brooklyn-based one-woman band and former drummer of indie rock’s deadbeat parents, New Radiant Storm King. Ill Ease’s side of this split record follows the same path as Ghostface, except she seemingly transposes the beats and basslines she would hum if she had certain songs stuck in her head over top of those certain songs. Coming from the composer of “Too Much Sucky (I Hate Drum Machines)” weirdly enough, the first song is a glitchy, automated beat pasted onto Les Paul and Mary Ford’s “How High The Moon.” It works because it’s completely bonkers; this is beyond the cute, fun, novel mash-up junk that gets passed off as pop music. “Fool For You,” the Ray Charles song, gets a subsonic organ buzz reminiscent of the Upsetters’ “Dracula” that changes it into a different, clodhopping beast entirely. The fact that it’s hard to tell if she’s using a turntable to screw up “Something Stupid” by Nancy Sinatra might be the most interesting part of her version, unfortunately. She remixes, adds a thumping bass drum and what sounds like turntablism to Willie Dixon’s “Brooklyn Tite Pants,” to give a modern party feel to it; it will sound better at your X-mas party than that other guy with the white sunglasses.
Lazer Crust’s flip side sounds like well-crafted indie rock with the spastic quality of New Radiant Storm King (funny he’s sharing a slab with the former drummer). Most split LPs end up as a competition for my ears, but both of these sides are incredibly listenable. This half is dark with lots of reverb, and Lazer Crust (a.k.a. Jason Zavala) goes ape just enough to sound like it'd be fun to watch him freak out onstage. The backing is solid, but frenetic, sort of like Jimmy Page’s recording studio swallowed a punk rock pizza and all that was left was the, er, crust. Sure, it’s a weird pairing for a split record, but think of it this way: you’re getting twice as much weird for the price of one." - The Agit Reader

"ILL EASE & LAZER CRUST have released a split EP out on Ionik Recordings. You my remember Lazer Crust’s front man from the review we did for his self titled project Jason Zavala. Ill Ease is a one-woman band that puts together sometimes-foreign- but-always-sweet organic compilations." - Discosalt

"I am hooked on a feeling. Lazer Crust has me in a great state of mind and really else do you want from the music you listen to? Glam rock, sprinkled with lo-fi, busting effusively and sonically proud and so powerful. Lazer Curst makes music for the timid to rise to and the unmotivated to rally to and incite madness. Lazer Curst has a split release with Ill Ease out on IONIK & 75 or Less an it’s a must have!! The band is Jason Zavala, Kevin Morrison, Clay Kennedy, Matt Filip." - Loudvine